Curse

Hooshang · Mar 01, 2005, 01:56 AM // 01:56

I'm designing a ne/wa build but I can't decide whether the build so far would stand a chance against a warror. This is what I have so far.

Class: Necromancer / Warrior

Assumed items:
+1 to Blood Magic

Attributes: (cost)
Soul Reaping: 3 (6)
Blood Magic: 12+1 (97)
Swordsmanship: 12 (97)

Total attribute points used: 200/200

Skills:
1) Vampiric Touch (availability) - (15,1,5) Touch target foe to steal up to 66 health.
2) Shadow Strike (availability) - (15,2,8) Target foe takes 43 shadow damage. If that foe's health is above 50%, you steal 43 health.
3) Life Siphon (availability) - (10,2,2) For 23 seconds, target suffers health degeneration of 3 and you gain health regeneration of 3.
4) Life Transfer (availability) (elite) - (10,2,30) For 11 seconds, target foe suffers health degeneration of 7 which you gain as health regeneration. This is an elite skill.
5) Strip Enchantment (availability) - (10,2,20) Target enemy loses one enchantment, and you gain 70 health.
6) Sever Artery (availability) - (4a,0,0) If this attack hits, the opponent will begin bleeding for 21 seconds, losing health over time.
7) Savage Slash (availability) - (5,0,10) If this attack hits, it interrupts target foe's action. If that action was a spell, you deal 32 extra damage.
8) Final Thrust (availability) - (10a,0,0) Lose all adrenaline. If Final Thrust hits, you deal 32 more damage. This damage is doubled if your target was below 50% health.

I basically start out by using life transfer and life siphon on the enemy then build up enough adrenaline for sever artery. I know the max arrows is 10 but I put sever artery in there to make up for the life transfer while it's recharging.

While fighting, I'll use shadow strike while their life is above 50% and vampiric touch if I need any extra hp. Finally, when final thrust is charged, I'll wait until the enemy is under 50% and activate it. If it does not finish them off I'll attempt to cast both shadow strike and vampiric touch to kill them.

If the enemy I'm fighting is a caster or a monk, I'll use savage slash to interrupt their attempts at healing themselves or casting some spell. If the monk gets away with casting healing breeze or something similar to that, I'll activate strip enchantment to stop it.

I had a build similar to this but instead it was vampiric touch, life siphon, blood renewal, shadow of fear, sever artery, gash, sprint, ressurection signet. This was all I could muster up and it worked really well against casters and warriors but against wa/mo and monks in general, it was pretty difficult. The monks kept healing and healing and there was nothing I could do but just hope they would run out of energy. The wa/mo were even worse if they had a hammer with knockdowns.

What I want to do is have a build strong enough to fight warriors in melee and to counter monk spells which is why I have both savage slash and strip enchantment. I want to fit in plague touch and demonic flesh in there but I don't know what to take out. Also, I think there might be a problem with energy since both vampiric touch and shadow strike are 15 energy to cast but I'm hoping by playing necromancer primary, it could solve the energy problem.

I need to know if it is possible to fight warriors with this build so if it isn't, I could work on a wa/ne or a wa/el.

Mar 01, 2005, 03:42 AM // 03:42

Since its blood/sword you wont have the AP bonus from strength so pumping up your damage is a must. I'd drop life transfer since your at 12 blood and multiple siphons are better. However if this is for a purely single target build you'll have down time and redundancy. It's pretty much one or the other. I'dd add in more attack skills and just try to keep the defensive abilities of blood going.

Sausaletus Rex · Mar 01, 2005, 03:42 AM // 03:42

If your goal is to go toe to toe with a Warrior, you're probably going down the wrong path. A primary Warrior simply has too many advantages in melee for anything but another primary Warrior to have a fair chance at it. An IW mes/war stands a good chance but a primary Warrior's still going to have an edge thanks to Strength and all its skills. You can try it but I wouldn't recommend it. If you're interested in using a Necromancer to counteract Warriors I'd look more into the options available not as a Warrior bt as a caster. Look into the Curses line, learn to make a Warrior a sniveling baby for someone else on your team to finish off or get out of Warrior and pick up another profession that'll let you finish them off yourself from afar. But a bigger question mark is why you want to bang up against Warriors in the first place? GW isn't a game of 1 on 1 duels. It's your team against another team, whether that team's made up of AI or player controlled opponents. The soft targets are the casters, they're easier to take down so why are'nt you concentrating on them?

