The Command Boonmancer (WvW)

After putting together a boonmancer build for Spvp, i've theorycrafted a variation of the build for World vs. World.

The Original; Command Boonnmancerhttp://gw2skills.net/editor/?vREQRBIhdu1JHNQxNYfNgtNA9mYxawoCB1gJlUAIk9ri7ghwUIA-j1xHQBKUJY+OJA9T5nfU/Rc7PAgnAgY0PkpIAYSCsqSVVVJDQ1CA-w

Updated; Command Boonmancerhttp://gw2skills.net/editor/?vREQRBIhdu1JHNQtNYfNg3mA9mYpawkGABggF1I4GUpi3gjwVIA-j1xHQB57kAEu9HEj+h+p8ThKBBwTAQPq/EAIBYmKTlpyUwMNTz0MNTzUlpZammpZammpZammpSBE4CA-w

This build uses the same concepts and theorycrafting as the spvp version of this build. Unlike Spvp, WvW has less restrictions on what stats you can take and can allow us to generally fill gaps in the Spvp build that we could not before. This makes it very flexible and very powerful in terms of customization.

The Command Boonmancer is a very fun build with a very fun playstyle. It's tanky enough to lead Zergs and fight at the front lines, powerful enough to secure kills, and competitive enough to 1v1 and even 1v3+, capture objectives on your own and be mobile and evasive.

How it works:In order to properly boon-mance, we need to have boon duration. In WvW the only sources of boon duration are through a specific set of runes, gear, food, sigil, and infusions. In this specific set up, we utilize the boon duration from The Rune of Leadership, Command Trinkets/Accessories and Concentration sigils. This gives us on paper, a total of 93% boon duration. With this boon duration, not only can we stack swiftness, but also protection, quickness, might and stability.

In this build, we need to properly get our precision to 100% to take full advantage of our damage. This can be done in a variety of ways. In the build presented, we take the Soul Reaping traitline, as well as the Reapers Onslaught Traitline for an additional 33% critical chance, and 600 Ferocity bonus in shroud, for a total 210% total ferocity, and 93% crit chance in shroud. That's pretty decent zerker style stats, and thus everything else can be put comfortably into more defensive stats, like toughness, making Knights gear our best bet (if you want to be more daring, berserker armor and/or weapons can be a good choice). Alternatively, if you want to reach as much concentration as possible without the sigil of concentration or rune of leadership, you can craft commanders gear and weapons and you will reach about 85% boon duration. You can then invest in a different sigil, different runes, or different food buffs. There are many interesting rune choices (like Melendru's/Hoelbrak for near 100% invulnerability to inhibiting conditions, Mercy Runes for very quick revives in the heat of zerg fights, or Rune of Rage for perma fury, thus allowing you to select different trees other than Soul reaping...The list of possibilities are endless).

Playstyle:The playstyle is pretty easy to get down. Much like traditional Reaper builds, you want to build up your life force, enter shroud and do as much damage as possible before exiting shroud and playing defensivly. The weapon sets on this build are picked for the main reason of being able to maintain pressure from a distance, while also being able to sustain the fight.

Upon entering combat, you want to build your life force, by first casting spectral armor (This gives you protection, and LF generation). On dagger, cast D/F 5, and use dagger auto in melle range, hitting as many targets as possible. This will get you to 100% LF pretty fast (Less than a few seconds) and you will then be able to enter shroud, casting Shroud 4 followed by shroud 5 is a good way to do the most damage to your opponents without giving too much of a tell. Once they get hit by Shroud 5, Shroud auto 1 will be your best friend, and will in most cases be what sends them from 60%health to 0% health.

Stay in Shroud as long as possible. upon exiting shroud, you will have plenty of quickness to be able to use dagger 2, followed by axe 2 for sustain, more life force and good pressure damage while kiting away. Use your heal skill and other cast time skills (D/F 3, and A/Wh 3, 4 and 5 while under quickness and stability.) Repeat this cycle every time you get a good enough chunk of life force to enter shroud again.

To disengage from a fight, use spectral walk to run away in one direction. Then right before it expires, use it to juke your enemies in the other direction. Flesh Wurm is also good for teleporting around, and escaping the heat of an intense zerg fight. These skills can also be commonly used in combat, and can be used to give you permanent swiftness.

