Guild Wars 1-Skill Review Project: Necromancer-Blood Magic 

After some time and further consideration, thought I'd create some new builds based on this series to break out of almost always using some slight variant of the same set of skills. Limitations are no PvE skills (so heroes can also use). I also prefer for elites only to be used by the applicable primary profession: ~0:00:18 Took a deep dive in how I could and would use Awaken the Blood. To justify the slot it had to either a) increase the duration of a nasty hex, b) increase the punishment of a nasty hex, and/or c) have some other very material benefit. Also, the enchantment needs to be safe, I won't need any blood sacrifice skills, and I'm running a hex strategy. The skills: Soul Leech, Spoil Victor, Soul Bind, Spinal Shivers (reduces triggered energy loss from 6 to 5), and Spiteful Spirit. All but one is elite, so a max of two skills will be materially buffed (and Spinal is rarely used). ~0:06:02 Blood Bond Season: Awaken The Blood, Shadow Strike, Blood Bond, Vampiric Swarm, Life Siphon, [Open], [Open], Predatory Season ~0:14:28 Regarding Blood Ritual and Blood Is Power... I rarely use a battery due to the risks of the entire team relying on a single party member (other than a primary healer), preferring that each handle their own energy management. On the other hand, some energy support (i.e. not reliance) could theoretically free up a slot on each of the other party members. The risk of the non-elite appears to be a hero running up to the mid or frontline and that of the elite being sacrificing to death. Adding life stealing and other self heals looks advisable, and Gift of Health on one or more secondary monks looks imperative for Blood Is Power. ~0:23:48 Cultist's Fervor [Orders]: Signet of Lost Souls, CF, Dark Fury, Order of Pain, [Open], [Open], Dark Aura, Unholy Feast Cultist's Fervor [Chilblains]: Awaken the Blood, CF, [Open], [Open], Signet of Lost Souls, Glyph of Lessor Energy, Chilblains, [Open] ~0:34:22 Dark Pact turns Orison of Healing into an offensive spell (in a way) Shadow Strike Super Spike: Shadow Strike, Lifebane Strike, Ravenous Gaze, Vampiric Swarm, Blood Drinker, Dark Pact, Orison of Healing, Signet of Lost Souls ~0:25:57 Warrior's Demonic Flesh: Blond Bond, Warrior's Endurance, Cyclone Axe, Power Attack, [Adrenaline Attack], [Adrenaline Attack]. [Open], Demonic Flesh Assassin's Demonic Flesh: [Open], Golden Lotus Strike, Golden Phoenix Strike, Repeating Strike, Critical Strike, Moebius Strike, Death Blossom, Demonic Flesh Dervish's Demonic Flesh: Blood Bond, Victorious Sweep, Zealous Renewal, Eremite's Zeal, Pious Renewal, Pious Assault, [Open], Demonic Flesh ~0:58:51 Vampiric Touch [Offering of Blood]: Vampiric Touch, Vampiric Bite, Ether Phantom, Drain Delusions, Ether Signet, Signet of Lost Souls, Offering of Blood, Unholy Feast ~1:19:48 Regarding Signet of Suffering... Your analysis here is another example of me cringing every time I hear it. Yes, warriors and other professions can inflict bleeding, but you are a necromancer. What are the options as a necromancer for the task at hand? Using this skill as an example, I can only think of one higher lvl area (i.e. not some solo farm, etc.) where I use this, namely that GOLEM mission. There I'm facing small but powerful groups of destroyers who are hostile to hexes and enchantments. What are my nec elite options other than those skill types? Offering of Blood isn't necessary. The mobs are small-ish, so Ravenous Gaze not fully leveraged. Really need that Well of Power over a minion? There are a few options, but is your team already handling those tasks? Certainly not lete status, but there is a place for when all else doesn't apply. Breaking rules re: no letes from secondary, but.... Barbed Beast Master: Barbed Signet, Oppressive Gaze, Vampiric Swarm, [Open], Signet of Lost Sous, Lacerate, Viper's Nest, Toxicity ~1:22:44 Soul Leach Nuker: Mantra of Resolve, Soul Leach, Life Siphon, Unnatural Signet, Wastrel's Worry, Wastrel's Demise, Signet of Lost Souls, Chaos Storm ~1:27:24 Spoil Victor Spiker: Awaken the Blood, Insidious Parasite, Spoil Victor, Life Siphon, [Open], Signet of Lost Souls, [Open], [Open] ~1:34:04 Regarding Unholy Feast.... With same cost and similar/same recharge, this is the nec version of Flame/Frozen Burst. In most situations against larger mobs, I agree best used on melee. Thinking paired with Avatar of Dwayna to fuel the energy demands. Nevertheless, when dealing with mass melee, this is a solid choice for any backline caster. ~1:41:38 Regarding Vampiric Spirit.... Whoa Nelly! I have been looking at this skill all wrong, likely due to my rarely using a battery and enemy AI using offensively. The 5e 2 second cast is the clue, as it's the same as Blood Ritual. I can easily see slotting this on a battery, allowing the monks to concentrate on the damage dealers. Moreover, if bring such a battery, then you're only facing low to moderate enchantment hate. This trash may actually be a treasure.

