Guild Wars 2

I did some tests in the mists a few weeks back basicaly hurling my self of high places and poping DS just before hitting making a note of how much % was lost and its roughly equal to your max HP pool, so knights amulet+30 points in blood + vitatliy runes and you can get over 32000hp base so 32000 DS hit points +30% more if using 30 soul reaping giving you a max hp overall of around 73600.
If you use lich/plague while at full health your max pool goes up and your hit points go up to match it (I think 27480 in lich form and 18320 in plague)

so lich form take some hits back to normal then to full DS and back to normal and you can take up to 100,000 damage.

Ok this is taking it to the extreme and you probably hit like a wet fish while doing this but there you go.

I should have said sPvP not just PvP fights are much closer range in the 5v5 and 8v8s compared to WvW

Dashrider.9360:

i don’t know if anyone else noticed this, but when you put down reapers mark the outer edge animation is puzzle pieces and hearts…. should it be?

sounds like something a mesmer would have

Bug happens for me, seems to force you onto a page url that does not exist yet. for example the thread is on page 10 but the url you visit is page/11/comment#123456

found that manually changing the url to page 10 will temporary fix the solution.

one way to check is to open up you hero screen while in DS and see if the power modifier is up. you can do this in the mists, along with doing it for Lich form and plague to see that they give you large amounts of stats in multiples of 916(at level 80)

I think you might need to change your title of the forum post to get people to come watch it. Something along the lines of Experienced thief converts to using necro.

Review: Through the use of Music and on screen messages barti documents how he changed from using a theif dealing 1-2 hit kills of up to 10k damage in one hit in one case and learning the art of a power necro using theorys learnt from playing a theif.
Through the use of a “MONTAGE” he show his training of the dark arts.
Now full trained hes may not doing 10k damage in one skill but skillfully using combinations of necro skills to down his opponents with realative ease.

i’ve not tried spectral grasp in WvW, but it is the longest pull in the game at 1200 range, in theory if you can hit them with the staff you can pull them down.

I only really play necro so can anyone else confirm that traits on other classes that transform (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Transform) have the same issue/effect.

It could be as intended

yup im not a fan of axe myself not sure why that comment was directed at me
axe may have a place in a support/tank builds but even then it comes up short

you could look at it as a good thing, if you could reproduce it and if them coming to you and going back was physically what happened and you could pull them through a spectral wall on the way to your marks and they go back through it on the way out thats 20 stacks of vulnerbility. Even if this isn’t the case another way to look at it that if its a melee char you can pull them without helping them get distance on you since they ping back but the damage from marks are done.

Im voting for number 1, but since ranger pet ai, theif guild ai and memser clone ai is working better im not sure what the issue could be. unless they dont want the minions to be as “good” as the ranger pets since that’s their mechanic. but the minion AI should be relativly on par with mesmers and theifs (which I think are reported in being better than ranger pets at the moment)

Corrupt boon – “Poison yourself. Transform all boons on your foe into negative conditions.”

Aegis – “Block the next incoming attack; stacks duration.”

Sounds like a case of what happens when and immovable object is hit by an unstoppable force

Although since corrupt boon does no direct damage is it an attack? http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Corrupt_Boon also states that Aegis is converted to burning.

Nyorai.1630:

Another interesting thing that seems to be happening is when it seems like you successfully grabbed someone, they move next to you and after about a second they are moved back some distance. Might be a lag issue? But I think when I set up a mark on the ground at my feet they seem to trigger it. Can’t test this at the moment to be sure but I’ll do it when I get back from work.

I’ve been able to reproduce that a few times in the mists on a practice dummy. Now that I think about it it could be a side effect of stacking marks before a pull.

Doom being an instant cast can be used while stunned, giving you 1-2 seconds of them fleeing giving you time to either leave ds and clear the stun or just sit and wait it out.

“Full spectral warrior” is just a name I gave the build its not literally a warrior build. its sort of a spoof of the game http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_Spectrum_Warrior

They may have a necro team, but its unlikely that they play the game/class enough to see a bigger picture. They will have internal testers which may or may not have unique classes to test. But it depends on how their bug report process works.