Matchups and PotentialBased on personal experience, I've been able to 4v1 with this build. The toughness really helps against being one shot by rangers and deadeye thieves, which are it's major weaknesses. I've found that once rangers lose their ability to one shot you, they can be quite easy to kill on this build. This build can 1v1 almost any class or spec except against very good thieves. It has good matchups against;1) Engineers (Holosmiths and Scrappers),2) Power Mesmers (and sometimes condi-mesmers),3) Druids (occasionally Boon-beast) ,4) Elementalists,5) Gore Guardians .

It's weakest match-ups would probably be;1) Very good Scourges (because of corruptions),2) Deadeye thieves.

It has pretty neutral match-ups in order of best to worst are;1) Reapers2) Revenents3) Firebrands4) Warriors5) Melle Thief

ConclusionsJust like the Spvp version of this build, there are many different variations it can take on, depending on the type of gear, food, sigils, runes, utilities, weapons, or traits that you so desire to take, while still being able to remain consistently the same build. The build variation i've posted here is meant to be the most "noob friendly" variation, with lots of defenses to help you survive and well...stay alive long enough to be of use as a reaper in a zerg, or to contest a camp or defend a tower, without compromising too much damage to do so.

Update

So, I've min-maxed the build as far as i could, to get the most damage without losing much defense.http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vREQRBIhdu1JHNQtNYfNg3mA9mYpawkGABggF1I4GUpi3gjwVIA-j1xHQB57kAEu9HEj+h+p8ThKBBwTAQPq/EAIBYmKTlpyUwMNTz0MNTzUlpZammpZammpZammpSBE4CA-w

The Major changes made to the build have been the food choice (Fried Golden Dumplings), the changes of the utility skill Spectral Walk to "Rise!" And using Berserker gear instead of Knights.Although you lose a good stunbreak on the build, You gain some very much needed damage mitigation in the form of Rise. Using Rise, with protection uptime, toughness Infusing Terror and Shroud defence You can climb to about 75-80% damage reduction from the strongest hitting abilities in the game.

As for the food choice, Fried Dumplings don't have an internal cool-down on the might gain. So if you can stack might very often. Cleaving multiple foes yield multiple applications of this food, and thus, hitting at least 2 enemies with Dagger or Shroud cleave will grant you 25 stacks of might reliably. Fighting in camps is a great way to build might while fighting other enemy players 1v1, and also helps you build life force incredibly fast.

Here are the screens i promised in the earlier posts;https://imgur.com/a/tAHrHAjProvided in the images, are just some examples of the damage that i've been able to output in 3 situations. The first image is a 1v1 with a scourge, showing 9k auto's, and the maximum potential for damage output in 1v1. the 2nd is a soul spiral that hit 22k in full zerg buffs. The third is an average duel (It was actually a 2v1), you hit between 3-6k auto's in most circumstances against the majority of classes and specs. The dagger Auto's are also quiete strong as well, and can hit for 3k+ on Auto 3....with quickness it's very fun to see people dying to dagger auto's, much like thief.

Ok, so is this solo roam or zerg build? If this is zeg build, what does it offer the zerg? Its boon corrupt is limited to axe 2 amd dagger 3, with the later being single target. It doesn't offer anything to anyone else in the group, and firebrands will already provide all those boons. If this is solo, you'll just get eatten alive by anyone that knows how to kite.

@Sephylon.4938 said:Ok, so is this solo roam or zerg build? If this is zeg build, what does it offer the zerg? Its boon corrupt is limited to axe 2 amd dagger 3, with the later being single target. It doesn't offer anything to anyone else in the group, and firebrands will already provide all those boons.

It's not just solo or just zerg. It's very jack of all trades. You can go anywhere and do anything without being useless in one particular place or another. If you decide u want to solo, you can go do that and succeed. If you want to zerg, you can go do that and succeed, and you can go between the two seamlessly.

If your wondering what it offers to a zerg, it's damage. Although not as high damage as the meta variant, it still does very nice 9k autos and 20k whirls in full zerg buffs. It's not a scourge, thus it won't corrupt like a scourge, if that's what you were implying.

@Sephylon.4938 said:If this is solo, you'll just get eatten alive by anyone that knows how to kite.If you are wondering what it offers in solo/roaming play, it's just more survivable. The 1v1 capabilities of this build are vastly better than the meta in my opinion, and still has consistently powerful damage. If you meet someone who can kite...well what are you gonna do about that on any other necro build? You simply can not kill someone who can kite more efficiently than you can. But if they can not kill you either, than they can't contest you properly, and it will result in a stale mate, which is better than nothing.

So, what your saying is kinda redundant because all necro builds are kitable by any player/build with superior kiting abilities...

