Guild Wars- Necromancer FAQ Version .75 by MobiusXXIII ------------------------------------------------------- Table of Contents ------------------------------------------------------- I. INTRODUCTION -This Guide -For More Information -Guild Wars -Necromancy II. ATTRIBUTES OF THE NECROMANCER -Soul Reaping -Death -Blood -Curses III. IS NECROMANCER THE CLASS FOR YOU? -As a Melee Fighter/"Tank" -As a Damage Caster/"Nuker" -As a Healer -As a Minion Master -As an Anti-Caster -As a Support Mage IV. THE ART OF NECROMANCY -PvE builds and suggestions -PvP builds and suggestions V. APPENDIX -Skill Lists VI. ETC -Acknowledgements -Copyright Info -Contact Info ------------------------------------------------------- I. INTRODUCTION ------------------------------------------------------- This guide is intended to give in depth information and strategies regarding the necromancer profession in guild wars. It may be helpful to those who are considering making a necromancer or who have just made one and want to know more about the class, as well as those looking for strategies for PvP (person vs. person, such as competition arenas and the hall of heroes) and PvE. (person vs. environment, or the quests and missions of the main game.) The following websites offer a great deal of information about all aspects of the game, and are highly recommended for those who want to know more about Guild Wars: http://www.gamefaqs.com http://www.guildwars.com http://www.guildwarsguru.com http://guildwars.ogaming.com It's unlikely that anyone is reading this without having ever played Guild Wars, but for those who are considering buying the game or are not familiar with it, Guild Wars is a sort of MMORPG that has little in common with its genre's brethren. There's a linear story, a low level cap, and a strong emphasis on teams and teamwork not only in the player vs. player arenas, but in story missions as well. Don't expect anything like Ragnarok or Everquest, where you kill thousands upon thousands of low level monsters to get one more level. Currently the maximum is an easily attainable level twenty, but reaching that level is arguably the start of a whole new game in pvp arenas like the Hall of Heroes and pve environments like Underworld and Fissure. It seems I'm getting ahead of myself, however. Of the six classes available in Guild Wars- Warrior, Monk, Elementalist, Mesmer, Ranger, and Necromancer- the Necros are a bit of an oddity. With attributes spent in the right places, necros can function as tanks like warriors, damage dealing casters like elementalists, spellcaster disrupters like mesmers, or even support casters that can serve to make their monks' energy supplies never run dry. Be warned though, they're surpassed in most of these fields by other classes. ------------------------------------------------------------ II. ATTRIBUTES OF THE NECROMANCER ------------------------------------------------------------ Soul Reaping- This is the necromancer's primary attribute. This is one of the only differences between having necromancer as a primary versus as a secondary. Soul Reaping does not have any related skills that improve based on the attributes invested in it. Instead, Soul Reaping restores your energy one point for every attribute rank you have in it every time anyone dies. The beauty of it is that it doesn't matter who dies- friends, enemies, pets, minions, NPCs, any death at all. You don't have to make the kill yourself, either. Soul reaping is underrated, but very useful. Though the necromancer doesn't start out with lots of energy like with an elementalist's energy storage, the energy regained when people start dying serves as instant energy regeneration- often when you need it most. The most important use of soul reaping is unique to necromancers- spells that target the dead. Oftentimes, one needs the instant boost of energy from that death to cast the spell as soon as there's a corpse to cast it on. This is vital for anyone making an army of minions or protecting their team with blood wells. Death- If that army of undead minions I just mentioned sounded like your kind of fun, this is the attribute for you. Death necros exploit the corpses of friend and foe alike to raise their legions of the walking dead, which they can send against their enemies or use as walking batteries by making the most out of their Soul Reaping- remember, as the minions die they're giving you energy! Naturally, death necromancers have other uses for the dead as well. The right skills will turn your minion into a walking medkit or a bomb, and you can do the same with corpses. Death necros have still more skills that spread disease and damage around. It's not a personal favorite of mine, but there are a lot of successful minion masters out there, and Putrid Explosion (that corpse bomb trick) is well loved in pvp. Blood- For all you vampires out there, welcome to blood necromancy. Blood necro skills focus on healing yourself with your enemy's health or sacrificing your own health to damage an enemy. Because of this, a blood necromancer may find that he or she has a startling talent at winning in a one on one fight with someone of the same level and skill from any other class. However, duels don't exist in Guild Wars, and blood necros rarely find these abilities sought by other groups. A blood necromancer that focuses on damage spells is essentially a less powerful version of an elementalist that isn't as reliant on monks to stay alive. It should be noted though, that these necromancers can turn corpses into wells of blood, which give allies within an