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 August 25, 2023 and is up to date for the August 19, 2025 patch.

Overview

Core Power Necromancer is a basic build for Necro that does not feature an elite specialization. This build leads very nicely into Power Reaper builds, such as Build:Reaper_-_Power_DPS and Build:Reaper_-_Power_Greatsword.

Template Code

Power version

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Skill Bar

Greatsword

Axe/Warhorn

Utility

Weapon Variants

Staff - good AoE and long range, but lower DPS than Axe. Works well in large farm squads.
Mainhand Dagger - replaces Greatsword for Free-to-play players.
Focus - can replace Warhorn as a much higher-damage option, though it lacks CC.

Skill Variant

We take Well of Darkness and Well of Suffering because they provide the highest damage of any of our skills by far. Spectral Armor is taken for defense and a stunbreak. Ideally, replace Well of Darkness first.

Spectral Grasp - pull enemies to you
Flesh Wurm - use for teleporting to places you normally can't reach
Signet of Spite - alternative, passive DPS option
Summon Shadow Friend - a friend with low damage and decent HP.
Corrosive Poison Cloud - projectile hate

Specializations

If levelling up, unlock the specializations in this order: Spite, {Tooltip|Soul Reaping}}, and Curses.

Equipment

Ascended gear and stat infusions are not required

Standard Equipment

This build uses gear similar to Build:Reaper_-_Power_DPS, making it ideal for general PVE.

Head
Berserker

Shoulders
Berserker

Chest
Berserker

Hands
Berserker

Legs
Berserker

Feet
Berserker

Backpiece
Berserker

Accessory
Berserker

Amulet
Berserker

Ring
Berserker

Greatsword
Berserker

Sigil

Axe
Berserker

Warhorn
Berserker

Sigil

Rune
x6

Free-to-play Equipment

This build uses equipment accessible by Free-to-play players.

Head
Berserker

Shoulders
Berserker

Chest
Berserker

Hands
Berserker

Legs
Berserker

Feet
Berserker

Backpiece
Berserker

Accessory
Berserker

Amulet
Berserker

Ring
Berserker

Dagger
Berserker

Warhorn
Berserker

Sigil

Axe
Berserker

Focus
Berserker

Sigil

Rune
x6

Alternative Equipment

Defense

A Jade Core provides a large increase to health. Use the highest tier you can afford.
Knight's Trinkets - a few Knight's trinkets can provide a large increase to defense, but at a substantial DPS loss.
Sigil of Superior Sigil of Energy - increased evasion

Budget

The gear listed is already very cheap. For armor, feel free to purchase Zhed's from the Trading Post and replace the runes it provides.

Rune of Superior Rune of Infiltration - budget replacement for Rune of Superior Rune of the Scholar

Usage

Damage

On Greatsword, prioritize Nightfall, Grasping Darkness, Death Spiral, then Gravedigger. Be sure to use your Gravedigger and Death Spiral inside your Nightfall or Well of Darkness to trigger Leeching Bolts. The goal on Greatsword is to auto-attack as little as possible.
If the enemy is below 50% health, you can spam Gravedigger rather than using auto-attacks.
Use Axe/Warhorn for range. Warhorn is mostly there for CC from Wail of Doom, which has a somewhat short range, so you may need to close in to use it.
Your highest damage skills on Axe are Ghastly Claws, which deals extra damage for each stack of Vulnerability that the enemy has and Unholy Feast, which triggers an additional strike against enemies below 50% health.
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. 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.
Use Locust Swarm for Swiftness. Its damage is extremely low but can be okayish when fighting a group of enemies in melee range, while providing a little life force.
If you don't need crowd control, you can use Haunt and Rigor Mortis for more damage.

Defense

The best defense in Guild Wars 2 is evading attacks. To this end, be sure you are positioning and dodging correctly, and practice doing so consistently. Sometimes, extra defense may be needed. For this purpose:

CC enemies to stop them from attacking
Well of Darkness - AoE blind
Spectral Armor - stunbreak + Protection
Consume Conditions - condition cleanse; be careful as this applys 5 stacks of Vulnerability to yoursel for 4 seconds on use, making you take +5% increased damage for a brief period of time.
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

Necromancer - Core Power

Contents

Overview

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