Guild Wars 2

Power/Well Necro – partner with Heavy CC build: Guardian, Ele, Engi, Warrior
Condi/Epi Necro – partner with other condi builds: Ranger, Thief, Ele, Engi
Hybrid Necro – partner with Staff Mesmer (use Lich Form inside of Time Warp and enjoy the lolOP good times)

if they were smart about it (a big if, I know), they’d simply augment the Focused Rituals trait to include a slight dmg reduction to balance out the fact that it can be cast from range.

I don’t really see them changing marks at all. There’s nothing devastating about the staff. Useful, yes. Devastating, no.

What would be the point of having either? Healing Power will only benefit Well of Blood for your team and even then not by much (the scaling with regen is minuscule to say the least and hardly worth mentioning). The best returns are found through combo water fields for additional aoe heals – which is something we lack. We also lack any kind of consistent boon generation and a proper means of sharing it with our team mates. As things stand, Necro’s only offer a fraction of the healing support that Guardians, Ele’s, and Engis offer.

There are painfully few reasons to put points into either of those trees, sadly.

Signet of Spite – worthless power increase, single stack of conditions is lackluster.

Plague Signet – blows my mind that it’s been left in this state. Copying conditions rather than pulling them off your teammates and onto yourself means you’re only hurting yourself by slotting it. Literally.

Spectral Armor – needs to have Stability added to the effect to make the skill even remotely worth considering for such a lengthy CD

Spectral Wall – ummm what kind of “wall” allows people to shoot straight through it without any negative side effects? it’s a “wall”, it should reflect projectiles.

other than that our utilities are fairly solid and have useful applications in at least one of the game modes (PvE, WvW, PvP)

Khyras.8021:

[The]real problem which is that GW 2 pvp team tried to reinvent wheel and it did not work.

I don’t feel that’s entirely true. They’ve developed a PvP combat system that is 2nd to none. Where they’ve failed so far was developing a complete game around it. Hence, why people get bored and leave.

As far as Custom Arenas go, let’s be honest. The only motivation for ANet to add this feature is $$$$. No “if’s”, “ands”, or “buts” about it. The only players whose needs this addresses are the current players. Not new players. Not old players who’ve left. It’s simply a means of making more money off of who’s playing ‘right now’.

Could this lead to more investment in PvP? Possibly. Very slowly. Far more slowly than if the finished the initial product, creating something that actually attracts players rather than repels them. I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see whether or not it pays off for the players. Confucious say: time answers all questions.

Rika.7249:

hackks.3687:

Rika.7249:

Khyras.8021:

I think so. It will be good for dueling and things like that ofc, but it will split not so big pvp community even further and spvp and tournaments matcheswill become even more scarce than they already are.They would be better off just adding any time/any place dueling and more pvp mods as well as deserter debuff to make pvp more fun and interesting, along with fixing bugs, to create influx of new players interested in pvp.Furthermore i dont remember many people asking for this feature at all,yet devs talk like custom arenas are what players asked for and need most at this time, and are some kind of priority? Puzzled.

This feature is basically everything we’ve ever needed.

Anet has compared their PvP system to a shooter when it was in development, having server lists and changeable rules and such.

It’s what drives games like TF2 and CS:S. It will work wonders for GW2.
I’m puzzled as to how you can even consider calling this must-have “a mistake.”

I literally cannot understand what argument you’ve had in your head, that concluded that custom arenas are a mistake. Like, what? Tons of servers with rulechanges, amazing for practice and dawdling, good for fun competition. Once you’ve been practicing, you could hotjoin. Or you could do both.

How do any of those things:
- make PvP as a separate part of GW2 feel like a complete aspect of the game?
- entice new players to come to PvP?
- bring more teams to paid tourneys?
- attract any kind of attention whatsoever to players other than those who already spend the bulk of their time in PvP?

I’m not insinuating that custom arenas won’t be a nice “feature”, but they won’t be anything more than that at this stage of the game. PvP is simply not a complete facet of the game, and needs to be adjusted to to create growth from the bottom up, rather than catering to all these esport demands. ANet seems to have blinders on about this game becoming an e-sport and mostly to the detriment of the game as a whole. It won’t matter if there’s custom arenas, spectator mode, ladder rankings, etc., if there’s no one around to care by the time it’s implemented and flushed out – which is essentially the road they’ve put this game on.