I think a few people can take alot from this. Very good video, hope people take note.

probably the nature of the code behind the game where each skill will have its own file/structure/variables. The person who works at arena net who got this bug landed in his/her inbox will have only gone to that file and made the change to damage area and probably noticed that the target area didn’t match so he/she changed that too. they wouldn’t have the time or real authority to check the other skills, If they were not part of the same bug report.

unleashed.8679:

Spectral Walk – If canceled while falling you get 60 sec CD but you wont get teleported back to your starting location.

@floppyjr: First I havent tested this, but if the allies where dead they wont be revived. The skill only works on downed players. But that skill seams to be unbalances to me, if you compare it with the Ele revive. Even if it works correctly and only revives downed players. more range, radius, less CD and more variation. But that’s an other story.

elementalist skill got patched the other day – no longer works on the dead

I was looking at it from a PvP point of view where over 50% of the time your in melee range (even if you like it or not)

I think a hybrid approach is valid but requires much more skill to pull it off.

For a hybrid spec instead of the scepter I suggest dagger/dagger, ok you loose the bleed and the poison but the fast hit of a dagger will generate quite a few bleeds if using the sigil of earth + the curses 5 point trait, while giving a massive increase of direct damage

An example of a none traited DS being good. this is a power based solution using 30 points in spite to get XII close to death (fully usable out of Death shroud)

During a group fight Save life transfer for mid fight soon as you can see 1 or two foes dipping below the magic 50%HP use Life transfer if un-interrupted (you may call for stabilty from a friend – guardian aoe stability) you can do over 7,000 damage to 5 people, under 50% HP not many classes are going to have much more than 7000hp left.

Outcome – mass murder

want more damage? try curses 25 point trait for 2% damage per condition during a mid fight situation there could be 4-6 conditions per foe.
even more damage slot 5 runes of infiltration for 10% extra damage when below 50%
not keen on infiltration other runes can be used
slot scholar for 8% crit damage + 10% while your over 90%hp long as you have over 90% LF this is will work.

add one little DS trait
comboing the fury on DS (curses 15) with a full set of rage runes is going to give you 10% crit damage +5% more damage for that fury on you

Im afraid to coin a phrase but we all as a community of necros need to use DS better. I think a few people are starting to see the potential it gives.
Aireroths example is a vaid one.
The necromancer is not a warrior its not a thief its not a class to press one button for insta death. The necromancer needs skill and practice, and in some case with DS timing it needs Luck.
Additionally I feel that necromancers need out of the box thinking inorder to come up with combos of skills.

Zinwrath.2049:

merch, not sure who your responding to..but you just linked a build that is using multiple deathshroud traits just like i said everyone is forced to do.

sorry didn’t quite grasp what you were asking for. I agree vanilla DS is not as useful as when adding a few traits to it, but thats the aspect of the game.
If your going to use minons you would use minon traits if your going for bleeds you use condition duration traits etc. I don’t know about the engineer but does adding traits to the toolbelt make it much better?
Vanilla DS gives you extra hp, decent burst if your power/crit based, some protection to burst on you if its up. unfortunatly for a condition necro its damage potential is limited hopefully anet will address this.

please try out my none fear focused version of my full spectral warrior build
http://tinyurl.com/98meup9

Long read about my fear based full spectral warrior build and how to use it.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/tPvP-Staff-dagger-dagger-build-full-spectral-warrior/first#post376885

If doom got a 2 second fear they would probably have to drop the 50% fear duration trait to 33%.

Alternatively I think doom would be great if transferred conditions. for balance maybe make it a ranged thing so that at greater ranger more conditions were removed you could also make it that fear increased the further they were away from you sort of an inverse of the warriors fear. this would make DS better for condition based necro

Try this for a combo

Lich form drop skills 2-5 (which could all instant cast apparently? not in game to check)
Leave lich form giving you large amount of stability (by now you should have the attention of all your foes) jump into deathshroud (spec would be the enfeebling blood, retaliation, and the vulnerbility) people are hitting you great retaliation, your not loosing much damage because they are weakened, hit life leech and watch them die

before entering DS you could drop some wells/marks too

kKagari.6804:

Lucubration.8361:

Hmm… if retaliation does (Power/13.4)+267 DMG, in a 2000 power build you would be doing 416 damage per proc. Now image that hundred blades warrior charging you and popping haste, and you popping into DS to eat the burst. That’s 3.3k damage you’re doing to him during his burst. Or 3.7k to a Pistol Whip rogue. That’s really not so bad.

