User:Defiant Elements/Saving Vetted PvP Necromancer Builds

=N/any Toxic Death= The Toxic Death uses the Death Magic skill Malign Intervention to reduce healing, then combines damage with degeneration using Toxic Chill and Vile Miasma.

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.

= N/any Spoil Victor Necro = A Spoil Victor Necro can be a deadly opponent. The build is extremely versatile, as it can be effectively used to kill physicals, offensive casters, and healers. The purpose is to reduce the health of your targets to a point where they are extremely vulnerable, and then to finish them off with minor spike damage.

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

 * 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!

Equipment

 * Blessed armor with superior runes of Blood Magic and Vigor, a major rune of Soul Reaping and 2 runes of vitae.
 * A Hale Staff with a "Have Faith" inscription and a wrapping of Fortitude or of Devotion.

Usage

 * Cast Demonic Flesh on yourself before you enter the fight.
 * Apply Reaper's Mark with Life Siphon on multiple targets to inflict -8 degen for nearly 30 seconds.
 * It is generally better to attack targets that have over 50% health at first so you can use Shadow Strike and Lifebane Strike to cause 200 HP damage spikes, healing you for 100 HP in the process.
 * Once a target drops under 50% life start using Signet of Lost Souls to bring in both health and energy. Make sure targets near to death have Reaper's Mark on them - that way, when they die you’ll receive +14 energy from Soul Reaping and +14 energy from Reaper’s Mark, giving you enough energy to spam both Shadow Strike and Lifebane Strike.
 * Finally, use Blood Bond on team members under pressure to give them +6 regeneration at a cost of -3 degen to you. This should be cancelled out by the regen you're getting from Life Siphon, along with the HP gain from Signet of Lost Souls, Shadow Strike, and Lifebane Strike.

Counters

 * Enchantment removal will drop the total amount of HP you can store up, which will hurt your survivability.
 * Anti-Casting spells, such as Backfire, will stop you spamming your Strikes, but your degen hexes will still be in place and you can still activate Signet of Lost Souls.
 * Spoil Victor

Variants

 * Demonic Flesh or Blood Bond can be replaced with:
 * Awaken The Blood, to boost your other spells
 * Order of Pain, to increase the damage output of the rest of your party
 * Blood Ritual, to act as a battery for your casters


 * Add Dervish as a secondary profession, and switch out Demonic Flesh and Signet of Lost Souls for Mystic Regeneration and Blood Renewal. Adjust attributes to include 8 points in Earth Prayers.  Mystic Regeneration + Blood Renewal provides +12 regen to fuel Blood Bonds and provide increased self healing.

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

 * 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.

= N/Mo The Anti-Healer = This build makes Healing useles by decreasing the amount of Health gained by healing. It's very useful against spike-healing and protection monks. The best thing about this build is that Lingering Curse removes all enchantments, rendering the target defenseless for any spike. This build will work best in a Spiking Team, since Lingering Curse requires a high amount of energy and wears out quickly.

Attributes and Skills

 * In general, go for Faintheartedness and Malaise.
 * In a team with two or more melee fighters, use Barbs and Weaken Armor (or Strength of Honor).
 * In a team with another Hex Caster, bring Soul Barbs and Faintheartedness.
 * Enfeeble will lower the healing even more.

Equipment

 * Radiant Insignias.
 * An Adept Curses Staff of Memory. One with a "Hale and Hearty" Inscription and another one with a "Seize the Day" Inscription.
 * Runes of Attunement.

Usage

 * Call a Target.
 * Cast Lingering Curse, Scourge Enchantment and Scourge Healing.
 * Followed by Parasitic Bond.
 * Use Signet of Lost Souls to regain energy.
 * Cast the Optional Hexes, if necessary.

Counters

 * Massive Hex-Removal.

Variants

 * Defile Flesh will not lower the Healing any more, in a normal situation. But it does help when a monk's using Healer's Boon or Aura of Faith.

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

= N/Mo Denial Necro = This Necro is designed to hinder and control the enemy team using hexes that counter common builds found in HA & GvG. It works best in a team build that includes multiple hexers to make sure that the hexes will not be removed. This build is also best in a pressure build in order to take advantage of the energy denial it creates. This build is easy to adjust to suit any PvP arena.

Equipment

 * Scar Pattern or Revenant%27s Armor.
 * A PvP Insightful Accursed Staff Of Enchanting is suggested

Usage

 * Ideally, other hexes from other teammates help keep your hexes from standing out and from being removed too quickly.
 * Always cover your hexes with Parasitic Bond.
 * Be selective when using Depravity. Monks are a prime target, but often carry at least 1 hex protection skill. Mesmers are also good targets due to their fast casting.
 * Use Rip Enchantment to remove critical enchantments (typically before a spike)
 * Use Blood Ritual on your monks when necessary.

