Curse

Nechtan Thaumaturge · Jun 17, 2008, 05:59 AM // 05:59

Somewhat lost in all the attention that the buff to Shadow Form generated is the fact that Ether Renewal got a pretty nice boost in 5/22 skill update as well. Now it's possible to maintain it permanently (something I've been trying to do for a long time now) with Glyph of Swiftness, a +20% enchantment duration modifier, and a superior Energy Storage rune.

Ether Renewal used to key some of the better Elementalist farming builds, pre-Factions, so I was wondering if anyone has come up with anything novel since the buff. Here's a few that I've found.

[build prof=E/Mo energy=10+2+1 smiting=11 protection=10][Protective Spirit][Spirit Bond][Guardian][Reversal of Damage][Glyph of Swiftness][Ether Renewal][Retribution][Holy Wrath][/build]
You'll also want 15 AL (or lower) armor equipped with Vigor, Survivor and Attunement runes and a weapon of Enchantment +20% with a Snapjaw's Powerstone, or something similar. If you want to try the build, but don't want to spend a lot of money, you really only need the 15 AL armor, the Energy Storage rune, and the Enchantment modifier, the rest just makes the build more potent and playable.

This is an attempt at integrating the classic 600/Smite team into a single build. It works well enough against single groups, but it requires a bit of finesse to pull off, and you do suffer in some places from not having Spell Breaker.

To run the build, pre-cast Holy Wrath and Retribution. As you draw near to a group, hit Protective Spirit and Spirit Bond. Then, hit a Glyph of Swiftness and follow with Ether Renewal. Aggro and cast Guardian as the monsters approach. Spam Spirit Bond, Reversal of Damage, and Protective Spirit. Recast Ether Renewal as necessary.

The key to running the build is managing Holy Wrath; it's often necessary to remove it when your energy is getting low or as a precautionary measure when re-casting Ether Renewal. You don't necessarily want to leave it down indefinitely, however, because you do three times more damage with the combination of Holy Wrath and Retribution than with Retribution alone.

Guardian is included for the sole purpose of slowing down the pace of attacks so that you can cast quickly enough to offset the energy drain of Holy Wrath. You can also use Mental Block, if you wish. Mental Block is easier you use -- just cast it once at the beginning of battle -- but Guardian gives you the ability to throttle your damage output/energy usage over the course of a battle.

Melee creatures tend to die quickest, but also put the biggest strain on your energy pool. Spellcasters are the exact opposite, and ranged attackers tend to fall somewhere in the middle. In general, however, you'll want to run the build as follows:

1-2 monsters -> Guardian not needed
3 monsters -> Keep Guardian up most of the time
4-5 monsters -> Keep Guardian up all the time and drop Holy Wrath when re-casting Ether Renewal
6-7 monsters -> Keep Guardian up all the time and leave Holy Wrath off

Greater than about 7 monsters at a time is more than this build can handle.

The build works about as well as one might expect but not nearly as well as one might hope. Only light interruption and enchantment removal can be tolerated. Any sort of healing on the part of the monsters tends to draw out the battles to a stalemate or else prolong them to the point that you're better off with other builds.

Also, this build is not suitable for monsters with multi-attacks, e.g. Double Shot. Creatures should be able to do a fair amount of damage (more than 60) regularly. For this reason, hard mode is preferred. Finally, Undead take double damage from Holy Wrath, Retribution, and Reversal of Damage, so they make excellent targets.

Variants: Shield Guardian can be used in place of Guardian in some places. It recharges extremely quickly and heals you as well. However, energy becomes an issue quickly, as the one-time 75% blocking doesn't seem to work as well as permanent 50% blocking does.

Shield of Absorption could be useful in this build, as well. Without Blessed Aura, though, it doesn't seem to last long enough to be useful. However, if there's a way to adapt this build for use against large groups, e.g. the massive spawn of Undead in the Gates of Kryta mission, it probably involves using Shield of Absorption.

[build prof=E/Mo energy=10+2+1 fire=12 protection=8][Aura of Restoration][Burning Speed][Flame Djinn's Haste][Glyph of Swiftness][Ether Renewal][Fire Attunement][Vital Blessing][Protective Bond][/build]
This is kind of a mish-mash of concepts, but essentially the idea is to use Ether Renewal to offset the energy losses that Protective Bond imposes and simultaneously heal the excess damage that filters through. Damage is achieved through the constant burning that Burning Speed provides, plus an occasional Flame Djinn's Haste.

