26 replies to this topic

[Proseidon1]

I love necro, but I hate conditions. So, I've been trying various power builds. I test these extensively in PvE and Target Dummies to try and get what I find to be the most effective builds.

Here are the builds I've tried:

Axe/Focus Staff Power
Dagger/Warhorn Staff Power
Lifesteal Dagger/Warhorn
Lifesteal Wells
Dag/War Axe/Foc power
Staff Power/Cond/Prec Glass Cannon Wells
Deathshroud Power
Deathshroud Spectral Sustain

I wanted to share my thoughts on various aspects of power builds that I've discovered, and I want to hear you guys' thoughts on them, too.

• Axe is not a good weapon. I've tried it every way and I just can't justify using it. For damage, it is weak and slow. 3 is nice for tanking, but it doesn't do much. 2 and 1 are lackluster for damage. The only reason I would use axe is to stack vulnerability in dungeons, but even then, the "1" skill doesn't attack fast enough to be worth it.
  
• Wells are the ONLY good utility skills in a power build. They're also our only big reliable source of AoE damage. As such, you will almost always take 20 points in blood.
  
• Lifesteal is weak and should not be built towards.
  
• Dagger is our only option for hard-hitting attacks.
  
• Warhorn Locust Swarm combined with 15 pt blood trait ends up being some impressive damage.
  
• Warhorn Daze is vastly underrated and one of our best weapon skills.
  
• Close to Death is an amazing trait (after it was fixed) and is a must in all competitive power builds.
  
• As a necro, you can build glass cannon. Berserker's / Rampager's. I look at Death Shroud as a free significant boost to toughness and vitality. We can afford to have low survivability because you can tank bursts with your shroud.
  
• Staff is a bit overrated but I believe it to be our only other viable power weapon.
  
• Building damage for death shroud does not work simply because our death shroud does not have decent damage skill options outside of the first few seconds of life blast.
  
• Lich Form is overrated. While it is powerful, I often find myself ending it early because it does not offer enough utility and AoE. It is, however, king for single target DPS.
  
• On Crit sigils are surprisingly effective. I run the quickness sigil and despite me only having 35% crit chance it usually goes off shortly after every cooldown.
  
• With Locust Swarm, Dagger Auto, and Wells, you do a LOT of quick damage in a short amount of time. With so many ticks, it definitely helps with any crit sigils, and turns lifesteal from a weak passive to a moderate source of damage.

That's the information I've compiled so far. If you'd like to know what I'm currently running, I'm using Dagger/Warhorn, and I'm testing 30/0/0/30/10 (Lifesteal Wells D/W | A/F), 30/0/0/25/15 (Sustained Tanky D/W), and 30/0/20/30/0 (D/W Staff with staff boosters + targeted wells).

As far as my performance goes. PvE I have no trouble. I often solo 5 mobs at a time without being concerned about my survivability, despite wearing full berserkers.

In WvW, I have never lost a 1v1 match. I think this is partially because it's an unexpected build, but I will attribute most of my success to warhorn daze. You just activate locust swarm, close the gap, lock them with dagger 3, drop wells, and daze them before they can save themselves.

Edited by Proseidon1, 28 September 2012 - 06:27 PM.

[Howl]

Proseidon1, on 28 September 2012 - 06:18 PM, said:

On Crit sigils are surprisingly effective. I run the quickness sigil and despite only having 35% crit chance it usually goes off shortly after every cooldown.

Quickness sigil, "of rage", gives 10% chance not 35%.

http://www.gw2db.com...r-sigil-of-rage

Edited by Howl, 28 September 2012 - 06:26 PM.

[Proseidon1]

Howl, on 28 September 2012 - 06:26 PM, said:

Quickness sigil, "of rage", gives 10% chance not 35%.

http://www.gw2db.com...r-sigil-of-rage

Man, I am screwing myself so bad with all of this formatting.
Reposting my response:

I have edited the line to be more clear but I meant my personal crit chance being 35%.

[Howl]

Proseidon1, on 28 September 2012 - 06:32 PM, said:

Man, I am screwing myself so bad with all of this formatting.
Reposting my response:

I have edited the line to be more clear but I meant my personal crit chance being 35%.

Oh I understand now, but are you sure about that ? I used the sigil of rage with 52% crit chance and after like a week of using it i just changed it for another one because it almost never kicked off, and when it did it was 'meh'.

[takarazuka]

I want to pick your brain more on the use of warhorn in offhand.  I know the overwhelming reasons people choose it for PVP, but I really have yet to see any major benefit in PVE.  

