Guild Wars 2

Ozzy Toxin.3074:

imagine a player that skilled using another class!

Mabye I didn’t make my point clear enough earlier:
If you run the right build and reach a certain level of skill you won’t be better or contribute more to your team with a different class.

Ozzy Toxin.3074:

1v1 a necro can work

A necro can (should) win every 1v1.

Ozzy Toxin.3074:

1v2 dead

Every class is dead in a 1v2.
Some might be able to escape, but a build/class that can win a 1v2 on equal skill simply doesn’t exist.

Ozzy Toxin.3074:

2v2 dead 3v3 dead 4v4 dead 5v5 dead…

Not true.

Ozzy Toxin.3074:

if you are against competent players they will focus you first and pour on the cc (usually only take a warrior with a hammer while the others spam 1)

What you’re describing here is being outnumbered, not a fight with equal numbers in which case you can make it very hard for the opposing team to focus you. And if they do, your team is hopefully smart enough to exploit their distraction.

Ozzy Toxin.3074:

a necro is a hindrance I myself always go for the necro with my own necro and kill them first usually because they cant do anything at all about my fears/cc

Clearly you are stronger than these necros. What’s to stop them from doing the same to you?

One might argue that joy itself can only be subjective, but whatevs…

connvince.8061:

Quite a few traits, including GM traits, are not part of any viable build.

Same for every class.

connvince.8061:

You might think that a vamp build is viable, for instance. Or an in-and-out DS boon build. Ha! Poppykitten.

No and no.
Everyone knows that vamp builds don’t work.

“in-and-out DS boon build”… lol.
First of all, this will never work. Atm you can get retaliation, fury and stability. No one would give up their entire class mechanic just to have a high uptime of these 3 boons. Besides there are other ways to have a high fury and retal uptime.
Secondly, if you buff boons-on-DS to a point where a build like this is usable, every build that uses them as a nice side effect would be a lot stronger anyway.

connvince.8061:

… it does exacerbate the problem that necros are kinda crap all-around when compared with (any) other class in whatever its prime cheese build is.
…
And I don’t deny that some people have made it appear to work.

A clear case of skill>build.
Some people appear to make it work, because it does work.
Necro is just not popular atm, among the few people that actually play necro there are even fewer who can actually pull it off to a point where they overshadow other classes as a team asset. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.

leman.7682:

It is infinitely easier to avoid it than engie’s magnet and thief’s wire for instance (both less telegraphed), which I usually dodge anyways.

I agree on wire, but magnet… meh, don’t think so.
From the engi perspective it is a lot easier to hit someone, that’s for sure. After all it’s not a projectile. But it has a much longer cast time and a more obvious animation, it almost looks like a Tainted Shackles beam. Everyone can instantly see the magnet coming, so you can actually be a lot more sneaky with Spectral Grasp.

However, this…

leman.7682:

Don’t let me get started on the opportunity costs of taking it in the high-end PvP. They are huge.

…is the real problem.
I actually use Spectral Grasp a lot in WvW, especially duels. But in tpvp there’s no way I’m giving up other skills for this one.
On the other hand, almost every engineer is using the Tool Kit anyway.
And I have only ever seen Scorpion Wire being used when thieves troll on Skyhammer.

Bhawb.7408:

You can change
- Hemophilia to Weakening Shroud,
- Greater Marks to Reaper’s Protection,
- and Spectral Mastery to Path of Midnight,

- yes
- no
- yes. After all you get 4 lower cds with PoM instead of just 2 (not to mention the better synnergy with Path of Corruption), unless you feel a lower cd on stunbreak is neccessary.

