Curse

Vangor · Dec 08, 2006, 07:11 PM // 19:11

This one I have begun using recently, bored of a P/W build, and having to fight a few Mirage Ibogas and other creatures who want to use Soothing Images, Vocal Minority, or a slew of methods to slow my attack speed or potentially cripple this build. The setup can use some tweaking, but this is what I tend to use right now, which is not long but, it is not hard to note the effectiveness.

Attributes -

12 Leadership : 10+2 Major Leadership
9 Spear Mastery : 8+1 Minor Spear
15 Command : 11+1 Command Crest +3 Superior Command
6 Domination : 6

Equipment -

Prayer of the Forgotten - +5 energy, Double Adrenaline, and of course +30 health.
Eye of Argon - Reduction in blind duration and health, if reduction stacks, though assuming not. Choose any shield, suggesting Kunan's Bastion or Shagu's Anthem.
Rune of Minor Spear
Rune of Superior Command
Rune of Major Leadership
Rune of Clarity
Rune of Superior Vigor

Necessary Skills -

Go For The Eyes! - 75% chance for a critical attack, will be used every couple of seconds, it is possible in this build to trigger a usage of GFTE! on the same attack you used your previous GFTE! on. With IAS, this occurs commonly enough in a short period of time.
Focused Anger - 120% Adrenaline Gain, for 45 seconds you will never have a problem using GFTE! and gaining energy from it.
Aggressive Refrain - Lasts for 21 seconds here, IAS of 25%, meaning almost 33% more attacks. Costly, with a 2 second cast, but constant spamming and usage of GFTE! will keep this active for most combat.
Hex Breaker - Lasts for 45 seconds, costs 5 energy, stops a hex immediately, while dealing realistically minimal damage. Instant usage as it is a stance, recharge over 15 seconds, should give good coverage early in battle and throughout.

Suggested Skills -

Power Leak - Means an added loss of 16 energy, very quick to cast, little interruption to attack.
Power Spike - Deals 53 damage, useful for interrupting more often than Power Leak.
Cry of Frustration - A mass interrupt for everyone in the area, for all skills, a bit costly at 15en but you should be able to sustain it.
Resurrection Signet/Signet of Return - RS for faster usage, SoR may take too long but is not a spell like most hard heals, thus it limits the interrupts to be used against it.
Spear of Lightning - Added damage and armor penetration against more armored targets, quick recharge, low cost, useful to use with GFTE! for 70 or more damage.
Vicious Attack - Easy to trigger a critical, I prefer this over Find Their Weakness! to cover a deep wound and additional damage SoL otherwise would provide.
Wild Throw - Added damage, cannot be blocked or evaded, with the great bonus of halting a stance, you should have this primed quickly.
Stand Your Ground! - 35 seconds of 24armor for everyone in the area while standing still. Very effective, does not interrupt your attack flow and is energy reliant.

Usage -

This should be rather straightforward. Begin the battle by casting Hex Breaker, refreshing as necessary. Use Aggressive Refrain when you are about to meet with the enemy. When you actually get close range, move in between the group for best coverage of shouts. Use Focused Anger as you begin your throw, and you should have GFTE! within a second. Spam this, constantly, and choose a target to deal added damage to and possibly interrupt if you chose any. Continue to spam GFTE! for the remainder of battle, it should require less than 1.5 second intervals for usage.

From the start you will hit once, which should fill it halfway, hit again and use the shout, the next hit GFTE! attempts to critical on will fill you to halfway, and the hit after that fills it to use the shout once more.

Every usage of it gains a maximum of 6 energy, which is not difficult to do, and it should refill your energy bar to full in under 10 seconds.

Interrupt and throw damage as required.

Assassins should absolutely adore you, and Dervishes, Axe Warriors, and Hammer Warriors should see some impressive numbers, as well as adding a sizable constant amount of damage for anyone else.

clawofcrimson · Dec 08, 2006, 10:16 PM // 22:16

looks pretty good... hex breaker is a great skill

i probably wouldnt choose the same runes in your list there but.. each to his own I guess... typically only one Sup. rune or two Maj. runes seem to be popular. not both at the same time. and rune of clarity?? hmmm

HP, energy, and attributes... those are more useful to me than 2seconds of blindness

also... i would actually take ftw over vicious attack cuz its kinda a waist imho to have attributes in spear mastery unless you want to do some spear damage... its hard to have both support/damage in one build when you put attributes into domination...

if you're dealing piddly damage it may be better to just beef up your shouts or even domination.

go for the eyes is a great skill... and this build (other than hex breaker) is not unique to many of the other builds in this forum.

