Ruby orbs and for sigils its really dependant on what you feel you need more of. I tend to use frailty on my dagger mainhand so i can stack vuln with that auto attack. I use force on my axe and accuracy on my offhands. Bloodlust is also a good option but you dont often get to fully stack it in dungeons so i found it was more beneficial to me to use force instead. I have my offhand on my second set with the energy sigil so i can get an extra dodge. But its really up to you.
In short the most common zerker sigils are: Force/Bloodlust/accuracy. But frailty is also pretty good on necro dagger. Zerker necros dont get alot of boons so they support the team by stacking vuln which is why i like frailty.
You guys do realise you can get focus skins which are tomes/books? Plus some of the other weapons mentioned can also come under skins for daggers and so on. Any kind of non magical range weapon would not fit the necro at all. So that rules out pistols/crossbows/rifles. I would however like to see a more dps based cleave melee weapon. So that would either be the sword main hand or a 2h axe/scythe. And if they do added a 2h axe. There will most likely be scythe and polearm skins for it.
I also use a zerker wells build. And though i probably trait differently to you. I would recommend the same gear. I dont use any runes as i find that ruby orbs give better stats for going full zerker. For sigils i use frailty/force with accuracy in off hand on my dagger + warhorn. I had bloodlust with energy on my axe + focus. But if you run dungeons alot and especially if your group skips some trash your not going to get much benefit out of bloodlust or perception. So i now take force instead of bloodlust. But if you still want to stack something then I would stick with perception as necro’s tend to lack precision more than they lack power. Energy is great for that extra dodge when you switch to your second weapon set, especially seeing as necro’s have a lack of dodging and vigor.
Pretty sure conditions dont damage you in DS. I often switch to DS to wait for burn to run out if my heal is on cooldown. And it doesnt seem to drain my lifeforce any faster as far as i can tell.
Bas did you play MM in gw1? MM in gw1 was completely different and worked a hell of alot better even though your minions would die constantly.
Oh and people mentioning marks. I would never recommend using the staff in any build unless you really need that 1200 range. Marks do poor damage with power builds and you barely get any condition damage/stacks out of them either. Plus the auto attack is the worst auto attack of any weapon of any class in the game. It makes the axe auto attack seem amazing.
Yeah with power builds, but otherwise Marks are pretty much what a Necro is about in GW2.
I like power builds but I drift back to the Necro’s AoE because it is solid and I can use it to apply to all situations without being boxed into a corner.
Yeah they are only good for some aoe control and support but generally should be avoided.
Bas did you play MM in gw1? MM in gw1 was completely different and worked a hell of alot better even though your minions would die constantly.
Oh and people mentioning marks. I would never recommend using the staff in any build unless you really need that 1200 range. Marks do poor damage with power builds and you barely get any condition damage/stacks out of them either. Plus the auto attack is the worst auto attack of any weapon of any class in the game. It makes the axe auto attack seem amazing.
The main thing i want is the ui on DS fixed. I can live without cleave but it would be nice seeing as necro’s are frontline aoe casters and the utility caster (mesmer) gets a really strong melee weapon instead of us. Everything else seems fine to me. Condition builds could be buffed in someway but I wouldnt know exactly how other than making the traits synergize more.
Just because im using wells doesnt mean im traiting into them at all. Its a complete waste to spec into blood magic when going bezerker. Im currently using 30/15/0/0/25. But i may change this when i finish getting ascended gear because the only thing i lack is precision. My crit damage is over 100% and my power is 2400 and i have 53% crit chance without fury and food. You really think you hit close to me outside of my wells? All my wells do is give me a nice extra burst of 24k damage over 5 seconds and apply vuln and corrupt boons. But most of my damage comes from DS spam along with contant rotation through dagger+warhorn and axe+focus. Plus lich form hits incredibly hard on this build.
Ok i was curious so I went and tested minion damage against well damage. Minions dont scale with stats and they do laughable damage compared to my wells even when im not speced for power at all. Yes their damage is better than i expected but the only way they could ever beat well damage is if you are in a fight for long enough for wells to come off cooldown several times. Which is not very often.
Minions are for survivability not damage. Plus i imagine you guys dont use dagger mainhand with a MM build so thats another reason my dps is gonna be leagues higher. Although this testing has made me think a little better of minions. For example in arah when we have pugs we tend to just range the whole time and i dont spec into focused rituals so i lose out on some damage on GL. So atleast now i know minions could be quite good in that fight. Thanks for the discussion, was enlightening.
I take Minions into every dungeon. The alpha issue has been fixed where they are not targeted. They don’t die instantly, they die 1 at a time, and while they are alive I have a constant source of healing. I run berzerker build, and The problem with wells is on any boss that moves you lose a significant portion of damage. Minions have no issues on 90 percent of the fights as long as you understand that they will die, when they do my damage is the same as yours while waiting for CD’s to come up.
