Guild Wars 2

You can get it as a charr by using the charrzooka.
Also there are several runes that apply burning.

Ichor.9360:

flow.6043:

Doesn’t nemesis in the very same video in which he demonstrates the build play in fractal lvl35?

Well yeah, but its against the Shaman in the Snowblind Fractal, which is an incredibly easy fight where you hardly take any damage if you’re fighting from range…

I think it’s safe to say that at some point up to this lvl (or since then on even higher ones) he has encountered the harder bosses too.

Runes of the Undead cost practically nothing.

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.

In all fairness, those three traits aren’t the only ones that no one would ever take.
But yeah, staying in Death Shroud longer than getting 2 or 3 skills off usually has little to no appeal, which is why I (as a condition mancer) am rarely bothered by a slowly refilling lf bar. The only time when it’s really annoying is at the beginning of every pvp round because you always start at zero.

I think most people would very happily take any of those boons over a death shroud buff if they had the choice (unless you combined it, as in “boon upon entering ds”). Also I don’t think that death shroud is supposed to work as a replacement for any of those boons because the mechanic is so different. So whether or not anet introduced ds as a compensation for the lack of certain other damage avoidance abilities (which I doubt) is imo not relavant to the need for a ds or lf buff.

If I had to pick one I’d take the trident.

Hey! I’ve linked this thread to my build, hope that’s ok
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Build-Staff-Corruption

Staff+Corruption
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Build-Staff-Corruption

The Axe is somewhat of an underdog among necro weapons. Its bad reputation entirely derives from the auto attack and there’s no way of sugarcoating it: Rending Claws is weak.

However, when you compare skills 2 and 3 with the scepter’s and dagger’s, the axe is just straight up better in every single way. So how can you make the axe work in any build? Try to create skill rotations that leave very little room for its auto attack. And this build allows for that.

But let’s take a look at the main reason why we want the axe: Ghastly Claws.
It is the only skill that can do what it does, even though you might see similarities in the dagger’s Life Siphon or the scepter’s Feast of Corruption. Ghastly Claws deals the most damage out of those three skills, the cooldown is the lowest, it generates life force more reliably, the multi-hit channel synergizes with Vampiric and Barbed Precision while having a shorter cast time than Life Siphon, and last but not least: there is almost no precast animation, which makes Ghastly Claws the perfect follow-up skill to use after certain combos.

RUNES

Mad King runes are the perfect addition to this build.
175 power, 5% condition duration, 35% bleeding duration which combined with 20% from Curses and 40% from food adds up to exactly +100%.
And as a cherry on top: the raven attacks when activating an elite skill.
Those “ravens” are actually a 3-target aoe version of the ranger’s Hunter’s Call, which is a channel of 16 hits. They can heal ~2k hp with Vampiric and will trigger an average of 3-5 stacks of bleeding per target with Barbed Precision. Plus, since Death’s Embrace doesn’t have an icd it can stack a high amount of vulnerability on targets below 33% hp.
Hint: It is advisable to go into Death Shroud after using the elite, because this will buff the raven attacks with fury and make life force soak up possible retaliation damage (which can be a lot with 48 hits).

SIGILS

Geomancy for aoe bleeding, no need to explain a lot here.

But why swap sigils for all weapons?
First of all, there’s no rng or icd conflict.
Secondly, necros are rather susceptible to CC due to their low mobility and lack of blocks or invulnerability, so equipping weapons with swap sigils basically turns your swap into an instant cast skill that can be used even when you’re stunned.
That makes the Geomancy/Hydromancy combo on staff rather powerful, and it provides some defense too with aoe chilled and up to 10x Vampiric procs.

Leeching on the axe/wh has a similar purpose, but it is more designed to buff the single target burst after the switch. The Geomancy hit will instantly consume the leeching charge so that alone will buff the burst rotation with an additional 1k armor-ignoring dmg and healing.

Of course there are ways to increase overall damage in PvE by taking something like Bloodlust or Air/Fire instead, but I’d rather have the instant 1k leech on swap.

GEAR STATS

First of all, Carrion used to be the perfect mix between offense and defense for this build. Condition damage and power were a good offensive combo with the 300 precision tied to the Curses trait line, and vitality still is the best defensive stat for necros because of how it scales with life force.

However, the June 2015 patch introduced the following changes:

• Stats tied to trait lines were removed and base stats of characters and gear were raised in return.
• Target the Weak was changed to increase crit chance and give a 13% stat bonus (precision to cond dmg).
• Barbed Precision was nerfed from 66% proc chance to 33%.

With this shift precision on gear became more valuable to this build than it was before.

That is why I mixed a lot of rampager stats into my sinister gear in PvE, it raises my crit chance above 60% without losing out on too much condition damage.
This way fury and Target the Weak can push critical chance above 90% during the burst roation, and that still leaves some room for banners, spotter or a full bar of conditions when fighting world bosses before reaching 100%.
Aside from the buff to direct damage this also allows for a similar amount of Barbed Precision procs as a pre-patch full sinister build.

In PvP I’ve switched to a rampager amulet. With carrion you now only get 4% base crit chance which combined with the lower proc chance of Barbed Precision simply isn’t enough anymore. Does that make you squishier? In a way, yes, with 900 vitality less you are more susceptible to bursts and focus fire. But on the other hand, Blood Magic allows you to recover a lot of hp in combat which actually makes this build have better overall sustain than it had before June 2015. More importantly though, the damage is so much better that it makes the loss of vitality absolutely worth it.
Bottom line: you can totally pull off a rampager amulet in PvP if you play like a boss!

In WvW, however, I had to maintain a higher defense. Supplementing carrion and rampager with the old soldier/sinister/dire trinket mix was either to squishy or didn’t have enough precision. That’s why I replaced some of it with celestial stats. A slightly higher than 32% crit chance doesn’t allow for the same bleed stacking as before BP was nerfed, but celestial can make up for that with higher critical hits because it also comes with ferocity.

Adept: Blood Bond

A lot of traits in Blood Magic are default picks for this build and Blood Bond is one of them. No dagger, no Quickening Thirst. No tank/heal/rez build, no Ritual of Life.
Blood Bond is a good trait though. The Lesser Signet of Vampirism provides some decent healing and extra damage. Beware that it is bugged at the moment. Unlike the original Signet of Vampirism, the active leeching charges will not heal you through Shroud. And like the original Signet of Vampirism, it requires facing your target, so if you happen to inflict enough bleeding on targets behind you (which happens all the time) the trait will trigger the signet but it will miss and go on cooldown.

Master: Banshee’s Wail vs Vampiric Presence.

