Build:Scourge - Blood Sage

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

Focused on: Condition damage, Support and Boon removal

Designed for: PvP Conquest

Difficulty:

Easy

This build was last updated on September 01, 2023 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.

Overview

A hybrid PvP bunker Scourge build with a mix of condition pressure, barrier sharing, Alacrity and exceptional rez power via Blood Magic.

Skill Bar

Staff

Scepter/Torch

Utility

Slot Changes

Utility

There are plenty of viable options for the remaining slot:

• Desiccate - lowest CD Punishment skill with boon corruption synergy, great at building Life Force even out of combat. Also has synergy with multiple traits such as Feed from Corruption or Desert Empowerment.

• Serpent Siphon - low CD barrier/boon application and damage.

• Sand Swell - vertical mobility, trait synergy.

• Spectral Walk - stun break, kiting potential, cleansing and LF generation.

• Summon Flesh Wurm - stun break and vertical mobility.

• Corrupt Boon - boon corruption/burst damage.

• Corrosive Poison Cloud - great option against projectile-heavy comps, and it's even good in melee because it shuts down Power-based specs with Weakness while doing respectable damage.

• Spectral Armor - protects against strike damage, breaks stun, helps with resource management.

Template Code

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Specializations

Variants

• Feed from Corruption is also a viable option, one that improves your personal barrier/cleansing/alacrity access in exchange for less group support/boon corruption.

Equipment

Scepter

Torch

Sigil

Sigil

Staff

Sigil

Sigil

Rune

Amulet

Relic

Equipment Variants

Runes

• Rune of Dolyak - makes the build more tanky if you can afford to give up some passive mobility.

Usage

Elite specialization basics

• Death Shroud is replaced by shade skills, but shroud related traits still work. Life force (LF) is no longer drained passively or upon taking damage, but instead serves as a resource used by F2-5 skills (F1, which places the shade, is free).

• Manifest Sand Shade adds a bit of range to the build and acts as a somewhat spammable source of barrier/cleansing/ Alacrity that doesn't cost anything.

• F2-5 skills go off around both the caster and active shades.

General

• Playstyle: your role is to aid your team in larger fights by providing barrier, cleansing and boons to allies while keeping the enemy team pressured through condition damage, CC and boon corruption.

• Do not spam your staff marks on the ground while out of combat, as a single dodge can undo them all. Placing Mark of Blood on chokes to detect enemies crossing in stealth is fine however, as it's a rather short CD and weak one.

• Necromancer mobility is rather bad, so try to make use of the terrain with proper positioning. Make it hard for enemies to reach you especially ranged ones - pillars are your friend.

• Feed from Corruption grants you barrier whenever you corrupt or remove a boon, turning Well of Corruption into one of your best defensive CDs.

• The build only has 1 mass cleanse by default: Putrid Mark.

• If you're at 3 available charges of Manifest Sand Shade while out of combat, consider dropping a shade or two on your location to gain Alacrity and speed up the recharge of some important CDs before next fight.

• Consider using Trail of Anguish before your heal for the Stability while under heavy pressure.

• Ghastly Breach is a rather powerful skill, but also easily avoidable. Don't just drop it randomly at the start of the fight, wait for the right moment - look for a situation where you can make your opponent overcommit. Place it on enemies trying to revive their downed teammate, or under yourself on low HP to scare them off.

• If taken Corrupt Boon is not only a great spike skill, but also a defensive one - thanks to the low cast time CB can be used to counterpressure targets. Someone's chasing you with Stability and Might stacks? Turn their boons against them, right into Fear and Weakness! It's also unblockable.

Support

• Blood Magic traits and Scourge mechanics make this build exceptionally good at reviving allies:
  • Garish Pillar triggers Transfusion, which restores both normal and downed health for all allies around you. This will also teleport downed people to the very first time they come in range of the skill. Channeling isn't interrupted when you begin to rez manually (pressing F by default), nor when you go into downed state, which means even if it won't fully revive you, it can still make it easier for allies to do so.
  • Ritual of Life procs a Well that heals and revives.
  • Last Rites cancels the regular downstate HP degeneration.

• Applying a barrier cleanses conditions and grants Alacrity. Manifest Sand Shade, Sand Cascade and Sand Flare are your main sources of barrier sharing.

• Nefarious Favor adds yet another group cleanse to the build.

Life Force management

• As your shade skills cost LF, being efficient at managing this resource will be crucial for both your damage and sustain. We're going to list all the sources and provide a few tips for getting the most out of them.

• All staff skills generate life force:
  • Necrotic Grasp is a rather weak skill and there's no way you'll be able to use it much under any pressure. It does however generate 5% LF per target hit, and you should use it for the occasional ranged poking. Alternatively, right after you won a fight (and no enemies are nearby who could rez their downed allies) you can use the downed bodies as batteries and just spam staff autos at them for a substantial amount of free life force.
  • Marks are unblockable and generate 3% LF each. Mark of Blood and Chilblains can be used freely for just pressure and LF building, while Putrid Mark and Reaper's Mark are more powerful and should be kept for the proper occasion (Putrid for mass cleansing and Reaper's for interrupting).

• On scepter/torch you have 2 such skills:
  • Feast of Corruption should be used with at least ~4 conditions on the target, both your burst damage and LF stacking benefits from the higher number of conditions on the target. Make sure that this skill lands by CCing the target with either Oppressive Collapse or Garish Pillar.
  • Harrowing Wave is rather straightforward, just try to hit as many targets as possible including Ranger pets and Mesmer illusions.

• Eternal Life passively stacks LF for you up to the 10% threshold except for when Desert Shroud is active.

• If taken Desiccate should be used on CD even outside combat for free LF generation.

Related Builds

• Scourge - Blood Support