Curse

itiscurtains · Mar 22, 2011, 08:40 PM // 20:40

I've been trying to come up with a legit P/D scythe build recently, and have got a couple that may or may not be workable. I haven't tested either too extensively, just a few HM areas here and there. Also, these were tested with a Dark Fury hero on my team.

Leadership 10+1+1
Scythe 12
Wind Prayers 8

Radiant Scythe
Optional
Optional
Optional Teardown
Rending Aura
Focused Anger (E)
"TNtF!"
AR

Focused Anger plus DF (if you want it) will supercharge adrenaline gain, making Radiant Scythe more than enough e-management to fuel the cost of Rending Aura every six seconds. The first two optional attacks could be Victorious Sweep, Chilling Victory, Reap Impurities, and the teardown can be something like Twin Moon Sweep or Wearying Strike (though be careful using RI with Wearying as it will remove the deep wound). "TNtF!" is there mostly to keep AR up, but if you have another shouter or are using Drunken Master, you could replace it with something else like AScan/"IatS!"/etc. You could probably also run this with Soldier's Fury instead of Focused Anger for better bar compression and a slightly faster IAS at the expense of adrenaline gain. I don't know, I haven't tried it.
The second build is a PR spam build, and I have a feeling it's a waste of time. At the Master of Damage it functions fairly well, but when running around HM I've been having loads of energy problems. The build at the moment is:

Leadership 12+1+1
Scythe 12
Command 3

Pious Assault
Twin Moon Sweep
Wearying Strike
"GftE!"
Pious Renewal (E)
"TNtF!"
AoHM
AR

Running "GftE!" and Radiant Scythe together would probably solve most of the energy problems, but the bar is already super compact. I have a feeling I might scrap this particular build.
Since you guys know more than I do, I was hoping I could get some expert criticism on these builds. Perhaps there's a better P/D set-up floating around that I'm unaware of. Thanks!

FoxBat · Mar 22, 2011, 09:37 PM // 21:37

For the first build, seems like GftE would provide more energy than radiant and comparable damage. Or use both with some more energy skills.

itiscurtains · Mar 22, 2011, 11:00 PM // 23:00

Yeah, I've considered swapping "GftE!" in for Radiant Scythe: energy-wise it comes out a bit better. I chose Radiant Scythe though because it's another spammy attack with a potentially high damage modifier.

Khomet Si Netjer · Mar 23, 2011, 11:58 AM // 11:58

I used to used P/D with Aura of Holy Might and Zealous Vow, it worked pretty well but I haven't used P/D since the update. I imagine that things will be a lot easier now that there are adrenaline attack skills. Focused Anger or Soldier's Fury are probably the best way to go because of the enhanced adrenaline gain, you'll be able to spam adrenaline attacks faster than the dervish can.

What about adding GFTE + Blazing Finale + Reap Impurites? AoE degen and damage and good energy management as well. Don't need any points in command for it really, you could go 12 scythe 12+1+1 leadership 3+1 command. Also They're On Fire could replace TNTF in this kind of build, leaving a PvE slot open for I Am The Strongest, Asuran Scan, EBSoH, etc.

Khomet Si Netjer · Mar 24, 2011, 03:09 PM // 15:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by Khomet Si Netjer

I used to used P/D with Aura of Holy Might and Zealous Vow, it worked pretty well but I haven't used P/D since the update. I imagine that things will be a lot easier now that there are adrenaline attack skills. Focused Anger or Soldier's Fury are probably the best way to go because of the enhanced adrenaline gain, you'll be able to spam adrenaline attacks faster than the dervish can.

What about adding GFTE + Blazing Finale + Reap Impurites? AoE degen and damage and good energy management as well. Don't need any points in command for it really, you could go 12 scythe 12+1+1 leadership 3+1 command. Also They're On Fire could replace TNTF in this kind of build, leaving a PvE slot open for I Am The Strongest, Asuran Scan, EBSoH, etc.

I was playing around with this and got some interesting results. The build I ended up with was this:

P/D, Scythe 12 Leadership 12+1+1 Command 3+1
Radiant Scythe
Chilling Victory
Reap Impurities
Go For The Eyes
Blazing Finale
Focused Anger (E)
I Am The Strongest
Ebon Battle Standard of Honor

I was able to achieve ~75dps with this against master of damage, and that is with no IAS at all. O_o This should be able to put out roughly 33% more damage with +25% IAS (~92) or +50% damage with +33% IAS (~112). And it is all AoE damage and AoE burning, all the time.

I tried Soldier's Fury and Onslaught and I was able to get slightly higher DPS with them (~80) but both of these lose a lot of power compared to the Focused Anger build; the massive adrenaline gain that FA provides allows the paragon to spam adrenaline attack skills continuously and keep the burning going continuously with no effort at all. Focused Anger is almost as strong with no IAS and it has the additional advantages of not requiring a shout to power it or giving the user a -20 armor penalty or requiring 10 energy every 10 seconds. If you gain IAS through consumables like rock candy or celerity then Focused Anger wins without a doubt.

