Curse

cerb · Mar 03, 2006, 11:01 PM // 23:01

Ok, I am posting this because I am hoping to make the average PuG necro a little better. In this guide, I'll explain how everything works: skills and battle tactics, as well as tips from my personal experience as both a monk player and a necro player.

Skills

Arcane Echo
Spiteful Spirit {E}
Sympathetic Visage
Wildcard 1 (Desecrate Enchantments)
Suffering
Wildcard 2 (Blood Ritual, Drain Enchantment, Parasitic Bond, Inspired Hex)
Wildcard 3 (Power Drain, Awaken the Blood, Mantra of Resolve, ..)
Resurrection Signet

Personal Choice

Some of you might think I'm a little crazy wildcarding Desecrate Enchantments. It is a very good skill for UW, especially against Dryders, Coldfires and Wrathful Spirits, but hey, it's not 100% needed, even though I really couldn't imagine what you would want to switch it out for.

As for Wildcard 2, many people will choose BR here, because often the PUG monks will ask. A decent monk will take Blessed Signet (not only good for speed, but also good against Dryders) so there's really no need for BR. I'll take Drain Enchantment for a spider run (I love to drain Illusion of Haste or Weaponry :P), Inspired Hex for questing (Escort of Souls etc., you don't need it for Ice King), and Parasitic Bond for the normal Smite run.

Wildcard 3 I'll choose Power Drain because not only it can save my monk's life, it provides a great energy boost against Coldfires, or Dryders. Now, notice how I am not taking Awaken the Blood. I'd much rather have an interrupt to possibly save the day than dealing sighly more damage. This is a wildcard though, so you're free to take whichever skill you want.

As for attributes, a 14s long SV is perfect. Some people prefer 15-16s, but hey, 14s works great. You want to have a superior curses rune and a curses scalp for 16 curses (duh), and a superior soul reaping rune. Add in a vigor rune to help counter the -150 health loss from those two runes. Here's what I use while doing the Smite Run (Same attribs for the spider run, Unwanted Guests and the Ice King):

Attributes

Illusion Magic: 7
Inspiration Magic: 8
Soul Reaping: 8 +3 = 11
Curses: 12 +3 +1 = 16

Attributes are really up to the player though, so figure out what suits your needs best.

Equipment

For the equipment, I highly recommand taking both a necrotic armor and scar pattern. It is very important you do not put major/superior runes on your necrotic armor aside from Vigor. You are taking Necrotic only in case your monk dies, you usually won't be fighting with it. Keep on reading!

[ Weapon Set 1 ]
Weapon: 20% Curses Recharge Truncheon (Such as the one from the Desert Collector)
Offhand: 20% Curses Recharge Offhand (Such as Villnar's Glove)

[ Weapon Set 2 ]
Weapon: 15/-1 Truncheon, such as the one from the ToA Collector
Offhand: 27/-1 Cesta, such as the one from the Desert Collector

Switching to your second weapon set should give you 79 energy and only 2 regen pips. Now, I shall explain how to take care of monsters you will encounter in your run.

Fighting Aatxes only

This is very simple, use SS (duh), and desecrate enchantments. You really won't don't need to cast SV on your monk here. I also see some people using Suffering on Aatxes, but that's just a waste of mana. Most of the time against a decent-sized group of aatxes, one or more will not be hitting, so don't use SS on them (duh). If the group is too large for you to determine which are attacking, scroll through them and cast SS on those that use skills. Against large groups you might run out of energy, but guess what the +energy weapon set is for? xD

Fighting Grasping Darknesses

These can be a pain for a monk. Distracting Blow, Fear Me, and if you give them the chance, Skull Crack. What's not to hate about them? Luckily, they don't have much health, so use SS on them and cast SV on your monk after you layed down your Spiteful Spirits. If you give them the chance to gather too much adrenaline (which is pretty quick; they use Flurry), they will start using Skull Crack and a dazed monk is a dead monk (unless it's a supermonk!). Desecrate Enchantments works good here too since they don't have so much hit points.

