Curse

Maxiemonster · Mar 30, 2006, 07:57 PM // 19:57

*I'm always open for questions, and tips are highly appreciated.*

Skills:

1. Protective Spirit
2. Healing Breeze
3. Shield of Judgement [Elite]
4. Sympathic Visage
5. Power Leak
6. Mending
7. Balthazar's Spirit/Essence Bond
8. Blessed Aura

Attributes:

Equipement:
Weapon set 1:
Fiery Flame Spitter (click here to see how to get to the collector that has this item) with X% Enchantments mod.
-50 Health Cesta.

Weapon set 2:
11-22 Wand. Meeting the damage requirements is a must (the Smiting Rod from the collector in Droknar's Forge is the one I got).
-50 Health Cesta.

Armor:
A Zealot's Scalp (+1 Smiting Prayers). Tattoo's are the only Armor set that give you a small advantage, but it's small enough to ignore, it's not needed at all. Also, getting the Tattoos from Lion's Arch for example, work just as fine. The Armor Level doesn't matter in this type of build. Make sure every armor has a Superior Monk Rune, and that you have every type of Superior Monk Rune at least once.

The Guide:
The basics.
This build is made for "Smite runs", runs that kills the Bladed Aaxtes near the starting point, does the quest of the Lost Soul, and enters the area filled with Smite Crawlers. Why just these? They don't tend to cast annoying spells that much, making it possible to complete this without having Spellbreaker on you non-stop.
Cast Balthazar's Spirit, Essence Bond and Mending when you just enter the Underworld, don't ever take them off. Protective Spirit (PS), Healing Breeze (HB) and Shield of Judgement (SoJ) should be recast during every single battle, one second before they end (when they start to flicker fast), recast them.

Dying Nigtmares.
Not all that hard to face. When you hear the sound these Dying Nightmares make when they pop up, select him immidiatly, and use Power Spike, followed by a Wand attack, that should kill him. Popping up 2 Dying Nightmares while you already aggro'd Bladed Aaxtes kills, if you haven't aggro'd any Bladed Aaxtes, get your Enchantments off as quick as you can and recast PS, so Rend Enchantment won't kill you.

Bladed Aaxtes.
The most annoying about these is their interupting skill Savage Slash, but with a little bit of timing, you'll be fine. Try casting HB during the time all or most Aaxtes are waiting untill they can hit you again. That way, they'll either be too late to interupt you, or don't even try. Luring bigger groups (4-8) is very possible. Most of the time, some of the Aaxtes won't be attacking, because they don't move because other Aaxtes are "blocking them" (*cough*improveAIplease*cough*), so even if you pull more Aaxtes, you'd most likely end up doing this in 2 times anyway, which makes it rather useless to aggro too much. If you're fighting 3 or more Aaxtes, use SV as soon as SoJ ends, to avoid getting interupted while you cast your next SoJ.

Grasping Darknesses.
Ai.. Distracting Blow AND "Fear Me!", two very annoying skills. You should be using SV non-stop, so the Grasping Darknesses won't be using these skills too much. They die rather fast, so that's a nice thing. If they get to use Skull Crack (which shouldn't happen), you're screwed, getting Dazed really sucks. If you get Dazed anyway, keep in mind that you have to cast HB and especially PS 2 seconds before it ends.

Smite Crawlers.
Not that strong, you shoulnd't have too much trouble with these. You can get a big group of these without dying, (~10). Look out for aggro'ing both Smite Crawlers and Colfire Nights, this can be quite tricky. Using SV while fighting these is pretty much a must, especially when gighting big groups, it makes it far easier.

Coldfire Nights.
These guys cast Maelstrom, which you should really look out for. You could try clicking on the Colfire Nights that you aggro'd, so you know when you're about to get a Maelstrom in your face. Try not to be stuck, if you're stuck and a Colfire Night casts a Maelstrom on you, you're defenceless, and you will most likely die. SV helps, but you might get into Energy problems using it, so look out.

Thanks for reading,
Max.

Tsunami Rain · Mar 30, 2006, 10:48 PM // 22:48

Nice build. I'll try it out today when I have the time. It would be helpful if you could post a video of you soloing the UW with this build.

B Ephekt · Mar 30, 2006, 11:08 PM // 23:08

Nice, but how much faster is this than SoJ and Zealots? I find soloing UW as anything other than a N/Mo to be painfully slow.

stupoop · Mar 31, 2006, 01:58 AM // 01:58

what happens when you've got more than 1 dying nightmare popping up?
kill 1 with power spike...recast PS and wand others to death? >_<

Megla Zero · Mar 31, 2006, 02:00 AM // 02:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maxiemonster

Q - And what do I do when I face 2 Dying Nightmares?
A - Even more simple: You die. Power Spike has a 15 seconds recharge, 2 is too much when there are Aaxtes around. If you pop out 2 Dying Nightmares without any Aaxtes around, drop all your Enchantments quickly, and Wand both.

Good job at reading <.<

Linsys · Mar 31, 2006, 02:23 AM // 02:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maxiemonster

Q - And what do I do when I face 2 Dying Nightmares?
A - Even more simple: You die. Power Spike has a 15 seconds recharge, 2 is too much when there are Aaxtes around. If you pop out 2 Dying Nightmares without any Aaxtes around, drop all your Enchantments quickly, and Wand both.

