Bloodspike

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Bloodspike is a PvP team build consisting of up to 8 Necromancers using Blood Magic spells such as Angorodon's Gaze and Vampiric Gaze to deal heavy damage to an enemy team in small windows of time. Unprepared opposing teams will have a difficult time defending against this. To compensate for the lack of dedicated healing roles, each Necromancer brings a different defensive elite, along with skills of the same attribute. For example, one Necromancer might bring Word of Healing, a second would bring Restore Condition, while a third brings Divert Hexes.

This team build was mainly used prior to the April 5th, 2007 update (and later the November 13th, 2007 update) which changed Soul Reaping's functionality. Before the first update, Necromancers gained energy from any spirit's death via Soul Reaping, allowing bloodspike teams to use their energy-expensive skills with little drawback. A bloodspike team typically included a Ritualist that would constantly create new spirits to trigger Soul Reaping's effect with. After this update, Soul Reaping no longer triggered energy gain for the death of spirits. The lack of energy return makes current teams utilizing the bloodspike tactic much less efficient.

Core build[edit]

Metagame variant
Necromancer / Assassin
Ravenous Gaze.jpg
Ravenous Gaze
Blood of the Aggressor.jpg
Blood of the Aggressor
Vampiric Gaze.jpg
Vampiric Gaze
Angorodon's Gaze.jpg
Angorodon's Gaze
Dark Prison.jpg
Dark Prison
Signet of Agony.jpg
Signet of Agony
Unholy Feast.jpg
Unholy Feast
Iron Palm.jpg
Iron Palm
Blood Magic:
>12+1+3
Soul Reaping:
>12+1
Deadly Arts:
>3
Historical variant
Necromancer / Assassin
Vampiric Spirit.jpg
Vampiric Spirit
Dark Pact.jpg
Dark Pact
Mark of Subversion.jpg
Mark of Subversion
Vampiric Gaze.jpg
Vampiric Gaze
Angorodon's Gaze.jpg
Angorodon's Gaze
Signet of Agony.jpg
Signet of Agony
Unholy Feast.jpg
Unholy Feast
Augury of Death.jpg
Augury of Death
Blood Magic:
>12+1+3
Soul Reaping:
>8+1
Deadly Arts:
>10

Advantages[edit]

  • Life stealing skills are fairly effective because traditional anti-spike skills, such as Protective Spirit and Spirit Bond, don't protect against it.
  • Low recharges on skills enable the spike to be repeated, should it fail or only partly succeed the first time.

Disadvantages[edit]

  • Even with the Life-stealing healing benefit, Necromancers have a low armor and very few healing capabilities without a dedicated healer/proter, meaning that the team is vulnerable to counter-spikes and high damage in general.
  • Most players applying this tactic use the exact same builds and almost exclusively spammable Blood Magic skills; skills such as Complicate, Power Block and the Flux Xinrae's Revenge will certainly cripple a bloodspike team.
  • Without deaths during battle, the lack of energy return via Soul Reaping will require efficient energy management.
  • Most bloodspike skills have a short effective range, or even touch range, which will result in several Necromancers bunched up around a target. This leaves them vulnerable to any area of effect skills opponents may use.

External links[edit]


Team roles (edit)
Type General team roles Specific team roles Hero team roles
Damage SpikerNuker BomberDagger spammerTouch rangerStarbursterTrapper
Pressure Lineback BarragerBeast masterCripshot RangerPressure Ranger
Support HealerProtection BatteryBonderFlag runnerHybrid monkImbagonInfuserOrders
Control ShutdownTank Minion masterPermaSpirit spammer Mesmer Midline
Utility CallerToolbox Gimmick