Guild Wars 2

Btw gibbly is absolutely right about carrion being the better survival option. But as I said, with a staff build it becomes an even more obvious pick over rabid.

manveruppd.7601:

And staff works as a main weapon in tournaments?? I love it in wvw because of the piercing and aoe marks, but I just can’t see it working as a main in small fights!

Oh believe me, it does work!
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Build-Staff-Corruption/
I’ve been meaning to update my guide with a gameplay video, but this will probably still take a while…

Also, I didn’t mention this in my build but there are certain perks to using a staff that might not be apparent at first glance.
For example: epidemic when used after placing marks works a lot like an amplifier. Rather than stacking conditions on one target (as you would with a scepter) and then copy them to a second target, you would cast a mark on both targets and then double up all conditions on the non-epidemiced-target.
This becomes a lot more powerful when running with a second necro.
I’ve played with a buddy necromancer in pvp who also uses a staff+greater marks and epidemic and we would approach other players who are guarding a point together like this: One calls a target, then we both cast mark of blood (=6stacks of bleeding on all of them), then both cast epidemic on different opponents (that’s why you need to call a target). That results in 12 stacks on one guy and 18/24 stacks of bleeding on everyone else.
The 1480 range of greater marks and the 1200 of epidemic almost always guarantees first strike. And if you do this with 3 staff-necros every opponent will have 25 stacks… after a cast time of ~2 seconds, from a 1200 range.

manveruppd.7601:

I know staff 1 scales well with power but scepter’s damage is pretty pathetic, so if you were to go Carrion in tpvp what weapon would you actually be using?

Staff main, second set: anything but the scepter. (I use axe+warhorn)

Pendragon.8735:

This is perhaps the greatest reason, even beyond our bad deception and mobility, that we might be the worst profession at taking on multiple opponents. No safe stomps easy to get. And if you are condition your dps also goes to crap on downed opponents since you can’t use 1/2 your attacks (marks do nothing).

True, true, true.

Ezeriel.9574:

Don’t even bother to stomp people.

Sadly this really is true most of the time. Attempting a stomp mid fight is a huge risk for a necro.
Also shroud and plague stomping… meh. People who use foot in the grave are a minority among necros. And plague, burning a 3min cd elite just to stomp someone doesn’t sound like a good trade off, better use lich and out-damage everyone.

Entropy.4732:

Would Necro be a good fit for me?

Sure, why not…

are there similarities to the two classes in terms of play style?

Meh… not really, depends on the build though.

Will my knowledge of Mesmer tactics transfer over

Knowledge of any other class benefits rolling a new one.

or is Necro a whole new bag of beans?

Yes

are you pleased with being a Necro in WvW?

100% yes, wouldn’t pick a different class if I had to go with just one.

Do you feel useful and effective there?

yes

Do you feel like you are a valuable asset to your group?

yes

danbuter.2314:

I just wish Reanimator and Protection of the Horde did not exist.

Yes!
Even for minion masters those traits are mediocre at best.

station.6421:

Not a utility skill, I know, but staff has 4 traits spread across 3 trees.

Spiteful Marks (Spite)
Greater Marks (DM)
Staff Mastery (DM)
Soul Marks (SR)

Necro trait tree is an absolute joke. Most of these traits could be merged and replaced with more interesting ones. Which probably won’t happen until a major patch like an expansion, unfortunately. Even then, I’m doubtful whether they’ll be fixed.

This is the perfect example of why a seemingly unnecessary dispersion of similar traits makes absolute sense. It’s because they serve different purposes.
1. Greater Marks and Staff Mastery are in the same line anyway, and that makes sense.
2. Soul Marks does not improve your staff skills per se but your life force gain. And many builds that heavily implement death shroud in their playstyle use the staff anyway. Therefore it has to be in the Soul Reaping line.
3. Spiteful marks, more damage →Spite, nuf said.
I’m not sure if anyone ever uses that one though. Conditionmancers certainly don’t need a 10% increase to the relatively low and unfrequent damage of the marks and power builds usually have better alternatives (maybe this should be an adept trait?).

On the other hand, let me ask you this: Would you rather have all of those 4 traits in the same line? Or all of the minion traits in the same? No, because if you want more than 3 then they need to be in different lines.

I don’t think that the sole purpose of dark path is to force people who are using channeling skills into a double bind. At best it’s a positiv side effect, would be my guess.

