User:Harry138/builds/Necromancer/pveonly

= Build:N/D 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).

Templates
= Build:N/D Mystic Blood Bonder =

The Mystic Blood Bonder is a health and energy battery build. The combination of Mystic Regeneration and Blood Renewal provides stable health management for Blood is Power, and allows you to supply Blood Bonds to teammates. Along with a third enchantment, this combination provides +15 health regeneration. Even though health regeneration is capped at 10, this cap is applied after the degen from your Blood Bonds is subtracted. This build has advantages over a standard BiP energy battery, as it can effectively provide both energy and health battery services to a whole team, as well as a semi-party heal. It also has more effective methods to counteract BiP's sacrifice costs.

Equipment
Because of the importance of your enchantments, a Blood Staff of Enchanting is required to get the longest possible duration. Undertaker's or Radiant Insignias would be best, depending on personal preference for more armor or more energy.

Usage

 * Try to stay back out of the fight and avoid aggro. You should be well behind the monks and out of range of enemies.
 * Keep Blood Renewal and Mystic Regeneration up at all times during combat.
 * Apply Blood Bond first to allies heading into combat that you expect to take damage such as the tank(s). Also apply it to other allies who come under attack or are experiencing health degeneration.
 * Don't wait for people to call their Energy. Instead, apply BiP to all party members in the following order:
 * Before a fight, apply BiP to party members who setup in advance (such as trappers, bonders or ritualists)
 * During a fight, apply it to the healers, elementalists and other casters, then frontline attackers in that order of priority.
 * As you are casting BiP on each party member, this is a good time to also cast Blood Bond on them if needed. This can also be useful if a cover enchant is needed to protect BiP.  However don't get carried away and try to cast Blood Bond on all party members.  It is not neccessary and will put an extra strain on your health and energy management.
 * Use Aura of Thorns in case you attract any melee attention, and you will then be able to kite away. You can also use this to assist monks or other casters to kite if you notice they have attracted aggro.  Its short recharge and long duration means that you can use it to boost Mystic Regeneration (only if needed), but it should be available to use to cripple foes when needed.
 * Dwayna's Touch should mainly be used as a strong self-heal, but it can also be used to heal a teammate if needed. Be aware of its touch range, because of this it should only be used rarely, on backline teammates only.
 * The health boost from the ending of Blood Renewal can be used to quickly recover from the sacrifice cost of Blood is Power. If you see that this is about to end, you can feel safe in casting more than one BiP in a row.
 * Use Mystic Healing if several of your party members need a quick health boost. Remember that Blood Bond provides more energy efficient health over time, so Mystic Healing should not be spammed and only used when really needed.

Counters

 * Enchantment removal.
 * Heavy melee pressure.
 * Backfire or other similar anti-caster skills.

Variants
Variations could add some of the following skills (possibly removing Res, Aura of Thorns, or Dwayna's Touch):
 * Signet of Pious Light: Trickier to manage than Dwayna's Touch, but gives you an additional ranged healing skill.
 * Order of Pain: Boost your team's damage output, and its also an enchantment so it will boost your Mystic Regeneration.
 * Pious Restoration: If you need hex removal.
 * Blood Ritual: Add this if you want to use a different elite skill, but still want to provide energy battery services.
 * Well of Blood: Increased healing support, and corpse control.
 * Signet of Lost Souls: Increased energy management if you feel it is needed.

Equipment

 * Armor:
 * Tormentor's Armor
 * Weapons:
 * The Nightbringer or Ghial's Staff can work quite well.

Usage
In order to properly use this build most effectively, you will need to learn how and when to properly cast. The basic principle is to cast Enfeeble on a target, followed by Virulence, and Epidemic to spread the -8 health degeneration to the surrounding creatures, all the while keeping your armor up with Physical Resistance, and occasionally leeching some life by using Oppressive Gaze. With this build you will be able to farm groupings of 10+ without triggering scatter, meaning that you will be able to farm large groups without getting some to pull off as with builds that use AoE to farm large groups of creatures. Oppressive Gaze will occasionally scatter these creatures, but in some cases it is necessary to do so in order to stay alive. Channeling will be used as a tool for energy-management, and Shadow of Fear is used to slow down enemy attacks so that Blood Renewal can keep your health increasing.

Counters

 * Interrupts. Mountain Trolls especially slow down the process (and occasionally kill you) when they manage to interrupt you with Disrupting Chop. Putting time between Enfeeble and Virulence usually helps, and keeping Shadow of Fear on creatures will also decrease their disruption rate.

