User:Thulsey/Builds/Necromancer Builds

This build is intended for quick and direct farming of bosses. It relies on the normal 55 standard and very high health regeneration for healing and damage reduction. Essence Bond and Balthazar's Spirit provide energy for the consistent spamming of regeneration skills. The main damage comes from Spoil Victor and possibly one Touch Attack. This build allows the user to charge directly for the boss monster and ignore the boss's mob.

Equipment

 * Each of your armor pieces need to have a superior attribute Rune. This will lower your base Health to 105. (The only required type is blood, but 5 are necessary to hit 105 health.)
 * It is a good idea to bring a second set of armor. This will allow you to adjust your health manually based on any Death Penalty you might accumulate.
 * Any +5 energy/20% longer enchanting sword/axe such as Rajazan's Fervor or Totem Axe.
 * The -50hp Grim Cesta from the Cities of Ascalon quest. (This is not required if you don't mind dying once and using a -20 offhand to hit 13hp. This will work better in most cases.)
 * For 13hp build, any -20hp offhand (preferably +12 energy). (Life is Pain Inscriptions help with this.)
 * If you have any +hp offhands they could also be useful if any DP is accumulated.

Usage

 * Cast your four maintained enchantments when entering the explorable area. Try to allow full energy regeneration after each one until you're used to an area.
 * As you approach your target cast Protective Spirit and Healing Breeze.
 * Target the boss monster and cast Spoil Victor.
 * Get as much aggro as possible from the boss's mob of monsters.
 * Begin using Vampiric Touch on the boss
 * After any touch attempt refresh either Healing Breeze or Protective Spirit. Alternate the refresh between the two.
 * Having the touches interrupted is not an issue. They have a fast refresh time.
 * Refreshing Healing Breeze and Protective Spirit early is ideal when facing a boss whose mob has interrupt capability. If they are interrupted this is less problematic as they'll likely refresh before they expire.
 * To keep melee foes from fleeing, keep hitting them with your axe or sword.

Counters

 * Enchantment stripping spells such as Chilblains, Lingering Curse, Well of the Profane, Gaze of Contempt, Rend Enchantments, Strip Enchantment, Inspired Enchantment, Dark Apostasy, Shatter Enchantment, or Expunge Enchantments.
 * Life Steal attacks will bypass the protection offered from Protective Spirit. This will usually kill you.

Variants

 * Consider using Blood of the Aggressor instead of Vampiric Touch for lesser energy use and damage from a distance (safer against interrupts from warriors or rangers). Vampiric Touch is sometimes impossible to use in areas where there's a lot of energy degeneration such as Domain of Secrets.
 * Some groups apply more degen than you can handle, in this case replace Vampiric Touch with either Life Siphon or Blood Renewal. Life Siphon is better for groups without a lot of interrupts, while Blood Renewal has a faster cast time, and the sacrifice will be healed before you notice it most of the time.
 * Another skill you may consider in replacing Vampiric Touch is Wallow's Bite or Touch of Agony. With only 5 energy cost and 3 sec recharge time, you can definitely spam this skill to speed up killing.  The 10% life sacrifice is hardly noticeable.  A good example would be the case of farming Wing's Axe.  If you encounter a mesmer with two ritualists, it's almost impossible to kill her with just Spoil Victor as she strips off hexes the moment you put it on her.  Not to mention she strips off hexes from the her party too.
 * Replacing Watchful Spirit with Vigorous Spirit and Vampiric Touch with Plague Touch opens up a lot of possibilities. Vigorous Spirit maybe be used as a cover enchantment versus enchantment removal or a cheaper heal than Healing Breeze when down to one or two attackers. When using Vigorous Spirit as a cover, it's usually best to cast Protective Spirit, then Vigorous Spirit, then Healing Breeze immediately before attacking the target mesmer or necro (Kournan Seers are one example of where this works very well). Plague Touch is useful to remove conditions such as Dazed from the Grasping Darknesses in the Underworld, or Deep Wound when fighting Stoneaxe Hekets while farming greens like the Eye of Argon and Balthazar's Fury though removing Deep Wound isn't always a good idea, since you end up taking less damage which makes you harder to kill.

Equipment
Wayward Wand (HSR of Death Magic 20%) Bleached Skull (Death Magic +1 20% / Heath +30) A Ghial's Staff works great too. Best Vigor Rune possible. Rune of Superior Death Magic.

Usage
Master of Whispers and/or Olias have shown that they use the build very well with minimal human support. The only exception to this may be the usage of Blood of the Master at in-opportune times as they tend to, literally, kill themselves by over using it. By adding Karei's Healing Circle to their bar they will alternate between the two skills, healing themselves and their minions as well as any nearby allies.

