Curse

Teh Jace · Apr 23, 2008, 08:04 PM // 20:04

I have made this topic for all people who are tired of playing the same lame builds over and over again and wanna get better at the game. I would like to see more people running stuff which takes some skill so I will try to be as helpful as possible. In my opinion, this is currently the best balanced build around there -- however, imbalanced skills are included in the build.

If you are a dedicated lamer skip the following text otherwise feel free to continue reading.

I'm gonna describe build for every character, equipment and its main tasks. Sooo let's take a look at the warrior first.

[build prof=Warrior/Necromancer][Magehunter's Smash][Crushing Blow][Hammer Bash][Flail][Distracting Strike][Enraging Charge][Bull's Strike][Resurrection Signet][/build]

- Sentinel insignia on chest and legs, stonefist insignia, the rest survivor.
- Major rune of hammer mastery, minor strength.

- Zealous/vampiric hammer, elemental hammer, spear + shield for initial adren gain

As you approach your enemy use spear to gain some adren.

VS MIRROR : you should pressure the necro first because you have the best interrupt of your team in your bar. Try to interrupt initial hexes and switch target everytime you see the guardian animation but only if the positioning of the enemy team is bad and the distance between them is short. You should start your combo with bulls strike and of course with flail on otherwise get ready for a nasty dshot on one of your hammer skill.

If their monk is Mo/W there is a 90% chance he/she has shield bash. Now it depends how skilled their monk is. If he uses sh bash as soon as you approach him just wait for 5 sec and then let your hammer meet his face. Magehunter vs sh bash = kd for you and a monk so consider if its worth it.

Keep in mind your necro is a WoD beast so you should mostly ignore their monk. The best target for you is their necro because he can't get rid of deep wound since the only cond removals of their team should be mend touch on monk and FF on nec. Make sure your necro draws you during every spike u perform.

Also you shouldn't use any attack skills as soon as you get in contact with your target. A decent ranger will usually stop your combo if uyou make such a noob mistake.

vs DUAL MONKWAY : their setup is usually A/D scythe, A/W shattering assault, HC monk and smiter with balth pendulum. You might want to play extra defensive since their damage output is at least 2x higher than yours. You can't really do much here because the success of your team relies mostly on your ranger and necro. You mostly lineback BUT make sure you lineback the right sin. Usually A/W is on your monk, A/D on your necro. In this case go after A/D cuz your monk is almost invincible vs SA sin. If they both attack the same target yor priority should be A/D sin again because he applies dw like mad and has significantly higher damage output than SA sin.
Use your dstrike to interrupt their attack skills, use magehunter for 100% kd since they are all enchanted. You will get prolly a few kds from balth pendulum but no worries if your ranger doesn't suck their smiter shouldn't be able to spam this skill on recharge.

If you wanna have easier times vs this smiteway, swap bulls or dstrike for rend ench. At the start pick your sin, rend his smiting buffs and then spam rend on HC monk on recharge. The should drop faster.

vs SHOVEway : again the success depends more on your ranger than on you but you can save your team just in case he fails/bad ping. There are usually 2 ways how to fight this setup.
1. Command your mates to ball up and wait for retards to close in. your ranger has his finger on dshot button and his target is their warrior. you should take such position which is on the same level as theirs (dont wait under the bridge if they are on etc.)
When they teleport at your location use dstrike on a monk. If your ranger interrupts shove noone dies if not there is still a chance to save the target with quick draw of deep wound and a good prediction of your monk. After spike they teleport back and your team has to chase them.
If you have grasping earth instead of bulls or dstrike use it as they ball up. If not your ranger has pin down so no worries. Try to bulls any of the fleeing monk and finish him off. Sometimes they use aura of stability on their mate who left behind so cooperate with your necro.
2. Go RAMBO style. This might suprise them but your ranger will definitely have worse position from which he possibly can't dshot shove.

vs DUAL SIG OF MIDNIGHT: [imo the worst shit ever happened to TA.] This build consists of 2 domi mesmers, both with sig of midnight and 1-2 plague sending and R/P packunter.
You go after mesmers that's pretty clear. Try to dstrike diversion, guilt, energy burn, humility and/or kdlock them so they can't use sig of midnight on you. This build has great damage potential don't get fooled. It's main source is the pet so try to kill it and make sure your ranger dshots comfort animal. You will be blinded 99% of the time so don't be suprised. If you are having hard times vs this garbage consider running D/W melandru.
[Your ignore list should contain names of ppl who run this build 24/7.]

