Curse

xakia · Apr 22, 2005, 03:39 PM // 15:39

I don't have any experience in GWs but I've been going through the skill list to plan my first character lately. Yesterday i came upon a skill called "Desecrate Enchantments."

"Target foe and all nearby foes take 6...49 shadow damage and 4...17 shadow damage for each enchantment on them. 15 energy/2 sec cast/15 sec recharge."

Now I'm questioning whether this would be good to start up a war/nec with. I've been looking at war/nec builds recently and the majority seem to go with the life taping skills like its a requirement. Is it possible to create a valuable war/nec only dealing in the curses line?

Frenzy
Sever Artery
Gash
Final Thrust
Feast of Corruption
Mark of Pain
Desecrate Enchantments
Some 8th skill

Now for the last skill I was looking into that skill that transfers life between you and a foe to "balance" it out. I'm not sure which skill line it was from or the energy required to use it though. I can't find a good site that list it. Figure it would be a nice "heal me plz" skill if I targeted a foe with the most health.

Comments? Suggestions? Bit of filler information on each of these skills?

Ensign · Apr 22, 2005, 06:04 PM // 18:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by xakia

Now I'm questioning whether this would be good to start up a war/nec with.

In simplest terms, no, it isn't. It costs 15 energy for an effect that honestly isn't all that impressive - compare it to what a typical Elementalist gets for that energy and you'll see the difference. Plus you're doing this on a Warrior which is already pressed hard for energy, meaning you're going to be badly underutilizing your other skill slots in the process.

Quote:

Originally Posted by xakia

I've been looking at war/nec builds recently and the majority seem to go with the life taping skills like its a requirement.

If you started reading a typical build discussion forum without knowing anything about the game, I think you'd be hard pressed not to get that impression. Damage over Time (DoT) spells, life stealing spells, and particularly spells that combine the two (Life Siphon, Life Transfer) are *extremely* popular with new players. I'd bet that if someone held an informal poll of the most popular skill in the game Life Transfer would win by a wide margin.

Remember, though, that 'popular' and 'good' are very different things. DoT spells are rather good in the early portions of the game when enemies have low HP, but once you reach Yak's Bend they start to taper off in effectiveness. By the time you're level 20, DoTs are a joke, something that might supplement damage ok but won't kill anything in a reasonable timeframe.

So don't take their popularity as a sign of anything beyond the obvious. You most certainly can make a Necromancer build without DoTs. It'll probably be better for it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by xakia

Is it possible to create a valuable war/nec only dealing in the curses line?

I guess. The thing about the Necromancer is that it is not a deep class. You'll likely want to run a bunch of Warrior skills, and a couple of Necromancer skills to support that. The problems you're going to run into are energy and time. Basically you don't have a lot of energy, you're going to spend a lot of time running around chasing down or closing with enemies, and Necromancer spells are rather needy of both resources as well. A spell has to do something pretty special for me to stop for two seconds (plus aftercast) and spend half my energy on, and there are very, very few spells that meet that criteria in the Necromancer lines.

Note that in your build you're running both Desecrate Enchantments and Feast of Corruption as nukes, but you don't even have the energy to cast those two in succession! You'd have to equip a focus just to get those off, and then you've completely drained your energy, in addition to spending over six seconds casting spells! You'd have dealt a whole lot more damage, and much more cheaply, just by closing with your enemy and swinging your weapon a few times.

[QUOTE=xakia]Now for the last skill I was looking into that skill that transfers life between you and a foe to "balance" it out. I'm not sure which skill line it was from or the energy required to use it though.

All of the 'good' Necromancer self-heal options cost 10+ energy, which is well out of your price range. You're going to have a huge headache just trying to cast your expensive, underpowered nukes - trying to use expensive healing options as well is unrealistic. You'd be better off looking at Healing Signet from Tactics, as that provides a bit of healing without further taxing your energy supply.

Peace,
-CxE

Yukito Kunisaki · Apr 22, 2005, 06:20 PM // 18:20

I was definitely considering the curses line as a "final" build and use Blood Magic for early game fun...