On topic:
I know this is an unpopular opinion, but Plague is not the no-brainer elite choice for zergs like everyone is making it out to be.
It very much depends on the fights, your build, the terrain, the number of opponents and their team composition, the way you’re engaging, whether you are defending a structure or fighting somewhere out in the open,…
When I’m joining guild raids or just casually dropping in on some bigger action, I’m usually going with Golem. Of course I do use Plague every now and again, but the long cd and the fact that it forces you into being rather passive for up to 20 seconds makes it very niche for me.
The Golem charge on the other hand has a pretty large hit box and no aoe limit. In many situations this will be more disruptive to an opposing zerg than blind spamming only 5 targets per second. Also, you can actually fight with your regular skills after using Charge.
So clearly it’s a more offensive choice compared to Plague. You might as well use Lich, but then you’re again faced with a long transformation and a long cd after that (also, you might not run a power build).
Bottom line for me: I’ll take the golem a lot more often than Plague.

Sandrox.9524:

also in DS,if you see them using #4 or #5 skills,try to stun/daze them cause those skills are channeling skills which can be inturrpted.

Actually, Tainted Shackles in not channeled.
The cast time is 1/4 sec, this part can be interrupted.
After that those green beams will hit every target within 600 range, they can’t be dodged, blocked or interrupted. Starting with the initial hit, 1 stack of torment is applied every second as long as you stay within range. After the 3rd sec the necro will emit a blast that deals damage and immobilizes. This one can be avoided (dodge, block, blind, move out of range…)
So basically, if you happen to be near a necro when they use Tainted Shackles, dodge after 3 seconds or just move out of range before that.

As a general pointer against necros, regardless of their build:
Be aggressive when they are not using Death Shroud and stay away when they are. Because:

1. Necros are stronger at close range. DS #2 is a rather slow projectile, it is homing and therefore more easily avoidable at higher range. DS #1 and #3 are more effective below 600 range, and #4 and #5 don’t work at 600+ at all.

2. About 80% of every necro’s defense comes from mitigating damage with life force. Their regular healing is really bad. So if you’re timing your skills for when their Shroud is on cooldown (10sec after exiting), they’ll have a significantly harder time recovering.

That means: bait them into DS and move away. Wait until they cancel it or their life force depletes naturally and enjoy a 10 sec window of opportunity during which the necro is weaker and more vulnerable to your attacks.

leman.7682:

Rym.1469:

leman.7682:

1. Spectral Grasp may be useful at lower ranks but will turn out to be useless, detrimental or even dangerous for the caster vs experienced opponents

It’s useful even vs. very experienced opponents. You just have to use it with brain and not waste it when it has to travel 1000 range and your target has dodge avalible.

But in current boonspam meta with Strenght Runes, Corrupt Boon in tPvP is almost a must.

I disagree. You obviously won’t pull warriors to you as the OP suggested. That would end in total obliteration. It definitelly sucks vs thieves, mesmers and AI specs (los issues). Not useful as interrupt + chill, cos there are just better options.

I stand by my opinion, it is useless in anything that isn’t top90%, because it’s just so kitten easy for skilled players to avoid it.

Actually, Spectral Grasp is one of the best 1v1 skills we have regardless of what class you’re facing.
The reason why no one uses it in pvp is because aoe skills or stun breaks bring more utility in team fights.

Glad you like it.

displacedTitan.6897:

the only thing I miss is the lack of constant 25% move speed from traveler runes.

It’s probably something you got used to but it’s really not neccessary.
Also, you get some swiftness with warhorn anyway.

displacedTitan.6897:

I have a superior sigil of strength on my warhorn and get far more procs on this build than I did on my last build.

Interesting choice. How many stacks can you build up before switching back to staff?

One of the reasons I went with leeching is because Geomancy’s direct damage was nerfed by 75%. An extra 1k damage (and healing) regardless of my opponent’s armor value turned out to be a really nice buff overall.

Rennoko.5731:

I think it is a bad place to argue that we SHOULD be able to handle a 2v1. The classes that do handle those fights are leveraging what I would consider are overpowered concepts (stealth and mobility) rather than being overpowered themselves.