[build prof=Ranger/Monk][Magebane Shot][Distracting Shot][Debilitating Shot][Apply Poison][Natural Stride][Pin Down][Purge Signet][Resurrection Signet][/build]

- full survivor armor
- minor marskmanship, major expertise, minor wild survival

- poisonous/crippling recurve bow, -e set, long bow

As you approach your enemy use long bow to interrupt apply poison, noob dervishes using their avatars etc.
You lead your team into the battle. You must be the first person approaching your enemy. Always rush it doesn't rly matter if you leave your monk 2 aggros behind unless you face some form of spike.

VS MIRROR : you and necro belong to defensive characters. Your job in mirror match is to keep your melee clean and help your monk to survive. Dshotting WoH/ZB is not your goal so don't even dare to spend valuable seconds by chasing their monk and standing right next to him to dshot his/her skills.
You will have veil on yourself most of the time BUT this means -1 energy regen for you monk so make sure this sacrifice is worth it.
You can't let their necro cast Faintheartedness on you, you can't let his ranger use preparation and debilitating shot on your monk and you shouldn't allow a monk spam guardian on recharge. These are your primary tasks.
Watch their warrior and dshot his combo | TAB is your best friend | Use interrupts to spread poison faster (other guides say DO NOT but I know this is a good tactics) | When your warrior is on monk fire some interrupts his way after he gets on his feets from kd (some monks say they never cast anything after kd but sometimes they have to) | Bad positioning of the enemy team = good chances to interrupt something for you so make sure you keep good distance to ur targets | Use purge signet wisely because everytime you use it you lose 2 seconds which means eternity in quick TA matches. Also make sure you are on -e set while purging | Make sure you interrupt all res sigs - watch your warrior he has dstrike and kds so he can lock his target until your dshot is recharged | Spam debilitating shot on a monk as much as possible (you will instakill noob monk who doesn't know how to switch sets properly and there is a decent chance you will hit normal/high energy set of good monks)
Being a good ranger means 70% of your interrupts are predicted/random and the rest is a matter of your reflexes. It doesn't mean you should spam interrupts like RA noobs do though!

vs DUAL MONKWAY : several actions have to be taken in order to beat this. The best candidates for your dshot are smite hex, smite condition, !castignation signet (must be dshotted at all cost)!, dw. kiss, A/W sin chain, A/D elite. U should make A/W useless by dshotting his combo. If he's camping your monk don't worry and ignore him because sh. bash will do the trick. You spam deb shot on HC monk all the time (this is a must). Use pin down as a good snare.

vs SHOVEWAY : this is your worst nightmare. Depends if you wanna go STAND STILL AND WAIT style or RAMBO style. The first one gives u 100% chance to interrupt shove if you don't suck and your ping is good. Latter makes your job harder but sometimes might be better at getting rid of noob teams faster.
Keep in mind better teams might try to confuse you with delaying the spike which means they teleport at your location, wait for a bit and then they spike after you have wasted your interrupt. After surviving the first spike make sure you have clear line of sight on all your teammates. Help your warrior to snare monks.
If you have orange ping vs these (euro on US servers etc.) go rambo style.

vs DUAL SIG OF MIDNIGHT WAY: try to keep Me/N snared (if both mesmers are Me/N... then /sigh). If you face retarded SoM mesmers you will have no problems with dshotting their SoM. Just fire dshot as soon as they get close to you. Vs non retarded mesmers it will be harder but... if you keep one of them (preferably Me/N of course) snared and you keep runing away from him he will surely grow impatient

So you will prolly have a chance to dshot his SoM soon or later.
Completely ignore their monk.. focus on mesmers and dshot comfort animal after your warrior has killed the pet. Use debilitating shot on mesmers not on monk.