One of the nice things about having a permanent Ether Renewal is that you can contend with life-stealing skills, which tend to be problematic for many builds. I originally intended this build for use against Oni's -- Protective Bond gets around Shadow Shroud -- but found that it worked against the nearby Rot Wallows, which I've never been able to farm before.

This one is pretty straightforward. Pre-cast Protective Bond, Vital Blessing, Fire Attunement, and Aura of Restoration. Approach the monsters, then hit Glyph of Swiftness followed by Ether Renewal. Aggro, and then just spam Burning Speed and Flame Djinn's Haste.

The only real trick here is making sure your amount of hit points is neither too high nor too low. If it's too high, you'll find you take too much damage because Protective Bond is never triggering. If it's too low, you'll find your energy bleeding away as Protective Bond triggers all the time. Ideally, both will stay near their maximums, assuming you've got a chance at all against the monsters you're fighting. In any event you're generally better off equipping as much AL as possible. However, in all honesty, you'd probably be better off by just fiddling the attributes a bit and going with Protective Spirit.

Variants: You can swap out Fire Attunement for Life Attunement to get a bit more healing.

Axel Zinfandel · Jun 17, 2008, 06:40 AM // 06:40

[Prot Renewal;A2MwvM72I9rFPkQSdbmoFrHA]

Basically, ZF is there to purposely scatter enemies attacking your backline.

EDIT: Oh, farming? nevermind XD

Abedeus · Jun 17, 2008, 06:48 AM // 06:48

First build - 0 energy due to Holy Wrath. Doesn't matter how much energy you get from ER, you will have 0 after 6-7 hits from anything. That's ~3 seconds on NM and 2 seconds on HM.

Second build - almost viable. Just remove Prot Bond, you, again, won't have the energy for it. Get Protective Spirit and spam if you need energy.
Oh, and get few superiors for a 55 build or something. Watch out for burning, though.

Nechtan Thaumaturge · Jun 17, 2008, 04:07 PM // 16:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by Abedeus

First build - 0 energy due to Holy Wrath. Doesn't matter how much energy you get from ER, you will have 0 after 6-7 hits from anything. That's ~3 seconds on NM and 2 seconds on HM.

I've been running this for about two weeks now, and I can assure you it works. It's no walk in the park, mind you, but it works. At 13 Energy Storage, you pull in 4 energy per enchantment per cast (the skill icon still seems to reflect the pre-5/22 stats) or 24-28 energy per cast with this build. Discounting the cost of the spell itself, that nets you something like 16-20 energy per cast. With the 1/4 second activation spells, you can hit one spell per second counting aftercast, which gives you the equivalent of 48-60 pips of energy regeneration. That's a monstrous figure, nearly ten times more than what you would get from Blood is Power.

The key is you have to spam those spells, I mean really spam them. Spam them on recharge. Spam them even though they are still active and have plenty of duration on them. When you stop casting, you stop gaining energy. Also, having ~100 energy from the various runes and equipment gives you the buffer you need to weather the tricky spots.

Lastly, remember that Holy Wrath only triggers on attack damage, and only on successful hits, hence Guardian. Apart from that, just observe the caveats on removing Holy Wrath when necessary and appropriate group size mentioned in the original post.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Abedeus

Second build - almost viable. Just remove Prot Bond, you, again, won't have the energy for it. Get Protective Spirit and spam if you need energy.
Oh, and get few superiors for a 55 build or something. Watch out for burning, though.

For the same reasons as above, energy isn't an issue. Here, you spam Burning Speed. In fact, since Flame Djinn's Haste tends to last longer than Reversal of Damage and since Protective Bond only penalizes you 4 energy rather than 10, it's even less of a concern.

As I mentioned in the post, Protective Spirit is a good choice. My main reason for not using it is that it tends to lead you down the slippery slope to running a 55 build, and that's been done before (not that there's anything wrong with them).

Neither of these are perfect builds. I just wanted to begin the conversation, so to speak, and indicate some of the potential of the newly buffed Ether Renewal. Thanks for the comments.