User:Jasminethetender/builds/necro

Necromancer Builds =Chilling Assassin=

The Chilling Assassin is a PvP build capable of producing a moderate spike, 324-403 damage (depending on whether Toxic Chill is used twice) as well as -8 health regeneration for moderate pressure.

Attributes and Skills

 * Optional slot MUST be filled by a Hex.
 * Preferably a utility hex with a low recharge.

Equipment

 * Radiant Armor
 * A Staff and Wand/Offhand combo all linked to Death Magic
 * Runes (Suggested, not necessary):
 * 1 Superior Vigor Rune
 * 2 Runes of Attunement

Usage

 * Choose a target.
 * Cast Deathly Chill --> Toxic Chill followed by Vile Miasma and Signet of Toxic Shock
 * If necessary, follow up with a second cast of Toxic Chill and/or Deathly Chill as needed
 * Deathly Chill and Toxic Chill may be spammed while the rest of the combo is recharging to damage and pressure enemies
 * Use Signet of Lost Souls as necessary

Counters

 * General Anti-Caster
 * Heavy Condition Removal
 * Heavy Hex Removal

Variants

 * In AB, remove Resurrection Signet
 * Rising Bile
 * Deadly Paradox to decrease the recharge of your Assassin skills
 * Mark of Death
 * Signet of Twilight
 * Signet of Malice
 * Shameful Fear or Enduring Toxin
 * Signet of Sorrow
 * Consume Corpse
 * Well of Suffering
 * Siphon Speed
 * Augury of Death

=Heir to the Master= The N/D Heir to the Master is an MM build designed to withstand moderately heavy damage and health degeneration at the same time supporting other MM's. Excellent for Alliance Battles and can work in PvE with a few modifications.

Equipment

 * Armor - Recommend full Radiant Armor, though other set-ups are viable. Equip the best Vigor rune possible.
 * Weapons - Ghial's Staff or something similiar.

Usage

 * Maintain Aura of the Lich, Dark Bond, Mystic Regeneration and Infuse Condition
 * When playing as the only MM, animate minions as the situation permits.
 * When playing with other MM's, let them make more minions than you, and tell them that you will be healing their minions as through Blood of the Master spamming. Mystic Regeneration will fill your health back up before Blood of the Master is even recharged.

Counters

 * Traditional spell caster counters (Dazed, interruption, etc.) However in this case dazed will have almost no effect since its usually instantly passed on to a minion.
 * Enchantment stripping. But only multiple or mass enchant removal skills are truly dangerous. You can use mystic regeneration as cover for your other enchants, the fast recharge and cast time makes it ideal for this.
 * Life Stealing (with Aura of the Lich, your health will be lower but it cannot reduce life stealing skills such as Vampiric Gaze)
 * Low max health makes degeneration more dangerous. Extremely heavy health degeneration though (more than -12) which is unlikely except for heavy hex based degen (remember you pass on your conditions). Builds like this are rare in pve and AB. But a significant amount of degen will impede your use of blood of the master.
 * Losing all your minions (especially in AB). This means that you have no damage reduction (from dark bond), are susceptible to conditions and most importantly posses no notable offense. If you lose al of them (trough veratas aura or aoe) attempt to create more asap or retreat.

Variants

 * Replace Infuse Condition with Verata's Aura or Dark Aura.
 * Replace Animate Bone Horror with Animate Bone Minions.
 * Replace Signet of Lost Souls with Resurrection Signet or Sunspear Rebirth Signet or Consume Corpse.
 * Replace Animate Bone Horror with Animate Shambling Horror or Animate Vampiric Horror.
 * Replace Signet of Lost Souls with Verata's Aura (to recover lost minions or steal those of enemy MM).

Equipment

 * Scar Pattern or Radiant Armor, with best Vigor rune possible.
 * The Stonereaper (or Similiar Staff}
 * Wayward Wand (Curses) and Villnar's Glove

Usage

 * Choose a Target.
 * Cast Wither -> Malaise -> Mind Wrack -> Parasitic Bond.
 * Cast Wither on other Casters.
 * Cast Ether Phantom -> Drain Delusions.
 * Spam Wastrel's Worry.
 * Repeat as energy levels permit.

Variants

 * Shatter Delusions for more damage instead of energy drain.
 * Power Leak can be used to expedite energy denial.
 * Signet of Humility and Shame can be used to counter enemy hex removal.
 * Diversion could be taken to shut down an opponent further, and synergizes well with Wastrel's Worry.
 * Signet of Lost Souls could be used if you run into problems with health/energy management, or other skills from the Inspiration Magic line.