Though I am unsure about its viability as I've not tried it, but I like the organized way you laid out your thoughts for it.One thought I had was if chilling nova would be better than relentless pursuit since you already have speed of shadows.More chill, aoe too = more damage 10% and locks down opponents better too.

Would be nice if you could take a video of the build in action.A decent and easy software to use could be OBS (open broadcaster software) if your PC/connection allows.I personally use OBS but it spikes my ping from the usual 270+ to 300++ =/

@JusticeRetroHunter.7684 said:

@Sephylon.4938 said:Ok, so is this solo roam or zerg build? If this is zeg build, what does it offer the zerg? Its boon corrupt is limited to axe 2 amd dagger 3, with the later being single target. It doesn't offer anything to anyone else in the group, and firebrands will already provide all those boons.

@Sephylon.4938 said:If this is solo, you'll just get eatten alive by anyone that knows how to kite.If you are wondering what it offers in solo/roaming play, it's just more survivable. The 1v1 capabilities of this build are vastly better than the meta in my opinion, and still has consistently powerful damage. If you meet someone who can kite...well what are you gonna do about that on any other necro build? You simply can not kill someone who can kite more efficiently than you can. But if they can not kill you either, than they can't contest you properly, and it will result in a stale mate, which is better than nothing.

Tested something similar to this, with even more offensive power, but still enough defense.

It's super bad....

For your build:For group play you have 10,95% too much of critchance, as you get 33% from trait and 20 % from fury, so you only need 47% critchance.And even for solo these 10% do not matter.

Maybe for group play especially you want to play this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vREQRBIhdu1JHNQxNYfNgtNA9mYBXwizidxyIVXIO8sgGABgDAA-jRyHQBvTFB/oOAfUpRM6HAwTAIfnEAFqEsfK/C3+DBASAmpyUZqMFMTz0MNTz0MVZammpZammpZammpZqUAVpSD-e

Gives you extra ferocity, 100% critchance in shroud. Sure it has. 8% less boon duration, but gives you also more boons from the runes passive process. Also gives you more vitality and with more vitality you get more lifeforce to work with.

Also having 3k armor is just way too much. In wvw you want to cap at maximum 2,7-2,8k armor, because of the way, toughness scales with damage reduction.

And if you are playing deathmagic (which never worked for me, if your guards are bad you will die anyways)So extra tankyness (which is mainly against conditions) doesn't matter.

Also for solo you loose a lot of damage by not having any source of might.

What utilities are you playing for zergs?Might be better to use corrupters fevor instead of unholy sanctuary, and then get some shouts in as well as the shout cd reduction trait.

Rune of Leadership is a very good rune for classes with spammable elites in group play, but a 90 second cooldown elite can't make use of it. As Nimon shows, go Durability if you want boon duration.

You mention maximizing damage, but knight's is bad for that, since you're losing power main. I'd trade out armor for Marauder's and weapons for Valkrie's or Crusader's.

You're also gung-ho on boons, but not running blighter's boon?

Greatsword is in a pretty good place in wvw right now. Reapers with greatsword can give me a good fight. Plus you'd actually have a source of chill. Dagger is basically a free kill.

I've never gotten flesh worm to set up well for roaming in wvw. Well of power (lots of boons, especially on condis) or spectral grasp (melee + trait synergy, watch out for reflects on zerg fights) are stronger choices.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vREQNAR3Nnc0AF3g12A0biFcBDaAEAOAxZxuYYkqLEHeWA-j1xHQBhb/h+p8DAPBAwobIfXEAFqE8dq/kpIAIkArqUVVVyAUtAA-w

What zerkers reaper looks like in a zerg with 3800 power, 100% crit, 260% crit damage. Imma go ahead and call bull on you getting 9k AAs with a boon based, 3k armor reaper.

Boon duration on a reaper is a waste of stats in zergs, you share no boons and whatever you'd give yourself is covered by your squad.

As 1v1s were mentioned: You won't kill any roamer on knights gear. The damage is too low even for squishy targets which can kite you even more comfortably. When you can't burst on reaper you can't kill. This is a result of the necros poor self healing when he is not able to hit something. So kiters can easily outsustain you even when you have 3k armor.

In a zerg you are a commander that does not give any support. That's inacceptable. You should at least run blood and wells when commanding on reaper

@"RisenHowl.2419" said:

What zerkers reaper looks like in a zerg with 3800 power, 100% crit, 260% crit damage. Imma go ahead and call bull on you getting 9k AAs with a boon based, 3k armor reaper.