If you are in a heavy fight you may need to activate Jagged Bones and/or Death Nova periodically as they will sometimes ignore these skills in order to pull up more minions or to spam Blood of the Master, although this is a rare occurrence.

If you notice your Hero is running low on health or is in a bad situation you may need to manually make him use Taste of Death, although they normally do this themselves.

Variants
Use Feast for the Dead for a low cost heal instead of Karei's Healing Circle or Blood of the Master. It kills a minion but heals all of the others for a third of their health bar due to all of the points in death magic.

Verata's Aura can be used in the optional spot in the event that the MM should die. This will give him the ability to recover a few of the unbound minions.

Rather than using Taste of Death to destroy a minion, you can also use Putrid Flesh. Coupled with Death Nova, this will deal damage in the area, as well as spreading poison AND disease to all vulnerable foes.

Counters
Enemies that do not have flesh will render the build useless as they will be immune to poison and bleeding.

The other problem occuring frequently is that heroes using this build often tend to drag behind the party and maintain the enchantments and health of the minions instead of keeping in touch with the frontlines. Patience, frequent stops and inspecting the radar before engaging enemies is essential for you as you will find yourself amidst the battle taking all the damage otherwise while your allied undead army recieves care in safe distance. The other option is to use a flag to force the hero to move closer to enemy, but that reduces the effectiveness of the build, because you will interrupt him and the minions won't be properly boosted before the fight.

Templates
Either Order of Pain (OoP) or Order of the Vampire (OoV) is maintained on the entire party to give them a damage buff. The orders Necromancer comes more in handy when the team consists of three or more physical damage dealers. This is a non-combat build, the Orders Necromancer should stay well out of range of combat.

Equipment

 * Armor - Scars are preferable due to higher max energy, since you won't be taking much damage (hopefully) AL shouldn't be a factor.
 * Weapons - Insightful 20/20 Blood staff of Enchanting to lengthen orders by 1 second on all of your party members.

Usage

 * Keep Vigorous Spirit and Awaken the Blood on constantly.
 * Keep Order of the Vampire up constantly when in battle.
 * Spam Heal Party whenever energy permits you to do so.
 * use Blood Ritual in emergency situations when your spellcasters are low on energy.
 * Use extinguish when your party is suffering from a lot of conditions
 * Stay out of combat.

Counters

 * 1) Mass enchantment removal, like Mirror of Disenchantment or Hex Eater Vortex.

Variants

 * For use of Order of Pain, replace Order of the Vampire with Aura of the Lich and Extinguish with Order of Pain.

This build uses Prophecies and Core skills exclusively.

This is an Orders Necromancer build, geared for use in the Ruins of the Tomb of the Primeval Kings. A Barrage/Pet group is recommended, though other combinations are possible. Typically, they will bring one healing Monk, one Minion Master Necromancer, one Orders Necromancer, and five B/P Rangers. It is a Tombs OOV Necro's job to keep Order of the Vampire up on the Rangers and to assist the Monk with heals, hex removal, and energy regeneration.

Equipment

 * Armor: Any armor with Radiant Insignias (or purchased Scar Pattern Armor with no Insignia slots)
 * Weapon: Staff/Combo: +1 Blood Magic (20%), HCT Blood Magic (20%), +20% Enchantment duration (for +1 sec to OOV)
 * Runes: Superior Blood Magic (+3), Superior Soul Reaping (+3), Attunement x 3 (+2 en)
 * More Superior runes are optional for lowering your maximum health.

Preface
The OOV Necromancer's job is to stay out of combat whenever possible and maintain the Orders enchantment on his party. You are constantly sacrificing and regenerating your health, and because of this, you will be an easy target for enemy AI.

Combat Cycle

 * Upon entering Tombs, immediately cast Mending on yourself. This will provide you with a constant 3 pips of health regeneration.
 * Once the enemies are near the party, cast Order of the Vampire and Blood Renewal.
 * Keep OOV and Blood Renewal going at all times. This will result in a serious damage increase to your Rangers' Barrage as well as a fair amount of healing.
 * Use Heal Party whenever 3 or more people are taking damage to supplement your OOV and take some weight off of the Monk.
 * Remove Hex should be used to remove hexes like Empathy from the Rangers and hexes like Backfire from the casters. For the sake of your cycle, it is usually best if the hexed ally calls a potentially crippling hex rather than removing all hexes out of habit.
 * Use Blood Ritual on your Monk if he asks for it, but make sure that the Monk is a safe distance from enemies.

Self-healing options

 * Using Live Vicariously on a Ranger who is spamming Barrage may sometimes prove to be a more effective method of regeneration than the 3 pips from Mending, since you only need to sacrifice health while your party is engaged in combat. See the Notes section for more details.
 * Healing Breeze may be substituted for Blood Renewal if you are uncomfortable with a 25% health sacrifice, though it is considerably less effective due to the lack of a spike heal upon its completion or removal. It also costs 5 more energy to cast.

