Curse

Showtime · Oct 19, 2011, 07:07 AM // 07:07

1st area of this dungeon is a pita. From what I remember we got there the 1st few days the dungeons were up and got raped. So don't worry that your having problems. It took 3 tries figure out what to tweak just to get past that 1st group and I think we couldn't take down duncan the 1st time. Who knew spirits kicked ass? People were working out things... lol

Anyways, it's now very doable with heros.

1 good healer and an ST rit should be plenty with 1 or 2 mesmers. ST rit should only have the one spirit (SHELTER)if you have more, remove them. You can put FS on him or some mes inspirational skills for mana. Also micro FS and be aware of Shelter. Sometimes the rits will not cast it even though it's their main job. I would use sabs nec healer set to avoid if your monks are not working. It's better to do a lot of damage then prots and lastly worrying about healing. You want that 1st strike to hurt them bad so you dont go back and forth with lvl 24+ foes. Keystone and PI or Panic mesmers should be plenty. Since you are getting rid of one monk, maybe try an SOGM rit for dual role tanks, prot, and damage. For you, AP works here like everywhere else, try that with PVE skills and swap. Last 2-3 leaves a lot of possibility. I'd go with roj monks if you got em. 40/40 sets if possible with mesmer 2nd and elem 2nd w/deep freeze. Or discorders will work.

There should be vids of full runs there. Watch that to see patrols and pop ups. Flag group in diamond shape... Keep 1 2 3 your ST rit, Healer, SOGM, etc.

Also when down there if you have a large enough monitor.. wide screen ideally... then put all heros up on left side or wherever to see whos running out of juice and if any are standing around doing nothing.

I might do this dungeon this weekend for 1st time with my sin and his heros. See if it's easier or a pita with my sin.

Wenspire · Oct 19, 2011, 09:35 AM // 09:35

The problem I see with having 2 SS/Curses necros are that, since your group is targeting the same enemy, they will not use them on different targets thus wasting potential damage. Insidious Parasite and a few other duration hexes also falls into that problem area. That is, unless Hero AI has changed where they will use it on different targets?

Also probably better to have Swap on your bar and FrozenSoil on the heroes (disabled for manual use). However, since you mentioned that you had no problems clearing the dungeon then that probably isn't much of an issue.

BTW, congratulations on completing the dungeon.

Calista Blackblood · Oct 19, 2011, 01:07 PM // 13:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by TStormsong

You are right about Shadow of Fear... strange, when I was looking for that I was looking to slow the movement and somehow misread the description.

Easy mistake :P

Quote:

I'm not looking to argue, but I don't understand what the problem is with the healer. My thoughts were that enchantment type healing would allow the team to stay alive longer. Problems I was having in the past included other party members dying because the healer was too busy trying to heal someone else.

Enchantment protection is better,but you also have an ST rit with Shelter so direct healing to mop up damage would suit better. That can come from either Monk or a N/Rt. N/Rt would let you slot in Recuperation,Life or Rejuvenation. Mend body and soul,spirit light and Ghostmirror Light are also viable heals as well as Protective Was Kaolai.

Quote:

The biggest problem I faced with Duncan was the variety of foes. The first group has hard hitting melee as well as healers, mesmers, minion masters.
Subsequent groups have elementalists in there too.

There is no 1 build that can handle everything,but there are basic templates you can work off and change as needed.

Quote:

What would your advice be on creating a team that can manage the variety as well as synergize?

I'm being lazy but this is pretty much what I was thinking. Probably wouldn't take Shadow of Fear though as there is still room for an SS nec which I personally would add another copy of Protective Was Kaolai to.

Quote:

I thought I would share what worked for me, because every other build I tried (self made or found online) would just get me rolled over by the first group.

All depends on the random spawns.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wenspire

The problem I see with having 2 SS/Curses necros are that, since your group is targeting the same enemy, they will not use them on different targets thus wasting potential damage. Insidious Parasite and a few other duration hexes also falls into that problem area. That is, unless Hero AI has changed where they will use it on different targets?

Also probably better to have Swap on your bar and FrozenSoil on the heroes (disabled for manual use). However, since you mentioned that you had no problems clearing the dungeon then that probably isn't much of an issue.

BTW, congratulations on completing the dungeon.

I had a play with this earlier. Heros didn't dual SS nor did they swap off a called target. Mesmers did dual cast Mistrust though but it happened like 1/10 and again didn't target swap.

I only tried with SS and Mistrust though

Edbert · Nov 18, 2011, 02:01 PM // 14:01

I've come back to the game in it's final days just to clean up unfinished items and gain a few points in the HoM, currently at 38 points so I'm not a total newbie despite asking newbie questions here.

That said I've found the dischord team build to be so easy it is almost an exploit! Just kidding, but seriously it has made HM missions and vanquishing child's play. However I found it is NOT up to the task of defeating Duncan in HM, I make it all the way to Duncan no problem, not even a single death with careful aggro, but am unable to deal with his army of spirits. I'll give it another try soon with variations but wanted to see if any of the gurus (I am DEFINITELY not one) can make specific suggestions. Here's my thoughts...

In general I need to add more degen to my mesmers (I run two that are almost entirely interrupt spammers) and my necros (running 3 with the dischord, two of them have a single minion skill) for Duncan and some anti-spirit skills to my rits (running two). I am aware of the swap skill but if I am not very adept at micromanaging heroes, so if I put swap on them how would I get them to move the spirits away in a reasonable fashion, put swap on several characters? I should mention at this point that I am a Dervish using a variation of pious renewal. I usually run pain inverter but read that it will kill me if I hit Duncan with it.

So does anyone have a specific team build they can point me to? Better yet tell me what are the best degens to put on the necro/mesmers as well as the best spirit nukers to put on my rits. I guess I can put swap on myself and run around like mad moving as many as I can, or can I move them all the way to some corner and not bother killing them? That might be the best route if Duncan will quit spawning them since they are not dead. Any EoTN skills (Asura/Norn/etc.) that I can use in place of pain inverter that will not reflect damage to myself?

Quaker · Nov 18, 2011, 03:05 PM // 15:05

I've done Duncan HM several times with just myself, a friend (SoS Rit) and 6 heroes. We didn't bring anything special other than Frozen Soil and Swap. I don't think you need to be too concerned with having a special "team" build as long as you take your time, pull, etc.
But, you should definitely go /A and equip Swap. It's a slow but steady way to counter the spirits around Duncan. And someone should have Frozen Soil. FS also works best with a human, but you can't do both unless you are A/R or R/A.

Dimi Gravedancer · Feb 05, 2012, 06:18 PM // 18:18

This may sound Silly but it worked for me.

I ran with my Normal Build. Using the Following Heroes

1-Interrput/Panic- Make sure you throw in a Splinter Weapon for good Measure if your build Runs MoP
1-Discord
1-Barrage- Because regardless of what people say Barrage+Splinter+MoP= Epic!
1-RoJ Monk
1-Heal Monk

Be sure to bring along Swap or Spirit Walk. If your heroes builds Run correct you should be there in no time.