Boon duration on a reaper is a waste of stats in zergs, you share no boons and whatever you'd give yourself is covered by your squad.

Okay since people seem to not actually try and play the build, I’ll post screens. I have 1v1’d with this build, I have 1v3’d with this build and won with ease.

In a Zerg I reach 20k whirls and 9k autos. Because with Zerg buffs the crit percentage reaches about 230-240, and the might reaches 25 stacks almost instantly (because boon duration) giving me 3k power. These aren’t far off from your stats.

In a well built zerg comp, the squad gets broken up into 5-player parties, which these days almost always include 1-2 firebrands. Between them and the spite traitline (which you might drop running a specialized blood magic build we don't need to go into), you're going to have 25 might regardless of your personal boon duration.

For roaming, I wouldn't extrapolate from that one instance of winning a 1v3. Your score needs to be how often you win 1v1s, and against which classes. This build doesn't have an advantage against serious builds. There's low burst (relative to what's possible), little boon hate, little condi cleanse. Basically it only has an advantage against burst-less power DPS builds that nobody plays.

The odds are against you, especially since you're not running greatsword to pull. As many have mentioned, it's easy to kite reaper. Almost any roamer carries a swap ranged weapon and knows which button is immobilize or cripple.

@JusticeRetroHunter.7684 said:

@"RisenHowl.2419" said:

What zerkers reaper looks like in a zerg with 3800 power, 100% crit, 260% crit damage. Imma go ahead and call bull on you getting 9k AAs with a boon based, 3k armor reaper.

Boon duration on a reaper is a waste of stats in zergs, you share no boons and whatever you'd give yourself is covered by your squad.

So clearly you don't understand multiplicitive damage stacking either.

That build runs:800 power over yours

220% out of shroud, 260 in. You have 150/190. 70% less crit damage. 230-40% in a zerg my ass.

Spite over dm, 20-30% more damage

5% from runes

Each of these increases are multiplicative with one another. You might do 9k with full buffs on the 3rd AA swing. Zerkers is hitting 9k/9k/20k. You aren't even close to zerkers damage.

You'll have 25 stacks of might in a zerg without boon duration, I have none and you can clearly see me booned up. Since you share no boons, concentration is a complete waste.

Take a video of the build in use if you want people to take you seriously

@RisenHowl.2419 said:

@JusticeRetroHunter.7684 said:

@RisenHowl.2419 said:

What zerkers reaper looks like in a zerg with 3800 power, 100% crit, 260% crit damage. Imma go ahead and call bull on you getting 9k AAs with a boon based, 3k armor reaper.

Boon duration on a reaper is a waste of stats in zergs, you share no boons and whatever you'd give yourself is covered by your squad.

190? It’s 210 in shroud dude. Plus buffs in Zerg it goes to 230-240

First of all, Spites damage comes from might and vulnerable stacks. In a Zerg things die so fast you either have enemies hit with 25 vulnerability instantly or they die to fast to even get a single stack. The might gain in spite doesn’t matter because you’ll have 25 might in a Zerg regardless. So anything you get from spite is kinda null in comparison with any other traitline inside a Zerg.

And no, you don’t have 800 excess power, because if you mathed, you’d realize knights/commanders gives you almost the same power as berserker (about 300 power difference)

Even though i said 3k it’s prob higher than that, probably around 3.5.

Anyway, it proves why in my tests why I hit almost the same damage on spite as I do death magic in a Zerg.

@JusticeRetroHunter.7684 said:

@RisenHowl.2419 said:

@JusticeRetroHunter.7684 said:

@RisenHowl.2419 said:

What zerkers reaper looks like in a zerg with 3800 power, 100% crit, 260% crit damage. Imma go ahead and call bull on you getting 9k AAs with a boon based, 3k armor reaper.

Boon duration on a reaper is a waste of stats in zergs, you share no boons and whatever you'd give yourself is covered by your squad.

Cd reduction on axe/f, 10% damage modifier on people caught in a bubble, +250 power from might, +20% damage on foes under 50%. Useless right?

Open your own build link. 152%. Click on the RS button. 192%. At best you're in a party with a Herald for +150 ferocity (+10% critical damage) though the Herald shouldn't be running that trait at all, both other options are superior. So 202 with full buffs, at best. Care to describe your magical boon based method of making up 40% critical damage? I'd love to hear it.

2.4k power in shroud+750 might+250 stacks. 3.4k.

