Guild Wars 2

Tarnished Coast/multiple zones

Terrible lag issues this afternoon (EDT zone). Even in minor events with only 1-3 other players involved, so its not a matter of graphics lag or large events. As much as 5-10 sec lag in skill casts, etc.

AFAIK, Giver’s weapon’s and armor duration buffs have not worked since they were first released.

Why ANet hasn’t put Giver’s “on hold” until they are fixed is baffling.

From the bugs forum, an ANet post a few days ago:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/bugs/Condition-Duration-Not-Applying-Correctly/first#post1586736

I swap in CPC situationaly in PVE where there are bosses or swarms of enemies during events, when they are likely to stand in the area.

Radiation field is a little nicer (and way better graphic effect), but CPC has almost half the cooldown when traited.

Withering Precision trait would be a more constant weakness source, at the cost of losing Lingering Curse.

As for the armor, Berzerker, Rabid, Carrion, etc. are names which refer to the stat combinations on the armor. See this page and table:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Item_Nomenclature#Triple_attribute

Agree with the OP completely.

I am liking the most recent variety of the Dailies, and it gets me to broaden my leveling experience, and enjoy different aspects of the PVE game.

But once I hit my Daily, I usually look at the clock and realize its time for bed. (Its the downside of working for a living.)

So I’m definitely feeling that “double-edge” of the Dailies. Maybe once I get enough laurels I’ll be fine…but that might be many months from now.

Epidemic, Focus5, DS1, DS2 cast times bother me the most.

Its terrible to see a target loaded with conditions melt before Epidemic takes its eternal time to cast.

Focus5 is ridiculous. The cast time essentially cuts its effective range by about 1/4-1/3.

DS1/DS2 are essentially lag-simulation cast times.

I pretty much agree with Softspoken. Deathly Invigoration is weak, so Shrouded Removal or Spiteful Removal makes more sense. You also don’t have any extra Vitality, which could help you buffer some of the Condition damage you’d be getting from Plague signet.

You’re not going to have much Power, so I’d consider Plague form over Lich elite. Maybe swap out your sigils for Sigil of Perception and Sigil of Generosity or Water.

Bas.7406:

lettuce your link is bad!! it won’t let me go see the build.

The build link is good. You just need to copy/paste the link text to a new browser window, as he mentioned. ANet won’t allow external links to URLs with semicolons in them.

Softspoken.2410:

Kind of surprised that nobody suggested mace. Maybe I’m crazy, but I feel like a giant spiked club fits necromancer more than a (one-handed) sword does. Plus mace is one of the least-available weapon types, alongside things like hammer, rifle and longbow. (I can’t make longbow or rifle work in my brain on a Necromancer though.)

Torch offhand would be cool though, not gonna lie.

I’d go along with that. A mace would seem to fit the necro.

Just tested Spiteful Talisman and it still appears to be bugged, at least in PVE.

Although the Focus4 tooltip drops from 18 to 14 sec CD, the actual CD is still 18 sec.

Focus5 CD does drop correctly from 20 to 16 sec.

Edit: I did not test to see if the range increases (900 to 1200) actually worked or not.

Axe Offhand

• Invigorating Slash – range 900, 15 sec CD
  • Slash for x damage (direct)
  • Vigor for 4 sec

• Death’s Inferno – range 900, 18 sec CD
  • Fire – 240 AoE at target
  • Fury for 5 sec

Reflexmonkey.1943:

where do you get tactical armour??

Its karma gear. I think you can get it from karma vendors in Fireheart Rise.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Tactician_Lyan

Taril.8619:

OMNIBUS.2913:

just stating my opinion, scepter scales bad with power cause its a condition based weapon. you might as well take out 1 target at a time than use baby aoe scepter hits with zerker gear :P

Though what I’m saying is that even though Sceptre is a primarily condition weapon, it still does decent damage in full zerker gear. Considering other alternatives for AoE situations (Staff, Axe retaliation tanking and single targeting things down) I found it to be the superior way of dealing with multiple targets (3+)