So you’re saying that custom arenas will not encourage teams to play together, as well as potentially create new teams?

I fail to see what Anet can do to bring in more players. The players have to come by themselves. Having actual features will bring them in. A custom arena is a very crucial and essential feature.

Having a ladder and a spectating client will work wonders as well.

Having some sort of finished progression would be help keeping players around as well.

Currently, SPvP is just a huge unfinished mess. Having essentials like these above is.. Well, essential. What else would you rather have them spend their time on?

That’s pretty much the three things that comes to mind. Besides other gamemodes, but that’s sort of tied into Custom Arenas anyway.

No, I definitely think custom arenas will encourage ‘some teams’ to play together. My fear is that the result will be that it will further detract from the paid que population, as well as further disrupt the already lacking progression in PvP.

Like you said though, “sPvP is just a huge unfinished mess”. That needs to be addressed if there’s ever going to be any attraction for new players to join and stay in the HotM. Currently all they get is a barren lobby (HotM), a free-for-all thinly disguised as a conquest game (hotjoins), pugs fighting premades and vice-versa (free tourneys), while paids are simply not an option given the ticket requirement and not even available for spectating.

That’s supposed to entice someone to play PvP with any kind of consistency? And where do custom arenas fit into that? Haphazardly, it would seem, since it offers no new level of skill or competitive progression except for those already dedicated to PvP (which is not a large number of people).

The features you list are important, no doubt, but I just don’t think they’ll make any difference to creating a buzz around the game so long as the core of the PvP game remains “an unfinished mess”.

if it’s not a stun break, it shoudn’t be doing anything while stunned. I’d argue that it should’ve move them when immobilized either. If they happen to get caught with it and don’t have stun breaks or cleanse available, that’s their bad. Play better. Every other class has to.

Rika.7249:

Khyras.8021:

I think so. It will be good for dueling and things like that ofc, but it will split not so big pvp community even further and spvp and tournaments matcheswill become even more scarce than they already are.They would be better off just adding any time/any place dueling and more pvp mods as well as deserter debuff to make pvp more fun and interesting, along with fixing bugs, to create influx of new players interested in pvp.Furthermore i dont remember many people asking for this feature at all,yet devs talk like custom arenas are what players asked for and need most at this time, and are some kind of priority? Puzzled.

This feature is basically everything we’ve ever needed.

Anet has compared their PvP system to a shooter when it was in development, having server lists and changeable rules and such.

It’s what drives games like TF2 and CS:S. It will work wonders for GW2.
I’m puzzled as to how you can even consider calling this must-have “a mistake.”

I literally cannot understand what argument you’ve had in your head, that concluded that custom arenas are a mistake. Like, what? Tons of servers with rulechanges, amazing for practice and dawdling, good for fun competition. Once you’ve been practicing, you could hotjoin. Or you could do both.

How do any of those things:
- make PvP as a separate part of GW2 feel like a complete aspect of the game?
- entice new players to come to PvP?
- bring more teams to paid tourneys?
- attract any kind of attention whatsoever to players other than those who already spend the bulk of their time in PvP?

I’m not insinuating that custom arenas won’t be a nice “feature”, but they won’t be anything more than that at this stage of the game. PvP is simply not a complete facet of the game, and needs to be adjusted to to create growth from the bottom up, rather than catering to all these esport demands. ANet seems to have blinders on about this game becoming an e-sport and mostly to the detriment of the game as a whole. It won’t matter if there’s custom arenas, spectator mode, ladder rankings, etc., if there’s no one around to care by the time it’s implemented and flushed out – which is essentially the road they’ve put this game on.

I’m curious why people feel their faith in ANet is restored after watching the recent twitch streams. I tuned in to watch, saw three dudes that looked like they just got out of bed on a saturday going on and on about the same old stuff they’ve been saying for months, and then promptly turned it off again. So what did I miss?

