Please tear down my necro!

[sorudo]

yah, here i am killing whole groups that takes a group of 3 to kill and you say my build doesn't work.........
i did misread some of the traits so i fixed it: http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simul....10.25.20.15.0

well of blood does work btw, consume conditions is fun for a one shotter but when you fight multiple enemies it's best to have a AOE defense that stays for about 5 seconds.
terror saved me many times, since i use the staff allot of times it can keep enemies away and when you time it right you can actually keep the enemy away for a longer period of time.

oh and btw, my necro is both offensive and defensive, don't underestimate it.

[Alaris]

Hey Sorudo.

I noticed you use 3 wells, plus some traits that add wells, yet you don't have any trait that make wells more effective. Maybe you could work some of those into your build:

Curses
Focused Rituals (m) - Well skills use ground targeting.

Death Magic
Ritual of Protection (a) - Wells apply protection for 3 seconds when cast.

Blood Magic
Ritual Mastery (m) - Wells recharge 20% faster.
Vampiric Rituals (gm) - Wells also siphon health every time they pulse.

If you drop all points in spite, and the last 5 in curses, you could invest that in blood.

[Lensor]

Thanks guys for some great ideas! Since I don't really know what I want beyond some vague ideas it is very helpful to see some different kinds of reasonings. I'll try out some things in game and hopefully I will be able to meld it to a "main build" which fits my play style.

Agree that Terror seems lame numberwise. Sadface.

BTW, the way I've heard it is that conditions are kind of bad in very high end PvE. Is this true? In which case I am thinking to scale back on the conditions again.

I should probably also mention that I have always been somewhat of a "wanting to make something great out of what feels right to me" kind of gal, and I can be quite stubborn in trying different ways to get something to really work (not just passably, but actually well). From my WWS ama in D2 that ended up a total beast when everyone else were doing crossbows or javelins, to picking a hammer-wielding Rit for a guild RA challenge

Guess what I am trying to say is that I have tried all the weapons and for some reason Axe + Focus / Staff just "clicked" for me. I would therefore love to be able to come up with a way to do really well using these weapons. Do note though, I am not looking for a "snowflake" build where I am stuck with a bad build just to be super duper special, quite the opposite. I have absolutely no problems running meta builds, if they just "click" (hard to explain it heh, jeez I'm so cheesy!). Not sure if it is possible, but I sure hope so.

[The King of Dust]

Regarding Sorudo's build:

When using lots of wells, it does make sense to invest in blood, and the points invested in spite and the last 5 points invested in curses don't seem like they'd be all that useful in that build.

Plus, like Alaris said earlier, I don't like investing in traits made specifically for when you're downed. It seems like admitting defeat. I'd rather pick traits that will help me avoid getting downed in the first place. It could be potentially useful in pvp though. Especially combined with the bloodthirst trait (blood magic trait # 2 : siphoning health is 50% more effective. Really helps with the necro's downed skill #1)

At least it makes a lot more sense now with the fixed traits.

[RabidCoqui]

yah, here i am killing whole groups that takes a group of 3 to kill and you say my build doesn't work.........

What groups are you referring to?

@Lensor
I believe the idea behind conditions being subpar in high lvl fractals is due to it taking longer to get full damage out of them and the goal is usually to kill as fast as possible.

[Hersir]

You are bit all over the place Lensor in your traits. As you said yourself vitality is not really needed. I'm not terrible impressed with unblockable marks either especially if you go for a damage build and won't be using staff most of the time. I'd suggest 30 Spite, 20 Curse, 20 spectral and balance it out with toughness gear to boost your survivability. Crit and power gear ought to be high on your list. I don't know how successful damage Necros are since I believe other classes can do it better even if less stylish.

Have you tried the warhorn in your offhand? Works well with the axe and those interrupts are very useful.

Dagger/Dagger Staff and wells also show some nice synergies with lifesteal.

I play a condition shroud version and use gear to cover some of my weak sides and it works quite well. http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#...7kGW70V7owX70m

With such a build the utility skills are quite different but corruption and corrosive cloud are always useful. I tend to go with corruption, blood is power and the almighty epidemic to maximise aoe. I haven't seen anyone beat me when it comes to aoe. Single target suffers a bit and ranged bosses needs to be handled with care.

Sorry Alaris. Don't do minions either and even use Plague as my elite for extra survival and more aoe.

Sorudo you are missing out on a lot of synergy there with your traits all messed up. I don't care how well you do with that. You could do better. On the other there's something to be said for familiarity but there's so many traits that are situational that I doubt you get max bang for your trait bucks.

[Hersir]

As for high level content I would postulate that a condition Necromancer won't be useless for two reasons. Warning theoretical basis.

1: most fights are longer in higher levels. Necros do quite a bit if damage over time just not in bursts so thus doesn't suffer from this per se. Also dodging isn't as disruptive damage wise.

2: think of the Necro as a fluffer to use a newly minted term ;) managing conditions, blindness and cripple adds to survivability and weakness/vulnerability adds to damage.

If superhigh fractals have bosses immune to several conditions problems will arise...

[nkuvu]

BTW, the way I've heard it is that conditions are kind of bad in very high end PvE. Is this true? In which case I am thinking to scale back on the conditions again.

I can't say I've done anything in high end PvE, but from what I've read:

Conditions are problematic due in part to caps -- like the bleed cap which is frequently reached. If I'm applying bleeding to an enemy that's already capped, I'm not doing anything. And a lot of my skills apply bleeding.

I'm not exactly sure how it works, but if the enemy is bleed capped, and someone else comes along and applies bleeding, my strong bleeding may be overwritten with the other player's short, weak bleeding.

In regular game play, I've run into a few enemies that are resistant (in one case, entirely immune) to condition damage. The scepter damage alone is pretty weak. This also applies to destroyable objects -- I remember pretty much going AFK while my necromancer was destroying krait turrets in Mount Maelstrom. Though I don't know how common condition resistance is in dungeons. (side note: By condition resistance, I mean enemies that cause conditions to expire extremely quickly. Blaize, an NPC in the human personal story line, is one such example -- I've never seen more than one stack of bleeding on him, even immediately after he stands in a Mark of Blood)

And of course on top of this there's the time it takes for condition damage to do its work. But that was mentioned already.

[The King of Dust]

The Unshakable buff that most champions receive is a real pain for necros. Makes blind only 10% effective, and cuts down duration of vulnerability and weakness by 50%. It gives a big advantage to professions that are good at dealing direct damage and blocking attacks. And the Defiant stacks makes fear almost useless too.

At least the damage dealing conditions aren't affected.

[Hersir]

My main staples are weakness and bleeds coupled with might on myself and that tends to work. Something that doesn't always work either is corruption since some champions have permabuffs.