Necromancer - Core Power

The community gave this build a rating, making it second-tier: Good

Designed for: Open World, Open World General and Open World Core

Difficulty:

Easy

This build was last updated on February 03, 2025 and is up to date for the April 15, 2025 patch.

Overview

Power build for the core necromancer class. It deals decent damage, has good utility, can remove conditions from itself and boons from enemies with ease, and is easy to play.

This build can be played while levelling, while working on acquiring elite specializations, or by free-to-play players. It leads nicely into Build:Reaper_-_Power_Greatsword.

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Skill Bar

Axe/Focus

Dagger/Dagger

Utility

Weapon Variants

Axe is mandatory, and Focus is very good too. In the other weapon set, Dagger+ Dagger is decent, but other options can be considered.

Staff - good AoE, long range, and utility, but low damage. Good for tagging mobs in groups.
Warhorn - very weak damage, but good crowd control.

Players with Weaponmaster Training and Expanded Weapon Proficiency with the Secrets of the Obscure expansion should use Greatsword and Sword+ Sword.

Skill Variant

Well of Darkness provides good damage and Vulnerability application, try to not remove it.Well of Suffering is another great damage option, but can be swapped for some utility. Spectral Armor is a generic stun break that may also provide life force. These are other skills you can consider using:

Spectral Grasp - pull enemies to you to cleave them down.
Summon Flesh Wurm - useful for teleporting to places you normally can't reach with its active skill Necrotic Traversal.
Signet of Spite - alternative, passive DPS option.
Summon Shadow Fiend - summon with medium damage and decent HP.
Corrosive Poison Cloud - destroys projectiles.
Spectral Walk - alternative stun break that also removes conditions.

Specializations

The choice of third specialization doesn't matter much. Curses is decent as it provides Fury from Furious Demise. You can instead use Blood Magic for some support or Death Magic for some defense.
If levelling up, unlock the specializations in this order: Spite, Soul Reaping, and Curses.

Equipment

Ascended gear and stat infusions are not required. This build uses gear similar to Build:Reaper_-_Power_DPS, making it ideal for general PVE.

Head
Assassin

Shoulders
Berserker

Chest
Berserker

Hands
Berserker

Legs
Berserker

Feet
Berserker

Backpiece
Berserker

Accessory
Berserker

Amulet
Berserker

Ring
Berserker

Axe
Berserker

Focus
Berserker

Sigil

Dagger
Berserker

Sigil

Rune
x6

Relic

Other relics you can consider include: Relic of Fireworks for burst damage when using a long cooldown skill, Relic of Zakiros to trade a minor amount of damage for sustain, Relic of the Cavalier to start combat with boons, or Relic of Durability for a little extra defense. Note that some of these relics require certain expansions.
For defense, equip the highest tier Jade Core you can afford. Use defensive food, traits, or skills if required. If necessary, use Knight trinkets.
Players with Weaponmaster Training with the Secrets of the Obscure expansion should use Greatsword and Axe+ Focus and Relic of Fireworks.

Usage

Damage

Your highest damage skills are Ghastly Claws, which deals extra damage for each stack of Vulnerability that the enemy has; Spinal Shivers, which deals extra damage if the enemy has boons; and Unholy Feast, which triggers an additional strike against enemies below 50% health. All of this together with your wells Well of Suffering and Well of Darkness.
- Ideally, open with Spinal Shivers, Ghastly Claws and Unholy Feast. Then, cast your Wells, enter shroud and use Tainted Shackles and Life Transfer, followed by shroud auto attacks Life Blast. This skill pierces enemies, so position yourself accordingly.
Pull enemies together with Spectral Grasp.
Go in and out of shroud periodically to trigger Soul Barbs and Awaken the Pain. Though, ideally, you would only stay out of shroud to use your high damage skills and regain some life force, before going back into shroud, as Shroud has a stronger autoattack.
Your biggest sourcess of life force are Ghastly Claws, Soul Grasp, and dagger auto attacks Necrotic Bite. Nearby deaths also provide life force, but finish off enemies outside of shroud, since you don't gain life force from nearby deaths while inside shroud.
You have a lot of boon removal. Prioritise using Spinal Shivers for that, due to its high damage, but know that you also have Unholy Feast and Dark Pact.

Weaponmaster Training damage breakdown

Click to Expand

On Greatsword, use all skills. You can use Grasping Darkness to pull enemies to you.
If the enemy is below 50% health, you can spam Gravedigger rather than using auto-attacks.
Go in and out of shroud periodically to trigger Soul Barbs and Awaken the Pain. Though, ideally, you would only stay out of shroud to use your high damage skills and regain some life force, before going back into shroud, as Shroud has a stronger autoattack.
Your biggest sourcess of life force is Ghastly Claws, Death Spiral, and Grasping Darkness. Nearby deaths also provide life force, but finish off enemies outside of shroud, since you don't gain life force from nearby deaths while inside shroud.

Defense

The best defense in Guild Wars 2 is moving out of attacks or evading them. Addtionally, you can:

Crowd control enemies to stop them from attacking.
Well of Darkness - AoE blind
Spectral Armor - stunbreak + Protection
Consume Conditions - convert all your conditions into 5 stacks of Vulnerability
Weakening Shroud - allows you to apply consistent Weakness to enemies; this is a massive damage reduction on non-defiant enemies.

Crowd Control

Summon Flesh Golem
Doom - fear ticks Defiance Break much more quickly than other conditions.
Wail of Doom - if using warhorn
Soft crowd control from Dark Pact or Spinal Shivers.

Necromancer - Core Power

Contents

Overview

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