Core Necromancer Builds

[Vallun.2071]

Here are two core necro builds I have a lot of fun with and think will be good in many situations for PvP because of how survivable and resilient to focus they are while also having good sustained damage.

[Flumek.9043]

Nice one,the real life gameplay helps new players a lot.

Bonus:If you dont mind abusing bugs, dhuumfire does more dmg even on power builds, as it hasnt been updated from the big nerfing patch.

[Dixa.6017]

after playing scourge and reaper both power and condition, gotta say that i prefer core necromancer for practically everything now. using minions and having soul reaping, blood and death magic is such an amazing combo of survivability for me and everyone around me and (with a power build using dagger, axe and whatever offhands) insanely fast shroud generation while not really skimping on the damage.

the other builds will have a champion or 10 in the new or old world that can just wreck it. don't feel it with core.

[KrHome.1920]

Silver Division opponents... the 1v2 situations at far at foefire were already facepalm, but then the teef at the end of the video... why on earth did he facetank you on the capture point? One or two disengages and he would have beaten you with ease. Tunnel visioning at its best. He prefered to be defeated instead of letting you cap the point for a few seconds, but comfortably beating you. Passive life force generation on necro was nerfed to oblivion in PvP. Bait shroud, disengage, come back and then kill with ease.

Scepter+dagger is the most clunky weaponset in the game and not viable against anyone who knows what he is doing. The pacing in your video is so slow at times, it's surreal. That's not what I experience in the game since PoF or even HoT.

[Flumek.9043]

@KrHome.1920 said:Silver Division opponents... the 1v2 situations at far at foefire were already facepalm, but then the teef at the end of the video... why on earth did he facetank you on the capture point? One or two disengages and he would have beaten you with ease. Tunnel visioning at its best. He prefered to be defeated instead of letting you cap the point for a few seconds, but comfortably beating you. Passive life force generation on necro was nerfed to oblivion in PvP. Bait shroud, disengage, come back and then kill with ease.

Scepter+dagger is the most clunky weaponset in the game and not viable against anyone who knows what he is doing. The pacing in your video is so slow at times, it's surreal. That's not what I experience in the game since PoF or even HoT.

A bit harsh, valluns a good player and prolly didnt waste too much time to make perfect video with perfect enemies.I wont say the enemies didnt play stupid, but yes, sadly you see that daily even at 1600 elo.

Scepter dagger for me works way better than expected.Seems like in bunker meta, yo play more slow and pressure wit #2s and swaps, while in power meta you want focus, more survial lifeforce and spam #1.

[KrHome.1920]

@Flumek.9043 said:

@KrHome.1920 said:Silver Division opponents... the 1v2 situations at far at foefire were already facepalm, but then the teef at the end of the video... why on earth did he facetank you on the capture point? One or two disengages and he would have beaten you with ease. Tunnel visioning at its best. He prefered to be defeated instead of letting you cap the point for a few seconds, but comfortably beating you. Passive life force generation on necro was nerfed to oblivion in PvP. Bait shroud, disengage, come back and then kill with ease.

Scepter+dagger is the most clunky weaponset in the game and not viable against anyone who knows what he is doing. The pacing in your video is so slow at times, it's surreal. That's not what I experience in the game since PoF or even HoT.

A bit harsh, valluns a good player and prolly didnt waste too much time to make perfect video with perfect enemies.I wont say the enemies didnt play stupid, but yes, sadly you see that daily even at 1600 elo.

Scepter dagger for me works way better than expected.Seems like in bunker meta, yo play more slow and pressure wit #2s and swaps, while in power meta you want focus, more survial lifeforce and spam #1.In my posting there is not a single word stating he is a bad player. The posting is about the situations he uses as examples for the builds to work. These are low skill level situations on the opponents side. The only thing I could criticize here regarding him is why you would pick bad players as opponents to demonstrate a build. That doesn't make sense and to me this would be wasted time for the production of the video.

Sure the tone is harsh, but think about the bigger picture: tons of bronze division skill level players jumped on the nerf train after he made that minion master video, even though minion master is trash - without any doubt. He was basically provoking nerf demands for things that are already trash on necro. Now it's the same with scepter/dagger and power core necro (both is not viable). S/D is the worst you can run on necro and producing videos that cherrypick situations where it worked somehow, sends the wrong message to the devs and the community. If you honestly care about necro, then you don't do this.

[Vallun.2071]

@KrHome.1920 said:

@Flumek.9043 said:

@KrHome.1920 said:Silver Division opponents... the 1v2 situations at far at foefire were already facepalm, but then the teef at the end of the video... why on earth did he facetank you on the capture point? One or two disengages and he would have beaten you with ease. Tunnel visioning at its best. He prefered to be defeated instead of letting you cap the point for a few seconds, but comfortably beating you. Passive life force generation on necro was nerfed to oblivion in PvP. Bait shroud, disengage, come back and then kill with ease.