I couldn’t care less about custom arenas. there are so many other things that are needed to simply make the PvP aspect of the game enjoyable, and, by extension, grow the community. custom arenas in the current state is just renting out private rooms for some cheap champagne and a toothless hooker named peggy i.e. fun for a little while but nothing to write home about.

matchmaking is a mistake IMO and merely a bandaid for poorly designed infrastructure. Nor is it something the current player base can easily accommodate due to the dwindling numbers unless implemented very carefully (which in itself is a waste of time and energy as it’s effectively doing things the hard way). If anything the first priority should be to separate solo and group ques to ensure that everyone is facing competition of the same kind. the numbers we have currently can support this single division but not much beyond it.

Next, the Glory/Rank rewards for hotjoins need to be cut in half or better – it’s a place to learn or fool around, not a place to farm the inexperienced. There also needs to be a reason to leave hotjoins and take a shot at greater rewards. Copper chests don’t cut it. This would also introduce these players into the actual intended game format and strategies – something that does not happen in hotjoins. This would eventually create a larger mid level talent pool that could then find their way into groups and then higher tiers of game play. A player base that has been substantially depleted.

As well, standard paids need to have their ticket fee reduced substantially. There’s nothing special enough about these to keep the costs so high. Weekly and Monthly tourneys should be the only paid tournaments with any kind of substantive entry fee.

Lastly, the ranked ladder system is a must. This isn’t just for matchups but to give the people at the top or aspiring for it a reason to keep competing against other ranked opponents rather than killing time wiping the floor with newbs in hotjoins waiting for the next paid tourney to pop.

Tl;DR – It’s not about dividing everyone up into their own little brackets. It’s about creating a natural progression to move everyone in the same direction in a fun and competitive environment.

but hey, what do I know…

Oni.5429:

I must be doing something terribly wrong in my gameplay.

Apparently, there is a way to avoid trebuche shots, thief clusters, mesmer shatters while also being able to dodge/block wells on clocktower.

I have absolutely no clue how I’ve been winning games vs all the top teams when I can’t do this, could anyone make a video showing how?

I must also be playing a completely different game than you guys because from what I can tell 9/10 teams run a necromancer despite them apparently being in a terrible spot.

I wasn’t aware necros had wells that summon shortbow thieves, shatter mesmers, and seige weapons… clearly necros need a nerf

nerva.7940:

oh ok only bads on point cant dodge the 10 AOE abilities that a scepter/dagger/staff/well spamming necro has at his disposal. maybe because theyre on point? and the aoe covers the entire circle? and it’s spammable? >.<

outside of the AA, there is nothing “spammable” about staff skills or wells. all of them besides staff #2 (5 sec CD) have CDs of 20 sec or longer.

don’t stand in the well?

if you can’t leave the point then save your channeled block for the well? it only lasts 5 sec, you should be able to negate most if not all of it.

I don’t see much of anything wrong with Necro wells. I’m not a huge fan of that particularly tactic though. standing above everyone and spamming is boring and cheap (necro’s were not the first ones to invent this either and nerfing them just means someone else will be standing up there) I don’t see why the balcony (or whatever you want to call it) needs to be there. Why not just have it blow up the same time the wall is destroyed by the treb?

I don’t see how the “Juggermancer” could be “FINAL” without screenshots of giant norn women.

/underwhelmed

pretty sure Staff wouldn’t get touched since it’s not a conventional ranged weapon. Marks don’t hit hard except for Putrid Mark and is fashioned more for controlling geography around the necro as opposed to straight forward ranged dmg.

The wells on the other hand, specifically WoS, could take a slight a nerf (cd increase or dmg reduction), as well as epidemic (CD increase, limits on condition transfer, or max target reduction).

Honestly though, this is all speculation. There’s no possible way to know their intentions for the class since we haven’t seen a red post since “about a month ago”.

Helpful Hints:
- Always mark the real mesmer ASAP (ctl+T)
- Mesmers have probably the least amount of condition removal in the game. condi’s eat them up. Null Field (one of the big dome fields) is there only full condi clear.
- Great Sword hits harder the farther you are from the mesmer
- Expect Daze, Stun, Immobilize, and 2x Shatters right off the bat
- They typically only carry one or two stun breaks that are easy to spot: Decoy will turn them invis and drop the target symbol, Mirror Images will generate 2 clones right at the spot of the cast. When those are gone your window of opportunity has opened.
- Don’t stand in the Chaos Storm, Time Warp, Null Field, Feedback, etc.

