Curse

stokey · Jan 16, 2006, 09:38 AM // 09:38

Scroll down a bit if you want to read the strategy of the build first.

1 N/E - Corpse denial
1 N/Me - Sacker
1 Me/Mo - Rezmer/Prot
1 Mo/E - Healer
1 Mo/Me - Boon Prot
1 E/Mo - Air Spike
2 R/x - Ranger Spike

N/E
Blood Magic: 8 [7+1(minor)]
Death Magic: 16 [12+3(superior)+1(headpiece)]
Soul Reaping: 7 [6 + 1 (minor)]
Curses: 4 [3+1(minor)]
Earth Magic: 9

Well of Power [E]
Well of Blood
Well of Suffering
Well of Profane
Putrid Explosion
Ward Against Melee
Ward Against Elements
Death Nova

N/Me
Fast Casting: 15[11+3(superior)+1(headpiece)]
Blood Magic: 11
Curses: 8

Dark Pact
Signet of Agony
Blood is Power [E]
Order of Pain
Touch of Agony
Price of Failure
Rend Enchantments
Malaise

Me/Mo
Fast Casting: 16[12+3(superior)+1(headpiece)]
Inspiration: 8[7+1(minor)]
Healing Prayers: 6
Protection Prayers: 9

Shielding Hands
Aegis
Mantra of Resolve
Restore Life
Martyr [E]
Holy Veil
Remove Hex
Purge Conditions

Mo/E
Earth Magic: 10
Healing Prayers: 15 [11+3(superior)+1(headpiece)]
Divine Favor: 11 [10+1(minor)]

Healing Touch
Word of Healing [E]
Orison of Healing
Dwayna's Kiss
Heal Other
Mend Ailment
Holy Veil
Ward Against Melee

Mo/Me
Illusion Magic: 8
Protection Prayers: 11 [10+1(minor)]
Divine Favor: 16 [12+3(superior)+1(headpiece)]

Reversal of Fortune
Guardian
Mend Ailment
Spellbreaker [E]
Aegis
Protective Spirit
Arcane Conundrum
Divine Boon

E/Mo
Air Magic: 16 [12+3(superior)+1(headpiece)]
Energy Storage: 10 [9+1(minor)]
Healing Prayers: 9

Windborne Speed
Mind Shock [E]
Lightning Orb
Lightning Strike
Air Attunement
Infuse Health
Healing Breeze
Resurrection Signet

R/x x2
Expertise: 14 [10+3(superior)+1(headpiece)]
Wilderness Survival: 11 [10+1(minor)]
Marksmanship: 12 [11+1(minor)]

Read the Wind
Dual Shot
Distracting Shot
Savage Shot
Punishing Shot [E]/ Crippling Shot [E]
Healing Springs
Favorable Winds/ Barbed Trap
Resurrection Signet

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STRATEGY
The sacker will provide energy and do damage to the other team. He will die at tactical points in the map and allow the corpse exploiter to summon wells. With both well of blood and well of power, the entire team will have a health regeneration of +8 and energy regeneration of +2 given the current amount of attribute points put into blood magic. In addition to the blood is power provided by the sacker, the energy of the team shouldn't be much of a problem.

After setting up a comfortable defense (both wells and a ward appropriate against the other team), the sacker can transition into the offensive phase. He has malaise, which he can cast on the entire other team since the health degeneration does not bother him (he does not care about dying). He also has some offensive sacking skills that should help him die while doing some damage in the process. In the offensive phase, he should venture into enemy territory while the corpse exploiter casts death nova on him. When he dies, the death nova will trigger and the corpse exploiter can either:
a) cast Well of the Profane to remove enchantments to make spiking easier
b) cast Well of Suffering for area control (since most people will not be standing in it for long)
c) cast Putrid Explosion for extra area of effect damage
The well of suffering with the poison from death nova will make all enemies in its radius have near max health degeneration. The effect the others have are pretty obvious.

