In response to a request made by Bellissima for the necromancer subforum i post this guide commenting my personal build including general info on spiteful spirit. If it fits the bill, move this thread to the subforum, otherwise nevermind.
The stubborn ss guide :
Intro :
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We all know that the basic idea behind an ss necros is an aoe dmg dealer. Spreading ss at multiple foes of the same mob targeting either assassin, dervish or warrior is how we’re perceived by other players, but there’s more to it.
If you don’t have the luxury of a tank, necro’s have a huge disadvantage due to low armor. While an ss necro can take out an entire mob, he’ll die before them if he’s their main target. The goal would be to overcome this problem and assure that under high pressure the necro outlasts the mob ( Godlike satan showed us that an 55hp ss necro was one of the strongest builds around able to solo farm both fow and uw, and much credit goes to him for awakening my interest in spiteful spirit ). After buying prophecies for the sole purpose of getting ss I tried to come up with a build that withstands any odds, an all-terrain build so to speak. I’ll start with some history and come to a detailed description of the stubborn ss build, how I like to call it, and it’s upgraded version since the release of Gw:en.
History and comment on often seen skills:
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The initial builds ( when I joined gw about a year ago ) used manly a combination of spiteful spirit, reckless haste and arcane echo. Back then energy wasn’t an issue and mobs didn’t flee. Hard mode didn’t exist either. You were able to cast away without ever looking at your energy bar and reckless haste was all the defense you needed.
Back then I favored an alternative to arcane echo. Fast casting weapons were sufficient to get ss on multiple foes and arcane echo despite that it didn’t require attribute points wasn’t my favorite. While arcane echo costed 15 energy and boosted only one skill at the time, serpent quickness costed 5 energy and accelerated the recharge of all your skills. Going ranger secondary using wilderness survival also meant having access to troll unguent which provided a huge boost in endurance.
Pve Necro/Ranger ss build :
curses 16 ( +1 scar +3 rune )
soul-reaping 11 ( +3 rune )
wilderness survival 10
equip an Kaolin accursed staff ( +10 energy, +30 life )
life = around 400 ( major rune )
energy = around 40
Spiteful spirit (e)
Reckless haste
Defile enchantments
Desecrate enchantments
Insidious parasite
Parasitic Bond
Serpent's quickness
Troll unguent
Of course many things changed when soul-reaping was nerfed and this build is outdated but before this happened the endurance of my necro was more than satisfying. For the purpose of this guide however further detailing is unnecessary, but you get the idea of how I played my necro prior to the nerf and what I tried to recover afterwards. As for the arcane echo builds, they’re still around and kicking given some energy-managment like the signet of lost souls or increasing the maximum energy.
By now I’d like to give a brief comment on some skills often used alongside spiteful spirit :
Insidious parasite – a foe suffering both insidious parasite and spiteful spirit doesn’t last long and the hp gain triggered by his attacks considerably reduces the damage he can inflict upon you. As such it’s more a defense skill than a life-stealer however it’s vampiric feature comes in handy against certain enemies invulnerable to any other type of dmg.
Parasitic bond – considering that the number of enemies in a mob diminish fast under spiteful spirit and that it’s fast recharge and low cost allow to put it on several of them the life gain gets mostly triggered by deaths instead of the time limit making it a good healer for an ss necro.
Defile/desecrate enchantments – it’s one of the best aoe dmg skills after spiteful spirit that the curse line has to offer and in all honesty seeing 4 lines of dmg-points popping up over the heads of a mob is pure pleasure ( spamming spiteful spirit, insidious parasite, defile enchantments and desecrate enchantments on one mob ) ; it also gives more control over a fight because you trigger the dmg instead of the enemy, hence it’s useful to accelerate the mob’s demise but also to snipe a monk for example.
Awaken the blood – the attribute boost increases the dmg output of spiteful spirit which at 16 points in the curse line remains otherwise at a low 37 and it’s only condition remains a higher loss when sacrificing health, something an ss necro doesn’t have to worry about, also it can be held up indefinitely if you put enough into the attribute.
Reckless haste – an obvious choice to combine with spiteful spirit, it increases both the enemies attack speed and their chances to miss with an attack so spiteful spirit will kill them faster and you’ll take less dmg.
Arcane echo – the huge advantage is that it isn’t linked to an attribute-line, and you’ll cast ss simultaneously at two foes.
Hexer’s vigor – the newcomer which is an excellent choice, given your build is essentially made out of hexes ( my master of whispers uses the following with 16 curses, 11 soul-reap and 10 illusion : hexer’s vigor, parasitic bond, reckless haste, spiteful spirit, rez signet, images of remorse, wandering eye, conjure phantasm )
Stubborn ss build :
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This build is my personal choice of skills to use as a necro ss which satisfied my requirements and provided countless hours of fun to play. The catch is that I also had fun creating it and don’t want to discourage other players from developing their own build by posting mine. Nevertheless I support posting builds on forums to inspire others. So by all means this is just one among many other builds out there that deserve equal credit, just a build I fine-tuned for myself but might give ideas to other forum-readers.
