Guild Wars 2

I posted some links for discussions on reddit and some spreadsheets, where all of it is explained. But to summarize: +%-damage > power > critdamage > precision. So Runes of the Scholar were the obvious choice.

that is true, no argueing with that

@rennoko

1. close to death = 10% dps increase
2. it is either close to death or axe mastery, both are grandmaster traits as I am sure you know.

@the rest

no ifs and buts. Sure it is squishy, but I still believe it is the most damaging power-build with an axe. And that’s the point. If you want more toughness/vitality/whatever, you come to the wrong place

Added 2nd video, also against the Priest of Melandru. 4k autohits, 15,7k ghastly claws and almost 9k lifeblasts,

He is lvl 36…

try dynamic events, here is a video with the best places for your lvl in the description:

Doesn’t become duration pretty much useless with a cap of 25 bleeds? Doesn’t matter how long the bleed sticks to the mob, it gets overwritten anyway.

I am wondering why you went with the life-steal-route. Protection basically makes your heals 33% better, with 4 runes of earth and 2 runes of water you have up to 25 seconds of protection.

no, but they are not accurate because of the mentioned overkill.

add another 120 toughness through minions= 13,2 condition damage

Went to a grenth statue in orr and counted the ticks and when the minions died (without the greater health trait). Poison ticked for 320.

Bone Minions: 17 ticks = 5440 hp
Bone Fiend: 22 ticks = 7040 hp
Shadow Fiend: 34 ticks = 10880 hp
Blood Fiend: 42 ticks = 13440 hp
Flesh Worm: 24 ticks = 7680 hp.

There is a overkill involved, so you can round down the numbers.

It is the same as before, I just wanted to make it more detailed, clean it up and explain it some more. The first one was made rather fast and unpolished.

Enfeebling blood… if you stand before the mob and switch into ds and fear him immediately, it will not be affected by it, so it is rather closerange, but nice in ae-situations.

Edited some more.
Added some more.

Dont value precision and crit damage to high, power and +% damage contributes far more to your damage than those two.

IV. Buffs

- Plate of Truffle Steak: 100 Power and 70 Precision
- Either Sharpening Stone: Power equal 6% of your toughness and 4% of your vitality. This stuff is expensive, you can take the sharpening stone of a lower quality, we have little toughness and vitality to begin with
- OR Slayer Potions: deal 10% more damage and recieve 10% less, best buff for instances and areas with only one typ of enemy
- Skale Venom (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Skale_Venom_): applies vulnerability and weakness, helps with our damage and costs almost nothing (works only in PvE)

V. Playstyle

„Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee“ (Muhammad Ali). Know your fights, dodge out of trouble and keep your health up. If you do this, you will do damage.

This applies only to PvE:
Keep your Focus 4 and you Axe 2 on cd, if your Life Force is above 50%, go into Death Shroud and blast away till you reach the 50% mark. Use your Wells for ae or champion mobs. Use Axe 3 and Focus 5 at the start of a fight or when everything else is on cd, they have horrible cast times. Switch to staff to get rid of conditions and to apply some.
This doesn’t apply for every fight, you have adapt: “Be water, my friend” (Bruce Lee).

I am sorry for my english, it isn’t my native language, so excuse my errors.

Added screenshot with bufffood and Bloodlust.

Link for demonstration video (more to come):

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3K5aB-fejI (Priest of Melandru)
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQ129bbdlo8&feature=youtu.be (Priest of Melandru)
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcVE0t_tFsc (Veteran Risen Giant in 40 seconds)
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5riJJHRoY-0&feature=youtu.be&proxmate=us (Bas & Friends vs HoTW)

Tools and other sources:

original build and discussion: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/The-Zerker-max-axe-damage-build/first#post1631892
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/115mln/power_vs_precision_vs_critical_damage_what_do_we/ (Lots of good info and spreadsheets in there)
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/12dmi5/tip_stat_optimization_with_crit_damage/
http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/necromancer/
http://jsfiddle.net/joelpt/NtTRm/2/ (from joelpt from reddit)

The Zerker
(Updated Maximum Damage Axe Build)

This is a power build with an axe in the hand. There are no compromises, no buts and ifs, just damage.
This build is mainly for PvE and WvWvW, it may work in PvP, I dont know since I seldom participate in that kind of stuff.
Also it is a build for a more experienced player, you need to be on your toes all the time, know your place to stand and your time to dodge, else you will be probably dead and deal zero damage.
You will need some gold and/or patience to get your gear together. But it will pay off.

