Curse

Acheus Lokine · Jul 12, 2005, 01:57 AM // 01:57

Elementalist/Necromancer

Attributes
Energy Storage: 11 (+1)
Blood: 12
Curses: 12

Pros
-Energy storage for more energy, also can be raised with runes
-Still able to use Necro weapons/Focus-type items
Cons
-Can't raise Necro attributes with runes

Skills
1) Soul Barbs
Start with this, always. Every hex spell (e.g. entire skill bar) added takes off 27 damage.
2) Price of Failure
Best when used on rangers and warriors. 25% chance of missing attack, take 6-25 damage each time attack misses. Best not used on casters.
3) Life Siphon
Helps heal while still dealing damage. Only 3 health degen.
4) Life Transfer {Elite}
Same as Life Siphon, but deals up to 7 health degen.
5) Mark of Subversion
Great defense against monks. Guess what, monk? You can't heal for almost 10 seconds, and I steal health from you!
6) Weaken Armor
Good for warriors since their armor is almost always so freaking high.
7) Suffering
Extra 2 health degen.
8) Faintheartedness
Extra 3 health degen as well as target moves 20% slower. 29 seconds.

Tactics
1) Bog Skale Barrage (Best for melee targets like rangers and warriors.)
Soul Barbs -> Price of Failure -> Hex spells
-Start by casting Soul Barbs so that your hex spells hit the target for damage initially. Immediately cast Price of Failure so the target has more trouble hitting you and also takes damage. Finally, before you take a quick rest to regenerate some energy, you'll want to cast a hex spell of some sort. Life Siphon or Life Transfer is recommended, but use what's best for the situation. Once you regenerate some energy, start spamming more hexes. Remember to recast Soul Barbs as soon as it comes back unless you're low on energy.

2) Communication Breakdown (Shut down that monk!)
Soul Barbs -> Mark of Subversion -> Hex spells
-Again, start with Soul Barbs to do some damage with each hex spell cast. Next cast Mark of Subversion to begin shutting down the monk's healing/protecting. This will also steal health from the target monk each time he tries to cast a helpful spell. As for the rest, just keep casting degen spells and make sure Mark of Subversion is recast when able. Soul Barbs is less necessary in this case, but still useful.

3) Interview with the Vampire (General tactic for use against all classes.)
Soul Barbs -> Life Siphon -> Life Transfer -> Suffering -> Faintheartedness
-Yes, once again this one starts with Soul Barbs. Since every single skill in the bar is a hex, it should be obvious as to why. Once Soul Barbs is cast (recast it whenever the opportunity arises) just start spamming the vampiric skills. The four of them combined gives a whopping 15 health degen (not to mention you have +15 health regen!) This is your best offense against any build.

Final notes
There are, unfortunately, problems with this build, as with any. First off, there's little defense against mesmers, elementalists, or other necromancers. In spite of that, this build is very effective at taking down monks, which is always a plus in any group. However, you rely very much on your team's monk to keep you healed unless you have a constant spam of the vampiric skills going. The other major problem is that a lot of the skills have a low refresh rate so you'll only be able to effectively spam the lesser skills like Life Siphon and Faintheartedness.

This is my first thought out build so I'm expecting a lot of criticism, but I hope it's all constructive, nothing like "omg ur build sux cuz it cant kill all other builds" please. Feel free to help me improve it by pointing out something that's unneeded or something that's glaringly missing.

derrtyboy69 · Jul 12, 2005, 02:22 AM // 02:22

omg ur build sux cuz it cant kill all other builds

Acheus Lokine · Jul 12, 2005, 02:24 AM // 02:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by derrtyboy69

omg ur build sux cuz it cant kill all other builds

Ah, the token "post exactly what the OP said not to post" post. You could've at least added "just kidding, here's what I really think..." to your post, as right now it's completely pointless and pretty much just spam.

knives · Jul 12, 2005, 03:02 AM // 03:02

Just wondering..how could you spread your attribute points like that? 12, 12, 11? I thought one could only go 12 and 12 and then have like 5 left over..

Acheus Lokine · Jul 12, 2005, 03:06 AM // 03:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by knives

Just wondering..how could you spread your attribute points like that? 12, 12, 11? I thought one could only go 12 and 12 and then have like 5 left over..

I've seen people post 12/12/11 builds before, unless I'm confused and misunderstood their posts (like I said, this is my first thought-out build.) In which case I may have to rework this build a bit.