Ranger in balanced setup is a demanding class to play but also very rewarding.

[build prof=Necromancer/Elementalist][Wail of Doom][Faintheartedness][Insidious Parasite][Enfeeble][Foul Feast][Rend Enchantments][Glyph of Lesser Energy][Resurrection Signet][/build]

- full survivor, rune of restoration
- 40/40 curses set, xx/40 soul reaping set, shield set (-5 energy weapon ofc), +e set

If you wanna play a necro you should be good at multitasking

really good. Necro is a spambot and he must keep many things in check.

VS MIRROR : your main weapon is a really devastating skill called Wail of Doom. There are 2 ways how to use WoD - you can either spam it on a monk whenever it's recharged or use it wisely (to stop unloading warrior, WoD apply poison etc.). Its pretty clear the latter way takes more skill but it doesn't mean its more effective. Some foolish monks bring hex breaker to counter WoD but WoD can't be stopped that easily, trust me.
If you are in skilled team I recommend you to spam WoD on monk 24/7 using HRS set. You will surely become his worst nightmare. Keep him on your target and just click on it whenever is your WoD available.
At the same time you must keep warrior and ranger in check. Use obstacles, run around, do everything to confuse enemy ranger. If you are close to ranger and he's not looking at your direction it doesn't mean you are not on his target. Also make sure you rend holy veil before applying your hexes. Whenever you see the spotless mind animation (similar to cat) on a target rend it (this skill is not bugged anymore). Your monk should keep guardian on you as much as possible.
Use foul feast a lot to draw weakness from your warrior (u should gain +1 energy and draw poison and weakness). If you draw poison alone it means -2 energy loss for you but it will help ur monk to deal with pressure.
Some rangers might find useful to spam you with debilitating shot which might be your end since you usually operate on low energy level and vs balanced setup the energy gain is not that high as vs packhunters or any other conditional pressure.
I think I don't have to mention you shouldn't use WoD while you are under pressure and/or on low HP

vs DUAL MONKWAY : just WoD the hell out of HC monk, rend sins then keep rending HC.

vs SHOVEWAY : yur role is pretty clear here. WoD a spiking monk.

vs DUAL SIG OF MIDNIGHT WAY: be aware of incoming diversion. The main goal of enemy mesmers is to divert your FF. If they succeed you should start running around until your FF is back otherwise you are bound to lose. your monk should keep holy veil on u 24/7.

[build prof=Monk/Warrior][Word of Healing][Guardian][Spotless Mind][Mending Touch][Patient Spirit][Signet of Rejuvenation][Holy Veil][Shield Bash][/build]

- full survivor or +15AL while condition on
- minor or major healing prayers, minor prot, minor div favor

- -5e spear + shield, 40/20 prot staff of ench, 40/40 HP set, +e set

If you wanna become a good monk the first thing you should do is to master weapon switching. A good weapon switching is 50% of success for a monk. Feel free to rebind ur keys. The keys for weap swap should be really close and easy to reach (I prefer Q,E,~ for wep swap, WASD for move, ZXC for targetting enemies, F1-F8 for targetting my mates and 1234RFV,shift for skills... you dont even need a key for selftargetting because if your target is an enemy every healing spell autotargets u).

Observing the battlefield in TA is very easy so you shouldn't have any problems. Every spike is predictable and easy to catch (unless its soul barbs and you have no SoA).

Many ppl say preprotting in TA has become useless but look at this setup. The only ench removal is rend ench. Look at the smiteway - they have SA as their only ench removal but you have sh bash and certainly a good ranger on your side. Dual Som is worse - dual shatter, rend ench but this whole build is so much broken.
You might want to know why there is no hard prot (spirit bond or protective spirit) in my bar. The answer is simple - it's not worth it. There are only 2 serious spikes in TA - shove and soul barbs both of which can't be protted with these 2 skills. And TA monk really can't afford to have a 10e spell unless it's divine spirit.

