Source: http://lopezirl.com/2012/12/30/a-condition-necromancers-guide-to-world-vs-world/
A Condition Necromancer’s Guide to World vs. World
Introduction
Hello, my name is Lopez. I’m a big Guild Wars 2 fan. Before Guild Wars 2, I played an extensive amount of MMORPGs. In World of Warcraft, I was a multi-season gladiator on my Death Knight. In Rift, I was a max-rank mage that usually ran a 51 warlock build. In Star Wars: The Old Republic, I was a high-ranked balance sage.
Now, in Guild Wars 2, I’m a condition necromancer. One of the most exciting features in Guild Wars 2 for me is the world vs. world, and I’ve spent a bulk of my game time taking keeps and defeating players in the Eternal Battlegrounds and borderlands. Now, I think my experience from other games and Guild Wars 2 has given me enough knowledge to write a guide on world vs. world. This guide is entirely built around condition necromancer in world vs. world, not structured PvP.
If you have any questions, feel free to send me a message on Twitter (@LopezIRL), in-game (Lopez), or email me ([email protected]).
Table of Contents
I. Why Condition Necromancer?
II. Weapon and Death Shroud Abilities
III. Traits
IV. Heals, Utility Skills, and Elite Skills
V. Gear
VI. Consumables
VII. Skill Priority
VIII. Tips for One-on-One Fights
IX.Tips for Group Fights
X. Other Tips
XI. Frequently Asked Questions
XII. Revisions and Additions
I. Why Condition Necromancer?
As always, the main answer is Epidemic.
Condition necromancer has the best area-of-effect (AOE) damage in the game. With Epidemic, condition necromancer can spread all the conditions on a target to up to five other targets. Not only can this be used for massive AOE damage if it spreads 25 stacks of bleeds, some stacks of confusion, burning, and poison, but it also has the benefit of spreading debuffs like blind, chilled, cripple, fear, immobilize, vulnerability, and weakness. This can shut down an entire group of players.
The mix of bleeds, poison, and direct damage is also great single-target damage. Once an enemy’s anti-condition defenses are broken through, bleeds and poison stack really fast to cause a lot of pain. It won’t be the burst of thief or mesmer, but it will be enough pressure to turn away raid groups and land kills.
That single-target damage also comes with the added benefit of being executed from range. While direct-damage builds tend to sacrifice damage at range, condition builds keep the same DPS and sacrifice burst instead. Being able to keep maximum range is a massive boost to survivability and damage potential, as will be explained later in the guide.
Condition necromancers also have awesome utility. Necromancers can apply poison, which reduces healing effectiveness by 33 percent, better than any other class. Epidemic can also be used to spread conditions like poison that will debilitate an entire enemy group. Corrupt Boon is one of the best boon removals in the game. Not only does it dispel boons on an enemy target, but it also turns those boons into conditions. Plague is also a very potent skill in group play. It provides a huge amount of toughness, and it also allows a necromancer to blind up to five targets for up to 20 seconds. This effectively crowd controls entire groups of enemy players. Condition necromancers also have two fears, a crowd control that can act as a stun, a distance builder, and a knockback at the same time.
Even when not built for conditions, necromancers have incredible survivability. Death Shroud is one of the best survivability cooldowns in the game. When used effectively, it can negate stuns and crucial burst damage. Clever use of Death Shroud can turn around a close one-on-one or group fight. It saves lives!
However, all of that does come with one major downside: a lack of burst. Necromancers, as ArenaNet has explained, are masters of attrition. Their access to AOE damage, condition damage, solid utility, and deadly debuffs is balanced out by a total inability to spike down a target’s health. Again, the class still does great single-target damage, but it’s not the kind of damage that produces huge numbers.
The other major downside is condition removal. Some classes, particularly elementalists, guardians, and other necromancers, can be a total pain due to their condition removal. While it doesn’t completely negate condition damage by any means, it does make it so condition necromancers have to break through one to three layers of condition removal before they can start doing real damage. This slows the build-up to maximum damage, but it can be overcome through some tactics that will be explained in this guide.
II. Weapon and Death Shroud Abilities
For condition necromancer, the obvious choices are scepter and dagger for primary damage and staff for longer range and utility. Trident is the best choice underwater due to its ranged capabilities, auto-attack, and crowd control.
Scepter and Dagger:
1. Blood Curse / Rending Curse / Putrid Curse: The first two attacks apply a bleed for 5 seconds default, and the third attack applies poison for 2 seconds default. Get ready to spam this a lot! When every other attack on scepter and dagger is on cooldown, this is the best damage option.
2. Grasping Dead: An AOE that applies cripple and three stacks of bleed for 7 seconds default. The cripple is great for building and creating distance on players, as well as securing kills on players trying to run away. The skill is probably the best damage cooldown while using scepter and dagger.
3. Feast of Corruption: Decent direct damage, and scepter’s main source for life force, which is used for Death Shroud. I use it when my other DPS abilities are on cooldown.
4. Deathly Swarm: Blinds and transfers one condition from the necromancer to its target, with the potential to bounce to up to three targets. This ability is incredible. When fighting a group of players, it can dispel up to three conditions. Coupled with Putrid Mark in staff and the Consume Conditions heal, a smart condition necromancer can turn damaging conditions to his/her advantage.
5. Enfeebling Blood: An AOE that applies weakness and two stacks of bleed for 10 seconds default. Pretty standard. It’s probably the second best damage cooldown while using scepter and dagger, and weakness is a very potent debuff on enemy players.
Staff:
1. Necrotic Grasp: Does direct damage through a piercing, slightly homing projectile. It’s a pretty terrible auto-attack. Spam it during downtime on cooldowns, but the terribleness of this attack is the main reason staff is only used for utility and damage at range. As long as moving in doesn’t hurt, it’s better to use scepter and dagger for damage just because of how bad this auto-attack is.
2. Mark of Blood: Ground-targeted AOE that applies three stacks of bleed for 8 seconds default in an AOE. It also applies a regen to anyone who’s close to the mark when it’s triggered, healing anyone in a target’s melee range. Great AOE and bleed application. It can also be a small increase to survivability when fighting melee.
3. Chillblains: Ground-targeted AOE that applies chill for 4 seconds default and poison for 6 seconds default, and it’s AOE. Using this on cooldown is a must to apply as much poison and chill as possible. On top of doing damage, the poison reduces an enemy’s healing by 33 percent, and the chill is a big snare that also slows down how fast cooldowns come back up. This skill can be chained with Putrid Mark to apply weakness, which, as X. Other Tips explains, is awesome.
4. Putrid Mark: Ground-targeted AOE that counts as a blast combo finisher and does decent damage, transfers all conditions from the necromancer to a target, and transfers one condition from each ally close to the triggered mark to a target. Probably the most overlooked staff attack. This can be used to transfer every condition on the necromancer to an enemy player. When paired with Deathly Swarm and the Consume Conditions heal, a smart condition necromancer can use damaging conditions to his/her advantage.
5. Reaper’s Mark: Ground-targeted AOE that fears for 1 second default. Probably the most potent crowd control in the game. Very useful for pushing back and controlling groups of players. The fear effect can be used to knock players off ledges, build distance, and stun them. It can also be used to move players to the right places, as explained in X. Other Tips.
Trident:
1. Crimson Tide: Applies one stack of bleed for 5 seconds default and does moderate direct damage in an AOE around the target. In underwater situations, this is a condition necromancer’s go-to damage ability. Spam away.
2. Feast: Applies weakness and does decent direct damage in an AOE around the necromancer, and gives life force if it hits an enemy. Okay for the weakness and life force if enemies are already around. Try to use it on cooldown to keep life force up as much as possible and apply weakness, which is explained in all its glory inX. Other Tips.
3. Foul Current: Shoots the necromancer at a target and leaves a trail that applies poison for 4 seconds default. This ability is kind of bad. Its best use is closing distance on an enemy that’s far away. It can also be used to build distance by de-targeting all enemies and aiming in the right direction.
4. Sinking Tomb: Sinks a target for 2 seconds. Use this as much as possible. It’s a very potent crowd control.
5. Frozen Abyss: Does good direct damage, applies about 4 seconds default of chill while charging up, and applies seven stacks of vulnerability for 7 seconds default, but it has a long cast and requires melee range. It’s great for building distance underwater, and the chill also makes enemy cooldowns take longer to come back up.
Death Shroud (Land):
1. Life Blast: Does decent direct damage. Mostly useless as a condition necromancer. I only use this when I need to stay in Death Shroud to survive.
2. Dark Path: Applies chill and three stacks of bleed for 5 seconds default, but it puts the necromancer in melee range. Beyond the chill and bleed, this is decent for catching up to a target. It can also be used on targets that are already close to the condition necromancer to quickly apply the bleed and chill before building distance. Another trick is finding stragglers in big fights and using it on them to get out of the thick of battle. (Tip: Rolling when the projectile hits the target cancels out the teleport.)
3. Doom: Standard single-target fear for 1 second default. Amazing crowd control with a relatively short 20-second cooldown. Very useful for pushing back and controlling players. The fear effect can be used to knock players off ledges, build distance, and stun them. It can also be used to move players to the right places, as explained in X. Other Tips.
4. Life Transfer: Does AOE damage around the necromancer and builds up life force for every target it hits. This is only worth using for survivability. Remember the damage shown is cumulative for the entire channel; it is not representative of each tick’s damage.
Death Shroud (Underwater):
1. Life Blast: Does moderate damage and transfers one condition. Like its land-based alternative, I only use this when I need to stay in Death Shroud for survivability, even though the condition transfer can be nice, especially after Gathering Plague (No. 4).
2. Dark Water: Applies blind for 3 seconds default and poison for 7 seconds default. Worth using with every switch to Death Shroud.
3. Wave of Fear: Applies fear in an AOE cone in front of the necromancer for 2 seconds default. Requires small-to-medium range and facing the target. A downgrade from its land-based alternative, but still useful. The fear effect can be used to build distance and stun enemy players. It can also be used to move players to the right places, as explained in X. Other Tips.
4. Gathering Plague: Transfers all conditions from party members to the necromancer. Very useful when multiple party members are struck with conditions, especially if it’s paired up with Consume Conditions to immediately remove the absorbed conditions.
III. Traits
For PvP, picking traits is about maximizing what a condition necromancer is good at while minimizing disadvantages. Here is my base build with the heal, utility skills, and elite skill I use most of the time. Unlike PvE, my skills don’t change much in PvP, but utility skills do change sometimes. Please look at IV. Heals, Utility Skills, and Elite Skills for a much deeper explanation of the heals, utility skills, and elite skills.
One advantage to this build is changing over to PvE only requires a few major trait and utility skill changes. For more information on my PvE build, click here.
