Necromancer - Core Condi Roamer

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

Focused on: Condition damage

Designed for: WvW Roaming

Difficulty:

Easy

This build was last updated on September 07, 2023 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.

Overview

A condition based core Necromancer build for WvW roaming with proper sustain and decent pressure.

Skill Bar

Scepter/Warhorn

Staff

Utility

Skill Variants

Utility

For the optional slot:

• Corrupt Boon - on-demand boon removal, post-nerf this is mostly a tech-option against builds with Stability spam. You're not guaranteed to hit the right boon but it's your best bet at countering specs with high Stability uptime.

• Corrosive Poison Cloud - excellent sustain tool against both ranged and melee, it's even good at pressuring targets.

• Well of Corruption - great AoE pressure against groups, and could scare off melee enemies for a few moments.

• Summon Flesh Wurm - more mobility and a stun break with a bit of Life Force gain on the side.

• Spectral Armor - stun break, defense against direct damage, and excellent LF building.

Template Code

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Equipment

Head
Trailblazer

Shoulders
Trailblazer

Chest
Trailblazer

Hands
Trailblazer

Legs
Trailblazer

Feet
Trailblazer

Backpiece
Trailblazer

Accessory
Trailblazer

Accessory
Trailblazer

Amulet
Dire

Ring
Rabid

Ring
Rabid

Scepter
Trailblazer

Warhorn
Trailblazer

Sigil

Sigil

Staff
Trailblazer

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

Relic

Sigils

Geomancy can be replaced by:

• Sigil of Superior Sigil of Cleansing - if you're having trouble dealing with conditions.

• Sigil of Superior Sigil of Corruption - if you're willing to lose a useful proc for a stacking damage boost.

Consumables

Food:

• - passive damage mitigation and great stats.

• - more active damage mitigation via dodging.
  • - budget version

Utility:

• Optimal:

• Budget: (found in Canned Food Crates looted from WvW Skirmish Chests)

Usage

General

• Use Summon Flesh Golem before you mount up so you don't have to cast this at the start of combat right after dismounting.

• Consider building up your Life Force on critters and hostile NPCs before setting out to fight players.

• Both weapon sets have access to unblockable CC skills: Reaper's Mark on Staff and Wail of Doom on Scepter/Warhorn.

• All of your marks are unblockable and generate Life Force.
  • Tip: enemy players who block Staff skills can work against themselves. Long duration blocks such as Shield Stance give you more than enough time to land important staff skills like Chilblains with little to no risk of being avoided as blocking players normally don't dodge.

• Entering Shroud triggers Weakening Shroud which is an excellent defensive proc that can also be used while CC'd to apply Weakness to nearby enemies.

Damage

• Fear is the strongest damaging condition in the build thanks to Terror.

• Scepter/Warhorn is a bit more bursty while Staff is more of a utility weapon used to snare targets, transfer conditions, and CC/build Life Force from range.

• Feast of Corruption is a strong burst skill but only when used on targets with at least 4-5 different conditions. It also corrupts a boon which means with a little luck this could add another source of Fear to the build.

• Summon Flesh Golem is taken for its Relic of the Nightmare synergy because this is the shortest CD core Necromancer elite skill. The Fear proc itself has a delay and should go off after the Golem's Charge, which means it won't override the knockdown.

• There are 5 sources of Fear in the build, try chaining them together when you're going for the kill on an already pressured target:
  • Relic of the Nightmare - use your elite skill to proc this once every 30 seconds.
  • Doom - Shroud #3.
  • Wail of Doom - Warhorn #4.
  • Reaper's Mark - Staff #5.
  • Spectral Ring - utility skill. The ring applies Fear whenever an enemy crosses it, and you could force them to cross by using other sources of Fear on them. The duration of Fear stacks.

• The Sceper autoattack chain is far superior to Staff's in terms of damage, it could even apply Poison for healing reduction.

• Putrid Mark is a Blast finisher, you may combo this with Chillblains for AoE Weakness or Spectral Ring for AoE Chaos Armor.

• Life Blast with Dhuumfire is a great filler while in Shroud.

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

1. Death Shroud to proc Weakening Shroud
2. Dark Path
3. Doom just before Dark Path reaches the target
4. Tainted Shackles
5. Spam Life Blast

Sustain

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

• Both entering and exiting shroud removes conditions thanks to Plague Sending and Unholy Martyr.

• Spectral Walk (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 ⇒ Spectral Recall when your enemies jump after you.
  • Activate SW ⇒ Necrotic Traversal (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!

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

• Consume Conditions 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.

Related Builds

• Core Condi Necro - the Conquest PvP version of this Necromancer roaming build.