Curse

Naralis · Jun 04, 2005, 10:33 PM // 22:33

What are your thoughts for the best E/Mo Tombs build?

What I've been trying to do is half healer/half air skills.
Chain Lightning
Shock (or Whirlwind?)
Thunderclap? (Depending on if you take an Mo Elite)
Another elementalist skill
Rebirth or Resurect
Orison of H
Healing Breeze
Healing Seed (Or Healing Hands if you take Whirlwind, and possibly some

Of course you can easily get rid of the res spell in favor of either another heal or another elementalist spell, if your team has a dedicated resser.
Anyone have a better E/Mo build? Any good Water or Earth builds that go well well with a Mo secondary? (Could also go protection or smite, but smite with a good teamis not as beneficial IMO as healer.)

I'm wondering also would I be better off using protection spells instead of healing, in order to have more energy for air spells and not have to worry too much about recasting the protection spells as much as heals.

Seeing as I'm pretty much a newb, what is your expert opinion on E/Mo?

Minwanabi · Jun 04, 2005, 11:42 PM // 23:42

Don't go half something, half something else. Play it as a complete air spike damage, or a healer/protection with earth spells, like ward, or armor of earth. You could combine air/earth for a different flavor of spike, or could go fire for some AoE, and occasionally you'll see a fire/healing combo, but I think they're garbage, because you're spending way too much time casting shit like meteor storm when you could be doing something useful, like healing.

Red Locust · Jun 05, 2005, 12:05 AM // 00:05

Yeah, nobody wants a jack-of-all-trades. That's part of the reason why rangers are not sought after as much as they'd like.

Minwanabi · Jun 05, 2005, 12:08 AM // 00:08

Quote:

Yeah, nobody wants a jack-of-all-trades.

Agreed, but...

Quote:

That's part of the reason why rangers are not sought after as much as they'd like.

I don't think a ranger is a jack-of-all-trades, at least not a skilled one. They'll be either entirely caster shutdown, as either a r/me or r/n (with rend), or they'll play a spirit dropper, and do nothing but keep massive amounts of spirits up all the time.

Red Locust · Jun 05, 2005, 12:30 AM // 00:30

Quote:

I don't think a ranger is a jack-of-all-trades, at least not a skilled one. They'll be either entirely caster shutdown, as either a r/me or r/n (with rend), or they'll play a spirit dropper, and do nothing but keep massive amounts of spirits up all the time.

A specialized ranger, especially when used in combination with mesmer skills, can be really deadly, for sure. But then I hear someone saying how a friend of a friend of his has this uber ranger that can destroy warriors, disable casters, kill monks, etc. and it gives me a headache.

About the el/mo, you might want to consider bringing unyielding aura if you're not too sure about an elite. Is it just me or is this spell bugged? According to skill description:

Unyielding Aura {e}: Bring target dead ally back to life at full health and full energy. If you stop maintaining this "Enchantment" or the Enchantment is removed, that ally dies. Deaths while enchanted with Unyielding Aura do not incur a death penalty.

Yet there's no upkeep and no indication that an enchantment is being maintained. Picture each member of the team with this spell...people would be popping back to life at full strength within seconds of their death.

Minwanabi · Jun 05, 2005, 12:32 AM // 00:32

No man, it just takes a rend, or a strip, or a drain, or a well, or a nature's renewal, or an inspired, or...

Yeah, pretty terrible elite.

MasterDinadan · Jun 05, 2005, 01:40 AM // 01:40

Don't say that it's not worthwhile to not use all 8 of your skill slots to all achieve the same ends. If someone dedicated all 8 of their spots to damage spells, I guaruntee they would probably not use many of them.
As it stands right now, I've got a fairly good offensive arsenal using only 4 spells, and an absolutely outstanding defensive setup using the other 4 spells... so I am mixed between offense and defense, but I do VERY well.

ComMan · Jun 05, 2005, 02:06 AM // 02:06

I agree with Dinadan. Even if you have 5 or 6 slots devoted to a single thing, you can still cycle them as each one recharged and deplete your mana.

Except for healing, which I agree does take all 8 slots for sure. The best healers are full time. A part-time healer just can't keep up.

I'd reccomend seeing what works for you, but in this particular situation I think Minwanabi's right: focus on one or the other.

Minwanabi · Jun 05, 2005, 06:49 AM // 06:49

No, I'd say you can easily devote a skill bar to a single thing, especially as a ranger. For instance, when iQ is running in Tombs, and we have a build that calls for a r/n, it's usually savage, distracting, rend, debil, oath, pin down, tiger's fury, and fertile. With the exception of fertile (purely for defense on KotH maps), the remainder of those skills are all for the purpose of caster shutdown.