Scepter+dagger is the most clunky weaponset in the game and not viable against anyone who knows what he is doing. The pacing in your video is so slow at times, it's surreal. That's not what I experience in the game since PoF or even HoT.

A bit harsh, valluns a good player and prolly didnt waste too much time to make perfect video with perfect enemies.I wont say the enemies didnt play stupid, but yes, sadly you see that daily even at 1600 elo.

Scepter dagger for me works way better than expected.Seems like in bunker meta, yo play more slow and pressure wit #2s and swaps, while in power meta you want focus, more survial lifeforce and spam #1.In my posting there is not a single word stating he is a bad player. The posting is about the situations he uses as examples for the builds to work. These are low skill level situations on the opponents side. The only thing I could criticize here regarding him is why you would pick bad players as opponents to demonstrate a build. That doesn't make sense and to me this would be wasted time for the production of the video.

Sure the tone is harsh, but think about the bigger picture: tons of bronze division skill level players jumped on the nerf train after he made that minion master video, even though minion master is trash - without any doubt. He was basically provoking nerf demands for things that are already trash on necro. Now it's the same with scepter/dagger and power core necro (both is not viable). S/D is the worst you can run on necro and producing videos that cherrypick situations where it worked somehow, sends the wrong message to the devs and the community. If you honestly care about necro, then you don't do this.

It's not cherrypicking if this is how most of the PvP matches are. If I want to find a good match I have to play for many hours or only at prime time. I don't really invest that much time into a simple build video.

[ZDragon.3046]

@Vallun.2071 said:

@"KrHome.1920" said:In my posting there is not a single word stating he is a bad player. The posting is about the situations he uses as examples for the builds to work. These are low skill level situations on the opponents side. The only thing I could criticize here regarding him is why you would pick bad players as opponents to demonstrate a build. That doesn't make sense and to me this would be wasted time for the production of the video.

Sure the tone is harsh, but think about the bigger picture: tons of bronze division skill level players jumped on the nerf train after he made that minion master video, even though minion master is trash - without any doubt. He was basically provoking nerf demands for things that are already trash on necro. Now it's the same with scepter/dagger and power core necro (both is not viable). S/D is the worst you can run on necro and producing videos that cherrypick situations where it worked somehow, sends the wrong message to the devs and the community. If you honestly care about necro, then you don't do this.

It's not cherrypicking if this is how most of the PvP matches are. If I want to find a good match I have to play for many hours or only at prime time. I don't really invest that much time into a simple build video.

I kinda get where KrHome is coming from truth be told while I doubt its intentional Vallun many of the videos you have made or builds you have played often quickly get picked up by a large portion of players which then anet, in a good number of cases, had to considerably nerf just because of the sheer amount of people using those tools which were deemed op or very frustrating by the wider majority of players even if the top or more experienced players do not agree with said statements.

I doubt its your intentions for that to happen, but it does happen so I can understand where he is coming from with this perspective of thinking. As a necro main myself I hate the minion master trope that so many players have taken too lately (while i cant really say i would blame you for it in this case) there are already rumors going around that its going to be nerfed despite it being counterable by a good number of builds and professions.

Power core on the other hand has always been one of my personal fav builds for core necro however its considerably harder to find success with against more experienced players so i doubt anyone will just pick that up and think its free wins.... they are welcome to try though lol. (granted i take a bolder trait setup in my core power build)

I guess my point is.If enough people play something they think will get them easy results it will become obnoxious to those who are not playing it especially when they start to come across more and more of that same play style and build. Those people are the ones who often ended up asking anet to do something about it because its "not fun" to play against which anet has to take into consideration because there is no point in playing a video game if its not fun right...

Still not a bad basic video for people who want to play core necro.

[Shroud.2307]

As someone who has been playing core power Necro for a very long time, I want to say a few things regarding your version of it.

First of all, I stopped doing PvP shortly after HoT, and I've been a WvW main basically since day 1, so I understand this will influence my opinion.I also understand that you're something like PvP rank 2k+(?) between your accounts, and although rank does not equal skill, it does mean you have a lot of experience. So I don't doubt that your reasons for crafting the build the way you did are correct.

Still, I want to add some thoughts.To me, core power Necro is about spike damage, not DPS, which is why I prefer Berserker amulet and Curses over Blood Magic. I had said you should try Berserker amulet on your stream, but you said Marauder is better because it allows for more DPS. While true, I think this build is to be played more like a Thief or Revenant instead of like a Reaper. Not necessarily +1ing, but spiking pressured targets or forcing defensive cooldowns. Life Blast is where that spike damage comes from and it hits a lot harder with more Power and Ferocity. Although yes, your damage will fall off while out of Shroud, Curses will ensure you maintain your crit chance through Target The Weak (increase critical hit chance per condition on the target) as well as giving you Path Of Corruption for more Corrupts to further improve your spike.