Depravity Variant
For greater e-denial, but less pressure

Counters

 * Dazed.
 * Melee attention.
 * Ironically, energy denial can weaken this build.

Equipment

 * An Insightful Accursed Staff of Fortitude with HCT of Curses inscription will do nicely.
 * Also bring an Accursed Rod of Memory with HSR of Curses and Energy +5 (while above 50%), with an Accursed Icon of Aptitude with HCT of Curses and Curses +1 (20%).
 * For armor, bring full radiant and the max vigor rune you can get, along with several Attunement runes.

Usage
Cast the four hexes. Use the Mantra of Signets along with Signet of Suffering twice, since it recharges instantly. Use Accumulated Pain for some small damage and deep wound to help finish them off. Use Sig of Lost Souls as a heal and energy management tool. If the Mantra or SoS are recharging due to previous fights, you can simply kill with your -10 degeneration.

Counters

 * Hex removal and Signet/Stance prevention can be a hindrance, as you will not achieve maximum damage.
 * This build has an unsightly 20 second cool down. Any enemy build which takes advantage of this will be well rewarded.

Variants
You can feel free to move the attributes around a bit for more effectiveness in these builds.
 * You can use a different hex chain, focusing more on damage, degen, or self preservation whichever may be your preference. I like to use this build as it helps to both annoy and limit the effectiveness of others. Some examples...
 * Some ideas for another skill in place of Sig of Lost Souls or Accumulated Pain:
 * [[Image:Resurrection Signet.jpg|25 px]] Resurrection Signet
 * [[Image:Drain Delusions.jpg|25 px]] Drain Delusions
 * [[Image:Shatter Delusions.jpg|25 px]] Shatter Delusions
 * [[Image:Rip Enchantment.jpg|25 px]] Rip Enchantment
 * [[Image:Envenom Enchantments.jpg|25 px]] Envenom Enchantments
 * Extra hex

=Death's Shadow= This gimmick arena build combines life drainage and armor-ignoring spiking to devastate any foe. This build should not be used for any serious purpose.

Equipment

 * Players should equip a sword that deals additional damage when enchanted to maximize your damage output, and has a crippling hilt and either an of Defense, of Shelter or of Enchanting pommel
 * Carry a Blood Magic offhand that enhances the recharge/casting time of Blood Magic spells
 * Have a Tormentor's/Necrotic tunic and leggings, at least, to improve your naturally low armor. Going pure-Tormentor's/Necrotic is viable, but you'll be leaving yourself very vulnerable to Holy damage

Usage

 * The usual casting order for a Death's Shadow:
 * Aura of the Lich
 * Dark Aura
 * Blood Renewal
 * Touch of Agony
 * Barbed Signet


 * If executed properly you should almost always have the health regeneration, and occasional heal, from Blood Renewal, and area-affected Shadow damage, which makes this a "survivor"
 * While this build can take on any class, targeting the monk (as usual) is particularly effective. Hamstring will aid your warrior allies, and the near-unstoppable amount of Shadow damage will make the healer or protector monk quite "selfish", as they'll suddenly focus on (desperately) healing themselves. This also goes for enemy Priest
 * Be careful not to cast Aura of the Lich when your health is particularly low. The same goes for Blood Renewal
 * While Blood Renewal seems out of place at first, it makes for an amazing self-heal if combined with Aura of the Lich. You'll only sacrifice 12.5% health, as Aura of the Lich "quarters" damage from sacrifices. In addition, you can cast it after Dark Aura for a spiking prelude

Variants

 * Touch of Agony could be replaced with Dark Pact for less melee range dependency
 * Order of Pain and Flurry would make for a great melee damage combo, particularly in PvE or Alliance Battles
 * Life Siphon could replace Blood Renewal to lower the dependency upon enchantments
 * Wallow's Bite could replace Barbed Signet for more spammable damage, though this causes more constant and possibly riskier health sacrifice.
 * Demonic Flesh mixes well with Aura of the Lich, boosting your low health with no increase in damage taken from outside sources. However, this makes you more dependent on enchantments and causes you to sacrifice more health.
 * For ABs, replace Resurrection Signet with Plague Touch or Plague Sending.
 * Blood of the Aggressor may also be substituted for Barbed Signet for a quickly recharging skill with a very small health sacrifice.

Counters

 * Remove or interrupt the enchantments upon which this build depends.
 * Crippling, as with any melee-range attacker, makes this build difficult to be efficient.
 * Health degeneration and Deep Wound work well due to this build's low health.
 * Life stealing does not count as damage in the usual sense and thus will completely ignore the damage-reducing effects of Aura of the Lich. Life stealing skills such as Vampiric Touch and Vampiric Gaze are therefore very dangerous to this build due to its low health.

