Curse

koneko · Dec 20, 2005, 05:20 AM // 05:20

I tried running a Life Barrier/Bond build today in the Thunderhead Keep mission. Didn't work too well on the first two tries (two monks, one healer and myself), but it went flawlessly on the third (three monks, two healers and myself - nobody died, and I don't think that anyone's health dropped below 50% at any point). Everything would be fine up until the part where one has to guard the king in the keep.

16 Protection Prayers
12 Divine Favor
3 Inspiration Magic

Life Barrier
Life Bond
Balthazar's Spirit
Vital Blessing
Mantra of Inscription
Blessed Signet
Signet of Devotion
Rebirth

I cast Balthazar's Spirit on myself, Barrier/Bonded the tanks, then bonded a few squishies. I would quickly bond the other squishies mid-battle if they were taking damage and then drop them after. I didn't have to use Mantra of Inscription as much as I thought since Blessed Signet would let me regain 20 energy combined with +1 for every hit taken by Life Bonded allies. No idea why I have Vital Blessing, it just seemed like a good idea. And Rebirth for the emergency "I ran away because you aggroed three different groups" resing after bonds have dropped.

A big problem I ran into was enchantment stripping when defending the keep. Frantic recasting of bonds caused energy management to go right out the window. And then we'd get swarmed and die, something that was never a problem with two dedicated healers.

...am I doing something horribly wrong with this build to contribute to total party wipes? Suggestions?

Racthoh · Dec 20, 2005, 05:53 AM // 05:53

IMO, if your warrior needs both Bond AND Barrier... things aren't going to go too well in the first place.

koneko · Dec 20, 2005, 06:01 AM // 06:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by Racthoh

IMO, if your warrior needs both Bond AND Barrier... things aren't going to go too well in the first place.

Oh? Could you elaborate on this?

I thought that running both Barrier and Bond would be a good idea, since Life Barrier reduces damage by 52% and then Life Bond redirects half of the remaining damage (usually 0) to me, which triggers Balthazar's Spirit (+1 energy)...is it really that bad of an idea?

Arwen Granger · Dec 20, 2005, 06:12 AM // 06:12

I would replace signet devotion with watchful spirit.
If watchful gets stripped, u get a lot of hp to compensate.
Also, get your healers to bring dywana's kiss. This makes healing much more effectively since you're bonding others.
If possible, cast a bal spirit last as cover enchantment so that if stripped, it doesn't matter that much.

Katari · Dec 20, 2005, 09:58 PM // 21:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by Racthoh

IMO, if your warrior needs both Bond AND Barrier... things aren't going to go too well in the first place.

With only Barrier (or Bond) the warrior should be taking almost zero damage. If the warrior needs both Barrier and Bond then you have a bad warrior.

If you got swarmed, I doubt thats your fault. As for bonds being striped... I didn't think enchant strips were that common in THK... are you sure nobody have Conjure x, or CoP along?

koneko · Dec 20, 2005, 10:45 PM // 22:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by Katari

With only Barrier (or Bond) the warrior should be taking almost zero damage. If the warrior needs both Barrier and Bond then you have a bad warrior.

That clears things up. Thanks

So I should either take Bond + Balthazar's Spirit (and OoB, since that frees up a spot for an elite skill) or Barrier + Essence Bond instead of both at once, I assume?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Katari

If you got swarmed, I doubt thats your fault. As for bonds being striped... I didn't think enchant strips were that common in THK... are you sure nobody have Conjure x, or CoP along?

Well, they did say, "omg u st00pid monk, y u no heal me??" after all...

I'm pretty sure that nobody was using anything from the conjure line of spells or CoP. Stripping of enchantments was pretty much limited to some of the Murssat monsters (where I saw minus health and a nice "Shatter Enchantment" or something to that effect float above my character).

I suppose I'll swap in Watchful Spirit in place of Vital Blessing and see how that goes...

koneko · Dec 21, 2005, 10:01 PM // 22:01

Okay. I tried using the barrier/bond combination again while farming up north in Mineral Springs and it worked perfectly, even if it's a little overkill. Thunderhead Keep, though, is still hit-or-miss.