It's a real shame Blood Magic ended up the way it is due to PvP balance. Although I did play bloodspike with my guild back in the day and it was fun. I thought of a solution to it though. Rework the monk skill "Spell Shield. Enchantment Spell. For 1...7...9 seconds the next time target ally is the target of a hostile spell, that ally cannot be the target of any further spells of the same attribute." This one change to an otherwise useless monk spell would be THE counter to most spell based spike teams.

Some revisit comments on Blood Magic: Shouldn't Dark Fury be named Order of Fury? ANet couldn't just create a PvP version of Order of the Vampire? Since Vampiric Spirit is single target (as opposed to Life Transfer), it should both steal health up front and then steal +x health per second.... An elite combination of Vampiric Gaze and Life Siphon.

Would never use Awaken the Blood. Duration too short (would need a weapon mod), lots of enchantment hate, the buff seems weak, and my go to Blood lete is Ravenous Gaze. I could possibly see using to counter weakness, but I'd rather just rely on condition removal. Barbed Signet is good for getting a starter condition for both Oppressive Gaze and the bleeding for Signet of Infection. I don't believe there are any other blood skills that will provide an unconditional condition (your condition was in), so if you aren't also running (e.g.) Curses for Weaken Armor but perhaps a secondary line. S of Infection requires bleeding specifically. Blood Bond seems too short of a duration and require too much coordination for a PvE all hero team. The minions are just all over the place. Just too unreliable for PvE. Agreed thus far on your analysis going down the list until Life Siphon. When going Blood Magic myself (which is usually the case) I will also always be at a 12, usually 13, and when using a hex heavy team, this skill serves as a manageable energy, fast recharge hex to cover other hexes from the team, provide decent pressure if spread around, ease some burden on my healers, and most importantly a long lasting hex that I can control to fuel Necrosis. I will often use this on my monk to cover smiting hexes, etc. and feed Necrosis there too. On a Blood Magic hex bar, this will always be there. A 5 rating. While I don't use much, Life Transfer is my #2 go to blood elite for lack of better non-hero options. Solid to get the party started on a degen team build. I suppose Shadow/Lifebane Strike may be solid starters to spike down a priority target, but I don't bring much. Bar fillers at best. Mark of Fury can be one of the exceptions to my hexes or conditions guideline. No hex removal, say hello to my warrior. Oh hex removed, eat that cracked armor. Must call targets and wait until melee gets to the backline. Mark of Subversion is total fail since the recharge is just too long. Do bring a back up hex remover on a non-healer if you're facing this. Thoughts on Offering of Blood, which I have never used. There's a particular EotN dungeon that generally has small but powerful mobs and where my tactics and strategy does not work well with my typical nec play style and Soul Reaping is just unreliable for energy. This may serve to eliminate the need to spec in that primary line. Very niche. Note that Oppressive Gaze has some aoe for that 26-27 armor ignoring damage every 10 seconds. This can be very important along with these two specific conditions against certain foes. For instance the Jade Brotherhood have high armor, hard hitting melee, cannot remove conditions, and there's no disease to spread back to a mostly human team. A solid 3 for a condition heavy strategy. Never use the orders, just never looked appealing. Ravenous Gaze is hands down my go to blood elite. This works on either a condition or hex heavy team, and hard mode foes have such high armor. Also relieves your healers some. When it comes to a lot of our analysis, if some other skill is really effective for a particular area or task, I will have that skill on a hero so it's on the team when I run on any profession. In short, I create a build that supports the team, sometimes bringing specific skills on each profession to accomplish the same "must do" task. Signet of Agony is a very niche skill. I will use when I have to tank for the backline, paired with Unholy Feast since the former is energy free and the latter recovers my lost health. Unholy won't be on my bar often otherwise, but it is a solid filler as a contingency if melee gets to the backline. Signet of Suffering is also niche but does have it's place. Since I can activate between battles, this allows me to go straight into something like Oppressive Gaze and most importantly Necrosis. I specifically use this elite on a solo low level mission (for drops) to both feed Necrosis, etc. and to feed my self heal (Mending Touch). Would never use an elite slot on Soul Leech. On the other hand, Spoil Victor can be useful vs. hard mode bosses like Pain Inverter. With that said, I've only used the later (hero's bar) on Duncan the Black. Can't recall if I use on Shiro. Never tried a blood touch build, but I would need to find a reliable way to fund the energy demand. Those touch necs in Slaver's are a real pain, even with CTT. Vampiric Gaze used to be a staple on my nec bar when I first started with the profession, but quickly found it weak for the price and recharge. Filler at best. Vampiric Spirit is just fail. Easily rupted and can be stripped. Since I'm often trying to support my team, Vampiric Swarm is pretty standard on my bar since it works for any strategy (life steal always does). Rarely use wells (since I prefer minions) and never use the blood wells. If I am using wells, I would rather have other effects than healing since I want to kill from afar, not in the middle of my backline. Perhaps if I'm constantly facing fleshy melee and under strong degen/energy pressure, etc., but I can't readily think if an area like that. Maybe in some of the Asuran zones?