Curse

Warskull · Jul 02, 2006, 05:03 PM // 17:03

Intro

One of the major mistakes I see players make when putting together builds is that they fail to plan their offensive strategy deep enough. Many players simply place the warriors and offense in the build and assume they will score kills. While against a weak monk this may work when you run into a strong monk this can easily become your downfall. Strong monks are prepared to face fearsome offenses and do not crack easily. They still make mistakes, however those mistakes are few and far between and cannot be entirely relied upon. Thus one needs to plan how they will defeat the enemy defenses.

Spikes

One popular method of defeating a monk is to output such a large amount of damage at once that the enemy monk will not be able to react in time to save the player. This is known as a spike. A spike build uses an organized and coordinated attack to cause a spike of damage. Most good spike builds include at least 500 points of damage in the spike, usually more. The most common configuration of a character is a single superior attribute rune and a single superior vigor, giving a player 455 HP. The default level of health for all level 20 characters is 480 HP. With the advent of factions a large amount of +HP armor has been added and as a result the ideal number to shoot for with a spike would be over 550 points of damage for a normal kill. The addition of extra damage for overkill is quite helpful. The more common spikes are in the metagame the more damage you will need. The below list illustrates a number of the most common armor configurations and the resulting health levels from those configurations. The higher HP configurations that do not run a superior attribute rune are most likely to appear on mesmers (domination in particular.) Warriors also tend to run somewhat high levels of health, commonly hitting at least 515 health.

455-Superior Vigor and Attribute
485-Superior Vigor and Attribute, +30 Weapons
495-Superior Vigor and Attribute, +30 Weapons, Ha/Fe Armor Bonus
515-Superior Vigor and Attribute, +60 Weapons
520-Superior Vigor and Attribute, +30 Weapons, Ha/Fe Armor Bonus
525-Superior Vigor and Attribute, +60 Weapons, Ha/Fe Armor Bonus:
530-Superior Vigor
550-Superior Vigor and Attribute, +60 Weapons, Full Armor Bonus
560-Superior Vigor, +30 Weapons
590-Superior Vigor, +60 Weapons
600-Superior Vigor, +60 Weapons, Ha/Fe Armor Bonus
625-Superior Vigor, +60 Weapons, Full Armor Bonus
Rare Exotic configs (highest possible HP from equipment alone)
590-Exotic Upper Limit Config (requires HoD Axe) with Sup. Attribute
665-Exotic Upper Limit Config (requires HoD Axe)

A spike is typically organized over a voice chat program and uses a countdown to synchronize the attack. Ideally all damage should land at the same time. Most good spikes can consistently get the all damage to land within about a 1/2s time frame. When putting together a spike you must also make sure no spiking caster takes a piece of equipment that has a chance of fast cast. This fast cast can trigger and ruin a spike. The key to running a spike successfully is having as much damage land in a short period as possible. Most spikes should carry a follow up skill also. This is a skill that can be activated and will land for further damage on the target after the initial spike hits. For example Lightning Orb can be followed up with Lightning Strike or Obsidian Flame can be followed up with Stoning. While a good player can Infuse to save a target that survives the initial spike this follow up further stress the monk’s energy pool and if the monk is slow on the infuse it may finish off a target who survived the initial spike.

There are two major types of spikes. Homogenous spikes and mixed spikes (commonly called rainbow spike in Heroes’ Ascent.) When creating a homogenous spike you select a very high damage skill combination and utilize that same skill combo on 4-5 characters. Homogenous spikes need to be fairly resistant to shutdown and interrupt; they are typically easier to shut down than a mixed spike. They are usually easier to execute however and are a good mid-level build to learn on. Examples of homogenous spikes are 5 earth elementalists running 5 copies of Obsidian Flame at 16 Earth and the necro-spike build common in tombs. A mixed spike attempts to draw from many damage sources. The goal is a spike that is difficult to shut down and effective against a vast array of targets. Mixed spikes almost always attempt to work in a deep wound since a deep wound immediately destroys 20% of a target’s health. An example of a mixed spike is a ranger spiker, an Obsidian Flame elementalist, an air elementalist, a Phantom Pain/Shatter Delusions mesmer, and a Shadow Strike necromancer. Mixed spikes tend to be slightly more difficult to run and require slightly more planning. However they tend to be somewhat more effective than a homogenous spike (due in part to the deep wound.)