To clarify a few things, when people talk about winning 1v2s or 1v(whatever)s they were always fighting worse players than themselves. On equal skill 1v2 doesn’t exist.
It’s just the threshold for opposing skill levels that is higher on other classes because mechanics like stealth allow for a lot more mistakes or make it possible to secure stomps.
A super pro thief will kill a group of people if each one of them is just slightly less skilled than the thief, while a necro would most certainly die in the same situation.
Personally, I take a win or loss against a good player in regards to class balancing much more seriously than losing against 2 or more weak players, because winning 1vX is kind of meaningless if you keep in mind that one single strong player in the outnumbering party would make it impossible to win the engagement at all, regardless of what class is opposing them.

TakeCare, I couldn’t have said it any better, very well argued.

Otaking, you start out with “Good thieves aren’t going to do several things listed in this thread.” and then follow it up with stuff like:

Otaking.4675:

1,2 in front of you and 3 chain behind you works well as many of them think they’re the only ones who knows how circle strafe works.

…among other things.
Perhaps you should play a thief once in a while. You’re assuming that a cloaked thief has nothing better to do than standing right next to you at all times, and that they will reappear every time after you’ve counted to 4 either right in front or behind you just to eat some of your dagger auto attacks.
Again, stealth can be stacked, and CnD and SR aren’t the only sources. And thieves have enough mobility and gap closers to afford not being anywhere near you when you’re busting out every aoe skill at your disposal. They’ll just wait until your entire skillbar is on cooldown and attack after that.

Otaking.4675:

You can predict where thieves will be in 4 seconds and hit them while invisible quite often. Especially if you lead with dagger chain.

I believe you are confusing the 4 sec revealed debuff (3 sec in WvW) with actual stealth uptime. Thieves can be in stealth for much longer than 4 seconds.
And what kind of thief lets you land an auto attack chain? He’d have to stand still within 130 range right in front of you for at least 2 seconds. That’s just not going to happen.

Just because a new player is asking for help doesn’t mean you should give bad advice. And I don’t think Waffler’s post is condescending at all. You have to save up your skills for when a thief reveals himself, wasting them on potentially nothing when the thief is stealthed leaves you defenseless when he is actually attacking you.

Otaking.4675:

against a good thief you’re not going to have time to throw them when visible

Actually that’s the only chance you have to beat a good thief, downing them in stealth is pure luck.

Du Bist Schuld.8097:

How do you feel about your direct damage with your build? i personally never really liked carrion because of the lack of crit (i like seeing those big numbers xD). you seem pretty durable though, so it might not be much of a problem.

Well, first of all: if you like to see big numbers you probably shouldn’t play necro at all

In my case it’s usually several lower damage skills hitting all at once while conditions are ticking in the background. It sounds rather vague, but a non-stun-broken burst can deal a very good amount of damage. Maybe check out the video linked in the build thread, it’s old but still works today.
As for the direct damage with carrion in general, it’s ok, nothing too fancy but way higher than dire or rabid of course.
Also, in my pvp adaptation of the build I use pack runes, which in combo with Furious Demise add up to a pretty nice fury uptime in combat. So I’m not really trying to make big numbers happen in the first place, I’m fine with having ~2k power for non-crits and the occasional ~50% crit chance with fury. The bigger part of my damage comes from conditions anyway.

displacedTitan.6897:

flow, what hybrid build are you playing these days?

Here you go.
I would probably use an off hand dagger as well if I didn’t have the staff traits to buff Putrid Mark. But other than that, the warhorn + Banshee’s Wail is pure gold.

DaliIndica.9041:

I can answer for pvp, hybrids are god awful and no one uses them.

lol. I use a hybrid in both sPvP and WvW.

DaliIndica.9041:

I think only the warrior ele and engie can pull of hybrids, and thats just down to weapon skills that allow for it.

Well, we have Death Shroud, which has to be balanced so it is equally useful for power and condi builds. Therefore our class mechanic innately makes it possible to create hybrids.

Du Bist Schuld.8097:

I tested it for another thread and it wasn’t too much behind the axe in a full power build.

