Curse

swordfisher · Mar 08, 2006, 08:56 PM // 20:56

Before I start, this build is a reworking of a team arena build [Poke] uses/used. The plan is to knock the enemy on their ass, then kill them. Fairly simple premise, I think you'll agree. As I'm not able to play GW at the moment, and I don't remember where the attrib calculator is found, so I can't give reliable numbers.

W/mo, Hammer with Smite
16 Hammer
10 smite
Remainder to strength

Earthshaker*
Hammer Bash
Crushing Blow
Frenzy
Sprint
Holy Strike
Smite Hex
Rez Sig

(though I like holy strike, I'm torn as to whether or not it's truly valuable in this build. Maybe switch for mighty blow- irres is tempting, but this warrior is already too energy dependent. run with zealous hammer)

W/E Axe with Aftershock
16 Axe
10 Earth
Remainder Str

Eviscerate*
Executioners Strike
Penetrating Blow
Bulls Strike
Frenzy
Rush
Aftershock
Rez Sig

(shouldn't have too much trouble handling the energy costs of aftershock with only bulls strike, frenzy, AS and the rest adrenal)

Mo/me MoR Boon Prot
14 Divine Favor (12+1+1)
9 Protection
10 Inspiration

Mantra of Recall*
Divine Boon
Reversal of Fortune
Mend Condition
Guardian
Contemplation of Purity
Drain Enchant
-open slot-

(if nothing comes to mind, rez sig is good for that open spot)

Mo/me Smite + Prot support
16 Smite
10 Inspiration
10 Protection

Signet of Judgement*
Balth Aura
Smite Hex
Mantra of Inscriptions
Drain Enchant
Mend Ailment
Prot Spirit
Rez Sig

(inspiration should be pegged to best breakpoint for mantra of inscriptions, sig of judgement is the lynchpin here. with the present bar, prot can afford to lose some attrib points)

The idea here is basically to disrupt the other team with knockdowns, and then take advantage of that state with aftershock, holy strike, and balth aura. Sig of J should be coming up about every 18 seconds, and following it with earthshaker and then hammer bash is just a silly amount of complete shutdown on one (or more! god help a clustered team) foes. Bulls strike and balth aura have beautiful synergy- running from it means you get knocked down and take the hurt, not running means you stand still and take the hurt- I would put BA on the axe warrior for the most part. In theory, putting BA on the hammer warrior would allow each warrior to simultaneously kill a target- axe warrior aftershocks and unloads adrenaline on a target knocked down by SoJ, while the hammer warrior KDs with earthshaker, deep wounds, and hammer bashes...while passively doing 26 damage a second.

Your comments, please.

Esuna · Mar 11, 2006, 07:59 AM // 07:59

If you're warrior dependent, I would have the smite support monk run draw conditions instead, for condition stackers like crippling rangers or blinder eles. However, I usually don't like 2-monk builds in TA because it easily lowers DPS. On another note, if you're running heavy warrior damage, why not make the support monk into a E/Mo smiter? That way you can run stuff like strength of honor, and judge's insight, and keep up the energy through ether prodigy. Usually that's how my guild does it in TA, but paired with an energy denial/monk shutdown mesmer instead of another warrior.

rii · Mar 11, 2006, 04:39 PM // 16:39

In Ta recently I have witnessed the mass devastation duel hamers inflicts. A pure warrior hammer can string a combo together that easily kills, which is much less energy intensive than all this as/hs stuff, which is overkill tbh. With two of them, there are few teams that can withstand apart from 2 monk backlines, both boonprot, who really know what they are doing.
There arent many of them.
As for the last slot, we often try and get a flashturret elmo in there, the blind/weaken is great against warriors, thumpers... all common. Heal Party often is subbed in by ward against melee, and lately we've been thinking about JI for the hammers.

2 monks in ta is usually overkill, but the smite aspect is alright, but... another hammer warrior would probably make more of a difference -.-

JR · Mar 11, 2006, 04:55 PM // 16:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by rii

In Ta recently I have witnessed the mass devastation duel hamers inflicts. A pure warrior hammer can string a combo together that easily kills, which is much less energy intensive than all this as/hs stuff, which is overkill tbh. With two of them, there are few teams that can withstand apart from 2 monk backlines, both boonprot, who really know what they are doing.
There arent many of them.