You won't always die, I have been rended before using my 55 monk and was able to get prot spirit off fast enough + healing breese and stayed alive just fine..

cerb · Mar 31, 2006, 12:18 PM // 12:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by Linsys

You won't always die, I have been rended before using my 55 monk and was able to get prot spirit off fast enough + healing breese and stayed alive just fine..

The thing is, you can hold it with a necro, but this is a solo thread. It takes about 3-4 rounds of SoJ to kill a group of aatxes..

In 2-man all youd have to do is keep ps+breeze up until your nec kills the group, but in solo you have to worry a lot about your energy too.

NJudson · Mar 31, 2006, 12:45 PM // 12:45

It's my understanding that Anet took away the quest that gives you the -50HP Cesta so am I correct in assuming that the only way you could become a 55 monk is to buy one off of someone? I read about them all over the place, but not sure how you can get one of those cestas.

B Ephekt · Mar 31, 2006, 01:10 PM // 13:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by NJudson

It's my understanding that Anet took away the quest that gives you the -50HP Cesta so am I correct in assuming that the only way you could become a 55 monk is to buy one off of someone? I read about them all over the place, but not sure how you can get one of those cestas.

Your understand is wrong.

Maxiemonster · Mar 31, 2006, 01:52 PM // 13:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by Linsys

You won't always die, I have been rended before using my 55 monk and was able to get prot spirit off fast enough + healing breese and stayed alive just fine..

You won't survive a group of Aaxtes after that. You'll have many Energy problems without your Enchantments, and you don't have enough Energy to get all those up in time and without getting interupted.

And I might post Videos later, if we get favor

Maxiemonster · Apr 01, 2006, 11:20 PM // 23:20

Made the FAQ into a guide

Tips are still appreciated, since getting this build improved is always nice.

blocparty · Apr 02, 2006, 05:30 PM // 17:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maxiemonster

You won't survive a group of Aaxtes after that. You'll have many Energy problems without your Enchantments, and you don't have enough Energy to get all those up in time and without getting interupted.

I've survived a bunch of rendings... just dont panic and know what order you want things up in... generally after i get rended you want ps and breeze up obviously, but then try to get teh energy regening skills up first. You run with both balth's spirit and essence bond, but I run with watchful spirit in place of essence bond, so you should be able to survive rendings as well.

You might want to switch power spike to power drain and just wand them. That's what I used to do when I 55'd with my mesmar, but other than that youre solid. =)

merciless · Apr 02, 2006, 06:27 PM // 18:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by blocparty

You might want to switch power spike to power drain and just wand them. That's what I used to do when I 55'd with my mesmar, but other than that youre solid. =)

*Correction* He already is solid.

Bloodied Blade · Apr 02, 2006, 06:45 PM // 18:45

Is Wroth's Rod usable for your max rod for anti-nightmare?

Ecksor · Apr 02, 2006, 11:07 PM // 23:07

i would so try this if we ver had favor -_- maybe later today

linkid · Apr 03, 2006, 02:49 AM // 02:49

Possibly bumping Protection down to 8 and Illusion up to 7 could help you kill things faster... And I like to use Power Drain over Power Spike, but that has a longer recharge (15 vs 25).
And the skill picture thing is off, since you have balthazar's in 7 and essence in 8... but that's not a big deal.

Blind Rage · Apr 03, 2006, 04:26 AM // 04:26

[QUOTE=Maxiemonster] get your Enchantments off as quick as you can and recast PS, so Rend Enchantment won't kill you.

[QUOTE]

rend enchant wont kill you, it'll kill the nightmare, and this build is incredibly slow

Maxiemonster · Apr 03, 2006, 01:55 PM // 13:55

The picture is wrong, I run Blessed Aura, not Balthazar's Spirit.

And yes, this build is indeed incredibly slow (3 times 45 second recharge from SoJ), and you can't really change it

I doubt there are any better alternatives anyway (for a Monk that is). If you really can't stand how slow this is, try a N/Mo with SS, even though the interupts can be a pain.

And Power Spike has a 15 seconds recharge time, but I can understand if you'd prefer Power Drain, but the recharge time can get annoying, since I prefer pulling more then 1 group, and that way I need to wait till the interupt is fully recharged before going to the next group(s).

And yes, every 1-handed weapon you meet the requirements for and has a high damage is suitable for this build, it's about killing, not specificly the stats.

And I ment "the Rend Enchantment kills you" in a non-direct way. It doesn't kill you itself, but eventually, it most likely will. And yes, I've survived several rendings, but it's still quite hard to get you Enchantments up before you run out of Energy.

Rid Dic K · Apr 03, 2006, 03:56 PM // 15:56

And I imagine that someone has already stated this... but, you can survive a double nightmare. If the one takes them off, he dies... the other is killed by spike (If you use it), you cast your prot spirit asap, and then rebuild your enchantments. Your safe! You win! They lose! Amen. I've had to do that a few times, but I don't use Power Spike, and Probably won't. I think the wand will suffice!

P.S. Maxie.. you could change to Ranger Secondary, and add Serpents quickness, or if your really bold... Quickening Zypher! That way you don't need to worry as much about the recharge! Problem solved, and then you can also add a smite attack to get rid of a nightmare.

jonnybegood · Apr 03, 2006, 09:23 PM // 21:23

This is very slow, I wonder if you could take out mending for arcane echo? ofcourse for the more experienced users.

EDIT: this does work well infact , still not nearly as fast as SS but it's nice if u dont have a necro.