area extremely useful health regeneration, and they can also sacrifice their own health to give an ally energy regeneration. This last ability is loved by monks in organized pvp teams, and a blood necro dedicated to keeping his monks with constant energy can make the task of killing his team nearly impossible. Curses- My friends call a curse necro a poor man's mesmer, and in a way they're right. For the most part, Curse necromancers serve the same purposes that mesmers do- instead of doing direct damage, they're a support character that subtly tears the other team's abilities to pieces and makes them easy prey for the rest of the team. The difference is focus. While mesmers tend to disrupt each class by hitting them where they're weakest- disrupting casting, penalizing attacks, sapping energy and so on, essentially making it impossible for them to do their jobs attacking and healing, Curse necromancers focus on making the target defenseless. They remove enemy enchantments or damage those with them, increase the damage the entire team does to a specific target, reduce the effects of healing and energy regeneration, spread energy degeneration and negative conditions done to them among the enemy team, and reduce the effects of healing. I don't recommend curse necromancy for the starting player because it isn't necessary on monsters in the main game, and curse skills don't appear as often towards the beginning, but when you get to be level twenty and have to take on elite groups with as many as three monks trying to heal your targets, a curse necromancer is always a good thing to have for monk disruption and enchantment removal. One last thing... don't worry too much about choosing the wrong place to put your attributes. One of the best things about Guild Wars is that you can go back and switch those points around at any time, provided you have enough refund points. If you don't, just get a little exp and you'll be able to again. There's no worries at all of being stuck with a character specialized in a way you don't like. The important thing is that you choose you primary profession wisely. Be careful about your secondary too, although don't stop and make a new character halfway through the game to make a character with a new secondary. (Like deleting a N/W for a N/Me, like I thought about doing.) You'll see why in time. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- II. IS NECROMANCER THE CLASS FOR YOU? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In all honesty, I can't recommend choosing necromancer as your primary class in most cases. Necromancers look cool, and a lot of people want to be that tall dark stranger with evil skills, but a necro secondary is often for the best. If you choose a /N character instead of a necro, you've still got access to all those necromancer skills. The tradeoff is the armor and the runes (items you put on armor to increase your attribute level) you have, as well as the look and the max health/energy, but most importantly, the primary attribute. In other words, do you really need Soul Reaping? The answer may very well be yes, and it may be no. Decide how you want to play and whether it's something you'll need. For those who want to be a melee fighter and tank, N/W (Necromancer/Warriors) can be pretty dangerous, but they'd only be a good idea when your absolute focus is doing a ton of necro skills at close range. There are a lot of blood necro abilities in particular that are perfect for a melee fighter: Unholy feast, vampiric touch, touch of agony, signet of agony, and plague touch. (Plague touch isn't related to any specific necro attribute, but I'm adding it because in my mind it has to go with signet of agony. Basically, you use signet of agony to damage everyone around you but are poisoned in doing so, then you use plague touch to poison the nearest enemy and remove the condition from yourself in the process.) However, even a necromancer/warrior with armor specialized for melee combat is going to learn the horrible truth: necros die easily. Those blood skills will keep you going through cannibalistic healing, but they have high energy costs and high recharge times, and with that mediocre armor you are going to die. I started out a N/W because I wanted to be a necro and I thought that the combination of necro energy-based abilities and warrior adrenaline-based abilities meant I could be spamming skills constantly and doing melee combat because that's the dashing swordsman I am, but halfway through the game I found out that even though I could bring plenty of damage doing that, I couldn't take the pain I got in return, and I'd often be seen dead with a puzzled expression on my face about how I died so fast. Take it from me, necros die easy. I'd imagine a mesmer, elementalist, or ranger that runs around with a sword would be even more doomed than me, but I wasn't a warrior, I didn't have the strength attribute to make melee damage worthwhile, I couldn't waste the energy bonus of a cesta or the attributes to pick up a shield, and I didn't have the armor to stay alive. On the other hand, a W/N has completely different problems that might be worse. You get some very nice spells to go along with your armor and strength and weapon mastery, but you don't have nearly as much energy as a N/W would, and there's no real means of making up for it like a Necro could by getting superior vigor runes to give him more health to hold out with. I've heard stories of some very dangerous N/W players, but in my case the swords got sold before long and I just focused on multiple necromancer