Tips to Minions in Dungeons: Always Bring Flesh Wurm – 1200 range, stun break, top damage, and never pulls aggro. Stick him away from the fight at about 600 to 900 and he won’t get hit by aoe issues.
Tip 2: Never bring shadow fiend – melee weak is great in pvp but pretty awful in dungeons though he can tank anything up to the Gold circle guys without dieing.
Tip 3: Bone Minions – Explosion = Amazing use it reguarly.
Tip 4: Bone Fiend is ranged begin your attack at max range and allow him to start attacking at his max range this will keep him far from the attack and keep him alive longer. Do not summon Flesh Wurm next to him – Bone Fiend has an odd aggro table and can pull threat off anyone at any time.
Tip 5: Realize they will die, just as you will miss with wells, get an evade on your big burst, your minions will die so expect it, and use them as minions. I use them as meat shields to soak up big hits that may kill me than resummon them later.
Very much doubt your damage is the same as mine. And most bosses wont move when your entire group or the majority of your group is in melee range. Theres also the use of imobalize or timing to make sure your wells arent wasted. Only fight i had an issue with wells is the champion abomination in CoE p2 and p3. But you generally all range him so he doesnt stack frenzy or you just skip him. And even then Ive worked out a way to get my wells to do atleast 4-5 ticks on him consistantly. You also shouldnt need to soak up damage if you manage your dodges and have DS for the odd time you dont have a dodge.
I don’t think CoF 1 should be the baseline for determining spec viability. That dungeon is purely about maximizing burst damage at the cost of everything else. As for taking minions into higher level dungeons, I have played every path of arah multiple times this entire week with the updated minions and have not had a problem with keeping them alive.
You can do every dungeon with full burst dps groups. Cof is just the fastest. How did you keep your minions alive in the GL fight. Cause i would of thought the aoe would instantly nuke them all.
My guild farms CoE quite alot now and I would never take minions into that dungeon. They would cause problems with the aoe circles from alpha and most likely die instantly anyway. Only dungeons that i can see minions being worthwhile are dungeons which are slightly harder to speedrun and the bosses dont have any large scale aoe attacks. So that limits the viability of a MM build. Bezerker wells is viable in all aspects of the game, including PvP, WvW and general PvE roaming.
I would never take minions into most high level dungeons the aoe’s from bosses are gonna cause some serious problems. My guild currently farms cof on a regular basis. We go for proper speedruns with a mesmer and 4 dps classes. Preferably warriors, but I currently only have the necro available and geared for that dungeon. But its no issue for the group because weve found that having a single bezerker necro actually keeps the dps just as high as having that 1 extra warrior. I may not be able to give the group might or other boons but the speed at which i can apply vulnerability and other conditions while doing huge burst is amazing. We can complete runs in 6-7 mins consistantly running 2/3 warrior, 1/2 mesmer and 1 necro.
Ofc when i finish leveling my warrior i will probably be taking that instead. But the necro certainly makes up for lack of auto attack dps with vuln stacking and high damage wells. Most bosses get burst down in around 10-20 seconds so there is no need for cooldown reduction on wells.
Got the crossing the other day even though I generally dont use a staff unless i desperately need 1200 range. Also have Adam for my focus skin. Plan on getting jormag’s needle for my dagger. Currently have the godskull skin on my axe but plan on getting frostfang. Also using the godskull skin for my warhorn. If i ever go back to using a scepter i will probably be using the wayward wand skin from gw1.
Zerker. Dont need survivability when you have deathshroud and almost permanent lifeforce. Even with slightly low AR you can tank alot of condition and agony damage with DS and get away with alot more than most classes.
I said what i said because it could of been done a hell of alot better. His points dont make sense. Dark arts refer to any form of slightly shady magic. I know he was trying to make a joke and be humorous but the only part which made me laugh was how poor an attempt it was. I find it curious that i got my post deleted when ive seen people be far more directly rude to someone before and never seen anything come of it. And yes his general point is true which is quite depressing. But like ive said, it was a poor attempt but amusing all the same.
I have CoE chest and legs with the starter ghostly mask and shadow armour gloves and boots. Really happy with the look especially while holding the crossing or my axe with Adam.
All we need is a cleave melee weapon. Every other class has this option except engineers and eles. But they have alot of sustained long range aoe and piercing. Necro’s are supposed to be great aoe damage dealers and the wells suggest we should be doing that up close most of the time. So basicly were a frontline aoe caster with no aoe/cleave auto attack. Massive oversight imo. Id say give us a mainhand sword or if they do add polearms back into the game then we should have that as our cleave melee weapon.