I. The Build:

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-00;3kHFJ0D47J-K0;9;4TO;0E-7B5;95RV0ONV0udbTudbTBBlKcFL09WYod1-60B1G2LZR_61V-70HV8aNX8a;9;9;9;9;9;55-6g

30 Spite (Power & Condition Duration):
Major Traits:
- Adept Everything except V (Spiteful Spirit). Really depends on what you want to do: Signet Mastery to burst someone below 50% health, Spiteful Talisman in a group setting, Reapers Might if you like to use DS and lifeblast
- Master VIII (Axe Training): 20% shorter cd and 15% damage increase for the axe (the damage also transfers to Life Blast while holding an axe). We will be using Ghastly Claws on cd, Unholy Feast for an extra ae or when everything else is on cd.
- Grandmaster XII (Close to Death): 20% more damage when enemy below 50% health, awesome trait

25 Curses (Precision and Condition Damage):
Major Traits:
- Adept VI (Focused Rituals): Wells use ground targeting. We are very squishy, I rather cast my wells from a save distance than from up close.
- Master Another hard choice, depending on what are you planning to do. Either I, IV, V or VIII will work.

15 Soul Reaping (Prowess and Hunger)
Major Traits:
- Adept VI (Unyielding Blast) if you took Reapers Might, else use II, III and V depending on your playstyle.

Why 25 into Curses?

It is because of the lesser trait „Target the Weak“. You gain 2% damage for every different condition on the enemy. If there are 5 different conditions stacked on the enemy, you gain 10% damage. A huge buff to our damage, because in an instance or while doing group events or even WvWvW, there will be always some conditions running on the enemy, thus upping our damage. You will see an increase of 18% because of this little trait.

II. Utilities

-Consume Conditions: very good Heal, almost op.
-Well of Suffering: very high damage gtaoe and applys vulnerability.
-Well of Corruption: high damage gtaoe, converts boons into conditions, thus making itself and anything else do more damage
-This one is up to you. I like the Signet of the Locust, or Signet of Spite for more power and an on-demand 12% damage increase buff.
- Elite is also up to you. Lich form is nice, but it’s autoattack is bad for moving targets. Golem for knockdown and Plague Form for some defense. Even your racials may work here.

III. Gear

- Armor, weapons and accessories: we want damage, Berserker Gear is where you can find it. Power, Precision and Critical Damage, everything we need. For Ascended gear get the one’s with the same stats.
- Weapons: Axe/Focus and Staff (Staff can be substituted for something else)
- Runes: 6/6 of the Scholar: Power, Critical Damage and a 10% damage buff while health is above 90%. Now we are not even squishy, we have to be at 90%+ health too. If your not up to this task, switch one rune for the Rune of Divinity.
- Sigils: Sigil of Superior Force for a 5% damage buff and Sigil of Bloodlust for an extra 250 power. I have a Sigil of Frailty on my staff for ae-vulnerability (if it works this way)

@Bas look one post above you

@Takarazuka For bone minions you need the lower cd and they tend to stay away from the fight. But the utilities are really up to your personal preference. I like the signets for the speed/power buffs.

Ah, and I use well of suffering/corruption now with focused rituals now most of the time. Works better for pve and wvwvw. Signet of locusts or spite, depending on the situation, and either weakening shroud (solo, easy content) or reapers precision (whre range is important).

Ha, I wanted to reply to all the posts this evening, but Bas already did

Anyway, as Takarazuka and Bas already pointed out, the more conditions the better.
In Group-PvE (events and instances) and WvWvW, those will be always there. Look at the video, there are almost all the time 6 different conditions on the priest with up to 9 different conditions. That is a 12-18% damage increase for all your skills.

Solo it is of cause harder, but it isn’t really needed. I use skale venom almost always (karma buff food). I just start with focus 4, ghastly claws, ds and lifeblast away. If I want more damage, I apply spinal shivers and unholy feast. If I need still more, I start with staff marks and switch to axe/focus.

Recorded a fight against the Priest of Melandru:

enjoy.

Lightsbane.9012:

shizo.5698:

I am currently running this, doing events, dungeons and fractals with this build.

I added a screenshot, though I only use the 2nd best sharpening stone and no bloddlust going on (250 + something power missing).

The 25 points in Spite are solely for Target the Weak, this trait is a beast, like Close to Death just with almost 100% uptime.

You can wield axe/dagger+horn in the 2nd weapon set and take Banshees Wail, Runes of the Pack would actually complement this.