attributes. Meanwhile, necromancer is probably the second most common secondary for a warrior. (After monk, and before ranger) Learn from my mistake, but don't necessarily give up the possibility. N/W isn't a stupid idea, just a risky one. For those who want to be a damage dealer or a "nuker," go elementalist, at least if you're planning on the hardcore player vs. player arenas. I still use my blood necro attacks in the hall of heroes every once in awhile, and by putting down as much damage and health degen as you possibly can you can be a decent dot (damage over time) caster. I don't think I'm exaggerating at all when I say I can do 200 damage, 3 health degeneration, another 70 damage every time they cast a spell or another seven health degen for a brief time, and another 50 damage every couple of seconds to a single target, all within a reasonably short amount of time, not to mention the fact that I'm healed by about half of that damage and all of the degen, and all within blood necromancy spells alone, but the fact is that elementalists are better. An air or a fire elementalist is going to do far more damage than I do, and is able to do it in a way that all of the strikes are coordinated with their teammates so that their target gets hit for hundreds of damage at once, and might die even with two or three monks doing everything to keep them alive. Elementalists are the real nukers. That's how it goes. As for E/N or N/E, I've never tried either. I'll try to look into this or get some advice from someone in my guild. For those who want to be a healer, that should be obvious. You have to be a monk. No necro skill is going to be enough to keep your team healed forever, though blood wells and order of the vampire can't hurt in that direction. (Yeah, I know most of my advice centers around blood necromancy, but that is my specialty. I'm not quite as used to curses, and I'm not sure I'm qualified to give advice about death necromancy at all.) However, I've heard that N/Mo make the best minion masters, since you have more means of healing your minions, or you can use them as batteries to be a monk with a constant power source to fuel your healing of team members. No idea if Mo/N is useful and I'd be inclined to say no since they don't have many spells that heal as well as monk spells or protect you from harm, but getting that /N just so that you can use the blood necro elite skill Offering of Blood might be a little tempting. (Think free energy every fifteen seconds.) For those that like corpse-affecting skills like minions or blood wells, there's no question about it. You do need to be a Necromancer primary, because the Soul Reaping gives you the energy right when the corpse appears to cast it on, and sometimes that jump in energy is what lets you know you've got a target for the spell in the first place. The twenty-five energy to make a bone fiend or minions won't come fast enough without it. I should also point out that resurrection spells are another type of spell that needs to target a corpse, and could benefit from the soul reaping of an N/Mo. However, it's common knowledge that the fatal flaw of most resurrection abilities is the extensive casting time, so an Me/Mo is probably preferable to a N/Mo for a team's rezzer because of fast casting. However, a rez spell might be a good idea for an N/Mo. For spell disruption, the curse necro is tempting, but is ultimately still the poor man's mesmer. Mesmer abilities surpass those of curse necromancers at stopping monks as well as other casters and even warriors, depending on the skills they choose, and so if your job is to target a monk and keep that monk from healing, choose a mesmer. If you want to make attacking spellcasters stop attacking or literally kill themselves in the process, go mesmer. Enchantment removal is best done by a curse necro, though I feel even the best of enchantment removal, rend enchantments, is very poorly designed. Enchantment removal is weak in the game, and it seems like all of the mesmer's enchantment removal spells (shatter enchantment, drain enchantment, inspired enchantment...) are all useless for that purpose. They all take twenty-plus seconds to regenerate and get rid of only one enchantment while doing something else that may not be necessary when you want to rid an enemy of enchantments. Ironically, all three necro attributes have better enchantment removal than any mesmer skill. (I could be wrong,. Strip enchantment is pretty much the same, but I think chilblains, desecrate enchantments, lingering curse, soul barbs, well of the profane, and rend enchantments are all going to be better at anti-enchantment than any mesmer spells.) Again, if you're going to stop someone from casting or fighting, that's a mesmer's job, and if you want to remove enchantments or leave your team's target defenseless, curse necro is best. However, I'm making it sound like you can't do both. Mesmer is one of the most common secondary classes for a necromancer, especially one that knows how to use curses, and Me/N is a good combination too, since malaise, mark of subversion, spinal shivers, and wither are all good at taking down spellcasters. The fast casting and the use of hexes makes soul barbs a good idea, and using fast casting to send little hexes like parasitic bond every which way might be a good way to be a nuisance and keep yourself healed, especially if you follow it up with feast of corruption. Besides spells that target corpses, the place where necros seem to be unique is in their offensive buffing. Arguably, smite monks and warriors have