Fighting Aatxes & Darknesses

With an average PUG monk you'll most likely never face this situation, but it's still good to know how to handle it. The aatxes have twice as much health as the Darknesses, so you must cast SS on the Aatxes first. Once again, you'll have to use SV here. Try not to delay SV too much, remember 10 strikes of adrenaline with Flurry charges fast. If arcane echo is ready, I'll usually use this pattern Arc. Echo > Spiteful > SV on Monk > Spiteful > Spiteful ...

Fighting Terrorweb Dryders

Spiteful Spirit + Desecrate Enchantments ftw ~ Drain Enchantment also works good against those :P

Fighting Grasping Darknesses + Terrorwebs

Tell your monk to tuck the Darknesses into the Dryders, then SV him and kill the Darknesses first. Killing the Dryders will spawn a reaper and you dont want the darknesses to kill him (You will most likely only face such situation in the spider run)

Fighting Tortured Spirits

These are a pain! They'll often use Illusion of Haste and start running randomly =_= Anyways, they have half hex duration so you might need a couple waves of Spiteful Spirit. They'll run a few enchantments (Illusionary Weaponry + Illusion of Weakness + Illusion of Haste) so Desecrate Enchantments works great against those, and so does Drain Enchant! You'll only meet those in the "spider run" or Wrathful Spirits quest.

Fighting Smite Crawlers

Interesting part now. There are two ways to kill those: The slower way and the faster way : )

The slower way consists in echoing SV so smites are always out of mana and using SS so they can't smite it at all, then cover it up with Suffering. And for the bottom of the noobs, they will use Suffering before SS. Here, I'll clarify something I see people seem clueless about, and that so many necs do:

Suffering's purpose is NOT to deal damage. It is *ONLY* used as an AoE cover hex. Smite hex removes the last hex cast on that target, this is why you use Spiteful Spirit BEFORE Suffering.

The faster way is much faster! Switch to your second weapon set for a massive amount of energy, wait till the monk has fully aggroed the mobs, then cast SV on him, immediatly followed by Arcane Echo. Wait approximately 3s, then cast Spiteful Spirit, switch target, another Spiteful Spirit and cover it up with Suffering. Use Desecrate Enchantments for a nice flop! Mob dead in 20s, down from 45s++ with the Noob method xD

Against very small groups (2-3, doable against 4), cast Suffering first and scroll until they all smited it off, then cast SS. Parasitic Bond is especially good in these situations

Fighting Coldfires

Annoying! These cast Maelstrom and can easily (and promptly) switch target unless your monk knows exactly what he's doing. Just use SS, Desecrate Enchantments and try to interrupt Maelstrom with Power Drain if you can

Fighting Coldfires + Smites

This is the kind of situation the average PUG monk will avoid. Things can start looking nasty if you don't make the right decisions. The monk can either choose to tuck the Smites into the Coldfires or not. If he does, cast SV on him and use the Smite-killing pattern. If not, I'll usually go for the Coldfires, unless there's like two of them and 12+ smites. Many coldfires = dangerous, so focus first. If your monk ever gets body blocked against Coldfires and Smites, kill the Coldfires asap, because if they can get maelstrom down, chances are that your monk dies. If a Coldfire starts attacking you, I generally won't run away, I'll switch to Necrotic and won't move. A good monk will throw breeze on you, but if you took Parasitic Bond, throw it on a random smite, he's going to smite it off and you gain 126 health. Yay!