Variants

 * For some creatures, Sympathetic Visage and Ancestor's Visage may be necessary to decrease skill usage.
 * For further Variants, consult this thread

Video
A youtube video showing the build in action.

= Build:N/Me FoC Spiker =

This necromancer specializes in Curses and centers around the use of the elite skill Feast of Corruption to spike large groups of foes with AoE armor-ignoring damage. The specific skill set listed here is designed for PvE use but it can be easily adapted for PvP play.

Equipment

 * Of the many armor options available to necromancers the mods on Scar Pattern Armor are the most useful. A large energy bar is the only way you can ensure a successful cast of several offensive spells on a single target.
 * Halves skill recharge time on Curses is a very useful mod as well as it will enable repeated casting of your Curses spells.  A truncheon from Nord Stonegrimm or Uderit Ignis will provide the build with the much needed chance of fast recharge and in the off hand Villnar's Glove provides a chance for level 19 Curses as well as an additional chance at halves spell recharge.  Another option for the focus would be the focus available from Cinder Linnwood or Goran Grimyak which will increase the chance at a fast recharge of Curses spells to 36% but without the added bonus of a 20% chance of +1 Curses. A third option would be to take the curse staff from Hoknil the Lesser, which has the two 20% fastcast/recharge upgrades built in while also allowing the addition of a +1 Curse Staff Wrapping. This also allows for the inclusion of a staff head of your choosing.

Usage

 * Usage of the spiker is fairly straightforward. Cast Awaken the Blood before combat, wait for a group to form up and hit them with Suffering. Echo Feast of Corruption, and send it at the group (twice).
 * Desecrate Enchantments does additional AoE armor-ignoring damage and can be used after Feast of Corruption, if the additional damage is needed to take out a group of targets.
 * Enfeebling Blood is an excellent utility skill to use to help mitigate damage. It works best on groups that are not targeted as it makes them that much easier to ignore. Also, use it on the targeted group if the initial AoE damage spike does not take them down.
 * Parasitic Bond is included as a self heal as well as a hex that can be used to trigger the life steal of Feast of Corruption when attacking single targets.

Variants

 * Shadow of Fear can be used instead of Suffering as an effective AoE hex that triggers Feast of Corruption. [NOTE: Suffering has a larger radius than Shadow of Fear.] Use which ever skill suits the individual corrupter's personal tastes. This skill particularly shines in areas where foes will fall to a single iteration of the AoE damage spike as it is cheaper than Suffering and if foes are dying before Suffering can deal any degeneration damage the extra 5 energy is wasted.  In higher level areas Suffering is preferable because its degeneration damage can often take down what is left of a group after the AoE damage iteration.
 * Meekness could also be used instead of Suffering. Its wider radius will allow Feast of Corruption to quickly steal back the sacrifice cost of the spell, with the only downside being a higher energy cost and a longer recharge time.
 * Spinal Shivers can be included as a utility skill to help shut down monks or casters of any kind. Coordinate with team mates, if a shutdown is needed this skill is indispensable.  If it is not needed a corrupter is better off with Enfeebling Blood.

Template
= Build:N/Me Midnight Solo =

The Midnight Solo is one of a very few builds centered around the Mesmer elite skill Signet of Midnight. This solo build will work on all Warrior bosses located in the Jade Sea. It should be applicable to most Warrior and Assassin bosses in other areas, as long as you isolate them.

This build has been proven to work on:
 * Geoffer Pain Bringer (Boreas Seabed (Explorable))
 * Sskai, Dragon's Birth (Boreas Seabed (Explorable))
 * Jacqui The Reaver (Gyala Hatchery (Explorable))
 * Reefclaw Ragebound (Gyala Hatchery (Explorable))
 * Chkkr Locust Lord (Melandru's Hope)

This build focuses on blinding the target and uses failure hexes to get energy as well as deal some damage. With a high chance to miss with attacks (25%+25%+52% from hexes and 90% from blindness) the target will simply never hit you with an attack. Mixed with -9 Health degeneration this build is very effective and can kill almost any Jade Sea Boss in 60 seconds.

Equipment

 * +5 energy Wand or Sword and any collectors Curses offhand.
 * Wicked Scar Pattern (Curses +1).
 * Superior Curses Rune.