=Dark Aura Bomber= This build uses the synergy between Dark Aura and damage dealing skills with a sacrifice, such as Touch of Agony and Wallow's Bite, to deliver high levels of armor ignoring damage.

Equipment

 * Scar Pattern Armor for additional energy.
 * A 5^50 energy wand with Half Recharge Blood Magic, and a +12 20/20 Blood Magic or Half Recharge Blood Magic +30 HP offhand.

Usage

 * Cast Aura of the Lich and Demonic Flesh just before you enter combat. Make sure you kept Aura of the Lich up at all times, or you will quickly kill yourself.
 * As soon your enchantments are in place, run in and cast Dark Aura and Blood Renewal
 * Start spamming Wallow's Bite and Touch of Agony
 * Use Consume Corpse whenever possible for the extra health and energy, as well as corpse denial

Counters

 * High levels of degeneration and life stealing attacks.
 * Enchantment removal.
 * Skills like Diversion.

Variants

 * Demonic Flesh can be swapped for:
 * Taste of Pain, for a good self heal.
 * Plague Touch, to get rid of nasty Conditions.
 * Strip Enchantment, for extra health and the annoyance factor.
 * Vampiric Gaze, for ranged damage
 * Blood of the Aggressor, for ranged damage
 * Plague Sending, to get rid of nasty Conditions.
 * Other variants include, but are not limited to:
 * Signet of Lost Souls
 * Barbed Signet

Equipment

 * Minion Master's Armor or Cabalist's Armor.
 * Bloodstained Boots
 * Any 20/20 Bone Staff, Ghial's Staff, Woe Spreader or The Nightbringer

Usage
When starting out in a new area or low on minions:
 * Use Rotting Flesh on fleshy foes, preferably on large groups to spread the Disease condition. This is incredibly effective when used in PvE.
 * Create a Flesh Golem with the first dead body to start off.
 * Create other minions depending on your Energy pool.

Once you have a few minions: This build can happily stay alive by sacrificing a minion with Taste of Death while other minions kill foes, while disease from Rotting Flesh degenerates most foes in PvE when low on minions.
 * Create other minions, again, depending on remaining Energy.
 * Use Blood of the Master to keep your minions alive.
 * When without a monk on your team it is perfectly viable to use Taste of Death to keep yourself alive so long as you have Minions to feed off of.
 * When idle, spam Blood of the Master on your minion army and use Taste of Death on a Flesh golem to regain the health lost. Don't forget that it is usually easier to kill off an old Flesh Golem for a new one instead of repeatedly healing one.

Variants

 * For the optional slot:
 * Deathly Swarm can be used for AoE damage.
 * Take Rotting Flesh to spread degeneration. (NOTE: not recommended against human foes)
 * Use Infuse Condition for the transfer of conditions to your minions.
 * Aura of the Lich can be used in place of Animate Flesh Golem to allow more spamming of Blood of the Master, although not advisable when anticipating health degeneration effects. This also makes Blood Renewal useful for self-healing if a higher level Blood Magic is used.
 * Skills such as Putrid Explosion, Deathly Swarm and Bitter Chill can be added to give the Minion Master some direct damage skills that are linked to Death Magic.
 * You can bring Death Nova to make one last final use of a minion that's near death.
 * For more self healing Animate Vampiric Horror can be used in place of Animate Bone Fiend. This allows a more meat-shield like role of the minion master protecting the back line casters. If making this switch, it is a good idea to cast Animate Bone Horror more often due to the recharge time of Animate Vampiric Horror and to refresh your minions. Also great way to gain a positive health gained to sacrificed ratio if enough are summoned.
 * Bring Verata's Aura to reclaim your minions if you die, or possibly to steal minions from monsters who create them. Not many monsters can, however, and the ones that can do not create them nearly as fast as the average Minion Master Necromancer. As such, Verata's Gaze may be a better choice for stealing minions.
 * Infuse Condition in combination with Dark Bond is useful in scenarios where you are being targeted instead of your minions.
 * Skills such as Putrid Explosion will exploit your corpses rendering them useless to a Minion Master. Instead of using Animate Bone Fiend and Dark Bond, try Fetid Ground and Deathly Swarm for damage when you need to kill enemies quickly without minions.
 * You can use Animate Shambling Horror instead of Animate Bone Horror if you have Guild Wars Nightfall. The differences between a Shambling Horror and a Bone Horror, except for the 'skin', include a different attack range from Bone Minions and Vampiric Horrors, and the fact that when a Shambling Horror dies they will immediatly turn into a Jagged Horror, which will cause bleeding with its attacks. Those using Shambling Horror will find a longer recharge time in return for this fact, so faster-recharging summons are advised.
 * Signet of Lost Souls may be an energy management option.
 * Verata's Gaze and Verata's Aura Make excellent AB variant over the Resurrect skills because they allow the Minion Master to steal the enemy minions (Mostly other Flesh Golems or with aura all of the enemy minions). WARNING: Once Verata's Aura is used, especially with re-controlling your army MAINTAIN IT!

