Curse

Cygnus_Zero · Dec 31, 2005, 05:36 AM // 05:36

Would anyone be so kind as to share a good one? Doesn't matter to me if it's N/Mo or /Me. I was assuming that if you guys do think it should be /Me, is this because of Arcane Echo? Or is /Mo better just to get some healing spells in there since you dont know if your going to get a decent monk.

Just want something for the basic competition areas. Not really looking to do tombs too much just yet. I've PvP'd before, but only dabbled. Ready to start getting a little more serious about it and i've heard SS is a good place to start and fool around with.

I've also heard about AotL, but ive also heard bad things about using that in PvP so I think id like to start messing with SS 1st then ill play around and move on to other things.

atreyu83 · Dec 31, 2005, 06:02 AM // 06:02

My most successful CA SS necro is as folows
N/ME

Curses 16 - point of the build is SS so gata max this
Soul reaping - 6 - throw extra points here + a minor for a little enregy boost
Inspiration - 11 - energymanagement and self heal very important
Illusion - 4 - needs to be high enough for -2 energy per evade otherwise too expensive even with spirit of failure

Spiteful Spirit ( Duh )
Parasitic bond (the perfect cover hex for SS, and can be a lucky life saving heal)
Desecrate Enchants ( Gives you an alternate method of damage if SS is not doing it alone. This also follows the same lines as SS in that they are both AOE armor ignoring shadow damage)
Drain enchantment ( energy management and can be used offensively to remove stuff like shield of regen or mark of protection. Usually use this after hitting with desecrate)
Distortion (Defense against warriors and rangers who get angry when they get SS'd... understandably i suppose)
Spirit of failure (used as a combination of energy mangement mainly to fuel disotion, and party protection in that i can reduce ranger/warrior effectiveness agaisnt allies.)
Ether feast (your main self heal.. important in CA)
Res Signet (again important imo in CA)

I find arcane echo and SS to be very enregy intensive and kinda a pain to use. SS only has a 10 second cooldown and its duration at 16 curses is 21 you can keep it on two people pretty much the entire match which is usually good enough to decemate the other team. while waiting for SS to recharge you can nuke with desecrate, drain an enchant, cast spirit failure, kite a little, spam some distortion, res an ally etc. Overall one of my favorite builds to play in CA it boggles my mind somtimes how much damage i can inflict on a team in such a short period of time. When you have a team of 4 getten hit by SS damage from 2 of its warriors and your nuking them with desecrate on top of that you can rack up some rediculous damage. Of course they have to cooperate for you to be successful and usually most people do.

Cygnus_Zero · Dec 31, 2005, 04:00 PM // 16:00

Great info. If anyone has anything else i'll take it. In the meantime im gong to experiment with this.

MoeSyzslak · Jan 01, 2006, 01:58 AM // 01:58

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=88310

4th post down (Warrior Ass Puncher)...I've enjoyed it.

Ole Man Bourbon · Jan 06, 2006, 05:35 PM // 17:35

I've run this build with a lot of success in the CAs. I usually get in a team that makes it to the TAs within an hour or two, monk or no monk. Out of the non-monk classes, I've accumulated faction the fastest in the arenas with this SS necro, easily. I've found the SS build works best when teamed with a ranger, monk, and X. SS really capitalizes on the idiot leeroy jenkins Warrior stereotype, something prevalent in the CAs/TAs. As was noted above, it's sometimes amazing how quickly you can win, in 5-10 seconds it seems. The frenetic, shrill cries of "WTF!!!111 hapPENEfD" are what keep bringing me back to the arenas with this build.

Anyway, here it is:

Necromancer/Mesmer, Arena pwner
Curses: 16
Soul Reaping: 9-10
Blood: 9-10
X: whatever's left over

1. Res Signet (for the love of god)
2. Spiteful Spirit {e}
3. Parasitic Bond
4. Arcane Echo
5. Vampiric Gaze
6. Plague Touch
7. Blood Renewal / Blood Ritual
8. Inspired Hex / Rend/Desecrate Enchants / Enfeeble / Power Drain / Diversion / M. of Resolve

Parasitic bond is not optional IMO--you use it to cover SS, ALWAYS. Most people have at least one hex removal skill available to them, but the ability to remove two becomes a sparse commodity and labor intensive at best in the CAs. Additionally, PB heals you for 126 every time it expires or is removed. If you use it constantly, it can really save your ass. A lot. Because of its low costs and quick recharge, PB is one of the best skills in the game IMO, at least for a hexer.