Curses:
The standard tree for bleeds and conditions. It gives condition damage and precision, the two best damage stats for condition necromancer.
Minor traits:
Barbed Precision: Gives critical hits a 66 percent chance to apply one bleed for 1 second default. Decent damage.
Furious Demise: Gain Fury for 5 seconds default when entering Death Shroud. This is pretty amazing, especially when paired up with Barbed Precision and Superior Sigil of Earth. One way good and great condition necromancers are set apart is by maximizing fury through Death Shroud.
Target the Weak: For each condition on a target, boosts direct damage by 2 percent. It’s not amazing since it only works on direct damage, not bleeds and poison. But it is an okay damage boost since all attacks have direct-damage components to them.
Major Traits:
II. Hemophilia: Increases bleed duration by 20 percent. Pretty standard, hefty damage boost.
VII. Master of Corruption: Reduces the cooldown on corruption skills by 20 percent. Essential for Corrupt Boon and Epidemic. For more information on corruption skills, check out IV. Heals, Utility Skills, and Elite Skills.
XI. Lingering Curse: Increases the duration of all conditions applied by scepter by 33 percent. Unlike all other condition duration increases, this effect is multiplicative, not additive, so it’s actually much stronger than the typical condition duration increase. It’s a huge damage boost, and it also increases the duration of cripple on scepter’s No. 2 ability.
Death Magic:
Standard survivability tree. I consider it the second best tree since it provides much-needed survivability, some increases to boon duration, and greatly improves the staff.
Minor Traits:
Reanimator: Summons a jagged horror whenever the necromancer kills an enemy. More than one can be out at a time as of a recent patch. It’s kind of crappy, but whatever.
Protection of the Horde: Grants 20 extra toughness for each minion the necromancer has summoned. Very slight survivability boost when paired with Reanimator.
Major Traits:
II. Greater Marks: Increases the radius of marks and makes them unblockable. Really great trait. It makes marks easier to aim, makes marks more effective at AOE, and allows the necromancer to do damage through block. It also enhances marks when used as traps, which can be useful in narrow alleys, tunnels, and platforms.
V. Staff Mastery: Staff skills recharge 20 percent faster. Pretty standard cooldown reduction. Amazing for maximizing staff’s AOE and utility. It also makes switching into staff for utility less painful damage-wise by allowing more Mark of Blood spam. Since staff is used so much for its longer range and utility in PvP situations, I think this trait is a must-have.
Blood Magic:
Standard healing and dagger tree. I go into this for the slight survivability and cooldown reduction for dagger skills.
Minor Traits:
Full of Life: Applies regen for 5 seconds default to the necromancer whenever s/he’s hit and below 90 percent health, but it has a 30-second cooldown. Decent survivability passive.
Vampiric: Siphons health on attacks. Decent self-heal.
Major Traits:
I. Dagger Mastery: Lowers cooldown on dagger abilities by 15 percent. Very good for Enfeebling Blood, the second best bleed application while using dagger and scepter, and Deathly Swarm, which is great for transferring conditions.
III. Mark of Evasion: Drops a weaker version of Mark of Blood at the end of a roll, with a 10-second cooldown. It’s good for stacking two extra bleeds for 8 seconds default. Dodging is a huge part of PvP, and this ability makes dodging better.
Options and Alternatives:
Curses:
XII. Withering Precision: Gives critical hits a 25-percent chance to apply weakness for 3 seconds default. Trading Lingering Curse for this is a big DPS loss, but it essentially makes weakness a passive condition on targets. (For more information on why weakness is awesome, check out X. Other Tips.)
Death Magic:
VIII. Reaper’s Protection: Makes the necromancer AOE fear whenever s/he is hit with hard crowd control (stun, daze, knockback, knockdown, sink, float, fear, or launch), with a 90-second cooldown. I like this ability in theory, but the cooldown is way too long for my tastes. It’s one way to make up for the lack of a stun remover in the build, however.
IV. Heals, Utility Skills, and Elite Skills
The build I linked earlier is what I run with a majority of the time. Unlike PvE, skills aren’t as fluid in PvP. Still, there are a few situations in which my skills change, so it’s important to keep most options in mind.
Heals:
Consume Conditions: Main skill. Absorbs all conditions and heals, with each absorbed condition boosting the heal. I feel this is mandatory in PvP right now. Being able to get rid of all conditions and heal is a massive boost to survivability. Also, since well traits aren’t taken in PvP, Well of Blood’s cooldown is too long.
Utility Skills:
Corruption Skills: Corruption abilities provide utility on top of the occasional damage. The downside to them is they each apply a condition on the necromancer, but this self-applied condition can be quickly negated with Deathly Swarm, Putrid Mark, and Consume Conditions.
Blood is Power: Optional skill. Applies two stacks of bleeds for 30 seconds default on the target, grants 10 stacks of might to the necromancer, and applies two stacks of bleeds for 10 seconds default on the necromancer, all with a 24-second cooldown if traited for corruption skills. This ability is a huge damage boost. The bleeds are nice by themselves, especially when the self-applied bleeds are transferred to an enemy target. But the best part is the might, which grants 350 condition damage for 14.4 seconds. The might is retroactive, so it affects all bleeds already on a target. At lv. 80, this translates to 17.5 more damage per bleed tick for about two-thirds of the time as long as Blood is Power is used on cooldown. If I ever feel like I need more damage instead of boon removal, this is the best replacement for Corrupt Boon. I will also sometimes switch from Signet of the Locust to Blood is Power during relatively static encounters — mainly keep sieges — to boost my damage. (Some people claim this ability sometimes does not work, but, in my experience, that’s not true. It has never failed me as long as I’m facing my target and within range.)
Corrupt Boon: Main skill. Dispels all boons on a target and turns them into conditions. For information on what the boons are converted into, click here. The best conversions are stability to fear, which is great for crowd control, and retaliation to confusion, which can be a lot of burst damage. This ability is incredible for shutting down boon-heavy builds, particularly guardians and elementalists, and it can be paired up with Epidemic to spread an extra load of conditions. Even if a target only has one or two boons, this skill can do a lot to reduce incoming damage and boost outgoing damage. (Some people claim this ability sometimes does not work, but, in my experience, that’s not true. It has never failed me as long as I’m facing my target and within range.)
Epidemic: Main skill. Spreads all conditions on a target to up to five extra targets, with only a 12-second cooldown when traited. It can be used through line-of-sight, immunities, dodges, and even stealth as long as the cast starts before a target goes into stealth. Epidemic is the staple of the condition necromancer. It is the best AOE in the game game, allowing the spread of 25 stacks of bleeds, other damaging conditions, and any utility-based condition. In world vs. world, this ability is absolutely essential for shutting down groups of players. Its use is explained in further detail in VIII. Tips for One-on-One Fights and IX. Tips for Group Fights.
Signets: Useful for a variety of utility. I usually use one signet in my typical load-out.
Signet of Undeath: Optional skill. Ranged, small-radius AOE revive that can be used in-combat and affects up to three downed players, with a 180-second cooldown. It also generates 1 percent of life force every 3 seconds. It’s an okay choice if a condition necromancer is roaming with a dedicated group, but the cooldown is a bit too long in world vs. world, and the only skill it could replace (Signet of the Locust) is probably better.
Plague Signet: Optional skill. Makes the necromancer absorb one condition from each group member every 10 seconds, and it can be used to transfer all conditions on the necromancer to a target. It sounds better in theory than it works in practice, mostly because the 10-second pulse timer is too long. I generally recommend Well of Power over this for condition removal, but neither ability is really worth giving up Signet of the Locust.
Signet of the Locust: Main skill. Grants 25-percent move speed, and it heals the necromancer and damages a target when activated. Never use the active ability for this, and only use it for the move speed. It’s a huge speed boost. It is amazing for both getting to fights and engaging in them. It is a big part of maximizing range, which is explained in IX. Tips for Group Fights.
Spectral Skills: Spectral skills are typically better in theory than in practice. They provide very situational utility, so I rarely use them.
Spectral Walk: Optional skill. Breaks a stun, provides 30 seconds default of swiftness, and can be used as a limited-time teleport. This ability used to be great for mobility, but Signet of the Locust is now much better. If I ever feel like I’m being crowd controlled too much, I will replace Signet of the Locust with Spectral Walk to have a stun breaker and keep some mobility. The teleport can also be used to trick out other players, particularly by jumping off ledges and teleporting before hitting the ground.
Spectral Grasp: Optional skill. Pulls a target to the necromancer and chills. This can be good for pulling people off ledges, including keep and tower walls. If I decide to use it, I replace Signet of the Locust with it since the extra mobility isn’t as great in sustained sieges.
Minions: Minions are just pets. They are not worth taking in PvP, especially world vs. world. They die too easily, and they don’t bring enough damage or utility.
Wells: Wells provide great utility. While I consider them essential in some PvE encounters, I feel they’re way too easy to avoid in PvP. Good players will always roll or walk out of them before they make too much of an impact. Still, at least two wells can be useful.
Well of Darkness: Optional skill. Player-based AOE that blinds every second for 5 seconds with a 1-minute default cooldown. This ability can be used in situations with tight corridors. If I see an enemy group coming down a tunnel, I will sometimes switch Signet of the Locust to Well of Darkness to mitigate their damage. If I’m out of combat and see a thief stealth near me, I will switch Signet of the Locust to Well of Darkness and use it so the thief’s opener is negated without using a dodge or Death Shroud.
Well of Power: Optional skill. Player-based AOE that removes one condition on allies and the necromancer every second for 5 seconds, and each condition removed turns into a boon, with a 1-minute default cooldown. For a full list of how the conditions are converted, click here. This is probably the best option for a necromancer looking for party-wide condition removal. In world vs. world, I only change to it during a defensive siege.
Elite Skills:
Plague: Main skill. Turns the necromancer into a virulent cloud that can apply conditions. This is massively useful for the AOE, 20-second blind and huge boost in toughness. It’s probably the best group utility necromancer has in PvP, and it can turn around one-on-one fights. Really, it’s the only option in PvP because flesh golem is too easily negated and Lich Form doesn’t do enough damage for condition builds.
V. Gear
Armor, Weapons, and Trinkets:
I stick with rabid stat combination, or condition damage, precision, and toughness. The precision is good because it turns the Barbed Precision trait and Superior Sigil of Earth into huge damage boosts. The toughness is good for two reasons: First, it’s a great boost to survivability, which is vastly underrated in dungeons where some damage is too difficult or downright impossible to avoid. Second, the toughness interacts with consumables to provide a decent boost to condition damage. In general, I don’t recommend vitality because my build provides more than 20,000 base health. At that point, toughness is a much better option.