Overall, the keys to spikes are spiking as a group and having a large enough amount of damage to guarantee a kill. If these two concepts are satisfies while developing a spike it will have a successful offense.

Heavy-Pressure

The heavy-pressure build attempts to output a constant high level of damage. This is often referred to as high DPS (damager per second.) The goal is to exceed the enemy monks’ ability to cope with the damage. This will happen when a consistent high level of damage runs enemy monks out of energy or when the skill recharge of enemy healers can no longer keep up with the damage out. In addition mistakes are often catastrophic against very high-pressure builds. Probably the most well know heavy-pressure build is IWAY. IWAY consists of four warriors with pets, two support necromancers, and two trappers. It outputs very large amounts of damage and tends to overwhelm many monks. If you play Heroes’ Ascent you will become intimately familiar with IWAY.

The concept of a pressure build is your damage source. A pressure build needs a number of sustainable damage sources. A well-built warrior has the most consistent and threatening damage in game. Thus warriors are usually the backbone of pressure builds. However at the same time some non-warrior pressure builds exist. The melee ranger/warrior is the most common of these builds, the bunny-thumper in particular. Heavy pressure builds usually run two to three of these high DPS characters.

Quote:

Example Bunny-Thumper:
Ranger/Warrior

Expertise: 9 (8+1)
Beast Mastery: 15 (11+4)
Hammer Mastery: 11

- Irresistible Blow (Hammer Mastery)
- Hammer Bash (Hammer Mastery)
- Crushing Blow (Hammer Mastery)
- Run as One (Beast Mastery)
- Ferocious Strike [Elite] (Beast Mastery)
- Comfort Animal (Beast Mastery)
- Charm Animal (Beast Mastery)
- Resurrection Signet ()

Since heavy pressure builds tend to be quite reliant on melee damage they are vulnerable to anti-warrior shutdown. Therefore it is quite important for heavy pressure builds to ensure their melee characters can perform their jobs. Thus the second major role in the offense of a pressure build is the support. These support characters are typically an offense/support hybrid. They often carry condition and hex removal to ensure your damage characters do not get shut down. Skills such as draw condition, fast cast remove hex, and purge signet are popular at the moment. You want to include enough condition and hex removal to ensure your warriors can function in the current metagame without compromising offense. Another option for support characters is to include enhancements for your pressure characters. These enhancements can greatly amplify the pressure exerted. Only one or two slots need to be devoted to these enhancements also. Dark Fury, Order of Pain, and Judge’s Insight are examples of some strong enhancement skills.

Pure pressure builds are somewhat rare and most pressure builds tend to be some sort of hybrid. This is usually achieved through the offense/support characters. For example a spike/pressure hybrid would implement spike skills such as Shadow Strike and Lightning Orb on its support characters. A strong combination is the degen/pressure combo. This implements a number of degen methods such as conditions and degen hexes to apply a constant health drain to the enemy team. This combined with the constant threat of an adrenaline spike puts a large amount of stress on enemy monks.

While heavy pressure builds tend to focus on warriors it is important to note that well used AoE (area of effect) spells can greatly enhance a pressure build. The damage of AoE is much less sustainable than melee damage. However, the damage can also be very difficult to cope with. The AoE skills used need to be quite carefully chosen. AoE skills that apply damage in large areas instantly tend to be the best choice. Energy Surge and Rodgort’s Invocation are excellent examples of these skills. Skills with fairly short recharges are also preferable. Experienced PvP players will attempt to minimize the effectiveness of enemy AoE. This means they will actively attempt to spread out, they will avoid AoE over time skills, and they will try to interrupt AoE skills. However if you attempt to hoard the enemy into choke points AoE can still be quite effective and a superb compliment to the existing warrior damage.

Heavy-Pressure builds should focus in on how the constant damage will be applied and how to keep it sustained. This means they need a balance of anti-kiting, condition removal, hex removal, and damage skills. Obtaining the right balance for a build can be tricky and must be reached through experimentation. However once balance is achieved the build can be quite brutal.

Degen/Hex

Degen builds are builds that use conditions and hexes to apply large amounts of degen to an enemy team. They attempt to overload enemy hex and condition removal. Each pip of degen causes an enemy to lose two health per second. Thus spreading Conjure Phantasm on four different targets simultaneously results in 40 damage per second across the enemy team. In addition to the degen hexes a number of other shutdown hexes and defensive skills are included to limit the enemy’s offense and defensive capabilities.

