Curse

Mr Jazzy · Sep 05, 2005, 10:12 PM // 22:12

ok this is theory craft so please dont kill me

N/??

14 curses (12+1+1)
7 soul reaping (6+1)
12 blood (11+1

rend enchantments
strip enchantment
grenths balance
vampiric gaze
blood renewal
dark pact
????
????

dont know what to put for last two slots, but maybe grenths balance could deal some damage

pagansaint · Sep 05, 2005, 10:20 PM // 22:20

Rend Enchantments then throw Soul Barbs(hurts them as they re-apply enchantments) and cover with Life Siphon/Faintheartedness to cover. Or like I do, hit them with both adding more damage from Soul Barbs. Also when they get hit with breeze to counter the degen they get hit with more Soul Barbs.

stryphe · Sep 05, 2005, 10:27 PM // 22:27

Instead of Balance, Lingering Curse could be used for more enchantment killing bliss.
With blood magic up, you could use Awaken the Blood as well, just don't sac ANY life while it is on you or you will pay for it.

I like the soul barbs idea, and you can cover it with Parasitic Bond, /andor Life Siphon. I personally love Parasitic Bond to cover hexes because even when it's removed you get health.

Effigy · Sep 05, 2005, 10:41 PM // 22:41

Soul Barbs seems like a waste of time and a skill slot to me. You spend 10 en and 2 sec simply to deal ~30 dmg for each hex/enchantment cast on the target in the next 30 seconds, assuming it doesn't get removed. Plus you have to spend more en and time casting hexes to bury SB and trigger it. Just seems kind of inefficient to me.

For instance, assuming you're going to follow with Siphon/Faintheartedness, you'd deal about the same amount of damage as SB by just casting Shadow Strike on the target instead; same cost and cast time, and there are even better nukes if you want to look elsewhere. There are other problems with SB too, like the fact that Healing Seed practically negates its damage. Overall I think it's just too ackward to be worth taking rather than something with more general utility.

pagansaint · Sep 05, 2005, 10:52 PM // 22:52

Actually its more of a counter to the re-application of the enchantments. Getting hit with damage everytime a new hex OR enchantment is cast.

Rend->Life Siphon->Vamp Gaze/Shadow Strike->Faintheartedness->spot enchant removal with Strip Enchantment and health gains.

BAM a not so happy prot monk.

Everytime he uses RoF/Prot Spirit/sustained enchantments he takes damage. How is that NOT good?

Of course you can now counter with a mass hex removal build of some sort.

And then I could counter with an interruption build for the hex removal and so on and so on.

It works. but not 100%, but name a build that does.

Effigy · Sep 06, 2005, 07:04 PM // 19:04

I suppose it could be useful to some extent, but I'm still not sold on Soul Barbs.

If you start out by Rending the target, chances are your team is going to be targetting them, which in turn means that their monks will be hitting them with things like Healing Seed, Reversal, Prot Spirit, maybe even Shielding Hands, etc. This will trigger damage from SB, true. However, the SB damage will barely cancel out the Divine Favor bonus from the new enchantments, while at the same time triggering Seed more than it would have without SB on the target. Heaven forbid one of the monk should use Convert on the target, SB and all the other hexes that go with it will actually make the target harder to kill.

Following up with more enchantment removal isn't a bad idea, but the problem is that most of those spells have a considerable recast and maybe end up removing spam enchantments like Reversal/Guardian rather than the various more potent, non-spammable ones that you're really gunning for. Rend -> SB -> hex stacking -> spot enchantment removal might work, but it's just as likely that your second wave of strip spell will only hit the chaff.

Of course, like you said, every strategy has a counter. The problem with SB is that the only way it's going to work to any great effect is if the enemy doesn't have any counters to it, meaning no prot spells, no hex removal, no Healing Seed, etc. The chances of that happening against a good team are low, and thus I don't have much faith in this stategy. If it works for you, go for it. It's not something I'd want to run though.