Tips for Gearing Up:
Getting a set with rabid stats — condition damage, precision, and toughness — can be a pain, but it’s possible with time and patience.
On the trading post, look up the Khilbron’s set for armor. For weapons, look up a Mystic Wand (scepter), Malefacterym (dagger), Bramblethorne (staff), and Limitless Furnace (trident).
Trinkets and backpacks are only available on the trading post. For trinkets, get two Tortured Root accessories, one Colossus Fang amulet, and two Plague rings. For a backpack, look up a rare-quality rabid backpack. Rare-quality rabid trinkets are also an option if exotic gear is too expensive.
Some of the armor is also accessible through karma. The head, shoulder, hand, and leg pieces from karma vendors. Click here for the full list and locations of the vendors on Dulfy‘s amazing website.
For an underwater breather, karma gear is the best option. Buy the Gavbeorn Breather of the Afflicted at Gavbeorn’s Waypoint after the Temple of Melandru event. (Also, underwater breathers replace helmets underwater, so remember to slot it with a rune.)
It’s also possible to get rabid weapons and armor from dungeon explorable modes. Caudecus’s Manor, Twilight Arbor, Honor of the Waves, and Arah provide the full sets.
After all that’s set up, it’s time for ascended gear. The rabid ascended rings are Khilbron’s Phylactery and Ouroboros Loop, which are obtained in the Fractals of the Mists. The rabid ascended backpack is Endless Quiver, which is made at the Mystic Forge.
Runes:
In world vs. world, I think three Runes of the Krait and three Runes of the Afflicted is the best option. It gives both condition damage and condition duration. Some argue that condition duration is bad in PvP due to the high amount of condition removals, but I think that’s the wrong way to look at condition removal. All skills that remove conditions have cooldowns, so they are essentially layers of defense that classes have before conditions can be fully utilized on them. Once those layers are broken through, condition duration shines in a huge way. A bleed lasting 30 to 40 percent longer (Lingering Curse boosts the condition duration from the rune set by 10 percent) can easily mean life or death once condition-removing skills are exhausted. It’s just a matter of having the patience to break through those defenses.
However, if a condition necromancer is too worried about condition removal and wants more upfront damage, the full set of Rune of the Undead is an option. It provides decent survivability and turns some toughness into condition damage. In straight math terms, it’s the best possibility for maxing out bleed ticks. With my gear, which caps toughness at 1,875, it’s 93.75 condition damage. That is nearly the same amount of condition damage on a chest piece. In total, it adds about 5 damage per bleed tick, or about 3.9 percent more bleed damage with no might.
Jewels:
Unfortunately, my build is stuck with the rare-quality Crest of the Rabid to maximize condition damage through condition damage, precision, and toughness. Fortunately, ascended gear has built-in upgrades that are ascended quality, but getting ascended items currently requires Fractals of the Mists.
Sigils:
For the scepter and staff, Superior Sigil of Earth is standard. It gives critical hits a 60 percent chance to apply a stack of bleed for 5 seconds default. This is a huge part of the build, and it’s why condition necromancers want precision.
For the dagger, it’s more about personal preference. I prefer Superior Sigil of Accuracy for 5-percent critical hit chance, but Superior Sigil of Agony is also viable for longer-lasting bleeds and Superior Sigil of Corruption is good if it’s possible to keep 10 to 25 stacks. I tend to avoid other proc-based sigils because they share an inner cooldown with Superior Sigil of Earth, so it’s better to grab a sigil with a passive boost.
VI. Consumables
Unfortunately, consumables are often overlooked. This is a shame because even the affordable options add 189 condition damage and 36 percent condition duration. That’s a massive damage increase! Since I realize consumables can be too expensive for some, I’ll list what I consider the affordable options and the best options.
Affordable Options:
Super Veggie Pizza: Food buff. This gives 60 condition damage and 36 percent condition duration. It’s the affordable, nearly max DPS food for condition necromancers. It typically sells for about 1 silver on the trading post.
Quality Tuning Crystal: Miscellaneous buff. This converts 5 percent of toughness and 3 percent of vitality into condition damage. It’s a massive damage gain, especially when paired with condition damage, precision, and toughness gear. It typically sells for about 30 copper on the trading post.
Best Options:
Rare Veggie Pizza: Food buff. This gives 70 condition damage and 40 percent condition duration. It’s the best DPS food for condition necromancers. It typically sells for about 4 silver on the trading post.
Master Tuning Crystal: Miscellaneous buff. This converts 6 percent of toughness and 4 percent of vitality into condition damage. It’s the best damage gain, especially when paired with condition damage, precision, and toughness gear. It typically sells for about 3 silver on the trading post.
VII. Skill Priority
Unlike PvE, there isn’t always a set rotation of skills that should be followed. In PvP, skills are a lot more situational. There’s no sense in blowing every scepter and dagger cooldown when the bleeds are just going to be cleansed off. Putrid Mark and Deathly Swarm are best saved when a few conditions are on the necromancer, and Reaper’s Mark is best used during clutch moments to lock in a kill.
However, when the layers of condition removal are peeled through and it’s time to maximize damage, there is some level of rotation that should be followed. In scepter and dagger, the skill priority is much like the typical PvE rotation: Grasping Dead (No. 2) over Enfeebling Blood (No. 5) over Feast of Corruption (No. 3) over Blood Curse / Rending Curse / Putrid Curse (No. 1). In staff, using Mark of Blood (No. 2) and Chillblains (No. 3) as much as possible is ideal. In optimal damage situations, it’s best to prioritize scepter and dagger over staff because scepter and dagger can apply more bleeds more quickly.
When condition removals are done, it’s also a prime time to use fear and sink to secure a kill before a target can heal. Loading up full bleeds on a target and double fearing it can create a massive health deficit that is too difficult to recover from, especially if poison and chill are on the target to lower the effectiveness of heals and make any defensive cooldowns even longer.
Optimal Burst Rotation:
In the most optimal burst situation, I will use scepter and dagger to Grasping Dead (No. 2) and Enfeebling Blood (No. 5), stack a few bleeds and some poison with Blood Curse / Rending Curse / Putrid Curse (No. 1), switch to staff, use Mark of Blood (No. 2), Chillblains (No. 3), Reaper’s Mark (No. 5), Death Shroud (F1 default), Doom (No. 3), and Dark Path (No. 2). This combination stacks a bunch of bleeds, keeps some poison and chill up, and secures a kill with two fears in a row.
Scepter and Dagger vs. Staff:
The key difference between the scepter-and-dagger set and staff is the scepter-and-dagger set is offensive while staff is defensive.
Staff’s abilities stack less bleeds and do less damage, but they have longer range, apply a stronger snare (chill is better than cripple), cleanse more conditions (Putrid Mark cleanses all conditions, while Deathly Swarm only gets one to three), and fear is amazing for controlling opponents.
On the other hand, the scepter-and-dagger set stacks more bleeds and poison, mostly thanks to scepter’s great No. 1 attack.
My advice is to swap to staff for more defensive situations (when building distance, long range), but stick to scepter and dagger as much as possible to maximize bleeds, poison, and overall damage.
VIII. Tips for One-on-One Fights
Condition necromancers have a solid mix of survivability and damage, which puts them in a great spot for one-on-one fights. The trick is to fight in a way that takes advantage of necromancer’s ability to wear down opponents. When I’m fighting someone one-on-one, I know I usually have the advantage the longer the fight goes on. In this section, I can’t give a script of how every encounter will go — that’s unrealistic, given the variance of player actions and builds — but I’ll provide tips on how to approach the different classes. Knowing how to deal with all the classes on an individual basis makes it much easier to deal with them in group settings.
Guardian:
This is one of the easier fights because guardians are either easy-to-kite melee or low-damaging range. As a condition necromancer, the goal is to stay at range with snares and fear and wear through multiple condition-removing abilities. Once a guardian uses all his/her condition removals, unload every bleed possible and secure the kill.
Also, save Corrupt Boon for “Save Yourselves!” Many guardians will use it for the boons, which can be easily converted to free conditions.
If the guardian changes to a shield to block, that’s an ideal time to switch to staff and fear through the block.
Warrior:
Another easy fight, but it can be a bit scary because warriors are capable of very high spike damage. Keep as much distance as possible with cripple, chill, and fear, and apply conditions.
If the warrior changes to a shield to block, that’s an ideal time to switch to staff and fear through the block.
If a warrior stuns or begins using Thousand Blades, popping Death Shroud to absorb damage is advisable.
If the warrior changes to rifle and kneels, that means s/he’s using Kill Shot. If this happens, wait about 1.5 seconds and dodge. If it’s not avoided, Kill Shot can really hurt.
Engineer:
Arguably the easiest one-on-one condition necromancer has to deal with. Engineers can have a lot of conditions and crowd controls, but it’s easy to turn them on the engineer with Deathly Swarm and Putrid Mark. I always make sure to roll out of any ground-targeted AOEs and grenades when possible.
If an engineer drops a bunch of turrets, I will run out of line-of-sight or range of the turrets, and make the engineer come to me. Even if it means running away from an engineer, it’s better and safer than trying to deal with all the turrets and the engineer at the same time.
Ranger:
Even though they’re considered the most flawed class, rangers can be a bit of a challenge one-on-one due to their decent survivability and damage.
If a ranger is ranged, s/he’ll likely be using a shortbow and might even be built for conditions. If that’s the case, turn the conditions around with Deathly Swarm, Putrid Mark, and Consume Conditions.
If the ranger is melee, build distance with cripple, chill, and fear and cleanse any conditions.
If I ever get hit by the ranger elite skill Entangle, I will dispel the immobilize, typically with Consume Conditions, and immediately roll. This lets me avoid the reapplication of the root without having to destroy it.
Ranger pets can also be used to the necromancer’s advantage. Since necromancer’s condition application is mostly AOE, pets can be used to double the amount of conditions on a ranger. To do this, I make the damaging AOEs from scepter and staff hit both the ranger and the pet, then I target the pet and Epidemic. Voila, double the bleeds on the ranger!
Thief:
A lot of players struggle with thieves, but I actually find them pretty manageable. The key is avoiding their opening burst damage, which can only be properly executed through stealth. If a thief stealths right by me, I will almost always Death Shroud or wait a second and then roll. This usually lets me avoid the entire opening burst from Backstab. If for whatever reason I can’t roll or Death Shroud, I will run away from the area where I saw the thief stealth. Since stealth is time-limited and I can run as fast or faster than them with Signet of the Locust, I will usually be able to outrun the thief until stealth ends. As a very last resort, Plague is always an option to absorb an opener and make a thief essentially useless for 20 seconds.
Once the opener is avoided, it’s a matter of building distance with chill, cripple, and fear. When the thief re-stealths, I use the same tactics as before to avoid any burst.
