Curse

bungusmaximus · Nov 30, 2006, 11:12 AM // 11:12

Need some criticism on my build i designed for AB, I like it but you never know who likes to flame it/benefit from it:

Skills Set:
-E/D
Lightning Bolt (Air)
Lightning hammer (Air)
Lightning Strike (Air)
Enervating Charge (Air)
Blinding Flash (Air)
Mystic Regeneration (Earth Prayers)
Air Attunement (Air)
Ele Attunement {Elite} (Energy Storage)

Weapon sets don't matter much, you could use longer enchant mods as well as shorter cast-time/recharge mods, both have their benefits. I chose the latter because I love spamming.

Attributes:
Air magic 12 + 1 + 3
Earth prayers: 8 (This does matter, below 8 you only get a +2 health regen for every enchantment on you by using Restoration Aura)
Energy storage: 10

This build is mainly designed to harrass melee chars, such as assassins or thumpers. My theory of AB is that it's swarming with thumpers / assassins / other caster annoyance (If I got a penny for everytime my fire ele was killed by an assassin I would never have to work again).

Blinding flash annoys the hell out of every melee character, if the enemy team happens to have a monk, ask a teammate to put some pressure on him since he will immediately remove all the blinds again, or do it yourself by spamming Lightning Bolt-Lightning Strike-enervating charge (Do not waste your lightning hammer though, a good monk sees through the long casting time and will pre-prot, causing your expensive skill only to heal him).

The damage skills are all cheap except for lightning hammer, but the attunements take care of that. I mainly use lightning hammer to finish foes because it's the most powerful of the damage skills on the bar. as for the rest, spam till your fingers bleed! Note that enervating charge causes weakness, a wammo with blind+weakness on him is rendered totally useless

.

I learned from another player that the ele and dervish skills synergize very well. If you have air and ele attunement on you can use restoration aura to gain a +9 health regen (Bring on the SF noobs

), since you get +3 regen for every enchant on you with earth prayers on 8. It lasts 15 sec. and it casts very fast. Ideal cover enchant as well. Cast it at the beginning of every fight and you are a lot more tough then the average ele (works like a charm against degen too).

P.S. Don't tell me to use a SF ele, theyre way too fragile for AB IMO, tried it, didn't like it.

Riotgear · Nov 30, 2006, 02:16 PM // 14:16

Restoration Aura? You mean Mystic Regeneration?

If you're going to be spamming the lower-damage air spells, Blinding Surge is a better starting point. Try this one:
[wiki]Build:E/any Lightning Blinder[/wiki]

If you're packing hammer, you may as well pack orb, since orb/hammer is a huge spike. Replace Lightning Bolt with Lightning Orb. Consider replacing Enervating Charge with Gale, which gives you more utility, it's not like you NEED a cover condition in AB.

bungusmaximus · Nov 30, 2006, 03:56 PM // 15:56

While I admit it's a good build it's gonna get my arse killed within no-time in AB. Gale I tried, and it rocked, albeit only for the first 5 minutes of the game, exhaustion kills me afterwards. I WILL try the wiki-build out though, so thanx anyways. in TA where fights tend to be shorter I think it's pretty damn useful

.

I looked at Orb, but the cast time is way to long, that would leave me with two dmg spells with 2 sec. cast time, if ppl forget to put pressure on the enemy monk I'll be pretty much screwed, I like to keep the little buggers in check with fast spamming. Arc lightning is designed to synergize with water magic, which I don't use.

The glyph of restoration thing is interesting though. I have to calculate total healing over time and compare it, but the only thing really hurting are assassins, who are definitely going to interrupt it when i need it most. A good assassin is the bane of every squishy and 'horns of the ox->falling spider' really bones.

You also state that cover-ups(as in: cover enchants or conditions) aren't needed in AB, but i'm not going to assume AB only has shitty players (common misconception), the level of skill differs very much. Sometimes I meet utter scrubs, but other times I meet really good players. I'm not gonna take my chances on that one to get waxed when things really get interesting.

bungusmaximus · Nov 30, 2006, 11:23 PM // 23:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by Riotgear

Restoration Aura? You mean Mystic Regeneration?

If you're going to be spamming the lower-damage air spells, Blinding Surge is a better starting point. Try this one:
[wiki]Build:E/any Lightning Blinder[/wiki]

If you're packing hammer, you may as well pack orb, since orb/hammer is a huge spike. Replace Lightning Bolt with Lightning Orb. Consider replacing Enervating Charge with Gale, which gives you more utility, it's not like you NEED a cover condition in AB.

