Necromancer - Core Power

• The choice of third specialization doesn't matter much. Curses is decent as it provides 激怒 from 狂怒渡化. You can instead use Blood Magic for some support or Death Magic for some defense.
• If levelling up, unlock the specializations in this order: Spite, Soul Reaping, and Curses.

Ascended gear and stat infusions are not required. This build uses gear similar to

Build

, 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

• 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 and Sword+ Sword and 烟花古物.

Damage

• Your highest damage skills are , which deals extra damage for each stack of that the enemy has; , which deals extra damage if the enemy has boons; and , which triggers an additional strike against enemies below 50% health. All of this together with your wells and .
  • Ideally, open with , and . Then, cast your Wells, enter shroud and use and , followed by shroud auto attacks . This skill pierces enemies, so position yourself accordingly.
• Pull enemies together with .
• Go in and out of shroud periodically to trigger and . 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 , , and dagger auto attacks . 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 for that, due to its high damage, but know that you also have and .

Weaponmaster Training

damage breakdown

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.
• - AoE blind
• - stunbreak +
• - convert all your conditions into 5 stacks of
• - allows you to apply consistent to enemies; this is a massive damage reduction on non-defiant enemies.

Crowd Control

• - fear ticks Defiance Break much more quickly than other conditions.
• - if using warhorn
• Soft crowd control from or .

Weapon Variants

Axe is mandatory, and Focus is very good too. In the other weapon set, Dagger+ Dagger is decent, but other options can be considered.

• Staff - good AoE, long range, and utility, but low damage. Good for tagging mobs in groups.
• 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 and 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.
• - useful for teleporting to places you normally can't reach with its active skill .
• - alternative, passive DPS option.
• - summon with medium damage and decent HP.
• - destroys projectiles.
• - alternative stun break that also removes conditions.

• On Greatsword, use all skills. You can use to pull enemies to you.
• If the enemy is below 50% health, you can spam rather than using auto-attacks.
• Go in and out of shroud periodically to trigger and . 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 , , and . 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.