Zerkers reaper:http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vREQNAW3dnc0At0g12A20A0bilcBDKA0AWBUnh1QzK+KuFHjA-jVCDQBA4gAMhrAAUU6FHdDE4BAsRlBfRJYL2foRq/EAIBIkpAOPzz8MPzz8o5Zemn5Zemn5Zemn5RKgt2aB-w

2.75k power+ 1k might+250 stacks. 4k power, 260% damage.

Spite and dm perform about as well as each other on low damage builds. Spite scales strongly though, while dm does not. Which is why it's recommended to start off with dm and move towards spite as you get better at positioning.

Again, if you want to be taken seriously make a video. Your math pretty clearly doesn't add up.

Lol, why Even play reaper on zergs...anyway drop dm and take spite, no point to waste stats on concentration when you cant Even Stack might.

@RisenHowl.2419 said:

@JusticeRetroHunter.7684 said:

@RisenHowl.2419 said:

@JusticeRetroHunter.7684 said:

@RisenHowl.2419 said:

What zerkers reaper looks like in a zerg with 3800 power, 100% crit, 260% crit damage. Imma go ahead and call bull on you getting 9k AAs with a boon based, 3k armor reaper.

Boon duration on a reaper is a waste of stats in zergs, you share no boons and whatever you'd give yourself is covered by your squad.

Ohh you were right about 190% base ferocity. I was in game at the time and it was showing 210, but because i had various buffs on (PotK and some BL bloodlust.

But ya anyway, I still standby my statement. I’ll post screens soon. Had a recent duel with kiri (top 25 spvp player) and I held my own on those duels. I didn’t win but I certainly did very well with the build. Amazing mobility and disengage. The damage on full knights reaper vs RR Warrior was hard, but when I landed whirls or executioners it would be 5-8k spikes.

I haven’t min maxed the build, but I will work on it so I can get as much damage as possible without losing any of the defence.

As for spite vs DM, DM is really for condition based defense as well as a good get out of jail free card with sanctuary. It provides protection as well, but if you don’t like those extra defenses, it’s really not an issue to swap DM with any other trait tree that you prefer. I’ve messed around with curses and blood magic as well and they all bring their own advantages and disadvantages to the table. I just find DM to be the most noob friendly.

Update;

So, I've min-maxed the build as far as i could, to get the most damage without losing much defence.http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vREQRBIhdu1JHNQtNYfNg3mA9mYpawkGABggF1I4GUpi3gjwVIA-j1xHQB57kAEu9HEj+h+p8ThKBBwTAQPq/EAIBYmKTlpyUwMNTz0MNTzUlpZammpZammpZammpSBE4CA-w

The Major changes made to the build have been the food choice (Fried Golden Dumplings), the changes of the utility skill Spectral Walk to "Rise!" And using Berserker gear instead of Knights.

Although you lose a good stunbreak on the build, You gain some very much needed damage mitigation in the form of Rise. Using Rise, with protection uptime, toughness Infusing Terror and Shroud defence You can climb to about 75-80% damage reduction from the strongest hitting abilities in the game.

As for the food choice, Fried Dumplings don't have an internal cool-down on the might gain. So if you can stack might very often. Cleaving multiple foes yield multiple applications of this food, and thus, hitting at least 2 enemies with Dagger or Shroud cleave will grant you 25 stacks of might reliably. Fighting in camps is a great way to build might while fighting other enemy players 1v1, and also helps you build life force incredibly fast.

Here are the screens i promised in the earlier posts;https://imgur.com/a/tAHrHAjProvided in the images, are just some examples of the damage that i've been able to output in 3 situations. The first image is a 1v1 with a scourge, showing 9k auto's, and the maximum potential for damage output in 1v1. the 2nd is a soul spiral that hit 22k in full zerg buffs. The third is an average duel (It was actually a 2v1), you hit between 3-6k auto's in most circumstances against the majority of classes and specs. The dagger Auto's are also quiete strong as well, and can hit for 3k+ on Auto 3....with quickness it's very fun to see people dying to dagger auto's, much like thief.

Edit:

Anyway, since these were taken, we now know there is a sigil/rune revamp coming up next week. Sigil of Concentration will most likely be nerfed to grant only 10% boon duration, rather than 33%. Although it doesn't ruin the build, it doesn't make the build any better. Boon duration in this build scales linearly with it's effectivness. The more boon duration you can squeeze out, the more effective it becomes. With the incoming nerfs, the build gets thrown into escrow and will have to be reevaluated.

Cheers all.