Banshee’s Wail turns a good weapon into an amazing weapon. 20% cd reduction combined with a 50% effectiveness increase almost doubles the uptime of Locust Swarm, which then provides (almost) perma swiftness on its own and inflicts over 4 seconds of cripple per hit when combined with food. And turning the unblockable aoe daze of Wail of Doom from 2 sec (30 sec cd) into 3 sec (24 sec cd) might not sound like a lot, but the difference really is huge.

So when is Vampiric Presence a viable alternative? During some group content in PvE or zerg fights in WvW if there are no other necros providing Vampric Auras. Sometimes extra leeching hits from allies can net a higher total dps than your extra Locust Swarm ticks. So considering a trait switch here is rather a matter of buffing team damage than survivability. Of course, depending on the situation, you might actually get better sustain with Vampiric Presence, but the cd reduction and effectiveness increase of Banshee’s Wail can usually make up for that with more life force, better kiting ability and a higher frequency of dazing your opponents.

Grandmaster: Vampiric Rituals

Again a default choice since Unholy Martyr and Transfusion would only fit a support/tank/minion type of build. But as it happens wells are great utility skills, so being able to pick Vampiric Rituals here plays right into our hand. And it’s a great trait too, now we get our wells with lower cooldowns, protection and about ~150 extra damage and healing per pulse and hit, which means that each well has the potential to deal an extra 900 damage per target and heal us for up to 4.5k hp (before factoring in might stacks and Last Rites)

WEAPONS

The Staff is generally considered a mandatory pick in PvP as a secondary weapon for its utility, and a suboptimal choice for PvE. Why is it different for this build? Well, it both is and isn’t. It is different in the sense that the gear and trait choices support a playstyle that is different from other builds. And it isn’t different in the sense that the staff is generally underrated as a primary weapon. A lot of players don’t even realize how often they use the staff even if they see it as their secondary weapon. Part of this mentality comes from a time when not every build had the old Staff Mastery (lower mark cds) and Greater Marks (240 radius + unblockable) trait combo in Death Magic. In June 2015 every old staff trait was either baselined or – in case of unblockable marks – merged with Soul Marks in Soul Reaping. And since Soul Reaping is a popular specialization, most necros today get a staff buffed in a way that used to require a heavy trait investment before the specialization system.
Regardless of what some people think, the staff is the necro’s single greatest PvP weapon because of its ranged aoe and utility. What necros lack in combat mobility they can make up with the 1200 + 240 (+60 trigger radius) range of marks. And marks have a lot of properties that other classes/weapons don’t have: they are non-projectile high range skills, they can be precast for area control which also effectively lowers their cooldowns, they don’t require for your character to face the casting direction, and all of this can be traited to be unblockable (which regrettably is no longer part of this build).
Plus, Necrotic Grasp’s 4% life force regeneration per hit (4.4% with Gluttony/Soul Reaping) makes this skill have by far the highest lf regen potential with up to 20% (22%) per cast.
And as a bonus, with Blood Magic every staff skill has the potential to trigger 5x Vampiric for an extra ~200 hp per cast.

The Warhorn is without a doubt the best off-hand weapon the necro has, regardless of build or game mode. Combine that with Banshee’s Wail and Blood Magic siphons: bam! Awesome sauce!
Not only are the skills great by themselves, but the 15 second duration of Locust Swarm means it even works long after you’ve switched back to the staff.
Some number crunching: 15 Locust Swarm ticks means a potential 75 hits. And since one hit generates 1.5% life force and ~40 hp we’re looking at up to 112.5% lf regen and 3k healing.
Good damage, great sustain and an unblockable aoe daze as a cherry on top.

Master: Chill of Death vs Unholy Fervor

First of all, is Chill of Death a good trait? Definitely. It has the potential to outperform Unholy Fervor by far. But the problem is this: with a lot of aoe and opponents with minions/clones/pets/turrets there’s a very good chance that the trait will proc on some unwanted target and go on cooldown.

So what’s the upside to taking Unholy Fervor instead:

• The cd reduction for the life force regeneration on Ghastly Claws.
  I can’t stress enough how important the sustain aspect here is. The cast time of Ghastly Claws combined with the lower cd means you can use it twice in 10.9 seconds, which is barely more than the cd of swapping weapons. So sometimes Unholy Fervor makes the difference between using Ghastly Claws once or twice before switching back to staff or going into Shroud. Of course you’ll do more damage this way as well, but more importantly generating an extra 12% life force or enough to go into Death Shroud at all can be the deciding factor of a fight.

• The synergy with Spiteful Spirit.
  Spiteful Spirit has the same cd as Unholy Feast. At this point I should mention that a cd for a trait doesn’t make sense if it’s also gated by the cd of Shroud. It does happen quite often that you’re staying in Shroud for less than 5 seconds, in which case the original 15 sec cd would be lapped by one Shroud cycle and effectively double or triple the icd of Spiteful Spirit.
  With Unholy Fervor, however, you reduce the cd of Unholy Feast to 12 seconds. And while it still happens on rare occasions that the cd of Spiteful Spirit is skipped when I spend less than 2 sec in Shroud, for the most part Unholy Fervor removes the icd of Spiteful Spirit and lets you cast Unholy Feast every time you go into Death Shroud.

Grandmaster: Spiteful Spirit vs Close to Death

Like I said, when the cd for Unholy Feast is traited to be low enough Spiteful Spirit becomes a great trait. What used to be (until June 2015) a simple 3 sec of retaliation on DS entry is now a trait that procs an aoe boon corrupting skill which can give you perma retaliation all on its own. And combined with the amount of power this build has, the damage potential of retaliation is actually quite high.

In PvE the damage modifier of Close to Death usually means more dps.

Some words on Signets of Suffering: a great trait for signet builds, not so much for this build even though it uses Plague Sending and Blood Bond. The cd reduction for those two signet procs would be nice, but like I said, I try to avoid hidden icds and rng as much as possible, and Signets of Suffering would only synergize with that.

CURSES

More conditions, more condition damage, more critical chance. Perfect for a hybrid build.

Adept: Plague Sending

Basically the default trait for any necro who uses Curses these days.
Terrifying Descent (a falling damage trait) is out of the question. And Chilling Darkness (chilled on blindness) would be way too situational for this build as it would only work with transfers, corrupted fury or blasting wells with Putrid Mark.
Bottom line, I’m forced to take a hidden icd signet proc. Not great, especially for PvE, but against other players Plague Signet is actually quite powerful. Occasionally it can save your life and hard counter condi builds, so overall I’m not complaining.

