Curse

Zippp · Feb 28, 2007, 10:34 AM // 10:34

Ok for a long time now people have been using SV & AV (Symathetic Visage & Ancient Visage) but this approach is extremely non practical. Before you yell, "What EVER!"... hear me out.

The best way to kill the smites is strickly by having them waste thier Smite Hexes before u ever cast SS (Spiteful Spirit). Then once they have used up thier smite hexes you cast SS onto one and place a cover hex... delaying the time in which SS is removed, thus increasing dmg that is done.

The three spells required for killing Smites effective with this method are: -- Suffering & Spiteful Spirit

The simplicty of this build helps ensure its effectiveness

Ok so now for the good stuff... how to use these two spells to quickly kill smites and why it works.

Suffering is a MASS AOE HEX spell... meaning that when u cast Suffering on 1 smite all the smites now have hexes. This action will make all the smites use smite hex. Since Smite hex has a 15 second recharge thie smites become extremely vulenarable to hexes. So.. after u cast suffering u wait a few seconds untill the majority have used smite hex then u target a smite that no longer has the hex of suffering on them anymore. You now cast SS on that target and since all of the smites have been used up thier smite hexes they can not remove it. In practical sense this would work just find... yet to insure that it works great you ALWAYS want to RECOVER SS with suffering. Doing this, not only puts a cover hex on the smite with SS but it also puts a hex on all the smites. This makes the chances of them removing the two hexes from smite that is carrying SS. This method works much better and faster than the method of echoing SV or AV and trying to drain their energy. Simply put: cast Suffering, wait a few seconds and fight a smite that has suffering removed, cast SS onto that smite, QUICKLY cover SS by casting Suffering onto same smite. After this point... it be wise to try to cast another SS

!!!!NECRO/MONK = BEST SETUP!!!!

Without the need for SV or SA the need to be necro/mes is no longer greatly neaded, and /monk is now a much better sub job. I know that u might be thinking..."WHAT ABOUT ARCANE ECHO?!" well before u reject this idea once again... hear me out.

THE BUILD: Awaken the Blood, Spiteful Spirit, Descrate Enchantments, Suffering, Life Siphone, Healing Breeze, Essence Bond, (rez sig or any resurection spell that raises victims to 50% hp or higher) -- they are 55 monks remember

Attributes-- 16 Curse (sup rune + head piece), 12 Blood (minor rune), 6 Healing

WHY?? Why should i equip Essence Bond?? Essence Bond --- Esence Bond gives u 1 energy everytime the persn you casted it on takes dmg. This means that if u cast in onto your 55 monk friend you are now getting MASS ENERGY! This enables you to use every spell you have w/o ever have to be concern if you will run out of energy!!

HEALING BREEZE -- Healing breeze is a pure survival spell. Many people say Healing breeze is not worth the energy and to be honest i agree (unless u a 55 monk). How ever since you used essence bond the 10 energy is not even close to ever leaving a dent in your energy. "Why do i need to be able to heal myself? I'm not the tank!" In the old days this would hold true... but since they changed the template on how aggro works, when ever more than 3 monsters are attacking your 55 monk they will run away.. yet when they do this they will come running off to you to inflict killer dmg. For Aaxta heealing breeze will never save u.. yet for smites this spell can work wonders. It will give u alot of life to escape as well as properly function in killing the majority of the smites.

Life Siphone -- With 12 in blood, this spell creates 3HP Degen for the enemy target and turns that into 3HP Regen for yourself. This spell stacked with healing breeze makes dealing with that 4th smite extremely easy!

Suffering -- Besides its EXTREME IMPORTANCE IN SMITE KILLING (STATED ABOVE!)This spell allows u to kill a smite with degen if you find yourself in the situation of there being 4-5 smites. When stacked with Life Siphone the enemy has -5 health degen which gives you the abilty to kill a 4th or 5th smite that has gone after you extremely easy!