Minwanabi · Jul 12, 2005, 03:18 AM // 03:18

First. Degen/Regen is capped at 10, can't go above that no matter how much you stack. Second, the damage from soul barbs is negligible, and most characters won't even notice it, your small combos deal an additional, like, 50 damage, essentially another orison, at the expense of you being more or less useless. Next, your attributes can't be like that unless you're implying runes, in which case it'd be better for you to type something like 12/10+1+1/8+3 which would cause the 12/12/11 setup you want. Oh, except now I look again, you can't do that, because necro is your sub, you can go 3 en and 12 in each of the necro skills, or you're going to have to reduce them. The life siphon/life transfer combo isn't terrible, either, especially not in arena where hex removal is relatively scarce, and I would suggest building a build around those two skills, and being able to cause 10 degen/10 regen, rather than around soul barbs, which is a shaky skill. Perhaps if you had some sort of team setup where someone could really, really hex spammed, and even then it would probably be wasting just 2 or 3 characters instead of one. I advise against using soul barbs.

Mercury Angel · Jul 12, 2005, 03:48 AM // 03:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by Acheus Lokine

I've seen people post 12/12/11 builds before, unless I'm confused and misunderstood their posts (like I said, this is my first thought-out build.) In which case I may have to rework this build a bit.

Many people simple incorporate the runes into their attributes without saying they're there. You only have 200 attribute points to spend, and there's an article somewhere on the main site about that, and how much each attribute level costs, for future reference.

Your best bets lie in the-
11/10/10
8/11/11

combos, most likely.

You could have
Energy Storage: 8 (+X)
Blood: 11
Curses: 11

And push Energy Storage however high you need it with runes and headgear. You could get it to 12 if you desire. Superior Energy Storage isn't that expensive from the Rune Trader I believe.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Acheus Lokine

5) Mark of Subversion
Great defense against monks. Guess what, monk? You can't heal for almost 10 seconds, and I steal health from you!

In case you misunderstand the skill, Mark of Subversion is a one-time effect spell. When the caster attempts to use an ally target spell, that spell fails (It gets the effect that you get when you're casting but take a step mid cast. They still pay the energy cost of the skill, but it's still useable immediately after, just as if they HAD taken a step.), you steal the amount of health in the skill's description, and then Mark of Subversion ends. There's no mixture between the backfire+subversion type skills that I know of. Soul Leech is completely a backfire type skill, as it doesn't cause spells to fail.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Acheus Lokine

7) Suffering
Extra 2 health degen.

15 energy and 2 seconds casting, and you'll most likely only tag a single person with it. Also, are you aware that Degeneration and Regeneration effects cap at +/- 10? The only time more than that matters is when the target has the opposite effect as well. +6 regeneration and -15 degeneration = 9 degeneration.

Grab Parasitic Bond if you're desperate to degenerate, and you'll gain health intermittently.

Otherwise, find something else besides degeneration to contribute to your group.

Rigor Mortis is a good counter to Wards and Guardian, and any other effect that prevents attacks from hitting. Warriors forced into a Ward Against Melee will LOVE you for Rigor Mortis. (Nothing like standing around watching the target "Evade" over and over again.) Since it's a hex, it will also benefit the Soul Barbs effect.

Chillbains, Rend Enchantments, or Strip Enchantment are skills most parties will expect you to have at least one of. Only Rangers, Mesmers, and Necromancers can remove enemy enchantments, and some enchantments get pretty nasty if you don't remove them.

Plague Touch is always a good fallback. When hit with conditions, just pass them back to the enemy.

Awaken the Blood gives a +2 to Blood and Curses spells while you have it on, which helps to make up for your lack of runes.

Barbs falls under the same vein as Rigor Mortis and Weaken Armor. It's especially helpful for people with fast attacks.

Whatever you may choose, figure out which hexes are most valuable, and quickly cover them with the lesser hexes, so that should they be removed one-at-a-time, the more important ones are removed last, or never, if you recast hexes on the target.

Red Locust · Jul 12, 2005, 04:30 AM // 04:30

Casting time really hurts all-hex builds. I've ran a similar hex mesmer/necro with fast casting and it still took too long. I'd just specialize in, say, anti-casters, and take 3 or so hexes along with other spells. 8 is a little excessive.

Skyro · Jul 12, 2005, 05:26 AM // 05:26

#1 killer of all builds is trying to be super specialized. You can't put all your eggs in one basket that one skill can completely nullify your build (i.e. convert hexes in this case). Also I'd rather be a Me/N or something if you want to use soul barbs. Using quick casting, spammable hexes to really get the most out of soul barbs, like wastrols worry.