Curse

UrikoBB3 · Jan 10, 2006, 12:56 AM // 00:56

Profession: N/(any 2nd Profession)
Name: Toughen Up
Type: Solo/Henchmen PvE
Category: Nuker

Attributes:
Blood Magic: 12+2 (3)+1
Soul Reaping: 6+1
Any remaining points on preferred attributes.
(For me, this is Death Magic)

Skills Set:
1) Vampiric Gaze (Blood Magic)
2) Vampiric Touch (Blood Magic)
3) Life Siphon (Blood Magic)
4) Rotting Flesh (Death Magic)
5) Well of Blood (Blood Magic)
6) Offering of Blood {Elite} (Blood Magic)
7) Demonic Flesh (Blood Magic)
8) Resurrection Signet/free slot.

After seeing a guide here showing some skills I'd never considered using (this was a Solo Build), I decided to integrate it into my current build. The result, so far, is an effective build, particularly in areas I farm, such as Witman's Folly, Talus Chute, and Snake Dance. I haven't been to the Underworld yet, so I can't say how it would perform. Anyway: To use this build, first activate Demonic Flesh, just before engaging enemies. At high Blood Magic, this will give you an extra 200 health to play with (This puts me onto 701). Once active, engage the enemy. Use Life Siphon to regen the sacrifice you made casting Demonic Flesh, and nuke with Vampiric Gaze, Vampiric Touch, or even Shadow Strike. If your Energy gets low from the nuking, use Offering of Blood to top you up by around 20 Energy. Well of Blood is there for obvious reasons; it's an incredibly useful spell.

One problem I have had with this build is running dry of Energy quite fast, hence me throwing in Offering of Blood. Life Transfer would work well in the build I think, but at more risk of running low. Also, since this build is maximising your Health, it's the opposite idea of a 55 health character, which could be a bad thing in some situations. The main idea is to make the Necro at least formidable to take down when soloing, since their armor lets them down a little.

Also, another problem is with Demonic Flesh. If it gets interrupted, it's 60 seconds before it's re-usable, which could result in a beating-down from enemies. That's happened a few times, and has been a close escape every time. Anyway, this is my first build submission, it's what I use, hopefully someone will get some use from it.

So, any possible improvements you can recommend? Thanks for looking.

nunix · Jan 10, 2006, 01:50 AM // 01:50

First: What are you farming in those areas? Everything? Nearly every Necromancer farm build relies on Curses instead of Blood, so I'm wondering what your take is, what you're targetting, and all that; how successful, essentially.

Second: You've got all your damage in Necromancer, so you'd want to look to your secondary for defense and/or energy management.

For pure solo, I might do.. hmm.. /Ranger; put all points in Beast Mastery; swap out Well of Blood for Death Nova, then slot Symbiosis + Edge of Extinction. Symbiosis will give you another ~250 Health with both those enchantments on.

Or use /Mesmer for energy gain, probably Inspiration.

I guess the best question is: what problems are you having? Only energy management? When this happens, can you run away and take a breather, or do you generally die when that happens?

UrikoBB3 · Jan 10, 2006, 12:42 PM // 12:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by nunix

First: What are you farming in those areas? Everything? Nearly every Necromancer farm build relies on Curses instead of Blood, so I'm wondering what your take is, what you're targetting, and all that; how successful, essentially.

Yeah, I've played Blood Necro since I started playing, never been interested in a curse necro really. I stopped farming Witman's, as a lot of the drops are only worth 8 gold. I switched to the area outside Heroe's Audience, and am farming the Griffons mainly, for Iridescent Griffon Wings, and any other drops that happen. What I wanted was a Necro Build that I could take to most places in the game, without having much trouble. From the areas Ive tested so far, it seems to work (apart from Mursaat, but I'm not infused yet, so that's acceptable :P) Since the Henchmen in Desert are Lv17, the melee ones can take a little of the pressure away from me, which gives me time to get Demonic Flesh raised. I haven't tried many areas without Henchmen yet, just seems that this build runs dry of Energy when I'm alone.

Quote:

Second: You've got all your damage in Necromancer, so you'd want to look to your secondary for defense and/or energy management.

My secondary class is Mesmer, although I kind of wish I hadn't chose it; the only Mesmer spell Ive ever really used much is Conjure Phantasm. Thanks for the advice though, I might change over when I get chance, and put the secondary classe's focus on Defense.