The first key to running a good degen build is to select your degen sources. You want a hex or condition that applies a fair amount of degen (at least 3 pips, ideally 4-5.) In addition this hex or condition should be fairly easy to spread. Apply Poison, Conjure Phantasm, and Life Siphon are great examples of backbone degen sources. Due to their spammable nature you can continually replace the hex or condition should it be removed and their effects can be relied upon.

A second key item to degen/hex builds is cover hexes. Cover hexes are cheap, extremely spammable hexes that can be used to protect your vital hexes. These skills do not necessarily need strong effects, however if they have a useful effect it can be a great bonus. In addition these skills should have short cast times so that they may cover the hex before your enemy successfully casts a removal. Typical cover hexes are Parasitic Bonds and Mind Rack. Skills such as Conjure Phantasm can be used as more expensive, dual-purpose cover hexes also.

One conundrum of hex and degen builds is that the hexes and degen are rarely enough to kill on their own. They can typically push a team to a breaking point and force a retreat, but some sort of damage spike or pressure character is usually needed to more consistently and effectively score kills. This can be a single warrior or spike skills spread across a number of players.

Shutdown
Existing in an unusual limbo between pressure and hex builds are shutdown builds. Shutdown builds tends to have a medium to heavy amount of pressure with spike potential. The key to the shutdown build is forced mistakes. You use various forms of shutdown to force the enemy to choose between the lesser of two evils and prevent them from reacting properly.

Degen and Hex builds tend to have a lot of general shutdown. Strong shutdown builds have very focused and timed shutdown. Examples of strong skills for builds like this are Blackout, Shame, Diversion, Gale, and Mark of Subversion. In a shutdown build you may have a weaker adrenaline spike that a good monk could normally heal. However if you gale their monks or load them up with Shame and Diversion reacting to your adrenaline spikes suddenly becomes far harder.

A good example of a focused shutdown build is the old two warrior, two energy denial mesmer build. The two mesmers would focus energy denial on the enemy monks limiting their ability to heal while the warriors killed things. Normally the two warriors would not have enough killing power to easily score kills, however the two mesmers can create windows. This is the essence of a shutdown build, creating a window where your offense has an opportunity to kill unimpeded.

When designing a shutdown you have to take the current metagame into consideration. You need to predict what sort of targets you will be shutting down and what sorts of windows these will buy you. For example Migraine in combination with is ineffective against Boon Prots, yet Shame and Diversion continue to be highly effective against Boon Prots. However the utilization of interrupts with enchantment stripping tends to wreck havoc on support E/Mos. Due to this fact designing shutdown for builds tends to take more knowledge of the metagame and more experience than some of the other build designs. However it is a skill that is worth developing and can be quite effective.

Shutdown builds are rarely seen in a pure form anymore, it is most popular to run them as a hybrid in conjunction with heavy pressure or spike. This greatly increases the stress on the enemy monks. Healing a spike or heavy pressure in the first place can be difficult; adding shutdown into the mix will giving you phenomenal opportunities, even against strong monks.

Hybridization
These four overviews are clearly not the summation of all builds in existence. They are merely the essence of four primary killing styles in Guild Wars and thousands of builds exist between the cracks.

While creating a hybrid you need to look into each style and see how you satisfy the requirements. Will your pressure normally overwhelm the enemy monks? When it is combined with shutdown will it begin to score kills? You also need to examine the interactions between each aspect of the build. If the addition of degen in combination with pressure furthering your goal or diluting your focus and weakening your build? Can the diluted focus be worth the added flexibility? If we only have 450 HP worth of initial spike how will we set up our targets?

In strong builds the different aspects seamlessly flow together and further each of their goals. In addition it needs to be remembered that when putting a build together you do not need two shutdown characters and two pressure characters. You can easily have 3-4 pressure characters and a single mesmer as your shutdown. When mixing builds together it is all about having just the right amount of each part. However, this is one of those senses you develop from experience and experimentation. You have to play builds, design builds, and experiment in various forms to get a feel for what is just right. That is where the real bulk of build making exists. You must take a concept, flesh it out, and develop it.

Wasteland Squidget · Jul 02, 2006, 07:27 PM // 19:27

Excellent article.

One point that I would stress is the difference between short-term and long-term shutdown builds, as they tend to have very different goals and styles of play.