similar or equal abilities to order of the vampire, dark fury, order of pain, and even weaken armor or barbs, but the team benefits from spells with their effects are rare and could be very effective if a team is built around exploiting the weakness said skill creates in the other team. One other kind of group support ability is unique to blood necromancers, and that is healing the energy of another person. Mesmers have spells to recharge their own energy, and necromancers achieve the same with soul reaping and the elite skill offering of blood, but no one heals another person's energy but blood necromancers. They pay a price, from 17 to 33% of their health, but this is where they are utterly unique, and one of their greatest abilities when the situation and the team is right. Blood ritual and blood is power are the spells in question, and a character of any class could conceivably go into a fight and do nothing but send that energy into their team's monks. Now, I'm not recommending this. A person could be a lot more useful than just spamming one spell all the time, and that 33% sacrifice can kill you easily if you click the button one too many times. Thirdly, if you're a character that's an easy target, helping the despised monks out, and killing yourself faster than the other team ever could, you're a huge target for the other team to come along at anytime and take that last third or two themselves. I've been in matches where I got myself down to less than five hp before the doors even opened because I was trying to supply the healers too fast. You can commit suicide with blood is power and you can do it easy. Trust me. All that having been said, you now know way more about necros than you'll need to for weeks if you are just now choosing to become a necromancer. If you've decided necro isn't the class for you but you read this far anyway, I've utterly wasted your time with much of this and besides that, I've told you far too many weaknesses and skillsets- things you might use to wipe the floor with the necros you meet. Sadly, I've no remorse for any of these things, and I'm going to continue, provided I haven't already said everything I know about the subject. ---------------------------------------------- IV. THE ART OF NECROMANCY ---------------------------------------------- Keep in mind that part of the beauty of Guild Wars is finding play styles that suit you. There is no uber class combination or attribute distribution that you need to go into in order to be worth something as a player. To do that, you need practice, knowledge, cooperation with your group and finally a little patience with those who don't have the practice or knowledge yet. (Looking down on noobs isn't a good philosophy, but looking down on people who won't listen to the rest of the group is a healthy attitude if you ever want want to make it through the game.) At any rate, here are some tips and skills that you can try for yourself. Decide what skills you're best with and what skills work well together, and always be ready to experiment. For PvE- Quests, missions, and everything in between: Make sure you've got some points in soul reaping, because all the weak creatures are going to keep you supplied with energy as they continue to die. The greatest dangers in PvE are facing too many opponents at once, and while experienced rangers in your party will try to prevent that from happening by luring a few enemies towards your group at a time, in the case of a battle against too many enemies, your teammates might find their reserves running dry while you continue to have plenty of energy. In worst case scenarios like that, you'll be glad you have it. Death necromancers will find that the large numbers of corpses are even more important for making their minions with. For much of the game, you'll only have bone horrors to choose from, but when you get the spells animate bone fiend and animate bone minions, you've got to decide which suits you best. Horrors only require 15 energy to animate compared to the 25 needed for minions or fiends, so if you're more concerned with using the energy on other skills, you may want to go with horrors or not raise the undead at all. If you want to focus on having your army be powerful and long-lasting, I'd recommend fiends, which seem to be more powerful than the other types and attack at range. Minions are best when you want numbers. Since you get two from each corpse, you've got double the minions for your enemies to dispose of, and double the energy from soul reaping when they die. Minions don't last long, but that's easily turned to your advantage by casting death nova on them and using them as kamikazes and batteries all at once. I'm honestly not that sure what other death skills are best for pve, but well of suffering or putrid explosion would be a good alternative to raising minions, and deathly chill and deathly swarm offer decent damage to enemies. For pve death necros, I'd say making hordes and hordes of the undead is going to be your best bet. Blood necromancers are going to be relieved that their attacks keep them healed, because they might find themselves soloing quite a lot thanks to how underrated they can be by pick up groups and mission parties. From early on, blood necros are well equipped to be a fairly self-sufficient halfway-decent damage dealer, and this is what I'd recommend in order to be one: -First, shadow strike. The spell takes two seconds to cast, which is a little dangerous, but as long as you cast it when the enemy is above 50% health, you do a lot of damage, and you're