The 15 points more in Spite would only increase your damage for15% around half of the time (when you crit) + another 5% if your lf is over 50%.

uh…you’re running this for dungeons? the only way you’ll know 100% that this build is viable is to take it in wvw imo
i’m running axe/focus for the extra vuln and the chill. which i think is much more beneficial than dagger conds if you’re going for raw damage

I already said I took this into the wvwvw. With double wells, marks and lifetransfer and axe’ing afterwards. After an hour of zerg vs zerg fighting my bags were full. I died only when our zerg was overwhelmed, so it worked really well.

you can try this one in here:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Vampiric-build/first#post1430842

I could farm normal karkas nonstop with.

Switched out the ruby orbs in the armor for 6/6 scholar runes: more power, less critchance and damage, but 10% more damage if health is above 10%.

4,2k power with some might going on.

dreztina.4820:

I run a pretty much identical build to the OP in spvp except much tankier gear. How do you figure the 10 points in SR instead of Cursee is better for pvp? It seemed to me that Target the Weak was my best option for damage.

pve: mobs dont cleanse conditions
pvp: players do clean conditions, thus making target the weak not so powerful

tactial armor is from cursed shore karma vendors in each camp.

I dont care about condition damage, duration is more important to this build.

It is a glass cannon build targeted for pve. It works to some extent for w3 as I found out, though I took Focused Rituals for ae-bombing (well of corruption converts boons and well of suffering adds vulnerability thus each well makes the other one stronger + life transfer and some staff marks).

Thats true, though I had not pvp in mind when I made this build up

new personal record btw: life blast, 7.5k

the one you get when starting a necro, skull mask or sth. like that

I am currently running this, doing events, dungeons and fractals with this build.

I added a screenshot, though I only use the 2nd best sharpening stone and no bloddlust going on (250 + something power missing).

The 25 points in Spite are solely for Target the Weak, this trait is a beast, like Close to Death just with almost 100% uptime.

You can wield axe/dagger+horn in the 2nd weapon set and take Banshees Wail, Runes of the Pack would actually complement this.

The 15 points more in Spite would only increase your damage for15% around half of the time (when you crit) + another 5% if your lf is over 50%.

Hello fellow necros,

it is a build which takes the best damage increasing traits we have an let us dish out some impressive numbers. Like 12k Ghastly Claws or 7k Life Blasts.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNAndGmIgekr3XrYGHzY0HWHA;TMALIGFMtA

Spite:
- More power and longer condition duration
- Spiteful Talisman: more vulnerability and some regeneration
- Reapers Might: gain might with Life/Plague blast
- Axe Training: 15% damage increase for the axe, works also for ds

Curses:
- Precision and condition damage
- Weakening Shroud: adds Weakness and Bleeds when entering in ds
- Master of Corruption: spread those conditions
- Target the Weak: Cornerstone of this build, 2% more damage for each condition. As a necro we have easy access to 6 long lasting conditions (cripple, bleed, poison, weakness, vulnerability, chill) which ups our damage for 12%. Since every other player applys some kind of condition, you up your damage for 20%+.

Soul Reaping:
- Larger ds-pool and crit-damage
- Unyielding Blast: very nice with Reapers Might

Gear:
Amor: Full Berserk with Ruby Orbs (I may change those to the Sigil of the Pack, you gain more power and precision with a chance of might, swiftness and fury, but loose some crit-damage)
Weapons: Axe with Sigil of Force and Focus with Sigil of Bloodlust. I recommend a staff on switch.
Jewlery: Full Berserk with Ruby Orbs

If you feel to squishy change some berserk armor for Knight armor.

Buff food:

Truffle Steak, Sharpening Stone and Skale Venom.

General playstyle:

You want to abuse Target the Weak to the max. That means apply every condition you have to enhance your damage. Keep this in mind when you choose your utilities. You can change the utilities depending on the situation (switch epidemic for Signet of Spite in a boss battle i.e.)

Utilities:
- Epidemic to spread all conditions to enhance our ae (Life Transfer/Well of Suffering).
- Corrupt Boon or Well of Corruption to convert boons and to give us more damage.
- Blood is Power for might.
- Well of Suffering/Corruption for ae
- Elite is your choice, i seldom switch into Lich Form since I do more damage in ds

Ghastly Claws 13k+ is possible, done 12,5k not fully buffed in a raid setting.
Seen Rending Claws hit 1,3k per hit.

Hello fellow necros,

Since minions Seem to get hyped, i like to share the build i am running around with the last couple of weeks.

