Curse

LifeInfusion · Feb 21, 2011, 04:18 PM // 16:18

Right now the only thing stopping melee from stomping people in is Guardian (not really), positioning, shield sets, Spirit bond/Reversal of Fortune, blind/hexes, and linebacking.

Mainly positioning/miss+snare/Balanced stance/Disciplined stance in the end assuming your enchantments get stripped and nobody's linebacking.

Test of Faith is pretty insane, it's more or less unstoppable due to being a touch spell (assuming you can build the adrenaline). Rending aura with any knockdown... Rending Sweep is more or less unstoppable unless they're blocking with a stance, in which you can use Irresistible sweep/Wild Blow/Wild Strike/Wild Throw.

Triple melee...no warriors, capitalizing on knockdowns like the 2 dev hammer + 1 YAA/Caltrops sin build.

Since the only knockdown prevention is balanced stance, dolyak signet, Ward of stability, and Aura of stability, essentially what's needed is bulk enchant removals (strip enchantment, Rending Aura, Test of faith, rip enchantment, gaze of contempt, rending sweep, etc.) and stance breakers (Wild blow/strike/throw, Irresistible sweep). Nobody runs Dolyak outside of RA... so there. Fleeting stability stops 1 knockdown, not 2-5.

Outline:
D/W hammer or D/W reaper's sweep, D/W onslaught scythe, A/D rending aura daggers, Me/N PI Illusion, N/Rt, Rt/A flagger, Mo/W Heal, Mo/W Prot or hybrid

D/W Hammer
10+1+1 Mysticism = 5 energy instead of 10 energy flash enchant
12 Hammer
8+1 Wind

Furious Scythe of Enchanting/Zealous Scythe of enchanting, "guided by fate"

1 Balthazar's Rage/Harrier's Grasp (if using Frenzy)
2 Pious Fury (use with Balth Rage only)/Frenzy (IAS)
3 Magehunter's smash (guardian/disciplined stance/bonetti's? no problem)
4 Irresistible blow +17 (almost guaranteed knockdown on things with Guardian) ... better than Mystic sweep which is +23 total
5 Bull's Strike +5 /Counter blow for linebacking/Yeti Smash for another KD
6 Harrier's Haste/ (Rush cancel stance if running Frenzy)
7 Crushing blow +16 (Deep wound is easy when you have many sources of KD)
8 Res Sig

* Originally I wanted D,W,A but you can't run Harrier's Haste/Balth Rage/Zealous Renewal on a warrior, Aura slicer/Banishing strike (PvP) ... D/W mainly for the energy reductions not the 2 melee attacks.

Why not just go a normal 13 hammer 14 str? Because needing a cancel stance is pretty lame. You can't be on IAS AND IMS at the same time, whereas with Harrier's Haste + Balth Rage + Pious Fury you get +2 adrenaline every 10s and 25% IMS with 25% IAS. Balth rage only needs 8 mysticism. You need 13 str for +3 on enraging charge every 20s.

With this you can chase like with Enraging Charge + Frenzy at the same time.

D/W Scythe hammer
9+1 Mysticism
12+1+1 Scythe
9+1 Wind
rest in hammer

Harrier's Haste --> what kiting?
Balthazar's Rage
Pious Fury --> use with Balth Rage
Wild Blow (Irresistible Sweep (PvP) is 5 adrenaline...)
Hammer Bash --> only adrenaline skill, so you can unload it very often
Wounding Strike --> deep wound every 6s with Rending Aura
Rending Aura
Res sig

Hammer Bash --> wild blow = enchantment gone
PI/Gale/Palm Strike --> Wounding Strike = enchantment gone+ deep wound

KD Scythe variant with Reaper's Sweep (needs more enchantment spam, but faster KDs)
D/W
11+1 Mysticism = 5 energy instead of 10 energy flash enchant
12+1+1 Scythe
6+1 Wind

Furious Scythe of Enchanting/Zealous Scythe of enchanting , "guided by fate"

Pious Fury (IAS so scythe hits once every 1.125seconds)
Harrier's Haste (fuels Reaper's Sweep KDs, IMS when not being used for that)
Reaper's Sweep (longer knockdown than Dev Hammer or Magehunter's Smash)
Victorious Sweep - energy-based followup to Reaper's Sweep to trigger Rending Aura
Crippling Sweep (cripple)
Balthazar's Rage (fuels Pious Fury, free adrenaline)
Zealous Renewal (fuels Reaper's Sweep KDs, use when it's about to end anyway for +energy)
Res sig

*This hits harder, faster, more reliably than a W/ cripslash , since 5 adrenaline for crippling victory or 6s recharge on crippling sweep is much faster.