Because it's Necro you're going to be very vulnerable to getting spiked yourself. This is again why I feel it's better to go more offensive and focus on spike damage rather than DPS. Blood Magic is great support with Vampiric Aura, Ritual Of Life, and Unholy Martyr, but you can't afford to be supporting people in that way while being so squishy. Instead I think you should be supporting by spiking targets and Corrupting, as well as applying Weakness which Weakening Shroud will provide.All your DPS in Marauder kind of goes to waste because much of your time will be spent hard kiting and playing defensive waiting for good openings to deal damage which Berserker + Curses could better capitalize on.

I know that Blood Magic is tremendously helpful in team fights as well as giving you a very potent cleanse, and that Marauder gives you a lot of Vitality which in turn means more Shroud. I also understand that you're not much use if you're dead, and Berserker + Curses is extremely risky. Still, if you're experienced enough to know how to handle fights, I think a more offensive approach can be a good choice assuming you have the proper team for it.

Despite all of this, I don't think Marauder + Blood Magic is worse, nor am I criticizing your advice. I just think there is an alternative way to play core power Necro that can be equally beneficial to your team, and recommend using.

I've been playing this for years. I'm sure it could be better optimized, like losing some crit chance because while in Shroud I often overcap, but I don't mind it as is.It has a lot of losing match ups and it is horrendously weak in an open field, but there are also a lot of match ups it does extremely well in, and is a killing machine in small scale fights. I've tried more defensive builds, as well as Marauder with Speed runes, but again don't feel the loss in damage is worth it much of the time. I feel like it loses its purpose as a spike build and just becomes a weaker ranged Reaper, albeit better in some 1v1/X because of the higher Vitality.

Anyway, I apologize for the novel. I just love core power Necro dearly, and because I like... Literally never see anyone playing it, or talking about it, I wanted to take this chance to write out my thoughts. At best I'm a Platinum 2 player, so I know some of my feelings are objectively wrong, but I don't think that means all of this is without merit either.

[Vallun.2071]

@"Shroud.2307" said:As someone who has been playing core power Necro for a very long time, I want to say a few things regarding your version of it.

First of all, I stopped doing PvP shortly after HoT, and I've been a WvW main basically since day 1, so I understand this will influence my opinion.I also understand that you're something like PvP rank 2k+(?) between your accounts, and although rank does not equal skill, it does mean you have a lot of experience. So I don't doubt that your reasons for crafting the build the way you did are correct.

Still, I want to add some thoughts.To me, core power Necro is about spike damage, not DPS, which is why I prefer Berserker amulet and Curses over Blood Magic. I had said you should try Berserker amulet on your stream, but you said Marauder is better because it allows for more DPS. While true, I think this build is to be played more like a Thief or Revenant instead of like a Reaper. Not necessarily +1ing, but spiking pressured targets or forcing defensive cooldowns. Life Blast is where that spike damage comes from and it hits a lot harder with more Power and Ferocity. Although yes, your damage will fall off while out of Shroud, Curses will ensure you maintain your crit chance through Target The Weak (increase critical hit chance per condition on the target) as well as giving you Path Of Corruption for more Corrupts to further improve your spike.

Because it's Necro you're going to be very vulnerable to getting spiked yourself. This is again why I feel it's better to go more offensive and focus on spike damage rather than DPS. Blood Magic is great support with Vampiric Aura, Ritual Of Life, and Unholy Martyr, but you can't afford to be supporting people in that way while being so squishy. Instead I think you should be supporting by spiking targets and Corrupting, as well as applying Weakness which Weakening Shroud will provide.All your DPS in Marauder kind of goes to waste because much of your time will be spent hard kiting and playing defensive waiting for good openings to deal damage which Berserker + Curses could better capitalize on.

I know that Blood Magic is tremendously helpful in team fights as well as giving you a very potent cleanse, and that Marauder gives you a lot of Vitality which in turn means more Shroud. I also understand that you're not much use if you're dead, and Berserker + Curses is extremely risky. Still, if you're experienced enough to know how to handle fights, I think a more offensive approach can be a good choice assuming you have the proper team for it.

Despite all of this, I don't think Marauder + Blood Magic is worse, nor am I criticizing your advice. I just think there is an alternative way to play core power Necro that can be equally beneficial to your team, and recommend using.