I used to run ZB a lot and it was my favourite skill but the current meta doesn't allow me to do so. All this Me/N garbage with symbolic celerity and sig of humility makes ZB monks almost useless. If such a mesmer sneaks his humility through on WoH monk shit happens... he can still heal with patient and sig.
Patient spirit is a great skill because it allows you to cast on shield set. WoH, guardian and mend. touch must be casted on an appropriate HCT set otherwise it invites dshot or magebane.
You should be on your shield set most of the time to avoid possible energy loss coming from debilitating shot and to mitigate incoming damage. Keep in mind weap swap is not an instant action. If you want your weaps to be swapped instantly you have to press weap set and follow with the cancel action button unless you have macro. Bad weap swap decides the games. There is nothing worse than death on high energy set.

Also if you are low on energy you might want to die on -e set to regain it. Indeed this is a very risky action to take but sometimes it's a must if you wanna win a battle.

If you are facing a very good WoD necro get ready for hard times. Do not run hex breaker because it's not a real counter. Cast stuff like patient, WoH at the 2-6s lasting window you will have. Don't worry if u get WoDed and warr is pounding on you because sh bash still works.

Using sh bash might be tricky because you might not have enough energy on your sh set to use it. In this case just switch to higher energy set and then back to your shield set. you won't kd an experienced warrior this way but at least it will give you some breathing space.

Also, tell your necro not to draw you unless you are dazed or you suffer from DW while kded.

That's all... gl with balanced.

I will try to keep this stuff up to date.

lacasner · Apr 23, 2008, 08:17 PM // 20:17

Very nice guide, good job.

Owoc · Apr 23, 2008, 08:23 PM // 20:23

What's the strategy against dual warrior where your warrior is being trained by a cripslash with disarm and rend?

the_deSKtructor · Apr 23, 2008, 08:44 PM // 20:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by Owoc

What's the strategy against dual warrior where your warrior is being trained by a cripslash with disarm and rend?

Disarm isn't a problem atm. 20 sec recharge is ftl. Anyway moving between ur attacks helps to not make disarm trigger.

urania · Apr 23, 2008, 09:36 PM // 21:36

skimmed through the guide quickly...80 % or more of what u said is nothing new.

you have too much free time, jace.

Zena Starlight · Apr 23, 2008, 10:22 PM // 22:22

Very nice guide there. This should be great for the more inexperienced people who don't want to play gimmicks. (Please don't play gimmicks, they are not only boring to play they are VERY boring to face.)

RhanoctJocosa · Apr 23, 2008, 11:32 PM // 23:32

excellent post

I D E L E T E D I · Apr 23, 2008, 11:54 PM // 23:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by urania

skimmed through the guide quickly...80 % or more of what u said is nothing new.

you have too much free time, jace.

Not Everyone is R9

And very nice post indeed. Good Read.

Hundbert · Apr 24, 2008, 12:14 AM // 00:14

Always fun matches vs Teh Jace's team. But why is there no plague sending on your nec? Also wouldn't you agree that both an axe or sword warrior is viable in this build?

Hopefully some people playing lameway will read this and try a real build.

Zena Starlight · Apr 24, 2008, 12:15 AM // 00:15

Perhaps but lameway is easy wins with a good group ^^

The Meth · Apr 24, 2008, 12:19 AM // 00:19

In the future, can you please refrain from typing 'u' instead of 'you', 'rly' instead of 'really'? That stuff is fine when in game, but when trying to write any kind of guide it really looks unpolished and makes it painful for some of us to read.

As to the content of the post, it has some good info. I'll make sure to tell some of my guildies who are getting into TA to read it up.

Sab · Apr 24, 2008, 03:56 AM // 03:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hundbert

Also wouldn't you agree that both an axe or sword warrior is viable in this build?

I wouldn't run sword anymore as the main reason people ran it was for Disarm, and that was nerfed to 3s disable/20r recently.