A short term shutdown build utilizes skills like Blackout and Gale to disable opposing monks long enough for a quick burst of damage to take place. You might have a three warrior build where one monk is knocked down with a hammer chain while the other is knocked down with Shock and spiked. You might have dual blackouts and Gale-spam on both enemy monks while the warriors freely pressure the midline and force kills. Regardless, short-term shutdown is basically about disabling the opposing monks for the few seconds required to force kills.

Long-term shutdown is more like what you discussed in the article. Constant pressure on the enemy backline through mesmers, which forces them to make a mistake in their focus-swapping and not have enough energy to deal with your offense.

Byron · Jul 03, 2006, 07:19 AM // 07:19

Outstanding and well organized, as usual. As close to required reading as you can get IMO, so far as GW PvP goes. I enjoyed the big-picture approach.

And IMHO, there should be some stress that this is a guide to builds and metagame. I wasn't expecting this article when I saw the title, tbh.

torquemada · Jul 04, 2006, 10:26 AM // 10:26

True and true. Big-picture approach is a must, for build making is top-down, not down-top process, if you get my meaning.

Kai Nui · Jul 10, 2006, 04:07 AM // 04:07

It's always nice to read up on other people's viewpoints, but in this particular case this really didn't help me out too much, and I am kind of surprised that this would help anyone. Particularly because of the fact that the people making those mistakes wouldn't take the time to read through the article thoroughly enough to improve themselves. I do agree that most people are stupid though and this definitely has the potential to help out if they're willing to read.

Wasteland Squidget · Jul 10, 2006, 05:07 AM // 05:07

Not knowing something is not the same as being stupid or unwilling to learn. A lot of people who are inexperienced in build creation make these mistakes, but are perfectly willing to improve themselves.

Foppe · Jul 10, 2006, 07:52 AM // 07:52

Good article, something new people to PvP might find a huge help

carribus · Jul 10, 2006, 09:19 AM // 09:19

Awesome article. As for inexperienced players being referred to as stupid - thats just not necessary. I for one, have just started PvP and am learning new things after each battle - this article just explained a whole bunch of stuff that I had questions to (and stuff that i hadn't even thought of). Thank you

Zazoo · Jul 10, 2006, 10:08 AM // 10:08

Excellent read.

lobal · Jul 10, 2006, 12:50 PM // 12:50

I have a question...and warskull jumped on me a few times for my ignorance...so plz bear with me.....

Which is better taking a PvE character to LvL 20 then taking it to PvP or just making a PvP character aned running with that?

P.S thanks for the helping the noobs(like me), who want to win a hall of heros title

Skuld · Jul 10, 2006, 03:11 PM // 15:11

Great guide, enjoyed reading that

Quote:

Originally Posted by lobal

I have a question...and warskull jumped on me a few times for my ignorance...so plz bear with me.....

Which is better taking a PvE character to LvL 20 then taking it to PvP or just making a PvP character aned running with that?

P.S thanks for the helping the noobs(like me), who want to win a hall of heros title

Depends, PvE characters can take additional armour with minor runes and stuff, and always have minus energy weapons on hand, and you can dress them up for vanity. The bad thing is that you'll have to buy all the skills you want and if you want to play another class you can't play the existing!

kryshnysh · Jul 10, 2006, 03:53 PM // 15:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by lobal

Which is better taking a PvE character to LvL 20 then taking it to PvP or just making a PvP character aned running with that?

P.S thanks for the helping the noobs(like me), who want to win a hall of heros title

The PvE character for the uppermost parts of PvP, but its really expensive. You have to have (which usually entails buying) perfect equipment, mods, and more. To be better than a PvP character, you probably want multiple sets of armor, and more than two weapons which need to have maximum mods/stats.

If you can't afford the maximum weapons/mods, the multiple sets of armor, and so on, then the PvP character who easily has maximum weapons/mods may be your better choice, depending on how close your PvE character is to that ideal state.

Tigers · Jul 10, 2006, 06:30 PM // 18:30

Well he's right (the person above me) but to answer your questions clearly is that PvE chars are alot alot better.. you can take advantage with your weapons.. An example is me I monk but I got like 2 Dozen weapons and 3 sets of armor and 7 differ scalps.. And I use them all btw this costed me around 800k (2 sets 15k armors) But PvP chars can also be better off if your starting.. Pick a Proffesion you like mostly the make a PvE of that but the PvP slacks in how many wepaons and armros you can carry thats why PvE is alot better

Neo-LD · Jul 10, 2006, 07:21 PM // 19:21

What in the world do PvE characters have to do with this article??