I think it caps at 350, and is reduced by armor. I got about 230 yesterday

not sure about the cap but perhapse the foe had protection 350 – 33% = 233
on the flip side don’t 100 blades cause the warrior to have 20% increased damage

Need stability? Use lich form for 1 second and exit = 29seconds of stabilty

Are arena net fixing things and not mentioning them in the patch notes?

Plague Signet

(NB0021) Does not remove conditions from other players (But still gives them to you) this seems to be working now

Death nova – cant remember seeing this as “fixed” but the poison seems to be doing damage now

During the weekend in a 8v8 server with a bunch of friends dueling and as a spectator I saw conditions getting removed from them and transfering to me

the signet was removing conditions prior to todays patch

Aga.8641:

Didn’t read all of it, but here’s my 2 cents.

Spectral wall is terrible choice, the only reason why you’d take it is for the ethereal field, and you don’t really have any finishers, consider spectral walk instead.

Other things to consider, your runes aren’t very fitting since you have no need for condition damage and you can get 10% duration from other sources with more beneficial stats, try 2x lyssa and 4 of something else, ice or sanctuary both give +frozen. I don’t really understand why people go dagger OH when they are power spec, the other 2 OH’s offer so much more, especially when you’re dagger MH, warhorn has a nice cripple/swiftness and daze or focus has a long chill/boon strip and vulnerability, both of them have additional ways to gain LF, which dagger does not. Using reaper’s might trait is also something very helpful to power specs.

Most of these issues are actually addressed in the post but I will clarify them here

the reason for wall is that it is very useful for vulnerability and protection

spectral walk is used just not on the utility bar all of the time

4 runes of nightmare cause a condition multiplication greater than 2x lyssa giving a tiny amount of fear that lyssa does not, granting a 2 second fear damage tick

condition damage is small but used for the small stacks of bleeds applied via curses 5 trait and the fear damage I agree that 2 runes could be swapped out for extra chill or boon

the OH dagger provides 2 things to this/melee builds Dagger 4 in this build removes conditions which is the main condition transfer of this build (staff 4 being the other) along with blinding which is useful in melee.
dagger 5 can be used prefight to get weakness up which is useful when this build has low vitality and toughness.
the dagger auto attack builds up LF almost faster than you can use it along with the spectral armor gained at 50% health.

why not focus the focus gives LF, vulnerbilty, chill something this build has enough of. personally i would rather have the blind and condition transfer.

why not warhorn The warhorn daze would be of some use but has long cool down, the cripple is nullified with the amount of chill you are inflicting and again LF generation is decent enough.

Reapers might is an alternative to chill of death the second spite trait is up to you.

Full spectral warrior build for tPVP but can be used for sPvP and WvW

2 seconds fears with damage high chill and protection uptime.

long description
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/tPvP-Staff-dagger-dagger-build-full-spectral-warrior/first#post376391

3rd utility so this is where you have a bit of choice ive gone with well of corruption as it is a more reliable source of boon removal than corrupt boon and its aoe and does decent damage per tick in this spec. you can use any other you prefer

Elite as mentioned this slot should be fluid using golem to generate LF.
if your coming up to a point and a 1v1 situation is what you face use golem
if your coming up to a group fight you will need to assess the situation. If your opponent are power based dive right in with the plague form and start blinding.
If your opponents are more condition/boon based and your team have many conditions quickly use Lich form 5 and remove all for boon/ friend conditions now you can choose to stay in lich form and do some damage or pop all the cool downs 2-4 and exit leaving you with the 30 seconds stability and get stuck in killing targets.