Usage
The usage is very simple.
 * Find the boss, cast Mantra of Resolve and pull him out.
 * Try to cast Signet of Midnight before his first attack. Normally he will hit you once before you can blind him and you should survive it.
 * Now cast the 3 failure hexes, start with Spirit of Failure to start getting energy right away.
 * Follow with Price of Failure which will deal 32 damage on each attack attempt.
 * And finally finish with Reckless Haste to speed up killing. This hex will also keep us safe with 52% chance to miss.
 * The total hit rate, factoring in all miss rates, is 2.7% for any melee boss.
 * Now cast Ignorance to disable Healing Signet.
 * And now cast Conjure Nightmare to add some final fun with -8 Health degeneration.
 * Cast Parasitic Bond as soon as possible as it will heal you only after 20 seconds.
 * Recast Signet of Midnight, Ignorance and Reckless Haste as soon as they are ready to cast, they are the key skills in this build.
 * Recast Conjure Nightmare and Price of Failure with Spirit of Failure as soon as their effect ends.

Variants

 * If you feel safe and don't need healing you can exchange Parasitic Bond for Empathy or Suffering.
 * If you feel you don't need protection against interrupts you can exchange Mantra of Resolve for Enfeebling Touch it will lower damage you receive from attacks and speed up killing. You can also exchange Mantra of Resolve with Mantra of Inscriptions to speed up recharge time of Signet of Midnight.
 * You can also replace Ignorance with a damage-dealing hex when the boss doesn't use Healing Signet.
 * Replace Parasitic Bond and Conjure Nightmare with Empathy and Vampiric Touch or Vampiric Bite. Move your attribute points from Illusion Magic to Blood Magic. You get a more immediate life steal skill in exchange for no degen on your target; but requires more careful energy use.
 * Chkkr Locust Lord farming: replace Mantra of Resolve and Ignorance for Spirit Shackles and Drain Enchantment (or Shatter Enchantment) to get rid of his Shadow Refuge or his Locust's Fury. Mind Wrack can also be used instead of Drain Enchantment.

Counters

 * Even though the hit rate of the boss does become 2.7%, if you are really unlucky, you may still die if the boss get some hits through between the time your hexes has worn off and before you get to replace them (most notably Reckless Haste).

Equipment

 * Necromancer armor of personal preference.
 * a 20/20 cold damage weapon and 20/20 offhand, such as the Wailing Wand from Gertrud or Telamon and Villnar's Glove or The Shadestone (as long as you have 9 blood magic).
 * The Stonereaper is also good for this build, however it deals dark damage that will not trigger Spinal Shivers. Therefore you might also consider its collector counterparts.

Usage

 * Be conscious of the aggro distribution around the tanking characters. The success of this build relies on proper placement of Spiteful Spirit, and poor placement can be the difference between eliminating the group and a wasted spell.
 * Before battle, cast Awaken the Blood, followed by Arcane Echo.
 * Choose a target and cast Spiteful Spirit, followed by Reckless Haste. Assassins are ideal targets, due to their higher attack speed.
 * Select a second nearby target and cast a second Spiteful Spirit.
 * Cast Spiteful Spirit on any remaining foes as energy and recharging skills allow.
 * Cast Spinal Shivers on any monk targets standing after the initial hexes, and attack them with a cold-damage weapon.
 * Blood Ritual is used as a quick supply of energy for the party.
 * Enfeebling Blood should be used as a protective measure.

Variants

 * Replace Enfeebling Blood, Spinal Shivers, or Blood Ritual with:
 * Parasitic Bond should you need a cover hex or healing.
 * Suffering for additional degeneration.
 * Defile Enchantments or Desecrate Enchantments for additional spike damage.
 * Putrid Explosion and move some points to Death Magic for a strong finishing spike.
 * Consume Corpse for Corpse control.
 * Price of Failure for additional damage with Reckless Haste.
 * Strip Enchantment or Revealed Enchantment for control of strong enchanted foes.
 * Mark of Pain for additional pressure when your party deals physical damage.
 * Insidious Parasite or Vampiric Gaze for dealing with one or sometimes two scattering enemies.
 * Enfeebling blood and Oppressive Gaze combine well for spike damage and life stealing.
 * When farming The Deep, bring Blood Renewal instead of Awaken the Blood for self healing.
 * For Prophecies only characters, replace Reckless Haste with Parasitic Bond for additional self-healing.
 * Move a few points from Soul Reaping and Blood Magic to Inspiration Magic and use Auspicious Incantation on the echoed version of SS for better energy management.

Template
= Build:N/Mo Boss Farmer =

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
= Build:N/Mo Minion Master =

The Minion Master PvE build centers on creating and maintaining an army of minions. See the General minion mastery guide for in-depth discussion.