General Tips

Wait until the monk is done aggroing before you move in, it can mess up the aggro and possibly kill you.
NEVER randomly cast suffering on Smite Crawlers. If the group is large and you cast it randomly, without SV on the monk, they will cause a Smite Hex spike, which can kill the monk (even a very good monk, if the mob is large enough).
Don't waste your energy, especially during the Wrathful Spirits & Ice King quests. If you waste it and you're out of energy on your second weapon set, it'll take a while before you regenerate. In these situations, focus the lowest health enemies first, to gain the Soul Reaping bonus ASAP.
Don't tell your monk to wait until your Arcane Echo is ready, just go. A good necro won't care if it is ready or not, he will just kill.
You are the monk's slave. You do not tell him what to do or where to go. You do what he tells you to do, you kill what he asks you to kill.
If your monk dies, don't worry. Run away. Wait until things clear up a little. Switch to Necrotic, change to a scalp without a sup rune, aggro the mob (usually smite crawlers, you'd die against aatxes), get them away from the monk and turn around and res him. You can easily take on 5 smites attacking you while using Res Signet.
NEVER wand your targets. It might change the aggro (especially against Coldfires or Dryders, even against Darknesses) and you can die from that, especially against Dryders. Against Smites, if they have SoJ on while you wand them, you're going to take damage, be knocked down and get interrupted if you were using a spell. Safer not to attack them : )

Hope the guide helped

Leave feedback! IGN = Occasion Caucasian (monk), Too Hot For A Name (necromancer)

awelcomecomatose · Mar 04, 2006, 12:24 AM // 00:24

THANKYOU I'm sick of SS Necs echoing SV. There is absolutely NO need. If you cant consistantly drop the smites with only one SV at 14 seconds then You need to re-evalutate your build.

cerb · Mar 04, 2006, 04:41 PM // 16:41

Gotta love it how there's more than 100 views and ONE reply. I mean, come on guys, I spent a while writing this and nothing makes me happier than some feedback...

a_sizzle · Mar 04, 2006, 06:51 PM // 18:51

After my Necro is ready for farming I'll be sure to try this. Looks well practiced, though. GJ!

Ecksor · Mar 04, 2006, 08:35 PM // 20:35

i dont really have any posts, but i have read your stuff before. this is very good, keep up the good work cerb!

hodjeur · Mar 04, 2006, 09:11 PM // 21:11

Wow, amazing as soon as my necro captures SS, i'll go and try this ^^

Bernie M · Mar 04, 2006, 09:17 PM // 21:17

Hello. Just wanted to let you know that you did a wonderful job on the post. I've been an SS for a few weeks and have had to "figure out" different builds for my ss since there weren't many out there. Many monks helped me out with the SV part and it was much appreciated.

A few things in your post that were different than mine.

Skills
I use Energy Tap for energy management. I use desicrate which uses a lot of energy and therefore, tapping my energy can give me more to recast SS or Desicrate.

Awaken the blood for stronger SS (+4 dmg over time can make a huge difference)

I use Villnar's Glove and gorrel's cane. The cane is a 9 req for Illusion magic and 10% chance recharge and and 10% chance fast cast (for all skills) since there are many different skill types (blood, Illusion, Inspiration, and Curses)

I've also customized the Cane to add 20% dmg for those nightmares.

comments appreciated. Thanks!

remmeh · Mar 04, 2006, 09:37 PM // 21:37

so you can kill a group of smites in 20sec rather than in 25sec (echo sv).. big freakin' whoop.

cerb · Mar 04, 2006, 09:47 PM // 21:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bernie M

Hello. Just wanted to let you know that you did a wonderful job on the post. I've been an SS for a few weeks and have had to "figure out" different builds for my ss since there weren't many out there. Many monks helped me out with the SV part and it was much appreciated.

A few things in your post that were different than mine.

Skills
I use Energy Tap for energy management. I use desicrate which uses a lot of energy and therefore, tapping my energy can give me more to recast SS or Desicrate.

Awaken the blood for stronger SS (+4 dmg over time can make a huge difference)

I use Villnar's Glove and gorrel's cane. The cane is a 9 req for Illusion magic and 10% chance recharge and and 10% chance fast cast (for all skills) since there are many different skill types (blood, Illusion, Inspiration, and Curses)

I've also customized the Cane to add 20% dmg for those nightmares.

comments appreciated. Thanks!