healed half of it. It's not a bad idea in pve battles to heal yourself by turning from a wounded opponent to cast shadow strike on one with decent health. The sad thing about shadow strike is that it needs to be used early so you get the full damage, but you probably don't need the healing at that point. Oh well. -Second, life siphon. This is not a great attack skill and you'll rarely do any severe damage with it, but it is worth casting towards the start of a fight, because it lasts a long time and drains a fair bit of health over that time, and it'll keep you steadily regenerating your own health. The recharge time is very reasonable too, and so as long as you've got the energy to keep doing it, you can give yourself a very nice amount of hp regen, and as I've said, it does last for a while. -Third, barbed signet. If you have a lot of health (For instance, if you're a primary warrior) you don't want to use this, because you'll be hurting yourself more than your enemy, and you'll be wasting a skill slot to do it. If you're a primary necro with a lot of points in the blood attribute, here's how it works. For zero energy, you do a fair bit of damage to your target and heal yourself a bit. It'll take thirty seconds before you can do it again, but it's a good skill to have when you're finishing off an enemy and shadow strike can't heal you and only does half its damage. -Fourth, dark pact. This one pisses off your own monks to no end, because you're doing damage to yourself while you're damaging the enemy and because of the low energy cost, casting time, and recharge time, it's a rapid fire attack for when you've used everything else and need to keep doing damage to end a fight. As a result, it looks like someone's doing a bad job of trying to kill you, and your monk may waste time and energy healing that back. The ironic thing is that the necro's sacrifice skills balance very well with the healing skills, so the monk has no reason to bother. Once you've spammed dark pact a little, turn to the next target and use one of these other three to get that health right back and start again. (I should also add that some players like using dark pact in combination with the death skill dark aura to do a lot of aoe damage around themselves very quickly.) The best sequence for this blood chain is life siphon, (not necessarily on the person you're attacking if you want to make the most out of it, but using it on your target will certainly help kill it.) shadow strike, dark pact, barbed signet, dark pact, dark pact, dark pact.... Watch your health when you start using a lot of dark pacts in a row, however. Other things a blood necro might want is vampiric gaze for healing oneself with a ranged attack, vampiric touch for when an enemy warrior gets too close, and soul feast, touch of agony, signet of agony, plague touch, and that aforementioned dark aura for when you want to rush in like a lunatic and start doing a lot of damage at melee distance. This is probably a bad idea in most cases. Well of blood is a plus though. For pve, I don't really expect many people to go into curse necromancy, but if you do, adapt yourself to the biggest threats of the region. The most common monsters do physical attacks, so faintheartedness, insidious parasite, and price of failure are all going to be pretty useful. Plague sending might be a nice thing to have considering how many monsters love to give out conditions. Suffering is nice, soul barbs might be a good way to do some actual damage with your hexes, and so on. Tell me if you work something really effective out. In pvp, the roles are reversed. Blood becomes less important, and curses become the king of necro attributes. Don't worry though, you can make the switch when you get there, and you can easily spread your points throughout several attributes. I love refund points. As an example, my current setup is 11 Blood, 10 Soul Reaping, 10 Curses, but with runes and facial scars, It's 14 blood 12 soul reaping 10 curses. In pvp, you can try using that pve setup you're so used to, and it's good to start there and adjust over time, especially if making the jump to curses, but you're going to have to learn to change your attributes and your skills constantly to suit the build your group wants you to have. Here are some of the pvp roles necros play and some of the skills people want you to have and to bring. I didn't talk about elites in the pve section because most players wont have those skills for much of the game, but if you're going to the tombs, you need to start getting all of your elite skills. Death necromancy- The minion master builds are pretty popular in tombs lately, so death necros will have some opportunity to ply their trades. As I'm not a death necro, I can't give detailed advice about the builds they run, but they usually use minions, and they often have another person such as a blood necro with blood is power or a similar health-sacrificing spell use it repeatedly in order to quickly kill themselves before the match starts. The corpse is used to make a minion and resurrected right afterwards, and they try to do this as many times as they can in order to raise a huge army by themselves. Blood is power is especially useful for the sacrificer because he'll be giving the minion master energy regeneration to make all of the minions with. The result is that the blood necro starts out with a lot of death penalty, but the minion master has plenty of minions when the round begins. What he does with them, I'm not quite sure. Attacking people, batteries, etc? They're a nuisance and they help