Necromancer - Core Power

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

Focused on: Power damage

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.

Template Code

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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

Accessory
Berserker

Amulet
Berserker

Ring
Berserker

Ring
Berserker

Axe
Berserker

Focus
Berserker

Sigil

Sigil

Dagger
Berserker

Dagger
Berserker

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Relic

• Other relics you can consider include:
  for burst damage when using a long cooldown skill,
  to trade a minor amount of damage for sustain,
  to start combat with boons, or
  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
  .

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
  .