Attributes and Skills

 * See Variants for possible skills for the optional slot.
 * Karei's Healing Circle is the Factions equivalent skill for Heal Area.
 * The skill set presented here is an example. No claims are made to its supremacy.

Equipment

 * Bloodstained Boots or Insignia are a must. Other than that, any Necromancer armor is fine, although Minion Master insignia is preferred.
 * A staff or weapon/focus set that halves recharge and casting time of Death Magic is advisable. Ghial's Staff or The Nightbringer work great.
 * See the Equipment section of the General minion mastery guide for more options.

Usage

 * As soon as corpses are available, start by raising a Flesh Golem, then Bone Fiends. If you are low on energy or are waiting for Animate Bone Fiend to recharge, raise up some Bone Horrors. Summon new minions during battle if needed.
 * Use Dark Bond to mitigate damage, if you expect to be in a vulnerable position.
 * Use Blood of the Master and/or Heal Area to keep your minions alive.

Counters

 * An enemy with Diversion will screw you up if it gets used on Blood of the Master.
 * A good mesmer could mess you up when you try to summon minions.
 * Another necromancer may get to corpses before you do, which will leave you with a lack of corpses.
 * A mesmer with Conjure Phantasm or Conjure Nightmare will kill you pretty fast if you don't have a hex remover.
 * See also the Opposing forces section of the General minion mastery guide.

Variants

 * Some find the extra healing provided by Heal Area unnecessary. This gives the Minion Master more choices in selecting a secondary profession. Also, the points put into Healing Prayers can be used in other attributes.
 * 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 Blood Magic is used.
 * Taste of Death can be used in place of Dark Bond healing.
 * Skills such as Rotting Flesh, 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.
 * Fill the optional slot with 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.
 * Some like to bring other healing skills such as Healing Breeze or Blood Renewal to offset the sacrifice damage suffered by using Blood of the Master.
 * Rebirth can be replaced by the resurrection skill of your choice.
 * 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 enemies.
 * 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.
 * Using Dwayna's Sorrow on your minions can provide numerous, cheap heals for your entire party.
 * Signet of Lost Souls may be an energy management option.


 * If you consider the healing from Heal Area unnecessary, replace it with a Death Magic spell such as Deathly Swarm, Bitter Chill or any other high damage Death Magic spell.

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.

= Build:N/Mo Solo Bladed Aatxe and Grasping Nightmare UW =

This build is meant to solo farm the Bladed Aatxe in the Underworld for ectos and to solo the Grasping Darkness for gold drops and other rare items.

Attributes and Skills

 * Consider replacing Vigorous Spirit with Suffering so that you can use it as a cover hex and be able to solo the Smite Crawlers.

Equipment

 * Use cheap radiant armor, or cheap armor that gives you extra energy, and 5 superior runes to bring your health down to 105.
 * Use a sword, or axe with a 20% enchantment mod (this is critical, because vigorous spirit's effect will activate slower with a wand, scythe etc.)
 * The -50 HP grim cesta is also needed for this.

Usage

 * Enter the Underworld
 * Aggro the Bladed Aatxe group on the left, or right, and run in the opposite direction to the opposite corner.
 * The Bladed Aatxe group should not follow you, but if there was a Dying Nightmare near the Bladed Aatxe group then it should have followed you, cast vigorous spirit and wait for the Dying Nightmare to remove it with Rend Enchantments, now use Protective Spirit and wand the Dying Nightmare to death.
 * Stand in a safe spot, and cast all of your maintained enchantments. You should have at least 25 energy after the enchantments before you begin to aggro the Bladed Aatxe group.
 * Cast Vigorous Spirit before you aggro the group of Bladed Aatxe, now use Protective Spirit, target a Bladed Aatxe and use Spoil Victor
 * Begin attacking the Bladed Aatxe with your sword or axe. Health gained from Vigorous Spirit should be enough for a group of 2 Bladed Aatxe.
 * Maintain Protective Spirit and Vigorous Spirit while fighting the group. If you have health problems, and your health stays steady at half full, use Healing Breeze.
 * Apply Spoil Victor to your target(s) when it recharges. Most of the time 1 cast of Spoil Victor will fully kill a Bladed Aatxe or a Grasping Darkness, but if not recast it.
 * Repeat steps 2-9 for the second Bladed Aatxe group.
 * Kill the Bladed Aatxe groups on the right and left, be sure to also include the lone Bladed Aatxe that walks around to both groups frequently (you can kill the middle group, but if there is a nightmare spawn and you run, the entire group will follow you).
 * Take the quest after the Bladed Aatxe on the right and left are killed.
 * Use steps 2-9 for the Grasping Darkness
 * If dazed use Plague Touch on a Grasping Darkness.
 * Usually the health gained from Vigorous Spirit is enough without Healing Breeze to maintain stably high health against a group of 3 or 4 Grasping Darkness.
 * Continue on through the chamber with in the direction of the Smite Crawlers and you will find more Bladed Aatxe and Grasping Darkness to farm.
 * Be sure not to aggro more than 2-4 groups at a time.

