Curse

medulla · Sep 11, 2006, 09:37 PM // 21:37

This is a novelty build first and foremost. I've always wanted to use Channeling, but despite its numerical power, the recharge times usually prevent you from actually killing someone.

Profession: Mesmer/Ritualist
Type: Fort Aspenwood / Alliance Battle
Category: Spike

Attributes:
Fast Casting: 11 + 3 + 1
Inspiration Magic: 6 + 2
Channeling: 12

Skill Set:
Spirit Burn (Channeling)
Ether Feast (Inspiration Magic)
Essence Strike (Channeling)
Gaze from Beyond (Channeling)
Spirit Boon Strike (Channeling)
Energy Tap (Inspiration Magic)
Destruction (Channeling)
Mantra of Recovery (Fast Casting) {Elite}

Summary:
Before putting MoR on, always start your spike by either casting Destruction or ensuring a spirit is within your aggro sphere. Spirit Burn and Spirit Boon Strike are your less preferred spells, but still important to the spike. Cast Gaze from Beyond every instant it's available (which will happen more often). Essence Strike's 7 energy return should also be used every time it is available. Energy Tap when necessary. (again, it'll be back sooner than usual and 15 Fast Cast makes it painless.) The Channeling spells won't leave you with down-time, and with 15 Fast Casting, can bring quick alarm to any slow-casting player. I've noticed no one expects to get hit by Gaze from Beyond more than once, nor do they expect the spike to keep on going.

Oh, and don't forget what destruction does, 120 damage to surrounding foes - excellent for alliance battles.

Since you're not a primary ritualist, you're per-spell damage is less.

Analysis:
Spell.......................Level 12..........Level 16......Cost
Spirit Burn....................68...................84... ........5
Essence Strike..............41...................53....... ....5
Gaze from Beyond.........102.................126...........5
Spirit Boon Strike...........82..................106.......... 10
Destruction..................120.................1 50..........10

Level 16 Total (not including Destruction): 369
Level 12 Total (not including Destruction): 293 * 2 = 586

However, MoR will effectively double the Level 12 damage since it's available twice as often. Spirit Boon Strike is the only spell you'll regularly cast with a spell cost of 10, and Essence Strike will return its own cost along with 2 more energy. So, it's not as rough on energy as typical Me/E builds. A ritualist using these same spells will have huge windows of wand-attacking idleness. Again, the problem with these spells isn't the spell costs; it's the recharge times. And even at level 12, Gaze from Beyond especially has excellent damage for only 5 energy.

Concerns:
MoR will last 20 seconds with a 20 second recharge. However, if you don't immediately have the energy, don't worry. Spells that are cast without MoR will still speed up once MoR is applied (which might be a glitch).

One point to make sure of is that this spike, like most spikes, will not carry to another victim immediately. A lot of the build revolves around proximity to a spirit, similar to Ritualists accomplishing the same thing. Destruction has an excellent recharge time of 20 seconds (unfortunately MoR has no effect on it). However, if it's commonly targeted, tactically position yourself within the range of a spirit (even if it's the enemy's 'Shadow Song' or a ranger's spirit). I think this is actually the funnest part of the build.

One strange thing I've noticed is that Gaze from Beyond won't do damage if the spirit hasn't 'popped up' from being summoned yet. This is probably a Fast Casting-specific issue and can be solved by a millisecond of patience.