Shrouded Berserker Necro

I've finally got my Necro to 80 and had a blast leveling it. I love wells and AoE damage is pretty decent. I remember having a chat with Beau and Dal about their necros as well, but I wanted to use a well build for farming.

I first traited for wells cooldown together with health siphoning but I didn't like the overall damage somehow. I could not manage to kill a group of mobs fast enough... So it was back to the thinking board.

I thought of going conditions as it is pretty obvious Necros are built for condition damage, but everybody plays that and I really wanted to use my wells as I loved them in GW1... I guess I was kind of nostalgic about them. Then it hit me... What's the best skill in the necromancer's arsenal? In my opinion it's Death Shroud because it lets you deal tons of AoE damage while being invulnerable, so traiting for a better deathshroud seemed to be the way to go.

I've been tinkering around and I've put this build together ON THE CHEAP so the less fortunates of us can start farming Orr and make some cash/mats or whatever they need. So here goes nothing...

Traits:
30 points in Spite
+300 power, +30% condition duration
Parasitic Bond: Gain health when you kill a foe
Death into Life: Gain healing power based on your power
Siphoned Power: Gain might (+35 Power, +35 condition damage for 5 sec) when your health falls below the 25% threshold.
(V)Spiteful Spirit: Gain retaliation when entering death shroud
(VI)Reaper's Might: Life Blast grants might (+35 Power, +35 condition damage for 15 sec)
(XII)Close to Death: Increases damage by 20% to enemies below the 50% health threshold.

10 points in Curses
+100 precision, +100 condition damage
Barbed Precision: Critical hits have a chance to cause bleeding.
(IV)Weakening Shroud: Cast Enfeebling Blood when entering death shroud.

30 points in Soul Reaping
Gluttony: Increases life force gain from skills. (10% better effectiveness. Not verified)
Last Gasp: Gain Spectral Armor when your health falls below the 50% threshold.
Strength of Undeath: You do 5% more damage while above the 50% life-force threshold.
(II)Vital Persistence: Life force drains 25% slower while in death shroud.
(III)Path of Midnight: Reduces recharge on death shroud skills by 15%.
(XII)Deathly Perception: Increases critical-hit chance by 50% while in death shroud.

Equipment
Full Rare Berserker armor with 4 major runes of divinity, 1 major rune of the traveller, 1 ruby orb
Rare Berserker Axe with major sigil of Force
Rare Berserker Focus with major sigil of Accuracy
Rare Berserker Staff with major sigil of Force
All Berserker trinkets fitted with a ruby orb (all rare except earring master because too expensive on TP)

Utility Skills
Well of Blood: Conjure a well of blood to heal allies. Initial self heal 5,240 then 152 per second for 10 seconds
Well of Corruption: Target area pulses, converting boons on foes into conditions (also damages)
Well of Power: Target area pulses, converting conditions on allies into boons. (I take this one for Stability to avoid KD)
Well of Darkness: Target area pulses, blinding foes with each pulse.

So that's how it works... Pull a group of ennemies, once you've aggroed and mobs are relatively close, drop your marks using the staff, then the 3 wells then get to Death Shroud and use Life Transfer, watch all the crits fly then collect the loot. Honestly all the mobs inside the wells usually die. If some still up, get out of death shroud (unless there's like massive damage coming, in that case wait for it to pass), get your axe and use skill #2 for good life force regen (supposed to be 12% but when traited I think it goes up faster), then maybe do some AoE with other skills or staff while Death Shroud is on cooldown... Just keep in mind life transfer cooldown is still 34 seconds, so I guess by the time it's ready the fight will be over...

Anyway, you get the point. I find this build with cheap equipment is already very good for farming Cursed Shore and it allows you more uptime of Life Transfer as well as Death Shroud as you regen Life Force better with Axe... By the way I use Golem for Elite Skill but it may not be the best one...

There you go, any comment is welcome as usual. Try it out it's really efficient.

Behind The Scene
Alright, so I've put 10 points in Curses which some Necros may want to spend somewhere else, and it's totally fine if you do so. The reason I like putting points there is because:

1. It boosts your precision and therefore your crit. chance
   
   
   
   
2. I find casting Enfeebling Blood when entering Death Shroud a nice extra DPS, and the best is it's AoE and you do not have to think about it
   
   
   
   
3. You can easily swap it out for Chilling Darkness which is great synergy with Well of Darkness and gives you a survavibility boost if you need it
   
   
   
   

So that's how I like to spend the extra 10 points but if you prefer something else, go ahead. I think other traits are quite straight forward and I do not really see a good reason to swap them out for something else.
In the Spite tree, (VI)Reaper's Might is really cool if you manage to include Life Blast in your rotation, like right before using Life Transfer to get some extra Power.
In the Soul Reaping tree, I tried using shorter death shroud cooldown that brought it down from 10sec to 6sec, but Life Transfer still takes 34 seconds to recharge so I found gaining 4 seconds on death shroud was not very useful. I prefer running around and AoE with staff for example... And +50% crit. chance is so sweet!

