Curse

merker · Apr 16, 2007, 11:52 PM // 23:52

So I have been playing a lot with sins lately and I've been wanting to try a team build using:

2 sins spamming "Fear Me"
1 dual attune air spiker
1 ZB bond monk

The two fear me sins combined can create -9 energy degen on all nearby foes and roughly -18 e degen briefly. They can achieve this by using locusts fury to gain adreneline at a fairly fast rate. The builds would go something like this.

2 x A/W

Locusts fury {E}
Critical eye
Critical defenses
Caltrops
"Fear Me"
"For Great Justice"
Flurry
Res sig

10+2 crit strikes
11+1+3 dagger mas
6+1 Shadow arts
8 tactics

This can be used for both sins...I am thinking of switching one of their skills to incorporate wild blow to remove stances.

E/X

Lightning hammer
Lightning orb
Blinding flash
Air Attunement
Elemental Attunement{E}
res sig

This leaves you with 2 optional slots...I would suggest doing something for your team to increase defense a little. Normally your attributes should be..

12+1+3 air
12+1 energy storage

But I consider this to be a little excessive on energy storage...you really don't need it all to keep elemental attunement up 24/7. For ideas you could drop air one drop energy storage to what you prefer and add some to earth and use wards to help your monk out a little.
This is completely your preference.

And finally the traditional Zb prot Bonder. I switched it up a bit so you have some better hex removal.

Mo/W

Zealous benediction {E}
Reversal of fortune
Dismiss
Shield of Absorbtion
Frenzied Defense
Balanced stance
Holy Veil
Smite Hex

12+1+1 Prot
10+1 divine
8 tactics

To sum this up, I'll tell you how just about everything should be run and what to watch out for.

The two sins should cast their enchantments and attack just about anyone. Whomever they attack, the energy denial will be the same. If you want to put pressure on the monk, then just have both sins nail him with their upped attack speed and 50% double attack all the while he is getting energy taken and air magic pounding him. However, remember that the sins' main goal is to get as much energy denial as they can. If the monk is kiting so much that caltrops can't even slow him down move to a different target.

The monk is pretty straight forward... frenzied defense can be switched up to a different defensive skill. Maybe sheild bash would be a better choice. The main function to these stances is to defend against sins soloing you.

The elementalist, first and foremost, should be using flash to keep all melee blind. Only when you have a feel for the opposing teams defenses should you apply an incresing amount of pressure with your spikes. Coordinate you spikes with the sins constant dmg. The idea behind this build is to rape the enemies energy so don't spike until a little while after the sins attack so they get a chance to steal the monks energy before so they can't instantly erase the spikes dmg.

As I see it the most dangerous things for this team build are hex heavy teams and spirit spammers. I'm unsure whether or not you get adreneline from attacking spirits, but if you can I'd advise going after the spirits all the while spamming fear me...if you can. For the hexes, well this is why i put both viel and smite hex in there.

You have pretty good defense against most other things, because of blinding flash and the energy denial but when a mesmer or a necro can get the odd hex in there it could cause major problems. I believe one of the major strengths of this build is that i don't think anyone has ever seen it before so coordinated defenses probably aren't going to be up to snuff.

Now remember this is just a crazy idea that I concocted up and I don't want to be flamed for at least trying to be original. If you see something wrong, then I would really appreciate the critique but not if you're just going to flame. Remember that this is just an idea (i.e. not tested) and if you see something fatally wrong with it then just tell me and I'll forget this idea. It's not like this is a serious thing lol.

Please comment. I'd hate to post this and not have people give me more ideas or tell me that its just complete crap. Again please don't get angry if you say something that I don't agree with and I say something about it. I'll debate with you, but if you flame I'll just ignore and hope other people will explain politely why its so bad. Thanks.

Caleb Kane · Apr 17, 2007, 12:01 AM // 00:01

You don't run any attack skills on your two primary damage dealers?

TheOneMephisto · Apr 17, 2007, 12:16 AM // 00:16

If I were to make a build based off of locusts fury... say hello to conjure X.