Master: Terror

The damage isn’t much, in fact I think it should be merged with a minor trait, but the buff Terror gives to certain skill rotations is enough to make it a worthy pick over the other traits in this tier.
You might think that Master of Corruption would be a decent choice here, maybe for the cd reduction of Epidemic and Blood is Power in PvE, or a 20 sec cd Consume Conditions in PvP. But the additional self-inflicted conditions spoil the trait and don’t justify the loss of Terror.
Path of Corruption: 2 corrupted boons on a 15 sec cd skill isn’t exactly mind blowing. I would take it if Terror wasn’t competing for the slot, but it’s not really necessary considering all the other boon corrupting skills the build has. I’m sure Path of Corruption will be more popular in combination with the Reaper’s 6 sec cd Death’s Charge.

Grandmaster: Weakening Shroud

Not only is this an excellent trait, but it’s also an easy pick over Lingering Curse (because no scepter) and Parasitic Contagion (because no one should use this as long as it doesn’t work in Shroud).

BLOOD MAGIC

What used to be by far the worst necro trait line is now one of the best specializations.
Blood Magic is the complete package, there’s support, there’s damage and most importantly: there’s healing that works through Shroud and scales with the number of opponents.
Also, with Blood Magic we get the traits for the warhorn and wells.

June 2016
Updated build calculator links: WvW, PvP, PvE
I will not update the written guide below (for now), so be advised that a lot of it referes to outdated versions of this build.

Updated August 22, 2015

The original build had 3 corruption skills and the Master of Corruption trait, hence “Staff+Corruption”. I won’t change the title of the thread, just know that it used to be a more fitting and perhaps less misleading description of what this build really is today.

What is this build about:

• This is a staff build. Contrary to popular believe it’s not just a support or wvw-siege weapon, but in this build you can use it as your main.
• It is a hybrid build.
• It’s an all-purpose build that can be used in every game mode.

WvW (solo roaming or zergs) – (outdated build link)

PvP – (outdated build link)

PvE – (outdated build link)
Side note: this build is not optimized for something like dungeons or fractals. (then again, if you want to be king in PvE you shouldn’t play necro in the first place)

Gameplay:

This damage sample is outdated (I will make a new one) but the skill rotation still works:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNi_HLJX8gE

The reasoning behind the build:

The big questions: why bother going with a build that is different from the meta? Why the same build for all game modes? Why pick a hybrid instead of straight up maxing out a single prefix for a pure power or pure condi build?
There’s no simple answer, a lot of the gear and traits have to be seen in context of the entire build or the potential fights you’re going to have, which means that some explanations require an approach similar to the “chicken or egg” causality dilemma. For example: did I like the staff and therefore tried to make a build that would incorporate it in the best possible way, or did I want to make a hybrid and then chose the weapons that fulfilled that role? Considering how long I’ve been using this build and how old this thread is by now, there is of course a historic component to how it evolved with every patch. However, most elements of the build are connected in a synergetic way, so rest assured that it works even if it looks weird on paper.

TRAITS

Specializations:

With the way specializations have streamlined the trait system, making the right choice for any build has become less a matter of picking the best 3, but rather evaluating which 2 you need the least.
In case of this build Death Magic is by far the least attractive, which narrows our choice down to 3 out of 4.
So here’s the tricky part: the weapon traits for this build are in Spite, Blood Magic and Soul Reaping. But Curses has all the juicy condition traits and some buffs to critical chance which are very important for this hybrid.
Interim conclusion: one of our weapons can’t get its respective trait.
You might be surprised that I ended up dropping Soul Reaping/Soul Marks for a build that advocates being a staff build. It was indeed a very tough choice to make, after all, not having unblockable marks in PvP or WvW is a huge drawback. However, Soul Marks is almost the only reason I would pick Soul Reaping at all, while it is a great specialization in general, trading it for either Spite or Blood Magic just wouldn’t be worth it.

SPITE

The reason I need Spite for this build is the might and vulnerability stacking in the minor traits, as well as the cd reductions for the axe.

Adept: Spiteful Renewal vs Bitter Chill

For obvious reasons I have picked the offensive option over the defensive one in PvE, but against players I actually prefer Spiteful Renewal.

Side note: before the trait system rework Bitter Chill was previewed to inflict 5 stacks of vulnerability which might have given it a slight edge, now it only gives 3 stacks (a balancing decision because of the Reaper, no doubt). Additionally, Unholy Fervor was previewed to give a 10% damage increase against vulnerable foes (now it’s just 10% to axe skills), which would’ve definitely made Bitter Chill the best choice for this build.

Anyway, 3 stacks of vulnerability, while not entirely negligible as it not only increases both condi and direct damage but also provides a cover condition, its impact in high frequency cleansing environments like PvP and WvW is too little to justify not taking Spiteful Renewal instead.
Spiteful Renewal does, however, have some issues: the healing doesn’t work through Shroud and the proc-requirement combination of “condition on you + strike a foe + health threshold + icd” makes this one completely unpredictable. I usually try to avoid uncontrollable procs but the cd of only 5 sec makes Spiteful Renewal a somewhat decent cleansing trait.

Kravick.4906:

flow.6043:

I don’t reach it without food, wouldn’t make sense to eat a veggie pizza if you allready have 70%.
Mad King, Lyssa, Lich and Nightmare increase condition duration. I know many people carrie 2 mad king and 2 lyssa for its +20% duration, not only necromancers.

Of the runes listed, only Nightmare gives condition damage. The condition duration on nightmare is also bugged and doesn’t work, unless that got fixed in the March patch. I see where you’re going with this, but traditional condition builds revolve around runes that also give condition damage.

The bug of the nightmare runes was that the pvp version gave 20 instead of 10 total duration increase.
And players with “traditional” condition builds coudn’t care less if the first stat of each of the 2 runes gives you +25 condition damage, power or precision… not only because it’s too little to matter, but also because all of those stats benefit a condition build.

Kravick.4906:

Actually, if you would, tell me how you’re achieving 70% condition duration without the use of food or givers weapons. All the condition builds I’ve seen people post use Krait, Centaur, Afflicted, and Undead runes, and none of them have condition duration on them. Just bleeding duration.

I don’t reach it without food, wouldn’t make sense to eat a veggie pizza if you allready have 70%.
Mad King, Lyssa, Lich and Nightmare increase condition duration. I know many people carrie 2 mad king and 2 lyssa for its +20% duration, not only necromancers.