Energy Tap is awful. You don't need any energy management-related skill since you should be running a moderately high Soul Reaping (10-11). As long as you can kill things fast (use patterns mentioned in the guide), your energy will always be high.

@Remmeh: This way is much faster than echoing SV. I'd love you to give me a good reason on why to echo SV rather than using the method I am providing. Until you can find one, stop bragging.

Malice Black · Mar 04, 2006, 09:54 PM // 21:54

thanks, me and a guildie are gonna try 2 man runs this will be helpful

Mr Asian Man · Mar 05, 2006, 04:32 AM // 04:32

I really like this build. It's working wonders for me. Thank you for making me a non-idiotic SS/SV Nec.

lord_shar · Mar 05, 2006, 06:17 AM // 06:17

Why not just use parasitic bond instead of suffering as your lone cover hex? Suffering is pretty much useless against anything except smites -- its sole purpose is to draw out a mass smite hex, and PB can already do that. The echo/SV method is about 25-seconds for me. If you're saving 5 seconds per smite battle, and have approximiately ~15-20 total smite groups per run, that's about 75-100 seconds saved per run at best, or 1 minute 40 seconds. Yes, it's marginally faster, but not as reliable as simply echoing SV. Furthermore, if your monk goes down (plenty of unskilled 55's out there), your build won't be able to reliably solo 3 coldfires and salvage the mission without AtB and PB loaded (especially when running 2 superior skill runes).

AtB is a must-bring in my book. 41/43-dmg vs. 37/39-dmg spiteful spirits make quite a difference. Your team clears everything faster getting to the smites, thereby gaining the near-2 minutes lost by echoing SV later on.

Coldfire Maelstrom IS your friend -- the spell takes a long time to cast and is easily evaded (even when you're slowed). Coldfires do far more damage with their missle attack than with maelstrom, so why even bother trying to interrupt it? I agree that interrupts are convenient vs Dying Nightmares, but coldfires?

Lastly, by dilluting attribute points into inspiration to fuel power drain and other mesmer energy management skills, you force yourself to carry a second superior skill rune other than sup-curses. This lowers your life into the 380 range.

Seriously, the build in its present form is faster vs. smites, but appears slower getting there (unless you bring AtB). If you bring AtB, then you can't bring BR, which many PuG 55's can't seem to live without.

PS: Please keep the use of "n00b" and other name-calling to a minimum... it seems to have a way of haunting frequent users...

cerb · Mar 05, 2006, 05:52 PM // 17:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by lord_shar

Why not just use parasitic bond instead of suffering as your lone cover hex? Suffering is pretty much useless against anything except smites -- its sole purpose is to draw out a mass smite hex, and PB can already do that. The echo/SV method is about 25-seconds for me. If you're saving 5 seconds per smite battle, and have approximiately ~15-20 total smite groups per run, that's about 75-100 seconds saved per run at best, or 1 minute 40 seconds. Yes, it's marginally faster, but not as reliable as simply echoing SV. Furthermore, if your monk goes down (plenty of unskilled 55's out there), your build won't be able to reliably solo 3 coldfires and salvage the mission without AtB and PB loaded (especially when running 2 superior skill runes).

Okay, first off, since you mention using pbond as cover you must either be new to UW or play with horrible monks. Say your monk takes a group of 10 smites, you'll SV him, cast your SS's then you need to cover them. If you cast Parasitic Bond on the ones with ss on, the smites are going to smite parasitic then ss. However, if you use suffering, they will smite suffering on themselves first before smiting others's hexes. Therefore, if both your SS's are covered by Suffering, smites will die without SS being smited at all.

I don't understand why you are saying my method is "not as reliable as echoing sv". I can take any group with this pattern with a hundred percent success and so could anyone who's done this a few times.