Also, this build is going to be burning a lot of energy. Way too much, if you ask me. If you're constantly running Life Siphon, Vampiric Touch, and Shadow Strike you're not going to be able to cast for long (And there's also the issue that for what you're getting they have pretty long casting times, too. The time you spend casting is time you don't spend swinging your weapon. That costs you damage. And damage over time is what dealing damage is all about.). Soul Reaping will only give you energy when something dies. And with just 4 ranks in it you'll only get 4 energy a death. That's just not going to cut it, you'd need something to die once every 3 seconds to just double your natural energy regeneration. You should look into picking up more adrenal skills, if you're staying as a Warrior, to ease your energy burden. Gash pairs very well with Sever. Although Final Thrust is problematic as it'll drain all your adrenal charges. But if you're using it after Sever+Gash, it can work.

Hooshang · Mar 01, 2005, 04:02 AM // 04:02

Thanks for the help guys.

Well what i want to do is be able to keep a really high regen rate and slow down the enemies dps so that i'll be gaining more hp than they can dish out. perhaps i could put in shadow of fear or fainthartness to do that but my skill list is too packed with the strip enchantment and savage slash. i will also try to fit in gash.

in the arena fights, i would usually run after someone thats alone and initiate a 1v1 with them. most of the time they were casters since they stay back and heal or cast a fire storm. i never hesitated to run after a warrior though since 90% of the time i would win. its just i want the high regen rate so i can absorb the damage they deal.

astzzz · Mar 01, 2005, 05:20 AM // 05:20

From my experience, shadow strike isnt worth it if you're a meleemancer. You'll get the one chance to use it, and you lose a big chunk of energy for it (not to mention long cast time). It's nice to draw monsters in PvE, but I wouldnt count on it against people.

Skull crack would make a nice interrupt skill, that way you can fit in gash, like Sausaletus Rex suggested. As was said spamming siphon is better than life transfer (yes that 7 degen/gain looks sexy, but...).

Final thrust does a lot of damage, but it takes a relatively long time to charge up, and it has a slowish animation before it actually hits (at least it did for me).

Spura · Mar 01, 2005, 07:14 AM // 07:14

I tried using vamp touch in a build and it is too expesive for what it does. I was out of energy instantly and the effect wasn't great. Oh and it was 83 lifesteal, and it still sucked.

I would like to recommend soul leech if you can find it in BWE. I used it at 18 blood(93 HP lifesteal), and it pretty much made me immune to lightning elementalists if I used it on one.

BlackArrow · Mar 01, 2005, 07:23 AM // 07:23

How did you get 18 blodd Spura? As far as I know you'd have to have +1 scar, Superior Rune and the Necro skill that boosts Blood and Curses by +2 for a short while. Other than that it's impossible.

I'd swtich the build around to W/N if you want to go melee. Use mostly Adren attacks and a few life giving Blood spells for backup. Strip Enchantment is a keeper I'd say too.

Sausaletus Rex · Mar 01, 2005, 07:44 AM // 07:44

Au contrair. Blood at 18 is possible. Behold Awaken the Blood. That's an extra +2 to your Blood and Curse skills. With the +3 from a rune and the +1 from scars that's a total +6 bonus. Add that to a start point of 12 and, viola! Blood 18. You can do the same with any elemental attribute and Glyph of Elemental Power.

Of course, the question is whether or not it's actually worth it. And, as Spura will likely attest, it's probably not.

Spura · Mar 01, 2005, 02:39 PM // 14:39

It did kick my well of blood into 7 PIP and Soul Leech goes from 83 to 94 or so. So if you don't have sacrifise skills it could be worth it.

BlackArrow · Mar 01, 2005, 04:44 PM // 16:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sausaletus Rex

Au contrair. Blood at 18 is possible. Behold Awaken the Blood. That's an extra +2 to your Blood and Curse skills. With the +3 from a rune and the +1 from scars that's a total +6 bonus. Add that to a start point of 12 and, viola! Blood 18. You can do the same with any elemental attribute and Glyph of Elemental Power.

Of course, the question is whether or not it's actually worth it. And, as Spura will likely attest, it's probably not.

I actually mentioned that in my post. I thought it might have been a typo by Spura at first, and I was checking if that's how he did it. I've never played a Necro before, but that skill could be useful if you play a Blood and Curses heavy necro and need the extra boost to your attibutes. I don't feel right about a +3 rune though (too much hp gone for my taste) but the +2 from Awaken the Blood would probably help some. The only way I could see it being really worth while is for a secondary necro boosting BLood and curse since they can't use runes or headgear to boost theit necro side.

