The Juggernaut-Vampire
(A tank necro build)
**Credit due where credit is needed. The origins of this build is the Abomination build from Nemesis and Sheobix. I have modified it for my playstyle and teams needs. I always reccomend and encourage players to understand a builds fundimentals, but be able to adapt to their own needs/wants.

Quick Overview
Traits:  Spite: 3 (V), Curses: 0, Death Magic: 5 ( II, IV), Blood Magic: 6 ( II, VIII, XII), Soul Reaping: 0
Armor: Soldier (Power, Toughness, Vitality)
Runes: Rune of the Vampire
Accessories: Soldier (Power, Toughness, Vitality)
Weapons: Soldier (Power, Toughness, Vitality) Staff and Dagger/Dagger
Sigils: Leaching/Fraility and Leaching/Restoration
Skills: Well of Blood, Well of Suffering, Well of Power, Well of Darkness or Corruption, Plague


Purpose of the Build
The main purpose of this build is to be your teams foundation. You are a protector, a defender, and...a sponge?
Zerker meta has swept through and taken residence in the PvE community. While the tactics of 'kill it before it kills you' is a sound notion, there are a places where a support is needed. This build works really well in combination with a berserker heavy group. While they get to play the heros seeing their big damage numbers pop up, you get the satsifaction of knowing that you kept them protected and alive to do the 'big deeps'.

Playstyle
The playstlye itself isn't terribly complicated. Essentially, you want to be up in the enemys' face and keep its attention, while the rest of your team throws what they have at it. There are a few occassions where positioning is key (for example, the boss at the harpy fractal where you sponge the agony shots), but ultimately, you are there to soak up the damage for your team.
I use this necro in place of a guardian for my group. Necros can do as good of a job (if not better) than a guardian in a support role. That being said, the only thing we are unable to replace is the reflects. I will talk about the synergistic playstyles with a mesmer in a little bit.
As long as you are able to place your marks and wells, you are continuously giving your team direct protection, regeneration, and condition clears. You are also indirectly providing lifesteal, retaliation, and condition clears through combo fields. Further, you are applying blinds, weakness, and vulnerabilities to the enemies, making takedowns for your group that much faster.
Death does happen, a fact we must accept: we just simply cannot save them all. But good news everybody! We are super supports! We have the toughness and vitality to tank res! You should be able to res a fully downed player back to health, while only losing about half of your own health. And once resed, you can place a Well of Blood to help restore their lost hp.  You may find you need to stop resing to place a mark or well to keep your protection and regeneration up. Staff mark 5 works well to give you a few more seconds to res.
Since the latest feature pack release, necros are also now able to res a player WHILE IN DEATH SHROUD! So not only do you have your massive hp pool to pull from, you also have your life force bar to rely on!  Your team will be glad to have you on their side.

Synergy with a Mesmer
As I stated earlier, necros lack the ability to reflect. That is where a mesmer comes in. By having a mesmer, you open up a few possibilities. The first is to remove a guardian from a group. While having aegis is a nice aspect, the need for a guardian is removed. Healing, protections, reflects, and even boons are covered.
The mesmer staff skill Phantasmal Warden (summon an illusion that deals extra damage for each unique condition on the target foe) along side a necro deals huge damage. While this necro build doesn't purposely build for conditions, just the fact that you place the conditions helps out your mesmers.
Through my mark/well/death shroud rotation, I am able to place ten different conditions on the foe.

Bleeding  		Mark of Blood (staff 2), Enfeebling Blood (dagger 5), Withering Plague (Plague 1), Dark Path (Death Shroud 2)
Chill			Chillblains (staff 2), Dark Path (Death Shroud 2)
Poison			Chillblains (staff 2), all Plague skills
Vulnerability		Well of Suffering
Blindness		Well of darkness, Deathly Swarm (Dagger 4), Plague of Darkness (Plague 2), and Dark combo fields
Immobilization		Dark Pact (dagger 3), Tainted Shackles (Death Shroud 5)
Weakness		Enfeebling Blood (dagger 5), Plague of Pestilence (Plague 3)
Cripple			Plague of Pestilence (Plague 3)
Fear			Reaper's Mark (Staff 5), Doom (Death Shroud 3)
Torment			Tainted Shackles (Death Shroud 5)

When you combine all these unique condition types for a zerker mesmer with a staff, they are hitting for 1459 +10% damage per unique condition, which can produce 10-14k damage per hit. And while you are tanking the foes, the mesmers' wardens can be placed safely to do their damage. While staff isn't meta for a mesmer, this combination allows the option to them. There are a few great oppurtunities (the Archdiviner in the Cliffside Fractal being one) for this combination.