After that it’s just down to skill levels and luck. Mesmers are by far the best 1v1 class in the game currently. No class is currently hard countering them so don’t take it personal if you have a hard time against them. Luckily this is a team game, so your best bet is to call your buddy and make it a 2v1.

nice vid. some creative use of the Flesh Wurm teleport in there. that poor thing could definitely use a range increase though – enough to at least get you from mid point to a side point. opposition didn’t really work you too hard though. got any more vids where the competition was a bit stiffer?

Don’t forget to Epi Dagger 3!

didn’t we do this thread already?

c’mon Necros, let’s step it up! look what kind of fun they’re havin in the engi forums!!!

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/Famous-Quotes-for-the-Engineer/first#post1165711

got curious and decided to check every profession board for the most recent red post and it would appear that ANet hasn’t on any of the professions boards in “about a month (ago)”

Perhaps they’re being busy little bees and workin on something big? Hmmmmm? HmmmmmmmmMMMMMMMM???

… since the last red post graced this board. ANet, where you at !?!?!

I miss you </3

the only +dmg modifier that 25 stacks of might won’t outpace consistently in a power build is the +20% dmg from GM in Spite and there could even be an argument that the +condition dmg is pushing the might stacks ahead of it – though why not just have both?

the frequency of having 10 or more conditions on an opponent is far too infrequent without a long deliberate set up and even then the duration of those conditions won’t provide a lengthy window to take advantage of it, specially when the opposition knows to save aoe condition clears for moments such as those.

Might pumps up both direct and condition dmg. as a necro there’s no escaping applying conditions (even in a power build) and in a team the staff is virtually a requirement, which does both condition dmg and direct dmg and thus both gaining a benefit from the might stacks. with 25 stacks of might you can easily push condition dmg from 200 to over 1k. so that’s nearly a 4k attack with nearly 50% crit before Fury, and 1k condition dmg – aka an kitten whoopin waiting to happen. If you run the numbers might stacking will quickly outpace any other form of +dmg.

The Curses tree offers nothing to direct dmg in terms of traits. best you can get is some utility (ground targeted wells, spectral attunement, warhorn range/cd’s). other than that the only benefit a power build receives from curses is the +Precision from the trait line.

Any Sigil with an ICD seems to share CDs. I personally opt for 2x Sigil of Battle + Sigil of Minor Corruption or Sigil of Minor Accuracy based on which amulet I’m using.

jportell.2197:

Because once people start thinking tactically and countering timewarp then people will also stop using timewarp and diversity will come as a result of player decisions… Also by waiting for the game developers to give us DIVERSITY really shows a lack of adaptability… There is a saying Improvise, Adapt, Overcome…. It is applicable here people just have a sense of entitlement because they lost when the feel they shouldn’t have…

… this is hilariously hypocritical.

you’re essentially telling everyone else to L2P so you don’t have to. Everyone else needs to think creatively about THEIR tactics, THEIR ability to counter, THEIR ability to adapt, THEIR ability to diversify. All so you don’t have to figure out how to carry on with a toned down version of TW.

Hilarious.

jportell.2197:

And WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY STATUS QUO? the game is barely six months old… I am by no means bored with it at all.

Today’s lesson for the publicly educated courtesy of Google and Merriam-Webster:

sta·tus quo
/?st?t?s ?kw?/
Noun
The existing state of affairs, esp. regarding social or political issues: “they have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo”.

Status Quo, as we can see here, does not require a particular duration or passage of time. it merely refers to a current or existing state – as we can see from the first 3 words of the definition.

Additionally, the status quo, in regards to GW2 PvP, would include more than just yourself. For instance, it would include all the people who no longer bother with PvP, or GW2 in general, because it is a small game mode consisting of 2 formats (hotjoins and tournaments) and 4 maps with clear player/class favoritism/tendencies that cumulatively redefine the word “repetitive”. So while you might not be bored, the population (or lack there of) within the HotM would beg to differ.

Question: What if I just don’t like Mesmers? What if I think they’re aesthetically unpleasant and just want nothing to do with them? Does that mean I should be punished because no other class can move my entire team across the map or give me 10 sec of haste with zero drawbacks while every other team uses these to their obvious advantage?

