Here is one that allows you to stack a number of conditions and then spread them around. This build is all about damage over time, and using dodge/grasping hands is crucial to staying alive. http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fQUQ...KYMwIgxCjDGJMA
Start fight with Grasping Hands (2), followed up by Enfeebling Blood (5). When any skill is on cooldown, spam your Curses (1).
At this point, you have two options:
1. You have taken little damage, and want to really start stacking those conditions. Use Corrosive Cloud (7) and Blood is Power (8), IMMEDIATELY followed by Deathly Swarm (4). What this ability does is pass those conditions that you've put on yourself to the enemy. Follow this up with Epidemic (9), and all of the enemies in the area of that target will now have every condition you just stacked. Powerful stuff. Follow this up with a trip into Death Shroud, popping Life Transfer/Fear/Dark Pact to clean up.
2. You have taken a bit/a lot of damage, and are more concerned with staying alive. Instead of using deathly swarm, in the chain above, use Consume Conditions (6) as needed - You'll be healed for anywhere from 25-50% depending on how many conditions you've stacked on yourself.
Traits:
- Curses first, then Spite (start of build)
More about build here.
This build will cock-block you hard on the Burrows fight in AC explorable. Just a word of warning, Conditions and marks do not affect environmental objects. That's why I'm currently running a Dagger/Focus + Staff Power build. You won't be able to kite as much but you can take down squishier targets in Dagger a lot faster than in Scepter.
What build are you using? What abilities for your 6-0 buttons, and what talent "trees" are you using? I'm curious, I do need another build for situations where I need to do more physical damage. Also, why Dagger/Focus instead of Dagger/Dagger? Just curious.
Or if anyone has a good Dagger/Dagger or Axe/Dagger build, with a staff as the other weapon, please feel free to contribute. I like playing around with different specs until I find something I like.
---------- Post added 2012-09-07 at 10:40 AM ----------
This is pretty much what I'm running with now, except for Epidemic, I was using a pet to "hold aggro" for a bit. I will give this a try-thank you!
Last edited by VibrantViolet; 2012-09-07 at 02:43 PM.
Don't give up. Here, have some common pvp builds. ^_^
Power Necromancer: http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fQAQ...oqxUjoGbNuak1A
Utilities depend on what you need for your team composition. Common choices are Corrupt Boon, Plague Signet, and your choice of well. Consume conditions is not even debatable as a heal.
This build focuses on using Axe/Warhorn to put pressure through dps and dazing important moves (Eviscerate, Venoms, Heal, and etc). Then using your Staff to burst your target down fearing when necessary (heals, stomps, revives). If you are fighting a melee stack your marks on yourself.
Runes are pretty much always Divinity. And Sigils are subjective, I like my choice though.
For traits I take 30 spite for the +300 power. 10+ spite for the crit and 33% chance to gain life force on crits, 30 in soul reaping for the survivabiltity and extra crit damage.Taking Axe Training for the damage increase and cooldown reduction (bugged currently.). I take Reapers Might to stack Might when in Death Shroud. And the signet recharge to better redistribute conditions. For Soul Reaping I take Near Death due to the recent nerf to stability in DS, I take a second longer fear, and life force drains 25% slower.
Power Tank Build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fQAQ...oqxUjoGbNuak1A
This is a build focused on being tankier, with consistent damage from the Axe. Compared to my power build it only loses like 5% crit, and 100 power. It gains toughness, and you fear people when CC'ed. Double Spectral Armor (one from the trait) and the Well of Power gives 3 seconds of protection each time. Same scenario as above, but points in death magic for some extra toughness.
Conditionmancer: http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fQAQ...rPOfk+sCZEy0DA
Utilities depend on what you need for your team composition. Common choices are Corrupt Boon, Plague Signet, and your choice of a well or Blood is Power. Consume conditions is not even debatable as a heal.
This build focuses on applying bleeds and conditions through the use of the Scepter/Dagger combination and Staff 2nd weapon set. You stack as many bleeds and conditions, and use your blind (4 ability) to spread them (when you have some on you. it spreads per bounce). Switch to Staff and go hammy with it. I will have a section dedicated on how to use your marks. Use the fear to disrupt the enemy team wisely (long cd).
For traits I go 10 in spite for the signet reduction and condition duration, 30 in curses for the condition damage, 20 in Death Magic for survivability, and finally 10 in Blood Magic for reduced Dagger CD.