Also, I make sure to drop AOEs, particularly marks, between where a thief stealths and my position, since a thief will move toward me if he wants to attack me from stealth. If I predict the thief’s movement properly, this can let me apply a bunch of conditions on the thief before s/he even opens. I can’t even begin to count how many thieves I’ve killed in stealth because they tend to be so squishy and vulnerable to AOE condition application while in stealth.
If a thief is built for heavy survivability by making his/her stealth remove conditions and heal, the fight can take a while, but with proper play, a condition necromancer should be able to outlast or, at the very worst, stalemate any thief.
Elementalist:
Another easy one-on-one fight. Elementalists are like guardians in that they have a few layers of condition removal, so the fights can take a while, but the condition necromancer should always have the upper hand.
If an elementalist is ranged, his/her attacks are very easy to avoid by moving. If an elementalist is melee, s/he will have a lot of mobility, but it shouldn’t be enough burst or damage to really scare a necromancer. Simply keep as much distance as possible, even against ranged elementalists, and avoid any AOEs and projectiles by staying on the move. Chill, cripple, and fear as much as possible to keep distance.
One trick elementalists love to use is mixing Churning Earth and Lightning Flash. This lets them charge up Churning Earth and teleport to a target at the last possible moment to do spike damage and apply eight bleeds. This is very easily avoidable. If I ever see an elementalist charge up Churning Earth (the elementalist will crouch and rocks will begin shaking around him/her), I will either fear to interrupt the cast (the 30-second cooldown will still trigger if the ability is interrupted) or get ready to dodge or Death Shroud once the elementalist teleports to me. One reason to use Death Shroud instead of rolling is the bleeds can then be transferred back to the elementalist with Putrid Mark or Deathly Swarm.
It’s a good idea to save Corrupt Boon for Armor of Earth. It turns the stability into fear, giving a free stun and distance builder, and the protection into vulnerability, which boosts damage against the elementalist very slightly.
Mesmer:
Mesmers can be a little tricky if they know how to play their class, but condition necromancers are built to counter them. When I fight them, I try to keep my distance. Even though the main Greatsword attack does get stronger the further I am, it’s better to take the slightly boosted damage than it is to leave myself close to a mesmer’s phantasms and illusions in case the mesmer uses Mind Wrack to shatter the clones on me for spike damage. Distance also helps me avoid the more threatening melee weapons most mesmers use.
It’s important to know mesmers are very vulnerable to conditions. The only tools they have to cleanse them —Arcane Thievery and Null Field — have long cooldowns and are limited in how much they cleanse.
That also means illusions and phantasms are very vulnerable to conditions. I always take advantage of this by making sure my AOEs hit as many clones as possible and by spamming Epidemic. If done properly, this can take out a lot of clones before they even reach me.
Another alternative to killing clones is Life Transfer (Death Shroud No. 4). It doesn’t do that much single-target damage, but the AOE can take down squishy clones very quickly.
When a mesmer does use Mind Wrack, it’s very obvious because the clones will stop what they’re doing and begin moving to their target. As a condition necromancer, it’s always advisable to kite the clones and kill them (they’re easy to one- or two-shot) or use Death Shroud to soak the burst damage.
Necromancer:
Strangely enough, necromancer is one of the best counters to necromancer. Condition builds have a lot of ways to transfer and cleanse conditions, so it can be a bit like fighting a guardian or elementalist in that there are condition-removal layers to work through before a necromancer can be killed.
The trick is to use the condition transfers as sparingly as possible to balance damage coming in while maximizing damage going out. If done properly, I can usually get another necromancer to waste his condition removals and then transfer all remaining conditions on me to kill him/her.
If a necromancer is built for power, s/he won’t have as many condition transfers, and the damage will be easier to avoid. Build distance with chill, cripple, and fear, and keep conditions off as much as possible.
When a necromancer uses Death Shroud, it’s a good idea to try to interrupt the Life Transfer, which has a rather obvious animation, with fear. This makes it so the necromancer is able to soak up less damage in Death Shroud since Life Transfer provides life force.
IX. Tips for Group Fights
Playing in or against a group can be a completely different than playing one-on-one. For starters, not always being the center of attention opens up some leniency for dealing damage. Here are some tips that make condition necromancers more effective in group battles.
Maximizing range:
The biggest survivability a ranged class has is not a skill or a piece of gear. For condition necromancers, it’s not even Death Shroud. Instead, it’s range. Keeping as much range as possible is a huge deal in PvP. It’s the best way to avoid any damage.
Part of doing this means using the right weapon. Scepter and dagger have shorter ranges than staff, so sometimes it’s better to sacrifice damage from scepter and dagger to not get too close to a huge group of players. This is entirely a personal call, but it’s something that will become more obvious with more play time.
But the biggest part of maximizing ranged is predicting opponents. This is all a matter of getting familiar with the game’s mechanics. The key factors to watch out for is that movement should be done before it’s too late. When a group of players starts moving towards me, I will start moving away from them as soon as possible. It’s not just about building distance; it’s about keeping distance.
Maximizing range applies in both small and huge encounters. It’s a very important aspect of surviving and, in the long term, maximizing damage by staying alive as long as possible.
Now, sometimes it is better to move in for more damage. I don’t just sit in staff and drop marks all day; I often move in to deal superior damage with scepter and dagger. Again, this is entirely situational, and it’s something one can only get used to with a deeper understanding of game mechanics.
Maximizing range is one of the reasons I strongly recommend Signet of the Locust. Being able to move in and out of a fight becomes a lot easier with 25 percent extra run speed. There have been quite a few situations in which I’ve barely escaped or killed someone only to realize it was only possible because I’m running a lot faster.
Epidemic use:
One of the most important aspects of a condition necromancer is understanding who is vulnerable to conditions and who isn’t. In general, guardians, elementalists, and other necromancers can cleanse a lot of conditions, while warriors, mesmers, and rangers do not. Thieves can also be a bit more difficult to apply conditions on due to stealth.
Knowing this makes it a lot easier to choose a target to apply bleeds on. In larger fights, I will almost always target a warrior, mesmer, or ranger, apply as many conditions as possible, and then use Epidemic. Even with those classes, I’ll usually have to deal with one condition removal, but after that, it’s really easy to apply conditions and send them out to their entire groups.
Baiting:
Baiting opponents into a bad position is a very good tactic. Condition necromancers are actually pretty good at this because they have so much survivability. To do this, I will usually move close to an opponent, grabbing his/her attention. After that, I will run back toward my group. If I really have someone’s attention, s/he will follow me. If I’m baiting an entire group of people, I will usually use Death Shroud or Plague to make sure I can soak up any ranged damage before I get back to my group.
In an organized group, this can be very effectively done with corners and walls. Baiting opponents around a corner and into a larger group is a very common flanking tactic, and it can make sieges easier by sending a group of enemies back to a spawn point.
X. Other Tips
These are tips that generally apply to both one-on-one and group fights.
Using Death Shroud:
In PvP, the main uses of Death Shroud are survivability and fear. Using it for survivability is all about predicting burst through indicators — getting stunned, a thief stealthing, a warrior using Thousand Blades, mesmer clones moving in to shatter — and activating Death Shroud to soak up any spikes in damage. It’s also a good idea to switch to Death Shroud and soak up conditions when Deathly Swarm, Putrid Mark, and Consume Conditions are on cooldown. If Death Shroud is being used for survivability, it’s also a good idea to use Life Transfer to regain life force while in Death Shroud.
It’s also a good idea to use Death Shroud to fear as much as possible. The ideal way to do this is to pop into Death Shroud, use Doom (No. 3), and pop out. For condition necromancers, popping into Death Shroud will also grant fury, which can go really well with a stun like fear to apply some extra damage through more bleeds and critical hits.
Remember it’s possible to use Death Shroud and Doom (No. 3) while in any crowd control. This can essentially act as a stun breaker if used properly. I have feared plenty of deadly channeled attacks while stunned by saving Death Shroud for the proper moment.
Kill critters:
This is pretty basic, but while running to a zone or fight, one-shot as many critters, or gray-named mobs, as possible to gain life force. I will usually arrive to a keep or tower with close to full life force just by killing a bunch of critters.
Dodging:
Dodging is a huge deal in PvP, but it’s rarely used correctly by most players. First of all, never roll twice in a rowat the start of a fight. I see so many people do this, and it’s a complete waste.
The best times to use dodge are when big burst damage is obviously coming, including stealth and Thousand Blades. In these situations, it’s almost always a good idea to dodge to avoid big burst.
If I’m low on health and my heal has a few seconds left on its cooldown, I will also dodge to ensure I survive just long enough for it to come up. This has saved me a walk back countless times.
Dodging properly is all about building the right experience and knowledge, but one universal truth is to be thoughtful with dodges. I strongly advise against spamming dodge on cooldown, as way too many players seem to do.
Fear:
The most obvious use of fear is its stun and interrupt, but one often overlooked aspect of the ability is the fact it moves people away from the necromancer. Not only can this be used to knock enemies off ledges, but it can also be used to move enemies into deadly positions.
For example, fear can be used to move enemies into the necromancer’s allies. One easy way I do this is by going into Death Shroud, using Dark Path (Death Shroud No. 2) to jump by a target, position myself so I’m facing my group, and fearing. If I use both Doom (Death Shroud No. 2) and Reaper’s Mark (staff No. 5), I can usually push a target pretty deep into my group.
It’s also possible to use fear to push an opponent further into his/her own group. The main reason to do this is to put someone in the middle of a large group for Epidemic, which can sometimes maximize the amount of people afflicted by conditions.
Weakness:
This is the most under-appreciated condition in the game. In simple terms, it makes 50 percent of non-critical hits do half the damage. This can be a huge damage decrease depending on players. Even glass cannons usually only have around 50 percent critical hit chance, which means weakness reduces about half their attacks by 50 percent.
Weakness also makes endurance, which is used to roll, recharge much slower, which can be a huge deal for securing a kill.
XI. Frequently Asked Questions
Why no stun breakers in your main build?
Guild Wars 2 is a game with very few crowd controls, including stuns. For this reason, I don’t feel a stun removal is as necessary as it is in other MMORPGs. Plus, in the case of condition necromancer, Death Shroud can be used to negate stuns with Doom (Death Shroud No. 3) and soak up damage in general.
However, there are options for stun breakers. If I ever feel like I’m too vulnerable to crowd control, I will replace Signet of the Locust with Spectral Walk to maintain some heightened mobility while gaining a stun remover.
Why not a healing power, condition damage, toughness?
Precision is a massive damage gain due to Superior Sigil of Earth and Barbed Precision. That set also has much less condition damage because it prioritizes healing power.
