Guild Wars 1-Skill Review Project: Necromancer-Curses 

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: ~0:00:33 Regarding Atrophy.... I agree with you that this likely doesn't do much on most PvE foes since the primary attribute is normally tied to energy and e-denial isn't the most reliable. Nevertheless, the some important inherent benefits would be lost for a time (fewer expensive bow attacks, no monk bonus healing, mesmers cast at a crawl, elementalists can't get off too many expensive nukes, dulled blades of assassins, and binding rituals nearly dead on arrival). Attempted to use.... Curses Spike [Soul Bind]: Soul Barbs, Atrophy, Defile Flesh, Soul Bind, Rigor Mortis, Signet of Lost Souls, [Open], [Open] ~0:08:21 Reaper's Mark Chilblains Spammer: Mantra of Resolve, Reaper's Mark, [Open], [open], Chilblains, Ether Phantom, Drain Delusions, Ether Signet ~0:12:20 Regarding Defile Defenses... Curious if you have revised your position on this skill? Your analysis here again suffers by comparing a necs blocking options with those of other professions. You may not have warrior, etc. teammates with stance removal skills, and even if they did are you going to micro a hero in the heat of battle for that? Sure it's a stance? There are enchantments, spirits and other blocking skills. How deep is that enchantment? Where is that spirit? How do you plan to micro attacking spirts and minions? If you're jonesing to deal with blocking, you're jonesing for it right now. Rigor Mortis is a fire and forget, but only prevents blocking, does no damage, and you'll have to wait 20 seconds to move to the next troublesome ranger. Defile Defenses is only 5e and can easily kill the foe in one or two triggers. ~0:14:53 Regarding Desecrate/Defile Enchantments.... My position on these hasn't changed. While your team has control over whether to start stripping enchantments, as the sole human player you don't have control in the heat of battle unless you have no related skills on hero bars. By the time I get one of these off, my conditional bonus damage may be gone. Wasted slot for low enchantment, okay option for moderate, good for heavy, really good for super heavy. I can see as a lower energy supplement to Chilblains when the task doesn't call for an all out Chilblains spammer. ~0:24:09 Regarding skills like Envenom Enchantments.... While a human player doesn't know how many enchantments a foe currently has for the conditional effect, does a hero know? ~0:29:23 Regarding Feast of Corruption... I've always been underwhelmed with this elite, but perhaps I have been using it wrong, namely popping right off the bat after Suffering. Deal nice damage, but the health steal is not entirely leverage. Now thinking that you start with just Suffering, spread a few more hexed around, and then pop after another Suffering late-early, early-mid battle.... Feast of Corruption [Death]: [Open], [Open], Rising Bile, Putrid Bile, [Open], Glyph of Lessor Energy, Suffering, Feast of Corruption Feast of Corruption [Blood]: [Open], [Open], Life Siphon, Parasitic Bond, Glyph of Lessor Energy, Suffering, Feast of Corruption ~1:11:16 Regarding Spinl Shivers/Shivers of Dread.... Here's another example of a "I prefer x" or "just bring y" or "z is a better option" does not really help much. Broad Head Arrow may or may not be better, but you're not a ranger anyway. At 14 Marksmanship. the daze lasts 19 seconds. At 12 Curses Spinal lasts 34 seconds. Daze can be spread, but some foes are immune to daze and many mobs have strong condition removal. Spinal is a hex. Daze requires some form of hit or a rupt spell. Spinal triggers on any cold damage weapon hit or cold spell. Hits can be blocked to mitigate the dazed. All elemental damage can be converted to cold. Dazed effects spells. Shivers effects skills. Dazed can take some time to successfully inflict. Spinal takes a single successful cast. As a necromancer, what are your options to help shutdown a high priority target that has high condition and other non-hex defenses? While I wouldn't run much either, just take BHA doesn't suffice: Icy Veins Rupter: Glyph of Lessor Energy, Spinal Shivers, Icy Veins, Deathly Chill, Deathly Swarm, Bitter Chill, Signet of Lost Souls, [Open]

I would think the harm from Atrophy is losing the inherent effects of the primary attribute rather than the loss of the skills in that line. Tested on my ele, and it reduced my energy pool by ~42% I would think this is where the biggest effect would be. Would wreck a spirit spammer as well. Maybe on some e-denial team build, but I agree with you that it's trash unless you know that you will be facing lost of primary line skills and multiple copies to spread around. Everyone seems to love Barbs, but I never use even though I run a minion master a lot. Most of the time I only have one physical on the team (other than minions), max three if I'm a physical. I should consider a contingency slot on a curses hero for those situations when I have a minimum of two