Quote:

For pure solo, I might do.. hmm.. /Ranger; put all points in Beast Mastery; swap out Well of Blood for Death Nova, then slot Symbiosis + Edge of Extinction. Symbiosis will give you another ~250 Health with both those enchantments on.

I'm a little new to the game- would Symbiosis add to my maximum health (in the same way Demonic Flesh does)? If so, that'd be a really nice addition to the build.

Quote:

I guess the best question is: what problems are you having? Only energy management? When this happens, can you run away and take a breather, or do you generally die when that happens?

I've had the energy management problem occur a few times (usually when I'm fighting a mob, and Henchmen are spotted by another). If my energy runs low, it's no problem, because of Offering of Blood, which with high Blood Magic gives 20+ Energy for 10% sacrifice. However, if I run completely dry, it tends to end with death, though I've managed to retreat and get a breather a couple of times. To be honest though, against most mobs, energy isn't a problem- it's only when you're faced with a massive horde of enemies. I'd say I can comfortably take mobs of 6-8 (this is Witman's Folly, vs. the Grawl), though if it gets much higher than that, I have to be careful.

I posted this because it's the build my Necro uses, and it seemed to work very well in most areas Ive been to. Thanks for the improvements, I'm seriously considering a secondary change to Ranger now :P

nunix · Jan 11, 2006, 12:26 AM // 00:26

(attempt two after suspicous system crash, whee)

So, this isn't solo-solo, but with a few henchmen? I'd think about dropping Vampiric Touch, in that case; it's expensive, and you don't want to be up front taking damage if you don't have to. Spam Life Siphon and Vampiric Gaze instead, drop a Well of Blood anytime something dies. Been my strategy for most of the game. =p

I'm not sure about Symbiosis yet; it's just a thing I'm playing with in my head. I think its best use is for an Illusionary Weaponry Ranger/Mesmer; you'd stack IW, Illusion of Weakness, and probably one or two others to boost your health way up. It does work just like Demonic Flesh, as long as the spirit doesn't die (so PVP use is low). At Beastmastery 12 it adds 125 to your max health for EACH enchantment you have on (it does this for all creatures in the area, even enemies, though, so you need to know what you're fighting). For a Necromancer's use.. Demonic Flesh and maybe Awaken the Blood on yourself, plus Death Nova on your allies. The trick is you don't want to use any health-sacrifice in that kind of build because then it sort of defeats the point.

I didn't get a lot out of /Mesmer either; Conjure Phantasm and Phantom Pain were about it. It -worked- well, but it was boring. Domination might be a better line to explore, for things like Empathy and Backfire. Dunno. /Ranger I'm still testing out just for change of pace, and because I want a Blood Magic/Beastmastery build called Bloody Beast.. or maybe Bunnicula. ;p

UrikoBB3 · Jan 11, 2006, 02:47 PM // 14:47

I've been trying out a lot of different builds recently, it helps watching my friends play to see how they tackle certain areas. After a while, I altered the build:

Skill set is now:
(I changed Illusion to Death)
1) Vampiric Gaze
2) Vampiric Touch
3) Life Siphon
4) Rotting Flesh
5) Well of Blood
6) Offering of Blood {Elite}
7) Demonic Flesh
8) Resurrection Signet/Free Slot

I ditched Conjure Phantasm for Rotting Flesh, because of the capability Disease has to infect nearby enemies, wearing them all down over time. I've been using this in Skyward Reach to kill Hydras (with henchies, I need meat-shields :P), and it's working very well. Use Demonic Flesh just before a battle, then Vamp Gaze. For me, this recovers almost all of the health I sacrificed (100). If I get ambushed by a couple of Hydras, Rotting Flesh gets used, in conjuction with Life Siphon. At my level skills, that's -7 degen (assuming degen and disease stack :P). Then, I spam Vampiric Gaze, and use Offering of Blood when I'm about to run dry of energy.

I have died fighting the Hydras a few times, mainly due to the Henchmen either:
1) Luring more Hydras
2) Standing close together, then getting owned by Meteors from each Hydra

As far as Vampiric Touch goes, yeah, I might ditch it. Even with 57 Energy (I don't use scar patterns), 15 Energy is quite heavy, and I get a tendency to spam it (only having a 2 second recharge is BAD, bad I tell ya :P). I'll have to have a look to see what else to replace it with. Infact, the only time I overuse Vampiric Touch is against the Blessed Griffons when they use Spell Breaker.

Seems to be working quite well, I'll edit the first post.