Because while you may think “Oh it’s a condition weapon, it scales poorly with power” it actually packs quite a bit of punch, combine that with the fact that bleed has horrible scaling (5% of your condition damage stat…) and you get a fairly decent AoE weapon that can put out huge burst on a single target (Feast of Corruption + Zerker Gear + a bunch of conditions = large crits) and even the “Weak” #1 chain crits for about 1k without very good zerker gear (Dagger #1 will out do it but has no AoE and no bleeds to take into account)

Heck, power builds often run with Staff for AoE and that’s not a great power weapon either (Though it’s #1 is better with power, you lose out on a second sigil and shorter cooldown abilites as you’re probably not going to pick up staff traits in a zerker build)

I agree. Scepter skills 1 & 2 are a balanced mix of direct & condition dmg (roughly 40%/60%), and scepter 3 is direct damage (albeit improved by conditions on target).

So it doesn’t quite fit to call a scepter a condition weapon. It’s really both.

I recommend scepter/dagger & scepter/focus. This is an uncommon choice, but I find it works well, since it lets you stay at 900 range. Kite, kite, kite! Don’t try to facetank.

For the early going, I suggest:

Skills to get:
Consume Conditions
Blood is Power
Epidemic
Signet of the locust

Traits:
5 in Blood, 5 in Spite, then 5 in Curses
Work toward: 10(III)/30(II,VII,XI)/0/20(II,V)/10(III)

Gear:
Vitality & Toughness at first
Rampager/Carrion mix at mid-levels

Deathshroud:
Try to use DS3 & DS4 situationally. DS1 mostly for group events. Try not to let DS Lifeforce drop below 50%.

Necro has alot of different build possibilities. You’ll probably change builds a zillion times before you find the one you settle on.

Server: Tarnished Coast
Zone: Fireheart Rise

Obvious-but-copable lag this morning and early afternoon. Terrible lag right now. Died twice while skills flashed but nothing happened for 15-30sec.

Yes, its a known tooltip error. Its been that way at least since launch. I wish they’d fix it already.

Server: Tarnished Coast
Zone: Diessa Plateau

I as noticing a lot of lag last night in northwest Diessa Plateau. There are a lot of DEs there and seemed to be a bit more people than usual there. But the lag in skills was very significant, as well as intense culling. It seems to be getting worse each month, rather than better.

I did not look at FPS, but that did not seem to be an issue for me (Radeon 6950).

My first necro was Charr, and I really enjoyed the hulking look, big fangs, deep voice, and the hair style with the skulls on it.

However, after awhile at 80, I began to look around a bit at the skills and found that I liked the Asura racials (Pain Inverter, Radiation Field) much better. So, I began an Asura necro and am now in my 60s and I think this’ll be my main.

I also realized that I am more careful about kiting with my Asura, whereas I’d often tend to facetank with the Charr, and it’s just the psychological thing of the little character vs the large character.

Armor/weapon-wise, you won’t be able to see much on the Asura due to size, and on the Charr you get to see everything but ANet’s armor for the Charr is mostly just stretched human armor models which fit like crap. Clipping is an issue on both.

The Asura is a bit of a wimp: when he gets crippled, he whines and limps exaggeratedly, and when he is low on health he cries “why won’t anyone help me?” in an self-pitying voice. But its also a bit comical, too, so I find it ok.

Finally, when I dodge on the Asura I feel like Yoda bouncing around in full combat!

A quick search of the Bugs forums finds these threads:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/bugs/Superior-Rune-of-Vampirism-Bugged
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/bugs/Superior-Rune-of-the-Vampirism/1302601
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/bugs/Superior-Rune-of-Vampirism-mist-form-bugged/651741

Those swiftness bonuses are not supposed to stack.

JohnnyBoy.5471:

I’m quite familiar with dealing with self-bleeds. The point is that the single target damage of bleeds from DB are 50% higher DPS and can be applied 3-4x more often than the necros’ BiP (untraited). From a utility comparison viewpoint, this is quite unbalanced.

Sure, we have Epidemic, which allows us to multiply BiP DPS by 5 if the stars line up right and the targets all allow their bleeds to run the full 30s.