I’ve done some testing myself a while ago and in very optimal settings the scepter could come close to 6k dmg with Feast of Corruption. However, in the very same situation Ghastly Claws would do ~10k when not even all of the 8 consecutive hits were critical. Needless to say, the scepter would fall a lot more behind if there were less conditions on the target. Also, the cooldown on axe is much lower, the life force regeneration is better and more reliable, utility of Unholy Feast beats Grasping Dead and damage in DS is higher with an axe equipped.

The only weak thing on the axe is its auto attack. So I’m not at all surprised about the results of your test, but keep in mind: against actual opponent you’ll use more than just auto attack and then 2+3 whenever they’re off cd.
If we’re just analysing sustained damage on a single weapon then dagger and scepter are the clear winners. If you’re trying to set up a burst rotation incorporating all of your skills to get more than 20 stacks of bleeding then you don’t need the scepter at all.
And yes, this thread is more about PvE, but against other players in WvW or sPvP you’ll rarely get to use your auto attack anyway.

Chipofsalt.4673:

Carrion isn’t that good for necromancers…

Blasphemy!! :P

I don’t want to turn this into yet another huge debate about carrion vs rabid, but in general:
1. direct damage: power>precision.
2. survivability for necros: vitality>toughness. (if you can, mixing stats is best)
3. if runes of the undead is your argument for rabid then you might as well take scavenging runes with carrion for the same result and get some extra healing on top of that.

The only obvious upside to rabid is having more reliable crit procs.

@borisslav

borisslav.6984:

These will be the final stats I’ll have (according to one of the calculators online)

Next time just post the calculator link.
This should be about right, I hope:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRAQNAW4Yjk00SbRN+0wfbihBR6VpyM9sg/iKAA-TxyCABA8AAUVJoCm/QR3gRKPaSJmQ7P4p6PTcEAk4gAQ9FAgQATWDA-e

Now, two things come to mind right away:

1. I’m not sure if it’s even possible to slot weapons like this anymore, but the 2 kill-stacking sigils won’t work together.

2. Appart from some issues the build itself has for what it is intended to be, there’s only one type of build that is worse for PvE than tank builds: tanky condition builds.
Glass canon power builds rule pretty much every PvE content, that’s just how it is.
Of course, you’re free to play the game however you want, just know that you’re almost always better off not making any investments into defense.
Also, among all classes in the game healing power is probably the least useful on the necro. We have very little healing to begin with and non of it works while we’re in Death Shroud.

Norjena.5172:

Long fight AoE dps: doesn´t exist in this game

They do in some world events, living stories and maybe some higher level fractals.

Norjena.5172:

Higher survivability: power (celestial is not used for dps), but DS on cd (weakening shroud, dark path and skill 5) is more important for hybrid dps then for a powernecro
And both are melee (staff + d/d) hybrid. Axe/scepter is not rly a viable build.

There is not just one single viable way to make a power build.
Arguably there’s even more variety to hybrids, so why would you assume “staff d/d” is the only way? And that’s just the weapons. What about gear prefixes, runes, sigils, traits…?
There are so many variables, not just to your build but also the situation you’re fighting in. Making statements about survivability or what is easier to play is rather pointless.

CrosserX.5780:

• WvW roaming and skirmishing:

• (Complete opinion) More fun to play:

These two are a matter of personal preference.

Every PvE related question: power>hybrid.

Long fight aoe dps and survivability might be debatable. Probably depends on the situation, how much damage you have to mitigate, what utility skills you’re using, how far the targets are standing apart or if they are moving or standing still. Hard to say, but overall power builds should still be more effective.

If some of these questions are about PvP: skill>build (to some extent).
Both damage types are viable, however hybrids are rather unpopular and therefore rarely seen in WvW and sPvP.

alamore.1974:

It would be crazy if you can swap out utilities to deal with diffrent situations when the come up… oh wait you can.