You can certainly use it as a gap closer. The indicated 900 range is actually just the teleportation range. The hand flys much further, even beyond 1200 I think. In that sense you could say it’s a gap minimizer. Sure, the further the hand flys, the easier it gets dodged. But if it hits you’ll be in range for chill blains.

The non existing return function is only mildly bothersome to me. I definitely wouldn’t want a return button that only appears after I use charge. Also, there are some runes that trigger their 6th bonus when activating an elite skill. Would a return function also do that?
I watched the video a month back when you released it, so maybe I just can’t remember how you would implement such a return function…

If changes are made to prevent the golem from getting stuck, then I’m all for the projectile version rather than the burrow charge. A lot of times the golem is used specifically when an opponent stands next to a wall, or simply to destroy structures super fast.. So a burrow charge would actually reduce damage in those scenarios.
Also the burrow would sometimes look weird, like when you are standing on a thin wooden bridge…
Secondly the projectile leap would need to have a hight limitation. It wouldn’t make sense to have the golem jump on top of a high wall in wvw (actually in that case the burrow version might be more awesome^^) while any other projectile can clearly reach that far up. All the same it wouldn’t make sense to have your golem “charge” down from a cliff.

Kravick.4906:

flow.6043:

I feel like you two are talking past each other.
Let me clarify a few things for you:
There are conditions and control effects. Then there is CC (crowd control) wich can be both a condition (frozen, cripple, immobilize..) and a control effect (aka hard CC because all of them lock all your skills over the time of their duration).
And yes, fear is in fact both (condition and ce), meaning that it can be cleared by both condition removal as well as stun breaks, only when cast by an ally of course.

He said immobilize wasn’t a CC. I said it was. Then he linked stuff that proved it while still trying to say immobilize isn’t a CC. I already knew it was a condition as well as being a CC. Theres nothing to clarify.

Yes, I know you were right the whole time… the clarifying was directed at poplolita.

I feel like you two are talking past each other.
Let me clarify a few things for you:
There are conditions and control effects. Then there is CC (crowd control) wich can be both a condition (frozen, cripple, immobilize..) and a control effect (aka hard CC because all of them lock all your skills over the time of their duration).
And yes, fear is in fact both (condition and ce), meaning that it can be cleared by both condition removal as well as stun breaks, only when cast by an ally of course.

Whoa, hold your horses, gentlemen.
A conditionmancer that uses a scepter and wants to max his bleed stacks through procs: rabid.
Staff-mancer: carrion>rabid

Also, hell yeah! Unblockable corrupt boon would be awesome!

The non-LOS of epidemic was really overpowered, the only issue I have with it or with any skill that needs los is:
LOS means “line of sight to their feet”. If someone is standing clearly visible on a ledge or a wall and you can see everything from the knee up, skills will be “obstructed”. Same thing when you stand on top of a wall, this 2 inch high step prevents any skills from reaching you or getting from you to the people standing below.
I don’t expect this to change, it’s just one of those weird things…

[Quote removed by Moderator]

Bhawb.7408:

Make it possible to use Underwater death shroud on land, but make it so only 1 can be accessed (so you can’t have both available, keep only 1 shroud at any time, but you can choose).

Aha! That would turn wave of fear into a warhorn with fear instead of daze, which could be traited to an even lower cooldown. :P
I like the idea though, I can definitely see the appeal for some builds.

Bhawb.7408:

flow.6043:

alemfi.5107:

Wail of Doom (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Wail_of_Doom):
Changing this to a 1 second stun I think would fit the theme of the necromancer better than the 2 second daze it currently is.

Why cut the time in half? Stun and daze is essentially the same control effect.
The sigil of paralyzation even works on both of them.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/stun-sigil-work-for-wh-daze/

I posted about this in another thread. Base 1 second fear, trait increases base duration by 50% to 1.5 second fear, 100% fear duration turns this into a 3 second fear, terror turns that into 3-4k damage, on a 25.5 second CD, in addition to the other fears that terror builds have. If they did make the change, it would have to be reduced in duration, otherwise it would be a 5 second AoE cone fear (traited, technically 6 seconds but 5 second cap on fear), and be far too strong in terror builds.

I know. The original post of alemfi said stun instead of fear… now it’s edited.

alemfi.5107:

Wail of Doom (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Wail_of_Doom):
Changing this to a 1 second stun I think would fit the theme of the necromancer better than the 2 second daze it currently is.

