Curse

Smarty · Nov 01, 2010, 12:32 PM // 12:32

The panic bar that I've been running on every character in every area, NM and HM, since the buff works just fine for my Gwen. It's the same as your latest post but with added unnatural signet and empathy, and minus overload and shatter delusions. I stick a FC res on Gwen - if I was going res-less I'd take either overload or chaos storm. No idea why people say empathy's crap in PvE because everything including the casters attacks in PvE, even more so in HM, and it really helps to finish off those annoying high-armour enemies which are still alive when the rest of the mob died because they refused to ball up with the rest.

I started experimenting with my heroes on my ritualist to see which three non-healers would work best for Nightfall, and discovered that a curses necro backed up by Stand Your Ground (and Fallback because I like charging from one combat to the next as fast as possible

but could easily be We Shall Return or whatever) was surprisingly good for my playstyle. SS, barbs, rigor mortis, enfeebling blood, rip enchantment, SoLS, plus para command skills.

If you can't run the bomber, the curser, the panic and the SoS builds between yourself and your three heroes, though, I'd keep the panic and drop the curser.

Cantos · Nov 02, 2010, 11:37 AM // 11:37

I tried a 3x R/P hero build.

All three had the same build revolving around 14 Marksmanship, Disrupting accuracy, go for the eyes, and experts dexterity. They may have had pets with low Beast Mastery as well. I found the damage on this was good, and of course the interrupt stream helped against lots of things. But it was more fragile than a hero build with Rt and N meat shields everywhere, so I stopped using it.

Dastion · Nov 03, 2010, 05:06 PM // 17:06

My main is a Dervish, here is what I usually use.

Xandra: Channeling/Resto. A typical SoS, Bloodsong, Painful Bond build with healing (Spirit Light, PWK, etc.). I give her Spirit Rift for some aoe damage and cracked armor.

Livia: Minion Bomber using Jagged Bones, Bone Minions, Masochism, Death Nova, etc. And Monk for Protective Spirit and Aegis. She wields a 9 Soul Reaping staff with +20% Enchant duration.

Master of Whispers: Curses Necro/Rt with Spiteful Spirit, Barbs, Mark of Pain, etc. Splinter weapon and Flesh of my flesh.

Sometimes I swap out MoW for Vekk in an ER/Prot build. In which case I replace Xandra's Spirit Rift with splinter weapon, and Livia's prot spells with Barbs/Mark of Pain.

The point is, all of these builds are basically classical pvx builds. But I use them in such a way that they maintain their individual effectiveness while greatly complimenting my Derv. People tend to scoff at pvx, but there are some quality builds there if just customize them to yourself and the situation.

Jeydra · Nov 05, 2010, 02:54 AM // 02:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cantos

I tried a 3x R/P hero build.

All three had the same build revolving around 14 Marksmanship, Disrupting accuracy, go for the eyes, and experts dexterity. They may have had pets with low Beast Mastery as well. I found the damage on this was good, and of course the interrupt stream helped against lots of things. But it was more fragile than a hero build with Rt and N meat shields everywhere, so I stopped using it.

I completely forgot about Expert's Dexterity, thanks for reminder.

Here're some baselines I got vs. the Master of Damage.

SoS Rit - with micro (he won't put Painful Bond on the MoD, or cast Ancestor's Rage) I'd say he does about 90-100 DPS.
SoGM Rit - depends on how many spirits are up, but at least 80 DPS, occasionally more (I got 132 DPS over 5 seconds once). Testing both Rits is annoying because the spirits keep attacking the "adjacents" instead of the Master of Damage.
Expert's Dexterity Ranger - I ran this: ED, Read The Wind, Sundering Attack, Penetrating Attack, Keen Arrow, Scavenger Strike, Charm Animal with Dire pet, one free slot that I put down as Res Sig. 65 DPS, with the pet contributing about 14 DPS. I spammed Enfeeble on the Master of Damage for this one.
Prepared Shot Ranger - significantly worse DPS, don't remember the value but at least 5 points less DPS than Expert's Dexterity.
Paragon - with almost no experience with Paragons (in fact I've never played one) I threw together a bar with Soldier's Fury, "To The Limit!" and a heap of attack skills to get about 45 DPS without micro. The hero was surprisingly bad at upkeeping "To The Limit!", I would've expected essentially no downtime in between shouts.
Minion Bomber - can't be sure because generally can't get 11 minions.
Dom Mes - can't really be tested because so much damage comes from stuff like Power Spike, Mistrust, Cry of Frustration and Shatter Enchant / Shatter Hex. With just Overload + Shatter Delusions I got about 18 DPS, which was absolutely pathetic, but then Overload doesn't trigger on the MoD either. Including AoE damage and in real situations where Mistrust can trigger I'd put the DPS at ~50.
Ele - in my experience, without resorting to DoTAoE, it's about 50 DPS and a bit more from stuff like Invoke Lightning hitting more than one target.
Orders Nec - The Orders deal 17 damage per hit. Under an IAS, Paragons attack almost exactly once per second while Rangers clock in at about three hits every four seconds. So if the Orders Necro does ~14 DPS per Ranger / Paragon with a bit more damage from other skills like Strip Enchantment, it'd take 3 Rangers / Paragons to outdamage another caster. I think the Orders Necro can fit in Mark of Pain as well, but I don't see a use in so much of the Curses line that high spec in Curses seems almost a waste (well there's also Barbs I guess but with 2s cast and three ranged physicals focusing damage on the target there's always the risk that target might be dead before Barbs finishes). Any experienced Necros know anything about Orders? Like, OoV or OoP, Awaken The Blood or is the health sacrifice too much, what other skills to put on the bar?

Necromas · Nov 05, 2010, 04:13 AM // 04:13

Generally I steer clear from orders just because it's so much effort just to maintain the one skill and it only benefits party members. It is still pretty strong though in barrage teams and teams with players that use AoE melee attacks but those are more for player teams than hero teams.