Kravick.4906:

Thats way to niche to even consider taking seriously then. Those situations are too few and far inbetween. The vast majority of PVE fights in this game involve clumping everything in your face and AoEing it down. I can think of only a handful of fights where this doesn’t happen, and even in those instances, all the trash mobs leading up to it still behave normally and clump up.

At what point can a warrior not drag mobs together and clump them up, even in instances?

Niche as in: every dungeon and fractal and wvw zerg fights and, and, and….?
Keep in mind, clumping mobs up to a warrior also benefits the necromancer if he uses marks, wells etc. and even then a warriors cleave can only hit 3 at a time… while the necromancer can provide the warrior with regeneration, condition removal, combofields (=area blindness, weakness,… and all the finishers the warrior can apply himself)

Kravick.4906:

Nemesis.8593:

It was me that compared the warrior with the necromancer over 10 seconds. The point was that the necromancer took 12 seconds to do it, but he also adds up to 25 stacks of vulnerability. So even though the necromancer’s damage is 20-25% lower then the warrior’s, he gives the warrior + the entire team 25% more damage overall.

My point was that necromancer power damage = 75%‘s of warrior damage + 25% increased warrior damage (because you increase the warrior’s damage) + more damage for the party… It’s… balanced in a way…

You also compared a single target build vs a warrior’s cleave, over a period of time which can not be accurate, yes… as bursting out 3 single normal mobs, the warrior would win. How about we calculate DPS vs 5 veteran mobs over… how ever much time it takes for them to die… 30 seconds.

I’ll do the math for the necromancer since i know it by heart… full condition build has 1800 condition damage (even more with the new ascended gear) and 133% bleeding duration + blood is power = 2150 condition damage and 25 stacks of bleeding on the target… which equals a DPS of exactly 3750 just from bleeding + the small scepter auto -attacks. Let’s call it 4k dps… omg so small… a warrior does so much more omg. Ok… let’s take our 4k DPS x 5 epidemic every 12 seconds, in a radious of 600 at a range of 1200.

Spikes of 20k DPS (minimum + DS 4 + bleeding AOEs normal damage + external buffs… you can get up to 25k DPS) every 12 seconds, while being extremely tanky, while having the ability to heal and support the party, while being at range.

So back to my original benchmark… 5 veteran mobs spread around a room… warrior vs necromancer.

Wheres the warriors math? I see nothing that which you are comparing it too. You’ve got the necros math all planned out, but you show me nothing to compare it too. So really, how are we to know where the necromancer really stands over all if there is no other benchmark here? This is a one sided argument designed to make necromancers look better. You’re also forgetting the constant 25 stacks of might the warrior is going to have, which doesn’t get stacked up in 10 seconds, as well as the several stacks of vulnerability the NPC is going to have (warriors stack vuln like crazy too ya know and you completely threw that out the window). You also can’t throw out the warriors ability to cleave so easily like that. There are just way to many encounters in this game where cleave is a factor for you to just throw it out like that.

He didn’t throw it out. His major point was that a low range sword cleave can’t beat the wide range 5-target-aoe of a necro if you count all the damage output together + the group support that comes along with it.

Kravick.4906:

flow.6043:

Kravick.4906:

Whats he going to do? Run away from you? They have no mobility skills to get away, so feel free to stand right on top of them while you out damage them with your burning and confusion, which necros can’t do, on top of your own bleeding and poison.

Again you are making the necro sound like this little helpless infant, bareley able to stop sucking on his pacifier before he can even react. Out of context one might think you are talking about a regular mindless risen mob.

Also, Signet of Spite? Just… no. I shouldn’t need to explain why that was a very bad skill to bring up. 5 seconds of conditions on a 90 second cool down? Yeesh, such a bad skill.

To be fair, a decent condition mancer would have somewhere between +50-100% condition duration. So let’s say 5 sec blind and 8 sec of everything else. If you land that you either force a cleanse or disable your opponent long enough to deal some more serious damage without him beeing able to do anything about it. And if you think about it, for its one time use in a dueling scenario there aren’t many utilities for a necro that are more aggressive than that. But yeah, cd is too long so noone uses it.

Never said they were a helpless infant, but keeping distance, or staying on a necromancer, is never an issue, so bringing up range as a counter argument doesn’t work.

You would have a point about Signet of Spite, if our condition duration wasn’t stapled to the spite tree, which only power necromancers take. Lets be honest here, your typical conditionmancer is going to have only 40% condition duration through super vegi pizza, and sadly not every necromancer uses it. While the Giver weapons were finally fixed, I still don’t see many necromancers using them as the other stats are less than optimal for a condition spec.

Necromancers typically stack bleeding duration, not condition duration, as its easier to get and you can stack it in larger quantities. Even so, Signet of Spite’s passive lacks synergy with condition spec, so even if Signet of Spite was worth using, a conditionmancer probably wouldn’t use it. Power users OTOH, I could see that since they’re forced to take condition duration if they want any kind of synergy with their builds. Of course thats if the signets cool down is ever brought into reason.

Didn’t you say you watched nemesis videos?
Power + condition duration in one traitline makes sense and doesn’t exclude conditionmancers from using it, in nemesis hybrid build he even invests 30 into spite. He even explains exactly that… why doesn’t go power with precision and cond dmg with duration.
Also there are runes, which are definitely more populare than givers weapons.
And typically necromancers prefer condition duration over bleeding duration, not the other way around. As you said, bleeding duration is easier to come by, so once you have around 70%+ cond duration you can fill the gap to 100 easily (if that is even somthing to strive for at that point…).

Kravick.4906:

Whats he going to do? Run away from you? They have no mobility skills to get away, so feel free to stand right on top of them while you out damage them with your burning and confusion, which necros can’t do, on top of your own bleeding and poison.

Again you are making the necro sound like this little helpless infant, bareley able to stop sucking on his pacifier before he can even react. Out of context one might think you are talking about a regular mindless risen mob.

Also, Signet of Spite? Just… no. I shouldn’t need to explain why that was a very bad skill to bring up. 5 seconds of conditions on a 90 second cool down? Yeesh, such a bad skill.

To be fair, a decent condition mancer would have somewhere between +50-100% condition duration. So let’s say 5 sec blind and 8 sec of everything else. If you land that you either force a cleanse or disable your opponent long enough to deal some more serious damage without him beeing able to do anything about it. And if you think about it, for its one time use in a dueling scenario there aren’t many utilities for a necro that are more aggressive than that. But yeah, cd is too long so noone uses it.

Kravick.4906:

flow.6043:

So at some point we just have to come to the conclusion that it’s not the classes fault but you just play other classes better.