Or to put it in the realm of the eSports aspirations, as a casual observer, why would I watch more than a couple matches when everyone is playing the same comp, with the same tactics, and the same skills? And if everyone is doing the same thing, is there any actual skill involved in that or is it merely GW2’s version of painting by numbers? In short, why should I stay interested?

In truth, these “Don’t Nerf TW” posts are effectively arguing for keeping the status quo. But when I look around in PvP the status quo doesn’t particularly look so good – particularly when measured against the game’s aspirations. So how about we let the “countering TW” argument go, because this isn’t about countering TW. It’s about adding diversity to this already extremely limited and stale game. ANet themselves have already stated that more diversity is a goal so it stands to reason that a change is gonna come. Why prop one’s self up against change? Specially when change is much needed.

2c

So when do we get to see “Best 5 Engis in Africa” vs “kittentheRules”?

Khalifahaze.6045:

hackks.3687:

use might stacking to pump up condition dmg and terror can be a killer. My build starts with 175 condition dmg but gets up over 1k with 20+ stacks of might and a fully charged sigil of minor corruption. Fairly common for me to get 2x terror ticks around 1k and unmitigated due to it being a condition >:)

Balancing condi dmg and duration to make a fear damage build viable is just not a smart option for a necro using a build like mine. Fear can do some crazy numbers it’s just not in the cards for me atm.

nah, I definitely wouldn’t build around fears and terror but given our inherent ability to shell out conditions, even in a power build, and combined with uber might stacking those terror ticks can hit for a lot. For only 10 pts in Curses it gives me the most bang for my buck with my power build. I have to augment the build a bit to get consistent dbl ticks, which isn’t quite worth it, but on some occasions it seems to tick twice for some reason even without the requisite duration increases. typical build for me is 30/10/10/0/20 with Staff + Dagger/Focus.

use might stacking to pump up condition dmg and terror can be a killer. My build starts with 175 condition dmg but gets up over 1k with 20+ stacks of might and a fully charged sigil of minor corruption. Fairly common for me to get 2x terror ticks around 1k and unmitigated due to it being a condition >:)

Me: Necromancer
Most: Anything specced for chain CC
Least: Anything not specced for chain CC

DS is strong as hell… for power builds… and when you have LF. It’s true the start of the fight is when we are weakest but we can build to accrue LF reasonably quick in group fights. 1v1 is harder though.

That being said though I really feel like LF should accrue and expend at pace more consistent with the games combat i.e. much much faster.

Someone posted an idea recently of having the DS skills change based on the weapon choice. I thought that idea was spot on.

Dredlord.8076:

hackks.3687:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

A 66% reduction is a 2/3 reduction. That means it is recharging 1/3 as fast as normal (1-2/3=1/3). I don’t have a clue where you got reciprocals into it and auto-attacks don’t have a recharge to be slowed down. If you’re going by auto-attack rate, no wonder you’re confused.

a 66% INCREASE in cool down duration.

yer lookin at it the wrong way homey. it’s 1+ 2/3 not 1 – 2/3

awe dood you let him escape

we are supposed to be an attrition class

I know I know, but I felt like if I didn’t point it out I was gonna be a hypocrite. normally I’m ok with that actually, but I picked up some good drugs yesterday and they’re doing funny things to me. <3<3<3<3<3 (see what I mean)

Khalifahaze.6045:

Necro is a very interesting class because almost all of our attacks not only do base damage (which in a power crit build hit very hard), but almost all of them can stack condi’s. I feel necro is very strong in putting heavy pressure on the enemy team. In this current build my condis tick for around 80 so I mean its not all that much lower than a full condi build. Those condi’s on top of all the burst damage can really hit the enemy team hard. I feel this is the necro’s place, moderate to heavy damage but always heavy pressure depending on how you build your character.

I feel we are very weak in the mobility field, but anet has already stated that is their philosophy on the necro, to not be a mobile class.

Our survivability is a little low (unless your some style of bunker necro), but this is a team game a that’s where your team comes into play (ele especially can be amazing).

What I would like to see (minion ai is obvious) is a fix to life siphon. I feel that if life siphon were to scale with healing power a build like mine would become even more viable. This fix would give us the survivability that we desire. We can only hope at this point.

Besides that I feel that necros are really in a good spot, pretty balanced imo. Just bug fixes etc now.