I don’t think giving up condition damage and precision for healing power is worth it, especially because I don’t ever feel like my survivability is lacking. It’s very easy for a lot of players to fall into the trap of focusing on too much survivability after a bad experience. A lot of people did it in WOW’s arenas. But the real solution is working on living longer through proper tactics and strategies, not throwing away a huge chunk of damage for some limited survivability.
Why not a hybrid gear set-up?
The main reason hybrid builds, meaning builds that combine power and condition damage, are mediocre inGuild Wars 2 is because the stats from the main DPS archetypes — condition damage, precision, and toughness in rabid and power, precision, and critical damage in berserker — scale better when taken together.
For example, with berserker gear, precision is geared toward making critical strikes more frequent, but in the same set-up, critical strikes actually get stronger. So every percent of critical strike chance (21 precision at level 80) actually becomes better as the critical strikes triggered become stronger through power and critical damage. The math behind this is simple: With no extra critical damage, 1 percent chance to crit, or 21 precision, only adds about 0.5 percent DPS. With 50 percent extra critical damage, that 21 precision suddenly adds about 1 percent DPS because the critical strikes triggered are now doing double the damage.
It’s the same concept with condition damage, toughness, and bleeds in the rabid set-up. With rabid gear, precision triggers more bleeds, while condition damage and, to a much lesser degree, toughness all add to bleed damage. So each point of precision becomes stronger with each point of condition damage and toughness because the more frequent bleeds also tick harder.
In other words, it’s better to focus on two or three main stats, especially as each individual stat gets higher, because of how the stats synergize with each other. If a hybrid approach is taken to gearing, the lack of focus actually makes a build do exponentially less damage in the long term.
XII. Revisions and Additions
Jan. 1, 2012: Added a question and answer to XI. Frequently Asked Questions.
Dec. 31, 2012: Added a comparison between staff and the scepter-and-dagger set to VII. Skill Priority. Added a note about replacing Corrupt Boon with Blood is Power in IV. Heals, Utility Skills, and Elite Skills, thanks toprowagratis on Reddit for the suggestion.
A Condition Necromancer’s Guide to World vs. World
Introduction
Hello, my name is Lopez. I’m a big Guild Wars 2 fan. Before Guild Wars 2, I played an extensive amount of MMORPGs. In World of Warcraft, I was a multi-season gladiator on my Death Knight. In Rift, I was a max-rank mage that usually ran a 51 warlock build. In Star Wars: The Old Republic, I was a high-ranked balance sage.
Now, in Guild Wars 2, I’m a condition necromancer. One of the most exciting features in Guild Wars 2 for me is the world vs. world, and I’ve spent a bulk of my game time taking keeps and defeating players in the Eternal Battlegrounds and borderlands. Now, I think my experience from other games and Guild Wars 2 has given me enough knowledge to write a guide on world vs. world. This guide is entirely built around condition necromancer in world vs. world, not structured PvP.
If you have any questions, feel free to send me a message on Twitter (@LopezIRL), in-game (Lopez), or email me ([email protected]).
Table of Contents
I. Why Condition Necromancer?
II. Weapon and Death Shroud Abilities
III. Traits
IV. Heals, Utility Skills, and Elite Skills
V. Gear
VI. Consumables
VII. Skill Priority
VIII. Tips for One-on-One Fights
IX.Tips for Group Fights
X. Other Tips
XI. Frequently Asked Questions
XII. Revisions and Additions
I. Why Condition Necromancer?
As always, the main answer is Epidemic.Condition necromancer has the best area-of-effect (AOE) damage in the game. With Epidemic, condition necromancer can spread all the conditions on a target to up to five other targets. Not only can this be used for massive AOE damage if it spreads 25 stacks of bleeds, some stacks of confusion, burning, and poison, but it also has the benefit of spreading debuffs like blind, chilled, cripple, fear, immobilize, vulnerability, and weakness. This can shut down an entire group of players.
The mix of bleeds, poison, and direct damage is also great single-target damage. Once an enemy’s anti-condition defenses are broken through, bleeds and poison stack really fast to cause a lot of pain. It won’t be the burst of thief or mesmer, but it will be enough pressure to turn away raid groups and land kills.
That single-target damage also comes with the added benefit of being executed from range. While direct-damage builds tend to sacrifice damage at range, condition builds keep the same DPS and sacrifice burst instead. Being able to keep maximum range is a massive boost to survivability and damage potential, as will be explained later in the guide.
Condition necromancers also have awesome utility. Necromancers can apply poison, which reduces healing effectiveness by 33 percent, better than any other class. Epidemic can also be used to spread conditions like poison that will debilitate an entire enemy group. Corrupt Boon is one of the best boon removals in the game. Not only does it dispel boons on an enemy target, but it also turns those boons into conditions. Plague is also a very potent skill in group play. It provides a huge amount of toughness, and it also allows a necromancer to blind up to five targets for up to 20 seconds. This effectively crowd controls entire groups of enemy players. Condition necromancers also have two fears, a crowd control that can act as a stun, a distance builder, and a knockback at the same time.
Even when not built for conditions, necromancers have incredible survivability. Death Shroud is one of the best survivability cooldowns in the game. When used effectively, it can negate stuns and crucial burst damage. Clever use of Death Shroud can turn around a close one-on-one or group fight. It saves lives!
However, all of that does come with one major downside: a lack of burst. Necromancers, as ArenaNet has explained, are masters of attrition. Their access to AOE damage, condition damage, solid utility, and deadly debuffs is balanced out by a total inability to spike down a target’s health. Again, the class still does great single-target damage, but it’s not the kind of damage that produces huge numbers.
The other major downside is condition removal. Some classes, particularly elementalists, guardians, and other necromancers, can be a total pain due to their condition removal. While it doesn’t completely negate condition damage by any means, it does make it so condition necromancers have to break through one to three layers of condition removal before they can start doing real damage. This slows the build-up to maximum damage, but it can be overcome through some tactics that will be explained in this guide.
II. Weapon and Death Shroud Abilities
For condition necromancer, the obvious choices are scepter and dagger for primary damage and staff for longer range and utility. Trident is the best choice underwater due to its ranged capabilities, auto-attack, and crowd control.
Scepter and Dagger:
2. Grasping Dead: An AOE that applies cripple and three stacks of bleed for 7 seconds default. The cripple is great for building and creating distance on players, as well as securing kills on players trying to run away. The skill is probably the best damage cooldown while using scepter and dagger.
3. Feast of Corruption: Decent direct damage, and scepter’s main source for life force, which is used for Death Shroud. I use it when my other DPS abilities are on cooldown.
4. Deathly Swarm: Blinds and transfers one condition from the necromancer to its target, with the potential to bounce to up to three targets. This ability is incredible. When fighting a group of players, it can dispel up to three conditions. Coupled with Putrid Mark in staff and the Consume Conditions heal, a smart condition necromancer can turn damaging conditions to his/her advantage.
5. Enfeebling Blood: An AOE that applies weakness and two stacks of bleed for 10 seconds default. Pretty standard. It’s probably the second best damage cooldown while using scepter and dagger, and weakness is a very potent debuff on enemy players.
Staff:
2. Mark of Blood: Ground-targeted AOE that applies three stacks of bleed for 8 seconds default in an AOE. It also applies a regen to anyone who’s close to the mark when it’s triggered, healing anyone in a target’s melee range. Great AOE and bleed application. It can also be a small increase to survivability when fighting melee.
3. Chillblains: Ground-targeted AOE that applies chill for 4 seconds default and poison for 6 seconds default, and it’s AOE. Using this on cooldown is a must to apply as much poison and chill as possible. On top of doing damage, the poison reduces an enemy’s healing by 33 percent, and the chill is a big snare that also slows down how fast cooldowns come back up. This skill can be chained with Putrid Mark to apply weakness, which, as X. Other Tips explains, is awesome.
4. Putrid Mark: Ground-targeted AOE that counts as a blast combo finisher and does decent damage, transfers all conditions from the necromancer to a target, and transfers one condition from each ally close to the triggered mark to a target. Probably the most overlooked staff attack. This can be used to transfer every condition on the necromancer to an enemy player. When paired with Deathly Swarm and the Consume Conditions heal, a smart condition necromancer can use damaging conditions to his/her advantage.
5. Reaper’s Mark: Ground-targeted AOE that fears for 1 second default. Probably the most potent crowd control in the game. Very useful for pushing back and controlling groups of players. The fear effect can be used to knock players off ledges, build distance, and stun them. It can also be used to move players to the right places, as explained in X. Other Tips.
Trident:
2. Feast: Applies weakness and does decent direct damage in an AOE around the necromancer, and gives life force if it hits an enemy. Okay for the weakness and life force if enemies are already around. Try to use it on cooldown to keep life force up as much as possible and apply weakness, which is explained in all its glory inX. Other Tips.
3. Foul Current: Shoots the necromancer at a target and leaves a trail that applies poison for 4 seconds default. This ability is kind of bad. Its best use is closing distance on an enemy that’s far away. It can also be used to build distance by de-targeting all enemies and aiming in the right direction.
4. Sinking Tomb: Sinks a target for 2 seconds. Use this as much as possible. It’s a very potent crowd control.
5. Frozen Abyss: Does good direct damage, applies about 4 seconds default of chill while charging up, and applies seven stacks of vulnerability for 7 seconds default, but it has a long cast and requires melee range. It’s great for building distance underwater, and the chill also makes enemy cooldowns take longer to come back up.
Death Shroud (Land):
2. Dark Path: Applies chill and three stacks of bleed for 5 seconds default, but it puts the necromancer in melee range. Beyond the chill and bleed, this is decent for catching up to a target. It can also be used on targets that are already close to the condition necromancer to quickly apply the bleed and chill before building distance. Another trick is finding stragglers in big fights and using it on them to get out of the thick of battle. (Tip: Rolling when the projectile hits the target cancels out the teleport.)
3. Doom: Standard single-target fear for 1 second default. Amazing crowd control with a relatively short 20-second cooldown. Very useful for pushing back and controlling players. The fear effect can be used to knock players off ledges, build distance, and stun them. It can also be used to move players to the right places, as explained in X. Other Tips.
4. Life Transfer: Does AOE damage around the necromancer and builds up life force for every target it hits. This is only worth using for survivability. Remember the damage shown is cumulative for the entire channel; it is not representative of each tick’s damage.
Death Shroud (Underwater):
2. Dark Water: Applies blind for 3 seconds default and poison for 7 seconds default. Worth using with every switch to Death Shroud.
3. Wave of Fear: Applies fear in an AOE cone in front of the necromancer for 2 seconds default. Requires small-to-medium range and facing the target. A downgrade from its land-based alternative, but still useful. The fear effect can be used to build distance and stun enemy players. It can also be used to move players to the right places, as explained in X. Other Tips.