Why cut the time in half? Stun and daze is essentially the same control effect.
The sigil of paralyzation even works on both of them.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/stun-sigil-work-for-wh-daze/

Andele.1306:

PinCushion.7390:

Does this mean you can reflect Corrupt Boon? O.o

Tech seen yes, i managed to reflect a Epidemic with Echo when leveling my mesmer in WvWvW (and was amazed with instant 4 badges under my feet), problems are a) corrupt boon has no cast time b) both are invis and utility cast animations for necro are generic with no special feature and for now i havent seen the feedback bubble reflect any of them thus i dont think it has any special effects on Spvp.

Wow, you could really use epidemic as a mesmer? Are you sure that it wasn’t a necro on your team that could have done it and you got those badges by yourself?
I always thought that the currupt “projectile” had certain properties that a usual one doesn’t. Like dark path could teleport you to a different target if that one intercepted the flying hand by standing in the way. Could this happen to corrupt boon too?

Well, there you go! The man himself answered your question. ^^

To be fair though, while the hybrid is not as fragile as a pure berserker build, it is still about as glassy as any conditionmancer can get. The only toughness and vitality is the one you get from the few celestial trinkets.

In the first screenshot (when it didn’t work) you seem to stand quite far away from the golem… regeneration is only applied to those who stand on the mark when it’s triggered. Maybe that was the case?
Anyway, it works fine for me.

spoj.9672:

flow.6043:

How does having terror make epidemic a waste?

Terror doesnt make epidemic a waste. Epidemic is a waste of a utility slot in spvp

You don’t always fight 1v1 in spvp.

Kravick.4906:

Bas.7406:

For those who are up for the attempts is everyone free today around 7pm PST? After the podcast recording Bhawb and I usually do a BoC presents, but this would be fun!

I’ll be on.

Did you guys find enough necros yesterday? How was it?

Theldrin.9863:

no im only level 46….i have the yellow ones (major?)
also thanks for the build advice…..question tho…what about scepters? or stick with axe?
i have no idea since i hear axe sucks or is godly depending on the day/forum poster lol

Until you are lvl80 I’d advise you to check out all weapons (and utilities). Or just try them in the heart of the mists if you don’t have the patience.
Weapon choices for the necromancer are more about personal preference rather than “which one is the best?”
Beyond the basic question “condition or power build” the use for each weapon is mostly defined by it’s utility.

My build explains why I went with the axe or any gear choice for that matter. It also says why there is no room for the scepter in my build. Also I think the scepter is boring because all you do is auto attack bleed stacking… as I said, it’s all about personal preference.
So, when you’ve reached lvl80 and (correctly) concluded that the necro’s staff is the best weapon ever, then give my build another glance.

MethaneGas.8357:

Actually, that thief would have been a piece of cake as a Necro…
The only problem is that he met no worthy opponent (and I guess he was good too :P)

Yes^^
The part when he says: I’ll kill the necro first, because I don’t want to deal with conditions and fear. lol. There was not one single fear. No reaper’s mark (or any mark, actually) and he didn’t even go into deathshroud. Maybe low on life force :/
He just pretends to be a dolyak and runs around until he goes into plague.

As PinCushion pointed out, the necro is indeed a lot stronger if in company of at least one ally. Here the necro had 2, but that didn’t help him apparently…

Yeah, at lvl 80 you still struggle for every little bit of stat point to gain the edge over others (→ascended gear). And an additional 5 or 10 trait points beyond that point would work wonders. So being just half way there, it’s not surprising to me that you die a lot :/

Do you really have 2 superior sigils of blood lust? They are the most expensive sigils there are! Also, the stacks can’t go beyond 25. So carrying 2 might be overkill and you lose out on potential damage when you reach the 25 stacks.

I like your build so far, looks pretty good for what you can do at that lvl.
And since you are allready using a staff/axe:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Build-Staff-Corruption/
…good for wvw zerg sieges as well as any 1v1 encounters. And by “good” I of course mean BOSS!!

Yerffejy.6538:

So in response, I must say that for a necro, it is the player, not the build, that decides the outcome. We have many builds that are very viable and effective in combat, and I think people really do notice when they are facing a good necro versus a bad one.