Counters

 * Interrupts
 * Nature's Renewal
 * Energy Denial
 * Divert Hexes, Expel Hexes, etc

Variants

 * Exchange Gift of Health for another monk support skill or for a self-healing skill.
 * Exchange Shadow of Fear for Faintheartedness (suggested for RA/TA).
 * Wither and Malaise.
 * Exchange Rip Enchantment for Consume Corpse (suggested for HA).
 * Exchange Res Sig for Resurrection Chant.

= N/Me Reaper of Humility = The Reaper of Humility is a pressure build designed to cause heavy damage via damage over time skills, while taking advantage of mesmer inspiration skills to further harass enemies.

Equipment

 * A HCT/HRT Curses Wand/Focus Set
 * Radiant Insignias seem to be the best choice for armor, they are not required though.

Usage

 * Works best in a hex/degen team.
 * Begin with Reapers Mark, cover with the appropriate hexes.
 * Make sure Mantra of Inscriptions is active before using Signet of Humility.
 * Do not stay on one target, spread your hexes as much as possible.
 * Look for the most dangerous elite to your cause, usually Divert or Expel Hexes, but if none of these are present, try knock out Zealous Benediction, Light of Deliverance etc.

Counters

 * Divert Hexes can ruin your day.
 * Expel Hexes is not as common, but is an annoyance as well.
 * Contemplation of Purity only assists the monk who is carrying it, but is also a threat.
 * Any other excessive Hex Removal.

Variants

 * Soul Barbs can be used to have some possible damage added to the build.
 * Animate Bone Minions can be used as a source of energy when playing in a necromancer hex team.
 * Meekness or Shadow of Fear may work well in this build.

= N/Me E-Denial Pressure = A build using energy denial to shut down opponents, while dealing damage in the process.

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

 * Scar Chest(Radiant Insignia), Scar Arm, Scar Leg, Bloodstained Boots
 * +5 Energy +30 Health Axe/Sword
 * +5 Energy 20% Enchanting Axe/Sword
 * 20% Recharge +30 Health Earth Scroll

Usage

 * Start Tainting your whole party, including any pets, at around 12 seconds before the start of the match.
 * Drop your wards, starting with Foes, at the front of your backline.
 * Use Well of the Profane as corpses fall.
 * Use Putrid Explosion if your well is recharging and if there are enemies within range of the corpse.
 * Consume the corpse if no enemies are within Putrid range.
 * Re-Taint periodically or when you see disease spreading through your team.
 * Re-cast your wards as soon as they come up while in heavy battle.
 * Cast wards at the edges of existing wards to give your backline greater freedom to kite in.
 * Use Ward Against Foes to aid your frontline if your backline is not under melee pressure.

Counters

 * Interruption
 * Dazed
 * Corpse-denial

Variants

 * Putrid Explosion, Ward of Stability or Well of the Profane may be substituted with
 * Rotting Flesh
 * Well of Suffering
 * Glyph of Sacrifice
 * Soul Feast

Equipment
Barbed Sword of Enchanting ( +5 Energy ) ( Barbed isn't really required but bleeding is the most common condition so I figure lengthening it by 33% when using plague touch can't be bad. ) Radiant Armor with a rune of clarity and sup vigor.

Usage

 * Put on your 3 enchantments prior to the battle and maintain them unless faced with very heavy degen.
 * It is usually smart to let someone else run in first in the hope you are ignored so you can spam your touches without fear of dying.
 * Once in range start spamming your touches.
 * Use Lyssa's Haste for energy and to kite and to counter kiting. Mystic Regeneration will easily outheal the damage it does.
 * Conditions should be transferred using Plague Touch, especially for burning which really kills you.

Counters

 * Enchantment Removal, Lyssa's Haste serves as a good cover enchant though.
 * Massive Degen
 * Life Steal

Variants

 * Replacing Lyssa's Haste with Signet of Pious Light so you can quickly remove your enchantments for massive healing will work great to counter degen. It will give you energy problems due to having to apply the enchants again.
 * Replacing Lyssa's Haste with Crippling Sweep and putting the points into Scythe Mastery will allow you to catch foes more easily but you do sacrfice some cookies and a speed boost.

= 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.) In this case dazed will have almost no effect since its usualy instantly passed on to a minion.
 * Enchantment stripping. However 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 exept for heavy hex based degen (remember you pass on your conditions). But a significant degen will impede your use of blood of the master.
 * Losing al your minions. This means that you have no damage reduction (from dark bond), are suceptible to conditions and most importantly posses no notable offense. If you lose al of them 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.
 * Replace Consume Corpse with Verata's Aura.

