Curse

Cuilan · Apr 19, 2013, 12:17 AM // 00:17

I was trying out various Invoke Lightning variants to find something about as good as the old one. So at the moment I have come up with:
Invoke build

I was also wanting to do something with Iron Mist. Use enchant mod and attribute boosting skills to increase the duration.
Elemental Attunement and Iron Mist
Earth would be 9+1+2 for 14 second Iron Mist plus the couple seconds 20% gives.

Suggestions? Input?

expugnare · Apr 19, 2013, 12:54 PM // 12:54

Invoke is pretty weak now, honestly, and EA, not to mention the ever overpowered Assassin's Promise, outclasses it in almost any situation.

As far as the second build goes, though, it could probably work.

I would suggest adding in PvE skills, especially something like Air of Superiority to have a better chance to keep Iron Mist up for longer.

Moreover, I would probably run something more along the lines of the following:

16 Air
12 ES
3 Earth

Chain Lightning
Shell Shock / Lightning Orb (Depending on if you already have a good source of Cracked Armor in your team)
Arc Lightning
Lightning Javelin / Lightning Orb (Personal preference, although I find Javelin to be relatively mediocre)
Air of Superiority
Iron Mist
EA
Air Attunement

Although splitting attributes isn't *terrible*, necessarily, with the way EA works, I think Churning Earth is completely wasted on that bar. For a build like that your best bet is definitely AoS or EBSoW. Hell, you could even keep the Earth Magic higher, but for a single spell, even one as good as Iron Mist, it seems an inadvisable investment.

At the end of the day though, you're going to know best what feels right for you. Test out both, see what works for you and what doesn't.

Cuilan · Apr 20, 2013, 01:40 AM // 01:40

I've done Assassin's Promise to death on multiple characters...mesmer, ritualist, elementalist, assassin, necromancer, monk, etc.

Iron Mist causes overcast, so Chain Lightning would kill my energy bar. Iron Mist itself causes enough overcast to where I wouldn't mind not having it up for a while.

Lightning Javelin does tend to be mediocre at times, but it lets me hit a lot of foes that I couldn't with a normal AoE skill.

In the Invoke Lightning build I switched out EBSoH for Elemental Lord. Having EBSoH and the glyph was way too much during and before battle. These builds will be played with players, too, so having to keep up or deal with possible issues that cause long battles is a concern. Also replaced Shock Arrow for Arc Lightning.

Bristlebane · Apr 20, 2013, 06:04 AM // 06:04

I've been looking for ways to abuse Phoenix myself, it seems to have some nice potential. The idea is a team with reduced healing skills and more offensive skills.

8 Gimmicky Phoenix Ele @18 Fire would do 560 nearby Fire Dmg and 736 heals every 7 seconds from one skill alone (if overcast). On paper it just looks so fun. Drawbacks are obviously the overcast and that the heals are centered around your target, but that's probably where the big heals would be needed anyways.

Mixed teams would work great I believe, if not then it would be great potential with MM heroes (not bombers). These MMs could then focus on more offensive skills rather than BotM and DN.

expugnare · Apr 20, 2013, 09:19 AM // 09:19

The damage from Phoenix is almost negligible. The healing is relatively impactful. Effective use of that spell will really come down to positioning. It is hindered severely by its 1.5 second cast time and its HUGE projectile arc, which makes it pretty hard to actually land. At the end of the day I'm pretty certain you're just gonna kill mobs before Phoenix does enough effective healing to justify bringing it over almost anything else.

Xenomortis · Apr 20, 2013, 10:08 AM // 10:08

I see no value in Iron Mist.
The skills of interest in Air Magic are Invoke, Chain and Arc Ligntning*; Invoke and Chain already cause exhaustion; if you use those with Iron Mist and use them enough for Iron Mist to actually matter then you're going to be killing your energy bar and nothing can save it.
If you use only Invoke and combine that with Arc, then you might manage it, but I still doubt it'd be worth the effort; the results are likely comparable to Invoke+Chain on their own.
Any other Air Magic skills are a waste with Iron Mist.

*at a push; its single target damage is woeful

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bristlebane

I've been looking for ways to abuse Phoenix myself, it seems to have some nice potential. The idea is a team with reduced healing skills and more offensive skills.

Healing doesn't work that way.
Taking Phoenix doesn't really allow you to reduce the amount of healing already in your team; it doesn't really achieve anything that any of the skills you might want to replace achieve.

Phoenix is a GW2 skill in GW1 and the result is what you might expect.

Cuilan · Apr 20, 2013, 03:51 PM // 15:51

Going to give up on Iron Mist regardless. Too much overcast.

My current Invoke build will be looking like this. Seems to work.

And I agree Phoenix doesn't seem all that worth using.

expugnare · Apr 20, 2013, 04:59 PM // 16:59

I don't really see Invoke ever being a good at it used to be.

Even with clever use of Intensity, I doubt the damage output will be large enough to justify bringing as a dedicated nuke. Not to mention the Overcast it provides makes it crippling if coupled with the only other decent Air nuke, Chain Lightning.

I do however like the idea of utilizing Glyph of Immolation to trigger the conditional effect on Teinai's Wind.

You could *probably* run Chain Lightning with Invoke if you remember to manage your Overcast. In that case I would scrap Teinai's in favor of Chain and replace GoI with EVSoH or another powerful PvE ability.