Totally agree, but I think you don’t give enough credit for having a good build.
As seen in Orochi’s lupicus solo video and in the BoC podcast with him, the build in that situation was super sensitive. It had to be spot on all the way through or it wouldn’t have worked, he even switched different types of nourishment in the middle of the fight. Playing against other players in wvw is a lot more forgiving than lupicus of course, but I suspect that the “build’s sensitivity” applies all the same.
The wide build variaty the necromancer offers might to some extent be misleading in the sense that people figure out builds that appear to be good but could really use some fine tuning. Maybe some of them need just one trait or one utility changed, maybe they need different sigils or runes, maybe just different nourishment… something seemingly miniscule that could make a huge difference in the outcome of a fight.

I’m sure everyone has read the “average at everything” argument somewhere. Well, maybe that’s because there are five gazillion builds on the forum of which just a few tap their full potential.

Anyway… I’m mostly speculating here. Skill is, as you said, certainly the bigger factor.

Most interesting part is when you talk about the traits.
And a homing necrotic grasp would be nice. Allthough the one drawback with a non piercing projectile is an even lower lf regeneration for condition builds. Maybe it could be standard as it is but homing as a trait, like replace jagged horror :P

spoj.9672:

To really get your conditons doing damage you need to cc your opponents and you need to be removing their defensive boons aswell. So It doesnt make sense to take a standard condition build without terror.

I know terror is totally baws, the cc of fear still works without it though. It’s a nice damage boost but I wouldn’t say it doesn’t make sense not to have it.

spoj.9672:

Terror is a must if you are going condition in tpvp. When you play it well you can win 1v2’s no problem. I often feel like a semi bunker with the terror build because I dont waste utility slots with things like epidemic.

How does having terror make epidemic a waste?

Bas.7406:

Scepter is for condition builds, and is definitely the easiest to play in a WvWvW zerg.

Staff?

Kardiamond.6952:

Would you say Axe is as viable in WvW as dagger?

Each time I try Axe, I wonder : Why am I not using dagger?

600 seems to be too short to be an efficient range to kite people. And going melee range vs a real Melee is death sentence.

I don’t think it’s more viable in a power build.
It’s a different story with condition builds though, because then dagger or axe becomes more about the utility rather than damage.

This might not be my place to add to the discussion since I’m not NA and can’t participate, but I want to say a few things:
I don’t think the best group composition is necessarily one where everyone has a different build. Off the top of my head I’d give the team at least 2 if not 3 condition builds.
So far it seems to me that you do the build planing in anticipation of a 5v5 confrontation, then the builds make sense with support, spectral wall and finishers and so on… like a mini zerg. That might happen from time to time, but most of the fights will probably be 1-3vs1-3.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

I think the reason why the rune and sigil don’t stack is because of rounding. the Sigil is +15%, I believe, and the Runes are +33%, so combined, it’s +48%. When rounded to the next second, it’s still the same.

Riiiight… I somehow imagined that the rune gives more than 33%. My bad.

Sooo… you made me curious
Did a little research and testing in heart of the mists.
Apparently the sigil of paralyzation does a lot more than it’s tool tip suggests.
First of all it definitely affects both stun and daze, some people are still unclear on knockdown.
Secondly it really adds 1 second to every skill that does stun or daze.

And then there are my test results from hotm:
I tried every combo of banshee’s wail, sigil and runes of the mesmer.

- just the trait or the rune or the sigil: 3 seconds

- all 3 together: 4 seconds (apparently there is a 4s cap)

- trait + rune or sigil: 4 seconds

- rune + sigil: 3 seconds (<- weird :/ )

Bottom line: If you really just want the 4 seconds you can take the sigil instead of 6 runes.

Allright, point taken about your build ^^
As I said I wasn’t there, but I doubt you would have survived the fight if I was… even if you peanut buttered all over me :P

Also, I get the appeal of retaliation. I use it myself. But to me it seems too situational to warrent the prais you are giving it. At least against a staff user like me, there are not many chances of triggering the retal-damage, and since it only does 300-400 damage each time it’s really a minor concern for my 25k health pool.

@corrupt boon, I wouldn’t mind an increase, but a 1:1 conversion would lead to situation where a guardian could get a 10 second (or more) fear after using hallowed ground. epidemic that with “terror” and you whipe a whole group xD

Rennoko.5731:

flow.6043:

First of all I want to address the argument that if necromancers ever have a chance at beating multiple opponents then only if they are “undergeared, upleveled noobs”:
Come on people… that has to be true for every class. If you are a decent necro (or any other class for that matter) there’s simply no chance that anyone else could beat you+some others solo. If all players are equally skilled and geared then there is no 1vX for any class!
.