I don't think you correctly understood everything in my guide. I am taking a necrotic set along for coldfires and tanking smites to resurrect the monk. Yes, I can solo three coldfires, I'm just going to switch to Necrotic (no runes on it), pbond them all, SS and desecrate, and try to get power drain every now and then.

As for AtB, it's totally unneeded. It's a wildcard, can take it or not, it's up to preference, but I personally choose not to. The monk's aggroing patterns have a far bigger influence on the speed of the run than +2 curses.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lord_shar

Coldfire Maelstrom IS your friend -- the spell takes a long time to cast and is easily evaded (even when you're slowed). Coldfires do far more damage with their missle attack than with maelstrom, so why even bother trying to interrupt it? I agree that interrupts are convenient vs Dying Nightmares, but coldfires?

If your monk takes smites+colds and ends up being body blocked (which happens quite often with semi-suicidal patterns) and a coldfire is trying to cast maelstrom, you'll be more than happy to have saved power drain for this rather than shard storm. Besides, Shard Storm is 1s cast and is much more harder to interrupt than Maelstrom. Successful interrupt also gives +17 energy, which is a nice boost. If you are talking about soloing coldfires, then sure, interrupting Shard Storm is the best option. Interrupts are not convenient against Dying Nightmares because usually you'll want to be far from the monk's aggro, therefore out of range, it's a last resort.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lord_shar

Lastly, by dilluting attribute points into inspiration to fuel power drain and other mesmer energy management skills, you force yourself to carry a second superior skill rune other than sup-curses. This lowers your life into the 380 range.

Who's the tank in your group? :P Read what I said above about switching armors

Quote:

Originally Posted by lord_shar

Seriously, the build in its present form is faster vs. smites, but appears slower getting there (unless you bring AtB). If you bring AtB, then you can't bring BR, which many PuG 55's can't seem to live without.

AtB isn't that much faster and I don't want to spend points in Blood Magic. You don't need Blood Ritual, ask them to take Blessed Signet.

blakecraw · Mar 05, 2006, 06:23 PM // 18:23

good plan, glad ppl r turning away from echo sv ><

for those necros who are new to this idea, i'd say take shadow of fear as it has a 5 sec recharge so it's easier to learn with, or if ur taking a noob monk to teach them just go /mo w/ rebirth/vengeance and essence bond (since they'll probly die more than once, and seeing as ur n/mo go for the energy) and only use shadow of fear (in place of suffering). works just fine, limitless energy.. even for groups of up to 5 (i dunno bout ten) shadow of fear works perfectly fine w/o sv.

for n/me in general, in fact, i'd say take shadow of fear because u dont have as much energy for suffering w/o essence bond, and u have echo'd ss so u dont need the dmg neway. suffering is negligible

blakecraw · Mar 05, 2006, 06:49 PM // 18:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by cerb

If you cast Parasitic Bond on the ones with ss on, the smites are going to smite parasitic then ss. However, if you use suffering, they will smite suffering on themselves first before smiting others's hexes. Therefore, if both your SS's are covered by Suffering, smites will die without SS being smited at all.[/I]

Unless suffering works differently than shadow of fear, which i doubt, they don't smite their own hex first, they all smite off their ss'd buddy, so suffering is no better than parasitic as a cover hex unless u have multiple ss's out there, in which case u have enough time to cover both of them w/ parasitic. suffering is a bad cover, it is the second best smite-hex-drawing hex tho.

Edit: I am so persistent about using shadows of fear because it is cheap and has a fast recharge. And seeing as smites immediately smite it off, it doesn't slow them down. U just have to wait a little while before u cast it, so it gets smited quickly.

Also, randomly casting suffering on smites doesn't cause a massive spike, because they don't all smite at the same time. They smite one after another, u'd know that if u ever solo'd uw. And i like how u say "leave feedback" then act like ppl are personally attacking u and flame them when they do in fact post feedback that doesn't include "praise lord cerb" or something along those lines.