Poplolita.2638:

in yoloQ?

To be fair, he didn’t say which utilities he is using.
On the other hand, a 6 point investment in Blood Magic for ~50 (?) extra damage per well pulse would probably net much lower damage overall when you need to give up points in Spite or Soul Reaping in return.

1. As long as you’re in the process of leveling, don’t worry much about builds. Try everything. All weapons, all traits, all skills.
The only thing you could keep an eye on would be buying new gear on the trading post that matches your character level.

2. No class is hard to level up.
I doubt you’ll be lonely for long. People usually throw guild invites at you if you’re not wearing a guild tag yet. Or just write in map chat that you’re looking for guild.

If life force is an issue you could try to pull the engi off the point with Spectral Grasp.
Or you walk on point and try to tank and destroy the turrets at the same time. With Gluttony you’ll get about 2% lf with Locust Swarm and ~1.3% lf from Well of Corruption. Those two skills alone will give you a total of 140% life force if you stand in the middle of the engi’s supply drop. Add Spectral Armor before you go into DS and you’ll have about 10-15 seconds of being almost immune to damage.
If you don’t stand within the knock back radius of the Accelerant-Packed Turrets (range 120), the only CC you’ll have to watch out for is their rifle’s Overcharged Shot. But once he used it you should be able to get an uninterrupted Life Transfer channel(again more life force). That combined with Tainted Shackles and a precast Well of Suffering should be anough to destroy all turrets.

All that being said, you are better off not risking the engagement at all. Let the engi rot on that one point and just outnumber the opposing team on the rest of the map.

Yeah, people will definitely take you more seriously if you start insulting us.
We made counter arguments to your post and you call us poor minded.

Fact is, even with the current Putrid Mark: condi necro > condi everything else. Arguably we’ve been weaker to some condition classes before June ‘13 because our transfers could all miss if blinded, yet over time all of our transfers have been buffed to transfer blindness first.
There’s simply nothing to support your arguments, we called you on it and now you’ve resorted to posts that will probably earn you an infraction.

If it’s that obvious, why did you say it’s a transfer?
Also, if your argument was that the nerf happened because our cleansing in general is too good: wrong again. It was all about reducing the necro’s damage back then.
Plus, compared to other classes we really don’t have the best cleansing.

Why would you call us noobs when you don’t even know us?

You say people shouldn’t listen people on the forum who don’t have enough experience, yet apparently you are basing all of your arguments on the fact that you’ve just copied Posi’s and Orange’s build. And if I may add, a build that I would beat with mine 10/10 times, while bringing more team support to every fight.

If it’s any consolation for you, when I actually play solo arena matches I’m always ranked somewhere in the top 100.

Jinx.7258:

What I said is common knowledge if you dont have it… well… dont post lol

Seriously… right back at you. Now take your high horse and ride off into the sunset!

Jinx.7258:

Du Bist Schuld.8097:

4 transfers…

Consume Conditions is the 4th

That’s not a transfer.
And the potential amount of transfer skills was not the reason for the mark’s nerf.

3 conditions per target, 100% sure, has always been working this way since the nerf.

manveruppd.7601:

cause as it stands Deathly Swarm is better.

Not really. Putrid Mark does more damage, has a higher range, hits all targets instantly instead of having a rather slow bouncing projectile, can be traited to be unblockable and it’s a blast finisher.
The only upside to Deathly Swarm is the blindness, but then again I can use Putrid Mark on wells to combo blindness if I get the chance.

manveruppd.7601:

But the gist of that thread is:
1. Remove ranged cleanse aspects (caster must be on mark to get cleansed)

I’m not against restoring the ally cleanse to some extent, but the ranged self cleanse is one of the best features of the entire staff weapon. For me this has priority over everything else.

Jinx.7258:

Thats why you dont ask on the forums for builds

Where else would you ask for help?

Jinx.7258:

Most of the builds posted here are made by the posters themselves and are quite bad.
…
In this meta (if there’s any right now) for the necro is:

I hope you see the irony here.