In Curses I go Linger Curse for extra duration on my Scepter conditions, second is up to you as a player. You can take Reapers Precision for easier life force gain, or the corruption reduction if you are a Epidemic build.
20 In Death Magic is essential for Survivability in this build. Especially when you have pistol whip Thiefs and Frenzy warriors running around. This way they are feared when stunning you initially. This effectively gives you 4 fears if you count the corrupt boon - stability too. Shrouded removal helps you get rid of conditions making this the MOST effective condition removal and control build possible.
10 in Blood for the dagger cd which helps you get more bleeds/weakness off and spreading more conditions with Deathly Swarm (a overlooked ability).
For Runes I take the standard condition damage runes 3 Krait 3 Affliction. And for sigils you take the 60% chance for a bleed on crit, and Geomancy on the dagger. Then whatever you want on the Staff.
Conditionmancer AoE: http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fQEQ...rPOfk+sqYQyGEA
This build is similar to the one above, except it has different utility skills, These skills are based more on AoE condition control. You can drop Corrupt Boon for Well of Corruption, because it is AoE and shares the same cool down give or take.
Whole necro pvp guilde: http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/...omancer-guide/
I've personally been leaning towards this actually, though I have no personal experience in how effective it actually is. I just really like Death Shroud, and would love to find effective ways to make it work. Spectral skills really catch my eye as well, since they offer Protection and Swiftness (isn't Spectral Armor a stun break?).
I figure, alternative method, sacrifice 10 points in Blood Magic to get Target the Weak and Withering Precision (but that puts more reliance on conditions, and sacrifices some defensive utility, for a removable condition).
I guess it's not "Power" heavy, but I would certainly focus primarily on Power and Precision for the gear. I think as a Necro, you can never really fully avoid conditions, and will always have some reliance on them. Going into Soul Reaping gives me Prowess, so I now have great value on critting. Going down Curses (not necessarily for the Precision, but it's a factor), also gives Malice, and causes your crits to proc that one-second Bleed.
But I just like to think of that as extra damage.
I'd like to think this build has good survivability - lots of support for using Death Shroud and building Life Force quickly, traits like Last Gasp and Full of Life, and then there's the obvious Lich Form (does it still double HP?)
I have been tempted to go for Minions/Death Shroud, instead of Spectral/Death Shroud. Different ways to achieve the same thing.
Last edited by DrakeWurrum; 2012-09-07 at 09:43 PM.
I hope you haven't forgotten my role in this little story. I'm the leading man. You know what they say about the leading man? He never dies.
If you give in to your impulses in this world, the price is that it changes your personality in the real world. The player and character are one and the same.
haven't read through this massive thread but what is their state in pvp right now? i read on another forum that they're pretty bad because a lot of the skills are targetted and they're pretty easy to dodge and avoid?
i've always enjoyed the thought of playing a necro class but not many other games had them on offer so i was wondering if it's worth deleting another toon to make room for one? cheers!
Lot of warhorn love on these power builds. Never would have thought. I've been rocking Dagger or Focus offhand pretty exclusively. Guessing the kiting utility on the horn is pretty essential later on? (I just hit 20 on Necro so it hasn't been super essential to this point.)
Mountains rise in the distance stalwart as the stars, fading forever.
Roads ever weaving, soul ever seeking the hunter's mark.
I can't help but feel like that increased boon duration isn't particularly beneficial to the Death Magic trait line... primarily because it feels like it's primarily about minions.
Am I alone in this?
If Dark Armor was, say, "Gain X seconds of protection while channeling" that could cause that protection to linger past the channel, I could maybe understand. There's very little that Necros can do in regards to boon application in general...
Last edited by DrakeWurrum; 2012-09-07 at 10:30 PM.
I hope you haven't forgotten my role in this little story. I'm the leading man. You know what they say about the leading man? He never dies.
If you give in to your impulses in this world, the price is that it changes your personality in the real world. The player and character are one and the same.
Dagger / Focus + Staff Necromancer
As always, utilities in any given builds should be taken with a grain of salt. Use your best discretion and pick whichever utilities fits your current situation and team composition.
Dagger / Focus mainly because of the number 4 ability, Reapers Touch. Though the benefits of this skill is many, the most important thing to note is that it adds Vulnerability. A lot of it. On any single target the skill will bounce 4 times (the tool is wrong, it's not 3), applying 6 stacks of Vulnerability (2 to the target and regen to yourself/an ally). Combined with Spectral Wall and Well of Corruption, you have the potential to have 9% increase damage whenever you use this combination in a fight.