I would argue the whole blood magic tree needs looking at in terms of scaling. it’s obvious the bulk of our staying power is supposed to be derived from the vampiric and syphon traits. not so ironically though they reside in our Vitality tree and given our already exorbitant HP pool it’s not surprising the heals are so pathetic. Sooner or later ANet is going have to deal with the Necro HP pool. Who knows how long they’ll hold out though.

Agreed on the rest. Though I still want 8s of stability on Spectral Armor and some reductions on a few cast times.

Oldbugga.7029:

As I have said many times before, metadata lists of abilities are not viable builds and when you examine the ability numbers/duration/cooldowns and try and match them with weapon skills and traits you will see why there are only a very limited number of builds that are barely viable given the current state of bugs and trait synergies.

I have actually pleaded with the devs for an example of how to build a necro that matches their vision of the profession…I do not believe it possible with the current trait structures and abilities and no-one has showed one that can do what the devs say a necro is supposed to be. All we get trotted out relentlessly is a list of possible abilities which in themselves look good until you try and make a build with them…then the bugs/numbers/cooldowns/exclusions/trait structures quickly demolish that vision…still doesn’t stop them being repeated ad nauseum by the cheer squad..

To those who just want to cheer lead “the necro is OK” then that is your prerogative but I do not want to remain shoehorned into really limited playstyles just to be competitive when this profession offers so much potential that is held back (maybe deliberately).

I am not normally a whiner and if you perceive my comments as such then you need some lessons in comprehension. As a passionate player of the necro in my own limited way, I only want the best for the profession and the game at large. Comments like Hackks ones above do nothing to progress the multitude of issues with the necro and the devs just turn away from such juvenile bickering and chest thumping leaving valid issues unaddressed.

lol give me a kittening break. no one’s saying “necro is OK” – well no one with half a brain anyways. Regardless, you can’t honestly think irrational whine posts like this are “progressing the multitude” of fixes coming the Necro’s way.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

A 66% reduction is a 2/3 reduction. That means it is recharging 1/3 as fast as normal (1-2/3=1/3). I don’t have a clue where you got reciprocals into it and auto-attacks don’t have a recharge to be slowed down. If you’re going by auto-attack rate, no wonder you’re confused.

a 66% INCREASE in cool down duration.

yer lookin at it the wrong way homey. it’s 1+ 2/3 not 1 – 2/3

Khalifahaze.6045:

Insane burst damage (lich form, daggers with haste) will make boons not that big of a deal. We run a super heavy burst comp. People underestimate the damage a power necro puts out. It is on par with warrior/thief etc it’s all how you build your character.

that was sort of my guess. specially after you mention Lich + TW. To that effect though don’t you think you could get more out of using the Focus for the extra vuln stacking and LF gain? I used be a dagger/dagger necro till I got used to using the Focus, now I don’t think I can go back.

I’m curious how your group handles boon stripping. most people are inclined to think the two biggest reasons to bring a necro are for the boon stripping and uber condi spam. Neither of which are abundantly present in your build. Lich form will give you a full aoe boon strip but that’s a long CD between strips – not that boons will do much to save people from a Lich standing in a TW :P

In regards to this whole notion of “only condi builds are viable in tPvP” I’ll just say this: Builds don’t make good players. Good players make good builds. And then they beat the kitten out of people with them.

SAtaarcoeny.8476:

… my son…

Omg he procreated! This must be stopped!!!

While someone draws up the ‘Sterilize Sata’ proposal I’ll start the betting on how many baby mommas he’s up to. Let’s start the pool at 4 Baby Mommas and I’ll throw down $20 on it.

pretty sure the argument was in regards to the fact that the strength of the skill makes the mesmer a requirement in competitive teams. not so much about dying to or countering it.

on a positive note, I hear public eduction might get some better funding so all you forum lurkers with the poor reading and comprehension skills will be getting a buff. gratz!

Hammerheart.1426:

Do we really want spectators watching players while they trash talk each other?

tbh, emphatically ‘Yes’!

There’s some funny mother kitteners out there, yo!

I wonder if people know what “trash talk” actually means and what it is intended for.

If I type in google search “trash talk definition”, I get this:

Noun
Insulting or boastful speech intended to demoralize, intimidate, or humiliate someone.
Verb
Use insulting or boastful speech for such a purpose.

