Curse

MasterSasori · Feb 19, 2010, 09:09 AM // 09:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by Khomet Si Netjer

Heh I love smite monks. :-D
With this team I'd definitely take a smiter with Judge's Insight and RoJ and Smite Hex and Smite Condition, if the smiter could keep Judge's Insight on two barrage/volley characters and keep them clean you can imagine the damage. O_o I've been through SoO hardmode five or six times already, holy damage is definitely the way to go.

I don't like RoJ. I much prefer Zeal for the +energy so there can be more spamming of Smite Hex/Condition and Reversal of Damage. These targeted spells combined with Smiter's Boon makes it an excellent support healer.

Maybe in Shards and anywhere with lots of undead I will consider, but otherwise I wouldn't use it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Khomet Si Netjer

agreed 100%... strangely though, Holy Spear does not actually do holy damage, it just explodes with holy damage and burning if it hits a minion or spirit.

All the more reason to dislike Holy Spear.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Khomet Si Netjer

IMO Anet really needs to change the cracked armor mechanic of Aggressive Refrain and now Soldier's Fury, these skills definitely did not need a nerf in PvE and it is quite irritating to deal with the repercussions of constant cracked armor. Heroes drain their energy in a futile attempt to remove a condition that will never end. /sigh

Cracked armor on SF or AR is a nuisance but generally isn't too much of a problem. What I don't understand is why Anet is nerfings a skill that doesn't need to be fixed in PvE while there are more pressing issues that need to be solved.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Khomet Si Netjer

Yeah this is a good point too, Draw Conditions removes them all and recharges very quickly, I suppose I should start carrying that on my monk builds in situations where it matters. They are usually carrying something with more side effects like Smite Condition or Dismiss Condition or Mend Ailment.

Dismiss condition is pretty awful unless you can assure enchantments on the characters + high prot and mend ailment just sucks. Draw Conditions/FF ftw.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Khomet Si Netjer

Other commonly used teams (e.g. sabway) can have big problems in certain areas too, it's not just a paragon problem. What is sabway going to do in places like SoO where the enemies don't leave corpses? Without minions they have no meatshields and no energy and the whole build falls apart. With paragons you can pretty much operate anywhere as long as the blind and hex spam is dealt with so I would view it as more versatile.

No doubt that Sabway/Discordway will have its problems but they are easy to use and don't require customization as they already do a decent job with the standard template. Your her build will require more thinking and customization to the area. Darn.

HigherMinion · Feb 19, 2010, 09:44 AM // 09:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by MasterSasori

No doubt that Sabway/Discordway will have its problems but they are easy to use and don't require customization as they already do a decent job with the standard template. Your her build will require more thinking and customization to the area. Darn.

This is generally the case for all Physical-based teams. Although in our human team the only customization is "Shall we bring a cleaner?"

Khomet Si Netjer · Feb 19, 2010, 04:15 PM // 16:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by HigherMinion

This is generally the case for all Physical-based teams. Although in our human team the only customization is "Shall we bring a cleaner?"

Yeah, that's why I have put the cleaning functions on the paragons so it's all built in. Song of Purification, Hex Eater Signet and Hexbreaker Aria plus standard healers ought to take care of anything except the most extreme cases.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MasterSasori

I don't like RoJ. I much prefer Zeal for the +energy so there can be more spamming of Smite Hex/Condition and Reversal of Damage. These targeted spells combined with Smiter's Boon makes it an excellent support healer.

Maybe in Shards and anywhere with lots of undead I will consider, but otherwise I wouldn't use it.

I thought we were talking about Shards of Orr, hence the need for holy damage. I've tried to make use of Defender's Zeal on my smite monk but haven't had great success with it. In this team it is going to be pretty useless, the average lifespan of any target is around 3 seconds. By the time you finish casting Defender's Zeal the target dies and you don't get any benefit from it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MasterSasori

All the more reason to dislike Holy Spear.

I like it well enough, and it shines against minions and spirits. Anet could fix this with a minor update, just make it do holy damage in the same way that Spear of Lightning does lightning damage. On the negative side this means that holy spear will no longer benefit from barbs, mark of pain, order of pain, etc.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MasterSasori

Cracked armor on SF or AR is a nuisance but generally isn't too much of a problem. What I don't understand is why Anet is nerfings a skill that doesn't need to be fixed in PvE while there are more pressing issues that need to be solved.

I don't understand it either. The previous balance team (read: Izzy) seemed to have a lot of hate for any non-warrior damage dealers. Dervishes, Assassins, Rangers and Paragons have all been hit with the nerf bat.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MasterSasori

Dismiss condition is pretty awful unless you can assure enchantments on the characters + high prot and mend ailment just sucks. Draw Conditions/FF ftw.

Order of Pain enchants the whole party, you should be able to count on being enchanted.

re: Mend Ailment, are you kidding? It's a non-elite version of Restore Conditions and it can target self. RC heals for every condition while Mend Ailment heals for every remaining condition. Mend Ailment can heal for huge amounts if you have condition stacks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MasterSasori

No doubt that Sabway/Discordway will have its problems but they are easy to use and don't require customization as they already do a decent job with the standard template. Your her build will require more thinking and customization to the area. Darn.

Running around with minion masters has always been pretty brainless. It works pretty well though, assuming that the minions don't get blown up en masse by elementalists, banishing strike, holy spear, smite monks, etc.

Improvavel · Feb 19, 2010, 05:24 PM // 17:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by MasterSasori

Cracked armor on SF or AR is a nuisance but generally isn't too much of a problem. What I don't understand is why Anet is nerfings a skill that doesn't need to be fixed in PvE while there are more pressing issues that need to be solved.

AR was a nerf before the split of skills if I remind correctly.

SF is lazy Anet mentality - "we could split the skills, but nobody (Anet's interpretation of the word) uses it on PvE so why waste the time".

There are loads of examples of this - PwK, AR not losing cracked armor, necromancer enchantment removal skills, etc, etc.

MasterSasori · Feb 19, 2010, 07:39 PM // 19:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by Khomet Si Netjer

I thought we were talking about Shards of Orr, hence the need for holy damage. I've tried to make use of Defender's Zeal on my smite monk but haven't had great success with it. In this team it is going to be pretty useless, the average lifespan of any target is around 3 seconds. By the time you finish casting Defender's Zeal the target dies and you don't get any benefit from it.

Well smite monks normally hit melee characters with zeal and I don't normally target melee first unless its getting into the back ranks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Khomet Si Netjer

Anet could fix this with a minor update, just make it do holy damage in the same way that Spear of Lightning does lightning damage.

Spear of Lightning doesn't need any more nerfing. It's already lackluster enough.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Khomet Si Netjer

Order of Pain enchants the whole party, you should be able to count on being enchanted.

re: Mend Ailment, are you kidding? It's a non-elite version of Restore Conditions and it can target self. RC heals for every condition while Mend Ailment heals for every remaining condition. Mend Ailment can heal for huge amounts if you have condition stacks.

OoP isn't 24/7 and therefore conditional compared to maintained enchants like SoH. Mend Ailment is decent but when you want removal and heal, you're better off with MBAS. If you want removal, Draw is still much better and the way to go. For me in terms of condition Draw=FF>MBAS>Mend Ailment.