him. The other death skills that people want from necros are putrid explosion and the elite tainted flesh. Putrid exploits corpses to make explosions that do a very nice area of effect damage to all enemies around the corpse, and it's a good way of getting rid of bodies before the other team's necros can use them. Tainted flesh is used on an ally that's being attacked by melee weapons (look for the other team's warriors and cast it on their targets, naturally) and everyone who attacks them in melee is diseased. The disease can spread, and if people are running this build, they're going to want to use the mesmer skill epidemic to spread it among everyone in the other team. Disease isn't that bad, but having your entire team diseased is a nightmare for enemy monks and so tainted flesh makes it much easier to kill the other team during the resulting chaos. Blood necromancy- Well of power might be worth using if your team tends to stand close together and has a lot of casters, but I've rarely if ever seen a tombs group use it. Soul leech is a great anti-caster elite that acts like a version of the mesmer skill backfire that heals you. A particularly vicious N/Me might find it fun to cast both soul leech and backfire on a caster and dare them to keep using spells. Be wary about blood hexes in pvp however, most good teams have monks and most good monks get rid of hexes. For this reason, life transfer is pretty much useless in tombs, although it's pretty nice in competition arenas. The penultimate role of a blood necromancer in tombs is to use blood is power to give your team's monks energy regen so that you never have to hear your monks speak those famous last words: "I'm out of energy" that so often marks the point when your team is massacred. One team build that has been given up before I ever got to tombs is using order of the vampire again and again to let your teams physical attackers share in that self-healing vampiric damage like you enjoy. It sounds cool, but it must not have been good enough to merit building a team around and spending an elite on. Curse necromancy- Here you have two major focuses to decide between. Does your team want you to help by making sure the group's target is defenseless or by making sure the monk can't help him for long? If you're helping the team kill someone, your staple skills are lingering curse and rend enchantments. If your team uses a lot of warriors or archers, make sure to use barbs, weaken armor, and rigor mortis. If your team uses a lot of necros and mesmers, soul barbs is vital. I don't think the effects of defile flesh and lingering curse that limit the effectiveness of healing stack, and if not, don't bother to bring it. (If they do stack though, your target only receives one third of healing, so I need to test this sometime.) Experiment with the right skills to bring based on your team and your expected target. If you want to stop a monk from healing or protecting, you're not as well qualified as a mesmer would be, but by casting wither and malaise you've given your target negative four energy regeneration, something particularly awful for a monk. Spinal shivers lets you continue to interrupt your target again and again and again without having to wait for another spell to cast, as long as you have a weapon that will let you cause cold damage. (Some curse and death wands/staves do, so no troubles there.) Bring some mesmer skills if this is your aim. -------------------- V. APPENDIX -------------------- SKILL LIST- Name- Spell type. Energy cost. Casting time. Recharge time. Description. (Values with a hyphen between them denote the range from an attribute level of zero to twelve.) Skill location, Boss who carries the skill. (For elite skills only) General Necromancy- ----------------------------- Plague Touch- Skill. 5. 3/4. 0. Transfer a negative condition from yourself to target touched foe. General Elite Skills- ----------------------------- Grenth's Balance- Spell. 15. 1/4. 60. If target foe has more health than you, you gain half the difference (up to your maximum health), and that foe loses an equal amount. Dragon's Lair, Facet of Darkness. Frozen Forest, Mraggah. (Heroes Path Quest.) Death Necromancy- ------------------------------ Animate Bone Fiend- Spell. 25. 3. 5. Exploit target corpse to animate a level 1-14 Bone Fiend. Bone Fiends can attack at range. Animate Bone Horror- Spell. 15. 3. 5. Exploit target corpse to animate a level 1-14 Bone Horror. Animate Bone Minions- Spell. 25. 3. 5. Exploit target corpse to animate two level 0-10 Bone Minions. Blood of the Master- Spell. 10. 1. 5. Sacrifice 10% of maximum health. All adjacent undead allies are healed for 30-99. Consume Corpse- Spell. 10. 2. 0. Exploit target corpse, you teleport to that corpse's location and gain 25-85 health and 3-7 energy. Dark Aura- Enchantment. 10. 1. 10. For 30 seconds, whenever target ally sacrifices Health, Dark Aura deals 5-41 shadow damage to adjacent enemies, and you lose 5-17 Health. Death Nova- Enchantment. 10. 1. 5. For 30 seconds, if target ally dies, Death Nova deals 26-85 damage to all nearby creatures. Deathly Chill- Spell. 10. 1. 5. Target foe is struck for 5-28 cold damage (before armor). If that foe's health is above 50%, you deal an additional 5-28 shadow damage. Deathly Swarm- Spell. 10. 3. 3. Deathly Swarm flies out slowly and strikes for 15-67 cold damage (before armor) on up to three targets. Infuse Condition- Spell. 10. 1. 20. For 5-17 seconds target foe receives 20% less benefit from healing. If target foe dies while hexed with Malign Intervention a level 1-14 masterless Bone Horror is summoned. Necrotic Transversal- Spell. 