I'd probably run it as: (Assassin chain can be variable depending on what you want from it/how often you want to use it)

2X A/E
Locust's
Black mantis thrust/leaping
Jungle Strike/Wild strike
Twisting Fangs/Horns/death blossom
Conjure X
Critical eye? (cover enchant?)/Dash
Siphon (low specced)/Dash
Res Sig

E/Mo
Icy Shackles
Blurred Vision/ice spikes
Freezing Gust
Draw Conditions/Purge sig
Gift of Health/Purge sig
Water Attunement
Glyph of lesser
res sig

And then a standard ZB or divert monk depending on the meta.

Not sure how that would work. Conjure X + locust's would be pretty intense pressure, but would be devastated by the correct shields. Your defense would also be a bit low due to only having a water ele to help out your monk. On top of that, you're running with 4 squishies. However, you'd have something over 100 DPS from only autoattacks on the two sins, along with a water ele and black mantis to keep people still.

merker · Apr 17, 2007, 12:24 AM // 00:24

The point of this build is not instant dmg like you both are suggesting....by using fear me the monk will lose the energy to heal even the dmg from the sins and the air spiker. as well as prevent other air spammers(which is very common) from being able to spam like they are supposed to. The energy denial is area wide affecting all nearby foes. im not going for spike but pressure.

moko · Apr 17, 2007, 11:52 AM // 11:52

you aren't going to kill crap. e denial sets exist for a reason, and with the lack of damage a swap - zb - swap is WAY too easy to beat you.

a steady stance fear me is a lot more effective, plus you got damage along with it.

running that many squishies without a lot of defense isnt good, either.

by the way, the monk has a horrible build.

its a nice, interesting & "unique" idea but wont work out in practise.

Loot Junkie · Apr 17, 2007, 02:51 PM // 14:51

With 2 sins wailing away with an attack speed buff what about having somebody cast barbs and weaken armor(with cover hex of course) on target foe? Even with curses at 12 the 2 hexes combined would cause 32 extra damage per hit as long as they are physical damage.

Divineshadows · Apr 17, 2007, 04:56 PM // 16:56

I moved your thread to the Team Arena Builds section after doing significant clean-up on the original post to make it actually readable. I would really appreciate it if you could make your build complete by at least making a stab at the last two skills for the elementalist (I am supposed to close incomplete builds btw). There are a few things that I don't like about the build, but I'll just point out the major things:

Quote:

Originally Posted by merker

10+2 crit strikes
11+1+3 dagger mas
6+1 Shadow arts
8 tactics

That amount of health is way too low for an assassin in TA. Viable options for TA include the use of a single superior attribute rune, dual major attribute runes, a single major attribute rune, or all minors (for maximum health). In the worst case, you want your maximum health to be no less than 530 (480 - 75 + 50supvigor + 35insignias + 30daggers + 10vitae).

Also, 13 is the breakpoint for critical strikes energy returns. Consider dropping dagger mastery by one point to add one point to critical strikes if you find the energy too tight. Is 12 critical strikes a key breakpoint for locust's fury? If not and you find you don't need 13 crit strikes, then consider lowering crit strikes some to increase other attributes.

Quote:

Originally Posted by merker

Frenzied Defense

I'm not in the mood to reiterate just how bad this skill is. I'll leave it to you to find that information from another recent thread in the TA builds section. I'll merely point out that your mentioning of shield bash as an alternative is a superior skill to select.

Quote:

Originally Posted by merker

Smite Hex

On a ZB bar, I can understand the desire to select a 2nd hex removal skill beyond holy veil. Smite hex, however, would not be my choice. Deny hexes (if you have at least one other divine favor skill such as signet of devotion or divine intervention) or purge signet would be my skill of choice. Also, your elementalist still has two free skill slots and a free secondary. Maybe you could use convert hexes on your ele? Or maybe your ele could pack holy veil (hey it can cover the attunements too) and then have the monk take deny hexes and signet of devotion.

Flurry and For Great Justice also seem like weak skills to select for the assassins. Overall, I don't think the build concept is prone to success. I've faced teams in TA in the past that had two locust fury assassins with fear me and a ranger with interrupts and infuriating heat. I was playing the monk and the "pressure" was pretty meh.

Toilet Oni · Apr 17, 2007, 08:32 PM // 20:32

Why not Necro/Ranger with Famine and Barbs instead of a air spiker