Jinx.7258:

In this meta (if there’s any right now) for the necro is:
…
- Power – well or sort of power Power wells
…
Power wells is for 1v1s/fighting scrubs. Wont work vs descent players.

lol fail
…and also wrong.

Jinx.7258:

Dont use axe in spvp.
Warhorn is pretty useless as well…

Oh man, you have no idea what you’re talking about. Not only is it both wrong but your power build link actually includes a warhorn.

You’ve got a lot of your facts wrong. Here is what really happened:

At launch Putrid Mark trasfered all of your conditions and all conditions of up to 5 allies who stood on the mark to one single target.

It stayed this way until the June 2013 patch. There was no ally-cleansing buff or a 5-condi nerf.

June 25th, 2013:
Putrid Mark was buffed to transfer blindness instead of missing.
That is all the patchnotes said. But what also happened was: no more ally cleansing and 3 conditions per target instead of all to one.
It remaines open for speculation whether or not this gigantic stealth nerf was completely intentional and then left out of the patch notes by mistake.
What we do know is that it took almost 5 month to get an official dev’s statement, and a tooltip update a few weeks after that.

January 21, 2014:
Putrid Mark lost its double blast finisher.

June ’13 and January ’14, these two were the only nerfs to Putrid Mark since release.

Was it justified?

Double finisher: debatable.
I don’t think it was particularly overpowered, or strong at all for that matter. Many people were confused by the mark’s blast mechanic, maybe they wanted to make it easier to understand. Or maybe they just wanted to reduce weakness or blindness uptime for combos… who knows. Bottom line: anet considered it to be a bug.

Condition Transfer: this one needed to happen imo.
Before the big June patch Putrid Mark was a game changer in many team fights. With Staff Mastery you had a full team cleanse on a 20 sec cooldown that was able to one-shot a single enemy player.
While losing out on team support completely was questionable to say the least, the 3 condi/target transfer was a good change in context of the condition meta back then.
And even today necros are (one of) the strongest dueling class(es) already, a full unblockable transfer in 1v1s before the nerf was incredibly strong, now the condition pressure is reduced but we still get a full cleanse with enough targets in team fights.
A fair trade off. It makes Putrid Mark one of the few skills that actually scale with the number of opponents we’re facing, and we really need more of those.

AlexVv.3965:

Try this:
…
It’s not even a tank)

The only thing not tanky about this is how little condition cleasing you have. 30k hp, high protection uptime with earth runes, 3 siphoning traits. How is this not supposed to be a tank?

Some criticism:
Why wouldn’t you take Ritual Mastery with 4 wells, especially when you’re using Well of Blood as your healing skill?
Spiteful Marks is the worst, even more so when your damage output is rather low to begin with.
I’m guessing the sigil of peril on staff is supposed to be another sigil of intelligence…? Either way, I’d imagine you could get more damage or better utility out of different sigils with just ~1900 power and no additional crit dmg.

Mystogan.4157:

1 im not using vital precision

Vital Precision?

Mystogan.4157:

Try it out you wont lose a 1v1

I would lose against my own build, and I know a few builds on other classes that would also have an edge over yours. I believe you when you say you’re winning a lot of duels, but the build just isn’t as good as it could be.

Reaper’s Protection is just too unreliable. The cooldown is too long, you miss out on a different trait and it usually procs when you don’t need it, or even worse: when it doesn’t do anything because your opponent has stability or other immunities against fear.

Traveller runes: stats are ok-ish at best. You’re basically missing out on a lot more stats for the extra movement speed, which imo is completely overrated for necros. You are slow, everyone else is faster than you and +25% isn’t going to fix that.
I posted earlier that I could get perma swiftness in pvp, but that is a positiv side effect of Pack runes, the stats and high fury uptime is why I really chose them. Swiftness never made a difference in combat for me. You can roam faster but that’s about it.

alamore.1974:

I’ve.been roaming in a scepter/staff power build and been doing crazy good lately,

Like I said, it’s the worst choice for power builds. I can only assume that you would’ve done even crazy better lately if you had a different weapon instead.