I disagree with this statement entirely. Screenshots from the last couple of tPvP matches I’ve played. I’m not so egotistical to call myself good or “the best”, but I do achieve wins with this class. Its just so much easier, and faster, with other classes. This is mainly due to the class mechanics, where my abilities go off instantly on other classes. Even you have to admit that the cast times and cool downs on necromancers simply are not in line with the rest of the classes currently. Even engineers don’t have cast times and cool downs this absurdly long.

Yes, thats me on the top in both screenshots. This is how most of my tPvP matches end up looking, win or lose.

I know you disagree ^^
And this -> “Its just so much easier, and faster, with other classes.” kinda plays right into what you quoted from my original post.

As to cast times and cooldowns… what skills are you referring to? and don’t say signet, there simply is no viable necro-signet-build (not just because of the long cds). yes, some other utilities do have such a high cooldown that it’s not worth equipping them, but that’s the same for every class.

And Nemesis said it a few times allready and I can say the very same from my own experiece: If I’m in a 2 or 3 man team and someone tries to “solo” my group… there is no chance in hell (!!!) that this guy doesn’t die before he even downs a single one of my guys. And yes, an elementalist can get away sometimes… whatever (thiefs don’t :P)

By now I’m wondering the same as Bas ^^
You clearly put in a gigantic amount of time to type all those essays and I admire your tanacity for swimming against this current of necro lovers. But I can assure you that you are not the only one here who also plays warrior, thief, engineer etc. yet you make it sound like everyone here lives in this isolated necro-bubble, not knowing how much better all the other classes are! Wich is simply not true, we figured out a playstyle and build to beat all the other classes and that’s why we stick with this class. So at some point we just have to come to the conclusion that it’s not the classes fault but you just play other classes better.
However, if your secret agenda is to stir up some devs attention to “fix” us, but really make as the most op class of every mmo in the entire history in the universe ever (!!!) then pls keep going

Exemplary use of ds in general and in combo with weakening shroud, very aggressive and efficient.
Wikipedia says there is a bug that doesn’t allow weakening shroud to stack it’s bleed and weakness with the original daggers’ enfeebling blood… has this been an issue for you? I coudn’t say myself, I don’t use an off hand dagger…

Hey chips!
Big fan. Encyclopedia deserves a sticky.
Your epic accent actually makes the videos more entertaining ^^

Regarding topic suggestions, there’s one thing that I could think of: How do racial skills fit into necro builds, for people who aren’t sure which race to pick (if that’s ever a deciding factor..). Just heard a BoC podcast where they mentioned that warband support scales with your own power+precision and hounds of balthazar scales with your condition damage… those sort of things.

PistolWraith.6732:

I think necromancer is one of the strongest PvP professions. I think their group fighting power via greater marks and epidemic is best of all professions.

A man after my own heart ^^
Nice video and nicely played.
Can you explain your reasoning for picking spectral walk? At some point you switch to it right before you engage someone… so just for protection?

Leeto.1570:

Neat movie, but i have to disagree with you a bit, necro can face any class and beat them in 1v1 but only if they actually want to kill you more than survive, any good ele and thief can escape necro with no problem at all.
And some guardian or ranger with heavy condition removal spec you just could not kill at all, necromancer is fine but there is a lot of specs that are over the top and necromancer just cant handle.

I know that by now your name carries some weight in the community and for that you have my nod of respect from a fellow necromancer. But I must disagree with you on a class wide rock-paper-scissor principal. Sure it applies to some builds, but I refuse to believe that there are builds on other classes that the necromancer is completely powerless against.

Kravick.4906:

Another issue I have with the so called “top” necromancers in WvW is when they do finally show us what they’re capable of, all I see are them 1vXing a bunch of up levels, or running with a partner, or stomping people who are hilariously bad at this game.

That’s actually a reoccuring theme in any classes’ forum: Haters will always argue that necros in videos were facing underleveled/undergeared noobs, yet when a thief or ele fights off many players at a time it’s “omg, so awesome, best class ever!!”
It implies that other classes always face better players than necromancers do. But take a closer look at ele wvw videos where they survive a long time against many players. It sure is impressive even against all srubs, but if there was one necromancer landing a corrupt boon they would die on the spot.

Kravick.4906:

Classes that have no mobility or severely limited mobility really cannot call themselves competitive in this game.

Measuring the validity of a class by its mobility is just wrong. Btw did you know that one of the most common complaints of mesmers is their little access to swiftness?

Kravick.4906:

Saying a necromancers does well in sPvP/tPvP means nothing when you’ve got 4 other people carrying you.

That also applies to every other class. And especially in tPvP the team outshines the solo strenght of a player.

Kravick.4906:

It just astonishes me that people can say this class is competitive in any form when the very basic concept this game has for survivability is mobility and escape skills.

Seeing mobility as a basic concept for all classes is the wrong approach not only to the necromancer, but other classes too.

Kravick.4906:

Guardians and elementalists are extremely good at attrition fights. Guardians have a ton of ways to avoid damage through boons, knock backs, and healing/regeneration. Elementalists boast some of the best burst healing in the game. Necromancers vampiric skills are a joke. They do not even begin to compare. This is where I feel we need the most attention if we are ever to become the attrition masters that ANet envisioned for us.

Yes they don’t compare, but again: wrong approach.

Kravick.4906:

Nemesis.8593:

Check some of my builds

Yes, I’ve seen them. Tried all of them even. You get absolutely curbstomped as soon as the situation turns into 1v2 or higher against level 80s. Meanwhile, 1v2 and 1v3 are no problem on my thief. I’ve even successfully 1v4ed non upleveled multiple times on my thief. Hell, I’ve 1v2ed and 1v3ed quite a few times on my warrior, a class that supposedly has trouble doing that. All of these fights included all level 80s. I don’t count up leveled players.

What I don’t understand, is in a game whos primary defense mechanic is mobility (which necromancers have next to none of), how people can blindly defend not having it and still expect other people not to see you as weak. I mean why do you think people focus necromancers in tPvP? It sure as hell isn’t because people think we’re “strong” and need to be put down ASAP. I purposefully single out necromancers on my thief and warrior, not because I’m afraid of what they can do, but because to me they’re nothing more than a free kill. They have the least amount of stun breaks, they have no mobility to speak of, and they’re class defining feature is to face tank all of my damage. Damage I have no problem pumping into them faster than they can deal with.

When you have really watched and tried so many builds then you should by now know that there is no “…this is what the necro should be good at and therefore be played like that”.