physicals plus minions. Mark of Pain falls into this same category. Calling your target looks essential. I have not used, but Cacophony seems to be the Empathy, etc. for paragons. I can see using this over the competitors when facing smaller mobs or when only 1-2 paragons are expected in any one mob. The Diamond Djinn came to mind. They only use one chant but are hard to take down. Cobalt Shrieker or Whistling Thornbrush perhaps? You may be shorting this one a bit. Chilblains is just boss when facing lots of enchantments. The poison is easily managed, but the energy less so. Good use of the energy glyph from the elemental line. Since it serves it's purpose so well, a strong 4 rating. I rarely bring enchantment removal on my own bar (I don't want to try for one already being removed by a hero), but I have tried Corrupt Enchantment on a hero when I only need some moderate removal ability. I may bring on my own bar facing high enchantment issues (when the double attempt is less likely) when other elites don't seen to fit. Normally just completely outclassed by Pain of Disenchantment in my view. Defile Defenses is actually rather strong in my view when you know you're facing lots of blocking while the team is dealing with it. It's fast recharge, does high armor ignoring damage, can cover other hexes, and feeds Necrosis. Since the exact damage is known, when triggered is also known so there's little waste of energy by reapplying without need. Think lots of rangers with blocking stances (e.g. Rain Beetle). Underrated. I've found Defile/Desecrate Enchantments underwhelming. I'd rather strip than punish. Perhaps heroes would use better than I have this far. Where I can see this having the most value is against enchantments that have benefits upon ending (e.g. lots of dervs). Bar filler when applicable. Defile Flesh can be useful in specific situations, namely facing smaller mobs with strong healing. Seems like I have used this against Kournan monks to help take them out first. Quasi niche. Enfeeble or Weaken Armor are my standard condition feeder for follow-up skills like Necrosis. Enfeebling Touch is just fail. My melee will be concentrating on the backline casters. Maybe melee vs. rangers/paragons. Faintheartedness is another small vs, large mob skill. Just not worth the slot against larger mobs. When using conditions in hard mode, Weaken Armor is a must have. Works decent against warriors in normal as well. For an elite that's a real pain to cap, Feast of Corruption just blows. Best I've found to feed is Suffering, which means 30e for the 1-2 punch and then 20 seconds for another go. I've tried to use when my team necs are running better letes, but... just blows. I understand that you may prefer skills like Empathy over Insidious Parasite, but it's not always an either or situation. (Why not plant both when on a 6-8 man team?) The analysis is not what class to use when facing a situation, but how to deal with a situation as a nec leading a team. If you do have a mes teammate planting Empathy, what would you bring in the freed slot? IP is effective against smaller mob melee and very effective against skills like Barrage and your beloved Volley. The downside is the cost and recharge, but can really devastate rangers as noted and other physicals as well. Lingering Curse seems to get lots of hate mail, but I really like this elite. This provides crushing pressure along with Suffering. Unless I need heavy enchantment removal or condition control/transfer, and not looking at strong hex removal, Master of Whispers is likely sporting these hexes if on the team. The EotN Stone Summit come to mind. The ele energy glyph can mitigate energy issues. Meekness is something I can't see ever using. In a large party, there are better options that my teammates can use allowing me to do something else, and in a small party I'd rather use something cheaper and single target. Order of Apostasy is definitely a fail, but thinking.... It is a Factions elite, so likely designed to support sins. An unblockable sin will usually hit 4 times during the attack chain that can easily get completed in the 5 second duration of the enchantment (if all timed well). That's up to 4 enchantments rapidly stripped, including some that can't be removed directly by spells. Way too niche and coordination dependent, but may help spike a foe with lots of non-monk enchantments (earth eles and other sins). Parasitic Bond is easily a 5 for me. Works as a cover hex and Necrosis feeder even at 0 Curses. Plague Sending is a great skill when using and facing condition heavy builds. Pair with Foul Feast for best effect, energy gain, and counter the health loss. Way better than Plague Signet to free up the elite slot unless going super heavy conditions, no room for Extend Conditions on the team, and not worried about dazed. Plague Touch just fails when compared to Antidote Signet due to the energy cost or to transfer daze. A melee can quickly burn thru a lot of energy trying to remove the