- 2s daze on a 30s cooldown in PVE is very lackluster.  It affords very little in the way of utility for yourself and the effect barely lasts long enough to make a difference against mobs.
- Locust swarm is okay I suppose, but since you are in melee range with power builds as it is, the 1s cripple is underwhelming and swiftness is negated by the fact that you are in melee range and aren't moving as much as ranged would be.

Just to offer my POV on this.... the focus:

- Since you seem to be in favor of using dagger mainhand, using Focus[4], imo, would be a given.  10s of 3 stacks of vulnerability at 3% on a 14.5s cooldown (when traited in Spite) improves your overall damage while attacking with all abilities except bleeds which aren't a factor here.  When fighting mulitple mobs and using Well of Corruption (2% Vulnerability per tick x 5 ticks) you increase Vuln stacks to 10+ and the damage really pours on very quickly.
- Spinal Shivers has a fairly decent hit to hit as well as adding a -66% recharge rate to skills.  This is helpful against mobs that do stuns and knockdowns quite often (Risen Farmers anyone...).  It also removes any boons your target might have and slows them in case you need to run away.

Also, both focus abilities have a damage attack to them on short cooldowns compared to warhorn only having 1.

Now, to give some more praise to Dagger main hand, which I agree, is a very good weapon.  Dagger[2] might have a terrible life siphon ability, but the damage is WOW.  The damage scales upwards and I have had it go as high as 4,000 per tick on DE event bosses such as the Temples of Orr events.  With the reduced cooldown on daggers, you can put out some quick and burst damage every 10s roughly.  I do wish the actual heal was better, but the damage in itself is amazing.

Edited by takarazuka, 28 September 2012 - 07:23 PM.

[Proseidon1]

takarazuka, on 28 September 2012 - 07:15 PM, said:

I want to pick your brain more on the use of warhorn in offhand.  I know the overwhelming reasons people choose it for PVP, but I really have yet to see any major benefit in PVE.  

- 2s daze on a 30s cooldown in PVE is very lackluster.  It affords very little in the way of utility for yourself and the effect barely lasts long enough to make a difference against mobs.
- Locust swarm is okay I suppose, but since you are in melee range with power builds as it is, the 1s cripple is underwhelming and swiftness is negated by the fact that you are in melee range and aren't moving as much as ranged would be.

The daze is not the greatest in PvE, but I believe it's highly underrated. In your typical AoE pack of mobs, or tough fight, I get a whole two seconds to pretty much cast whatever I want. It's especially useful with enemies that interrupt or stun: I just daze, and then I have time to cast my heal or to make a retreat.

Locust swarm doesn't seem like it would be that good... but you have to realize that every single tick both A. procs life siphon, and B. provides an avenue for crits. It hits quite often and I find it amazing for proccing on-crit sigils, and the AoE lifesteal and damage is nothing to sneeze at, either.

Quote

Just to offer my POV on this.... the focus:

- Since you seem to be in favor of using dagger mainhand, using Focus[4], imo, would be a given.  10s of 3 stacks of vulnerability at 3% on a 14.5s cooldown (when traited in Spite) improves your overall damage while attacking with all abilities except bleeds which aren't a factor here.  When fighting mulitple mobs and using Well of Corruption (2% Vulnerability per tick x 5 ticks) you increase Vuln stacks to 10+ and the damage really pours on very quickly.
- Spinal Shivers has a fairly decent hit to hit as well as adding a -66% recharge rate to skills.  This is helpful against mobs that do stuns and knockdowns quite often (Risen Farmers anyone...).  It also removes any boons your target might have and slows them in case you need to run away.

Also, both focus abilities have a damage attack to them on short cooldowns compared to warhorn only having 1.

Here's my thoughts on this: Focus #4 is really only good in one situation, and that's a close ranged 1v1. The regeneration is paltry and the damage is forgettable. I'd get more damage from not interrupting my auto attack in most cases.

Focus #5 just simply has much too long of a cast time for little pay-off. If it did significant damage, it would be a different story, but it doesn't have a high damage level and the effect is simply not useful enough for the cast time. Interrupting my autoattack for so long is harmful to my damage, it's not AoE, enemies rarely have boons up, and when they do, well of corruption more than covers it. For the chill effect, I'd rather have a sigil of the hydromancer or use DS #2.

