Curse

zweetreet · Jan 21, 2012, 09:37 PM // 21:37

hey there,
i've been busy making a new team build,
it needed high blowup potential(aoe) + single target dmg for left overs.
this is what i came up with:

micro Stolen Speed, and everything is dead in 2 seconds..
it's amazing, 0.5 sec SF cast, 1 sec death swarm

i'd like to hear opinions about the build

Outerworld · Jan 21, 2012, 10:00 PM // 22:00

Zero real prot
Not alot of shutdown
Complicate is fairly meh
Essence Strike is also fairly meh
A copy of IV may be beneficial

You seem to be relying on the heroes blowing the enemy mob up before they have a chance to hurt you, however in harder areas that just won't work without more damage mitigation. Also there are much better options than Discord nowdays...

zweetreet · Jan 21, 2012, 10:03 PM // 22:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by Outerworld

Zero real prot
Not alot of shutdown
Complicate is fairly meh
Essence Strike is also fairly meh

You seem to be relying on the heroes blowing the enemy mob up before they have a chance to hurt you, however in harder areas that just won't work without more damage mitigation.

that's exactly what I'm relying on,
Stolen speed+CoF does the first job, shut down.
as an AP caller you can KD chain like an animal.
not saying it's elite area worthy, it isn't,
but it does the job in every vq, and fast too.

Kaida the Heartless · Jan 21, 2012, 10:10 PM // 22:10

Looks like fun. Might have to give it a try. This is what I notice off the top of my head:

1. No Prot Spirit or Shelter (crucial for Hard Mode)

2. The N/Mo is probably a better place for "Stand Your Ground!". You have two copies of Protective Was Kaoli and Life, so your party healing is probably fine. You could also put Prot Spirit there instead.

3. The Searing Flames Eles might be strapped for energy. Liquid Flame is also redundant; with Searing Flame's recharge being so low, there's really no point in bringing it.

4. Something about the Mesmer bugs me, but I don't know what it is.

5. The Channeling Rit is just a ton of lost potential. I'd run another SF, a Paragon with "ToF!", an Earth Ele, or an Air Ele.

6. As far as the player goes, Signet of Deadly Corruption is infinitely better than Enduring Toxin. This char would also be another good place to bring Protective Spirit. Since you are not a Necro and cannot use Mark of Pain with your EVA, I'd bring EBSoH to massively increase your team's damage (esp. if you bring an Earth Ele).

Otherwise, not bad. I'll probably mess around with this at some point. Nice work.

ultimak719 · Jan 22, 2012, 01:03 AM // 01:03

Looks fun, but I'd honestly change the rit to a ST rit with shelter for hard mode. But for regular NM I think it would be better to switch it out for a IV healer or nuker. If you take the healer, change one of the discords to a prot. BUT if you want to keep it a rit, get rid of Ancestor's rage, spirit rift is significantly better (albeit a tad slower), especially now that Arage has the nerf.

zweetreet · Jan 22, 2012, 09:51 AM // 09:51

Thans for the replies, i'll work it out further today,,
as for HM: it works om general vq, prot isnt needed to much there with stolen speed as a little bit of shutdown, Ap kd chains and the blowup from eles and necs.
I'll post An edited build later today

The Guildless · Jan 22, 2012, 01:10 PM // 13:10

Looks interesting. I'd have to take it out for a spin before giving meaningful input, but here are some things that might be worth considering:

1) Drop minions altogether? If everything dies within 2 seconds, wouldn't they be slowing you down? Plus, the time spent raising minions could be spent on healing / blowing stuff up. I understand it might be tricky since you don't have that much prot.

2) I side with Kaida on the use of "ToF!". You may want to have a look at Khomet's wiki page, he's pretty inventive when it comes to re-purpose Paragons. This build (the second one is the more hero-oriented one) in particular could add some extra punch in combo with your eles while having 33% damage reduction on your party.

KotCR · Jan 22, 2012, 04:12 PM // 16:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kaida the Heartless

5. The Channeling Rit is just a ton of lost potential. I'd run another SF, a Paragon with "ToF!", an Earth Ele, or an Air Ele.

Seconded, it doesn't seem to have anything in particular that synergises with the rest of the build all to well. Signet of Spirits is still nice of course no matter what, but it does seem somewhat filler.

I'd agree with ultimak that you should swap out the Ritualist for a Soul Twisting Ritualist. Your team needs some more damage mitigation, and that would be a fine way to get it.

However, if you wanted to keep the third copy of Fallback, you might want to use a ToF Paragon for your damage mitigation instead (as in my experience unless you use the utility slots on energy management on an ST Ritualist, they tend to run out of energy, and nobody in your set-up has Blood Ritual or BiP).