5. 3/4. 0. Exploit target corpse, you teleport to that corpse's location and all nearby foes become poisoned for 5-17 seconds. Putrid Explosion- Spell. 10. 1. 0. Target corpse explodes, sending out a shockwave that deals 24-101 damage to each nearby creature. Rotting Flesh- Spell. 15. 3. 3. Target fleshy creature becomes Diseased for 10-22 seconds and slowly loses health. Soul Feast- Spell. 10. 1. 0. Exploit target corpse to steal 50-234 health. Taste of Death- Spell. 5. 3/4. 0. Steal 100-340 health from target animated undead ally. Verata's Aura- Enchantment. 15. 3/4. 30. Sacrifice 33% of maximum health. All hostile animated undead in the area become bound to you. Verata's Aura ends after 120-264 seconds. When Verata's Aura ends, you lose your bond with any undead bound to you. Verata's Gaze- Spell. 5.1.5. Sacrifice 16-67 health. If target hostile animated undead has a master, its bond to its master is broken, making it hostile to all other creatures. If it had no master, you become its master. Verata's Sacrifice- Spell. 10. 2. 30. Sacrifice 10% of maximum health. For 8-18 seconds, all undead allies gain 10 health regeneration. All conditions are removed from those allies and transferred to you. Vile Touch- Skill. 10. 3/4. 4. Touch target foe to deal 13-62 damage. Well of Suffering- Spell. 15. 2. 10. Exploit target corpse to create a well of suffering at its location. For the next 8-18 seconds, enemies in that area suffer health degeneration of 1-4. Well of the Profane- Spell. 25. 3. 10. Exploit target corpse to create a well of the profane at its location. For 8-18 seconds, enemies in that area are stripped of all enchantments and cannot be the target of further enchantments. Death Elites- ------------------ Aura of the Lich- Enchantment. 15. 3. 30. For 24-53 seconds, your maximum health is halved, but you take half damage and half healing from all sources. When Aura of the Lich ends you're healed for 50~202 health. Hell's Precipice, Maligo Libens. Tainted Flesh- Enchantment. 5. 1. 5. For 20-39 seconds, target ally is immune to Disease and anyone striking that ally in melee becomes Diseased for 3-13 seconds. Perdition Rock, Dosakaru Fevertouch. Virulence- Spell. 5.1.10. If target foe was already suffering from a condition, that foe suffers from Disease and Weakness for 3-13 seconds. Bloodstone Fen, Mossk Rottail. Ettin's Back, Flaw Rootplague. Frozen Forest, Unthub Rotwood. Blood Necromancy- --------------------------- Awaken the Blood- Enchantment. 10. 1. 45. For 20-39 seconds, you gain +2 Blood Magic and +2 Curses, but whenever you sacrifice health, you sacrifice 50% more than the normal amount. Barbed Signet- Signet. 0.2.30. Sacrifice 10% maximum health. You steal 18-52 health from target foe. Blood Renewal- Enchantment. 5.1.10. Sacrifice 33% maximum health. For 10 seconds, you gain health regeneration of 3. When Blood Renewal ends, you gain 40-160 health. Blood Ritual- Enchantment. 10.2.2. Sacrifice 17% maximum health. For the next 8-13 seconds, target other ally gains energy regeneration of 3. Dark Bond- Enchantment. 10.2.60. For 30-54 seconds, whenever you receive physical damage, 75% of that damage is suffered by the closest minion of yours instead. Dark Fury- Enchantment. 10.1.5. Sacrifice 17% maximum health. For 5 seconds, the next time any nearby party member attacks, that party member gains one hit of adrenaline. Dark Pact- Spell. 5.1.2. Sacrifice 10% maximum health and deal 10-40 shadow damage to target foe. Demonic Flesh- Enchantment. 5.1.60. Sacrifice 20% of maximum health. For 30-54 seconds, your maximum health is increased by 80-176. Life Siphon- Hex. 10.2.2. For 12-22 seconds, target suffers health degeneration of 1-3, and you gain health regeneration of 1-3. Mark of Subversion- Hex. 10.1.20. For 4-9 seconds, the next time target foe casts a spell on an ally, the spell fails and you steal 10-76 health from that foe. Order of Pain- Enchantment. 10.2.0. Sacrifice 17% of maximum health. For 5 seconds, whenever a party member hits a foe, that party member does an additional 3-13 damage. Shadow Strike- Spell. 10.2.8. Target foe takes 12-41 shadow damage. If that foe's health is above 50%, you steal 12-41 health. Signet of Agony- Signet. 0.3/4.15. Sacrifice 10% of maximum health and suffer from bleeding. All nearby foes take 10-37 damage. Strip Enchantment- Spell. 10.1.20. Target enemy loses one enchantment, and you gain 30-102 health. Touch of Agony- Skill. 5.3/4.3. Sacrifice 10% of maximum health. Target touched foe takes 20-50 shadow damage. Unholy Feast- Spell. 15.1.30. Steal 8-34 health from each nearby foe. Vampiric Gaze- Spell. 10.1.5. Steal 18-52 health from target foe. Vampiric Touch- Skill. 15.3/4.5. Touch target foe to steal up to 29-65 health. Well of Blood- Spell. 15.2.2. Exploit target corpse to create a well of blood at its location. For 8-18 seconds, allies in that area receive health regeneration of 1-5. Blood Elites- ------------------ Blood is Power- Enchantment. 5.1/4.0. Sacrifice 33% maximum health. For the next 10 seconds, target other ally gains energy regeneration of 3-5. Snake Dance, Cry Darkday. Life Transfer- Hex. 10.2.30. For 6-11 seconds, target foe suffers health degeneration of 3-7, which you gain as health regeneration. Abbadon's Mouth, Sarlic the Judge. Iron Mines of Moladune, Feodore the Baneful. Ring of Fire, Odelyn the Displeased. Thunderhead Keep, Agyrus the Scoundrel. Offering of Blood- Spell. 5.1/4.15. Sacrifice 10% of maximum health. You gain 8-18 energy. Thunderhead Keep, Riine Windrot. Frozen Forest, Jollen Steelblight. Order of the Vampire- Enchantment. 