The thing with the dagger is you don't NEED more skills. Your damage comes from Wells, Auto attack, and (somewhat) 5. You want to keep auto-attack up while you are casting your additional damage. The only reason to have other weapon skills is to offer utility. #3 provides a snare, #2 a moderate damage with a small heal.

Quote

Now, to give some more praise to Dagger main hand, which I agree, is a very good weapon.  Dagger[2] might have a terrible life siphon ability, but the damage is WOW.  The damage scales upwards and I have had it go as high as 4,000 per tick on DE event bosses such as the Temples of Orr events.  With the reduced cooldown on daggers, you can put out some quick and burst damage every 10s roughly.  I do wish the actual heal was better, but the damage in itself is amazing.

With the proper gear, I actually find my auto-attack chain to do more damage than the time spent channeling 2, but it provides a very nice way to deal damage while closing in or dealing with blinds/dodges.

[takarazuka]

Interesting, I did not know that Locust Swarm was in effect for the duration of Swiftness.  My fault for not understanding the skill that well... I rarely used warhorn so never knew that.  Thanks for pointing that out!!  With that piece of info I could see using a warhorn since it is, in essence, a "dot" kind of and you get more damage than I thought.

In regards to Dagger[2], I find it useful to use on mobs that do knockdowns and stuns when they are charging up their attack.  It's easy to see this before it happens and dodge back or root them and back off so they don't hit you.  When you're doing that channeling life siphon helps a lot with missed damage from not being able to auto attack.  It's also a good finisher on ranged mobs that like to run away though you still have to stay close or root them.

[Proseidon1]

Howl, on 28 September 2012 - 06:36 PM, said:

Oh I understand now, but are you sure about that ? I used the sigil of rage with 52% crit chance and after like a week of using it i just changed it for another one because it almost never kicked off, and when it did it was 'meh'.

Here's my thoughts on it. Let's say you have a 35% chance to crit. Not that high, so if you're attacking once every second, it sounds like a bad idea. However, one thing about Necromancers that I like and I don't really see in many of the other classes, is that Wells provide an additional attack every second. Then, add in Locust swarm, for another attack every second. In addition, necro's auto attack chain starts with a double strike. So you're hitting MORE than 3 attacks a second at maximum potential, averaging one crit per second, which would be the same (okay, not really, statistics majors please dont kill me) as a warrior auto-attacking with 100% crit chance. With this, I often get quickness proc every fight.

Edited by Proseidon1, 28 September 2012 - 08:45 PM.

[Graham_Specter]

Hmm,

After tossing and jossing a few ideas for builds (Life Siphon, Minion Master - Y'know, all of those builds that really didn't go anywhere), I felt like I should consult the power sages for what would be the best sort of thing to go for.

I really like the idea of an Axe/Horn build... but I'm not sure what wells I should take - I have Blood and Suffering now, I might get Power (Enemies are more likely to condition me than they are to boon themselves) and Darkness.

[Proseidon1]

Graham_Specter, on 28 September 2012 - 09:53 PM, said:

Hmm,

After tossing and jossing a few ideas for builds (Life Siphon, Minion Master - Y'know, all of those builds that really didn't go anywhere), I felt like I should consult the power sages for what would be the best sort of thing to go for.

I really like the idea of an Axe/Horn build... but I'm not sure what wells I should take - I have Blood and Suffering now, I might get Power (Enemies are more likely to condition me than they are to boon themselves) and Darkness.

The only staple wells I use are Blood, Suffering, and Corruption. My third point is a toss up between Spectral Walk (swiftness for map exploring), Spectral grasp (pulling people from walls in WvW, safe dungeon pulls in PvE),Well of Darkness (Useful in tough dungeons for a small breather from enemy attacks), Blood is Power (free 20% death shroud is never a bad choice), Locust (the heal can be significant in an AoE), or Well of Power.

[spritepac]

If you are using wells I think ground targetting is necessary just because even in melee range your not a warrior or guardian just standing there taking hits as a necro we are constantly moving and in/out of DS and with ground targetting wells you can really hurt a mob especially ranged.

[takarazuka]

spritepac, on 28 September 2012 - 11:24 PM, said:

If you are using wells I think ground targetting is necessary just because even in melee range your not a warrior or guardian just standing there taking hits as a necro we are constantly moving and in/out of DS and with ground targetting wells you can really hurt a mob especially ranged.

You don't move nearly as much as you think.  Between blinds and your lockdown on Dagger[3] if you use it, it's very easy to keep mobs in your wells.  I haven't had a need for targeted wells yet in my power build.