Tactics
Group tatics try and get your long duration none damaging condtions out thier and then start focusing on a target

General 1v1 tatics is try and get chill up on them as much as possible and protection on you. DS dancing will give you retaliation and fury.

Against thieves and 100 blade warriors. With this build you should never be without Life force. one of these classes stuns you and starts their barrarge just use death shroud the retaliation will kick in and it’s going to hurt them just as much (more so if you have large amounts of LF you can soak up that damage your going to get that LF back in a few seconds)

Against mesmers using LF 5, Dagger 5 and marks try and aoe down clones/illusions fear/chill the real one if you can.

Ive been working on this build for a few weeks now and thought it was time to get other people insight. I will try and provide video footage if people would like.

Focus is on duration of none damaging conditions + crit and power. This works well in both group and 1v1 situations

The build
http://tinyurl.com/9saj5we

30/20/0/0/20

V X XII
VI X
IV IX

Some key information
100% extra fear duration 3 × 2 second with damage (around 500-600 per tick)
57% chill duration
43% duration all other conditions

Please note: This is not a one button wonder build it requires time and get used to it and master it but so far for me its been worth the effort.

How it works (maths involved)
Wait a second you only have 90% fear duration….. True but as noted in this post
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Bleed-duration/first#post334522
condition durations simply don’t add up (20%+20% = 40%) they actually stack in multiplicity (20% +20%=44%) so on a 1 second fear we add 30% from spite, 50% from trait master of terror, 4% from rune set 2 and 6% from rune set 4

0.3 0.5 0.04 0.06
1 1.3 1.95 2.028 2.14968
note getting 10% from the lyssa rune set just comes to 2.145 which does not proc a seconds fear damage tick

Same logic can be applied to the other conditions +10% chill more from sigil

Weapons

Dagger 1 hits fast it hits hard and build LF,
Dagger 2 drain is ok now they fixed it a little not intended for much use in this build,
Dagger 3 immobilized is almost 6 seconds in duration
Dagger 4 should only be used if you have a large amount of conditions on you
Dagger 5 very useful for group fights to cast over a node before running in to help your team mates netting a 15.73 weakness on foe’s

Staff Is usually a must with any pvp build for the aoe fear for stomping/reviving with the extra bonus of an additonal 1 second
Staff 1 hits harder than you think with power+crit and since it pieces it hits mutliple people if you are in close combat
Staff 2 not really an asset with this build, adds small amounts of regen and bleeding
Comboing staff 3 and 4 will chill, poison and weaken for long periods of time

bleed’s generated from on crit auto attack and staff 2 will be low in damage but may help prevent the removal of the important conditions such as weakeness, chill and vulnerbility

Utility’s

Your utiltys are going to be fluid as the match changes. you should start the match by using my research on LF generation as out lined in this forum post https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Get-up-to-57-LF-out-of-combat-before-pvp-starts/first#post368927 use only spectral wall, walk and the golem switch will grant you around 30% LF before even stating a match, you will start the match with spectral wall on cooldown of about 20 seconds (but who fights within the first 20s of a match) after any

Spectral walk can be equiped at the end of any fight for any util you don’t have on cool down used and swapped back to the original util giving you speed between fights

Spectral wall Is very very good in this spec it will stay for around 12 seconds in a fight granting protection two times (walk through a second time just as the first stack wears off ive not been quick enough to get 3 sets but it might be possible ) the vulnerbility on it is not to be sniffed at poor players will walk through the field 2-3 times if you dance around it stacking the 25vulnerbilty almost instantaniously and with our high condition duration that is going to last (unless they remove it of course soon as they walk through it again its another 10stacks) against better players your going to have to do a bit of work this involves the spectral grasp. using both spectral grasp and your 2 seconds fears your going to drag pull and push your foes through

Spectral grasp
Ok so this util is kinda buggy but will only get better. So what does it do well simply put it is the longest pull in the game no other skill has a pull of 1200 range most of the time your going to be using it close combat where it becomes less buggy. what is can and should be used for as mentioned in spectral wall you can use this skill in conjuction with fear to pull and push foes good foes through the wall, less effort is required on noobs who will just blindly follow you through the wall. when defending or attacking a point you can setup marks by your feet the wall in front of you and pull people through the wall into your marks then have your dagger ready to make them unhappy.