[/quote]

This is true, if BiP is your only bleed. Thieves only have DB to apply their bleeds (in melee, let’s talk about pistols later). We have the first two attacks of our auto attack, Grasping Dead, and Enfeebling Blood to apply our bleeds, and the latter two skills also apply their conditions in an AoE (Epidemic also becomes incredibly more powerful when used with AoE conditions, but let’s set that aside for now). For a Thief to apply the same amount of bleeds, they’d have to use all of their initiative and remain in melee, where as Necromancers can do the same from 900 units out.

Also the reason I threw EB in with the other bleeds is because any Conditionmancer worth his salt will be using a Scepter/Dagger setup.
[/quote]

Ah, if as you say, thieves only have DB for melee bleeds, then that makes more sense, because of all the ways we have to apply bleeds that you mention, along with the Barbed Precision trait. That probably evens out the overall single target bleed damage considerably.

JohnnyBoy.5471:

TheAgedGnome.7520:

Looking at the wiki, it doesn’t indicate a cooldown for Death Blossom, but it says you need 5 initiative. The entry for initiative says “Initiative will replenish naturally at one point every 1.33 seconds.”

So, then the thief can deal 1275 damage bleeds over 10s, and do it every 7 sec or so, whereas the necro BiP can deal 2550 damage but over 30s, only be able to do it every 30s and also suffers a self-bleed?

The word “balance” doesn’t come to mind here.

Necromancers are one of the few classes in the game that can benefit from conditions on us. If the self-bleed bothers you, I strongly urge you to look deeper into the skills at your disposal and see just how many ways you can turn it to your advantage.

I’m quite familiar with dealing with self-bleeds. The point is that the single target damage of bleeds from DB are 50% higher DPS and can be applied 3-4x more often than the necros’ BiP (untraited). From a utility comparison viewpoint, this is quite unbalanced.

Sure, we have Epidemic, which allows us to multiply BiP DPS by 5 if the stars line up right and the targets all allow their bleeds to run the full 30s.

Looking at the wiki, it doesn’t indicate a cooldown for Death Blossom, but it says you need 5 initiative. The entry for initiative says “Initiative will replenish naturally at one point every 1.33 seconds.”

So, then the thief can deal 1275 damage bleeds over 10s, and do it every 7 sec or so, whereas the necro BiP can deal 2550 damage but over 30s, only be able to do it every 30s and also suffers a self-bleed?

The word “balance” doesn’t come to mind here.

Well, you all pretty much confirmed my doubts about the usefulness of such a build.

So, I got to thinking: could there be such a thing as a viable necro signet build?

I’m still not sure there is, but after toying around with it on paper, here is what I’ve got:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQRAoY3djMaJ7RbObMcKg5DcD9oXbdOWAlC3LH

The Signetmancer would be a power-based build, with dagger/dagger, axe/focus and DS for weapons.

The idea is to be fast (Locust), build LF (Undeath, Axe, Focus) and have good crit damage with weapons and DS. (Will obviously need alot of precision from gear/trinkets.)

I’m not sure if such a build is viable outside of PvE, and even in PvE I have my doubts of its efficacy.

Opinions?

Firgof Umbra.4851:

Will the bug be fixed?

I’d like to believe it will be…one day. However, there’s a nmber of bugs with runes and sigils that don’t show up properly in the Hero panel, and as far as I know, they haven’t worked since day one. So I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Yes, this is a known bug. It is working. See, at bottom of page:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Sigil_of_Accuracy

The Nightmare (and Lich as well) rune set will give you +20% duration, not 10%, despite the description.

SwampDonkey.2578:

Now on the sigils that count up on a kill like corruption, do those count up if I have it on my torch and actually get the kill with my axe ?

Yes. The requirement is just that the weapon is being wielded.

SwampDonkey.2578:

Also does that bonus condition damage carry over when I switch to my bow ?

Yes.

Breadcrumbs at page bottom would be greatly appreciated!

OP, I agree. The cast times are just silly on some utilities.

Epidemic is waaay too long – many’s the time the target dies before the Epidemic cast finishes.

Well, there is no cookie-cutter build. There’s a wide, wide range from glass-cannon to full tank. You are going to have to decide where you want to be on some specific stats, such as toughness, crit chance, attack, etc. and then work the build around those.