4. Gathering Plague: Transfers all conditions from party members to the necromancer. Very useful when multiple party members are struck with conditions, especially if it’s paired up with Consume Conditions to immediately remove the absorbed conditions.
III. Traits
For PvP, picking traits is about maximizing what a condition necromancer is good at while minimizing disadvantages. Here is my base build with the heal, utility skills, and elite skill I use most of the time. Unlike PvE, my skills don’t change much in PvP, but utility skills do change sometimes. Please look at IV. Heals, Utility Skills, and Elite Skills for a much deeper explanation of the heals, utility skills, and elite skills.One advantage to this build is changing over to PvE only requires a few major trait and utility skill changes. For more information on my PvE build, click here.
Curses:
The standard tree for bleeds and conditions. It gives condition damage and precision, the two best damage stats for condition necromancer.
Minor traits:
Barbed Precision: Gives critical hits a 66 percent chance to apply one bleed for 1 second default. Decent damage.
Furious Demise: Gain Fury for 5 seconds default when entering Death Shroud. This is pretty amazing, especially when paired up with Barbed Precision and Superior Sigil of Earth. One way good and great condition necromancers are set apart is by maximizing fury through Death Shroud.
Target the Weak: For each condition on a target, boosts direct damage by 2 percent. It’s not amazing since it only works on direct damage, not bleeds and poison. But it is an okay damage boost since all attacks have direct-damage components to them.
Major Traits:
II. Hemophilia: Increases bleed duration by 20 percent. Pretty standard, hefty damage boost.
VII. Master of Corruption: Reduces the cooldown on corruption skills by 20 percent. Essential for Corrupt Boon and Epidemic. For more information on corruption skills, check out IV. Heals, Utility Skills, and Elite Skills.
XI. Lingering Curse: Increases the duration of all conditions applied by scepter by 33 percent. Unlike all other condition duration increases, this effect is multiplicative, not additive, so it’s actually much stronger than the typical condition duration increase. It’s a huge damage boost, and it also increases the duration of cripple on scepter’s No. 2 ability.
Death Magic:
Minor Traits:
Reanimator: Summons a jagged horror whenever the necromancer kills an enemy. More than one can be out at a time as of a recent patch. It’s kind of crappy, but whatever.
Protection of the Horde: Grants 20 extra toughness for each minion the necromancer has summoned. Very slight survivability boost when paired with Reanimator.
Major Traits:
II. Greater Marks: Increases the radius of marks and makes them unblockable. Really great trait. It makes marks easier to aim, makes marks more effective at AOE, and allows the necromancer to do damage through block. It also enhances marks when used as traps, which can be useful in narrow alleys, tunnels, and platforms.
V. Staff Mastery: Staff skills recharge 20 percent faster. Pretty standard cooldown reduction. Amazing for maximizing staff’s AOE and utility. It also makes switching into staff for utility less painful damage-wise by allowing more Mark of Blood spam. Since staff is used so much for its longer range and utility in PvP situations, I think this trait is a must-have.
Blood Magic:
Standard healing and dagger tree. I go into this for the slight survivability and cooldown reduction for dagger skills.Minor Traits:
Full of Life: Applies regen for 5 seconds default to the necromancer whenever s/he’s hit and below 90 percent health, but it has a 30-second cooldown. Decent survivability passive.
Vampiric: Siphons health on attacks. Decent self-heal.
Major Traits:
I. Dagger Mastery: Lowers cooldown on dagger abilities by 15 percent. Very good for Enfeebling Blood, the second best bleed application while using dagger and scepter, and Deathly Swarm, which is great for transferring conditions.
III. Mark of Evasion: Drops a weaker version of Mark of Blood at the end of a roll, with a 10-second cooldown. It’s good for stacking two extra bleeds for 8 seconds default. Dodging is a huge part of PvP, and this ability makes dodging better.
Options and Alternatives:
Curses:
XII. Withering Precision: Gives critical hits a 25-percent chance to apply weakness for 3 seconds default. Trading Lingering Curse for this is a big DPS loss, but it essentially makes weakness a passive condition on targets. (For more information on why weakness is awesome, check out X. Other Tips.)
Death Magic:
VIII. Reaper’s Protection: Makes the necromancer AOE fear whenever s/he is hit with hard crowd control (stun, daze, knockback, knockdown, sink, float, fear, or launch), with a 90-second cooldown. I like this ability in theory, but the cooldown is way too long for my tastes. It’s one way to make up for the lack of a stun remover in the build, however.
IV. Heals, Utility Skills, and Elite Skills
The build I linked earlier is what I run with a majority of the time. Unlike PvE, skills aren’t as fluid in PvP. Still, there are a few situations in which my skills change, so it’s important to keep most options in mind.Heals:
Utility Skills:
Corruption Skills: Corruption abilities provide utility on top of the occasional damage. The downside to them is they each apply a condition on the necromancer, but this self-applied condition can be quickly negated with Deathly Swarm, Putrid Mark, and Consume Conditions.
Corrupt Boon: Main skill. Dispels all boons on a target and turns them into conditions. For information on what the boons are converted into, click here. The best conversions are stability to fear, which is great for crowd control, and retaliation to confusion, which can be a lot of burst damage. This ability is incredible for shutting down boon-heavy builds, particularly guardians and elementalists, and it can be paired up with Epidemic to spread an extra load of conditions. Even if a target only has one or two boons, this skill can do a lot to reduce incoming damage and boost outgoing damage. (Some people claim this ability sometimes does not work, but, in my experience, that’s not true. It has never failed me as long as I’m facing my target and within range.)
Epidemic: Main skill. Spreads all conditions on a target to up to five extra targets, with only a 12-second cooldown when traited. It can be used through line-of-sight, immunities, dodges, and even stealth as long as the cast starts before a target goes into stealth. Epidemic is the staple of the condition necromancer. It is the best AOE in the game game, allowing the spread of 25 stacks of bleeds, other damaging conditions, and any utility-based condition. In world vs. world, this ability is absolutely essential for shutting down groups of players. Its use is explained in further detail in VIII. Tips for One-on-One Fights and IX. Tips for Group Fights.
Signets: Useful for a variety of utility. I usually use one signet in my typical load-out.
Plague Signet: Optional skill. Makes the necromancer absorb one condition from each group member every 10 seconds, and it can be used to transfer all conditions on the necromancer to a target. It sounds better in theory than it works in practice, mostly because the 10-second pulse timer is too long. I generally recommend Well of Power over this for condition removal, but neither ability is really worth giving up Signet of the Locust.
Signet of the Locust: Main skill. Grants 25-percent move speed, and it heals the necromancer and damages a target when activated. Never use the active ability for this, and only use it for the move speed. It’s a huge speed boost. It is amazing for both getting to fights and engaging in them. It is a big part of maximizing range, which is explained in IX. Tips for Group Fights.
Spectral Skills: Spectral skills are typically better in theory than in practice. They provide very situational utility, so I rarely use them.
Spectral Grasp: Optional skill. Pulls a target to the necromancer and chills. This can be good for pulling people off ledges, including keep and tower walls. If I decide to use it, I replace Signet of the Locust with it since the extra mobility isn’t as great in sustained sieges.
Minions: Minions are just pets. They are not worth taking in PvP, especially world vs. world. They die too easily, and they don’t bring enough damage or utility.
Well of Darkness: Optional skill. Player-based AOE that blinds every second for 5 seconds with a 1-minute default cooldown. This ability can be used in situations with tight corridors. If I see an enemy group coming down a tunnel, I will sometimes switch Signet of the Locust to Well of Darkness to mitigate their damage. If I’m out of combat and see a thief stealth near me, I will switch Signet of the Locust to Well of Darkness and use it so the thief’s opener is negated without using a dodge or Death Shroud.Well of Power: Optional skill. Player-based AOE that removes one condition on allies and the necromancer every second for 5 seconds, and each condition removed turns into a boon, with a 1-minute default cooldown. For a full list of how the conditions are converted, click here. This is probably the best option for a necromancer looking for party-wide condition removal. In world vs. world, I only change to it during a defensive siege.
Elite Skills:
V. Gear
Armor, Weapons, and Trinkets:
I stick with rabid stat combination, or condition damage, precision, and toughness. The precision is good because it turns the Barbed Precision trait and Superior Sigil of Earth into huge damage boosts. The toughness is good for two reasons: First, it’s a great boost to survivability, which is vastly underrated in dungeons where some damage is too difficult or downright impossible to avoid. Second, the toughness interacts with consumables to provide a decent boost to condition damage. In general, I don’t recommend vitality because my build provides more than 20,000 base health. At that point, toughness is a much better option.
Tips for Gearing Up:
Getting a set with rabid stats — condition damage, precision, and toughness — can be a pain, but it’s possible with time and patience.
On the trading post, look up the Khilbron’s set for armor. For weapons, look up a Mystic Wand (scepter), Malefacterym (dagger), Bramblethorne (staff), and Limitless Furnace (trident).
Trinkets and backpacks are only available on the trading post. For trinkets, get two Tortured Root accessories, one Colossus Fang amulet, and two Plague rings. For a backpack, look up a rare-quality rabid backpack. Rare-quality rabid trinkets are also an option if exotic gear is too expensive.
Some of the armor is also accessible through karma. The head, shoulder, hand, and leg pieces from karma vendors. Click here for the full list and locations of the vendors on Dulfy‘s amazing website.
For an underwater breather, karma gear is the best option. Buy the Gavbeorn Breather of the Afflicted at Gavbeorn’s Waypoint after the Temple of Melandru event. (Also, underwater breathers replace helmets underwater, so remember to slot it with a rune.)
It’s also possible to get rabid weapons and armor from dungeon explorable modes. Caudecus’s Manor, Twilight Arbor, Honor of the Waves, and Arah provide the full sets.
After all that’s set up, it’s time for ascended gear. The rabid ascended rings are Khilbron’s Phylactery and Ouroboros Loop, which are obtained in the Fractals of the Mists. The rabid ascended backpack is Endless Quiver, which is made at the Mystic Forge.
Runes:
In world vs. world, I think three Runes of the Krait and three Runes of the Afflicted is the best option. It gives both condition damage and condition duration. Some argue that condition duration is bad in PvP due to the high amount of condition removals, but I think that’s the wrong way to look at condition removal. All skills that remove conditions have cooldowns, so they are essentially layers of defense that classes have before conditions can be fully utilized on them. Once those layers are broken through, condition duration shines in a huge way. A bleed lasting 30 to 40 percent longer (Lingering Curse boosts the condition duration from the rune set by 10 percent) can easily mean life or death once condition-removing skills are exhausted. It’s just a matter of having the patience to break through those defenses.