As for stats, I'm currently fiddling with a Power + Precision + Vitality. The increased critical chance coupled with the traits has so far yielded promising results. I also use a similar build in PVP. My video is here if you wanna see how effective it is.
The playstyle of the build revolves around dagger doing damage. You'll want to be in staff for openers, applying every mark (save maybe the fear if you need to use it in clutch situations that require an interrupt/disruption), then immediately switch to dagger and apply Reaper's Touch. All the while laying down well of corruption for aoe/Vulnerbility and Spectral wall for the Protection/ Vulnerbility. Switch to Deathshroud and hit them with a Life Blast to apply another stack of Vulnerbility and then just go to town and watch your crits fly with Dagger in the main hand.
Last edited by nighties; 2012-09-07 at 10:32 PM.
I've found the Warhorn to be pretty much a complete piece of crap. Speed boost and small AoE DoT + Daze, which isn't as amazingly useful as it may appear. There have been times when I wish I had that speed boost, and then I remember 'Oh wait, why would I want the speed boost? It's a piece of crap' then I happily trundle slowly towards my destination knowing that I picked a weapon that's more useful.
Best I've seen is the well I have which converts conditions to boons, even then it ticks once a second for 5 seconds, meaning a maximum 5 boons given, and like 50% of the boons I get are vigor boons which are pretty much useless most of the time because I hardly need to dodge.
I have +400 toughness while chanelling which is amazingly useful because it basically makes me into a tank while I'm siphoning life. I carry the condition conversion well around for poison, because that messes with my build too much.
Swiftness isn't so crappy as you might think. O_o
It's really useful for chasing as well as running away. Oh, they leap in? Well, now they have decreased movement speed, and you still have increased movement speed. It's worth noting that the Focus #5 can only Chill one target (unless you also blow a utility skill), while the Warhorn combination of #3 and #5 allows you to keep packs of enemies snared.
I personally like doing Dagger/Dagger with Axe/Warhorn over the other options. The Focus is nice, but I just prefer the Warhorn, with it's interrupt and how well it helps kiting multiple targets.
I hope you haven't forgotten my role in this little story. I'm the leading man. You know what they say about the leading man? He never dies.
If you give in to your impulses in this world, the price is that it changes your personality in the real world. The player and character are one and the same.
I'm with you. Warhorn to me sounds like it's better suited for PVP (and even then I rather use a Focus). Staff is pretty quintessential in any PVE (outside boss fights) situations because of its fear slow bleeds and condition transfer abilities. I don't feel the need to kite with warhorn because of Staff, I suppose.
Warhorn is also good for chasing down people running away, particularly if you do use dagger/dagger you will only have access to the 600 range immobilize for grabbing people, not including other utilities ofc.
Thing is, drake, I'm built like a brick shithouse. I never need that running away/kiting, because I just run in, enfeebling blood, pop down well of suffering, death shroud and use my 4 ability and every mob is already at 30%. The conal daze seems really good but I've actually found it to be pretty crap in the long run, compared to the multi target blind and weakness my daggers can do.
I used Dagger/Warhorn at first cause I thought it looked cool and I absolutely love the locust swarm for its sound and appearence but I found it only to be good for swapping to warhorn, popping the buff, swapping back and carry on running. I never found myself using it that much in combat.
Should also be mentioned that I don't need to chase people down because I use Necrotic Grasp which is a 1200 range pull and chill. It's insane.
Considering that controlling the enemy is JUST as important in PvE as it is in PvP...
How do you figure?
Well, not everybody is. :P
I agree that the off-hand Dagger #4 is ridiculously good, but I don't see the conal Daze as terrible, either. I like Warhorn much more than Focus, and the off-hand Dagger doesn't help with kiting/chasing.
I hope you haven't forgotten my role in this little story. I'm the leading man. You know what they say about the leading man? He never dies.
If you give in to your impulses in this world, the price is that it changes your personality in the real world. The player and character are one and the same.
Spinal Shivers (Focus 5 ability) and Chillblains (Staff 3) applies -66% movement speed. Both of which are 1200 range (max without spec traiting into increased range).
With Staff and Deathshroud, you really don't need another interrupt. Though Wail of Doom is particular good at what it does, the trade off for damage just isn't worth it (imo for my build). If I were a Deathshroud + Power necro it'd be a different story however :P
Last edited by nighties; 2012-09-07 at 10:46 PM.