It is not entirely down to the monks. Against two warriors it is also down to your water ele/curses necro/trapper... etc. A good team build will have a character with plenty of warrior shutdown, purely because if they didn't they would get rocked as you describe.

rii · Mar 11, 2006, 06:43 PM // 18:43

In all honesty... maybe it's the players not the build, but duel hammer triumphs all.
I think the best case of the principle was one match we had duel hammer/flashturret/MOR monk, all the stuff, and we ran across

necro/mesmer: SS, faint, para bond, shadow, insidious
necro: blood spammer... aotl and whatever)
monk
ele: dont know exactly (had enervating and strike though)

now, it might be a freak victory, but we won within 3:30... it was a short war of attrition but the necro (who layered everything on me) failed to make a lot of difference. A perhaps lucky 130 crit off irresistable on their monk sent him into panic.. and a sprint/smack combo put more pressure on them than they needed. Dunno what happened to the other hammer, but i saw a couple of facs appear above my head whilst i was chasing the monk, and once their offense was down.. of course the hexes laid off. I can't remember who it was, but a team that didnt have a lot of hex removal once explained that 'if their hexers are running away 70% of the time then who needs hex removal' (that was gvg though)

Other notable victories were against 2 trappers/1 warrior/monk.. and of course there are a lot of flash turrets a le captain (evil elmo), which are a constant irritation. Hammers just swing and win falls out.

Good team builds are rife... good players are not, and knowing what to do usually hacks through most of it... most of my ta losses come when someone drops due to boredom after 10-15 rounds. Maybe its a slightly arrogant thing to do... but experience and the fact ta is for me simply a place to get faction means duel hammer works better than most things and is generally very quick.

JYX · Mar 11, 2006, 11:17 PM // 23:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by rii

Dunno what happened to the other hammer, but i saw a couple of facs appear above my head whilst i was chasing the monk, and once their offense was down.. of course the hexes laid off.

The other hammer (yours truly) was laying into them in double quick time. It was a pure hex build though, what JR was referring to I think is more of a mix. SoF/Faintheartedness really does work over hammers quite a bit...you can still probably scrape together kills depending on the competence of the enemy. In that case, although their damage reduction was ok, too many hexes were being layered on just for the sake of it. There was no finish.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rii

Good team builds are rife... good players are not, and knowing what to do usually hacks through most of it... most of my ta losses come when someone drops due to boredom after 10-15 rounds. Maybe its a slightly arrogant thing to do... but experience and the fact ta is for me simply a place to get faction means duel hammer works better than most things and is generally very quick.

Thats the point isn't it. Quick match turnover is imo an absolutely needed objective of any TA build I'm putting together. Faction is obviously an incentive, but otherwise also I am simply not happy camping it out with a fully defensive build when, unlike a GvG there is absolutely no progression, little opportunity to spike and is in general, very very dull.

This is the build we're talking about below in full. I know it may not be very well rounded, but we threw this together with the people we had, and it worked very well. We've been running this for a few days and it it has continually performed, to be honest I have not given a lot of thought on improvements due to skill constraints for the people I play with.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 2 of these: MisterHammer

Strength 13
Hammer 16

Devastating
Crushing
Mighty
Bash
Irresistable
Frenzy
Rush
Rez sig

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1 of these: Flashturret

Energy Storage 13
Air 13
Heal 10

Ether Prodigy
Blinding Flash
Enervating Charge
Lightning Orb
Lightning Strike
Windborne Speed
Healing Breeze
Rez sig

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1 of these: Boonprot

Divine Favor: 15
Protect: 11
Inspiration: 10

Boon
Reversal of Fortune
Mend Ailment
Guardian
Protective Spirit
Signet of Devotion
Inspired Hex
Mantra of Recall

The two hammers split up (in our team played by me and Rii), 1 on the monk and 1 on the next softest target. Both of you are fully capable of killing with the KD chain, from a fairly high HP. Charge up your adren, and literally press 1-5 in a row while under the effects of frenzy. It doesn't have to be very exact but do try to co-ordinate so that you take the monk and 1 other target at the same time. Its the same theme as the original poster, but if 2 are knocked at the same time it makes things that much harder and should it be timed right, you leave them little opportunity to act. The ele (in our team played by Windcaller) can also contribute some damage through orb and strike to finish at essential points, but otherwise is a great utility character with blind and weakness. He also has Windborne Speed for either chasing or kiting and Healing Breeze to help relieve some pressure. The monk is fairly standard stuff.