However, if a condition necromancer is too worried about condition removal and wants more upfront damage, the full set of Rune of the Undead is an option. It provides decent survivability and turns some toughness into condition damage. In straight math terms, it’s the best possibility for maxing out bleed ticks. With my gear, which caps toughness at 1,875, it’s 93.75 condition damage. That is nearly the same amount of condition damage on a chest piece. In total, it adds about 5 damage per bleed tick, or about 3.9 percent more bleed damage with no might.
Jewels:
Unfortunately, my build is stuck with the rare-quality Crest of the Rabid to maximize condition damage through condition damage, precision, and toughness. Fortunately, ascended gear has built-in upgrades that are ascended quality, but getting ascended items currently requires Fractals of the Mists.
Sigils:
For the scepter and staff, Superior Sigil of Earth is standard. It gives critical hits a 60 percent chance to apply a stack of bleed for 5 seconds default. This is a huge part of the build, and it’s why condition necromancers want precision.
For the dagger, it’s more about personal preference. I prefer Superior Sigil of Accuracy for 5-percent critical hit chance, but Superior Sigil of Agony is also viable for longer-lasting bleeds and Superior Sigil of Corruption is good if it’s possible to keep 10 to 25 stacks. I tend to avoid other proc-based sigils because they share an inner cooldown with Superior Sigil of Earth, so it’s better to grab a sigil with a passive boost.
VI. Consumables
Unfortunately, consumables are often overlooked. This is a shame because even the affordable options add 189 condition damage and 36 percent condition duration. That’s a massive damage increase! Since I realize consumables can be too expensive for some, I’ll list what I consider the affordable options and the best options.Affordable Options:
Super Veggie Pizza: Food buff. This gives 60 condition damage and 36 percent condition duration. It’s the affordable, nearly max DPS food for condition necromancers. It typically sells for about 1 silver on the trading post.
Quality Tuning Crystal: Miscellaneous buff. This converts 5 percent of toughness and 3 percent of vitality into condition damage. It’s a massive damage gain, especially when paired with condition damage, precision, and toughness gear. It typically sells for about 30 copper on the trading post.
Best Options:
Rare Veggie Pizza: Food buff. This gives 70 condition damage and 40 percent condition duration. It’s the best DPS food for condition necromancers. It typically sells for about 4 silver on the trading post.
Master Tuning Crystal: Miscellaneous buff. This converts 6 percent of toughness and 4 percent of vitality into condition damage. It’s the best damage gain, especially when paired with condition damage, precision, and toughness gear. It typically sells for about 3 silver on the trading post.
VII. Skill Priority
Unlike PvE, there isn’t always a set rotation of skills that should be followed. In PvP, skills are a lot more situational. There’s no sense in blowing every scepter and dagger cooldown when the bleeds are just going to be cleansed off. Putrid Mark and Deathly Swarm are best saved when a few conditions are on the necromancer, and Reaper’s Mark is best used during clutch moments to lock in a kill.
However, when the layers of condition removal are peeled through and it’s time to maximize damage, there is some level of rotation that should be followed. In scepter and dagger, the skill priority is much like the typical PvE rotation: Grasping Dead (No. 2) over Enfeebling Blood (No. 5) over Feast of Corruption (No. 3) over Blood Curse / Rending Curse / Putrid Curse (No. 1). In staff, using Mark of Blood (No. 2) and Chillblains (No. 3) as much as possible is ideal. In optimal damage situations, it’s best to prioritize scepter and dagger over staff because scepter and dagger can apply more bleeds more quickly.
When condition removals are done, it’s also a prime time to use fear and sink to secure a kill before a target can heal. Loading up full bleeds on a target and double fearing it can create a massive health deficit that is too difficult to recover from, especially if poison and chill are on the target to lower the effectiveness of heals and make any defensive cooldowns even longer.
Optimal Burst Rotation:
In the most optimal burst situation, I will use scepter and dagger to Grasping Dead (No. 2) and Enfeebling Blood (No. 5), stack a few bleeds and some poison with Blood Curse / Rending Curse / Putrid Curse (No. 1), switch to staff, use Mark of Blood (No. 2), Chillblains (No. 3), Reaper’s Mark (No. 5), Death Shroud (F1 default), Doom (No. 3), and Dark Path (No. 2). This combination stacks a bunch of bleeds, keeps some poison and chill up, and secures a kill with two fears in a row.
Scepter and Dagger vs. Staff:
The key difference between the scepter-and-dagger set and staff is the scepter-and-dagger set is offensive while staff is defensive.
Staff’s abilities stack less bleeds and do less damage, but they have longer range, apply a stronger snare (chill is better than cripple), cleanse more conditions (Putrid Mark cleanses all conditions, while Deathly Swarm only gets one to three), and fear is amazing for controlling opponents.
On the other hand, the scepter-and-dagger set stacks more bleeds and poison, mostly thanks to scepter’s great No. 1 attack.
My advice is to swap to staff for more defensive situations (when building distance, long range), but stick to scepter and dagger as much as possible to maximize bleeds, poison, and overall damage.
VIII. Tips for One-on-One Fights
Condition necromancers have a solid mix of survivability and damage, which puts them in a great spot for one-on-one fights. The trick is to fight in a way that takes advantage of necromancer’s ability to wear down opponents. When I’m fighting someone one-on-one, I know I usually have the advantage the longer the fight goes on. In this section, I can’t give a script of how every encounter will go — that’s unrealistic, given the variance of player actions and builds — but I’ll provide tips on how to approach the different classes. Knowing how to deal with all the classes on an individual basis makes it much easier to deal with them in group settings.Guardian:
This is one of the easier fights because guardians are either easy-to-kite melee or low-damaging range. As a condition necromancer, the goal is to stay at range with snares and fear and wear through multiple condition-removing abilities. Once a guardian uses all his/her condition removals, unload every bleed possible and secure the kill.
Also, save Corrupt Boon for “Save Yourselves!” Many guardians will use it for the boons, which can be easily converted to free conditions.
If the guardian changes to a shield to block, that’s an ideal time to switch to staff and fear through the block.
Warrior:
Another easy fight, but it can be a bit scary because warriors are capable of very high spike damage. Keep as much distance as possible with cripple, chill, and fear, and apply conditions.
If the warrior changes to a shield to block, that’s an ideal time to switch to staff and fear through the block.
If a warrior stuns or begins using Thousand Blades, popping Death Shroud to absorb damage is advisable.
If the warrior changes to rifle and kneels, that means s/he’s using Kill Shot. If this happens, wait about 1.5 seconds and dodge. If it’s not avoided, Kill Shot can really hurt.
Engineer:
Arguably the easiest one-on-one condition necromancer has to deal with. Engineers can have a lot of conditions and crowd controls, but it’s easy to turn them on the engineer with Deathly Swarm and Putrid Mark. I always make sure to roll out of any ground-targeted AOEs and grenades when possible.
If an engineer drops a bunch of turrets, I will run out of line-of-sight or range of the turrets, and make the engineer come to me. Even if it means running away from an engineer, it’s better and safer than trying to deal with all the turrets and the engineer at the same time.
Ranger:
Even though they’re considered the most flawed class, rangers can be a bit of a challenge one-on-one due to their decent survivability and damage.
If a ranger is ranged, s/he’ll likely be using a shortbow and might even be built for conditions. If that’s the case, turn the conditions around with Deathly Swarm, Putrid Mark, and Consume Conditions.
If the ranger is melee, build distance with cripple, chill, and fear and cleanse any conditions.
If I ever get hit by the ranger elite skill Entangle, I will dispel the immobilize, typically with Consume Conditions, and immediately roll. This lets me avoid the reapplication of the root without having to destroy it.
Ranger pets can also be used to the necromancer’s advantage. Since necromancer’s condition application is mostly AOE, pets can be used to double the amount of conditions on a ranger. To do this, I make the damaging AOEs from scepter and staff hit both the ranger and the pet, then I target the pet and Epidemic. Voila, double the bleeds on the ranger!
Thief:
A lot of players struggle with thieves, but I actually find them pretty manageable. The key is avoiding their opening burst damage, which can only be properly executed through stealth. If a thief stealths right by me, I will almost always Death Shroud or wait a second and then roll. This usually lets me avoid the entire opening burst from Backstab. If for whatever reason I can’t roll or Death Shroud, I will run away from the area where I saw the thief stealth. Since stealth is time-limited and I can run as fast or faster than them with Signet of the Locust, I will usually be able to outrun the thief until stealth ends. As a very last resort, Plague is always an option to absorb an opener and make a thief essentially useless for 20 seconds.
Once the opener is avoided, it’s a matter of building distance with chill, cripple, and fear. When the thief re-stealths, I use the same tactics as before to avoid any burst.
Also, I make sure to drop AOEs, particularly marks, between where a thief stealths and my position, since a thief will move toward me if he wants to attack me from stealth. If I predict the thief’s movement properly, this can let me apply a bunch of conditions on the thief before s/he even opens. I can’t even begin to count how many thieves I’ve killed in stealth because they tend to be so squishy and vulnerable to AOE condition application while in stealth.
If a thief is built for heavy survivability by making his/her stealth remove conditions and heal, the fight can take a while, but with proper play, a condition necromancer should be able to outlast or, at the very worst, stalemate any thief.
Elementalist:
Another easy one-on-one fight. Elementalists are like guardians in that they have a few layers of condition removal, so the fights can take a while, but the condition necromancer should always have the upper hand.
If an elementalist is ranged, his/her attacks are very easy to avoid by moving. If an elementalist is melee, s/he will have a lot of mobility, but it shouldn’t be enough burst or damage to really scare a necromancer. Simply keep as much distance as possible, even against ranged elementalists, and avoid any AOEs and projectiles by staying on the move. Chill, cripple, and fear as much as possible to keep distance.
One trick elementalists love to use is mixing Churning Earth and Lightning Flash. This lets them charge up Churning Earth and teleport to a target at the last possible moment to do spike damage and apply eight bleeds. This is very easily avoidable. If I ever see an elementalist charge up Churning Earth (the elementalist will crouch and rocks will begin shaking around him/her), I will either fear to interrupt the cast (the 30-second cooldown will still trigger if the ability is interrupted) or get ready to dodge or Death Shroud once the elementalist teleports to me. One reason to use Death Shroud instead of rolling is the bleeds can then be transferred back to the elementalist with Putrid Mark or Deathly Swarm.
It’s a good idea to save Corrupt Boon for Armor of Earth. It turns the stability into fear, giving a free stun and distance builder, and the protection into vulnerability, which boosts damage against the elementalist very slightly.