I thought about your gale thing and I found a solution without exhaustion wich really pwns:
Air: 12+1+3
Earth: 7+1
E-storage: 8+1
Earth prayers: 8

Skill set:
Blinding Flash (air)
Enervating charge (air)
Stoning (earth)
Lightning bolt (air)
Lightning hammer (air)
Mystic regeneration (earth prayers)
Ele attunement (Energy storage) (E)
Air attunement (Air)

This way you have blind and KD without using much energy and without exhaustion. Enervating charge causes weakness and stoning does damage and knocks weakened foes down as an extra bonus. the combination of Blinding, enervating and stoning will deal a decent amount of damage and render a melee character completely useless. Blind is neatly covered with weakness to annoy enemy monks.

The rest is pure damage, and self-heal. I tried it this afternoon with a decent group and we completely steamrolled our enemies. Melee chars were blinded/weakened faster then the monks could heal them and everyone got knocked down. Of course the rest of the team did its fair share, but we were facing a very tough opponent (Outnumbered 4 to 8).

Riotgear · Dec 01, 2006, 07:06 AM // 07:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by bungusmaximus

This way you have blind and KD without using much energy and without exhaustion. Enervating charge causes weakness and stoning does damage and knocks weakened foes down as an extra bonus. the combination of Blinding, enervating and stoning will deal a decent amount of damage and render a melee character completely useless. Blind is neatly covered with weakness to annoy enemy monks.

With a dual-attunement build, you shouldn't be having any problem just blinding them again if the first one gets removed. If you're having exhaustion problems with Gale on an otherwise exhaustion-free bar, you're using it too much.

If you're worried about blind getting removed, then why aren't you worried about weakness getting removed for stoning to trigger? Gale lasts three seconds and doesn't have travel time.

bungusmaximus · Dec 01, 2006, 10:25 AM // 10:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Riotgear

With a dual-attunement build, you shouldn't be having any problem just blinding them again if the first one gets removed. If you're having exhaustion problems with Gale on an otherwise exhaustion-free bar, you're using it too much.

I'm indeed using it too much, in AB there is always a good reason to use things too much because it's always crowded. Besides, the pressure put on an enemy team depends on spamming stuff. And at least if weakness gets removed the target is still blind. Blind is more important then weakness IMO, it prevents ppl from pummeling my teammates to death. Gale is a kick-ass spell, but on the other hand, it causes exhaustion AND doesn't do damage, that's not gonna cut it for me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Riotgear

If you're worried about blind getting removed, then why aren't you worried about weakness getting removed for stoning to trigger? Gale lasts three seconds and doesn't have travel time.

I don't care if the weakness gets removed because i never use stoning without using enervating charge first. that's what I keep re-applying all the time. Blind mostly just expires and then i put it back on. Blinding flash doesn't do damage, so that's what I really want to avoid over-using. I have to agree with you on the travel time though, that's really something to keep in mind. but if my target runs straight at me, or away from me the stone travels in a straight line, and mostly hits.

Pebbles · Dec 04, 2006, 04:19 PM // 16:19

I prefer my air build ^_^ I'm not sure how durable your build is but I know mine can take a major pounding before I fall out.

1: Elemental Attuenment (E)
2: Air Attuenment
3: Lightning strike
4: Enverating charge
5: Lightning orb
6: Blinding Flash
7: Aura of Restoration
8: Glyph of restoration

Attrib points are simple
Air 12 + 3 + 1
E storage 12 +1

I usually go with halfs recharge and halfs casting of air with both offhand and wand

I love it personally Flexable useage and it's deadly to alot of the foes your likely to encounter.

Dual Attune before battle and put aura of restoration on if it's gonna be a beefy scrimmage over center shrine or somthing.

Energy simply isn't an issue and with the halfed casting and recharge the only limting factor is how merciful your feeling.

Trust me you will utterly destroy the things your super effective against.

It's super effective vs:
Warriors
Assassins (If you notice them sneaking you that is)
Bow based Rangers
Spear paragons

It's Pretty ok and fairly dangerous vs:
Minion masters
Curse necromancers
Monks
Ritualists
Beastmasters
Trappers
Dervishes
Other paragons

And is weak against:
Fire eles
Touchers
Blood necromancers
Anti caster mesmers