Govtmorgue · Dec 09, 2006, 05:17 AM // 05:17

Man, I gotta say, that sounds like a pretty darned efficient build. Thanks for sharing (sometime I may share one of mine that I am working on

)

Vangor · Dec 10, 2006, 03:51 PM // 15:51

Better adrenaline gain on being damaged and longer IAS between battles is great for PvE, while the loss of 35 health is not too important. For PvP, you would be more correct certainly, the addition of 55 total more health with two vitaes and a removal of clarity (since a counter to conditions is generally available) outweighs the slight gains and energy from shouts.

As for VA, I find it more useful than using SoL and FTW!, since I can still average 50 damage on GFTE! attacks, which are most of them, and 70-80 for VA/Wild Throw. Req 9 of course makes SM9 necessary.

The build is not specifically unique, the problem is the counters to this build. Soothing images and Vocal Minority, these outright halt you. Hexes such as Faintheartedness can severely reduce your ability as well. The only other methods are Well of Silence, which one should move out of immediately, Sympathetic Visage, which is not a huge problem since the Paragon sits further back, or a Blind, which requires condition removal or the rune/shield.

That and with Hex Breaker, Paragons do not have stances, interrupting them with Wild Blow, Throw, or Strike, seems highly unlikely. I never see the discussion for it, but it is probably, for all GFTE! builds, the most effective skill to keep it all together. One can use merely FA or AR to keep a good run of GFTE!, combine them to get far more of course, but those three skills and more are useless when you meet someone who wants to stop a Warrior or the Paragon spamming GFTE! Not to mention, Hexes are plain annoying.

Trying to find suggestions on how to really get it solid together, the most effective ways to keep it all together. I think the damage and interrupts can place immense pressure on an Elementalist or Necromancer as a softer target.

clawofcrimson · Dec 11, 2006, 07:51 PM // 19:51

well thought out... didnt mean to sound critical

Thom Bangalter · Dec 12, 2006, 09:08 AM // 09:08

the IAS already gives you more adrenaline, I don't see why you need two ways to quickly gain adrenaline. Also, the interrupts are marginal at best.

Pick Me · Dec 12, 2006, 01:36 PM // 13:36

Suggestion:

Get Shatter Hex. It has a high cost, does damage (but not likely, since you'll be far away from "near by enemies"), and has a recharge time of 10. Once someone hits you with 1 or 2 hexes, you'll be waiting 15 seconds before you can use Hex Breaker again. Sadly, you may encounter when you are hit by more than 2 curses nearly at once. I've been hit by 6 curses a few times before, so I know that it can hurt big. So, get a hex remover when you are waiting for Hex Breaker to recharge.

Otherwise, seems nice.

I'll have to go and play with my P/Me again. I haven't touched her in a month now.

Cebe · Dec 12, 2006, 03:00 PM // 15:00

Wow - this build looks pretty cool. My Paragon has just finished Kodonur Crossroads so this has motivated me to get to the point where I can cap Focussed Anger.

RandomEngy · Dec 15, 2006, 03:04 AM // 03:04

I would take "Find Their Weakness!" over any other attack skill. Deep wound is really nice.

Mad5cout · Dec 15, 2006, 03:35 AM // 03:35

Just wondering how you cast Hexbreaker before the battle starts when it takes 8 adrenaline to cast.

I like the focused anger thing. I will have to go cap that now. I agree with the other post as well. Find Their Weakness + GFTE = deep wound. This seems like a more usable condition than interrupts. Let the Rangers and Mesmers worry about that.

The crux of this build is GFTE, not the interrupts, and there are better GFTE builds out there.

To each their own, I guess.

Vangor · Dec 15, 2006, 08:10 AM // 08:10

Thom, the build centers around GFTE!, this lets you spam it essentially more than most other people out there, by hitting an attack basically once a second, it takes two attacks to recharge, but the attack you are actually using your own GFTE! counts for one. One more attack and it is back up.

Random, take Vicious Attack, it causes a deep wound on a critical, and won't take up dual slots for a damage attack and FTW!

Pick Me, just started using Shatter Hex, I do certainly enjoy that over interrupts.

Mad5cout, Hexbreaker the mes skill. But as noted, there is a big shift in how you could play it, those are my suggested, for PvE namely, to be used more consistently than a few other set ups out there.

If you use Vicious Attack, Wild Throw, and Disrupting Throw, you have a good set up to deep wound, then to interrupt stances, and to interrupt spells with deep wound on for a while. That is if you use any spear mastery.

Working right now actually on a P/A build, should be up soon, trying to refine it because I've never actually played an assassin. Works akin but, the bane of it all are the same reason for this build. However, it spams more GFTE! and uses them to far more effectiveness in terms of damage. Faster spam also means more energy gain for the assassin attacks.