Returning player lvl.80 Necro help

Hi all,

I just returned to GW2 after not playing for about 3 years (didn't even have HoT) and I had a few questions regarding what elite spec I should go into. Right now I am a level 80 necro with strictly precision, toughness, condition damage gear (I think it's called Rabid?) that I had from before which was actually pretty good - I was doing a condition-mancer sort of thing. With this gear in mind, I was wondering if going down the Reaper path would not be a good choice as it's mostly power focused from what I can tell (could be totally wrong though). Scourge also looks really cool, and I was thinking maybe my gear stats would benefit more from it, though I'm not sure how good this would be for basic PvE which is what I'll be doing. I'm also not sure if doing the HoT and PoF story stuff/zones will offer me new gear to replace my old stuff.

Thanks for the help!!

First off, welcome back!

And a quick aside, Reaper can still go the Condition Damage route. You'll be using a lot of Chills to activate Deathly Chill, and stack Bleeds that way. This includes going into Reaper form and creating an Ice Combo Field with Executioner's Scythe, and executing a Whirl Finisher inside it with Death Spiral.

In regards to gear, HoT will open up the best gear stats for Condition Damage builds, known as Viper's. It gives Power, Condition Damage, Precision, and Expertise. Expertise is a stat that increases your outgoing Condition Duration, and is crucial for Condition Damage builds. Besides gear stats, you might also want to review your option of Runes to upgrade your armors with. Just last December, ANet updated the majority of Runes in the game. If you're keen on Condition Damage builds, good choices include Rune of the Lich, and Rune of Nightmare.

Hope this helps.

Thanks! So you would recommend first going down the reaper path rather than scourge?

The good thing about taking this condition reaper is that you probably only need HoT expansion as both Reaper spec and Viper stats are from HoT. But if you also have PoF, give Scourge a try as well because I find Scourge a bit easier to play as a condition build. Since both condition reaper and scourge use pretty much the same gears, you can compare which build you like the most.

Best condition gear isn't just viper. There's also trailblazer. Viper is all about dps (Power, Condition damage, Precision, condition duration a.k.a. expertise).But it has no sustain at all.

Trailblazer is the tanky variant - Condition Damage + Toughness as main stats, Vitality + expertise as secondary. If you're gonna do WvW then trailblazer is the one you need, not viper.

Also with trailblazer you're much more likely to solo HoT content - condi necro's weakness is usually sustain - in a prolonged fight you'll be in trouble if no allies are there to cover your back, or you lack sustain of your own. Trailblazer will obviously help with the surviving.

Much like Viper, Trailblazer is also part of HoT stat sets, though it is pretty darn expensive to build the traditional way. Viper is far cheaper to it's merit. If you still want trailblazer then consider some non standard gear acquisition methods like ascended chests sold in various game modes like wvw, spvp, fractals, where you just buy a gear and select what stat set you want, without need for dedicated materials that cost a fortune.

If we are talking about open world and easy PvE content: Personally, I prefer Scourge over Reaper. The AOE sand shades that you can summon and pretty much spam around as you like (since they have a short cooldown) pulse two conditions on your targets. Scepter auto attack will both bleed and poison enemies. Scepter attack 3 deals more damage to enemies when they have conditions applied to them. So 3 seconds into the fight and your enemy has a lot of condis that hurt!Some Scourge skills and traits give you barrier which is pretty much "additional health" for a few seconds, also granted to allies nearby. One trait (forgot it's name) will also heal you based on your condition damage, which means you should be able to solo champs or HeroPoints easily. Spam conditions, spam sand shades, spam barrier and you're good to go. You can use the flesh golem for tanking if you have trouble with champs. Also, scourge is a ranged class, so you can keep your distance to enemies instead of having to blast right into them like the reaper has to.

I really like the scourge playstyle. You can apply a lot of conditions on yourself, then transfer them all with dagger offhand and/or when you enter shroud. You can also cleanse one condition of yourself (as well as allies near you AND your sand shades) every 5 seconds, which is awesome if you get annoying conditions like cripple a lot. The cooldowns on your scourge skills also get shorter if you use the specific trait. If you get overrun by mobs, another scourge F skill will apply fear to them all which means you'll have a second or two to cast a heal skill while they run away from you - also very usefull for open world / PvE.

My scourge is fully decked out in ascended viper armor and weapons, but since it's rather expensive to craft it, I suggest you to take it slow and use some similar statted exotics from the TP first. I do not recommend getting up tailor to lvl 500 and craft your own armor unless you happen to have a lot of gold in your pockets. The build I use is similar to the "Scourge Utility Condi DPS" build on metabattle. They also list a short and easy "rotation" in which you should use your skills.

Sadly scourge is often looked down at because it cannot spit out tons boons to allies like other classes. But I mean we can't have everything, right?

My 2 cents: Reaper is very basic to play - probably the easiest spec in terms of survival. It's very forgiving of error. Scourge requires use of your function keys for additional abilities (or others if you change keybinding) and is a bit more complicated. So depending on whether you prefer finesse play or just want to not die while you get used to playing again, you may prefer one or the other.