Finally, if u cast suffering or shadow of fear then immediately cast ss before all the smites have smited (even on an already smited smite), u will discover that they smite ss, not the shadow of fear that is still on them, so they don't always smite their own hex first. I'm not saying they decide ss is a bad hex and smite it first, I am only saying they don't necessarily smite their own hex first.

cerb · Mar 05, 2006, 07:25 PM // 19:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by blakecraw

Unless suffering works differently than shadow of fear, which i doubt, they don't smite their own hex first, they all smite off their ss'd buddy, so suffering is no better than parasitic as a cover hex unless u have multiple ss's out there, in which case u have enough time to cover both of them w/ parasitic. suffering is a bad cover, it is the second best smite-hex-drawing hex tho.

...

I have seriously no idea why you are so persistent about using shadow of fear, it just makes smites attack slower therefore adds up a few seconds to kill the group.

Use the Edit button next time.

ArcticJast · Mar 05, 2006, 07:26 PM // 19:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by remmeh

so you can kill a group of smites in 20sec rather than in 25sec (echo sv).. big freakin' whoop.

I think you'll find that with cerb's tactics you'll kill the smites in <15seconds. 10seconds difference is a big difference.

lord_shar · Mar 05, 2006, 09:20 PM // 21:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by cerb

Okay, first off, since you mention using pbond as cover you must either be new to UW or play with horrible monks.

More of the latter. I started farming UW with SS/SV well before any such builds were publicized in these forums. However, I'm always open to new ideas, provided they are actually benefitial.

Quote:

Originally Posted by cerb

Say your monk takes a group of 10 smites, you'll SV him, cast your SS's then you need to cover them. If you cast Parasitic Bond on the ones with ss on, the smites are going to smite parasitic then ss. However, if you use suffering, they will smite suffering on themselves first before smiting others's hexes. Therefore, if both your SS's are covered by Suffering, smites will die without SS being smited at all.

Sounds good, but is the 5 extra seconds saved really worth lowering your nec's ability to deal with solo if the monk dies? I can see why you switch to necrotic armor to deal with monk death due to the 2-superior skill runes in your base armor, but I found it unnecessary.

If I go with PUG monks, I find most of them being fairly bad, so I compensate with a more rounded build. When I go with a guildy monk, that person is able to pull 5+ smite groups (20+ smites) and survive without any problem, allowing me to score faster smite kills without suffering present.

Quote:

Originally Posted by cerb

I don't understand why you are saying my method is "not as reliable as echoing sv". I can take any group with this pattern with a hundred percent success and so could anyone who's done this a few times.

Don't forget: I play with bad (often non-english speaking) PUG monks. They won't always properly position all smites in the same AE-group. When this happens, there's a good chance that the new incoming smite's won't be drained by SV, nor will they have SS covered by a single Suffering cast. Another problem with Suffering as a cover-hex is that is requires 20 energy to cast and has a very long 15-sec recycle time. As a result, suffering is reliable for a single smite group kill, but not much else.

Quote:

Originally Posted by cerb

I don't think you correctly understood everything in my guide. I am taking a necrotic set along for coldfires and tanking smites to resurrect the monk. Yes, I can solo three coldfires, I'm just going to switch to Necrotic (no runes on it), pbond them all, SS and desecrate, and try to get power drain every now and then.

...<SNIP>...

(Who's the tank in your group?) Read what I said above about switching armors

Necrotic is only 10 armor points more than base scars. Every 40 armor points cuts damage in half, so +10 armor is only reducing damage by 12.5%. That won't save you from any smite pack if they attack in earnest with the monk dead, especially without scar's bonus energy. All you can do is run at that point, then return when smites are gone.

However, if 3 coldfires bring down the monk, I do the same: PB, SS, Desicrate, done. No armor switch required unless the necro has 2+ superior skill runes (I only use 1).