I suppose Arcane Echo isn't absolutely critical to the build, because you really do only get that one or maybe two extra SS's off with it. However, the object of SS is to kill them before they know what has hit them, which echoing certainly does, as well as mulitplying the AOE damage effect for 10 extra seconds or more. The only time the SS build fails is when the enemy catches on to it in time and deals with it: echoing SS seems to dramatically reduce the chance of this happening in most cases.

Vampiric Gaze seems to be a critical finishing skill to me. Without it, you do a lot of standing around and waiting for your teammates to finish the job, with is bad for the arenas. If you get the occasional asshole runner who threatens to ruin your run at 30-50-100 straight, you can echo VG and work them over pretty good if you can get in range. Same applies to enemy teams who have good monks that use Contemplation of Purity to remove hexes and seem unkillable to your shitty little PUG.

Blood Renewal will keep you alive a lot longer if you have no monk. It also works as a great way to bait the SS'ed attacker into thinking he's hurting you, making him kill himself faster. A carrot on a stick I guess. Just make sure your health is around 75% or better or the W will be clamoring about how much he pwnd that 'faggit' necro. Blood Ritual is a good skill to use if you happen to have a monk. If you can get good healing, I think Ritual will take you farther than Renewal will.

Plague Touch is nice for getting rid of poison from the Rangers, putting blind and weakness on W's (yes, people are dumb enough to put those on Necros), and deflecting much of the hate you will get from W's like Deep Wound and Crippled. Sometimes you can pick and chose who you put them on, but it's usually best to get rid of some them, namely poison, fast. Pets and minions will work for this. Obviously W's and R's are the best options if you have the time.

For the last skill, you have lots of options. You can grab skills from mes that interrupt, you can use skills that punish enchant heavy monks or eles, you can use necro skills that hate W's, you can grab that nice Inspired Hex hex removal skill (which is nice when facing teams with necros, as you can access lots of the good blood and curse elites, for which you have the attribute pts, IE Life Xfer and such--fwiw I also like sending backfire and other feared spells to the enemy, as they don't know I have no pts in that pariticular skill line and will just stand there. not to digress, but using IHex I ended up with 3 Spiteful Spirits on my toolbar at once, funny). Mantra of Resolve is great for any caster, as a good interruptor can make you miserable as you can't do anything, but I've found the interruptors usually ignore the Necros, almost always in fact. Diversion can be a great skill if used at the right time. Many monks will throw up a CoP as soon as you hit them with SS, so if you can sneak in a Diversion, you can take it away and hex them up real good.

In the end, which skill is the best comes down to the luck of the draw of your enemies. I like Inspired Hex a lot though. It requires little to no investment in Inspiration Magic for it to be effective.

Anyway, the basic approach is you activate Blood Renewal, then Arcane Echo, drop SS then Parasitic on a W if he comes charging in, particularly if 2 come charging in in which case you would drop SS and PB on both of them one at a time. Then you move onto the monks / casters. If no W's come charging in, then you may want to do the standard Monk - Mes - Ele routine. With SS, however, by dropping it on W's and R's and such you may be generating more Monk hate than if you'd dropped the skill on the Monk himself, cause the W's usually start going down FAST. You want to try to have SS on people who are close to each other, as the effect accelerates the AOE and sorta makes them self-combust.

The trick to this thing is using Parasitic Bond a lot, always covering your hexes, using Blood Renewal whenever your health gets up, dropping conditions on nearby enemies, and watching your energy as any caster should. If you can stick to the game plan, you can kill/tank most enemies with much delight.

Weaknesses of the SS build seem to be a vulnerability against slow, hard hitters like KD Hammer W's who know what they're doing. Interrupt rangers can screw you up pretty badly too if no Mantra of Resolve. CoP monks can be hard for you to kill as they will usually shut down your goodies. With a few rare exceptions (clever enemies), that's basically it though.

