Boonstrip Scourge
Rotation
Small Shade Bomb
Wells + Shade Bomb
Well of Corruption
Well of Suffering
Manifest Sand Shade
Desert Shroud
Manifest Sand Shade
Nefarious Favor
Sand Cascade
Garish Pillar
Single Target Spike
Scepter Rotation
Scourge plays a very important role in any World vs World battle. In large scale fights you provide pressure and break up the enemy squad through area damage, boon removal/corruption, single target bursts and finally support allies by giving barrier and condition removal.
Build Fundamentals
Unlike other necromancer specializations you do not gain an additional health bar or gain access to a shroud form/skills. You do have though access to sand shades with shade skills and a life force bar. Shade skills are fuelled by your life force except forManifest Sand Shade
These shades strike enemies near you and the shades position, so for example you can hit twice if placed on top of you in melee range. Each shade skill has a purpose and its important to use them wisely at the appropriate time. Placing Manifest Sand Shade
Most organized groups will be trying to coordinate your shades, Ghastly Breach
Ghastly Breach
Winds of Disenchantment
Scourge also happens to have excellent self sustain from Feed from Corruption
Blood as Sand
Sand Flare
Abrasive Grit
Nefarious Favor
Correct rotation and timing of skills is very important (read your skills tooltips!).
Main Priorities
Staying alive is the most important priority. This can be achieved by dodging, removing boons which will sustain you thanks to Feed from Corruption
Removing/corrupting boons from single targets and groups of players is your key role. It’s important to understand how you can achieve this through skill usage. An example of a single target spike rotation can be seen above top right.
Scourge also has some powerful defensive utility, barrier in particular. Good usage of abilities such as Sand Flare
Sand Cascade
Boon Removal & General Ability Usage
This build’s boon removal is spread into four main areas:
Shade Abilities
corrupts a boon on all enemy targets affected thanks toNefarious Favor
, this is a key component of ranged boon removal.Path of Corruption
activatesDesert Shroud
which will corrupt a boon on up to five targets in a 600 radius around the necromancer. Used when pushing into groups especially as it also grants barrier to the scourge. IfSpiteful Spirit
strikes targets below 50% hitpoints it’ll corrupt two boons instead of one!Spiteful Spirit
Weapon Skills
corrupts a boon on up to 5 targets at range while dealing decent damage.Devouring Darkness
corrupts a boon on up to 5 targets in a 600 radius around the necromancer, also deals good damage. Enemies struck below 50% hit points get hit with the damage again after a short delay but don’t have an extra boon corrupted.Unholy Feast
is a ranged area attack that corrupts a single boon from up to 5 targets and applies weakness.Enfeebling Blood
is a single target ability that appliesSpinal Shivers
to the target and removes up to 3 boons, dealing extra damage for each boon removed. This ability can hit very hard when removing 3 boons and is excellent for spiking down single targets especially when combined withChilled
.Ghastly Claws
Wells
The classic boon corruption tool of necromancer – used since the dawn of the game! This skill corrupts one boon per second on up to five targets at range.Well of Corruption
Punishments
although often used for the barrier support component,Sand Flare
just like all punishment abilities will convert a boon on up to five nearby enemies intoSand Flare
andTorment
.Crippled
is your stunbreak ability, however it can also be used offensively to corrupt boons intoTrail of Anguish
andTorment
on all enemies who cross the trail it leaves! (Also appliesCrippled
to allies as a bonus)Stability
is a very powerful melee ability, it drops a large pulsing field around the necromancer that converts a boon intoGhastly Breach
andTorment
every second in addition to applyingCrippled
.Slow
The key in executing your important task of removing boons from your opponents is swiftly chaining key abilities together. You can see a list of standard combos in the rotation segment of this page.
The core concept behind ability usage is rotating between weapon skills to keep as many of them off cooldown while also being on the appropriate set depending on your current range; scepter for range and axe for melee.
Your commander is likely to call for specific abilities such as shade spikes, wells or Ghastly Breach
You will mostly start the fight with scepter/dagger for more area dmg and boon removal. On heavy ranged only fights (1200 range) you can start out on axe and focus so that you can use Spinal Shivers
Into the Void
Once enemies are in range and the shade spike is called by your commander drop one or more Manifest Sand Shade
Nefarious Favor
Sand Cascade
Garish Pillar
Make sure you are weapon swapping consistently, always using your 3rd skill (Devouring Darkness
Unholy Feast
Unholy Feast
Defensive Utility
Try and use your heal skill, Sand Flare
Illusion of Life
Sand Flare
Sand Cascade
Nefarious Favor
Immobilize
Resistance
Trail of Anguish
Stability
Swiftness
Wells
Wells are ranged pulsing area attacks, this means to get maximum value out of them it’s very important to place them correctly. Specifically try to place your wells slightly ahead of your enemies instead of where they are at the exact moment you start casting so that they run through them and get hit multiple times instead of being able to easily run or evade through them.
Dropping your wells when your commander calls for them is an important priority for this build. The two wells you will be running are: Well of Corruption
Well of Suffering
Try to give your commander cooldown timers for your wells, usually when you are about 10 seconds away from getting Well of Corruption
Always use Well of Corruption
Well of Suffering
Shade Abilities
Manifest Sand Shade
Nefarious Favor
Sand Cascade
Garish Pillar
Desert Shroud
Manifest Sand Shade
Manifest Sand Shade
Manifest Sand Shade
Manifest Sand Shade
Manifest Sand Shade
All of your shade abilities will hit two targets around you and two additional targets in each of your shades created by Manifest Sand Shade
Note: Nefarious Favor
Sand Cascade
You can precast shade abilities while casting Manifest Sand Shade
Just like other ground area attacks on this build, when using shades offensively try to position them such that your opponents will run through them so you get maximum value, especially for Desert Shroud
Note: Desert Shroud
For the purposes of traits, Desert Shroud
Reaper's Might
Nefarious Favor
Path of Corruption
Garish Pillar
Transfusion
Desert Shroud
Spiteful Spirit
Desert Shroud
Soul Barbs
Alternatives
Superior Sigil of Nullification
Superior Sigil of Energy
Superior Rune of the Scholar
As for attributes, you may wish to add some Marauder and Cavalier if you feel you are struggling to survive. This will give you more health and toughness.