Gear
Armor
The gear is Soldiers everything! Soldiers has the Vitality and Toughness to be the tankiest necro you can be, while still providing Power to fuel your wells and attacks. Exotics from dungeons work well: Ascalon Catacombs, Sorrows Embrace, and Honor of the Waves all sell soldiers.
Weapons
For the weapons, I use Staff main, with Dagger/Dagger as secondary. In Nemesis build, he recomends Dagger/Focus as a secondary. Honestly, both work well, and you should pick what fits your playstyle best. I prefer the condition clear and the cripple/bleeds from the dagger offhand, but you may find you like the bonus regeneration and boon stripping from the focus.

Sentinels vs Soldiers Gear
Sentinel: Vitality Main, Power, Toughness
Soldier: Power Main, Toughness, Vitality
While it may be tempting to go for all sentinels for the vitality, you lose the power that comes from the other half of the build. If this were a straight tank build, vitality main would seem like the best option: more health, more tank, right? But with the Jugger-Vamp build, you want to be able to take things down in a reasonable amount of time. If you're like me, you want to feel like your hit is doing something while being a massive tank. Understand that you aren't going to see the big numbers like a glass cannon build,  but you don't want to see 'glancing' everytime you hit.
With traits assigned and exotic armor and staff (no trinkets), please consider the following:
			Soldiers 	Sentinels
Power: 			1997		1855
Toughness: 		1518		1518
Vitality: 		1568		1710
Effective Power: 	2036.7		1891.9
Effective HP: 		33054		34939
Damage Reduction: 	24.7%		24.7%
Healing Power: 		424		419

It's roughly a difference of 150 power and 1500 health. When you already have such a high HP pool, I personally feel sentinels doesn't give enough bonus to justify the gear change (nor the cost to aquire the gear, especially when looking into ascended gear). Also with the minor trait from the Spite line 'Death into Life' (7% of power is given as bonus to healing), the loss of power decreases your healing ability. Albeit not a huge amount, but the time you spend resing a downed player is time you are not actively placing wells/marks to support the rest of your team. A few seconds can make the difference!

Traits
Spite: 3
-150 Power, 15% Condition Duration
-Parasitic Bond: Gain 961 HP whenever you kill something
-Death into Life: 7% of power is given as bonus to Healing.
-(V) Spiteful Spirit: Gain three seconds of retaliation when wntering Death Shroud.

Curses: 0

Death Magic: 5
-250 Toughness, 25% Boon Duration
-Reanimator: Summon a jaggen horor whenever you kill a foe (15 second recharge).
-Protection of the Horde: Gain 20 toughness for each minion under your control.
-Deadly Strength: 10% of Toughness is given as bonus to Power.
-(II) Spiteful Vigor: Gain five seconds of Retaliation when you use a heal skill.
-(IV) Ritual of Protection: Well apply protection for three seconds when cast.

Blood Magic: 6
-300 Vitality, 300 Healin Power
-Full of Life: Gain 5 seconds of regeneration when your health drops below 90%
-Vampiric: Siphon health whenever you hit a foe
-Blood to Power: +120 power while your health is above 75%
-(II) Bloodthirst: Siphoning health is 20% more effective
-(VIII) Ritual Mastery: Reduces recharge on wells by 20%
-(XII) Vampiric Rituals: Wells also siphon health every time they pulse

Soul Reaping: 0

Some tweaking can be made within the traits, for instance, if you don't like retaliation, you can swap out Spite V and Death Magic II for something more fitting. I had opted to not use Death Magic V-Staff Mastery, as the cooldown for Mark of Blood (6 seconds) was already shorter then the length of regeneration (7.5 seconds), thus giving permanent regeneration for as long as you cast the mark. Again, tailor to your playstyle.






Final Stats **before any buffs; food, WvW or otherwise

			Exotic 		(Ascended)
Power: 			2380 		(2629)
Precision:		916 		(916)
Toughness: 		1774 		(1911)
Vitality: 		1824		(1961 )
Critical Percent: 	0% 		(0%)
Condition Damage: 	0 		(0)
Condition Duration: 	15% 		(15%)
Healing Power: 		454 		(471)
Boon Duration: 		25% 		(25%)
Armor: 			2694 		(2831)
Health: 		27452 		(28822)
Effective Power: 	2428.1 		(2817.8)
Effective Health: 	40281 		(44442)
Damage Reduction: 	31.9% 		(35.2%)