Anyway, this build is a very nice all-around build for the arenas. Good defense, good offense, good versus casters, good versus meleers. You just need a little stupidity on the part of the enemy, which you can count on in the Arenas most of the time.

I guess the Arenas are kind of a waste of time, but pwning dumbasses can be an addictive, guilty pleasure. I'm surprised SS hasn't been nerfed yet--maybe as it gets closer to FotM status it will--I guess for now a.net figures those who die by SS deserve to. :P

edit: I have no experience yet in the Tombs, sadly. I guess I'd better start learning how to be an order necro for that. But I would think IWAY wouldn't like SS.

Cygnus_Zero · Jan 06, 2006, 06:00 PM // 18:00

Great information. Thanks man!!

Ole Man Bourbon · Jan 06, 2006, 06:20 PM // 18:20

BTW, I use a Defensive Wicked Staff of Defense. The extra 10 armor is nice for this guy.

tigernz · Jan 06, 2006, 08:39 PM // 20:39

Surprised that no-one has Enfeeble in their builds. That's a must-bring skill for me in CA with all the warriors & rangers around. Since you've got lots in curses for SS anyway, it has a nice long duration.

Plague Touch is just far too useful to leave out, and Parasitic Bond as mentioned is a nice cheap cover hex & a great source of healing.

So that's 4/7 skills so far (slot 8 is always a res sig for me)

I combo the curses with either blood or inspiration, so if Inspiration my final 3 skills would be something like Power Drain or Drain Enchant, Ether Feast (can't always rely on Bond keeping you alive) and Ether Lord (you're pretty much out of energy after 2 x SS and your other skills anyway, so might as well use it to speed your regen & slow theirs)

If I go with blood I'll take Malaise, Life Siphon (to cover degen from Malaise) and one other - possibly Vamp Gaze or Shadow Strike

Cygnus_Zero · Jan 07, 2006, 02:26 PM // 14:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ole Man Bourbon

BTW, I use a Defensive Wicked Staff of Defense. The extra 10 armor is nice for this guy.

Where did you find this staff? And can you post all of the stats on it please?

Ole Man Bourbon · Jan 07, 2006, 06:03 PM // 18:03

It's a modded collector's curses staff, with a +5 staff head of defense and a +5 staff wrapping of defense. Both mods go for about 3-5 plat, so pretty cheap. Easier place to get the staff is near Augury Rock with 5 Dessicated Hydra Claws which can be bought for about 100-200g each, a bargain. Details below.

FWIW, you could also add energy, health, or enchant-extending mods if you wanted. I just prefer defense.

Here's a page with the listings of all the collector's weapons and where and how to get them (you want to click on the General Collectors for Southern Shiverpeaks and Crystal Desert):
http://www.guildwiki.org/wiki/Collectors

Here's a page explaining how all the mods work:
http://www.guildwiki.org/wiki/Weapon_upgrade

Here's a page with a baseline listing for mods, which is somewhat accurate:
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=44867

Stats and picture should be attached. Wicked staff can be dyed as you can see.

Cygnus_Zero · Jan 08, 2006, 02:46 PM // 14:46

Very nice. Thanks so much for being so helpful!

Cygnus_Zero · Jan 08, 2006, 03:51 PM // 15:51

When you dye that staff, you don't actually see it the dyed color when playing right? I thought you only saw the new color in the Inventory window.

mortalis doleo · Jan 08, 2006, 05:51 PM // 17:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by MoeSyzslak

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=88310

4th post down (Warrior Ass Puncher)...I've enjoyed it.

haha!!!
hurray for me

SS necro is probably the best kind of character for CA, because you *will* fight a warrior, and if that warrior isn't dumb (yeah right), then he is at least shut down for a while (warriors tend to take condition removal instead of hex removal, purge sig being the exeption).

Two April Mornings · Jan 08, 2006, 05:54 PM // 17:54

add enfeeble, desecrat enchants, and render enchants

Vexed Arcanist · Jan 08, 2006, 06:16 PM // 18:16

As was last stated taking Enfeeble into CA with SS is a HUGE help. You can tank most warriors with SS+Enfeeble. If you take SV you will flat out own warriors. Arcane Echo SS is alright but isn't as crucial in 4v4 as it would be in larger battles.