Mystogan.4157:

They have condi bomb? Staff 4 ON yourself AND enemy,

You don’t need to stand on Putrid Mark for the self cleanse, if that’s what you’re implying.

Also, Reaper’s Protection is a bad trait.
And I think you’ve made your build worse by adding Traveller runes.

Bhawb.7408:

You can go full berzerker scepter if you want…

…to do no damage?

I know, we’ve had this discussion before. You can get a decent number once in a while if the stars align, but under the same circumstances Ghastly Claws will do 50-70% more damage, not to mention that the cd is lower. And this is a best case scenerio for the scepter, with less condis on your target the damage difference is much higher.
The scepter is simply the worst weapon you can have in a power build.

Esus.2538:

Also, he just feels a lot slower than the ele, and this isn’t helped by not having a speed buff anywhere, unless I wither stick a sigil of the locust (?) on or use horn.

You might wanna take a look at this.
Pack runes + 4 in Death Magic + Locust Swarm alone gives you up to 90% swiftness uptime, combined with other sources I often get it stacked over 1 min.

Apparently this feature isn’t exclusive to the necromancer.
I’ve seen the same on different characters when picking up event items that lock out certain skills. When you drop the item or come out of DS the game basically tells you: look! you’ve unlocked new skills!

Holl.3109:

I use the passive 180 75% of the time and the active only when things are looking bad.

…teleports and swiftness, and those don’t help ma as much as 180 frickin power.

To be fair, in your video you’ve almost always used the signet as an opener (against players you would’ve beat anyway).
Also, if you want more stats: how about 350 power (and condi dmg) from Blood is Power? Not only does it have a lower cd but it also works in DS.

Esus.2538:

I cant get near that in PvP, so I wonder whether it is a viable build.

No, it’s a PvE build, it won’t work in PvP.

I doubt we’ve had different experiences in WvW since we’re on the same server, perhaps it’s a matter of perception.
In sPvP I feel there has been a slight increase of Strength rune users over the past weeks, mostly warriors and eles, while the amount of condi builds pretty much stayed the same.

Ravezaar.4951:

After feature pack 9/10 players go Condi in WvW and sPvP

…and then really messed with Power builds due to Ferocity and even runes change.

I can’t say for sure about WvW, but in sPvP there’s currently a heavy power dominance accross most classes.
If anything the last patch buffed power builds with the runes and sigil changes.

Anyway, imo hybrid necros always had better potential than pure condi builds, but it was never meta and it probably never will. It’s just easier to max out your stats on either end, rather than to find a balance for both that works.

Fighting a turret engi on point (especially after they’ve dropped their supply crate) is not going to happen that easily. On top of several non-turret CCs you’ll eat a knock back for every destroyed turret (Accelerant Packed Turrets).

You pretty much have to intercept them before they can reach a capture node because they won’t waste their elite in the middle of nowhere.
Once they bunker down on one point your team is better off just leaving him there and fight 5v4 on the other points.
It’s not like you can’t beat them in a 1v1 at all, but if you don’t want to spend too much time fighting from range you’d have to make a risky all-in move like Bhawb described. You might win, but the safe bet is to not engage at all and get the other points instead.

In context of not having a stun break, it is indeed bad. And if your argument for SoS is defense: please, just take ANY other real defensive skill.

Also, you might argue that it’s not entirely reliable to land, not to mention that it is easily cleansed by most opponents. 14 seconds… like anyone is letting those condis run their full duration.

Holl.3109:

just because I don’t have a stunbreaker doesn’t mean i don’t survive…

While I agree with your general assessment, you could easily give up Signet of Spite in favor of a stun break. The more or less only valid use of this signet is applying cover conditions, but since you don’t play a condi build you have very little reason to run it in the first place.