Remove Hex

 * Smite Hex maybe used in its place for a faster-casting removal, but with a longer recharge time.
 * Some people vouch for Holy Veil rather than Remove Hex, but the mechanics require that you cancel the maintained enchantment to remove a hex. HV also has a longer recharge.
 * Purge Signet can also be used to remove all hexes and conditions on one ally. Again, longer recharge time.

Optional Slot

 * Succor may be brought along to benefit the Monk or the MM Necro if your team can keep bodies dropping often enough to allow Soul Reaping to work its magic.
 * Add Smite Hex to get Backfire off more than one Ranger at a time, and also to completely free the Monk from the responsibility of Hex removal. Along with Remove Hex, this makes an effective combo for digging through cover hexes.
 * Awaken the Blood can give you +2 to Blood Magic, but at a rather serious cost in terms of health sacrifice.
 * Order of Pain can be cast inbetween Order of the Vampire to ensure constant Orders coverage.

N/Mo Tombs OOP

 * This build can be used for constant coverage of your Orders spell, with a greater energy regeneration boost to your Monk to make up for the lack of vampiric Barrages.
 * Blood is Power may also be cast from a distance, freeing the Monk up to move about as they please (Fingers of Chaos notwithstanding).
 * BIP may also be used to supply non-standard B/P Rangers (for instance, Elementalist primary) with more energy.
 * Additional 20% Enchantment duration is not as big of a deal with this build, so your equipment options are more flexible.

Counters

 * Being involved in combat
 * Enchantment removal on the Rangers (see Fingers of Chaos for more info)
 * Diversion is an easily-avoidable hex that can cripple your build entirely. Learn to recognize it and either get it removed or burn Mending rather than risk part of your cycle being disabled. This is a skill equipped by The Darknesses at the end of the Tombs levels.

Equipment

 * Scar Pattern, Cabalist's or Radiant armor is recommended for extra energy. Bloodstained Boots or Bloodstained Insignia on your armor are a good choice to reduce the casting time of the Wells. In addition to the Blood Magic and Soul Reaping runes, use the best vigor rune you can afford and 2 runes of attunement.
 * Use an Insightful Blood Staff of Fortitude with 20/20 Blood Magic cast and recharge.
 * Kyril's Fervor (green) suits this build perfectly

Usage

 * Before corpses are available, use Dark Pact, Vampiric Gaze, and Barbed Signet to help dispatch enemies.
 * When foes start dying, begin casting wells. If the closest corpse is near your party's casters, lead off with Well of Power. If not, it may just be best to use Well of Blood and save Well of Power for helping players who rely heavily on energy.
 * The two types of wells overlap and their effects stack which can provide a great deal of health regeneration.
 * Don't hesitate to spam wells if you have the energy.
 * Use Blood Ritual to act as a battery for your party. Prioritise the Monks, but if you have the health and energy to spare use it on any caster.
 * If the monks are having trouble keeping up with healing the party, use Heal Other. Prioritise healing the monks above other party members.
 * Even after all enemies are defeated, you should still cast another well or two to speed up the regeneration of your allies and shorten the time until everyone is ready for the next encounter.

Counters

 * The wells do have long casting times so watch out for interruption. Use Bloodstained Boots or Bloodstained Insignia on your armor if possible, to shorten casting times of spells that exploit corpses.
 * Exploitable corpses are required for the wells, so this is not a good build in places where they are scarce.
 * This build aids allies via regeneration so it is little help against spike damage.
 * Energy denial can be annoying, but even just a few wells are a great help and you are getting a fairly steady stream of energy from Soul Reaping.

Variants

 * For a more supportive build at the cost of losing the ability to do direct damage, replace Dark Pact, Vampiric Gaze and Barbed Signet with Life Siphon, Blood Bond and Blood Renewal. This allows you to transfer health from enemies to your party members, as well as providing you with a powerful self heal. If you run this variant consider using an of Enchanting staff, rather than one of Fortitude.
 * Heal Other can be replaced with:
 * Heal Area or Karei's Healing Circle, if you prefer to have more self-healing
 * Gift of Health, which heals 30 less HP than Heal Other and takes 2 seconds longer to recharge, but only costs half as much energy.
 * For a different approach go as a secondary Elementalist rather than Monk, using the Healing Prayers AP in Earth Magic. This will allow you to swap some/all of Heal Other, Dark Pact, Vampiric Gaze and Barbed Signet with ward spells. Wards to consider include:
 * Ward Against Elements
 * Ward Against Foes
 * Ward Against Melee
 * Ward of Stability