D/W Onslaught
10+1 Mysticism
12+1+1 Scythe
8+1 Wind - breakpoint on Grenth's fingers transfer of 2 conditions is 8

Furious Scythe of Enchanting, "guided by fate"

Zealous Renewal (fuels wearying strike deep wounds, use when it's about to end anyway for +4energy)
Onslaught (IAS so scythe hits once every 1.125seconds) ---> always cover it!
Grenth's Fingers (condition transfer, plus fuels wearying strike deep wounds)
Wild Blow (Stance remover that doesn't rely on enchants)
Wearying strike (strip Grenth's fingers)
Crippling Sweep/Bull's strike
Test of Faith (8 wind for 3s daze)
Res sig

* I considered using Ebon Dust Aura + Conviction (pretty lame except vs condition pressure, which will be pulled off by Foul Feast anyway) +Shield of Force (more KD against linebackers) but since it is not a controlled knockdown and Onslaught has more bar compression and better synergy with Zealous Renewal then you don't need to worry about your IAS/IMS as much.

With 12+1+1 scythe, 9+1 Mysticism, 9+1 Earth

Aura of Thorns (replaces Crippling Sweep)
Ebon dust Aura (+15, removes blind)
Fleeting stability (IMS, not for anti-KD...)
Pious Fury (strip Fleeting stability)
Wearying strike (strip Aura of Thorns)
Wild Blow
Bull's Strike/Grapple (use with Fleeting Stability to make it useful)
Res sig

A/D Rending aura
12+1 Critical strikes
12+1+1 Dagger
3 Wind

zealous +5 energy daggers of defense "guided by fate" , vampiric +5 energy daggers of defense "guided by fate"

1 Jagged strike
2 Fox Fangs/Wild Strike
3 Critical Strike/Ninetail Strike
4 Palm Strike
5 Trampling Ox/Horns of the Ox
6 Dash --> if something is KDed run over there and jagged strike to capitalize on it, or just do your own thing with Palm strike - trampling ox
7 Rending aura --> with Jagged strike, mass enchantment removal on anything knocked down
8 Shadow Walk

PI Me/N
8+1 Fast cast
12+1+1 Illusion
10+1 inspir

Pvp spear of defense, Shield of fortitude ; 20/20 Fast cast or defensive fast cast staff of defense

Psychic Instability (KD) =3s KD
Signet of clumsiness (KD on physicals, rangers) = more KD
Fragility (triggers off Weakness, cripple)
Inspired Hex (3rd hex removal)
Leech sig (interrupt on demand, for anything from res sig to Recuperation and Life)
Web of Disruption/Shrinking armor (not a very strong skill, but more hexes can't hurt...)
Kitah's Burden (snare, not as strong as ele ones or Crippling Anguish)
Res sig

originally wanted to slot Gale... but then exhaustion is a killer. I guess a variant would be E/ Water + Gale, with glowing ice energy management (which is resistant to enchant strip)

E/
12+1+1 Water
11+1 Energy storage
5+1 Air magic (only need 5 for gale +1 for weakness)
4 Restoration Magic

Spear of defense+ shield of fortitude, 20/20 wand and focus water set

Shard Storm (66% Snare)
Gale (on demand KD with 5 recharge)
Glyph of Lesser Energy (-16 energy x2)
Ether Prism (+17 energy)/Glyph of Energy (makes Gale more usable but extremely predictable and d-shot bait)
Glowing Ice (+5e energy management @12 energy stor)
Blurred Vision (50% miss)
Winter's Embrace/Freezing Gust (66% Snare)
DP sig

* these two are used over a cripshot since a cripshot's cripple gets RC-ed/Foul feast-ed and PI/gale are more reliable than arrows.

Wail Blood N/Rt
12+1+1 blood
12+1 Soul reaping
3 Restor

Spear of defense + Shield of fortitude ; 20/20 SR wand and focus

Masochism (PvP)/Angorodon's Gaze
Strip Enchantment
Barbed signet
Foul feast
Blood of the Aggressor
Wail of Doom ... use on heal monks when someone is about to get spiked out, there's enchant/stance removals so you need something to keep healer occupied
Oppressive Gaze
DP sig

N/Rt channel variant
12+1+1 blood
8+1 Soul reaping
10 Channeling
2 Restoration Magic

Masochism (PvP)
Strip Enchantment
Barbed signet
Foul feast
Blood of the Aggressor
Nightmare Weapon - use on sin so that 7-17 base damage isn't totally crap ; Warmonger's weapon for melee to sit on casters
Weapon of Fury - use on Dervishes
DP sig

* probably can sub in a crip shot ranger here (bring aura slicer on dervish somewhere for bleeding), if you bring a RC monk... the problem is that you lose (on demand) enchant stack removal from strip enchantment in exchange for interrupts that may or may not hit (d-shot is fine and dandy but only against water and air eles + Restor rit, not mesmers and not really for 1s spam cast necro stuff).