I've been playing this for years. I'm sure it could be better optimized, like losing some crit chance because while in Shroud I often overcap, but I don't mind it as is.It has a lot of losing match ups and it is horrendously weak in an open field, but there are also a lot of match ups it does extremely well in, and is a killing machine in small scale fights. I've tried more defensive builds, as well as Marauder with Speed runes, but again don't feel the loss in damage is worth it much of the time. I feel like it loses its purpose as a spike build and just becomes a weaker ranged Reaper, albeit better in some 1v1/X because of the higher Vitality.

Anyway, I apologize for the novel. I just love core power Necro dearly, and because I like... Literally never see anyone playing it, or talking about it, I wanted to take this chance to write out my thoughts. At best I'm a Platinum 2 player, so I know some of my feelings are objectively wrong, but I don't think that means all of this is without merit either.

I can definitely see that trade off working, because in a lot of situations you have too much shroud or not enough damage, and having zerk and curses will give you much more aggressive potential. However, its going to be much more situational. The best part of core necro is that it can always survive most situations, and just surviving in PvP is giving your team presence (because if you die then they will also die) and because necros tend to be focused and dont have the mobility to create advantageous situations like other classes (maybe you can fight a thief, but a thief will never fight you unless it knows it can kill you outnumbered) it means that the situations where your damage matters can be played around easily, and in the situations where your survivability matters cant be played around if you arent building into blood magic and vitality. So in other words there is more play potential and role independence as you said for 1v1/x whereas if youre in ideal situations always, then your variant is better.

[Shroud.2307]

@Vallun.2071 said:I can definitely see that trade off working, because in a lot of situations you have too much shroud or not enough damage, and having zerk and curses will give you much more aggressive potential. However, its going to be much more situational. The best part of core necro is that it can always survive most situations, and just surviving in PvP is giving your team presence (because if you die then they will also die) and because necros tend to be focused and dont have the mobility to create advantageous situations like other classes (maybe you can fight a thief, but a thief will never fight you unless it knows it can kill you outnumbered) it means that the situations where your damage matters can be played around easily, and in the situations where your survivability matters cant be played around if you arent building into blood magic and vitality. So in other words there is more play potential and role independence as you said for 1v1/x whereas if youre in ideal situations always, then your variant is better.

That makes sense.

I have started doing PvP again recently, and I'm seeing what you mean. Although I have a lot of presence in some fights, and am able to literally 3 shot some people from range, there are also numerous fights where I simply cannot survive long enough to be of value.That said, I also know how to kite quite well having played Necro for so long, so often times I don't die, but I still have to disengage which can be equally bad if I have to leave my teammates when they need me.I think it's something that a better player could take greater advantage of, but as you'd said, it is still less versatile.

On the subject of this build and PvP though, I spanked some poor soul for a 13.2k Lich auto tonight, lol. I wish I could have screen capped it, but I was in a team fight. Hopefully I can get some more of those to add to my crit folder :D.

[Ashur.6403]

I'm curious why the condition build goes Rune of the Traveler over Rune of the Lynx.

[Vallun.2071]

@Ashur.6403 said:I'm curious why the condition build goes Rune of the Traveler over Rune of the Lynx.

lynx does give condi and power, but traveler gives a little bit of everything, vitality which gives necros more shroud, precision which scales with condition damage, some condition duration, some power and condition damage, and so on. Both work though

[Ashur.6403]

Rune of the Traveler adds 300 more hp, but you lose 139 power and 59 condition damage. I think I'd rather take the extra 139 power and 59 condition damage over 300 more hp.

[Flumek.9043]

@Ashur.6403 said:Rune of the Traveler adds 300 more hp, but you lose 139 power and 59 condition damage. I think I'd rather take the extra 139 power and 59 condition damage over 300 more hp.

You take lynx on power builds and traveler on condi builds.

Reason is they both give same number of good stat point, with traveler adding 5% condi duration. On a power build yout survival usually depends on evades and cooldowns, so you take the max power possible (lynx) , while condi necro is a facetanker, you care ofc about condies, and your power skills have mostly poor scalling. So you prefer traveler.In the end the difference is single digit % , so only tryhards care.

[Atticus.7194]

@"Vallun.2071" said:Here are two core necro builds I have a lot of fun with and think will be good in many situations for PvP because of how survivable and resilient to focus they are while also having good sustained damage.

ngl these builds are 100% cancer, they're not fun to play against and are just damage sponges exploiting the fact a feather's touch gives you full shroud so that plus signet of vamp makes you unkillable.

[RangerThings.9810]

Hyjack attempt: I see this is PvP, but with Vallun's WvW 'Raid Boss Build' I JUST WON A 1V5 and I'm pumped.

---

I've changed a few things to make it a little more playable for me

1. Rune of Speed plus Sigil of Agility on both weapons for perma-kite
2. Plaguelands elite and use Unholy Skankuary to bait people in for the those tics

Modified build link

And really, I won 1v5 this morning with this build. You get a lot of stalemates, but when you win, you win big.