[zmetek]

Hi, I am playing as dagger-necro and I like it much more than condi one. But I am having a hard time since I can't decide what equip (stats) prioritize. I am runnign Knight's gear now (power, prec, tough), trinkets and weapons with same stats. Traits - testing 30/0/25/0/15). I have about 2100 toughness (3k armor) and power, 40 prc crit chance. However, I do not know if so much toughness is worth having.

Edited by zmetek, 29 September 2012 - 02:57 PM.

[Deistik]

I've been running a 10/30/0/0/30 build focusing on Death Shroud.  Being able to jump in DS and get fury for 5s (which gives me ~84% crit and 111% crit damage) and launch off 3-4 life blasts that all pierce and inflict vulnerability and give me might.  Using axe/focus (to stack vulnerability outside of DS) and staff (with the +3% LF per mark trait).  Sigils of strength and frailty with a purity on the staff.  Once I stack enough vulnerability and might, I can crit Life Blasts for 5k+, every 7-8 seconds.  All about getting your life force back as soon as possible.

[Antemortem]

I'm still trying to find a decent axe/focus and staff power build.  I use the axe simply because I don't want to be in melee range.  I don't want to use the scepter because frankly, I think it's boring.  My build currently is 30/10/10/20/0, and it's "meh".  It's mostly for utility in dungeons.  I really wish we could have a dual-build option, as I do find different builds work better for different situations.

[Copenhagen23]

Proseidon I'm using your 30/0/0/30/10 dagger/warhorn and staff build on my fresh 80 Necro, and I have to say I'm really liking it. I never used Warhorn as an offensive weapon, but the damage Locust Swarm puts out definitely adds up. I'm using Spectral Armor, Well of Corruption, and Well of Suffering. I'm undecided on my Elite as I like all three, but am currently using Flesh Golem.

Spite               Reapers Might / Spiteful Marks / Close to Death
Blood Magic    Dagger Mastery / Quickening Thirst / Ritual Mastery
Soul Reaping  Spectral Mastery

I think i'm going to put 10 points into Death Magic instead of Soul Reaping. Ill pick up Ritual of Protection or Staff Mastery.

[Howl]

Proseidon1, on 28 September 2012 - 08:44 PM, said:

Here's my thoughts on it. Let's say you have a 35% chance to crit. Not that high, so if you're attacking once every second, it sounds like a bad idea. However, one thing about Necromancers that I like and I don't really see in many of the other classes, is that Wells provide an additional attack every second. Then, add in Locust swarm, for another attack every second. In addition, necro's auto attack chain starts with a double strike. So you're hitting MORE than 3 attacks a second at maximum potential, averaging one crit per second, which would be the same (okay, not really, statistics majors please dont kill me) as a warrior auto-attacking with 100% crit chance. With this, I often get quickness proc every fight.

I see, that's nice info, and I forgot to mention I used it on my Mesmer.

[Drekor]

I pretty much agree with OP's assessment. I currently run a dagger/warhorn+staff build in WvW that I enjoy but a lot of the mechanics seem very clunky. I especially dislike DS being a massive DPS loss and only having 900 range. I'd really like to see some major improvements to axe as well as some traits(combined into existing ones) that boost DS, like having life blast detonate an AoE on target rather than pierce and getting rid of the damage scaling when high(or low) on life force.

[takarazuka]

I have been testing and playing with a warhorn ALL weekend... and wow it's amazing actually!  I have updated my power build and included the warhorn as the primary offhand for the build. http://www.guildwars...ocus-and-wells/

[Proseidon1]

**BUMP TO UPDATE AFTER PATCH**

Well, it appears we finally got some buffs to our stuff. Thoughts on the changes?

[takarazuka]

Vampiric hits for 38 now at level 80!!!!  Also... it seems it might be useful to use BiP... 10 stacks of might?  Yes please....

[Proseidon1]

takarazuka, on 02 October 2012 - 03:17 AM, said:

Vampiric hits for 38 now at level 80!!!!  Also... it seems it might be useful to use BiP... 10 stacks of might?  Yes please....

I haven't done much testing but when using improved Siphon, my dagger drain went from 2800-3300 before the patch to 3300-4300 after the patch. I'm not complaining!

[dandelions]

Proseidon1, on 28 September 2012 - 06:18 PM, said:

I love necro, but I hate conditions. So, I've been trying various power builds. I test these extensively in PvE and Target Dummies to try and get what I find to be the most effective builds.