Nice read, Warskull, I thoroughly enjoyed it and agree with basically everything. I would advise every gw pvp player to read it

You somewhat alluded to the consideration of what enemy teams may do to counter your offense. However, I think you could / should exand more thoroughly on that point.

Thought processes like: We're a hex build. what might other teams use to counter that? Expel Hexes. How can we stop that counter? Signet of Humility.

or

We're a pressure build based mostly off of physical warrior and ranger damage and degeneration conditions. We are thinking about adding an illusion mesmer to add even more degeneration pressure. Will that be effective? Well, if thats your only hexer, chances are that most of his hexes will get removed and will only give their monks energy. You probably want to use something else.

or

We have a 600 damage spike. That should be enough to kill most people if we execute it well, but can we reasonably expect all of the damage to land? No. The enemy team will be doing their best to disrupt your spike. Your warriors might get snared, blinded, or weakened. Your casters could get interupted. The monks might see the spike coming and have the target preprotted. Against good teams your spike will need at least 1000 damage in order to scrape a kill.

LOBAL 2 · Jul 10, 2006, 09:01 PM // 21:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by Neo-LD

What in the world do PvE characters have to do with this article??

I asked A question plz read above,

thank you Lobal

Neo-LD · Jul 10, 2006, 09:10 PM // 21:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by LOBAL 2

I asked A question plz read above,

thank you Lobal

Yes I saw that. But I still dont understand what pve characters have to do with the article. Your question is completely off topic and is derailing a good discussion of a great strategy article.

Warskull · Jul 10, 2006, 09:15 PM // 21:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by lobal

I have a question...and warskull jumped on me a few times for my ignorance...so plz bear with me.....

Which is better taking a PvE character to LvL 20 then taking it to PvP or just making a PvP character aned running with that?

P.S thanks for the helping the noobs(like me), who want to win a hall of heros title

A properly equiped PvE character will be better than a PvP character. They can carry more weapon sets, multiple armor sets, multiple rune swaps, ect. The issue is that making a PvE character PvP ready takes a considerable amount of time and gold. Thus it is often not worth the effort. I wouldn't bother prepping a PvE character for PvP unless your really want to.

When to seriously consider getting a PvE character ready:
-You play a large amount of monk in PvP
-You play a large amount of warrior in PvP

Those two classes gain the most from the ability to armor swap, weapon swap, and rune swap mid match for health. In addition the PvE advantages only really kick in with DP. Thus for HA play PvP characters are good enough.

dare49devil · Jul 10, 2006, 10:16 PM // 22:16

A mixed spike is commonly refered to as a rainbow spike, however, most people assume that any mixed spike is a rainbow spike. Although, a rainbow spike consists of five different type of spikers.

A mixed spike of say, a warrior, ele, necro, and mesmer would not be considered as a rainbow spike.

Just thought you may want to know.

Warskull · Jul 11, 2006, 12:36 AM // 00:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kai Nui

It's always nice to read up on other people's viewpoints, but in this particular case this really didn't help me out too much, and I am kind of surprised that this would help anyone. Particularly because of the fact that the people making those mistakes wouldn't take the time to read through the article thoroughly enough to improve themselves. I do agree that most people are stupid though and this definitely has the potential to help out if they're willing to read.

There are people who simply don't have the build making experience to realize some of these things. A lot of players see that they die and decide their build needs more defense. However your defense has a set lifespan, it can only survive so long. Often times a better organized offense can help the build more.

Quote:

A mixed spike is commonly refered to as a rainbow spike, however, most people assume that any mixed spike is a rainbow spike. Although, a rainbow spike consists of five different type of spikers.

A mixed spike of say, a warrior, ele, necro, and mesmer would not be considered as a rainbow spike.

Just thought you may want to know.

I avoided the term rainbow spike because it tends to be more of a tombs term and felt mixed spike would probably communicate it better to all players.

just rude · Jul 11, 2006, 03:40 AM // 03:40

Read that, play, if you don't get it, read that, play if you don't get it, read that play, if you don't get it, read that play, if you don't get it, uninstall.