To give you an idea of the variety and some tanky builds, check these out:

Nemesis has a number of videos on a variety of disparate builds:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Necromancer-tutorials/221328

See also his Abomination build:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/The-Abomination-necromancer-tank-build/1444387

And…Sheobix’s Juggermancer:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Juggermancer-Final-Blog-Link/772683

See this recent thread on necros & aggro:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Necros-Pulling-to-much-threat/39239

That 30/30/0/10/0 would be considered a hybrid. Nemesis has a good tutorial video on it:

Also, do a forum search for “hybrid” for a number of variations on that build.

I was experiencing significant lag issues tonite, after the 2/19 update.

Tarnished Coast / multiple zones

If you have Promote checked, then that’s about all you can do. It could be that you are accidentally “right-click targeting” with your mouse, but I think its also likely that the problem is due to an ANet bug which causes this kind of weird spurious target-switching that many people have noticed.

Server: Tarnished Coast

Heart quest completed, email from Creator Zee received confirming this, but Zee does not offer a karma/trade dialogue.

Typo in the two staffs sold by karma vendor Arcanist Sol

Staffs are labeled: Durmand Prior Staff

Should be: Durmand Priory Staff

For PVE, you certainly don’t need staff. I think staff sucks in PVE, frankly, except for a minion build. I use scepter/dagger + scepter/focus.

Ayles.4769:

Yesterday i also superior krait rune (15% bleeding duration) and it doesn’t work. (i’ve on my necro Lyssa,Mad King and Krait superior rune and none of these works)
I hope they’ll fix this bug>_<

As Supersun said, these runes do work. The extra duration does not appear in the attributes, but if you test them, they do work. As a necro, use BiP (which is normally 30 sec bleed with no extra dur.) and watch the remaining bleed time on the target.

Giver’s weapons is bugged, though.

Minor point: Spiteful Talisman is currently bugged (in PvE/WvW, Reaper’s Touch CD is not reduced and range is not extended) so there might be a better Spite trait option until that is fixed.

See: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Necromancer-Bug-Compilation-Mk-II/1216760

Parasitic Bond trait tooltip bug. The tooltip text is wrapped in double parentheses, i.e.:

((Gain life when you kill something. This effect can only trigger once every 5 seconds.))

This was first noted by Unpredictability:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Parastic-Bond-to-be-changed/1432829

I’ve noticed some intermittent lagging too in the last couple of days. Not specifically in LA, but during regular PVE gameplay.

server: Tarnished Coast

Asuras have access to Confusion via the Pain Inverter racial, on a 30s CD. That might be a reason to consider them over Norn.

This is odd. I don’t recall it being this way before.

Sigil of Generosity does have a 10 sec cooldown, so even if you get repeated crits you will at most transfer one condition every 10 sec.

I usually can solo most of them, but there’s one Ascalonian territory in the NE corner of Plains of Ashford that I can’t get to alone, as a lvl 37. There’s multiple veterans and fast-respawning regular Ascalonian ghosts. Even the Signet of Locust won’t let me speed by them because there is a vet right by the commune point and others will also be drawn in.

So I’ll just wait until some time when server population is up and go then. I might try the spy kit, but I think I’ll still draw to many to me once I reappear.

In PVE, I’m usually downed only when I take on too many targets at once. When downed, I tab through the targets to find the one lowest on health, then go with 1 & 3 to try to finish them off to cause a rally. Use 2 (fear) as a means to reduce incoming damage.

If you are not targeted, in a group event or with others, generally use only 4 (bandage) instead of 1-3. This will reduce the chance of you being targeted and may allow you to recover on your own or at least make it easier for someone to revive you, since you won’t be taking more damage while they try to revive you.

Downed Skills:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Downed_skills

Softspoken.2410:

Current notes: I’d like to look into rally-on-kill effects triggering on minions. I was sure I saw a Red post stating this shouldn’t be the case, but I’m not totally clear on how that mechanic functions yet.

I think this is the thread you wanted (had to resort to a Google search to find it!):

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/I-d-rather-have-reanimator-disabled-until-a-fix-is-ready/587730