Mesmer:
Mesmers can be a little tricky if they know how to play their class, but condition necromancers are built to counter them. When I fight them, I try to keep my distance. Even though the main Greatsword attack does get stronger the further I am, it’s better to take the slightly boosted damage than it is to leave myself close to a mesmer’s phantasms and illusions in case the mesmer uses Mind Wrack to shatter the clones on me for spike damage. Distance also helps me avoid the more threatening melee weapons most mesmers use.
It’s important to know mesmers are very vulnerable to conditions. The only tools they have to cleanse them —Arcane Thievery and Null Field — have long cooldowns and are limited in how much they cleanse.
That also means illusions and phantasms are very vulnerable to conditions. I always take advantage of this by making sure my AOEs hit as many clones as possible and by spamming Epidemic. If done properly, this can take out a lot of clones before they even reach me.
Another alternative to killing clones is Life Transfer (Death Shroud No. 4). It doesn’t do that much single-target damage, but the AOE can take down squishy clones very quickly.
When a mesmer does use Mind Wrack, it’s very obvious because the clones will stop what they’re doing and begin moving to their target. As a condition necromancer, it’s always advisable to kite the clones and kill them (they’re easy to one- or two-shot) or use Death Shroud to soak the burst damage.
Necromancer:
Strangely enough, necromancer is one of the best counters to necromancer. Condition builds have a lot of ways to transfer and cleanse conditions, so it can be a bit like fighting a guardian or elementalist in that there are condition-removal layers to work through before a necromancer can be killed.
The trick is to use the condition transfers as sparingly as possible to balance damage coming in while maximizing damage going out. If done properly, I can usually get another necromancer to waste his condition removals and then transfer all remaining conditions on me to kill him/her.
If a necromancer is built for power, s/he won’t have as many condition transfers, and the damage will be easier to avoid. Build distance with chill, cripple, and fear, and keep conditions off as much as possible.
When a necromancer uses Death Shroud, it’s a good idea to try to interrupt the Life Transfer, which has a rather obvious animation, with fear. This makes it so the necromancer is able to soak up less damage in Death Shroud since Life Transfer provides life force.
IX. Tips for Group Fights
Playing in or against a group can be a completely different than playing one-on-one. For starters, not always being the center of attention opens up some leniency for dealing damage. Here are some tips that make condition necromancers more effective in group battles.Maximizing range:
The biggest survivability a ranged class has is not a skill or a piece of gear. For condition necromancers, it’s not even Death Shroud. Instead, it’s range. Keeping as much range as possible is a huge deal in PvP. It’s the best way to avoid any damage.
Part of doing this means using the right weapon. Scepter and dagger have shorter ranges than staff, so sometimes it’s better to sacrifice damage from scepter and dagger to not get too close to a huge group of players. This is entirely a personal call, but it’s something that will become more obvious with more play time.
But the biggest part of maximizing ranged is predicting opponents. This is all a matter of getting familiar with the game’s mechanics. The key factors to watch out for is that movement should be done before it’s too late. When a group of players starts moving towards me, I will start moving away from them as soon as possible. It’s not just about building distance; it’s about keeping distance.
Maximizing range applies in both small and huge encounters. It’s a very important aspect of surviving and, in the long term, maximizing damage by staying alive as long as possible.
Now, sometimes it is better to move in for more damage. I don’t just sit in staff and drop marks all day; I often move in to deal superior damage with scepter and dagger. Again, this is entirely situational, and it’s something one can only get used to with a deeper understanding of game mechanics.
Maximizing range is one of the reasons I strongly recommend Signet of the Locust. Being able to move in and out of a fight becomes a lot easier with 25 percent extra run speed. There have been quite a few situations in which I’ve barely escaped or killed someone only to realize it was only possible because I’m running a lot faster.
Epidemic use:
One of the most important aspects of a condition necromancer is understanding who is vulnerable to conditions and who isn’t. In general, guardians, elementalists, and other necromancers can cleanse a lot of conditions, while warriors, mesmers, and rangers do not. Thieves can also be a bit more difficult to apply conditions on due to stealth.
Knowing this makes it a lot easier to choose a target to apply bleeds on. In larger fights, I will almost always target a warrior, mesmer, or ranger, apply as many conditions as possible, and then use Epidemic. Even with those classes, I’ll usually have to deal with one condition removal, but after that, it’s really easy to apply conditions and send them out to their entire groups.
Baiting:
Baiting opponents into a bad position is a very good tactic. Condition necromancers are actually pretty good at this because they have so much survivability. To do this, I will usually move close to an opponent, grabbing his/her attention. After that, I will run back toward my group. If I really have someone’s attention, s/he will follow me. If I’m baiting an entire group of people, I will usually use Death Shroud or Plague to make sure I can soak up any ranged damage before I get back to my group.
In an organized group, this can be very effectively done with corners and walls. Baiting opponents around a corner and into a larger group is a very common flanking tactic, and it can make sieges easier by sending a group of enemies back to a spawn point.
X. Other Tips
These are tips that generally apply to both one-on-one and group fights.Using Death Shroud:
In PvP, the main uses of Death Shroud are survivability and fear. Using it for survivability is all about predicting burst through indicators — getting stunned, a thief stealthing, a warrior using Thousand Blades, mesmer clones moving in to shatter — and activating Death Shroud to soak up any spikes in damage. It’s also a good idea to switch to Death Shroud and soak up conditions when Deathly Swarm, Putrid Mark, and Consume Conditions are on cooldown. If Death Shroud is being used for survivability, it’s also a good idea to use Life Transfer to regain life force while in Death Shroud.
It’s also a good idea to use Death Shroud to fear as much as possible. The ideal way to do this is to pop into Death Shroud, use Doom (No. 3), and pop out. For condition necromancers, popping into Death Shroud will also grant fury, which can go really well with a stun like fear to apply some extra damage through more bleeds and critical hits.
Remember it’s possible to use Death Shroud and Doom (No. 3) while in any crowd control. This can essentially act as a stun breaker if used properly. I have feared plenty of deadly channeled attacks while stunned by saving Death Shroud for the proper moment.
Kill critters:
This is pretty basic, but while running to a zone or fight, one-shot as many critters, or gray-named mobs, as possible to gain life force. I will usually arrive to a keep or tower with close to full life force just by killing a bunch of critters.
Dodging:
Dodging is a huge deal in PvP, but it’s rarely used correctly by most players. First of all, never roll twice in a rowat the start of a fight. I see so many people do this, and it’s a complete waste.
The best times to use dodge are when big burst damage is obviously coming, including stealth and Thousand Blades. In these situations, it’s almost always a good idea to dodge to avoid big burst.
If I’m low on health and my heal has a few seconds left on its cooldown, I will also dodge to ensure I survive just long enough for it to come up. This has saved me a walk back countless times.
Dodging properly is all about building the right experience and knowledge, but one universal truth is to be thoughtful with dodges. I strongly advise against spamming dodge on cooldown, as way too many players seem to do.
Fear:
The most obvious use of fear is its stun and interrupt, but one often overlooked aspect of the ability is the fact it moves people away from the necromancer. Not only can this be used to knock enemies off ledges, but it can also be used to move enemies into deadly positions.
For example, fear can be used to move enemies into the necromancer’s allies. One easy way I do this is by going into Death Shroud, using Dark Path (Death Shroud No. 2) to jump by a target, position myself so I’m facing my group, and fearing. If I use both Doom (Death Shroud No. 2) and Reaper’s Mark (staff No. 5), I can usually push a target pretty deep into my group.
It’s also possible to use fear to push an opponent further into his/her own group. The main reason to do this is to put someone in the middle of a large group for Epidemic, which can sometimes maximize the amount of people afflicted by conditions.
Weakness:
This is the most under-appreciated condition in the game. In simple terms, it makes 50 percent of non-critical hits do half the damage. This can be a huge damage decrease depending on players. Even glass cannons usually only have around 50 percent critical hit chance, which means weakness reduces about half their attacks by 50 percent.
Weakness also makes endurance, which is used to roll, recharge much slower, which can be a huge deal for securing a kill.
XI. Frequently Asked Questions
Why no stun breakers in your main build?
Guild Wars 2 is a game with very few crowd controls, including stuns. For this reason, I don’t feel a stun removal is as necessary as it is in other MMORPGs. Plus, in the case of condition necromancer, Death Shroud can be used to negate stuns with Doom (Death Shroud No. 3) and soak up damage in general.
However, there are options for stun breakers. If I ever feel like I’m too vulnerable to crowd control, I will replace Signet of the Locust with Spectral Walk to maintain some heightened mobility while gaining a stun remover.
Why not a healing power, condition damage, toughness?
Precision is a massive damage gain due to Superior Sigil of Earth and Barbed Precision. That set also has much less condition damage because it prioritizes healing power.
I don’t think giving up condition damage and precision for healing power is worth it, especially because I don’t ever feel like my survivability is lacking. It’s very easy for a lot of players to fall into the trap of focusing on too much survivability after a bad experience. A lot of people did it in WOW’s arenas. But the real solution is working on living longer through proper tactics and strategies, not throwing away a huge chunk of damage for some limited survivability.
Why not a hybrid gear set-up?
The main reason hybrid builds, meaning builds that combine power and condition damage, are mediocre inGuild Wars 2 is because the stats from the main DPS archetypes — condition damage, precision, and toughness in rabid and power, precision, and critical damage in berserker — scale better when taken together.
For example, with berserker gear, precision is geared toward making critical strikes more frequent, but in the same set-up, critical strikes actually get stronger. So every percent of critical strike chance (21 precision at level 80) actually becomes better as the critical strikes triggered become stronger through power and critical damage. The math behind this is simple: With no extra critical damage, 1 percent chance to crit, or 21 precision, only adds about 0.5 percent DPS. With 50 percent extra critical damage, that 21 precision suddenly adds about 1 percent DPS because the critical strikes triggered are now doing double the damage.
It’s the same concept with condition damage, toughness, and bleeds in the rabid set-up. With rabid gear, precision triggers more bleeds, while condition damage and, to a much lesser degree, toughness all add to bleed damage. So each point of precision becomes stronger with each point of condition damage and toughness because the more frequent bleeds also tick harder.
In other words, it’s better to focus on two or three main stats, especially as each individual stat gets higher, because of how the stats synergize with each other. If a hybrid approach is taken to gearing, the lack of focus actually makes a build do exponentially less damage in the long term.
XII. Revisions and Additions
Jan. 1, 2012: Added a question and answer to XI. Frequently Asked Questions.
Dec. 31, 2012: Added a comparison between staff and the scepter-and-dagger set to VII. Skill Priority. Added a note about replacing Corrupt Boon with Blood is Power in IV. Heals, Utility Skills, and Elite Skills, thanks toprowagratis on Reddit for the suggestion.