10.2.5. Sacrifice 17% of maximum health. For 5 seconds, whenever a party member hits a foe, that party member steals 3-13 Health. Elona Reach, Rysaa Hisst. Elona Reach, Uussh Visshta. (One of these may be in Dunes of Despair.) Talus Chute, Allobo Dimdim. Thirsty River, Hessper Sasso. Soul Leech- Hex. 10.2.15. For 10 seconds, whenever target foe casts a spell you steal 16-67 health from that foe. Abaddon's Mouth, Goss Greweb. Well of Power- Spell. 15.3.15. Exploit target corpse to create a well of power at that location. For 8-18 seconds, allies within 39' of the Well of Power gain health regeneration of 1-5 and energy regeneration of 2. Mineral Springs, Nhy Darkclaw. Curse Necromancy- --------------------------- Barbs- Hex. 10.2.30. Target foe takes 1-8 damage when hit by physical damage. Chilblains- Spell. 25.3/4.15. You become diseased for 3-13 seconds. Nearby foes are struck for 10-37 cold damage and lose one enchantment. Defile Flesh- Hex. 10.1.10 Sacrifice 20% of maximum health. For 8-18 seconds, target foe receives only two thirds benefit from healing. Desecrate Enchantments- Spell. 15.2.15. Target foe and all nearby foes take 6-49 shadow damage and 4-17 shadow damage for each enchantment on them. Enfeeble- Spell. 5.1.5. Target suffers from weakness for 5-17 seconds. Enfeebling Blood- Spell. 10.2.10. Sacrifice 17% health. Target foe and all nearby foes suffer from weakness for 5-17 seconds. Faintheartedness- Hex. 10.1.5. For the next 5-29 seconds, target foe's attack speed is reduced and that foe suffers health degeneration of 1-3. Insidious Parasite- Hex. 15.2.20. For 8-18 seconds, whenever target foe hits with an attack, you steal 5-17 Health from that foe. Malaise- Hex. 5.2.2. For 5-29 seconds, target foe suffers -2 Energy regeneration you suffer -2 Health regeneration. Ends if target foe's Energy reaches 0. Mark of Pain- Hex. 10.2.30. For 30 seconds, whenever target foe takes physical damage, Mark of Pain deals 10-34 shadow damage to adjacent enemies. Parasitic Bond- Hex. 5.1.3. For 20 seconds, target foe suffers -1 Health regeneration. You are healed for 30-102 Health when Parasitic Bond ends. Plague Sending- Spell. 10.2.0 Sacrifice 10% of maximum health. Transfer one negative condition from yourself to target foe and all adjacent foes. Price of Failure- Hex. 10.3.10. For 30 seconds, target foe has a 25% chance to miss with attacks and takes 6-25 damage whenever that foe misses in combat. Rend Enchantments- Spell. 10.3.30. Target foe loses 2-8 Enchantments. For each Monk Enchantment removed, you take 40 damage. Rigor Mortis- Hex. 10.2.30. For 8-18 seconds, target foe cannot block or evade. Shadow of Fear- Hex. 10.2.10. Target foe and all adjacent foes attack slower than normal for the next 20-39 seconds. Soul Barbs- Hex. 10.2.20. For 30 seconds, target foe takes 15-27 damage when an enchantment or hex is cast on that target. Spinal Shivers- Hex. 10.2.15. For 12-26 seconds, whenever target foe is struck for cold damage, that foe is interrupted and you lose 10-6 Energy or Spinal Shivers ends. Suffering- Hex. 15.2.20. For 6-25 seconds target foe and all nearby foes suffer health degeneration of 2. Weaken Armor- Hex. 10.3.30. For 10-34 seconds, target foe has a -20 armor penalty against physical damage. Curse Elites- ------------------ Feast of Corruption- Spell. 10.2.20. Target foe and all adjacent foes are struck for 16-67 shadow damage. You steal 8-34 health from each struck foe who is suffering from a hex. Dreadnought's Drift, Maw The Mountain Heart. Talus Chute, Maw The Mountain Heart. (I'm not sure if both of these are correct.) Lingering Curse- Hex. 25.3.10. Sacrifice 10% of maximum health. Target foe loses all enchantments. For 8-18 seconds, target foe gains only half health from healing spells. Perdition Rock, Grenth's Cursed. Plague Signet- Signet. 0.2.20. Transfer all negative conditions from yourself to target foe. (50% chance of failure with Curses of 4 or less.) Witman's Folly, Karobo Dimdim. Talus Chute, Allobo Dimdim. Spiteful Spirit- Hex. 15.2.10. For 8-18 seconds, whenever target foe attacks or uses a skill, Spiteful Spirit deals 5-29 shadow damage to that foe and all adjacent foes. Fissure of Woe, Shadowlord Vogris. Iron Mines of Moladune, Ceru Gloomrunner. Snake Dance, Sapph Blacktracker. Talus Chute, Night Spinechill. Wither- Hex. 10.2.10. For 5-29 seconds, target foe suffers -2 Health regeneration and -2 Energy regeneration. Wither ends if that foe's Energy reaches 0. Perdition Rock, Ignis Effigia. ------------- VI. ETC. ------------- I'd like to make sure that www.guildwarsguru.com and guildwars.ogaming.com are given proper credit. They were invaluable in the writing of this guide, especially in regards to spell information and boss locations for elites. I'd also like to thank the members of the guild I M M O R T A L for taking me in as a member and teaching me the finer points of organized pvp in the Tombs. The vast majority of pvp strategies mentioned in this guide were a result of the battles we fought together. Also, to My Wand Is Bigger of the Sissy Boys for showing me how members of the top guilds fight and to the people at NCSoft for making such a great game. Copyright 2005 Matt Carroll This work may only be reproduced for personal, private use. It may not be placed on another website or publicly distributed without the permission of the author.All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders. Contact information- Mobius23@earthlink.net To contact in Guild Wars, send a whisper to MobiusXXIII