Game:

Guild Wars 2 (2012)

Duration: 6:54

1,431 views

7

Another short video testing out the new June 23rd trait revamps for a power necro build. In this video I took Spite, Soul Reaping, and Blood Magic. I kept Spite and Soul Reaping the same as my previous test, but this time took Blood Magic instead of Death Magic. Here's the link to the video with Death Magic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wenn8u1flWU

Link to test run with Curses: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XBMHURY2DQ


Notable Pro's:

-Sustain sustain sustain. While the heals from Blood Magic is small if you're taking it as a power necro, they do add up. I was surprised. You can see in the video how those green siphon numbers just keep popping up left and right during combat. In WvW you take a lot of splash damage, a lot of random aoe, arrows, retaliation, etc.. It's nice getting healed throughout the fights without having to burn Consume Conditions or rely on water fields for small damage.

-Group support. Other classes are saying good things about Vampiric Presense and Last Rites. Also Vampiric Rituals grants protection to allies in Wells. This seems to be a great build for necros wanting to be backline support in WvW. It's fun to have support utilities for a change.

-Reduced recharge of Wells, and Wells is your go to skills for big bombs in WvW. It's nice to be able to lay big bombs a tad more often.

-Micro choices. While I took specific traits in Blood Magic in this video, I see quite a few other choices that are also good. Unlike other trait lines where you almost have to take something based on whether you're power or condi, this spec gives you more personal choices. Such as those using daggers will love Quickening Thirst, those using warhorn will likely take Banshee's Wail, Transfusion can be seen as an useful skill in WvW for sure, etc.. So I see a lot of choices for people in Blood Magic, which is a good thing.


Notable Con's:

-Assuming you take Spite and Soul Reaping with Blood Magic, you may find less readily available cleanses. In Curses you get Plague Sending, in Death Magic you get Shrouded Removal, both are great for removing conditions. This likely won't be a big issue as you can still transfer conditions via weapon skills, or burn Consume Conditions but you'll then have to take 10 stacks of vulnerability. But I did find myself missing Shrouded Removal after having played Death Magic yesterday.

-While you get good sustain with small siphon heals, Death Magic can handle spike damage better if you get focused. Again this is assuming you're a power necro taking Spite and Soul Reaping by default. Siphon heals are great for aoe splash damage, but when it comes to spike and focus damage, Death Magic will give you much higher toughness, more readily available protection, and Corrupter's Fervor not only increase your toughness but it reduces incoming condi damage by 20%.

-A big one here, Vampiric Presense apparently procs retaliation, so if you go with Blood Magic, don't take it.


I left the stats screen up so I can look back at it later to compare how the stats peak, average, and dip during combat with different traits.

Music added to mask teamspeak chat during combat (random music from Youtube's free audio library)

Thanks to Commander Nitejack for pinning up this afternoon, it was rough with 2v1 but hey, we fought hard and it was fun.

Edit: gw2skills.net updated their build calculator, here's the Blood Magic build I'm currently running with, it's different from the video but works better (http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNBmQDbkjGqpxWaw3G4wxxvQNvhM4IgfZA8B0t4LCWA-TVCEABps/ABXAgEV/ZLlgMp0ygnAQTKT6Q3AAHEASBMwyI-w)


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About my videos:

I make these videos for fun. I like to capture good fights, as well as give shoutouts to commanders that did well making the calls leading folks to victory. Sometimes I capture videos just so I can look back and improve upon my own build and technique. I also like to see my own mistakes so I can learn from them.

These are not videos made to showoff or brag. The way I play these characters are also by far not perfect at all. I play strictly WvW in group/zerg battles, so my builds are not ideal for sPvP, solo roaming, or PvE.

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