Descrate Enchantments -- DO NOT USE ON SMITES (Reversal of Fortune will make this spell heal the smites!!!) This spell is mainly use to inflect dmg on all prey besides smites such as: NIGHTMARES!, Aaxta, Darkness Monsters, and Cold Fires

WHY YOU DO NOT NEED "ARCANE ECHO" When your blood attribute is at 12 your Awaken the Blood last for 39 seconds, and with this spell your SS will be doing 41 dmg per hit. This is ALOT OF DMG, yet what is really good is that SS is only a 10 second recharge which means in 10 seconds you can have SS on two targets. This is plenty fast as well as lethal. You will almost NEVER need more than 2 SS as long as all targets are getting hit with the 41 dmg. Also removing Arcane Echo allows you to bring Healing Breeze which is a life saver when you have a group of 5 smites and 2 of them are gradually eating your life away while you kite them (hopefully you are degening one to death with Suffering & Life Siphone).

Razorwood · Feb 28, 2007, 10:47 AM // 10:47

If there's more than 3 they just run off anyway, which increases the time it takes to kill them.

DrD · Feb 28, 2007, 10:52 AM // 10:52

Maybe you just never got the timing down I...

Anyone else feel like this guy doesn't have as much Experience as one should before he spits out this stuff?

Razorwood · Feb 28, 2007, 11:19 AM // 11:19

Your refering to me I take it?

Since the AI update more than 3 enemies will run off when faced with AoE damage, there is nothing you can do to "time" SS.

Also I have plenty of experience farming.

Cebe · Feb 28, 2007, 12:10 PM // 12:10

A video will prove everything...

Star Alfur · Feb 28, 2007, 10:43 PM // 22:43

Yes, echoing sv and/or chaining them once before casting SS is inefficient, but that is an issue of how one is using them.

SV -> Arcane Echo -> (Wait appropriate amount of seconds, depends on mob size) -> SS -> SS -> AV or Suffering to cover.

Casting Suffering without either draining energy or baiting the Smite Hex can instantly kill your monk, due to a "Smite Hex spike." (Zealot's Fire + Smite Hex = 2 packets of damage)

Concerning energy problems you may experience ... weapon-swapping ftw.

Yes, lately, aggro can be messy on large mobs. However, there is Blood Renewal, or your monk knows when to prot spirit and/or breeze you, the necro.

Anyway ... IMO, it's all about preference. I've always found the N/Mes setup faster, if used properly.

Razorwood · Mar 01, 2007, 08:45 AM // 08:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by Star Alfur

or your monk knows when to prot spirit and/or breeze you, the necro.

Anyway ... IMO, it's all about preference. I've always found the N/Mes setup faster, if used properly.

I maybe wrong but isn't the OP on about soloing?

Cathode_Reborn · Mar 01, 2007, 06:57 PM // 18:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by Razorwood

I maybe wrong but isn't the OP on about soloing?

He mentioned putting Essence bond on the 55 monk so I guess not.

Either way, he's crazy

echo'ing SS is the fastest way to do it. Both Defile and Desecrate Enchantments are a must if you want to do high amounts of damage, and they become extremely useful when you start fighting the Smites. It's stupid to bring AtB with only 1 copy of Defile Enchantments on your skillbar.

Who cares if you get all that energy through Essence Bond? What do you plan on doing with it? By taking out Arcane Echo, you're losing tons of damage.

Osi Ri S · Mar 02, 2007, 01:21 AM // 01:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cathode_Reborn

It's stupid to bring AtB with only 1 copy of Defile Enchantments on your skillbar.

i really dont see the logic in that, AtB adds SOO much dmg over time, 37 compared to 41 from SS with AtB? ill take that any day compared to a 64 dmg +some for enchants from adding another Desecrate/Defile.

Also, i agree with the, Cast SV echo, wait, SS + SS, then AV, once you get this down i dont think there is a faster way to kill the smites when dualing UW.

Cathode_Reborn · Mar 02, 2007, 05:13 AM // 05:13

How exacly do you not see the logic in that?