From what I've read in a lot of the posts so far. If you want GOOD healing, go W/M. If not, just get like a single skill for healing and leave the rest up to your healer, be it henchie or a good monk. Making a good self-healing soloist build for a W/N is hard. [I've played W/N all the BWE, it's VERY true that Necro healing is the pits...] So I've decided with help from good neighbors here to go the curses line. blah to popularity, curses will help you live longer retroactively to life stealing... [instead of healing yourself as damage is done, why not LOWER THE DAMAGE dealt to you? ^_^]

Enfeeble and Faintheartedness are good cheap skills that last a while. Long lasting means that one, you'll be taking FAR less damage then usual, and two, your energy will be back to DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN

So yeah, I'm no longer for life stealing and am more for disruption. btw, the Insidious Parasite and Parastic Bond skills offer some healing, though I'm certain the Parasite skill can REALLY pwn hard in most situations.

tektonik · Apr 22, 2005, 06:37 PM // 18:37

Look at it this way the spells you take from your secondary have to be able to be more effective than at least your normal swing. You cast Desecrate Ench it takes 2 seconds to do ~40 damage if the enemy has 1 enchant on him(ruff estimate you dind't put Attrib). Not really that worth while when your 2 normal swings will do about that amount anyways in the same time you would be casting.

The best kinda war for a new player is to focus on 1 class and augment with a 2nd class. Later on you can make a perfect blend for a unique char. By augment I mean take 1-2 skills that will amplify your total character's effectiveness. If you were a war/mo I would suggest Judge's Insight as the 2 sec cast time and loss of 2 swings is made up by the 20% armor pen.

Ander Deathblade · Apr 22, 2005, 08:21 PM // 20:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yukito Kunisaki

I was definitely considering the curses line as a "final" build and use Blood Magic for early game fun...

From what I've read in a lot of the posts so far. If you want GOOD healing, go W/M. If not, just get like a single skill for healing and leave the rest up to your healer, be it henchie or a good monk. Making a good self-healing soloist build for a W/N is hard. [I've played W/N all the BWE, it's VERY true that Necro healing is the pits...] So I've decided with help from good neighbors here to go the curses line. blah to popularity, curses will help you live longer retroactively to life stealing... [instead of healing yourself as damage is done, why not LOWER THE DAMAGE dealt to you? ^_^]

Enfeeble and Faintheartedness are good cheap skills that last a while. Long lasting means that one, you'll be taking FAR less damage then usual, and two, your energy will be back to DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN

So yeah, I'm no longer for life stealing and am more for disruption. btw, the Insidious Parasite and Parastic Bond skills offer some healing, though I'm certain the Parasite skill can REALLY pwn hard in most situations.

What are you doing with your W/N, fighting other warriors?

Yukito Kunisaki · Apr 23, 2005, 12:33 AM // 00:33

Faintheartedness along with disrupting chop should be enough to stuff some casters as the degen and skill-locking ensues...

What's more, curses has some pretty popular anti-magic spells. People keep telling me about Rend Enchantments... [yowza, 8 enchantments removed at once?]

Defile Flesh among other things nerf's an enemy's ability to heal. Those 2 examples were just examples, curses has some nifty things...

Ander Deathblade · Apr 23, 2005, 01:06 AM // 01:06

meh, put curses at attr. lvl. 3 and it'll remove 4, that's good enough in most cases. For the rest, go blood.²

xakia · Apr 23, 2005, 01:28 AM // 01:28

Another build... War/Mes...kept it pretty simple.

Illusionary Weaponry (Elite)
Sprint
Penetrating Blow
Executioners Strike
Distrupting Chop
Wary Stance
Counter Blow
Migraine

Basically trying to find a good pvp build. Knockdown, Defense that gives me energy and adrenaline with a 75% block rate, 50% armor piercer, big hitter, 20% chop, IW for constant dps, and migraine to annoy the casters.

Comments?

Rhys · Apr 23, 2005, 01:47 AM // 01:47

Well, counter blow is a hammer attack... unless you plan to couple illusionary weaponry with hammers, get rid of it.

Scaphism · Apr 23, 2005, 01:51 AM // 01:51

You will not gain any adrenaline while using Illusionary Weaponry. For an in-depth explanation of how illusionary weaponry works, check out the Articles Section on the main site and look for Build Review #2.