I tend to disagree on this. You can run some pretty comical builds with mesmer using boons/retaliation that make you basically able to take on 3 people without any risk of dying at all. Between the blinks, and immunities, and heals, and invisibilities, you really won’t die if you know what you are doing. Granted you may not be able to kill those three people unless they are mostly glassy without decent regeneration of their own. Good thing most people in WvW don’t run bunker/retalation builds, so it makes that much easier.

I literally had a fight with 4 people (3 at 80 1 uplevel) on my mesmer running the troll build described above, and they eventually just gave up and left me alone, because they couldn’t kill me, and because of the two bunker elementalists, I couldn’t kill them.

Well… your example kinda proves my point. I allready agreed that those scenarios are entirely possible with classes like the mesmer, but never with the necromancer. I can’t comment on the fight itself, since I wasn’t there obviously. But! One thing I can say for sure: If one of those guys was a necromancer and landed corrupt boon on you, it would have been game over.

Otaking.4675:

Eles, thieves, guardians and mesmers can 1vX in Spvp so that invalidates the wvw versus undergeared opponents concerns. Necros really can’t.

How does that invalidate anything?
Only because everyone in spvp has access to all the same gear, runes and traitpoints etc doesn’t mean that everyone makes the best build out of it, let alone brings equal skill to the fight.
Again: There only has to be one necro with corrupt boon and the outnumbering party doesn’t even need skill to bring down any of those classes.

Yeah, it’s weird. There’s been a discussion a while ago about how illogical mark-triggering is sometimes.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Why-don-t-marks-trigger-on-downed-players/

When fighting against dragons there are so many people that it doesn’t really matter as long as you get the reward. So auto attacking is usually enough.
You can however place a mark on top of another npc that is standing close to a dragons foot. Once the mark is triggered it also effects all the targets that marks wouldn’t trigger on in the first place.

First of all I want to address the argument that if necromancers ever have a chance at beating multiple opponents then only if they are “undergeared, upleveled noobs”:
Come on people… that has to be true for every class. If you are a decent necro (or any other class for that matter) there’s simply no chance that anyone else could beat you+some others solo. If all players are equally skilled and geared then there is no 1vX for any class!

Leeto.1570:

Only way to 1vX on necro is to kill one before other kills you and then kill other.

That’s how every class has to do it! In fact, when you look at videos of eles of thiefes or mesmers… they go in burst someone down, go back out and reset the fight, back in burst someone down then back out and reset the right. There is rarely ever a situation in which they actually fight every single one of a 5-man team at the same time.
Actually in those regards the necro trumps all of the other classes because the greater access to aoe allows him to damage 5 players at the same time, all the time. I know, just for about 5 seconds before he dies because he can’t reset the fight.
That “lack of mobility”, as kravick ever so insistently points out, leads to the undeniable truth that necromancers can’t fight a high number of noobs. That realm is reserved for other classes only so far. How do we deal with it? Just don’t engage. Pick your battles. More than 3, stay away, even if they are upleveled etc.

The trait distibution issue: Yes, the fact that necros have so many “viable” builds (I know they aren’t all as viable as people make them out to be, especially in 1vX scenarios) inevitably leads to some of those builds beeing forced into traitlines or traits that don’t synergize.
But there are a few builds that do make traits work.
Which brings me to the next point: Has any of you checked out my build that I postet a few days ago??
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Build-Staff-Corruption/
Traits, gear, runes… everything makes sense here, and for me that’s as good as you can get in 1vX situations.
Someone outside the forum pointed something out to me that I maybe didn’t stress enough in that guide. When I wrote that it’s a build for everything, I didn’t mean jack of all trades master of non… more like master of all trades. And it’s really (!) strong for encountering multiple players at once, imo as good as it get for the necro.

I would totally join if I was NA xD
Well at least all EU players can watch the slaughter on video later.
Consolation prize… yay.

Can siphoning health + life leech really heal you faster than your health ticks away? Even if it does, always having someone in range who doesn’t stomp you (or simply does more damage than you can heal for) is wishfull thinking in pvp.
Also death’s embrace and terror aren’t traits exclusive to this build. The only trait that could further improve your downed state would be dark armor since life leech is a channeling skill, allthough last time I checked this was still bugged.