Tim.6450:

-Withering precision: too strong for an adept minor trait, make it grandmaster minor.

“Withering Precision” and “too strong for…”: two phrases that have never been used in the same sentence before. :P

Damaein, I applaud your effort. Some of these changes would be really nice, others would be pretty hard nerfs, Weakening Shroud being moved up to master tier for example.
Weakening – Terror – Path of Corruption is probably the most popular trait combo in Curses atm, with your changes this combo would no longer be possible. And those who just had 4 points in Curses for Weakening Shroud and Terror (not to mention the loss of Barbed Precision) would have to either lose one of those traits or take a nerf by reducing points in a different trait line.

I also don’t understand the change to Unyielding Blast (Dark Thirst). Do you mean that those projectiles would no longer pierce but bounce? Do you still inflict vulnerability or would you have to pick the changed Death Shiver trait? Would Necrotic Grasp hit 7 instead of 5 targets with this trait??

Looks solid now.

The next thing I would do is monitor the effectivness of Vital Persistance and the 2 energy sigils with your playstyle. Pay close attention to your swap and dodge timing, as well as time spent in DS vs lf regen. It might pay off to gear/trait a little more offensive, but like I said, depends on your playstyle and to a lesser extent on your opponents.

Tim.6450:

Movement speed has its uses in battle, I use this signet a lot in battle and out of it. Hell I even chased someone with it in wvw. So no the passive is fine.

Like I said, you’re wasting a slot…

AnonMD.7263:

The suicider sounded fun, so I made it…

Same link.

@Epidemix:

The Flesh Golem is a popular and effective elite in PvP even if you don’t run any other minions and minion related traits. So you don’t really need Flesh and Traning of the Master unless you want your Shadow Fiend to be a little more tanky.
You also have Signet Mastery for a single signet, and Hemophilia for rather few sources of bleeding, all of which lasting at least 10 sec with 6 points in Spite already.

Imo hybrids are very underrated (and no, the 6/6///2 is not the only and certainly not the best hybrid build), but you are spreading yourself too thin in a lot of places.

AnonMD.7263:

where the more there are, the less you receive.

It should be the exact opposite. Double or tripple the healing amount with every additional opponent.
One of the things necros desperately need is better healing and scaling with increased numbers of opponents. Reducing the healing amount in that situation would be absolutely counterproductive, although I don’t think this issue should be solved by buffing a single utility skill.

I somewhat agree and disagree with changing the passive bonus in general, because:
The only viable use this signet currently has is moving faster in cities or jumping puzzles. As soon as you’re in combat it is nothing but a wasted utility slot. Yes, you see a lot of people using it in both WvW and sPvP, but they are actually handicapping themselves.
So, should the signet be changed?
1. Yes, because atm it’s absolute garbage.
2. No, because that way it’ll take 2 sec longer for people to run from the mystic forge to their crafting station.

NeXeD.3042:

You want to blow dagger 4 right away? No thx. On a condi build you shouldn’t have a problem with thieves and mesmers.

lol
This is for a specific queen’s gauntlet 1v1 arena, not pvp.

@removesoul: since the strategy is to not get hit at all, wouldn’t it be better to use Reaper’s Might instead of Spiteful Spirit? After all you do use Life Blast for Dhuumfire at least once.

Hmm I wouldn’t say more effective in general. It certainly depends on your build, and of course your opponent. Some wells like WoP work against most of them, but occasionally I’ll use a completely different utility composition.

Back on topic:
If you have trouble generating lf against mesmers you might want to consider using a warhorn. Locust Swarm gives 1.8% life force per hit or in your case even 2% because of Gluttony, with 10 ticks this could potentially fill 100% of your life force pool. And with all the mesmer clones surrounding you it will certainly generate a decent amount, not to mention that you’re also dealing damage and cripple.
Also, Spectral Grasp for an instant 16.5% might also come in handy when you start with nothing.