So, no, Socrates was not a trash talker. Arguing a point is not trash talking either UNLESS the argument includes “insulting or boastful speech to demoralize, intimidate, or humiliate someone”, at which point Socrates will just kitten slap you…

just thought I’d clear that up. /continue

alright, I’m bored at work so lets talk PvP builds.

For starters, as much as I want to use the axe it just won’t add as much group utility to a build as the staff. So I’d say the staff is a must for now. As well, considering the group environment, you might also want to take a look at the focus for off hand which provides the regen, LF, and vuln from focus 4, in addition to the boon removal on Focus 5 – boon removal being one of the key reasons to bring a necro in a pvp group. Both axe and dagger are complemented nicely by the focus. Warhorn is an exceptionally useful weapon for 1v1’s and soloing, however, it doesn’t add much to a group.

Utilities: BiP just seems like a must for me these days. Might and vuln stacking are popular in PvP these days and Necros can probably stack both the easiest and fastest. Given Necro’s inherent propensity for shelling out conditions no matter the build, might stacking works two fold for us pumping up both direct and condition dmg.

Spectral Armor, as much as I want it to be worth it, is sadly not. It provides zero stability, and has a long 90 sec CD. However, you can trait for it to proc automatically at 50% health. Which is VERY worth it IMO. So with traiting for the 50% proc we can then add some much needed mobility by using Spectral Walk which can give you 2x stun breaks in a single (and shorter) CD, as well as provide the same LF generation as Spectral Armor, in addition to the swiftness and teleport. If you have a group looking out for you though you can forgo all stun breaks and focus on just shelling out more dmg with an extra well, epidemic, corrupt boon, or res signet.

Elites: all have a place. I prefer ’ol Fleshy for the add dmg and CC not to mention the fact that pets can really screw with peoples targeting in this game. Lich form inside a timewarp can level entire teams. Plague form can slow a teams dmg output considerably with blind spam. All have their weakness as well, but those you can find listed anywhere within the copious QQ threads.

Given your descriptions for each build though I’d say ‘why not have them all in one’? This is the build I currently use and haven’t found much of anything better for my play style, most of which accommodates attributes you describe in your 3 builds.

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=;0_-3c;0kHkH0m33K-K0;9;4T99-J45B5;01;329-S-V8S;1H7l1AoF28ZH

With this build I easily stack and maintain 15-25 stacks of might and they last for a LONG time with the 60% might duration and 10% boon duration. Combined with a fully stacked sigil of minor corruption (250 condition dmg) my condi dmg goes from 175 to over 1k. When everything is fully stacked bleeds will tick for 1xx, terror will hit 2x for ~1k, without even including the stacks of vuln and hard hitting direct dmg. There’s quite a bit of LF generation within the build as well allowing me to use DS not only as a primary defensive mechanism but also to keep applying pressure through LB (stacking might), Dark Path + Doom (terror ticks), and the #4 chain. I swap amulet/jewel from time to time based on the opposition for game plan, but by and large I stick with the knight amulet these days.

Anyway, maybe give it a try and see how it works for you or even just steal some ideas if you’d like. I primarily just do tourneys but in between pops I take this build into sPvP as well and have no problems running around solo with it. I’m also not into the 30/30/10 build that is so popular in the meta currently. I’m rank 40 btw with 2k+ matches and 60% of those are on my necro – if that gives you any kind of indication as to how much time I like to waste on my necro.

No idea if any of this is useful to you at all, but whatever! have fun!

SecondtoNone.7549:

Auras are not boons and cannot be removed. But they only last a few seconds.

I think he’s referring to the auras proccing Fury, Swiftness, Vigor, Protection, etc.

At first glance, your build lacks two key attributes for s/tPvP:

1.) Stun Break
2.) Increased LF Generation

Without one or both of those you’ll be hard pressed to survive a good deal of fights against a good number of builds that focus on CC and burst. Current Meta’s in PvP revolve around min/maxing your stats i.e. full bunkertard or glass cannon. Not saying you have to go one way or the other but you should know what your competition is doing.

Good luck!

alright I just checked it again – I know I said I wasn’t interested, but you piqued my curiosity.