Skills
Vital boon (5e)
Conviction (5e)
Mystic regenration (10e)
Awaken the blood (10e)
Defile enchantments (10e)
Desecrate enchantments (10e)
Insidious parasite (15e)
Spiteful spirit (15e)
Stats :
16 curses (sup rune +scar)
10 soul-reaping (sup rune)
9 earth prayers
6 blood magic
Weapon : Grim ghostly staff :
Energy +15
Dark damage: 11-22 (Requires 9 Soul Reaping)
Halves skill recharge of spells (Chance: 20%)
Enchantments last 20% longer
Energy +5 (while Health is above 50%)
Health & energy :
440hp ( 2x vitae, sup rune, revenant armor )
50e ( grim ghostly staff )
4 bip natural energy gain
Defence : +24 armor, bonus hp for a total of 516hp and 9 bip hp regeneration
Vital Boon : enchantment spell, for 20 seconds you have +76 maximum health, when this enchantment ends you are healed for 150 health
Conviction : stance, for 25 seconds you have +24 armor while enchanted, otherwise you have +3 health regneration.
Mystic regeneration : enchantment spell, for 20 seconds you have +3 health regeneration for each enchantment on you ( it counts itself as one enchantment )
I consider it important for an ss necro to be able to stand his ground while spiteful spirit finishes killing the aggressors. The armor boost is the response to the low armor necros have to deal with. Additional endurance come from the 9-bip regen that counters all conditions and hexes that might affect you. This works better than most condition/hex removal skills available in the game. The increased maximum health is welcome due to the cost of superior runes. Also vital boon grants you a health gain when it ends making it the best of it’s kind. Otherwise you’ll always have to pay attention when the return to normal health occurs and might kill you.
With these dervish skills your able to stand your ground both against melee fighters and casters for 20sec and if you put some attention to the duration, reapplying them when needed works fine as well.
Indirect damage : 51dmg single target + 41dmg aoe triggered by ennemy attack
Awaken the blood : enchantment spell, for 30 seconds you gain 12 blood magic amd +2 curses but whenever you sacrifice health, you sacrifice 50% more than normal amount
Insidious parasite : hex spell, for 16 seconds, whenever target foe hits with an attack, you steal 47 health from that foe
Spiteful spirit : elite hex spell, for 21 seconds, whenever target foe attacks or uses a skill, spiteful spirit deals 37 shadow damage to that foe and all adjacent allies of that foe
With curses at 18 ( awaken the blood ) insidious parasite and spiteful spirit do pretty decent dmg. The additional health gain of insidious parasite works like a shield while inflicting dmg. Spiteful spirit triggers everytime the ennemy uses a skill making it useful against both mele fighters and casters. The best result can however be obtained on fast melee fighters like assasins and dervish.
Direct damage : 71dmg against target and adjacent foes, additional 23dmg against enchanted foes
Defile/desecrate enchantments : spell, target foe and all nearby foes take 64 shadow damage and 21 shadow damage for each enchantment on them
Defile and desecrate enchantments work wonder against dervish, wammos and monks, triggering them both one after the other will do great harm to mobs but they also can be used as sniper fire against monks and mesmers. The advantage of these is that you trigger them giving you more control over the fight. Of course combined with the previous mentionned indirect damage the spike dmg can be pretty nasty.
Energy management : 50 energy pool, 4 > natural regeneration, soul reap at 10
The grim ghostly staff has become my favorite but it can be replicated with an insightful head staff, an staff wrapping of enchantment and an strength and honor inscription using a base staff with +10 energy. Raising the energy pool has taken care of my energy problem. The energy cost was manageable under the 5sec cap ( i initially developped this build as response to the nerf ) and i'm having a lot of fun with the improved 15sec cap. If you find it nevertheless expensif take a necro mm along, his minions will provide a full energy gain out of soul reaping. You’ll have no problem getting your defenses up and throwing both ss and insidious parasite at the start of battle, continuing with defile/desecrate enchantments afterwards and reapplying defenses when needed.
Attributes :
16 points in curses : since your elite is from the curse line it’s natural to boost this line to the maximum.
10 points in soul-reaping : the gain of 10 energy points on 3 deaths during 15 sec seems sufficient considering the cost of the skills reaching from 5 to 15 points.
9 points in earth prayers : this allows a max energy gain of 76 and +3 hp regen per enchantment and align the duration of conviction close to the other defense skills.
This requires two superior runes, one of soul-reaping and one of curses. The health penalty is consequently high but with two vitae runes, revenant armor and a superior vigor rune your max health will be 440 hp which is sufficient for normal play. Additionally the max health gain from vital boon gives you 516 hp that will get you through more difficult regions of the game.