All necros need is a cleave weapon and some slightly more power related traits in the curses tree. And DS UI needs to sorted. Its a joke that my party members can see all my conditions and boons but I cant just because ive popped my life line ability. What good is that if I cant tell when bleeds run out or if my fury is still up.
It wont go on a current skill, it will be a new slot skill entirely. And i cant think of any class that would make more sense to have a portal. Possibly engineers, but i think a spectral portal on necro’s makes more sense.
Dont know if this has been suggested but i really think this should be implemented.
I want to be able to save my traits and build so when i go to my class trainer and reset my trait points. I can simply load a saved build. This is so I dont have to remember all my different builds or write them down somewhere out of game. This feature was in gw1 and it really should be in gw2. Im not saying remove the cost of resetting traits or even remove the need to go to a class trainer. I just want to be able to save my build trait wise so i can reload an old build quickly without tediously going through all the major traits each time.
Ive always noticed necro’s are a lot more squishy than most classes in the downed state regardless of build or gear. Its probably to balance the lifesteal sustain while downed. But at times its just stupid.
OP has a poor solution but he does have a valid point. Its not worth traiting into blood magic for sustain as it pretty much provides enough sustain to counter act 1 stack of bleed and thats it. And it not being affected by healing power is a massive flaw and incredibly unfair. Also i find the dagger number 2 far too weak for stealing health. Sustain necro’s have been seriously overlooked by arenanet.
How many skills actually channel for a decent amount of time? and with a glass cannon build 400 toughness isnt going to save you. Id spec into curses or blood with those 10 points instead. Dagger + dagger isnt really viable imo. Your better off taking a focus or warhorn in the offhand. Use axe + focus or staff in second set. I tend to go dagger + warhorn and axe + focus.
If you know how to play a glass cannon necro you should have no problem with that build. I killed a mesmer last night just by immobalizing and then popping WoS and WoC on top of him. He stealthed so i ran past, looked behind and he was down already with my wells still ticking 1 last time. Even more tanky classes and builds will struggle to survive long enough to kill a zerker necro who knows how to use DS to stay alive. My combined wells do over 25k damage and you can easily cc some1 enough to keep them inside for the full duration. Plus thats only a small portion of your arsenal.
Outside of Fractals, minions are generally useful in dungeons, although there are a few boss fights where they can run into trouble (pretty much only boss fights). Besides that, they are incredible in sPvP, I use a bunker MM build that completely destroys people.
Surely this makes them useless in dungeons? Seeing as you spec for the bosses. The trash and elites are easy and should get downed in seconds. I would never use a build which is only strong against trash in a dungeon. Sounds counterproductive to me.
I’m wondering how well a hybrid would work, scepter/dagger and axe/focus for weapons.
Curiously, what would be the best choices for armor/traits/weapons for a power wells build?
For a power build I would use 30/10/0/0/30 with full beserker gear. But you can vary this a bit. I never trait into curses more than 10 on a power build because its a condition damage tree, the traits are condition traits and i can get the precision from gear instead. Although you can trait 20 into curses if you desperately want to place your wells from range. For weapons i use dagger + warhorn and axe + focus.
For a hybrid build I would use 30/30/0/0/10 with rampager gear. For weapons id use scepter + dagger and axe + focus. I always carry a staff around though, just incase i need it for a certain situation.
you more or less have 2 choices:
1. condition build (corruption utilities)
2. wells on a power build
you could run a death shroud focused build if you wanted too, but you wouldn’t bring much to the table outside of vulnerability.
Most decent power builds will involve traiting into spite and soulreaping. Only way id consider using condition builds in dungeons with a high dps group is if it was a hybrid condition build.
full power and wells is best for that type of group. Condition build wont let you maximise your dps b4 most mobs are already dead. Including some bosses.
I use a beserker power/lifeforce build for everything in pve. But when i fight lupi I switch my grandmaster trait on soulreaping to provide stability for 3 seconds when switching into DS. This is the only reliable way for a necro to get out of lupi’s dome. Unless you have a teammate who can give you stability for a few seconds. I always take signet of undeath to quickly res any1 who is in a particularly dangerous spot to be downed. And the standard damage dealing wells (well of suffering and well of corruption). My guild always bring a mesmer and we melee lupi on all stages except stage 3.
Feedback and timewarp on stage 2 to melee burn through his hp and quickly get him into stage 3. If your all inside feedback when he aoe’s it will reflect back at him and do some pretty good damage along with timewarp and going beserk as much as possible. So I dont take anything to survive his aoe’s. If something goes wrong I will just rely on dodges or DS to soak up damage. But really the key to beating lupi is just learning all his tells.