Counters

 * Rend Enchantments from a Dying Nightmare that you did not take action upon when the Dying Nightmare spawned.
 * Interrupt.

Variants

 * Live Vicariously can replace Vigorous Spirit so that your main way of healing can't be interrupted. Note that Live Vicariously provides less hp than Vigorous Spirit.

Equipment
Armor:
 * Scar Pattern Armor or Cabalist's Armor type (if you have Guild Wars Factions) because they offer the most energy required for the build.
 * All armor pieces must have Necromancer superior runes: a Superior Death Magic is recommended but not compulsory. Aim for the cheapest runes.

Weapons:
 * Totem Axe for the energy and the +20% length of enchantments
 * To solo the Underworld you will need a max damage Truncheon such as the one from Uderit Ignis, or, if you have Factions, a Wailing Wand from Gertrud or Telamon.
 * The off-hand item is the Cities of Ascalon quest reward -50HP Grim Cesta

Usage
The process of this build is basically the same as the old one. Cast Essence Bond, Balthazar's Spirit, and Mending Before battle and let your energy recharge. As you aggro your target cast Protective Spirit and Healing Breeze. Once your target attacks cast Spiteful Spirit and shortly after, Rotting Flesh. If the target group is large enough they will start taking turns attacking. Once a body is available cast Well of Suffering. Remember to keep up the enchantments.

Counters

 * Any enchantment removal will most likely kill you.
 * Conditions also pose a threat to any 55. Stack too many and you will negate your health regeneration.
 * Death penalty will majorly mess you up.
 * Be very careful of interrupting attacks from warriors, an example is Mountain Trolls' Disrupting Chop. This is especially dangerous as it adds 20 second cool down to the recharge of the affected spell, if this hits on Protective Spirit or Healing Breeze it can leave you dead in seconds.

Variants

 * Well of the Profane may replace Well of Suffering to hinder enchantment reliant attacks
 * Guardian may be advisable for attacking a large group at one time. The AI still has everyone attack at once and then after some time (Undetermined) they break up
 * The use of Putrid Explosion may be helpful in certain situations.
 * Necrotic Traversal is an energy friendly alternative to Well of Suffering

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

= Build:N/Mo Supportive Minion Master = The N/Mo Supportive Minion Master is designed to play two roles. On the one hand, it is capable of creating and sustaining an army of minions as well as spreading Poison and Disease. However, it is also capable of providing a party-wide heal by using Dwayna's Sorrow, and by combining Infuse Condition with Draw Conditions, this build can remove the entire teams conditions. This build is mainly intended for PvE, but with some changes, it may be viable for AB.

Attributes and Skills

 * Generic Resurrection can be replaced by Blood of the Master
 * For AB, consider replacing the Generic Resurrection with a skill to boost survivability, like Dark Bond.

Equipment

 * Scar Pattern Armor is nice for the additional energy. Alternatively, Minion Master's Armor is nice for the additional armor.  Bloodstained Boots may also be nice to lower the rather long casting time of Animate Bone Minions.
 * The Nightbringer, Ghial's Staff, or a similar staff.

Usage

 * Build up an army of minions using Animate Bone Minions and cast Dwayna's Sorrow on one of your minions
 * Cast Putrid Flesh to spread disease and to activate Dwayna's Sorrow
 * Try to cast Death Nova immediately before Putrid Flesh to cause Poison and deal damage.
 * Cast Animate Flesh Golem to create a more powerful minion which even if sacrificed can be immediately raised again.
 * Cast Infuse Condition on yourself, and use Draw Conditions as necessary

Counters

 * See the Opposing forces section of the General minion mastery guide.

Variants
Skills to Consider:
 * Heal Area
 * Taste of Death
 * Animate Shambling Horror
 * Dark Bond
 * Signet of Lost Souls
 * Jagged Bones
 * Martyr - Note, in AB, this skill will draw off conditions from all allies. Not just limited to your party.
 * Verata's Aura - Note, this skill is only useful in AB and should be used in place of Generic resurrect.

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 Empathy 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.