Traits:

20/30/20/0/0
Powerline:
1st trait: whatever suits you
2nd trait: minion damage
Conditionline:
1st trait: longer bleeds
2nd trait: faster corruption skills
3rd trait: longer scepter conditions
Toughnessline:
1st trait: faster minion summoning
2nd trait: 50% minionhealth

Utilities: epedemic/poison field/ bip, bip/flesh wurm/signet of locusts, bone fiend
Heal: blood fiend
Elite: flesh golem

Gear/ weapons/ accessories:
Full rabid with 6/6 runes of the undead; crest of the rabid , scepter/dagger with sigil of blood/ corruption

You can switch dagger offhand for focus or horn if you like.

Selling points of this build:
- very high armor (2800+)
- thus pushing condition damage (runes/buff food)
- thus you have always the aggro and minions live longer
- very high condition damage
- still having good direct damage through minions
- more conditions through combo fields and the projectile finisher of the bone fiend
- sick of minions? Switch to staff traits on the fly
- high ae damage with epedemic and bone minions
- very high single target damage
- reliable ranged minions

That’s it, I keep it short, posting from mobile phone

“YOU SHALL PASS!”

Bellamy.9860:

If you want to maximize lifesteals you should also take a look at vampirism runes. They give another ~980 when you are struck (15sec cd) and a 2nd lifesteal when using your heal. Doing bad math and assuming you use Consume conditions, thats another 104 points per second leeched.

The biggest problem i have with vampiric builds is the necessity of omnom and sigil of blood. Every class has access to those and can perform pretty much on an equal level in terms of lifestealing, so its not anything fancy or necro specific which it should be imho.

I looked at the runes and dismissed them, no needed stats (we need precision) and lifeleech on cd which is meh.

Lets say we dont have a sigil of blood and omnomom going, but we use dagger1, well of suffering and corruption and locusts swarm on one enemy. And we have 100% critchance (change of sigils and doable).

Dagger 1 hits 3 about times per second = 3*38+3*51=267
Wells and locust hit 1 time per second = (38+51)*3= 267

thats 534 hp/second.

Lets add 4 other enemies, so 5 enemies:

Dagger1 = 267
Wells, locust= 267*5= 1335

thats 1602 hp/second.
(I know this lasts only for 5 seconds and only every 45 seconds)

Also you can add 445 hp gained from weakening shroud and factor in the daze from the warhorn, you leech without being attacked or dagger 2.

Also your vampiric traits actually damage your opponent, which doubles it’s value.

I guess here lies the problem: we have an easy time stacking ae’s ontop of each other, buffing our vampiric traits could turn us in a life-leeching, high damage ae-tanking class with little drawbacks. Just wade in, lay some ae’s and dont die.

Anyway, I tried it, it is effective, easy and a valid build. I didn’t liked it though, the dagger 1 sounds are annoying as a high pitched siren to me and I enjoy the gamestyle of the hybrid far more.

Since everyone complains about our vampiric traits and rather discuss it theoretical than do some fieldtests and try it for themselfs:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQRAod3djMaV6VbKbM8JgJFc7dkijXm6B8tjOA

Armor/weapon/trinkets: full berserker
Runes: emerald orbs
Sigil: Superior Sigil of blood on mainhand, offhand Sigil of Bloodlust
Bufffood: Omnomberry Pie and Maintenacne Oil
Combat Style: mainly dagger melee

Spectral Grasp can be substituted for spectral wall/armor, the signet for another well.

General Combat: pull your enemy, activate locusts, switch into ds and immediateley out, cast well, dagger1 and switch into ds in and out on cd.

Our vampire traits are only affected through traits, critchance and attacks per second. So we want as much critchance as possible and as much attacks per second as possible. With furious demise going you will have a 80% critchance. Lets say Dagger 1 + locusts + well are about 3 attacks per second and everyone crits:

3 × 38 heal on normal hits = 114
3 × 51 heal on crits = 153
1 × 453 (+healing power) heal from sigil = 453
3 × 325 heal from omnomnom = 975

= 1695 heal per second from one enemy.

Even without the omnomnom you leech 720 heal per second. I could facetank almost everything in the citadel of flame, in full berserker gear mind you.

You can go with knights armor and emerald orbs for a more tanky setup, but your dps will suffer.

I got me finally full rampager armor. I dont have those ascended stuff, so I use a mix of berserker and carrion for the jewelery.

