Curse

Shynai_The_Storm · Sep 29, 2005, 04:04 PM // 16:04

I expect a good bit of flaming for this post, but I'll live with it

I've tested this build thoroughly in random arenas, team arenas, and HoH - it performs extremely well in all three.

E/R

Energy Storage 9+1
Beast Mastery 7
Water Magic 10+1+3
Earth Magic 9+1

Water Trident
Earthquake
Deep Freeze
Maelstrom
Eruption
Mist Armor or Glyph of Concentration
Energizing Wind
Rez Sig

...If you can get one, I recommend using a Flint's Fleshcleaver as your staff for this build. The improved casting speed and skill recharge, along with the energy and health bonuses, compliment this build very nicely.

The key to this build, obviously, is the Energizing Wind spirit. Once that spirit's down, you barely need to watch your energy as you fire off those energy-heavy spells. It may seem liek a terrible idea at first, but when used properly, those spells can devastate a team.

Let's say you hit the random-grouping arenas with this build...run a little ways out onto the battlefield and drop your spirit. Now pick a target...Mesmers and monks are my favorites...hit them with Deep Freeze, then Maelstrom. They're already pretty screwed by the little ball of hell you put them in, but now the fun part comes...use Water Trident and Earthquake to keep 'em in it. Once you've got some practice with this tactic, you should be able to make it very difficult for your opponent to escape.

So what happens if you get a pesky ranger or warrior on you? Well you've got a few options. I frequently bring Glyph of Concentration in case I encounter an interrupter. Toss glyph up, and land an Eruption on the ranger or warrior that's giving you a hard time. Use your other skills to keep them in it the same way you would keep an enemy in a Maelstrom, and voila, they're out of your hair for a while...usually long enough to kill them, if you'd like. Mist armor can be equally useful, as warriors can't hit what they can't catch, and a long-lasting sprint makes it easy to dodge arrows if you want to piss of a ranger. Run a ways off, use Deep Freeze if you really want to make it a joke, and spam Water Tridents to force them to back off.

The weakest point of this build is the use of Energizing Wind. All the enemy team has to do is kill the spirit if they want to, and suddenly you have to become a master of energy rationing until your next spirit's up, which doesn't make you nearly as useful to your team. However, it has been my experience that the enemy team rarely bother to take out the spirit, especially if you place it a good distance away from the battle.

The strongest feature of this build is the fact that all of the damage (other than Water Trident) happens to be AE, and with a fairly large effect range. In the past, I've landed Deep Freeze, Maelstrom, and Earthquake on an entire enemy team that decided to bunch up next to our monk, and we absolutely decimated them in a matter of seconds. If you're playing team arenas, you can actually coordinate this with your teammates. Have your team lure the enemy into a choke point (i.e. a bridge in the Maguuma Jungle battlefield), and block it. Fighting at this point will give you and your team a MASSIVE advantage, as the enemies will be forced to either back away from the fight entirely (and spend a good 90 seconds going around the field to get to you), or sit in your nasty AEs...and the little spirit that's letting you rain hell on your enemies would be out of their reach, as well.

As for HoH, I don't really need to go into a few of it's situation uses, because they're very obvious when you look at what this build does: strong AE damage and interruption. You face a smite/heal ball? Decimated. You face a Necro spike ball? Decimated. This build just has too many powerful AE skills to counter it effectively, even a ball-team that moves and reacts quickly can't stay out of all the AE chaos this build brings to the battlefield. By the time they move out of a Deep Freeze/Maelstrom combo, Eruption and Earthquake are on the way...and all for a gloriously low 10 mana each. Depending on the team you face (and whether or not their warriors are clumping), this build can make a mess out of IWAY, too, but don't rely on it. This character is IMMENSELY useful in Relic runs as well, with Mist Armor and Water Trident making them into a great runner with the capability to easily peel off someone who's giving chase. Once you've knocked them down once, you can *usually* peel off a Deep Freeze to ensure your success in escaping them. Once you've made it to HoH, your Maelstrom and Earthquake let you wear the crown when it comes to holding the altar - there's no way in hell an enemy hero will cap with you there, and you've made a mess of the altar for everyone else in the process of ensuring that altar remains yours

As with any build, it has its obvious strong/weak points, and has some situational uses where it really shines. Give it a go if you're the experimental type, play with it, perfect it, and let me know how it worked for you

Just thought I'd share what has been one hell of a fun build for PvP for me over the past few weeks

Yukito Kunisaki · Sep 29, 2005, 04:12 PM // 16:12

Maelstrom and Earthquake both cause exhaustion, how you managing your energy? I don't see much efficiency in this build in terms of lasting in a drawn out fight...

Shynai_The_Storm · Sep 29, 2005, 04:14 PM // 16:14

Maelstrom has a fairly long recast, and Earthquake isn't exactly spammable, either. With an energy total of around 85, I'll end the average battle exhausted to about 45.