Am I correct to assume that you have a regular group for such a high level? Or do you join random ones?

As to the build, I’m kinda curious to see how many people on the forum are even as close to 50 as you and can give first hand advice.
Just to clarify one thing: by difficult, do you mean the boss fights (since there’s not enough agony resistance available atm) or just making it through the regular mobs?

I just recently posted my build, to which I can attest that it works at lvl 40-45. The gear is a carrion soldier mix, but it’s a staff build… so I could imagine that a switch from a completely different build would do more harm than good if you’re not used to the playstyle.

Lucas.9162:

Absolutely incredible. Necromancer is now the second class I’ve seen do this on video. You’ve shut down a lot of naysayers, and given hope to a misunderstood class. I now have a big goal to work towards. Thanks man, really!

There is a thread on the forum somewhere, compiling solo dungeon videos. There is a lupicus subsection with so far warrior, guardian, mesmer and thief. As far as I remember they all need about half an hour except for the warrior of course. Actually the mesmer has the worst dps but then uses the reflect bubble and that deals 100k-200k damage which cuts his time significantly.

Kravick.4906:

Everyone here agrees that necromancer signets (save Undeath, and people feel tethered to Locust in WvW as its the only way were able to keep up with zergs) are absolute trash.

I don’t think they are “absolute trash”, but tbh I like locust the least of them all. It’s more like a travelling utility for bounty searches and such. In combat +25% movement is as good as just standing still. And the least of all you need it in a wvw zerg because there are always people giving all others swiftness anyway.

Kravick.4906:

Death Shroud looks good on paper, but in reality, it pales in comparison to real mobility and escape mechanics. It doesn’t save us, and it doesn’t prolong a fight other than absorbing maybe 2 or 3 hits. Life Force generation is also a serious problem for non power builds, and has little to no synergy for anything but power builds. How can DS be an intricate part of this class that we’re “always supposed to utilize at all times” when all of its functions are clearly designed with only power builds in mind? Then theres the fact that dagger auto attack is the best LF generating weapon we have, but does more DPS than Life Blast. Why on earth would you want to use DS and purposefully nerf your damage like that? Its completely backwards!

A good point on power builds, which is why I’m very hesitant on even trying one out.
But: non-power builds don’t (or shouldn’t) use ds as a damage sponge, freeze and fear then pop out again. That not only serves a defensive and offensive purpose at the same time, but you are then not as dependant on lf regeneration.
I know that makes ds look like you push it even further away from what it was originally intended to be and make it almost a mere extension of your other utilities, but it works.
And it shouldn’t be compared to escape mechanisms of other classes, because that simply isn’t what it’s for.

Bhawb.7408:

flow.6043:

I don’t think that it’s a problem that you could spec into it so you would get a 1k hit sometimes

It would be a direct buff to already existing builds (terror), requiring nothing extra to them, and giving (let’s just assume he is talking about a .25 base duration) something over 50% uptime on the single strongest CC in the entire game, in addition to applying the single highest damage condition (by a huge margin).

Imagine a zerg of 20 Necromancers, just pressing 1, all with terror builds, and you’ll see why this is an issue. Frankly, hard CC of any kind would be an issue for similar reasons (such as if it gave a tiny knockback just to interrupt), you could never cast anything with an actual cast time, you’d just sit there eating damage until you gave up and logged out.

Yes, my point exactly. It would be so op because of the CC, not because of the extra damage. Nobody could do anything about it if a 20-necro-zerg came along and the outcome would be the same even if they didn’t pick the terror trait.

I would pick up the staff instead of the focus and then take “soul marks” instead of “vital persistance”, that might even free up the utility slot that your signet holds right now.

I don’t think that it’s a problem that you could spec into it so you would get a 1k hit sometimes, given that necrotic grasp is not really that powerful in the first place.
But an interrupt on auto attack would be waaaaaaaaaay overpowered, even if it was “only” between 500-1200 range. The projectile is relatively slow but not so much that other players would be able to dodge/block/xxx it every 3/4 of a second. And with the staff (freeze+fear) it’s easy to keep a certain distance from your enemy.
The op-ness becomes even more apparent once there are more players from your team involved… to even stand a chance the opponet would have to stay permanently close to you while fighting the others! 2 necros on your team standing far enough apart could create a nomansland, shooting auto attacks at alternating intervals between the two of you would perma-fear anyone without a stunbreak to death once he’s caught in it.
There’s a reason why wail of doom has a 30 second cooldown, doom 20sec and reaper’s mark 40sec.

