4 replies to this topic

[Snowfaerie]

I've pretty much made my build up as I went... now at lvl 80 I've started to wonder how much sense it really makes. Would appreciate constructive opinions, although might still go my own way in the end.

So, basically what I've got is a staff condition necro with dagger/dagger as soloing weapons. All gear comes with power, and precision and condition. For skills I've got Well of Blood as heal + combo field, Signet of the Locust for passive speed buff + quick extra heal, Spectral Armor for breaking stuns, Well of Suffering for vulinerability + combo field and Lich Form for if I happen to need extra health & damage for a short time.

For traits I have 30 Spite (Death's Embrace, Spiteful Marks, Close to Death) / 30 Curses (Hemophilia, Terror, Withering Precision) / 10 Blood (Bloodthirst).

I don't really have any specific aim in mind for this build... possibly something that isn't really specialized in anything but is okay for most things. I mostly do dungeons and soloing, although I sometimes check up on WvW and might get interested in sPvP in the future.

How much of a mess is my build? ^^

Edited by Snowfaerie, 27 November 2012 - 09:20 PM.

[FrostyNecro]

You're build isn't bad. It seems pretty defensively based. And you're not focusing on just one necro ability.

Here's my feedback for some possible 'improvements'. I would drop the dagger/dagger for a scepter/dagger because you're not increasing your might anywhere which makes your dps a bit lousy as compared to the bleeds you could be stacking. Keep the dagger in the offhand though for the removal of condition.

Next, if you drop the dagger primary hand, switch your 10 in Blood Magic to 10 in Death magic and go for greater marks. Two reasons for this. The first is that you're not siphoning health constantly anymore and the second is that your weapons have 7 total marks. So anything increasing the effectiveness of those bad-boys is going to give you a huge advantage.

Well of health is a great healing ability. The only other thing I'd change without completely altering your trait/ skill set is your Signet of the locust. In my personal playing experience, that thing rarely gives you a sufficient heal and the 10% speed boost is really only useful when keeping up with teammates in WvW... I'd switch it out with either a defensive well, the spectral walk thingy, or the signet of power (i think that's what it's called). Just depends on if you want more offense or more defense.

Anyways, hope this feedback helps. Once again, these are just my opinions from what I've experimented with and had work best for me; as someone who's switched skills and traits more times than he'd like to admit. :/ ... I just posted a huge comment on my minion build, if you want I can get you specifics on it. But it is great for PVE and kinda for WvW.

[Sieghildr]

I don't think I'd call this build defensive-based. Seems as glass cannon as you can get.

Edit since I have more time:

In my opinion you'd be better served choosing either to focus on conditions or power, which would let you also boost your survivability significantly.

For example, let's say you want a power/crit build. You can mix Knight's and Berserker's equip, trait 30 into Spite, 20 into Curses, 20 into Blood Magic, and end up with your Power and Prec hovering around 2k with a 50% crit chance, around 1.5k toughness, 50% increased Siphoning and 66% chance to heal yourself on crit. Dagger main with your skills as Well of Suffering, Bone minions (for explosion damage and blindness on explosion within the Well) and Blood is Power for a massive 10 stacks of might.

Your build is mostly fine for general PvE (Signet of Locust I'd swap out for something else. It's kinda crappy) but in dungeons I think you're hurting yourself taking this build. It offers very little support to your allies and very little survivability to yourself. Moreover, I'm not even sure it would do more damage than the power/crit build I described above.

SInce you say your build is focused on being a staff condition necro, I'd say that rabid equip or apothecary's are both better than Rampager's. Rabid is great for conditions while also offering defense, and if you are focusing on staff conditions, that boils down to Mark of Blood, which is probably better for its Regen than even its bleeds. That means Apothecary's would be fantastic support plus good condition damage AND toughness. Apothecary's would also improve your Well of Blood significantly. For utility skills, Well of Suffering is good but you should pair it with Focused Rituals, especially if you choose to keep Rampager's instead of building some defense into your build. Spectral Armor is okay for soloing, but for dungeons I would at the least roll Spectral Wall instead to provide Protection for all melee along with vulnerability for enemies.

Edited by Sieghildr, 30 November 2012 - 05:09 PM.

[Snowfaerie]

Hehee. xD Tell me when you make up your mind.

Anyhow, it actually isn't all that glass cannon... the heal is nice, I've got 2 health siphons, Death Shroud & Life Transfer if I need to avoid damage quick and Lich Form if I find myself in need of more health. All that usually gets me through almost anything when I solo, plus the spihoning plus and extra damage while downed mean I can from a downed state usually kill at least one enemy, which gets me back on my feet. ;D

For some reasons I find myself disliking the scepter. Might give it another try sometime, though. But no minions for me as far as I can avoid them. The stuff my necro shouts while summoning them is highly annoying. <.< The main reason why I dropped the minions as soon as I could. xD Still, thanks for your comments! Good to know I haven't gotten everything wrong.

[Sieghildr]

If you don't want to do Bone Minions you could do Spectral Wall instead.

Well of Blood isn't actually all that great with low healing power and no 20% well recast reduction. Consume Conditions is better. Has a much shorter recast, for one.

Yes, you have 2 Life Siphons technically, but one of them heals for very little (Locust) and is on a 60s recast. The build I noted above has a life siphon on 66% of crits and is up all the time.

Anyway, just some suggestions for you.

Edited by Sieghildr, 30 November 2012 - 05:30 PM.