Here are the builds I've tried:

Axe/Focus Staff Power
Dagger/Warhorn Staff Power
Lifesteal Dagger/Warhorn
Lifesteal Wells
Dag/War Axe/Foc power
Staff Power/Cond/Prec Glass Cannon Wells
Deathshroud Power
Deathshroud Spectral Sustain

I wanted to share my thoughts on various aspects of power builds that I've discovered, and I want to hear you guys' thoughts on them, too.

• Axe is not a good weapon. I've tried it every way and I just can't justify using it. For damage, it is weak and slow. 3 is nice for tanking, but it doesn't do much. 2 and 1 are lackluster for damage. The only reason I would use axe is to stack vulnerability in dungeons, but even then, the "1" skill doesn't attack fast enough to be worth it.
  
• Wells are the ONLY good utility skills in a power build. They're also our only big reliable source of AoE damage. As such, you will almost always take 20 points in blood.
  
• Lifesteal is weak and should not be built towards.
  
• Dagger is our only option for hard-hitting attacks.
  
• Warhorn Locust Swarm combined with 15 pt blood trait ends up being some impressive damage.
  
• Warhorn Daze is vastly underrated and one of our best weapon skills.
  
• Close to Death is an amazing trait (after it was fixed) and is a must in all competitive power builds.
  
• As a necro, you can build glass cannon. Berserker's / Rampager's. I look at Death Shroud as a free significant boost to toughness and vitality. We can afford to have low survivability because you can tank bursts with your shroud.
  
• Staff is a bit overrated but I believe it to be our only other viable power weapon.
  
• Building damage for death shroud does not work simply because our death shroud does not have decent damage skill options outside of the first few seconds of life blast.
  
• Lich Form is overrated. While it is powerful, I often find myself ending it early because it does not offer enough utility and AoE. It is, however, king for single target DPS.
  
• On Crit sigils are surprisingly effective. I run the quickness sigil and despite me only having 35% crit chance it usually goes off shortly after every cooldown.
  
• With Locust Swarm, Dagger Auto, and Wells, you do a LOT of quick damage in a short amount of time. With so many ticks, it definitely helps with any crit sigils, and turns lifesteal from a weak passive to a moderate source of damage.

That's the information I've compiled so far. If you'd like to know what I'm currently running, I'm using Dagger/Warhorn, and I'm testing 30/0/0/30/10 (Lifesteal Wells D/W | A/F), 30/0/0/25/15 (Sustained Tanky D/W), and 30/0/20/30/0 (D/W Staff with staff boosters + targeted wells).

As far as my performance goes. PvE I have no trouble. I often solo 5 mobs at a time without being concerned about my survivability, despite wearing full berserkers.

In WvW, I have never lost a 1v1 match. I think this is partially because it's an unexpected build, but I will attribute most of my success to warhorn daze. You just activate locust swarm, close the gap, lock them with dagger 3, drop wells, and daze them before they can save themselves.

Thanks for the warhorn #5 advice, I never even considered using it that way.
Agreed with the whole dagger/staff/axe thing.
Agreed with on crit sigils for berserker or rampager type set, otherwise no. With 30% crit it's like 1 proc every 11 hits, vs 1 every 5-6 hits with 60% crit for might or vuln, and 1 proc every 17 hit vs 1 every 33 hit for quickness sigil. I suppose if aoeing multiple targets it's still decent for lower crit chance build but single target you can't really get many might stacks up.

Quote

Building damage for death shroud does not work simply because our death shroud does not have decent damage skill options outside of the first few seconds of life blast.

This, so much. Either make the max hits massive or remove scaling :/ (since you get about 2 off before it degens and loses damage).

The last time I played spvp I used a similar spec (blowing up bone minions for added burst when you lock them down in the wells) but with knight amulet and no points in DS tree since the 15 pt trait was broken. I have to say though I am not a fan of this spec. The wells are on too long cooldown. If you avoid these (on any other class) you're gonna outburst and outcc the necro. Thief is a better wvw roamer. I think also there is susceptibility to kiting in this-> close the gap with locust swarm?? Surely they have swiftness too, kbs, self kbs.. You've got staff 3 which is going to be very hard to hit unless they've fixed the greater marks trait to increase the area of effect as well as the trigger area, and DS 2 which for me at least is wayyyyy toooo slow esp in wvw. Staff 1, DS 1 and DS 2 all need projectile speed buff, as if the long cast time isn't enough they've got to travel slower than moving player as well.