As for axe, it's not that good for linebacking, which is basically how you're going to beat dual-Monk builds.

urania · Apr 24, 2008, 06:17 AM // 06:17

yeah, with vD we normally ran old school shock axe warr...not much you can do vs retarded balth pendulum crap...unless they are stupid enough to pendulum the wrong teammate.

also, jace...ZB didnt become "extinct" (only) cuz of the mesmers with sig of humility...i believe it was the WoD necs too that kicked it out of the meta because wod reduces the energy bar by 6 points of energy each time the necs apply it on a ZB monk. Not that it matters much, healing while under wod is a waste anyway...

Quote:

Being a good ranger means 70% of ur interrupts are predicted/random and the rest is a matter of ur reflexes. It doesn't mean u should spam interrupts like RA noobs do though!

there's more than enough TA nubs who do that...3 interrupts ftw. But nowadays its not only interrupts u spam on the monk or whichever caster. Its' deb shot too!
*remembers the old school dual ranger both with deb shot+warr build* pity it is laughable in the current meta thanks to FF and 2 monk crap.

Teh Jace · Apr 24, 2008, 06:44 AM // 06:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hundbert

Always fun matches vs Teh Jace's team. But why is there no plague sending on your nec?

Because there is no room for it. Also plague sending is definitely a bad choice vs mirror team (condition ping pong, way too easy to dshot).

Quote:

Originally Posted by urania

also, jace...ZB didnt become "extinct" (only) cuz of the mesmers with sig of humility...i believe it was the WoD necs too that kicked it out of the meta because wod reduces the energy bar by 6 points of energy each time the necs apply it on their opponent.

Maybe I'm missing something but if u use ZB on a target below 50% u still gain 7 energy back regardless of WoD.

Barkeep · Apr 24, 2008, 07:55 AM // 07:55

But apart from that you are supporting the wrong necro build. The guide is something I have been thinking about for a while as well. Leya (our nec) has even asked me to make one in the past. And I didnt wanna ruin your post with another meaningless WoD / FF discussion. I believe most of us agree it's overpowered and on the "lame-list". Mina decided to run it nonetheless and theres nothing in the GW manual that forbids it.

Tbh though, I'd say a good shock axe would be better in this build than the magehunters warrior. For me, shock axe is like, the balanced among warrior builds. Oh, and fix the nec to CE grasping.

Patrick Smit · Apr 24, 2008, 08:32 AM // 08:32

Love the way you wrote your piece mate, congrats. However, could you add the attributes to the chars? I can imagine what they should be, but still it would finish things off.

About the warrior not directly releasing his chain on contact with targets due possible interupts by opposing ranger. Doesn't that depend a lot what he is busy with?. He can't follow you all the time, so when you notice he ain't targetting you, you could release on contact as a window of oppurtunity is there.

Teh Jace · Apr 24, 2008, 08:42 AM // 08:42

Ok I will add attribs later.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Patrick Smit

About the warrior not directly releasing his chain on contact with targets due possible interupts by opposing ranger. Doesn't that depend a lot what he is busy with?. He can't follow you all the time, so when you notice he ain't targetting you, you could release on contact as a window of oppurtunity is there.

Ranger knows his monk has spotless mind so he doesn't have to camp nec that often (also take a look at the nec bar - only 2 hexes and WoD). This means ranger will prolly have more time for ur warrior than ever before.
Ofc I'm not saying u are not allowed to unload on contact that would be silly.

If u wanna play oldschool necro, swap WoD for CE, enfeeble for grasping earth and FF for defile defense. It will still work ok but u might have problems vs certain types of builds.

JR · Apr 24, 2008, 08:50 AM // 08:50

I skimmed through the post, so I might have missed it, but what is the point of taking Distracting Strike over Distracting Blow when you don't have a source of cracked armor?

Otherwise, good post.

Barkeep · Apr 24, 2008, 08:55 AM // 08:55

Dmg (is not 12 characters long so I will have to add this)

Killed u man · Apr 24, 2008, 01:29 PM // 13:29

Anyways, on-topic:

Pretty much the basic: How to run the meta-"balanced" build in TA... It's a nice guide, good explanation on how to run every bar. Keep it up

(Just pay a little bit more attention to the usage of terms "gimmicks" and balanced, please.