- Spectral grasp can also stop a stomp/revive
- Spectral grasp can also pull in fleeing people (buggy here)
- Spectral grasp can also pull people off ledges (again buggy if you can see their feet its has a better chance of hitting)
- Takes some skill but you can pull warriors and thieves while they are focusing a friend

well its up to you how many utils you want to put on cool down. Technically you can get LF from the spectral walk and golem without having a slot on cool down

edited with further reseaach from 15% to 57% LF gain out of combat
im going to patent this the merch technique

Ok so here’s some potentially game changing research i have done.

TLDR: you really should read

Basic idea giving you 30%LF at the start of any match
Requirements:
knights amulet + jewel
utils flesh wurm, flesh golem

So heres what you do in the 10 seconds at the start of any pvp match:
1. Equip the knights amulet(can be done in the prematch)
2. Summon a wurm and golem
3. kill the wurm using the teleport this gives you 10%LF
4. un-summon the golem by choosing another elite this kills the golem and gives you another 10% LF
5. Change your amulet to your usual one for pvp If this amulet does not have vitality the LF will increase to 30%

medium results giving you 57%
knights amulet + jewel
20 points in curses
utils
Spectral armor 5%
Spectral wall 5%
spectral walk 5%
flesh wurm 10%
flesh golum 10%
Switch out amulet and trait

To get extream results (57% LF)
Requirements:

knights amulet + jewel
20 points in curses
5x any vitality rune
1x any other vitality rune

Guide: as medium but change your armor back to your usual set

Notes:
Ive tried other minions no other seems to give LF when killing or switching

Ive tried combing the spectral walk and armor with a self poison from corrupt boon no result.

Ive also tried fall damage while in spectral armor/walk but no extra LF

The attack speed on it is rather quick too useful to proc on hit/ on crit attributes

When equipping the knight’s Jewel you get
75 toughness instead of the 75 power in the tooltip

The build is as follows

staff + axe/focus (maybe dagger/focus)

10 spite taking reapers might – might on lifeblast
20 curses taking weakening shroud – enfeebling blood on DS
Spectral attunement – longer spectral skills and grants LF (apparently buggy)
10 Blood – taking transfusion – Life transfer (DS4) heals neaby allies – im not set on this.
30 in Soul reaping giving the 30% more LF
taking unyielding blast – life blast pierces and causes vulnerability
soul marks – 3%LF on mark trigger
Foot in the grave – 3s Stability on DS entry (may swap for near to death 50% cool down on DS – not sure if thats needed this is about getting into DS and staying not poping in and out)

utils being
consume conditions – heal
blood is power = 20% LF
Spectral amor 6sec protection + 3%LF on hit (not sure if you get extra for the trait spectral attunement)
spectral wall – should get LF from spectral attunement trait amount unknown
Elite – if you are getting hit hard and 3-4 people have just burned through your 40k HP in DS ive taken plague form as it gives you around an extra 20k hp (if used when on full hp after DS has just run out) and it give you an extra 2748 toughness + spamable AOE blinds. you should be able to hold off 3-4 foe for atleast 30 seconds. If your team have not responded to you screaming about loosing 40k hp in seconds and not come running to your aid – its time to get new friends.

General idea is to build LF as fast as possible once in Use Lifeblast to build might and vulnerbility. When your LF build skills are off cooldown jump out use them and rebuild your LF before jumping back into DS

Considerations – my build does not have much toughness so you may have 70k HP but pepole will burn through it quite quickly. so a balance of toughness vs vitality must be found where there is calculations for this on other builds they dont consider that for a necro with 30 points in soul reaping 1 vitality is worth an additional 130%

I had axe originally as I was under the impression that the 4%LF was per strike of the 8 strikes of ghastly claw. I wrote the post not sat in front of the game so couldn’t test. If this isnt the case then dagger is slightly better however with such a short range and LF only on 2nd and 3rd chains its not always easy to land

itsthatguy.1062:

Your build link results in: Bad Link.