Usage
The build is fairly straight-forward.


 * Open up with Life Siphon, then follow up with Spoil Victor. Use Parasitic Bond as a cover.


 * Shadow Strike offers a nice opening spike damage, while Blood of the Aggressor provides fast recharging utility spike.


 * Signet of Lost Souls is used mostly for energy management.

The fast recharge of all the skills, combined with long duration allows you to actually spread the hexes around. You can easily maintain the combination of Life Siphon, Spoil Victor, and Parasitic Bond on up to 2 targets at a time. Obviously, make sure you make good use of Signet of Lost Souls for energy management purposes.

Counters

 * Backfire, Diversion, Blackout, etc. - Mesmer anti-caster/shutdown builds
 * Hex removal, esp. Divert Hexes and Expel Hexes
 * Interrupts
 * Touch rangers, as they use skills, not spells or attacks (the exception to this is Offering of Blood)

Variants
Good skills to use in the Optional slot are:
 * Blood Renewal for self-healing purposes, esp. in RA, AB. Blood Renewal has another benefit- if you are the target of a foe suffering from Spoil Victor, the life sacrifice will often times push your health below that foe's health, allowing for Spoil Victor to trigger more often, while the health regeneration and the major heal at the end will allow you to soak up damage.
 * Damage buffers like Awaken the Blood
 * Additional Blood spike skills such as Vampiric Gaze, Barbed Signet, etc.
 * Support skills such as Draw Conditions, Aegis, etc. (Monk secondary)
 * Arcane Echo to duplicate Spoil Victor and spread it around more rapidly. (Mesmer secondary)
 * Scourge Healing, if you take 2 points out of Soul Reaping and add 9 to Smiting Prayers, to pressure enemy monks.

Alternatively, you can replace Shadow Strike with another similar Blood spike skill, Life Siphon with another degen hex, Parasitic Bond with another cover hex, etc.

Equipment

 * Tormentor's or a Scar Pattern is recommended for extra armor or extra energy.
 * 20/20 Insightful Death Staff of Mastery.

Usage

 * Choose a target and start off by casting Rising Bile then use Malign Intervention, and cover with Parasitic Bond. Once your target has been hexed successfully, use Deathly Chill, Toxic Chill and Vile Miasma immediately. Then switch target, and repeat.
 * Consume Corpse should be used as often as possible to gain health and energy.
 * When facing large groups of enemies, Rising Bile works well when placed on an enemy who will survive the whole 20 seconds, as the AoE damage will have most effect then.
 * This build is more effective if hexes are placed on multiple foes by cycling through enemy list. Use a combination of Malign Intervention, Parasitic Bond, and Toxic Chill.
 * Deathly Chill and Vile Miasma need to be used as often as possible, but not necessarily on the same target(s).

Variants

 * Substitute Malign Intervention with Defile Flesh, exchange some life for added reduction in healing
 * Substitue Verata's Gaze and Animate Bone Horror for Resurrection Signet and Consume Corpse. This can effectively change the build to a minion master. The bone horrors form malign intervention and summon bone horror would double production of minions. This is very good for AB. Healing your minion is not necessary here, since you can produce steal other mm's minions and produce your own.

Spiking Variantion
Due to the popular demand of a spike version of a build revolving Toxic Chill, and after some tests, here it is. This is only one of the possible builds, you're welcome to change it. Thanks to suggestions from Defiant Elements.

Usage when Spiking

 * Focus on one target, start off with Deathly Chill. Then use Rising Bile and cover it with Parasitic Bond. After that, use Toxic Chill, Deathly Chill, Vile Miasma, then Signet of Toxic Shock.
 * Use Augury of Death right before the enemy reaches 50% health. This way player can hit deathly chill and drop enemy below 50% health and cause a deep wound. Then use Toxic Chill to cover up the deep wound, use Vile Miasma and Signet of Toxic Shock to finish your opponent off.

Counters

 * General anti spam spells like Backfire and Diversion.
 * Good condition and hex removal.

Variants

 * Use Enduring Toxin Instead of Augury of Death.
 * swap Rising Bile with Malign Intervention.