My Necromancer builds: Need thoughts on it

[Cheshire Rabbid.7430]

I'm just need some thoughts on this two build I'm planning to go with for my Necromancer for any PvE stuff. Any suggestions for skills, specs and gear are welcome. Also which one should I try to make first?

Reaper

Scourge

[Nimon.7840]

9 hours ago, Cheshire King.6970 said:

I'm just need some thoughts on this two build I'm planning to go with for my Necromancer for any PvE stuff. Any suggestions for skills, specs and gear are welcome. Also which one should I try to make first?

Reaper

Scourge

For your reaper build: definitely playable, but I suggest taking the condition remove healskill. Some enemies can be a pain without it (or spectral walk instead of armor)

Second, for your reaper: don't take those +20% chill duration. You have so many sources of chill, that you will easily overcap on chill on the enemy (keep in mind, you can only apply 10 seconds of chill)

Last for the reaper: it's enough to have the stack sigille (cruelty) on one weaponswap. I'd put it on the axe set, as great sword does a lot more damage. (Just swap to axe, right before a mob dies to stack the sigil)

Other great sigils are: force, cleansing, sometimes celerity.

 

For the scourge build dont use sigil of blight. Sigil of torment is much better (but expensive), or if you want to keep the poison use sigil of doom (if you weaponswap as soon as it's off cooldown).

 

I also don't like serpent siphon. Poison cloud is much more effective and even give you a projectile block.

 

And what is the Wurm for? For teleports? Most of the times it's better to use the sand swell skill. If you use it for the minion, then consider bone minions, as they greatly benefit from your traits (letting them explode unleases another poison cloud and does decent power damage)

 

And herald of sorrow is a pretty bad trait. You loose damage by taking it, and gain survivability. But you already have real good survivability, so this trait is not necessary. (Also you can't press F5 then replace shade. Shroud will not trigger on the new placed shade with this trait.

 

And last: sand savant is usually only used on pure support builds. Demonic lore gives you a lot more damage, and with a lot more damage, also a lot more survivability. If you are new to scourge play sand savant, but try to slowly shift towards demonic lore.

 

 

 

[Anchoku.8142]

These look like open-world builds, in which case they are fine. Is your equipment from other toons?

 

For open world, I tend to use Reaper a lot because it can burst down trash mobs faster than a condi build. That will leave you more time to do everything else.

 

Also assume you have a mount for travel.

 

Try this simple Reaper build for open world.

[QuirkyDM.2351]

For Reaper especially, listen to @Nimon.7840. (I don't play Scourge as much, so won't comment there) For the cruelty sigil, you can spend a few minutes killing mobs with just axe to build up the stacks and then once it's maxed out, move on to use whichever weapon you like.

Another sigil I like to use is Hydromancy. It provides chill on weapon swap, which will make sure there is chill when you enter shroud. It also means when you attack with your mount, it will activate to chill everything at the start of the fight. (which will also activate bitter chill) I've even wiped out some mobs with my raptor like this without even attacking.

 

 

 

[KrHome.1920]

QoL improvements for your reaper build:

- change spectral armor to spectral walk (swiftness and condi cleanse // you have enough LF generation)

- change unyielding blast to speed of shadows (swiftness and condi cleanse // you have enough vulnerability from bitter chill, gs and axe+focus)

- change sigil of chilling to some damage sigil

 

With your current build you are overstacking vulnerability and chill, while lacking condi cleanses, which can be extremely annoying on some maps.

 

Edited May 28, 2021 by KrHome.1920

[Asum.4960]

On 5/28/2021 at 3:35 AM, Cheshire King.6970 said:

I'm just need some thoughts on this two build I'm planning to go with for my Necromancer for any PvE stuff. Any suggestions for skills, specs and gear are welcome. Also which one should I try to make first?

Reaper

Scourge

 

For the Reaper:

Looks good overall, some minor but optional changes though. 

You probably won't need Bitter Chill. Unyielding Blast and Death's Embrace will generally cap Vuln on tougher targets, while trash will die too quickly to ramp it up even with this anyway. Spiteful Talisman offers another 10% modifier for most of PvE. 

 

For OW, actually consider Dread over Close to Death. It allows you to easily carry through 100% quickness uptime in Shroud Downtime, while also allowing you to self-buff perma Fury (can even take Fear of Death, which also boosts Shroud uptime, gaining LF in Shroud, but Soul Barbs is a great pick too).

 

For Runes in OW, even with mounts these days, I still swear by Fireworks Runes for Power Builds. The base movement speed is just such a QoL improvement, and it helps with self-buffing. 