Kravick.4906:

I’ve never been turned down from a dungeon because of being a necro

Sadly, this has happened to me. The number of times has actually been relatively small, but it has happened. Once at the very beginning of the game when attempting to do CoF path 1 (this was before they nerfed everything, you really did need 4 warriors to do path 1 back then), a couple of times when attempting to do fractal levels higher than 22 (gets more frequent the higher in fractal level you go), and once when I joined a group to do a CoF speed run. I joined the group with the intention of switching to my warrior, but before I could the group kicked me saying necros don’t have enough DPS to do speed runs.

Yeah, the famous CoF speedruns. I get that, but it’s rather a pro warrior argument than a contra necro one.
The fractals though -.- …dude, just be glad you didn’t get in that group. The moment someone discriminates against other classes (not just necromancers) I know that the fractal will take twice as long, because they rely on the strenght of others. The only entry requirement above lvl20 should be enough agony resistance, and that’s it. I’ve done several lvl ~30 ish runs without guardians or mesmers or whatever the most popular are atm and it was just as quick.

Btw I disagree with the whole “average at everything”-stuff, but kravick knows that allready :P

nice ^^
I think you just proved a lot of people wrong.

TheMightyAltroll.3485:

Necromancers are bad in most Dungeons, and not desired.

Bad at most dungeons? depends on the build.
Not desired? Well, no one will ever request a necromancer in map-chat for their group. But to be honest, when someone asks specifically for a certain class like warrior or guardian, I immediately assume that they can’t pull their own weight.

Tanking definitely depends on the build, but even with a rather glassy one there’s always death shroud… lets you survive bathing in a hostile zerg for two or three seconds :P
DPS… certainly not direct damage compared to other classes, but that’s not the point of the necromancer.

As to “dragons and stuff”, if by that you mean those huge group events with the daily reward and huge chest then (as with every other class) all you can do is get a few hits of and not die. That’s all that is ever needed with those dragons…

Voodoo.1709:

…if there is a generally preferred or accepted build for fractals/pve.

There isn’t.
In terms of contributions to your party, you could argue that the focus, wells and the staff provide combofields, regeneration and condition transfer, and are therefore more party friendly. The staff in general provides the best crowd control, which is why I prefer it over all other necro weapons. There are also builds that are heavy on healing power and group healing through traits, but that of course comes at the cost of damage so it wouldn’t be my first pick for dungeons.

carlvinmadarang.4130:

What should i gear my weapons and trinkerts/rings/amulets with?

This is a lot more difficult to answer than giving cheap rune options.
As a rule of thumb: First choose your weapons, then your utilities and traits, then your gear stat prefixes. Not the other way around. So if you could elaborate on your build with a little more detail, we’d be able to give more accurate advice on gear accordingly.

Voodoo.1709:

flow.6043:

Doesn’t nemesis in the very same video in which he demonstrates the build play in fractal lvl35?
Anyway, I wouldn’t say it’s less “effective” than other classes in general, but I could imagine that this build would work better in certain group setups than others. For instance hitting the bleed cap solo can be an issue if other bleeders are involved. On the other hand, if the group allready has 4 of those highly praised guardians then I’m sure they’d take a hybrid necro over a 5th guardian.

He does use this build however I would imagine I am nowhere near as good a necro as he is and I have seen many mention their preference for other builds like the well build.

I’ve never played with or against nemesis so I can’t really comment on his skill. I can however assess how much skill would be necessary to run fractals: not much. It’s more about experience in how to do each individual stage of a dungeon or fractal and how well the group works together. Beyond that there are many builds that will do the job equally well and it is then more about (as you mentioned) the preference for a certain build like a well-heavy one, rather than a “need” for it as if this particular build was more dungeon friendly than others.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

CHIPS.6018:

Rune of Undead is the cheapest rune for a conditionmancer. It is mostly due to the cheap production cost, not b/c it is weak or anything.

That and it’s arguably the most effective rune set for a condition damage build.

Arguably as in: it’s the armor upgrade combo that gives the highest amount of condition damage, yet some other condition-mancers prefer to have condition duration on their runes… or other stats entirely.