The rezmer is there to continually resurrect the sacker, cast some assisting protection spells, and remove most hexes. He casts fast so the protection spells and hex removal should not interfere with his resurrecting job. Restore life is used instead of the other resurrection spells because it brings the person back with ample energy. This way the sacker can continue to use blood is power to provide energy for the team, cast order of pain to help boost the damage done by the rangers, or continue to strain the other team's energy with malaise.

The healer supports the team with solid heals (rather than health regeneration) and casts wards when the corpse exploiter is busy casting wells. The boon prot, on the other hand, serves as both an offensive and defensive character. He will use guardian in addition to the aegis and wards to make hitting our team extremely frustrating. He has a secret (secret because monks usually do not carry attacking spells) arcane conundrum that should be coordinated with attacks. The boon prot casts that on the other team's protection monk to slow down the protection enchantments, giving the spikers more time to finish off a target.

The air spiker will deal burst damage and help the monks protect the team against spike damage with infuse health. In a GvG battle, this character will also secondary as a flag runner. In a regular battle, the air spiker will cast windborne speed on the sacker to help him reach his target before he dies and triggers death nova.

The ranger spikers will work in coordination with the air spiker to eliminate single targets. Although healing should not be a problem, they carry healing springs at the moment just in case. The target called will be crippled to make spiking easier and then bombarded with various interrupts along with the air spikes. The ranger with the barbed trap should use that at the edges of the wells or in tactical points as a defensive mechanism.
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Phew, I spent a lot of time on that. Hope somebody actually reads through it all, haha. Please put comments, criticism, feedback, changes, etc. if you guys can find any. It might not be the best build but its something I thought up myself. Through practice and tweaking, I think it could be viable for actually usage. Have fun.

Moe69 · Jan 17, 2006, 08:00 AM // 08:00

i believe u will need a Me/N for the Sacker or u wont have any fastcast

I really like the build though, will give it a try soon.

Solong, Moe

theclam · Jan 17, 2006, 08:24 AM // 08:24

I'm not sure about that N/E. He's got six skills that are useless until something dies. Five are useless unless there's an unexploited corpse and one is useless unless a teammate is the one that died.

For the Monks, I'd ditch the Superior Runes. They'll be a primary target in any PvP battle and you want all the life you can get. I would not spend attribute points on Earth Magic only for Ward Against Melee or Illusion Magic for Arcane Conundrum (far better suited to an actual debuffer). I'd either use 12/12 (with 3 in Prot from the Healing Monk for Mend Ailment) or have my third attribute go towards something immensely useful to a Monk like Offering of Blood, Mantra of Recall, Bonnetti's Defense, etc. Running Divine Boon with a good energy management skill is risky. If the Monk ever gets separated from the BiP Necro, he'll run out of energy quite quickly. Even something like Signet of Devotion would help.

Manfred · Jan 17, 2006, 01:04 PM // 13:04

Um, didn't you read the strategy?

I would take out arcane conundrum though, 2 second cast time is far too long in a 2 monk team. Maybe the prot should switch out to Hex Breaker for the anti-mesmer dmage in the Domination line.

stokey · Jan 18, 2006, 05:21 AM // 05:21

Yea, I meant to make the sacker a Me/N -- typo.

theclam -- everyone should stay in the wells so the monks should not get separated from the group. There will always be a corpse for the N/E to use unless there's a frozen soil, in which case the rangers and elementalist attack the frozen soil asap. I suppose the ward against melee isn't really necessary on the monk but I wanted to bring a backup ward since IWAY teams are extremely popular these days. The sacker has rend enchantments and the corpse exploiter has well of the profane so those are major debuffs already, but I wanted to use arcane conundrum to make sure the target doesn't get mass healing from someone when it is getting attacked. A backup energy management skill for the boon monk sounds like a good idea, just in case the team meets up against some good energy denial mesmers, but I don't think it's worth it since it's not likely to encounter 2+ energy denial mesmers.

Manfred -- Hex Breaker sounds like a good defensive skill, especially to allow the rezmer to continue doing his job instead of switching off to hex removal. I'm thinking about changing holy veil to convert hexes though since remove hex should take care of single hexes easily enough by itself.