The community gave this build a rating, making it second-tier: Good
Focused on: Power damage
Designed for: Open World, Open World General and Open World Core
Difficulty: Easy
This build was last updated on August 08, 2025 and is up to date for the June 2, 2026 patch.
Overview
Power build for the core necromancer class. It deals decent damage, has good utility, can remove conditions from itself and boons from enemies with ease, and is easy to play.
This build can be played while levelling, while working on acquiring elite specializations, or by free-to-play players. It leads nicely into Build:Reaper_-_Power_Greatsword.
Template Code
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Weapon Variants
Axe Axe is mandatory, and Focus Focus is very good too. In the other weapon set, Dagger Dagger+Dagger Dagger is decent, but other options can be considered.
- Staff Staff - good AoE, long range, and utility, but low damage. Good for tagging mobs in groups.
- Warhorn Warhorn - very weak damage, but good crowd control.
Players with Weaponmaster Training and Expanded Weapon Proficiency with the Secrets of the Obscure expansion should use Greatsword Greatsword and Sword Sword+Sword Sword.
Skill Variant
黑暗法池 provides good damage and 
易伤 application, try to not remove it.
苦难法池 is another great damage option, but can be swapped for some utility. 
鬼灵铠甲 is a generic stun break that may also provide life force. These are other skills you can consider using:
鬼灵缚爪 - pull enemies to you to cleave them down.
召唤血肉地虫 - useful for teleporting to places you normally can't reach with its active skill 
暗蚀传越.
怨恨纹章 - alternative, passive DPS option.
召唤影魔 - summon with medium damage and decent HP.
腐蚀毒云 - destroys projectiles.
鬼灵影步 - alternative stun break that also removes conditions.
Specializations
- The choice of third specialization doesn't matter much. Curses Curses is decent as it provides
激怒 from 
狂怒渡化. You can instead use Blood Magic Blood Magic for some support or Death Magic Death Magic for some defense. - If levelling up, unlock the specializations in this order: Spite Spite, Soul Reaping Soul Reaping, and Curses Curses.
Equipment
Ascended gear and stat infusions are not required. This build uses gear similar to
Build:Reaper_-_Power_DPS
, making it ideal for general PVE.
At level 80, start gearing with exotic quality gear. Search the trading post for "Zhed" armor. Then search for the weapons you want to use: "Ebonblade" greatsword, "Bonetti's Rapier" sword, "Usoku's Needle" dagger, "Kodanroar" warhorn, "Deathwish" staff, "Adam" focus, or "Maw of the Damned"/"Shattered Axe"/"Serpent's Wrath Axe" axe. Upgrade to ascended gear as you progress. See also: Guide:How to Gear a Character.
- Other relics you can consider include:
烟花古物 for burst damage when using a long cooldown skill, 
萨奇洛斯古物 to trade a minor amount of damage for sustain, 
骑兵古物 to start combat with boons, or 
耐久古物 for a little extra defense. Note that some of these relics require certain expansions. - For defense, equip the highest tier Jade Core you can afford. Use defensive food or skills if required.
- Players with Weaponmaster Training with the Secrets of the Obscure expansion should use Greatsword Greatsword and Sword Sword+Sword Sword and 烟花古物.
Usage
Damage
- Your highest damage skills are
恐怖之爪, which deals extra damage for each stack of 易伤 that the enemy has; 
刺骨恶寒, which deals extra damage if the enemy has boons; and 
噬灵盛宴, which triggers an additional strike against enemies below 50% health. All of this together with your wells 苦难法池 and 黑暗法池.
- Pull enemies together with 鬼灵缚爪.
- Go in and out of shroud periodically to trigger
灵魂倒钩 and 
唤醒痛苦. Though, ideally, you would only stay out of shroud to use your high damage skills and regain some life force, before going back into shroud, as Shroud has a stronger autoattack. - Your biggest sourcess of life force are 恐怖之爪,
灵魂抓攫, and dagger auto attacks 
暗蚀撕咬. Nearby deaths also provide life force, but finish off enemies outside of shroud, since you don't gain life force from nearby deaths while inside shroud. - You have a lot of boon removal. Prioritise using 刺骨恶寒 for that, due to its high damage, but know that you also have 噬灵盛宴 and
黑暗契约.
Weaponmaster Training
damage breakdown
Click to Expand
- On Greatsword, use all skills. You can use
黑暗抓攫 to pull enemies to you. - If the enemy is below 50% health, you can spam
掘墓剑斩 rather than using auto-attacks. - Go in and out of shroud periodically to trigger 灵魂倒钩 and 唤醒痛苦. Though, ideally, you would only stay out of shroud to use your high damage skills and regain some life force, before going back into shroud, as Shroud has a stronger autoattack.
- Your biggest sourcess of life force is 恐怖之爪,
死亡漩涡, and 黑暗抓攫. Nearby deaths also provide life force, but finish off enemies outside of shroud, since you don't gain life force from nearby deaths while inside shroud.
Defense
The best defense in Guild Wars 2 is moving out of attacks or evading them. Addtionally, you can:
- Crowd control enemies to stop them from attacking.
- 黑暗法池 - AoE blind
- 鬼灵铠甲 - stunbreak +
保护 
症状吞噬 - convert all your conditions into 5 stacks of 易伤
衰弱帷幕 - allows you to apply consistent 
虚弱 to enemies; this is a massive damage reduction on non-defiant enemies.