Regarding the equipment, be mindful of the fact that makor runes do not stack for more than 4 of the same type. That's the reason why I have 4 major runes of divinity, 1 major rune of the traveller. I wanted to get +5 to all stats, +2% crit. dmg. as much as possible, just to have some survivability built into it as well. You do not need too much as Necro have the highest base HP in the game (together with warriors) but that's still a nice cushion to have just in case.

There is also some free room when it comes to utility skills. Well of Blood for example could be swapped out for another heal if need be. The other 3 wells I've picked for specific use:

1. Well of Corruption strips mobs from their boons and replaces them with conditions. This is really helpfull as you want to kill mobs fast, and therefore, you want to avoid any kind of buff they could use (like dmg reflection for example). In addition, the well deals some direct damage which you are boosting with your gear and traits so it's all good.
   
   
   
   
2. Well of Power converts conditions into boons which is not really my main use here. The well provides Stability for 5 seconds, and if you've ever been in Cursed Shore, you know the mobs pull, knockback, etc... and usually when your casting Life Transfer which is your main source of DPS so you do not want that to happen. Life Transfer takes 3.5 seconds to cast, you get Stability for 5 seconds. Pure win.
   
   
   
   
3. Well of Darkness blinds foes. It may not sound interesting at first, but as I mentioned early in the post, my interest in this build is to have a good deathshroud uptime as well. Avoid getting hit equals to keeping Life Force when in Death Shroud, that's why I have it equipped, but if you feel it's not necessary you're welcome to swap it for Well of Suffering for a more DPS~y approach.
   
   

Another great build. If you want a decent rune set beside orbs I would suggest a mix of Hoelbrak and Strength for might stacking and might duration. The might stacks and duration give you a lot more than the orbs do. I believe this set will still give you an above 50% critical rate which is really all you need.

Thanks Dal I'll look into it.
I've posted this last night but did not explained too much because I was rushing out of the office for a dinner appointment. I'll edit it sometime today with some extra annotations here and there.

I have been dusting off my Necro lately and am trying another build at the moment... The previous build was fine for farming groups of mobs in Orr but it wasn't very enjoyable for roaming the world (at least in my opinion).

I'm staying away from conditions so far and still focusing on Death Shroud. I am using the same equipment and runes as above, and trait are more or less the same with the exception of:

(V)Spiteful Spirit: Gain retaliation when entering death shroud swapped for (VIII) Axe Training that gives a 10% damage buff while wielding an axe

(IV)Weakening Shroud: Cast Enfeebling Blood when entering death shroud swapped for (V)Reaper's Precision: 33% chance to gain 1% life force on critical hits

(III)Path of Midnight: Reduces recharge on death shroud skills by 15% swapped for (VI)Unyielding Blast: Life Blast pierces and causes vulnerability (2 stacks for 10sec).

Utility Skills:
Consume Conditions: Feast on your conditions, gaining health for each one consumed. (5240 base healing and 724 per conditions)
Blood is Power: Bleed yourself to gain might and bleed your target. (10 stacks of Might for 12 sec)
Well of Suffering: Target area pulses, damaging foes and inflicting vulnerability. (1220 dmg up to 7 targets. Pulses 5 times)
Spectral Armor: Gain life force as you take damage. Removed when you enter Death Shroud. Also applies protection for 6s.
{Elite} Summon Flesh Golem.

This build kind of focuses more on single target damage using the piercing ability of Life Blast to deal damage to several targets at a time. What I do is run around to aggro mobs and let them ball up on my Flesh Golem. Then activate Blood is Power (Gives 350 Power at level 80), use skill #4 of focus (Reaper's Touch) to apply vulnerability, switch to Death Shroud and Life Blast. The trick is to find a good angle to try and hit as many targets as possible with one Life Blast (since they're piercing). Life Blast also gives you Might so you hit harder with each hit. If your Golem dies or the mobs somehow get to you, use Life Transfer when your Life Force bar gets around 50% tor eplenish it.

That's basically the skinny... Same as previously, you can use Axe skill #2 to regenerate Life Force faster. I use Spectral Armor as stun break as well as for Life Force regeneration if needed (I think it's 8% per incoming hit). Well of Suffering can be used when out of Death Shroud to finish of mobs or something, or as another damage option if Death Shroud is on cooldown.

So far results are not bad. I can crit. at about 4k without too much effort taking down mobs fairly easily in Frostgorge Sound and Orr as well (about 4 hits). I expect to see bigger numbers as I get exotic gear. The one thing I like with this build, while DPS is still viable, my Death Shroud uptime is pretty long which makes it pretty easy to survive.

Right now I'm using Staff as secondary weapon by am thinking of a better option...

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm maybe one of these days I'll redo my necro like yours to try this outtttt *O*