Rt/A Restor flagger
Spear of defense + Shield of fortitude ; 20/20 restor wand and focus

Life (PvP)
Weapon of Warding (PvP)
Wielder's Boon
Protective was Kaolai
Resilient Weapon/Recuperation (PvP) if running N/Rt weapon spell guy
Dash
Spirit Channeling
DP sig

Rt/A ST variant
Spear of defense + Shield of fortitude ; defensive staff of defense

Soul Twisting
Shelter (PvP)
Union (PvP)
Displacement (PvP)
Dash
Soothing
Boon of Creation
DP sig

Mo/W: WoH/Healing Burst
12+1+1 heal
10+1 DF
8 tac

Spear of defense + Shield of fortitude ; 20/20 heal wand and focus
WoH/Healing burst
Infuse Health
d-kiss (works wonders with the dervishes and sin)/Patient Spirit
cure hex
Vigorous Spirit?/Spotless Mind
Signet of Rejuvenation
7 (Normally draw conditions or Guardian here)
Shield Bash (more KD; unlike Shield of Force it doesn't cost 10 energy and 4+ attributes in earth prayers for the same duration)

Mo/W: prot (life sheath?)

Spear of defense + Shield of fortitude ; 20/20 heal wand and focus

12+1+1 Prot
9+1 DF
9 tac

Life Sheath (pointless to strip given recharge)
Spirit Bond (superior to Prot Spirit in PvP since damage won't exceed 140-160 and 10hits of 60+ every 5seconds is plenty, although prot spirit is better vs DP)
Guardian (1 cast is risky)
Shielding Hands
Aura of Stability
Holy Veil (1 cast)
Balanced Stance/Riposte (if you run a sword swap instead of only spear)/Deadly riposte (sword defensive set)
Shield Bash (more KD)

* I kind of want to replace this with a hybrid without stances like

Mo/W: hybrid
12+1+1 Prot
8+1 DF
7 tac (2 less armor, big whoop)
8+1 Heal

Spear of defense + Shield of fortitude ; 20%HSR/HCT prot wand and focus

Life Sheath (pointless to strip given recharge)
Prot Spirit
Guardian (1 cast is risky)
Shielding Hands (SoA is 1s cast)
Aura of Stability
Holy Veil (1 cast)
Gift of Health (3/4 cast)
Shield Bash (more KD)

End notes
still in draft stage... I think it needs more snares and I don't think you really need a RC monk here so LS would work too.

I feel like Rending sweep is pretty decent, but I like daze from Test of faith, even if it is RC bait. The window for Rc is 1-3 seconds, which is small. It also triggers fragility damage.

Counters: ward of stability spam (unlikely since nobody runs earth magic these days), dolyak signet, mass hexes (cure hex + holy veil + Inspired hex aren't enough)

Highlights: everyone has KD except necro or cripshot and Rit flagger

Pitfalls: It's low on hexes. Didn't put Life Siphon on Blood Necro. For that reason it's probably better to run the Ele variant along with the 2x Weapon Spell N/Rt: although Signet of clumsiness will have more triggers than Gale due to being on 8 recharge and comboed with PI, Ele has stronger snares and also more on-demand knockdowns.

It's low on bonus damage from Dervishes. Dervishes are capped at +25, from Victorious Sweep/Radiant Scythe/Zealous Sweep. Going D/W hammer doesn't help that much. Since most of the skills are energy based this is much more frontloaded, not needing to smack things for 5-8 adrenaline. I'm guessing +9 to 10 bonus damage versus kiters from Harrier's Haste will help but it's definitely not +38 from power attack or executioner's strike/Body blow/galrath slash/mighty blow.

Ultimately it's going to be a study in "what happens when Arenanet adds adrenaline enchantment removal" with 6recharge enchants, and Dark Apostasy-like Rending Aura at 0 spec for KDed targets? Before, the fastest recharge was 4s (Assault enchantments with a full dagger chain) or Shattering Assault, 10s for stuff like corrupt enchantment.