Curse

bartwart · Jan 03, 2007, 09:33 PM // 21:33

Profession: N/E
Name: Maelstrom of Spite
Type: PVE and, but decent for Fort Aspenwood
Category: spiteful spirit?
Attributes:

Curses 12+3+1
Soul Reaping: 9 + 1
Water: the rest

Equipment:
Armor with energy boosts, like scars armor or radiant insignias
Wailing Wand nrg+5^50 20/20
Bone Idol nrg+12 20 Curses+1

Skills:
Maelstrom
Spiteful Spirit
Reckless Haste
Insidious Parasite
== Open ==
Defile Enchantments
Desecrate Enchantments
Signet of Sorrow

Usage:
Let the enemy AI spell casters (humans are too smart, usually

) find a spot to start casting from and hit them with Maelstrom. Don't cast Maelstrom too early or you'll waste it!!! You may have to prioritize which spell caster (nuker or monk) you'll target if they spread out from each other too far. At this point the spell caster will be their most vulnerable so your allied wammo(s) should lay right into them while they can't defend themselves. Target the first incoming Leeroy with insidious parasite. Once the main melee mob forms up strategically place spiteful spirit and reckless haste. Even if it's not a perfect mob you'll still be effective by spreading out hexes. Begin spiking with Desecrate/Defile Enchantments while you wait for stuff to recharge. Use Signet of Sorrow as soon as possible and every chance you get. Insidious Parasite gets first priority on Rangers or any wammos attacking your squishes. Start spamming spiteful spirit and reckless haste on any survivors. Spam Spam Spam till they're all dead!

Variants:
For Fort Aspenwood add plague touch to the open slot, then you'll have near perfect melee shutdown for any wammo coming after you. I've survived really good assassins, warriors, and dervishes with this build, and the dumb ones end of killing themselves trying to hurt me.

Strengths:
You have a little something for every type of foe without any of the drawbacks from stretching yourself thin. Decent AoE spiking with Desecrate/Defile Enchantments. Keeps spell casters off balance just long enough to slaughter them. Excellent energy management.

Weaknesses:
Standard spell casting vulnerabilities and hex removal.

Credit:
I got the idea from fighting those Ice Imps in the Shiverpeeks and by running both the Cold Fusion Battery build and SS build. I just combined the best offensive capabilities from both builds.

Notes:
For Fort Aspenwood battles, if the enemy spell casters/monks are confused enough you can use Maelstrom on them with them even knowing what hit them.

Comments? Suggestions?

Cathode_Reborn · Jan 04, 2007, 01:00 AM // 01:00

Seems like a basic SS build with a random Maelstrom in it. I'd actually go N/me and use Power return instead. It's a quick cheap easy interrupt with the drawback of givin the target energy, but that's nothin in some situations (interrupting a long-recharge spell). Maelstrom is good, but 30sec recharge + exhaustion on a Nec + more importantly, no snare to keep 'em in it. Without some way to keep people in it, it's pretty useless since you can walk right out. It'd be decent against AI, i guess.

In aspenwood, Maelstrom is good against the gate npc's, but they get repaired/broken lots of times. You can mess up a gate pretty bad with Maelstrom, then a few seconds later, that same gate might be repaired.

Last thing......the ice imps are using Maelstrom to it's full potential - a high rank in water, and Mind Freeze to make sure you're pretty much stuck in it. You're forced to slowly walk out of it.....if you choose to stay in it, you'll take quite abit of damage.

beltran13579 · Jan 04, 2007, 01:38 AM // 01:38

Maelstrom interupts them so they cast more spells which makes SS do more

bartwart · Jan 04, 2007, 02:42 AM // 02:42

Maelstrom by itself works well against the AI. Dealing lots of damage with Maelstrom is not the point; I have a hench or a hero make a bee-line to the caster to handle that, and usually I help out with spikes.

The AI will eventually move out, but not before having 2 to 4 spells interrupted, and not before they have a wammo breathing down their neck, which can make all the difference if they're trying to cast a high-damage high-recharge spell. Sure, some spells sneak by, but the long casting ones (> 1 sec) don't. I target the nuker first, but if they're aren't any I go for the monk.

I used to run with a few interrupts as a N/Me, but I got tired of baby sitting targets when I could be spreading hexes around. Way back when during the shiverpeek missions, I started including interrupts out of necessity when I found that you could hardly find a mesmer or interrupt ranger to join your party. So I started picking up the slack. One day I experimented with Maelstrom and ever since then I was hooked.

With Maelstrom I can target the most troublesome spell caster without having to focus all of my attention on stopping every single action he takes. Maelstrom serves a very important function and is not just randomly there.

Cathode_Reborn · Jan 04, 2007, 03:15 AM // 03:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by bartwart

I used to run with a few interrupts as a N/Me, but I got tired of baby sitting targets when I could be spreading hexes around. Way back when during the shiverpeek missions, I started including interrupts out of necessity when I found that you could hardly find a mesmer or interrupt ranger to join your party.

That first sentence is really awkward

The point of going N/me is to EchoSS and spread it around so you'll do lots of damage. Power return also happens to be a Mes skill. Maelstrom is a good spell, but I simply wouldn't use it cause the recharge/exhuastion. A cheap quick-recharging interrupt is more reliable.

Quote:

Originally Posted by beltran13579

Maelstrom interupts them so they cast more spells which makes SS do more

It'll only do damage if a skill was used successfully. That applies to every skill that punishes the target for using a skill/spell. With that being said, SS'ing a target and slapping Maelstrom on that same target won't make SS do more damage, but possibly less.

Lets Get to Healing · Jan 04, 2007, 02:41 PM // 14:41

You want to deal alot of damage through maelstrom, interupting so that SS doesnt do damage, right?

bartwart · Jan 04, 2007, 03:50 PM // 15:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cathode_Reborn

That first sentence is really awkward

The point of going N/me is to EchoSS and spread it around so you'll do lots of damage. Power return also happens to be a Mes skill. Maelstrom is a good spell, but I simply wouldn't use it cause the recharge/exhuastion. A cheap quick-recharging interrupt is more reliable.

Yes, that is true, but spell casters don't bunch up by the main mob and are thus unaffected by my spread out SSs. And the once every 30 second recharge time is about as long as it takes to kill a balanced high-level mob with a decent group, so I only get Maelstrom off about once per battle, and the effects of exhaustion are gone by the time we reach the next mob to battle. Remember, I only need to take out the most dangerous spell caster first and quickly (nuker) and the rest of the mob is much more managable.

If I were to go the route of using Power Return, I'd give it to a hero first since they are much more efficient with interrupting than I am.