most important conditions, and your monks may be doing the same thing simultaneously. Poisoned Heart is niche on melee. I can see against Corsairs. Price of Failure, Reckless Haste, and Shadow of Fear all seem fail to me. Better options on small teams and other classes have better options on larger. Rather use other hexes/conditions in either situation. Never used Rend Enchantments. Where will I face lots of enchantment based mobs with no monk (i.e. safe for heroes)? I could possibly see bringing on my own bar for dervs, eles, sins, etc. I want my heroes to deal with enchantments, so I don't have to on any class. Compare Rigor Mortis with my thoughts on Defile Defenses. I can either set the foe up for my physicals with RM, effectively call the target, and spam Necrosis, or plant Parasitic Bond and spam DD and Necrosis for tons of damage freeing the physicals to do whatever. I have complete control over the later option unless the blocking gets removed, at which time I have close to the best of both worlds. No contest. Observation: You've noted the duplicate skills from Prophesies and Factions. I've always assumed that the developers thought that many new players would start with Factions. (That's what I did as a result of a free copy of stand alone Factions that came with a new computer.) I further assumed that some skills were considered so core that they brought some over with new names, later just bringing the whole non-elite batch (or most) from the original game resulting in the duplicates. I believe you mentioned that there was a project to redesign the Factions duplicates, and they did complete the ele lines before the project was cancelled due to GW2. Never used Shivers of Dread/Spinal Shivers due to seemingly niche and the energy cost. You mention daze as an alternate, but sometime foes have either strong counters or are just immune (i.e. bosses). This is a hex, so assuming designed to replace daze. Using along with Winter would set this up perfectly if the nec can manage the energy. Any ele nuke would do and would convert Ignite Arrows into Choking Gas? A Death Magic nec and a Wind Prayers derv can provide cold damage as well. Hex easily outlasts it's duration. From where the energy? I would really like Soul Barbs in a short duration hex team build (Wastrel's anyone), but the recharge is too long for a single target. Perhaps against a derv or protection monk. Since I am always running smite as a monk, I will always be handling anti-healing on the team when Soul Bind looks attractive. That means never used by my heroes. On the other hand, if I am on my nec and anti-healing isn't so crucial to require a hero smiter, I may bring myself. Spiteful Spirit is another elite about which I just don't understand the love. Scattering has been my experience, which can result in wasted 15e and waiting 10 seconds to try again. If there is some quirk that makes SS not scatter, would that mean I can't use other skills that would? With this lete I'm looking at an aoe that I can't really control. Plus one would have to keep the hero team from killing off the hexed foe to get the full effect, which means targeting every other foe and keeping track on which one is hexed. Just seems impossible during the fast paced fights in hard mode with an all hero team. Ulcerous Lungs violates my hex or condition rule, so would be of very limited use in PvE. That leaves Vocal Minority the more viable option. With that said, how often does one have to deal with mass paragons. I believe I have used this against the frogs in the Asuran zones. "While moving" skills are generally all fail for me in PvE, so those skills have to have other benefits to justify. Weaken Knees does not. Maybe some mission where I have to kill off a runner? The Curses wells are rather weak. If one could control more where the get placed, perhaps they may be better. Of this batch, Well of Darkness looks to have the best potential for a hex heavy team. Well of Silence in The Desolation as you noted, as those mobs are big for lots of corpses, they have very potent paras, and degen hexes aren't viable. Wither is another fail since e-denial isn't a thing for me.

Some revisit comments on Curses: Cacophony: Interesting how you generally praise the skill design of skills that offer the foe a choice rather than just stopping an action cold. Your review of this skill didn't mention that angle. You did come back around to this either/or for Vocal Minority. Remember that Defile Flesh is basically the hex version of deep wound. Sometimes the opposing mobs have condition removal you know. I will use skills like Envenom Enchantments and Rip Enchantment when I am facing moderate enchantment issues, namely not when (e.g.) Chiblains is needed or when (e.g.) Mirror of Disenchantment + one more remover won't suffice. Consider how much cheaper Poisoned Heart is for melee than Apply Poison. Same recharge too. One can use Apply before battle but there is no reapply time lost during battle with Heart.