3 on dagger, pop wells and auto attack generally kills most people. And usually a thief stealths to get away but still gets downed inside the aoe because of chill, cripple or imobalize. Bring a friend with some extra long range cc or cripple and no theif will escape.
My wells do good damage but i dont spec into wells at all. Im speced for high damage and lifeforce so i can maximise damage 100% of the time. Wells add some damage at the start and stack vuln or remove boons. And if you dont spec into death magic your minions are gonna die far too fast and often so you are really wasting your utility slots imo. All the utility and effects the minions can give you, can be produced with different builds with more efficiency.
I designed this for dungeons but ive taken it into WvW and won every 1v1 fight. And in small groups ive managed to deal with being slightly outnumbered. I personally avoid the staff as much as possible but carry 1 around for the fear.
I wouldnt spec that much into curses as its a condition damage tree. I go full beserker because DS is all you really need to survive. Heres how I set out my necro:
Spectral grasp and well of corruption can and should be switched out for certain situations. Signet of undeath is very useful replacement for spectral grasp in difficult boss fights. Grandmaster trait on soul reaping can be changed to grant stability in deathshroud when needed (eg. GL in arah). I also tend to use life blast as my auto attack instead of axe. And if im low on lifeforce i switch to dagger and auto attack with that. Dagger is your auto attack and provides some control and kiting abilities. Axe provides burst and life force so you can use DS as much as possible. You can crit for 5k with lifeblast with this build.
If you know how to play the class, minions are the most reliable form of damage. They don’t have extended cd’s, and deal a really good chunk of damage. There are very few boss fights where they are not an added benefit.
Am i correct in thinking that its only viable to use minions if you trait into toughness? Because if so your missing out on alot of really powerful other traits. Beserker does way more damage. Ive tried almost every common build. Beserker i find is a clear winner. Just like it is on almost every class when doing PvE. I did try some minon master builds back when i was world exploring but i found it boring and wells were alot more efficient and reliable to nuke down large groups of enemies or even single targets.
Im not sure how you can say minions are a reliable form of damage. As soon as they die you’ve lost most of your dps. And they wont dodge a bosses aoe attacks which will kill them almost instantly. Minions are fine for exploring and general PvE but I would cringe if I was in a party with a minion master in a semi difficult dungeon.
Im all for minion masters being viable but unfortunately they arent nearly as good as they could be. I was a die hard mm in gw1 so i was pretty dissapointed with how they are in gw2. Would love them to be better, but they arent.
if you play WvW you should never play glasscannon anyhow.. I play Necro and I unless focused or frozen and with major skill lag i dont die.
and being a necro you arent there to do massive dmg, you are there to put conditions on the enemies, such as blinds, also removing conditions and boons.
a good powerbuild i heard can do hits for 4k, but ofcourse you will die all the time just like all glasscannons do.
You decide if its a class for you or not.
Completely disagree. Never lost a 1v1 with my glass cannon build. DS is too strong. So if you know how to play a necro properly and use DS properly you can do tons of damage and out survive any class in a 1on1. Only disadvantage is a necro cant get away from a large group (Have no reliable escape or disengage).
Full beserker power easily best for dungeons. Theres no need for survivability in PvE. Just dodge and dps. If your running with a high dps group chances are a condition build wont allow you to stack your conditions fast enough before the boss dies. Minions are far too unreliable in most boss fights and dont provide anywhere near as much dps as other builds. So beserker or Hybrid rampager are far superior in terms of speed running and general pve if you know how to play the class and you know the dungeons.
The problem is your building tanky which will make you survive a thiefs initial burst but whats the point in that if you cant finish him off afterwards. I run a full beserker power necro for pve. But ive taken her into wvw and never lost a 1v1. Thiefs have attempted to kill me and failed because of my deathshroud to tank the initial burst. Then i proceed to absolutely melt their hp. Which results in them stealthing and running for their lives. If they try to attack me again my lifeforce is usually back up along with my heal. So i can repeat until they run out of escapes or they decide its not worth it.
My point is necro’s shouldnt need any survivability for almost any build. Their DS is all you need to stay alive in most situations. You should spec for full glass cannon damage. Either wells or hybrid condition damage. Unless your playing a support necro but thats more of a spvp build.
Hi guys, I got the game on release and formed a guild with a large number of ex competative cod4 players who were switching over to gw2. Unfortunately most us stopped playing, including me for a while. So the guild is completely dead. But im back and Im really enjoying the game again.
I would like a guild with a friendly bunch of players who are up for doing dungeons and so on. Im quite a casual player and i prefer to play PvE but PvP is definately something id consider getting involved in with a fun group. So hit me up if your looking for anyone to join your ranks! :)