Dodge This can substituted for GFTE, this provides unblockability and a slight improvement in damage at the cost of decreased energy gain and no buffing for allies. You can slot in TNTF if you like, though I would suggest They're On Fire as an alternative, it is fully maintainable 33% damage reduction against burning foes, and this build spreads burning easily. ToF also cycles every 10 seconds so it increases the burning even more... with Blazing Finale causing 7s burning when a shout ends, this alone gives burning for 7s out of 10, and GFTE/DodgeThis will cover the other 3 seconds.

note: EBSoH gives +15 damage to every damage packet, including bonus elemental damage (e.g Chilling Victory, Sand Shards, Mystic Sandstorm) so it has a huge effect. This same build without EBSOH gives ~52dps instead of ~75. EBSoH adds +15 to all physical and elemental damage though it does not add to the bonus holy damage from Reap Impurities, I'm not sure if this is a bug or not.

another note: energy is more than fine with this build, you gain +7e from GTFE every 3 seconds and +6e from Radiant Scythe every 4.5 seconds at worst. This is at least +26 energy every 10 seconds with a party of 8. (!!) This allows the use of some high-energy skills though I am not sure that any of them would improve this build. You could use some high-cost scythe attack skills but I think the adrenaline based skills are just as good (or better) and because of Focused Anger this build can spam them without any concern for recharge.

mortenya · Mar 24, 2011, 04:09 PM // 16:09

does this use a furious or vampiric scythe? since EBSoH effects all damage packets, would it add to the 5 life steal from vamp, or does it not effect life steal?

Khomet Si Netjer · Mar 24, 2011, 04:21 PM // 16:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by mortenya

does this use a furious or vampiric scythe? since EBSoH effects all damage packets, would it add to the 5 life steal from vamp, or does it not effect life steal?

i was using eyes of the forgotten (15>50%, zealous, fortitude) but i don't think it matters too much. vampiric will add a little more damage but EBSoH won't affect that.

itiscurtains · Mar 24, 2011, 06:12 PM // 18:12

Thanks for your input, Khomet! Really helpful.
I was VQing last night with a version of my original build:

Leadership 10+1+1
Scythe 12
Earth 8

Radiant Scythe
Victorious Sweep
Reap Impurities
Wearying Strike
Aura of Thorns
Focused Anger (E)
AScan
AR

I had V Sweep in there simply because I was dismayed at how the elemental damage of Chilling/Crippling Victory gets reduced down to nothing in HM. Your note about EBSoH increasing each packet of damage, though, is invaluable. I hadn't even considered using that. I'll re-add Chilling Victory along with EBSoH into my build pronto.
Apart from that, the only real difference is that you've got GftE + Blazing Finale for energy and AOE burning, whereas I have AoT + Wearying Strike for sporadic bleeding/crippled and deepwound. Radiant Scythe has been more than enough e-management for me, although if I'm adding EBSoH into the mix I might have to re-test that. I've also packed Withering Aura onto one of my heroes, which allows me to spam RI at will without fear of removing useful conditions like blind or deepwound.
The VQing went well: RI + Splinter Weapon really tears through mobs, although single target damage is pretty underwhelming. Also, for the sake of my own sanity, I shouldered Hayda with the responsibility of keeping my AR up for me, which was a tremendous relief in itself.
Thanks again for the help!

mortenya · Mar 24, 2011, 10:12 PM // 22:12

another thing about using chilling victory, is that it doesn't require teardown.

Khomet Si Netjer · Mar 25, 2011, 12:31 AM // 00:31

i improved on this slightly and i am very happy with the result, I put it on my wiki page. It still gives ~75dps without any IAS and also gives 33% damage resistance to everyone. win/win! Reap Impurities was not really adding much damage because EBSoH doesn't boost it as much; taking it out did not reduce the damage at all. The attack skills charge so quickly that two of them is plenty.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/User:...Focused_Scythe

also, I worked up a hero build that gets up to 70dps and gives 33% damage resistance to everyone at the same time. O_o
OQqjYOocKPc/Bsz1Cru7xn42NA

Swapping Reap Impurities for Find Their Weakness in this build gets about the same dps, it adds deep wound at the cost of some AoE scythe damage.

Cors Seel · Mar 31, 2011, 08:02 PM // 20:02

This is awesome! This build really has great potential

Build really looks great, i'm going try the hero build tomorrow and let him explode things with splinter weapon and strength of honor.
I guess you should micro Blazing Finale, because i'm quite sure he will use it on other party members as well. Or i can always put Blazing Finale on another para hero.
I'll probably change Natural Temper with Signet of Return.

Khomet Si Netjer · Mar 31, 2011, 10:15 PM // 22:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cors Seel

This is awesome! This build really has great potential

Build really looks great, i'm going try the hero build tomorrow and let him explode things with splinter weapon and strength of honor.
I guess you should micro Blazing Finale, because i'm quite sure he will use it on other party members as well. Or i can always put Blazing Finale on another para hero.
I'll probably change Natural Temper with Signet of Return.

glad you like it

strength of honor, splinter weapon, orders, etc. just take this to crazy levels so have fun. it's okay (even preferable) if the hero casts blazing finale on others, since that just increases the burning... as long as he doesn't do it so much that he stops swinging the scythe. natural temper is negated by all enchantments so switching it out is probably a good idea, I just had it there for testing to help adrenaline, and there wasn't anything better to use in that slot. you could try Find Their Weakness in that slot, even at low command it is useful for spiking targets down.

if you have another paragon on the team you might want to use Anthem of Fury to help both of them gain adrenaline faster.

Cors Seel · Apr 01, 2011, 01:08 PM // 13:08

I just did a vanquish with him and it went OK. Not Great, but not Bad (just 1 death when i forgot preprotting me and got spiked by Searing Flames boss =/)

I found he doesn't use blazing finale effectively, so i disabled it and let him mantain it on me and himself. I went for crazy physical buff, with me playing Wota Spammer. Strength of Honor, Orders, double Splinter Weapon,... I also had another Anthem of Fury paragon(like i was planning to do and u even suggested it).

I did see again that AI sucks at being melee.
Build was fun to use but not nearly as effective when vanquishing with double mesmer shutdown.
Build is quite good, heroes just doesn't know how to use it. If you micro the build it works out fine, but there are better hero builds imo.

EDIT: Well actually, what 7h build doesn't work when vanquishing?