As for the 1vX scenarios in wvw: I have almost the exact same build for pvp and wvw, the mentality that I have when someone wants to approach me solo is: free kill, straight up 1v1s with non of my skills on cooldown or an empty lf bar, I will win 90% of them especially in wvw because I have max gear stats and most people don’t.
It gets trickier with more people because necros are a little lacking in the escape-a-loss-department. So you just have to pick your fights wisely. That being said, I will always solo engage 2 thiefs or warriors.

Now.. I know my build is nothing special, I’ve seen many people run with it and I’ve also seen it in the forum once or twice. But if you want I can post it in a seperat thread, that will take some time though.

Kravick.4906:

I kinda have to agree with nolop on that one. I mean, how many times has it been said on these forums that this class is hard to master? That bike looks like it would be very hard to master, but fun once you figure it out.

Hard to master (which I don’t think it is) doesn’t mean waek or underpowered.

That being said, this class is still far from competitive unless you get a big helping hand from other classes to support you. The other classes in this game don’t need others to hold them up, and are easily capable of standing on their own legs. This is what I believe people have issue with. Necromancer is a support class with no builds capable of supporting itself. The same cannot be said for the other classes, who are easily able to support themselves.

Absolutely untrue.

Is this going to be a PvP build?
Some traits and utilities seem a little random:
Vampiric rituals, a gm trait seems like a waste when you are only going to use well of blood, keep in mind enemies still have to stand in it for the siphoning to work. Also you dont use any combo finishers so you would definitely be better of with consume conditions (especially in pvp), and with its shorter cooldown spiteful vigor could trigger more often.
Dark armor: your only channeling skills are life transfer (ds 4), life siphon (dagger 2) and life leech (downed 1). And last time I checked dark armor didn’t properly work with life leech and also in combination with deadly strenght (or has that been fixed yet?).
Parasitic bond: superb passive trait imo but 5 points in spite only for that would only be worth it in pve, not pvp.
And the 2 signets… meh. Even with traited cooldown the spite signet takes forever to recharge. Signet of the locust does not stack with quickening thirst and I dont think it works with spiteful vigor either, so that utility spot is completely wasted.

Bottom line: what Bas said → check out Khalifa’s D/D build.

lol poor nemesis

I agree that there havn’t been many changes, but a definite resounding “no” to being weak. Necromancers are still one of the strongest :P

Nice video and well played.
I think the people who make the necro sound weak are a minority, but it’s predominantly them who come to the forum with complaints.

Btw: Brace yourself, comments asking for your build are coming.

Empiren.6401:

Staff as a main weapon allows for damage every……4-5 seconds. Thats a lot to put on for just mark of blood.
(in wvw sure, spvp no)

Hmm.. maybe it’s different with wells, I use staff almost exclusively (in pvp, wvw and pve) but in combination with corruption skills. Traited both for reduced cd and I almost never get to fire off a #1 auto attack.

I’d go with another well but the only options after that are vulnerability and conditions to boons. Which is nice, but not better than base movement speed imo.
————

If any I’d take well of suffering, not for the vulnerability but for its pure damage. But yeah, speed buff or not… personal preference.

Empiren.6401:

Rabid amulet + runes of undead = extra toughnes. If I rolled a hybrid(melee) I’d go with carrion and nightmare probably, but otherwise carrion doesn’t help anywhere near as much as rabid for condition users.
-Precision also gives + proc for earth runes, which are essential to a condition build.

Yes, damage output with scepter+sigil of earth is higher with rabid on a condition build. But as you said the staff doesn’t hit as often, so it’s not something I would put a sigil of earth in. Maybe try something with “..on weapon swap”?

Why don’t you use carrion prefixes in wvw as well? In combination with the staff (as main weapon) it makes much more sense than going with any prefix that has precision in it. Plus: it solves your cond dmg vs power delemma because carrion has both.

Finally someone who doesn’t randomly mix 1 well + 1 signet + 1 spectral or 1 curruption skill and then complains that the necro feels so weak. That being said: I’d go with another well instead of lucust signet.
Trait distibution looks very neat. Chilling darkness and focused ritual is definitely the right choice here. Hemophilia works because it’s your only source of extended condition duration, but if it wasn’t I’d also go with either weakening shroud or terror.
With wells and marks cd reduction I’d advise you to use the staff as a main weapon (as in rarely ever switch the weapon set), especially in pvp it’s just a million times better than the scepter.

The only thing that seems a little off to me is the rabid amulett. My guess is that precision does’t help this build as much as other stats could, so I’d go with carrion instead.

nachtnebel.9168:

The damage formula is as follows:
Power * Weapon Strength * Skill Ratio / Armor = Total Damage

Power*Weapon Strength * Skill Ration can be seen as damage done or “Raw Damage” of an attack.
Raw Damage / Armor = Total Damage

The effecitve HP (amount of raw damage a char can take before he dies) is
EHP = Armor * Health
since Total Damage equals the maximum health of our char.
1 point Vitality gives you 10 HP and 1 point Toughness gives you 1 Armor and, since EHP is the product of Armor and Health it is best to keep these two factors as equal as possible.
Example:
10 × 10 = 100
now we increase one factor by 10
20 × 10 = 200
but if we increase both factors by 5
15 × 15 = 225

So, basically this would mean that we should have 10 times much Health as we have Armor. And since the necros bast stats in lvl 80 endgame gear are 1836 Armor and 18372 Health this means we should always have as much toughness as we have vitality.

Well said, but only true for direct damage. Conditions ignore toughness, so maybe a little more vitality than toughness should hit the sweetspot..?

AirWick.1769:

flow.6043:

So it would basically be “spectral armor” on f2. An extra utility, with a lower cooldown than 90 seconds, I assume..? It would probably be OP.
Also I’m siding with Bas on the pigeonhole thing…

@Invulnerability: Skills that grant it are very rare, have long cooldowns and short durations (mostly 3 seconds, untraited). I’m not as worried about this mechanic as you are.

Well let me at least make this clear to this post since he did not quite understand. It would not be a spectral armor silly. It would be a damage mitigation shield. I said 30% damage goes towards your hp and 70% of the rest would go to your lifeforce bar. This means that you would lose hp/life force since your taking damage but, the damage towards your hp would be reduced for as long as you have life force. There is no spectral effect mentioned for this mechanic. I also assumed that people would know your necro would go back to taking 100% damage towards hp when you either turned it off or you ran out of life force. Just to clarify things up.

