Necro Carry Build ... it's a thing?

Just wondering how much of a thing this is. Clearly, I don't adhere to the meta but then again, I haven't seen teams with much problem getting a second druid either. Is there utility for a necro carry outside of raids/T4's? Any value in WvW if the build is changed a bit? I'm actually INTO carrying people to learn, so for me, seems like a really good build to get people familiar and up to speed. Sure, druids heal more, etc ... but I don't like playing it.

I'd hazard a guess that it could be because of the Scourge's 'Transfusion' Trait and Barrier.

I primarily run a Condi/Support Scourge and lately, of all the healing builds/classes I've played, Garish Pillar with Transfusion has easily been the most widely used support combo. to date. Further, simply knowing WHEN to burst Barriers has proven more effective than some of the other support tactics I've used as well.
It might be an over-estimation, but maybe too large of the player population is reliant on the mighty 'Meta' DPS? Perhaps currently there's an over-abundance of info. sources that promote these DPS builds(Youtube, SnowCrows, MetaBattle, etc.)?What ever the case, it's been quite an amusing development to say the least.

I played a full minstrel build for kinda long time.We played it in guild raids (wvw)But never did this in gvgs

Back then barrier fades over time.

While it has amazing rezz abilities and can revive a lot of people very fastIt can also kill 6 people.

So:1: you have to practice the build a lot, positioning is key in wvw if you cannot, this is still a helping build, but will help the enemy to wipe you faster2: if the enemy has a good commander, he will especially look out for downed pulls, put a poison field on them, then have a really easy time cleaving the downs.

So basically I do not recommend playing transfusion- blood scourge in wvw.As most of the times it rather helps the enemy, than your own group.

Also the downed pull is very fishy.It actually sometimes doesnt pull allies.

I think that happens, if enemies are around you (not the shade) and get the fear from f4, so there's one less allied target to hit with transfusion.

I also saw a guild, that thought for themselves, that they are pretty good, and that are also seen by other as pretty good, running one bloodscourge.

But even though he was the necro-mentor in this guild, he killed his allies more often than helping them.

While I do not think the carry build with max healing and high vitality is necessary except in the worst PUGs, a BM Scourge, or even BM Reaper, can be easily set up for groups encountering enough trouble to nerf dps.

Hybrid viper Reaper - just swap in BM 1-1-3 or 1-3-3 and see if that is enough.

Scourge is similar in that you can start with no, or mimimal, shared barriers on a glass build and easily make changes for more support if the group needs help.

Any profession can do this stat/trait swap but Blood Magic and barriers provide support without interfering with a main healer. Other professions need to watch for overlapping heals and losing potential.

Necro has a handful of small or medium heals on short cool down while Scourge can share a 3 sec mini-shroud pretty frequently and with little cast time.

BM Scourge is not a great healer but can support without interfering with professions that are great healers and without losing all dps.

^^ What you say is valid; the trick is knowing when to stop. A full magi might be overkill on the healing and underwhelming on the rest. I was thinking at a minimum, Zealots and swap trinkets as needed for DPS. Still wondering about the WvW side, though i can see where pulling people is a significant deterrence.

@The Bassist.5410 said:I'd hazard a guess that it could be because of the Scourge's 'Transfusion' Trait and Barrier.

I primarily run a Condi/Support Scourge and lately, of all the healing builds/classes I've played, Garish Pillar with Transfusion has easily been the most widely used support combo. to date. Further, simply knowing WHEN to burst Barriers has proven more effective than some of the other support tactics I've used as well.
It might be an over-estimation, but maybe too large of the player population is reliant on the mighty 'Meta' DPS? Perhaps currently there's an over-abundance of info. sources that promote these DPS builds(Youtube, SnowCrows, MetaBattle, etc.)?What ever the case, it's been quite an amusing development to say the least.