If you specced a Pa/Mo into Prot, Command, and Leadership (just give him a 20% Enchanting Staff or something), you could get blanket damage reduction from an improved Stand Your Ground, They're On Fire, and possibly Defensive Anthem (you've not got any attack skills in the team, and you may aswell use your elite on something). He could also carry the required Protective Spirit/Shield of Absorption combo, and then have Glowing Signet and Go For The Eyes! to keep his energy high (which would also have the added effect of slightly increasing the damage of your minions too), and leave you with one final skill slot to use on that third copy of Fallback.

You could also swap out SoA for Find Their Weakness! if you wanted him to have a bit of damage of his own and a guaranteed source of Deep Wound, Blazing Finale or Burning Refrain could also be used instead to contribute to the burning mass (they work on Minions too, and will trigger/refresh under GftE and the Fallbacks which also work on Minions) and Defensive Anthem could easily be swapped for Aegis and you could use the elite slot on something else, like another spell from the Protection Prayers line.

That all being said...

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Guildless

Drop minions altogether? If everything dies within 2 seconds, wouldn't they be slowing you down? Plus, the time spent raising minions could be spent on healing / blowing stuff up. I understand it might be tricky since you don't have that much prot.

I have to agree, and that's pretty much the whole reason I dropped Minions from most of my team set-ups...they do really slow you down, and often they don't even get into a fight before it's over, becoming wasted skill slots. It might be better to disregard all I said above, drop the Minions, and then fit the required defensive skills onto the Discord bars instead.

Gabs88 · Jan 22, 2012, 05:50 PM // 17:50

I like the idea of this build, but Stolen Speed doesnt benefit Searing Flames much. A skill that would benefit from Stolen Speed though, is Spirit Rift. Which would also inflict cracked armor on the mobs which pretty much the entire rest of the build would benefit from. I wouldn't kick the SoS though, SoS is tested and proven and brings single target damage that helps in cleaning up the mobs not hit by AOE. And the minions benefit from splinter weapon.

In this build you should clearly replace FH with EBSOH though.

AtomicMew · Jan 22, 2012, 09:17 PM // 21:17

Stolen speed is an interesting idea for a caster DPS group, I'll have to try that out.

KotCR · Jan 23, 2012, 01:59 AM // 01:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gabs88

SoS is tested and proven and brings single target damage that helps in cleaning up the mobs not hit by AOE.

I'd have thought triple Discord and the PvE shouts would be enough single-target damage though for polishing up, and Splinter Weapon could easily be slotted on one of the Elementalists or Necros instead with a bit of reshuffling.

Jeydra · Jan 23, 2012, 06:05 AM // 06:05

Curious teambuild. I'll have to give variants of this idea a try, although I vaguely remember EFGJack convincing me that Stolen Speed doesn't deserve a close look. Some (relatively obvious) comments though:

1. Use fewer hard resses.
2. Searing Flames provides little spiking power. I'd suggest Elemental Attunement Fire Eles instead; stuff like Fireball and Rodgort's Invocation benefits a lot from Stolen Speed.
3. You definitely need a microable copy of Prot Spirit / Shelter somewhere. "Stand Your Ground!" doesn't compensate nearly enough.

Gabs88 · Jan 23, 2012, 06:45 AM // 06:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by KotCR

I'd have thought triple Discord and the PvE shouts would be enough single-target damage though for polishing up, and Splinter Weapon could easily be slotted on one of the Elementalists or Necros instead with a bit of reshuffling.

Splinter weapon is THE best scaling skill in game though. So having it on a primary ritualist is well worth it.

Swingline · Jan 23, 2012, 07:13 AM // 07:13

1. Not enough prot or shutdown.

2. You want the SF eles to have only SF. They need to take advantage of SFs short recharge.

3. The Mesmer needs a rez to take advantage of fast casting even more. Stolen Speed never seemed worth it. Its range sucks and takes up an elite spot.

4. Get splinter weapon on the SoS asap.

In a nut shell it looks like it will be ok for your average HM mission/vanquish but some areas may be too much for it due to lack of prot and shutdown.

AtomicMew · Jan 23, 2012, 06:48 PM // 18:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gabs88

Splinter weapon is THE best scaling skill in game though. So having it on a primary ritualist is well worth it.

Is splinter worth having with no physicals in the party?

Amy Awien · Jan 23, 2012, 07:56 PM // 19:56

It works with any weapon, as long as there are foes adjacent to the attacked foe. Physicals just tend to 'discharge' it in a shorter timespan.

Konker2020 · Jan 23, 2012, 08:03 PM // 20:03

Splinter Weapon can be cast on minions, and the AI is smart enough to pick the minion that will make the best use of it when in an engagement. Splinter Weapon is 100% necessary in any teambuild with minions, just as much as its necessary for physicals.