Equipment

 * 20/20 Truncheon and 20/20 Idol and/or 20/20 Blood Staff of Enchanting
 * Radiant Ragged Scar of Superior Blood Magic
 * Radiant Chest of Superior Vigor
 * Radiant Arms of Attunement (or Minor Death Magic)
 * Radiant Legs of Attunement
 * Radiant Boots of Attunement
 * Radiant Boots of Attunement

Usage

 * At the beginning of the match, after the timer expires and you have enemies on your radar, use the dozen or so seconds beforehand to cast Dark Aura. For the next 30 seconds, every time you sacrifice health, adjacent foes will take 35 shadow damage and you'll lose 15 health.
 * Cast Blood Renewal just before using Shadow Prison on your enemy to begin regenerating the health you're about to lose through sacrifice skills and to receive a 200 HP heal in 10 seconds. Spam Wallow's Bite, Touch of Agony and Blood of the Aggressor while your target is slowed by 66% for 7 seconds.  Finish with Augury of Death, as the next time your foe takes damage when he's below 50% HP, you'll deliver a deep wound for 13 seconds and instantly teleport to him again for more touch spam.
 * Always have Blood Renewal on you and only recast it after it wears off and delivers you the 200 HP heal.

Variants

 * Death Nova may be used in Competitive Missions such as Fort Aspenwood for a finishing explosion on groups of NPCs.

Counters

 * Heavy degen will destroy you.
 * Losing Blood Renewal to Diversion or similar skills will cripple this build badly.

Attributes and Skills

 * Options include Shameful Fear to further punish moving opponents and Faintheartedness to slow attackers.
 * Possible option is to take Deadly Paradox instead of Strip Enchantment to decrase recharge of Assassin's hexes
 * Mark of Death can be replaced with Disrupting Dagger, Crippling Dagger or Dancing Daggers to increase damage (or just simply put Shameful Fear for it

Equipment

 * Curse wand and focus with 20% cast and recharge.

Usage

 * Start by casting Soul Barbs on your intended target, then begin to spam hexes.
 * Use Assassin's Promise as the target is about to die, giving you a larger window to finish them off than if you cast it when the target had more health. Make sure to follow Promise quickly with another cover hex (such as Parasitic Bond), so that it doesn't get removed before you can finish the target (in case Assassin's Promise itself doesn't kill them).
 * The recharge from Assassin's Promise (as well as the energy gain from both it and Soul Reaping) allow you to immediately target a new opponent after one dies, without having to wait for Soul Barbs to recharge in order to begin the combo again. The added health from Parasitic Bond's trigger also helps keep you recover after the target dies, so waiting for health to recharge between fights isn't a problem either.
 * This build is especially effective against melee opponents, since the combination of Enduring Toxin, Siphon Speed, and Soul Barbs serve to kill your target and ensure you maintain enough distance while kiting to not be killed yourself.
 * Assassin's Promise can be applied on targets of opportunity (namely, nearby opponents about to die), in order to provide an "extra" energy boost and recharge midway through killing a target. Sometimes, this extra boost is enough to finish off the current target when it might not otherwise be possible.

Counters

 * Stripping Soul Barbs severely hinders this build. Since cover hexes should be present (due to hex spamming), only mass removal such as Contemplation of Purity become real problems in this regard.
 * Unlike many builds, fleeing does not generally work as a counter, since it will cause Enduring Toxin to be reapplied multiple times, resulting in more damage and preventing natural health regeneration from occuring.

Equipment
That gives you a total of 430 Health and 50 Energy.
 * Armor with Radiant Insignia on head, Stalwart Insignia on chest, Survivor's Insignia elsewhere.
 * A Crippling Sword/Axe of Enchanting with +5 Energy Inscription.
 * A energy enhancing off-hand item (such as Bleached Skulls) can increase your energy further.

Usage

 * Use the combination of Dark Aura plus Vampiric Spirit just before engaging the target (you should choose the target who is standing still most of the time).
 * Using the above, every time you use 10%hp-sacrifice spell, you actually lose just 7 hp (53(VS) -43 -17(DA) = -7 hp) (exception is when you have near full health because VS takes place before sacrifice which is good because it won't kill you if you try to cast with very low health anyway).
 * Approach and start spamming Blood of the Aggressor and/or Jaundiced Gaze. Cripple moving foes using Crippling Dagger thus preventing them from kiting.
 * Use Signet of Lost Souls to regain Energy and Health.
 * Use Consume Corpse to regain the Energy and Health before engaging next target.

Counters

 * Use anti-spammer strategies, such as Diversion.
 * Stay away from range to avoid effects of Dark Aura and/or Vampiric Spirit.
 * Backfire will make you kill yourself if you continue to use any spells because life stealing and self healing won't be enough.

Variants

 * Consider Blood of the Aggressor as a replacement for Jaundiced Gaze. Though a bit lower damage, this skill has a cheaper Energy cost and lower sacrifice cost, but keep in mind its conditional life-steal.
 * Replace Crippling Dagger with Augury of Death for a cheap shadow-stepping effect. In case target has escaped your range with <50% HP, simply cast Augury of Death followed by your spike combo to finsih-off your target. It can also come in handy when your target has 50%-70% where you are expected to cast Jaundiced Gaze or Dark Pact to eventually drop target foe's health below 50% making it possible to achieve the above mentioned effect.
 * Replace Blood of the Aggressor with Dark Pact for unconditional damage or bring Barbed Signet for an energy break.

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