Necromancer - Vanilla Condi Necro

The community gave this build a rating, making it top-tier: Great

Focused on: Condition damage and Boon removal

Designed for: PvP Conquest

This build was last updated on May 13, 2023 and is up to date for the May 02, 2023 game patch.

Overview

A Condition Necromancer PvP build with heavy boon corruption made to teamfight. Usable by F2P players as well.

Skill Bar

Scepter/Warhorn

Staff

Utility

Slot Changes

Utility

Other viable utility options:

• - the Blind is great for surviving in melee and the Chill could be used to pressure targets.

• - unblockable single target boon corruption that's hard to avoid, great for bursting targets without any other setup. It's even good for defensive purposes while under pressure - quickly corrupting Stability and Might into Fear and Weakness for instance could save you.

• - AoE boon corruption but less bursty than Corrupt Boon.

• - AoE projectile counter and anti-direct damage skill that also helps with killing bunkers with the Poison

Weapons

• Off-hand Dagger over Warhorn - with this you're giving up an unblockable CC and synergy in exchange for better condition cleansing, boon corruption and Weakness spam. Dagger's a bit more defensive than Warhorn in general. Take on Blood Magic.

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Specializations

Variants

• trades rez power for slightly higher damage and sustain.

Specialization Variants

Spite can replace Blood Magic for more pressure but lower sustain and less group utility. The Spite version is easier to pull off on teams where you can rely on a support keeping you alive (like automated tournaments) while Blood Magic is preferred by most ranked players:

Equipment

Scepter

Dagger

Sigil

Sigil

Staff

Sigil

Sigil

Rune

Amulet

Equipment Variants

Runes

• - trades defense against conditions for slightly higher damage from .

Usage

General

• Positioning: Necromancer sustain is far from great. Keep out of melee range whenever possible and abuse spots which break teleport skills to make it harder to get to you. Don't stand on capture points unless you absolutely have to.

• All of your marks are unblockable and generate Life Force.

• Never spam your marks on the ground out of combat - they are easy to spot and a single dodge from the enemy can get rid of them. The only exception can be (because it's not a key skill and has a low CD), which you can freely place at an entrance or under yourself to potentially give away Stealthed enemy movement.

• Both weapon sets have access to unblockable CC skills: on Staff and on Scepter/Warhorn.

• Entering Shroud triggers . If you're CC'd and getting focused you can enter shroud to rip boons and apply Weakness as a defensive measure.

• Entering near the end of the ready up phase at the beginning of a game (right before the final 10 second countdown starts) makes you start off with 5% Life Force. Not a lot but better than nothing.

Damage

• Most of the pressure comes from various sources of boon corruption and condition applications over time, this build isn't really about burst rotations (bar 1-2 combos).

• adds some direct damage burst to the build, this skill is great for finishing off opponents.

• Shroud burst rotation (in melee range this doubles as a defensive rotation):

1. to proc
3. just before Dark Path reaches the target
6. Spam

Support

• Blood Magic adds a small degree of team support to the build. The most notable benefit here is the improved rez potential.

• places a Well under target ally which not only revives downed players, but also heals everyone in range including yourself (and it's quite a significant bit of healing). However, if the Well gets placed while you're in shroud, you won't be healed at all!

Sustain

• The build has above average condition cleansing by Necromancer standards.

• Both entering and exiting shroud removes conditions thanks to and .

• (SW) is great for preventing condition pressure from ramping up on you. Activating its chain skill which "ends" Spectral Walk does not stop the cleansing. This skill has many uses, for example:
  • Activate SW ⇒ jump off a cliff while being chased ⇒ when your enemies jump after you.
  • Activate SW ⇒ (if using Flesh Wurm) ⇒ teleport back when they catch up to you. This works for stomping downed enemies as well, the channeling isn't interrupted by either of these teleports!

• should be placed well before entering combat, preferably at a spot where your enemies can't reach it easily. Wurm provides you with an escape route and makes it easier to travel around the map in general. Last but not least, teleporting to the wurm with grants 10% life force, which means you could consider using the teleport before even leaving spawn at the start of a game in order to start off with enough LF for a activation.

• Even at maximum LF you may consider activating Spectral skills before entering death shroud. The added LF generation and sustain can prolong its duration significantly.

• is more of a last resort option that should only be used at or below ~50% HP and when other forms of cleansing/healing won't suffice.

Top Streamers

• Twitch: Naru

• Twitch: Bel

Related Builds

• Core Condition Roamer - the WvW Roaming version of this sPvP build.