[Piteous]

Proseidon1, on 28 September 2012 - 06:18 PM, said:

I love necro, but I hate conditions. So, I've been trying various power builds. I test these extensively in PvE and Target Dummies to try and get what I find to be the most effective builds.

Here are the builds I've tried:

Axe/Focus Staff Power
Dagger/Warhorn Staff Power
Lifesteal Dagger/Warhorn
Lifesteal Wells
Dag/War Axe/Foc power
Staff Power/Cond/Prec Glass Cannon Wells
Deathshroud Power
Deathshroud Spectral Sustain

I wanted to share my thoughts on various aspects of power builds that I've discovered, and I want to hear you guys' thoughts on them, too.

• Axe is not a good weapon. I've tried it every way and I just can't justify using it. For damage, it is weak and slow. 3 is nice for tanking, but it doesn't do much. 2 and 1 are lackluster for damage. The only reason I would use axe is to stack vulnerability in dungeons, but even then, the "1" skill doesn't attack fast enough to be worth it.
  
• Wells are the ONLY good utility skills in a power build. They're also our only big reliable source of AoE damage. As such, you will almost always take 20 points in blood.
  
• Lifesteal is weak and should not be built towards.
  
• Dagger is our only option for hard-hitting attacks.
  
• Warhorn Locust Swarm combined with 15 pt blood trait ends up being some impressive damage.
  
• Warhorn Daze is vastly underrated and one of our best weapon skills.
  
• Close to Death is an amazing trait (after it was fixed) and is a must in all competitive power builds.
  
• As a necro, you can build glass cannon. Berserker's / Rampager's. I look at Death Shroud as a free significant boost to toughness and vitality. We can afford to have low survivability because you can tank bursts with your shroud.
  
• Staff is a bit overrated but I believe it to be our only other viable power weapon.
  
• Building damage for death shroud does not work simply because our death shroud does not have decent damage skill options outside of the first few seconds of life blast.
  
• Lich Form is overrated. While it is powerful, I often find myself ending it early because it does not offer enough utility and AoE. It is, however, king for single target DPS.
  
• On Crit sigils are surprisingly effective. I run the quickness sigil and despite me only having 35% crit chance it usually goes off shortly after every cooldown.
  
• With Locust Swarm, Dagger Auto, and Wells, you do a LOT of quick damage in a short amount of time. With so many ticks, it definitely helps with any crit sigils, and turns lifesteal from a weak passive to a moderate source of damage.

That's the information I've compiled so far. If you'd like to know what I'm currently running, I'm using Dagger/Warhorn, and I'm testing 30/0/0/30/10 (Lifesteal Wells D/W | A/F), 30/0/0/25/15 (Sustained Tanky D/W), and 30/0/20/30/0 (D/W Staff with staff boosters + targeted wells).

As far as my performance goes. PvE I have no trouble. I often solo 5 mobs at a time without being concerned about my survivability, despite wearing full berserkers.

In WvW, I have never lost a 1v1 match. I think this is partially because it's an unexpected build, but I will attribute most of my success to warhorn daze. You just activate locust swarm, close the gap, lock them with dagger 3, drop wells, and daze them before they can save themselves.

Thanks for this I have used Dagger and it is great but I never thought Warhorn was actually doing anything. I was going to give up on my lvl 50 necro but I think I will try out your build and see how it goes.

I was going condition to but I am switching to power build.

Edited by Piteous, 02 October 2012 - 06:23 PM.

[takarazuka]

Piteous, on 02 October 2012 - 06:23 PM, said:

Thanks for this I have used Dagger and it is great but I never thought Warhorn was actually doing anything. I was going to give up on my lvl 50 necro but I think I will try out your build and see how it goes.

I was going condition to but I am switching to power build.

Warhorn with the Vampiric trait is amazing in AOE situations.... you tick damage and steal HP on every mob around you with Locust Swarm.

[Piteous]

Unfortunatly, I am in the process of moving and probably won't have internet the rest of the week, so I can't try this out.

[takarazuka]

I think I posted this in another thread, but just wanted to point this out here as well - I swapped out my third utility skill (was using Bone Minions for combo finisher) with Blood is Power to see what difference it made.  I can say that is definitely is a nice boost and is worth picking up in a power build.  It does more damage than your minion explosion and you can still get a combo finisher from Staff[4] if you need it.  The bleed it puts on you is negligible and can be removed with Cure Conditions if you really need to.  The might stacks are amazing... 250 more power is extremely nice.