Oh for sure that's the core of the build ... I guess the conceptual issue here is that it's never going to be a primary healing role, so how much 'healing' stuff is too much? To be honest, I've never played with new guys that didn't need rezzing, so the idea isn't unreasonable but if the healer is really capable, then it's not actually necessary to bring a whole pile of healing power to the build since it only affects barriers. I'm just going to have to give it a shot I guess.

Transfusion scales really well with healing power. It's not just the barriers. There's also Life From Death, which also has nice scaling.

But anyway I don't go magi. Condi/healer has a lot more versatility and can hard carry in a lot of situations. Shaman/apothecary gear lets you still do good damage for a healer and lets epidemic and condi transfers hit hard.

Anyway if it's PvE you're after, you can carry people through almost anything with the build.

@reikken.4961 said:Transfusion scales really well with healing power. It's not just the barriers. There's also Life From Death, which also has nice scaling.

But anyway I don't go magi. Condi/healer has a lot more versatility and can hard carry in a lot of situations. Shaman/apothecary gear lets you still do good damage for a healer and lets epidemic and condi transfers hit hard.

Anyway if it's PvE you're after, you can carry people through almost anything with the build.

Actually, the scalings are really bad...

Sure it would be overpowered somehow. But you need 1600 healpower with 20% outgoing healing to get 1400 ticks on transfusion.

I went with Zealot weapons, Magi Armor and half Cleric/Magi Trinkets. Of course, testing this build is painful in PVE as expected going from a buill zerker Reaper. Still, I think that's a very reasonable balance of stats. I have always found that barrier scaling on Heal power is weird ... it seems more natural to be scaling on toughness. Too late to do anything about that.

@Obtena.7952 said:I went with Zealot weapons, Magi Armor and half Cleric/Magi Trinkets. Of course, testing this build is painful in PVE as expected going from a buill zerker Reaper. Still, I think that's a very reasonable balance of stats. I have always found that barrier scaling on Heal power is weird ... it seems more natural to be scaling on toughness. Too late to do anything about that.

Try it in dungeon or low level fractal PUGs. You can also join squads doing bounties in PoF or event chains in HoT to get a feel for the build casually.

I tend to use viper-shaman condi builds of various ratios. It helps get consistent dps even when players scatter all over and I end up kiting.

@Nimon.7840 said:Actually, the scalings are really bad...

Sure it would be overpowered somehow. But you need 1600 healpower with 20% outgoing healing to get 1400 ticks on transfusion.

by good scaling I mean that it takes less than 1000 healing power to double it. but 1400 ticks every second is very good anyway. That on top of barriers means a lot of damage that your party can take. I usually have about 1500 heal power, but that's with taking condi damage runes.

@Obtena.7952 said:Of course, testing this build is painful in PVE as expected going from a buill zerker Reaper.

I think it's less painful if you go condi, since condi doesn't need as many stats to scale as power does.also has better prefixes available, as you don't need to take any 0 power magi to get vitality

I often end up carrying T4 fractal groups with blood magic and a mix of marauder's and berserker's on scourge. Positioning and rez goes a long way. I'd rather use another trait line for higher DPS, but if I am trying to optimize DPS I probably shouldn't be playing power scourge.

In wvw, scourge's utility is area denial, damage, and most importantly condi cleanse. Reaper would probably perform better in a melee train, but isn't going to carry anything in wvw.

Motto for support Scourge:

The best support for bad groups.

@Anchoku.8142 said:Motto for support Scourge:

The best support for bad groups.

It's also good for experienced groups that want an easier time of it in raids (lots of situations in which you can make a few mistakes with a Mercy Scourge). And some fractals are a lot easier, even for good groups, because you don't have to worry about everyone bringing the perfect set of skills for the various instabilities. Well-placed & well-timed barriers are awesome.

Here's a reddit article describing a specific variant of the build. Article also links to Might Teapot's excellent video showcasing the features (including, as @"Anchoku.8142" says, an explanation of how it's the best support for bad groups).

https://old.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/9exx8g/pbt_how_healer_scourge_helped_an_average_group_no/