Hooshang · Mar 01, 2005, 09:13 PM // 21:13

Soul leech does look like a good elite since it can give you a nice edge against casters and wa/mo.

im convinced that shadow strike sucks for this build so i'll replace it with gash. i'll probably keep in savage slash instead of strip enchantment cause i would rather prevent them from casting it in the first place and deal the extra damage. but then i could always just cast soul leech and get healed instead. guess it decides on the situation, whether im too low on life or if the enemy is trying to heal.

I came up with an updated build:

Class: Necromancer / Warrior

Assumed items:
+1 to Blood Magic

Attributes: (cost)
Soul Reaping: 2 (3)
Blood Magic: 11+1 (77)
Curses: 6 (21)
Swordsmanship: 12 (97)

Total attribute points used: 198/200

Skills:
1) Life Siphon (availability) - (10,2,2) For 22 seconds, target suffers health degeneration of 3 and you gain health regeneration of 3.
2) Soul Leech (availability) (elite) - (10,2,15) For 10 seconds, whenever target foe casts a spell you steal 67 health from that foe. This is an elite skill.
3) Demonic Flesh (availability) - (5,1,60) Sacrifice 101 health. For 54 seconds, your maximum health is increased by 176.
4) Plague Touch (availability) - (5,1,0) Transfer a negative condition from yourself to target touched foe.
5) Sever Artery (availability) - (4a,0,0) If this attack hits, the opponent will begin bleeding for 21 seconds, losing health over time.
6) Gash (availability) - (7a,0,0) If this attack hits a bleeding foe, you strike for 8 more damage and that foe suffers a deep wound, lowering that foe's maximum health by 20% for 17 seconds.
7) Savage Slash (availability) - (5,0,10) If this attack hits, it interrupts target foe's action. If that action was a spell, you deal 32 extra damage.
8) Final Thrust (availability) - (10a,0,0) Lose all adrenaline. If Final Thrust hits, you deal 32 more damage. This damage is doubled if your target was below 50% health.

Before the fight starts, i'll use demonic flesh to boost my hp. Im gonna go with the double life siphon instead of a life transfer so that will help absorb some of the hits. if im fighting a caster, i'll use savage slash to interrupt their spells but if im taking too many hits, i'll use soul leech to gain some extra health. if i end up having to fight a warrior, most likely they'll use sever artery or some other debuff so i'll have plague touch handy for that.

to deal damage, i'll just end up first going with sever artery and gash. once i get final thrust activated, i'll use it when they're below 50%. im thinking of switching in galrath slash instead since its only 8 adrenaline and doesnt remove all adrenaline.

i still feel like somethings missing, as if my offense still is lacking. im gonna try another ne/wa during the next bwe and i'll try decide whether a wa/ne would be better for my style of gameplay. only thing im worried about is not having enough energy as a warrior.

btw, the 2 soul reaping is there for a filler for now.

Dovi the Monk · Mar 01, 2005, 09:35 PM // 21:35

[COLOR=DarkGreen]instead of final thrust, i might go galrath slash instead, or maybe even pure strike. i also dont know about that demonic flesh, i mean once the spell ends does your health go back to where it was before u got the extra 176. and do the attacks you get come off your original health when the spell ends or off the 176 first? if they come off before the 176, then when that spell ends wouldnt u just drop and die?? correct me im wrong there or anythin im just thinking maybe there would be a better skill? maybe instead use that spell from curses line called price of failure that will give u a little bit more defense as well as some offense, although u may want to cast it before the warrior reaches you because of its 3 sec castin time. btw what it does is the warrior has a 25% i think chance to miss with attacks and whenever he does he takes damage.[/COLOR]

Hooshang · Mar 02, 2005, 06:14 AM // 06:14

if i was to use lets say defensive stance with price of failure, wouldnt the enemy now have a 100% chance to miss? if thats true, then they would be take an extra 25 damage if curses is at 12 each time they attack.

yeah the 3 second casting time sounds really annoying considering i have to pull off 2 life siphons.

edit: i just realized that if i use gladiators defense with price of failure, i could be dishing out extra damage rather than going with dots and the other high adrenaline skills. with gladiators defense, i could deal a potential of 54 damage with price of failure.