 

Similarly, while Maurauder is great for OW, it's generally not needed esp with the base HP and Shroud on Necro. You could consider some Diviner's for further better boon uptimes, or just get some Zerker in there. 

 

Sigils I'd just go for Force and Impact, or Strength for better (out of Shroud) Might upkeep.

Chill durations are plentiful but short and I wouldn't invest in duration. If you really want more Chill go Ice or Hydromancy, but it should be fine. Personally I find Stacking Sigils to be more of a hassle than they are worth, but to each their own.

 

You probably won't need Spectral Armor, so plenty choices there for more Vuln and Damage with Well of Suffering, more Chill and some cleanse with Suffer, extra LF with Signet of Undeath or Signet of Locust if you don't go for Fireworks Runes. 

 

For the heal I'd consider Signet of Vampirism for more Damage and sustain, or Consume Conditions if you find yourself stuck with condis esp ooc. 

 

If you find yourself needing some sustain, even though it is generally clunky and underwhelming, Dagger MH for Life Siphon is a real option to quickly swap to and use before Shroud and then again after before swapping off again. It does come at the expense of Axe though, which while not great either, means not having any ranged options, so it's situational.

 

Something like This.

 

For Scourge: 

Go 2, 1, 3 in Curses. Corruptions are really, really good and Lingering Curse is almost a must for Damage considering how trash base Scepter is. If you really don't want to run any corruptions, run Terror. Sadly no need for Corrupts in general PvE, and for the rare times it does have uses, you got Scepter 3. 

Instead for sustain, pick of Runes of Tormenting, rather than Lich. 

I don't think Deathmagic is any good - I'd go 1, 1, 1 or 1, 1, 3 in Soul Reaping instead. 

This provides you with Vuln, Cool Down reductions and more damage, as well as some minor Burns or better LF management for the GM.

 

In Scourge, I'd actually go 1, 1, 2 for OW. 

This provides you constant condi cleanses and Might, as well as vastly more damage with Demonic Lore. 

In this case you can also take Insidious Disruption over Plague Sending in Curses, unless you take Blood is Power and want to transfer those self-inflicted condis.

 

For Gear, either Viper or also perfectly fine for Solo in the OW, Trailblazer. As mentioned, Tormenting Runes.

Also go for Sigil of Torment, which is both great damage (esp with Demonic Lore) and extra sustain with the Runes. 

You will pretty much cap Torment, so you won't need Malice. While it's still fine, consider Bursting, Strength or Earth. 

 

For Utilities, I really like to run Epidemic and Spectral Grasp for easier time cleaving for OW/solo content. 

Then Signet of Locust can provide QoL movement speed, Blood is Power massive damage and extra Might (at the cost of hassling with Plague Sending, which might be too annoying for you in OW), Signet of Undeath for extra LF, or just general Situational Utility (Cloud for Projectile Defense, Trail of Anguish for Stunbreaks, Well of Darkness for further trash control, etc.).

Plaguelands for the Elite. With just a minute CD Traited, it's a beast. 

 

Serpent Siphon is imo possibly the worst Utility skill in the game. 

 

Something like This (Trailblazer isn't really necessary though, I'd invest in Viper esp if you don't have legendary Armor).

Edited May 29, 2021 by Asum.4960

[Aodlop.1907]

On 5/28/2021 at 2:02 PM, Nimon.7840 said:

but I suggest taking the condition remove healskill

I play with Signet of Vampirism for the passive sustain. Is it a bad choice, since neither you nor the OP seem to pick it?

[Anchoku.8142]

4 minutes ago, Aodlop.1907 said:

I play with Signet of Vampirism for the passive sustain. Is it a bad choice, since neither you nor the OP seem to pick it?

You can trait for condition remove and keep SoV but, yeah, get condi removal from somewhere. I slotted Suffer! and Speed of Shadows in my Reaper example.

[jpsssss.7530]

Those should be fine for open world

[UncreativeGreen.2019]

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PSyEcEWoMBmCzj1wKxx25t1B-zRJYwRHfZEWKEYFo2lQMVgUPk/aCxZE-e

 

This is the reaper build I run. Yes the standard spite/soulreaping/reaper gets the job done in open world perfectly fine with all the might, vuln, and quickness. But I wanted a build that had all that plus more sustain so I came up with this variation. Not the most damage ever and a bit time consuming to gear for an open world build, but extremely effective and so much quality of life. Shines the most in add heavy fights, but has no trouble soloing champions. Let me know what you think.

Edited May 30, 2021 by UncreativeGreen.2019