Also I said I don’t care how you try to put it invulnerable is overpowered for player use. You think this is little to worry about since it has long cd and short duration. Then you don’t know how unbelievable this is against impossible odds without it. Invulnerable finishers how is this in any right mind little to worry about huh? It cannot be stopped by any player. Whether your being hit by a zerg in wvw or a team of 8 or 5 in pvp. It is its own stability so it cannot be interrupted. Bosses maybe a boss hits you for what 60k damage or more there isnt a player out there that can take such a hit lightly. Invulnerable ignores all damage output. Invulnerable has no counter and it is a mechanic that is not necessary for player use. When used right it can be game changing or provide a player unreasonable survivability in situations where you otherwise would not. I am pretty sure there are other skills you could use other then invulnerability but, every player that uses it knows how valuable it is. SO DON’T YOU TELL ME ITS LITTLE TO WORRY ABOUT.

Oh, I misread the 30%-70% part. Still, I know the mechanic in your proposal with life force would work differently, but the similarity to spectral armor is still there: you get protection (=33% less damage) and get lifeforce for incoming damage. The fact that your f2 option would be a lot more powerful than spectral armor as a 6th utility skill just means that it would run an even greater risk of being op. My opinion…

And yes… I do know what invulnerability does, but thx for explaining again. As much as you won’t change your mind about it being op, neither will I that it’s not because it comes at a big trade off, thus not so disquieting to me… even if you write it in all caps.
agree to disagree, i guess?

Jackums.3496:

I’d rather have a few select builds that are actually good than a bunch of sub-par builds. Solo roaming as a Necro in WvW is basically non-viable. Is that variety to you?

Necro mobility, and conditions in general, need to be improved. The only condition that’s really relevant, or comparable to what direct damage can dish out, is confusion. This is as far as WvW is concerned, anyway.

There are good builds for solo roaming.
I do agree that some things need to be improved, but the general outcry for it to some extent derives from players picking those so called sub-par builds in the first place when there are better ones instead.

TheMightyAltroll.3485:

How to make Necromancer relevant:

• Remove internal cooldown on “Barbed Precision”

• Shorten cooldowns on most Utility skills by 10-15%

• Increase damage on most weapon skills by 10-15%

• Allow use of utilities while in Deathshroud. (Think of it as an Engineer kit)

• Give Spectral Armor Stability for 10 seconds.

• Give “Blood is Power” fury and swiftness for 10 seconds.

• Buff Corrosive Poison cloud to do pulsing physical damage as well.

• Give might, fury, and regen for every sacrificed minion.

Boom, Necromancer is now on par with all other classes.

*Boom, Necromancer is now more OP than all other classes combined.

I can’t say much about minions in general since I only use the golem.
Actually I just want to commend you real quick because It’s nice to see that there are a few people left who defend this class and don’t – as you say – “refuse to come to the forums simply because they don’t wish to waste anymore time trying to explain this and getting flamed”. I’ve seen you take a lot of heat in other threads of the forum xD

As to the experience I had with my only minion ever, the golem: Yeah, he is weird sometimes, but I don’t care… I play all content the game has to offer and in every mode I choose the golem over lich or plague. As I said, not using minions in general, but the golem still fits better into my pvp, wvw and pve build than any other elite. Once you know how he reacts to certain situations and what to expect from him, he’s fine.
And btw: I’m also one of the people who thinks that necro is borderline op with the right build.

So it would basically be “spectral armor” on f2. An extra utility, with a lower cooldown than 90 seconds, I assume..? It would probably be OP.
Also I’m siding with Bas on the pigeonhole thing…

@Invulnerability: Skills that grant it are very rare, have long cooldowns and short durations (mostly 3 seconds, untraited). I’m not as worried about this mechanic as you are.

In PvP resetting traits is completely free. In PvE (and WvW) it cost 5 copper (ingame currency) per point, so 3,5 silver at lvl80… which means it’s practically free as well.
So no need to worry about getting everything right from the start.

flow.6043:

However, if you stand on land in range of an underwater target the skill will work, only without the bird-animation.

Actually scratch that, I tried a barracuda and the animation was just hard to see through the surface. The birds do appear under water xD

Lich form still doesn’t trigger it though. Anyone else? Am I the only necro using 6 mad king runes?

Just made another observation:
I tried different elite skills to test the rune. In addition to the golem, I can confirm 3 targets max for plague, charrzooka and warband support.
Lich: zero targets! Tried it twice without success. Can anyone confirm if this is bugged?

Thx for the input.
I think “untargeted” was implied by my original post, being able to hit invisible targets is good to know though. Allthough it kinda makes sense since life transfer works the same way.
I also mentioned that the players power and precision is taken into account, therefore barbed precision workes with it of course. Btw hunter’s call says “damage (x16): 576” =lots of chances to crit.

Not every AoE affects up to 5 tagets. Most sword melee attacks can only hit 3 targets at once, as well as some piercing or bouncing projectiles (trick shot, chain lightning, siren’s call…).
As to the rune: I definitely with a 100% certainty – no typos or observational mistakes made – can only hit 3 targets with this. Are you sure that yours hits 5?? Is mine bugged? :/

Another observation I’ve made:
Wikipedia at some point stated as a bug that this skill doesn’t work under water, which is still true. The bug note is not there anymore, to not have birds suddenly appear under water seems logical afterall…
However, if you stand on land in range of an underwater target the skill will work, only without the bird-animation. So… it seems that either one of those scenarios is unwanted and therefore a bug.

One more thing worth mentioning, that didn’t seem apparent to me as a non-ranger:

Once the ravens (disguised as hawks) have started attacking, the attack sequence will not stop even if the target moves outside the 900 range.

PlagueParade.7942:

okay you say carrion for the staff what about for armor/jewels/? I’ve seen 2 sets that seem viable. Pwr/prec/cond/ and prec/tough/cond. We are able to use axes and daggers, so I take it there’s a viable crit type of build. Would I work with just berserker armor for this or should I add cavalier jewelry in the mix for added toughness?

I’ll be pretty much testing out these things while leveling first.
Thanks for all the guidance so far everyone.

Yes, there are crit builds. But before you go there, you should think about one thing first: Is the staff going to be your main weapon or just a secondary as a support.
With staff-only-builds you want to avoid precision as much as possible, hence cond/power/vit… on your entire gear! (or soldiers, but that’s harder to get by at earlier lvls)
Why? Because you don’t use the staff for its direct damage or to get some “on critical”-effects. Having a dagger or axe as main on the other hand makes a Pwr/prec/cond/ and prec/tough/cond more viable.

So, my advice: check out all weapons first, pick the combo that you like, then decide on gear stats accordingly.