Defile Enchantments is 64 damage by default, in a Nearby range (which is larger than SS).

SS with Awaken the Blood does 41 damage. That's a mere 4 + damage than normal. That extra 4+ damage would only be equal to Defile Enchantments if SS was triggered 16 times. But, SS won't trigger 16 times on the same taget cause they'll be dead long before it triggers that many times.

Here's a small example, assuming SS was triggered 8 times and the player is using other spells to increase damage:

SS with Awaken + Defile : 8 x 41 + 64 = 392
SS with Defile + Desecrate: 8 x 37 + 64 + 64 = 424

Using Awaken the Blood just to make SS do more damage = useless, a waste of attribute points and a skillslot.

It should be clear now. By using Defile Enchantments x2, you'll save some attribute points, do much higher damage in a shorter amount of time, you can do tons of damage to enchanted foes such as Dervs which are common, you're not relying on enchantments to do more damage, and Defile/Desecreate have a larger AoE range. It's an extremely common misconception that using AtB with SS makes you do lots more damage. If you want to do more damage, don't be wasteful and use AtB.....instead, make sure you use both Defile and Desecrate.

So what if you already use Defile x2 and you want even more damage? I'll still say it: Don't use AtB, it simply isn't worth it.

I hope I've made all this clear, cause it's a very common mistake.

Coloneh · Mar 02, 2007, 05:20 AM // 05:20

@OP....... uhhhhh no. smite hex has a 15 second recharge, and they wont all use it. almost everyone has tried this , and i have to say, it dosnt work real well.

ZenRgy · Mar 03, 2007, 03:37 PM // 15:37

If this a solo build, it fails.

If this is a build for dual UW, it fails.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cathode_Reborn

Using Awaken the Blood just to make SS do more damage = useless, a waste of attribute points and a skillslot.

So is life siphon.

Reckless haste owns Awaken the blood in the face for extra damage.

Ichigo724 · Mar 05, 2007, 04:03 AM // 04:03

gg @ monk getting smite hex spiked.

God Of Gambler · Mar 11, 2007, 02:57 PM // 14:57

I donno about you guys..but i usually balthazar spirits and essence bond to the 55hp monk for energy management ^^

Well My Strategy is like this though...

the monk aggroing the smites then i cast ss...then they will use smite hex......while waiting for their smite hex to recover, i use suffering...then the smite will cast smite hex again i use descerate enchanment and defile enchanment...then use ss....then i will keep that repeating cycle of skills...

the only problem i have sofar is aggroing 4-5 smites...sometimes 1 or 2 smites will break the aggroed group and attack me...luckily my dual partner always know how to keep me alive...

Just only my 2 cents..

Dont Flame me

icymanipulator · Mar 13, 2007, 11:34 PM // 23:34

When I do UW runs with my SS necro I use the following setup:

Suffering
Arcane Echo
Spiteful Spirit
Sympathetic Visage
Ancestors Visage
Desecrate Enchantments
Defile Enchantments
Resurrection Signet

Curses 12+3+1
Soul Reaping 9+1
Illusion Magic 9

Modti's Depravation with a full set of Radiant armor (scar pattern) with 3 attunements for maximum energy.

Arcane Echo is only really useful at the beginning with the bladed ataxes and grasping darknesses. For just smites you will never ever need to echo your SS to win. If the 55 is doing their job right managing the smites, they can easily attract and hold 5 at once no problem. The trick is using the terrain. If you want to drop those smites super fast use this combo:

Wait for 55 to ping ready, then move in and cast SV on the monk. Give it about 4-5 seconds maximum and then apply SS on a single smite towards the center of the pack, follow up with suffering IMMEDIATELY to cover. Follow this up with AV on the monk to keep the smites energy low. Next use defile and desecrate enchantments, all 5 should drop after the second enchant spell. Its rare but occasionally the smites will pop off the SS as you are casting suffering to cover. If you cant get it on them fast enough consider using parasitic bond. I partner up with a very good 55, but this technique works time and time again with brutal efficiency.