You have to Copy & Paste the link for it to work.

changed to tiny url

Arvid.3829:

Ghastly claws is not 8×4%. The skill description seems to mean that you get a flat 4%, but you actually get 8%.

Interesting I will check it out when im next on

The remove condition does not apply to you but allies a projectile passes by on its way to a foe

So its been suggested that at 100% Life = it is equal to the current max health your character has and my test of throwing myself of heights and calculating the damage seems to support this.

with 30 in blood, full vitality runes and the knights amulet and jewel thats a max HP and Lifeforce equivelent of 32252 + 32252 = 64504
but with 30 points in soul reaping life force is an extra 30% so your total hp pool at max is 32252 + 41927.6 = 74179 which is roughly more than 3 other characters put together.

So we have a tonne of Hit points so what well lets look at skills/traits that gain Life force. these can in essence be seen as heals
these values calculated on max based on Lifeforce = 41927.6 hp
1%LF = 419.276

MH dagger
2nd chain necrotic stab = 2%LF = 838.552
3rd chain necrotic Bite = 4%LF = 1677.104

Staff
Necrotic Grasp = 3%LF = 1257.828
With Soulmarks (soulreaping X) each mark gives 3%
so thats 3%LF = 1257.828 per mark

Focus
Reapers touch =3%LF = 1257.828 not sure if each bounce = 3%
if so 9%LF = 3773.484
and I recall that the trait spiteful talisman increases this to 4(not sure how true that is)
if so 12% = 5031.312

Scepter
Feast of corruption hard to calculate
worst case 2% = 838.552
best case if each condition has to be unique (ie 25 bleeds is classed as 1 condtion)
11 conditions in the game = 22% = 9224.072
best case if each condition dose not have to be unique
11 conditions but bleeding, confusion and vunerbility can stack to 25 = 83 conditions = 166% hmm
average probably around the 4-5 condition mark 8% = 3354.208 – 10% = 4192.76

Axe – my favourite for this kind of thinking
Ghastly Claws 8 strikes at 4% lf each max 32% = 13416.832 – has to be the biggest “heal” in the game? 4%-8%LF generated – this needs confirming
4% = 1677.104
8% = 3354.208

Utility – blood is power
20%LF = 8385.52

Utility – signet of undeath
1% LF every 3 seconds = 419.276/3 = 139.7586 (hps)

Trait Spectral Attunement (curses X)
Spectral skills have longer durations and grant life force

Trait – Soulmarks (soulreaping X)
As mentioned above in Staff

Trait – Gluttony
not sure how this skill actually works)

Consider all that and we have a massive health pool and health regen
Is this the magical DS the devs speak of?

When playing in SPvP one could think of them selves at start of the match as “dead” and its their job to generate life force to live

I propose a build something like this
http://tinyurl.com/buedy6q

TLDR – Life Force generation = Healing

the AI necromancer in the mists. they can do 7-9k damage with life siphon and 3k dagger moves

Im going to be trying this when im next on – im going to play DS centric until I find the magic one. (utils and sigil/runes not set in stone)

http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fQQQNAnYWjMax7hbSbM8JAZGP/b8hjpesO7nD;TsAA0CooUyokQJrSOlkKtIYQwMCA

Variation 1
http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fQQQNAnYWjMax7hbSbMcKi5DdDqw7jPcMqHrjdnD;TsAA0CooUyokQJrSOlkKtIYQwMCA

Variation 2
http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fQQQNAnYWjMax7hbSbM8JAJFPfdkijNm6x6sfOA;TsAA0CooUyokQJrSOlkKtIYQwMCA

They are hashes.4523

Deistik.7802:

I don’t think the trait Training of the Master (Spite, Master trait) works on the bone minion’s Putrid Explosion… seeing as it’s “minion damage” you’d think it would.

Can anyone test and confirm this? I can not add it on guesses.

seems to be working in the mists

without trait – 1583
with trait – 2000+