This is about the 6th bonus:
(6): Summon ravens to attack nearby enemies when you activate an elite skill. (Cooldown: 45s)

I was wondering if having six mad king runes was worth it, since I allready had 4 and wasn’t quite satisfied with the remaining 2 armor slots. Also I use flesh golem most of the time, so the cooldown of the rune roughly covers the golem cooldowns (1min summon, 40sec charge).
I coudn’t find any specific details on it though (also there is no pvp-mad king rune wo test it), so I bought 2 more, did some testing myself and want to share some infos now:

- the animation is the same as the ranger’s Hunter’s Call.
(I don’t play ranger, so maybe all I’m saying here is very obvious to those who do. However, as to the mad king rune I could also not get any wiser by researching the hunter’s call skill…)

- it attacks up to 3 targets in a 900 radius range

- the birds also attack non-aggresive mobs and structures, even if you are out of combat.

- selected are the 3 closest targets to you at the moment you activate the elite skill.

- although the birds are doing several consecutive hits (like ghastly claws), mobs that were out of the 900 range at first won’t take damage if you move closer to them during the spell is cast. So the 3 targets are selected only once, no additions or changes made after that.

- the damage: I have ~2k power and ~25% crit chance. With that, normal lvl80 mobs will take about 1,5k damage on average. (in comparison: my ghastly claws does about 3k damage, untraited)

I guess that’s about it.
In case anyone is wondering… I’m satisfied with the result and I’ll keep this rune setup on my necro.

Dredlord.8076:

flow.6043:

But in 1 vs 1-3 encounters… the necro is as good as any other class.

not even close on 1v3, it is infinitely easier to 1v3 on ele, mesmer and thief.

1v1 the necro can hang with any class but it gets far more difficult to win compared to those classes when the number of opponents goes up.

By “1-3” I was referring to your average wvw players, who aren’t always maxed gear-wise.
But yeah, I totally know what you mean. Allthough, it’s not necessarily the difficulty to win per se, as in overpowering multiple enemies, much rather the lack of stealthing or lightning-zap away to restart a fight. A survivability issue, if you will. Those crazy videos by daphoenix (ele) where he fights a million invaders for 10 minutes without dying… definitely impossible as a necromancer. As a necro you are in it to win it, no backing out once the gloves are off…

Understood… well, in preparation to mastering any class, it’s safe to say that early lvls are very different from what you will be doing once you reach lvl80, and can therefore be skipped.
Assuming this isn’t your first character and you have some gold and mats banked up, I’d advise you to start with maxing crafting professions. They will advance you about 14 lvls each. check out gw2crafts.net. cooking and jeweler will only set you back very little gold, then I’d replace cooking with either artificer (for staffs and because it’s also a cheap one) or tailor for your armor… or both.
If you have the funds to do 3 professions at once, you can start getting to know the class from lvl45 and up, which is the more exciting part anyway

Equipment: While you lvl up you should buy new stuff on the trading post as often as possible. Because especially at lower lvls equipment is sold for just 1 copper above vendor price, so you’ll be able to switch gear with minimal financial loss.
A safe stat prefix when using the staff is carrion/chrysocola (cond dmg as main trait, power/vit minor)

Skills: I assume you will be gaining further exp through exploring map etc. That means many enemies at once, which is why aoe is key. Greater marks is available as an adept trait, and probable the first one I would buy at an early lvl. Make youself familiar with marks, how to place and time them. Use death shroud as much as possible.
For your utilities, maybe start by picking just one type (at some point I’d check out each and everyone of course), as in: check out all the corruption skills, or all wells… reduced cooldowns for each type of utility are available as master traits.
This should be a good way to get to know the class until you reach lvl80, I think…
and instead of then going after a build that is allready in the forum, maybe you’ll have one figured out by yourself allready

Engels.8537:

Copying a build from a great player as nemesis does not allow you to rant about other players, plus there’s no best build, the best one is the more suitable to your own playstyle,

I’m talking from my own experiencie, it worked absolutly great, rabid on my necro was the best setup that I tried, i’m not saying that is the best, but is not bad either,

Regards,

Not ranting on anyone.
Also, I didn’t copy anyones build. Nemesis’ build is not the one I’m running with. I just pointed out his build to show that power+cond dmg are a viable combo. To be fair, nemesis is also targeting the 50% crit chance with precision, so maybe that wasn’t the best example…

Engels.8537:

I beg your pardon sir, but how much time have you spent on Spvp?

Oh boy…

Necros excel at manipulating conditions, unfortunately we apply conditions too slow, that’s the reason we need precision to apply more bleeding, that’s why more precision = more condition damage,

Concerning about power and condition damage, that’s my opinion, i really doubt you have invested half of the time i did on Spvp, but i won’t discuss about this, I tried it and it was ineffective, maybe it works for somebody else,

Roaming alone with a necro is safe?

What i’m doing wrong, sir? (besides wasting time answering you",

My best advice to you is to read more and write less, at least be more humble and kind,

Ok, first of all sorry, I didn’t mean to offend.
I have certainly spent enough time in pvp and wvw to know that being safe is not a matter of which class you pick.
Building up bleed stacks through critical hits is just part of the build you are using. Other builds might not rely on precision at all and still be equally viable.

As to the roming-alone: If a zerg stampedes over you it doesn’t matter wich class you are. But in 1 vs 1-3 encounters… the necro is as good as any other class.

Is this about leveling up as fast as possible or is it rather a “the journey is the reward”-type situation?

Engels.8537:

If you want a condition necro go full rabid, condition damage DOES NOT scale in a linear way as most people think, it scale with precision due barbed precision and sigil of earth,

0.05 * Condition Damage + 0.5 * Level + 2.5 per stack per second
How much more linear can it get??
You are mistaking inflicting bleeds for condition damage.

Engels.8537:

Power and condition damage should not be mixed, but that’s my opinion,

lol wot? In my opinion, your opinion is wrong :P
Also, one of the most popular builds – and as nemesis in his tutorials clearly shows, the one with the highest dps – is the hybrid… power + cond dmg, by definition…

Engels.8537:

Aside from that i love to roam with my necro, but it’s not safe at all,

You are doing it wrong.

Engels.8537:

And weapon setup for a condition necro is Staff // Scepter – Dagger,

Rok didn’t ask for a conditions build, he asked for a hybrid with Scepter/Dagger & Dagger/Focus.
One thing I agree with Engels though: I urge you to consider a staff… because especially in 1v1 situations it takes the crown.

Fear is a condition. But it is also a control effect… like daze, knockdown, stun etc. which all temporarily disable all skills. Consume condition is a skill, therefore you can’t use it to absorb fear.
But since fear is a condition and a control effect, it can be cleared by both condition removal as well as stun breaks, if cast by an ally.