Curse

Dagoth Umbra · Jun 02, 2011, 04:30 AM // 04:30

Warrior/any (Me):

Enduring Scythe or NRA Rage Warrior (Battle Rage + Never Rampage Alone with adrenal axe skills). I can run pretty much anything, I just want to do as much damage as possible.

In no particular order:

Rit/Mo (16 Channeling, 12 Smite, 3 spawn) (as long as I'm the only one with a physical weapon in the party, Razah casts Judge's and Splinter on me decently):

Judge's Insight, Splinter Weapons, SoS, Bloodsong, Agony, Ancestor's Rage, Spirit Siphon, Strength of Honor (disabled and cast on me of course)

2x N/Rit (15 Soul Reaping, 12 Restoration)

Signet of Lost Souls, Xinrae's Weapon, Weapon of Warding, Mend Body and Soul, Spirit Light, Protective was Kaolai, Signet of Sorrow, Flesh of My Flesh (or Death Pact Signet).

Rit/Mo (16 Communing, 12 Spawning)

Boon of Creation, Mighty Was Vorizun, Soul Twisting, Shelter, Displacement, Armor of Unfeeling, Remove Hex, Flesh of My Flesh (got rid of Union upon reading about how it can cause Shelter to end up with a recharge).

N/Mo (13 Curses, 12 Protection, 8 Soul Reaping):

SoLS, Divert Hexes, Reversal of Fortune, Protective Spirit, Enfeebling Blood, Meekness, Aegis, Resurrection Chant (disabled) - this necro can be changed up to whatever I need, I used to run him as curses and SoS or Curses and SoH, but hexes were getting really annoying.)

2x Me/P (12 Fast Cast, 12 Command, 9 Inspiration):

Psychic Instability, Complicate, Cry of Frustration, Power Spike, Power Drain, Waste Not Want Not, Fall Back, (Stand Your Ground one, GftE on the other for lack of a better skill).

I hate micro-managing heroes, other than making shelter is down before a dangerous fight.

I have also tried using two paragons so as to keep the constant Fall Back's but add more damage, but they do not seem to add that much damage (plus they confuse Razah as to who to cast Judge's and Splinter on), while losing the amazing shutdown of the mesmers.

This build is superb for defense, massive condition removal, good hex removal, if I bring Asura Scan I cannot be blocked, and strong defense if I am smart. I have vanquished with it, beaten Dungeons in HM (Catacombs of Kathandrax and Shards of Orr HM), but I do not destroy as quick as I would like, since I am the sole main damage dealer.

Some might say go Panic and either Illusion or Domination for mesmer dmg, but then I will probably lose my double Fall Back, which I REALLY want, since I hate walking around in a vanquish trying to find that last group. Double Fall Back really speed's things up.

And before you ask, no I cannot upload the bars as images. Feel free to do so.

Also, my view is that spirits are slow, particularly SoGM on an Hero AI. Not a fan of minions either. The idea is to destroy everything as quick as possible while still having plenty of defense, without micro.

Note, my heroes use bonus weapons and whatever runes I have found to throw on them.

Thanks all.

jackinthe · Jun 02, 2011, 05:15 AM // 05:15

3 healers?
4 hard res?
build looks super defensive but ends up leaving you doing the bulk of your damage.
what is union/shelter recharge problem btw? never had a problem with it...

IronSheik · Jun 02, 2011, 06:21 AM // 06:21

Two weapon healers never sit well with me, they tend to overwrite my splinter.

But since you have no minions, but do have a soul prot, drop your regular prot.

Fall back can be fit into Panic/Inept bars.

Use a curse/weaken armor, it can increase damage more than you think.

But way too defensive, if you want to kill as fast as you say you don't need that much defense.

Anaraky · Jun 02, 2011, 10:06 AM // 10:06

Personally I would ditch one of the N/rit healers for a dedicated Smiter monk, make the SoS rit into an offensive SoS rit instead of SoS/Support and switch the protter for a UA monk.

Reasoning: 2x strong spot healers are overkill, change one for someone with stronger party heals (UA monk). A protter along with a defensive ST rit is overkill, change it for some extra offence (smiter). That frees up a couple of skills in the SoS rit bar so you can take some more offensive skills.

Dagoth Umbra · Jun 03, 2011, 03:31 AM // 03:31

@Jackinthe

The Union/Shelter recharge problem is, if you run into combat and your Rit AI uses all three spirits, but Shelter is depleted too fast, and the AI uses Shelter before has recast Soul Twisting, Shelter will have to recharge. And if Shelter is depleted again before the fight is over, and it is a huge fight, that could be a party wipe.

Dagoth Umbra · Jun 03, 2011, 03:34 AM // 03:34

The main problem is, the best smite build is RoJ, which requires micro. A pure dmg rit does lightning damage, which is weak in HM. Ah well, I'll work on it.

Anaraky · Jun 03, 2011, 08:47 AM // 08:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dagoth Umbra

The main problem is, the best smite build is RoJ, which requires micro. A pure dmg rit does lightning damage, which is weak in HM. Ah well, I'll work on it.

It doesn't require micro. It is better with micro sure, but if you CTRL-Attack a decent target at the start of the fight they usually use RoJ decently. Each to their own though, if you don't like Smiter monks you shouldn't run one. With 7 heroes there should be enough room for some serious customization based on player preference without gimping oneself.

Plutoman · Jun 03, 2011, 02:16 PM // 14:16

Seems like a crazy amount of defense - a necro based protection, with monk prots and curses protection through lowering enemy damage. An ST Rit. 2 full N/Rt healers, each with Xinrae's. Two mesmers with PI.

If you want to remain defensive, this is prolly too much. :/ A major change is to just switch mesmers to more spikey damage, and more damage in general. You have 4 interrupts each, they'll get wasted, particularly the e-management ones, and the damage won't come through with them as well. I try to keep only two interrupts per mesmer, rarely I'll do 3. Fast casting means that that's plenty to spam out (especially PI).

If you want to keep the knockdowns, use some other skills that provide unconditional damage (unnatural signet, Spiritual Pain), rather than Power Spike which won't get needed while they're knocked down. If you don't mind losing the knockdowns, run dual e-surge (or similar damage spike skills). You have a lot of shutdown and protection to warrant the double spike while you clean up.

To squeeze a bit more damage, run hex eater signet on the mesmers as more e-management, not conditional upon interrupting. It's a relatively long recharge, but powerful hex removal. That could allow you to run a full damage build, smiting, invoke, etc - on the last necro. Alternatively, include weaken armor to boost up your own damage - Judge's Insight still respects armor.

There's a lot of options for more damage here, while keeping the extreme defense and stability you're wanting - hope this helps!