Tested on the Golems in HotM with 30 pts in Spite, 4pc Nightmare runes for 10% condition duration, Master of Terror trait (50% fear duration), and only applying a fear (no other conditions applied) I was able to get 2 ticks of terror dmg.

To summarize: 90% condition+fear duration = slightly more than 2 sec of fear duration and DID NOT require a summed 100% duration increase.

Rennoko.5731:

hackks.3687:

you don’t need to have a summed 100% value as the individual condition and fear duration increases stack multiplicatively. You can see this by examining the tool tip before adding points to spite and then examining the tooltip after. You’ll see the increased duration on Fear. Any further duration increases from tactics, runes, etc., are then based off of the new tool tip value from the points placed into Spite.

To get the 2nd terror tick merely requires a full 2 sec of duration and with 30 pts in Spite (30%), Nightmare runes (10%), and increased Fear trait (+50%) is enough to accomplish this (sum total of 90% condition duration increase).

For however you want to build around terror just keep in mind that trait increases are factored first (in this case the points placed in spite), then everything else.

The above isn’t correct, and it does not work that way in the game. Yes, the tooltip updates to reflect points you place in spite and food, while it will continue to ignore other traits that effect specific conditions (hemo/master of fear) and runes in its displayed value.

For instance BIP (a long bleed easy to see the effects on).

Base bleed = 30 seconds (tool tip)
Add 30 points in spite = 39 seconds (tooltip changes) (30% increase from base)
Add 40% duration food = 51 seconds (tooltip changes) (70% increase from base)
Add Hemophilia = 51 seconds (No tooltip change) (Actual duration of 57ish seconds) (90% increase from base)
Add Mad king rune 2X bonus = 51 seconds (No tooltip change) (Actual duration of 60 seconds) (100% increase from base).

Lets test fear now – keeping in mind that tooltip is only going to show in increments of 0.25:

Base fear on DS2 = 1 second (tooltip)
Add 30 points in spite = 1.25 seconds (tooltip changes) (25% increase from base)
Add 50% fear trait = 1.25 (No tooltip change) (actual duration best guess should be 80% increase from base or 1.8 seconds – nearly impossible to tell in game)
Add Mad King rune X2 = 1.25 (No tooltip change) (actual duration best guess at 90% increase from base or 1.9 seconds)

Since the fear durations are all within the realm of 0.1 seconds, actually verifying the difference between 1.8 and 1.9 is practically impossible. To test that we go with the terror trait and take cases where the bleed does not proc of barbed precision, as that changes the way the damage is calculated.

Using the above fear setup, I am at 90% increased duration additively and I only get one damage tick from fear. That would seem to suggest that again, all traits/runes stack additively.

I am willing to admit I made a mistake somewhere if you point it out, but that looks pretty additive all around to me.

For fun, I went ahead and got cheese pizza, which adds 8% duration and tried out both above tests at 98% duration (with all increases being added) and no second damage tick from fear or barbed precision. Which means both fear and bleed durations were at 98% increased, on a 1 second base, and failed to damage the last tick, which would require a full 2 second duration.

EDIT: The discussion on terror damage was above lol….

your math looks a little funny but I’m not interested enough to debate tbh. I will say that it has been a while since I ran the build though (months, in fact). At the time though the build I stated did in fact yield two ticks of terror dmg with only a 90% duration increase.

The build and explanations can be found here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/tPvP-Staff-dagger-dagger-build-full-spectral-warrior/first#post376391

edit: I should also mention that I never tested nor ran the build in WvWvW. Only in the Heart of the Mists and s/tPvP.

you don’t need to have a summed 100% value as the individual condition and fear duration increases stack multiplicatively. You can see this by examining the tool tip before adding points to spite and then examining the tooltip after. You’ll see the increased duration on Fear. Any further duration increases from tactics, runes, etc., are then based off of the new tool tip value from the points placed into Spite.

To get the 2nd terror tick merely requires a full 2 sec of duration and with 30 pts in Spite (30%), Nightmare runes (10%), and increased Fear trait (+50%) is enough to accomplish this (sum total of 90% condition duration increase).

For however you want to build around terror just keep in mind that trait increases are factored first (in this case the points placed in spite), then everything else.

Don’t feed the trolls please