I went with 2x Lyssa, 2x Mad King and 2x Hoelbrak runes on the armor, while using sigil of battle on both offhands.

With bufffood I have 96% condition duration for all conditions, which let me exploit Target the Weak even more. In this context I use Weakening Shroud, Chill of Death (though not so happy about this one) and Withering Precision.

Through the sigils of battle and the 20% longer might buff of the Hoelbrak runes I have a pretty easy time stacking might.

I am impressed with the build and its damage output, but it is very squishy, though the weakness debuff helps alot.

they should just add a fifth skill to ds:

drains your lf and heals your minions depending on the lf

123% longer bleed duration… I think it is capped at 100%. Either your scepter or lingering curse is a overkill.

Bone fiend alone without the damage trait is pretty good for a condition necro. It has 100% projectile finisher = more conditions if there are fields and walls. If they ever fix the spectral wall bug (the etheral combo field is where the necro is, not where the wall is) we may even have confusion as a condition.

Very nice guide, well done.

Though where is our new king of dots: fear?

There was a guide sometime ago with might stacking. Might on weapon swap, on hit, bip and reapers might etc.

And I absolutly thought so and I already admitted this mistake, so what is your point.

Anyway, I played a little while with those runes and while it is nice to have those buffs almost permantly, it is too cumbersome to always look at your buffs and use your healskill. It does actually proc when summoning and sacrificing your blood fiend. It does buff you minions output to about +100 damage per swing, though the critrate was still pretty low.

3,5k per explosion, should have made it clearer.

but youre right, putrid isnt affected by anything, except training of the master, sadly.

5400 attack power in lich form with only 15 might.

3850 attack power every 30 seconds.

hmhm, putrid explosion hit for 7k XD

Grants 3 stacks of might + fury every 10 second when using the healing skill.

Also offers 165 healing power and 15% boon duration.

With minion master we can heal every 16 seconds.

Permamight/fury anyone?

Makes me want to build a semi support/minion build/armorset.

Sprawl.3891:

the qq has already started

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/New-Necro-Downed-state

lol, now we are the true masters of death

The thing with vulnerability: not only you do more damage, everyone else does too.

- Signet of the locusts doesn’t stack with spectral walk
- Spiteful Marks instead chill of death
- Mark of Evasion… you want to attack from afar, maybe you should ditch blood alltogether and get 15 in Soulreaping for a free Spectral armor and another 5 in death for a little power boost
- Go scepter (range) or dagger (pull+root)

Though it all heavily depends on your gear choice.

gamefreak.5673:

Alex.4186:

how is performing in dungeon? i’m gearing armor and weapon full soldier and trinket knights (without the medallion) to stack some precision, i dont really need 28 k health for dungeon if i have so much toughness, and some more precision truly help

Well you wont be dying easily but i feel running this setup in instances a bad idea since the longer a mob can live the more chances you have for things to go wrong. Instances are one of the few times i will go all out damage whether it be a hybrid of condition and power, too just straight power and or conditions.

With my necros naturally high health i find getting more toughness and health just slows down the group and doesnt add really much else. This is just how I feel about them. I have 5 exotic sets of gear from instances so I could have an armor set to fill any role i want to play as. I can strongly say the more damage the group does as a whole the better the chances the instance will go in most cases.

Everyone does actully have to play, dodge and such but everyone going for damage just seems to work better then everyone trying to build for support and bunker setups.

True, but soldier offers high damage + survivebility.

Full soldier armor/weapons with emeralds + berserkers jwelery, still have 30 cc and 30 cd

axe mastery adds ~15% damage to your lifeblast.

lets make it a skill which deserves the name “reanimator”:

every time a minion dies, there is a 33% chance another one will reappear to take his place to his masters bidding.

Level, build and armor setup would help.

as Zoke said, we have to use multiple skills to add bleeding, so it goes from 7 from scepter#1/procs, 12 seconds scepter#2, 14 seconds dagger#5 and blood is power for 42 seconds.

Other classes have it probably easier to apply conditions, but epidemic rules them all.

Go berserk, you wont be often the target, bone fiend is the aggromagnet somehow. Or rampager for hybrid. The health siphoning gives you more than enough survivebility. WvWvW dont go minions.

Full rabid gear, carrion accessoirs, veggie, tuning crystal maintaining 12+ stacks at 160/tic, while having very high toughness and high hp.

Though the power of the condition necro isn’t the damage, every class can reach those numbers, some even higher. It is the spreading of conditions via epidemic, turning boons into conditions and sending conditions on your group to the enemy.