Another point of interest is the duration of your enchantments. For reapplying them as one it’s best to align their duration , making it easier to keep them up during a heated battle. The window with the current stats is 20 sec with an increase of 20%. Awaken the blood is a bit longer and remains unusable for a few sec before the recharge completes. Vital boon, conviction and mystic regeneration however match each other’s duration.
How to use the build :
Put your defenses up before engaging the fight by casting vital boon, conviction and mystic regeneration on yourself. If the mob is important also put awaken the blood up. Engage the fight with spiteful spirit and insidious parasite. Carefully choose your targets when doing so. Insidious doesn’t work on healers and should be used on the melee fighters that rush towards you to make use of it’s defense characteristic. Spiteful spirit goes on the type of enemy that is in the majority which provides a better chance to affect those that stay together. Foes that attack faster or multiple targets will work best. If a boss is part of group he’s the ideal choice of course for spiteful spirit and insidious parasite because he lasts longer. After this initial greeting, the energy will be up soon to start bombarding with defile/desecrate enchantments and recasting spiteful spirit or insidious parasite everytime they recharge. With a little getting used to, reapplying defenses after 20 sec becomes a reflex eventually keeping them up continuously.
In pve my heros are in general a warrior, a healer and a necro mm. The most comfortable place to take during battle remains the background while casting on enemies grouping up on the warrior or the minions. But the survival of the group depends also on your own ability to stay alive and with the build I’m using I don’t mind being in the center of battle. I’m very pleased with the rez scrolls you can obtain in the new expansion. The build having no place for a rez signet these are helpful when you’re the last one to stand, something that happens more often than expected.
My knowledge on pvp is limited but I enjoyed playing in alliance battles I discovered when raising my luxon points. Both assassins and dervish are easy prey. Once they realize that their attacks do more harm to themselves than their target, finishing them off with defile/desecrate enchantments while they try either to run or to heal is way too easy. Just stay away from shadow form and vow of silence users.
Your main nemesis are mesmers. Getting your skills interrupted and your energy stolen can mess up this build pretty bad and leave you with no defenses. The major flaw and something I haven’t found a appropriate response too is that the build has but little room for errors. It has no stand-alone skills, so the effectivness of one depends on the other. Preventing you from casting skills and making you waste your energy can be disastrous if done multiple times at the right moments.
Stubborn ss pve upgrade :
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Skills :
Great dwarf armor (5e) lvl 5
Mystic regenration (10e)
Awaken the blood (10e)
Enfeeble (5e)
Defile enchantments (10e)
Desecrate enchantments (10e)
Insidious parasite (15e)
Spiteful spirit (15e)
Stats :
16 curses (sup rune +scar)
10 soul-reaping (sup rune)
8 earth prayers
8 blood magic
Weapon : Grim ghostly staff
Great dwarf armor : enchantment spell, for 24 seconds, target ally has +24 armor, +60 maximum health, and an additional +24 armor against destroyers
Enfeeble : spell, target suffers from weakness for 21 seconds
With the release of new skills I found a way to replace conviction by an enchantment which also can fulfill the function of vital boon at the same time, freeing one skill slot without diminishing the builds effectiveness. I replaced vital boon and conviction with great dwarf armor that lasts for 24 sec at lvl 5 of the dwarven title but can reach up to 40sec with a higher title.
It being an enchantment provides the requirements to keep a hp regen of 9bip thx to mystic regeneration. The ideal lvl would be 8 I presume since the duration would align with awaken the blood. My max health will be 500 round which doesn’t change much compared to 516 from before. I lose the health gain provided by vital boon when it ends but I have a response for that if it bothers anyone, you can use parasitic bond ( instead of enfeeble ) which has the same cost as conviction, provides 125 hp not only when it ends but also when the foe affected by it dies. Basically I preserved the initial stubborn ss build but freed one slot.
I choose enfeeble over parasitic bond ( both with the same energy cost than conviction ) because I managed before without the gain from vital boon ( most of the time I reapplied it before reaching the end of it’s duration which cancels the gain ) and because I preferred diminishing the dmg during 20sec over gaining health after 20sec.
One major benefit of this upgraded version is that the great dwarf armor can be used on allies and enfeeble can diminish the dmg output of foes targeting these allies. The two new skills can be used for your own defense or for the benefit of the members of your group, adding a support function to the build.
I rearranged the attributes in order to lengthen awaken the blood and bring it closer to it’s recharge time. Mystic regeneration gives +3 regen per enchantment regardless of lvl 9 or lvl 8. Eventually I’ll align the duration of the great dwarf armor gaining both energy and facility in using the build.
Hope this inspires other players and gave some inside on playing a necro ss. Have fun with it.
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