Changes I may consider are fleshing out the monk qualities on the Flashturret, in particular adding a condition removal, most likely draw to combat blind/weakness on the warriors and to remove deep wounding from the monk at a pinch. Rii also suggests JI which may be interesting. The monk can benefit from using Energy Drain and Drain Enchant instead of inspired+mantra of recall. Otherwise I would say its a good, if offensively inclined build.

4runner · Mar 22, 2006, 07:26 PM // 19:26

I think i ran into this build in Ta yesterday, we were 2 r/n 1w/n and a mo/me, and got owned by the hammers, are monk got killed twice by the 3min mark, she is pretty good but with the ele spiking and the hammer dude wailing away she had little chance! burned 2 rez'es in 2 min not good!!

We are thinking of trying it out, but are warriors are not to opened minded to swicthing to hammers, theyll have to witness it for themselves!!

NIce build thanks for posting!

aberz · Mar 22, 2006, 07:46 PM // 19:46

nice build tho, Ill try out and tell you how it works

Happy · Mar 28, 2006, 09:29 AM // 09:29

Drop the rush for sprint, having frenzy on your bar without being able to switch out of it at any time is a crime.

JR · Mar 28, 2006, 10:02 AM // 10:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Happy

Drop the rush for sprint, having frenzy on your bar without being able to switch out of it at any time is a crime.

Rush works fine, it allows you to frenzy more often infact; as opposed to having to wait for Sprint to recharge. It is a bit of a pain sometimes needing adrenaline, but on an energy intensive hammer Warrior it definately comes out ahead I think.

rii · Mar 29, 2006, 08:50 PM // 20:50

I never seem to have a problem using sprint, which i think overall is better.. so that build above... yeh one of them had sprint. Rush is good when the going gets going.. but even though its only 4a its always a pain to go find a paladin to charge up on when the monk starts strafing before youve charged. Of course, sprint can also be used when there are no enemys near by.. lit flag running, repairing objects, relics, etc...

Blow Up Doll · Apr 18, 2006, 09:48 AM // 09:48

I think you flashturret build goes about things the wrong way.

Attributes:
Air Magic: 16 (12+3+1)
Energy Storage: 13 (12+1)

Skills:

Lightning Orb (Air Magic)
Enervating Charge (Air Magic)
Lightning Strike (Air Magic)
Blinding Flash (Air Magic)
Aura of Restoration (Energy Storage)
Air Attunement (Air Magic)
Elemental Attunement {Elite} (Unlinked)
Signet of Ressurection (Unlinked)

This build of mine (in full as http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...d.php?t=103714) if much more effective for spamming flash as you have awesome energy management life the ether prodogy build but you don't have the damage EP does to you. You also can be a powerful offensive help to your team in spikes etc.

rii · Apr 18, 2006, 10:47 AM // 10:47

Actually its fine. Your more impervious to enchantment removal that way (albeit the exhaustion becomes a problem) and ether prodigy lets you spam non-elementalist skills like heal party, healing breeze, judges insight, prot spirit....the list is endless. Sometimes as elmo half your skill bar ends up as monk skills, simply being fueled by the prodigy. If i was a pure ele and i didnt fear drain enchantment then duel attune ftw. As it is, prod is much more well-rounded.

Blow Up Doll · Apr 18, 2006, 11:08 AM // 11:08

Point taken - both work well however i believe. EP Party spammer also works quite well in Ca and Ta. My build is meant more as a powerful solo build in Ca (randoms) than part of a team as you never know what you're going to get in Ca. I find that not that many people have enchant removal in randoms so even if i get my aura of restoration shattered i can just put it bak on every 20 seconds without a problem.
One thing that might be a good change to the flashturret is adding in aura of restoration as spamming blinding flash will give you 55.05 life per cast. This would negate the need for Hb and lead to more effective energy mannagement - however it is only self heal - cant be used on others.