Quote:

Originally Posted by cerb

As for AtB, it's totally unneeded. It's a wildcard, can take it or not, it's up to preference, but I personally choose not to. The monk's aggroing patterns have a far bigger influence on the speed of the run than +2 curses.

...<SNIP>...

I agree here, but this also affects how well suffering works as a cover hex. Hint: Do you see a pattern forming?

Quote:

Originally Posted by cerb

(Ok, now I am no longer doubtful on the fact that you play with slow/pug monks). If your monk takes smites+colds and ends up being body blocked (which happens quite often with semi-suicidal patterns) and a coldfire is trying to cast maelstrom, you'll be more than happy to have saved power drain for this rather than shard storm. Besides, Shard Storm is 1s cast and is much more harder to interrupt than Maelstrom. Successful interrupt also gives +17 energy, which is a nice boost. If you are talking about soloing coldfires, then sure, interrupting Shard Storm is the best option. Interrupts are not convenient against Dying Nightmares because usually you'll want to be far from the monk's aggro, therefore out of range, it's a last resort.

AtB is not needed, but it does speed up runs. Why tune a build to speed up smite kills if it sputters at the entry aatxe? This is the part I don't understand. Total run time doesn't start at the smites -- it starts the moment you enter UW. If you're speeding up smites kills but slowing down aatxe/darkness kills by dumping AtB, where is the advantage gained by using this newer set-up?

Quote:

Originally Posted by cerb

AtB isn't that much faster and I don't want to spend points in Blood Magic. You don't need Blood Ritual, ask them to take Blessed Signet. (You seem to enjoy playing with pugs)

Plenty of them don't speak English, making all but rudementary map pinging communication near-impossible.

Quote:

Originally Posted by cerb

Your overall post didn't make much sense

That's ok, I'll summarize it for you to assist:

1) Suffering as a cover hex is only as reliable as the monk can position the smites. Since I play with so many monks of different skill levels, I prepare for worse case scenarios. As a result, I prefer taking PB and dumping Suffering in favor of BR, since it cycles faster, costs less energy, and can regain health. If they speak english, I tell them to bring Blessed Sig. Otherwise, I'm SoL.

2) SV is still a legitemate way of handling smite runs. Calling it "n00b" doesn't do anyone any significant favors if you're only gaining +5 seconds with the Suffering method.

3) If you're going for speed kills, there's no way to justify AtB being absent from your skill bar. 41/43 dmg per hit AE vs. 37/39 is quite a difference.

Not everyone who echos SV knows how to do it correctly, which is why you have 45+ second smite kills instead of sub-30.

In short, this guide is great (asside from dumping AtB) if you have an experienced monk partner. However, finding one is another issue altogether.

PS: No need for snide comments. Just stick with the game facts please. Thank you.

lord_shar · Mar 05, 2006, 09:29 PM // 21:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by cerb

...

Smite hex priority: Self -> Others

They don't determine which hex is bad and which isn't, they just use smite hex when they can w/ above priority. Each Smite Crawler will cast Smite Hex on self to take off suffering, so SS is up for another 15 seconds (smite hex recharge). If you use ss then parasitic bond, the smite will smite hex parasitic bond then one of his buddy will smite ss off. That's why you use Suffering as AoE hex-cover up.

I have seriously no idea why you are so persistent about using shadow of fear, it just makes smites attack slower therefore adds up a few seconds to kill the group. (Actually I'm not even sure if you ever did UW as necro so maybe you should keep your genious strategies for yourself)

Use the Edit button next time.

This is correct. Suffering creates a separate -2 degen hex instance per affected target. I tested this by hitting a group of monsters with Suffering, then killing the original Suffering target. The adjacent targets were still hexed afterwards.

derrtyboy69 · Mar 05, 2006, 09:52 PM // 21:52

Suffering is really useless imo. With good timing Simply puttin on SV, then two SS will drop them very quickly, and free up your skillbar with something for energy management.