Curse

unholy guardian · Aug 13, 2006, 07:11 PM // 19:11

Being a pve oriented person... well i do like pvp, although i do not gvg, mainly alliance battle. Anyway with the dervish and paragon coming what could the averge 8 person group do now with many new classes. Although i do like thinking outside the box, one reason cookie cutter and common builds exist is 1 easy to pick up 2 commonly known so you can mesh more often 3 no thought required working on builds that could fail

Anyway this could go well, the 2 new classes seem to be great in both pvp and soon to see if they are good or bad in pve, but already you can tell they will do well.

Here is just a sample group really

warrior for tanking purposes, which the energy a stance tank will have no energy problems ever.
dervish PBaoe and ability to tank aswell, fueled also by boon protection monk
barrage ranger
minion master
ss necromancer/elemantalist nuker/mesmer
paragon with shouts echos and chants not spears
protection ritualist
boon protection monk

i like the assassin, but pve is not their boon

We all know the warrior tanks, the minion master keeps an army going, ss and nuker are all well known. The mesmer can do whichever build would fit best for the area really, although in pve the degeneration they can cause is very good.

Now we come to the dervish, paragon, boon prot, ritualist, and barrage ranger.

First off, the ritualist can limit most of the damage to the team, which is incredibly helpful, the boon prot can not only heal massively when needed but when mixed with the dervish the dervish can gain a massive boost.

The paragon has a very great skill "aria of power" For 10-40 seconds, each ally within earshot gains 2 Energy regeneration until that ally casts a spell.

This not only benefits the warrior, the barrage ranger will now have 5 energy pips, which is an incredible mix with rangers expertise, now instead of a zealous mod you can use other mods and still have energy to burn. If you time it correctly the ritualist has only a couple spells, the main one being boon of creation. When timed the right the ritualist should have 6 pips while spirit spamming.

The paragon also limits the time to wait for a monks energy to go up.

So our level cap does not have to go up to be more powerful, we have brains... at least most of us

Anyway, the game is defiantly changing, so when more powerful monsters show up we don't need a higher level cap, just more teamwork. One helpful thing now is, the day of really needing 2 monks for most things.. except maybe elite missions, is really over. With the ritualist in popluar demand of doing a better of a whole party protection and the paragon not only helping to supply energy, but have many pyromaniac skills and plenty of cool skills to work with.

A stance tank would once in a while have some energy problems when using certian skills, but now with caster regeneration you can do a lot!

The real problem here is you may thinking "well an assasin with a ranger secondary with no spells can do a lot with 6 regen," the problem is without things such as assassin's promise you cannot keep up the continual spike. I welcome assassin's to my group many of times, but the average person i talk to seems to play pve as it were pvp.

Really these 2 classes, combined with other classes already in the game should be great, we can only wait to see exactly how the skills will be in the final run.

Paperfly · Aug 15, 2006, 01:54 PM // 13:54

If you're trying to come up with an optimal group, I'm not convinced a single Barrage ranger is all that impressive. It's the Orders boosting the damage (as well as the sheer number of arrows from the team) that makes a B/P group impressive. Alone, though? It's just a way for rangers to get groups by proving they have a "known" build. An A/R Critical Barrager might even be a better idea if he's going to be your only archer, since he could at least spread some bleeding around!

...And if you just want more mass damage, take more necros - eles if you're up against level 20 or lower enemies. It's really that simple.

Quote:

dervish PBaoe and ability to tank aswell, fueled also by boon protection monk

The problem here is that you're putting together a "classic" tanking team, where you need your defensive frontline to hold the aggro... And going by the Zealot's Fire precedent, Dervishes are likely going to cause scatter if they cast damage spells more than once every three seconds or so.

...Which in a defensive line group is fatal, since the mobs will promptly recalculate their aggro priorities and charge the backline. Your PBaoe dervish would actually do much better in a "fluid aggro" group where your warriors are damage-dealers and an assassin (gasp!) would actually have a place!

Quote:

paragon with shouts echos and chants not spears

From my PVP weekend experience (which is all any of us have, natch!

) a couple of spear attacks on even the most defensive paragon is useful because (a) they are one of the most effective classes at spreading Deep Wound and Daze, which lets you take out or suppress the primary called target; and (b) because they have the easiest time triggering their own shouts' effects!

With a monk and a ritualist being plenty of defense (and your warrior geared to tank), I'd say an offensive-chant paragon is the way to go. "Go for the Eyes!" supercharging your minion master's damage? Yes please!

Finally:

Quote:

the problem is without things such as assassin's promise you cannot keep up the continual spike.

I've had some good results with Assassin's Promise, actually...

...Though for simplicity's sake, and to free up the elite, these days I run a low-specced Serpent's Quickness instead. All you're trying to do is maximise how often you can use Twisting Fangs, after all!

LiamR · Aug 17, 2006, 10:01 PM // 22:01

That paragon skill is so good. Is it an elite? How much energy does it need to be used? If its low-ish, the warrior can use it so spam irrestistable blow/cyclone/jaihenzu/power attack alot, without bothering with energy problems.

unholy guardian · Aug 17, 2006, 10:26 PM // 22:26

I've had some good results with Assassin's Promise, actually...

...Though for simplicity's sake, and to free up the elite, these days I run a low-specced Serpent's Quickness instead. All you're trying to do is maximise how often you can use Twisting Fangs, after all!

[/QUOTE]

No no i implied assassin's promise is awesome, which it is, i use it all the time.

Quote:

That paragon skill is so good. Is it an elite? How much energy does it need to be used? If its low-ish, the warrior can use it so spam irrestistable blow/cyclone/jaihenzu/power attack alot, without bothering with energy problems. "

No not an elite. 25 energy though. You never know i think those sorrow furnace b/p groun will "find" the room for a paragon just for this. Though expertise is great energy managment, 2 extra pips of regen won't hurt anyone.. except the enemys lol. Warrior energy managment will get a whole lot easier too. Pretty much anyone without spells.

Ensign · Aug 17, 2006, 10:50 PM // 22:50

They're both physicals and should slot nicely into the 5 physical / 2 monk / 1 necro team. My gut feeling is that a paragon is more likely to be played well than a dervish, the latter of which I expect to be the new w/mo.

Peace,
-CxE

unholy guardian · Aug 17, 2006, 11:17 PM // 23:17

Not to smite down the paragon by any means, but it would seem a bit more of passive class, and not as alertness would be needed as say an interupter unless you are interupting. The dervish seems slightly harder to try and cookie cutter, and played badly will be more noticed. The dervish has a bit more to jugle as a frontline low armor class. Nonetheless i will welcome both into my groups full heartily

Phantom Gun · Aug 17, 2006, 11:34 PM // 23:34

I just hope these new classes will be the result of seeing many interesting and hopefully successful builds in pve and pvp gameplay. I'm tired of seeing the same old groups of 1 or 2 tanks and monks, nuker, mm and whatever. It makes it hard for several builds to even find a group unless it's a group with other people who have similar builds.

On my ranger character I stood around for hours trying to find a group about halfway through factions. The result? I ended up in a group of ALL rangers because everybody is so by the book and scared of certain classes and builds.

Yet on my warrior I can usually say W/MO lfg mission and get an invite or two soon after. Especially on my monk but that's just a givin. So yeah, break the law with these new classes lol.

Oh and we tore through that mission with the all ranger group by the way.