Curse

TheRaven · Feb 12, 2007, 07:45 PM // 19:45

I love my Blood Necro. Being a MM has never appealed to me. I'd like to try SS, but I haven't capped it yet and my Necro is Canthan so she is a long ways still from the Southern Shiverpeaks. However since I've always used Blood, this BiP build is intriguing to me and I'd like to learn more about how to play it well.

This weekend I played a BiP Necro in Urgoz's Warren for the first time. (Yeah, probably not the best place to try and learn a new job) I enjoyed the role and my team said I did a pretty good job. However we had 3 Eles, 3 Monks, 3 Necros and 3 Rangers. 2 of the Necros were BiP so we were able to split the duties. I was in charge of the monk's energy and the other Necro took the Eles. This took a lot of pressure off me.

Here are my questions. I'd appreciate any tips you can give me, or point me in the direction of a good thread on the subject.

1. What should my health be? My Necro has 506 HP, however for Urgoz's mission I was able to substitute a 2nd weapon set which brought me down to 426. I would switch to this set before I cast BiP. I've never tried a 55 build and to be honest, I just don't understand how they work. I realize they make the BiP cost less, but 1 good shot from a monster and you're toast! I've also read the thread below here asking about the 1 hp build. I'm sure these builds are great builds otherwise folks wouldn't be running them, but I don't see how anyone stays alive with them.

I went into FOW once with a full team of 8. We brought along a 55 monk and this monk was useless. She was dying during each enemy encounter and the rest of the team was angry that she brought a 55 build. Someone said 55 builds are for soloing only. Obviously this can't be true of a 55 BiP build since the whole concept of BiP is teamwork.

So, can I run a decent BiP Necro with my 426 HP? Or is that simply ridiculous?

2. What skills should I use? For the Urgoz Mission I brought:
Blood is Power
Blood Ritual
Well of Blood
Life Siphon
Unholy Feast
Vampire Gaze
Necrotic Traversal (well, it was Urgoz Warren after all)
Rez Signet

These seem to work well, but I never used the Well of Blood. We had a mm along as well so I tried not to steal his corpses. I used Life Siphon, Feast and Gaze to keep my health up while dealing some damage. I continually spammed Blood Ritual, but honestly I didn't use Blood is Power very often, only if one of my charges pinged for energy, which didn't happen very often. If I'm not in Urgoz, I won't bring Traversal so I could use a recommendation for that slot.

These skills were chosen with my HP in mind. I wanted to stay healthy and not die so I wanted blood skills which could regen my health after casting BiP and BR. I suppose if I need to switch to a 55 or <GASP> 1 build, I should concentrate more on just staying wayyyy to the back of the group and not engaging the monsters at all.

3. Ok, the main frustration I have with this job is the fact that I cannot see my allies' energy levels. Monks at least can see when someone needs healing. I have to guess. I read on wiki that a good BiP Necro should never ask for energy pings, but should just keep everyone full all the time. I didn't use BiP often because of the high health cost and I didn't want to waste it on a full monk. Several times during the fighting I'd cast BR on a monk only to have them ping back "My energy is 52 of 53".

4. How many casters is the typical BiP Necro expected to help? I only had 3. Is it unreasonable to ask a pro Necro to support 6 casters?

Thanks for your advice. For the moment I think I'll concentrate on a pure Blood Ritual build using other Blood skills for damage.

Arkantos · Feb 12, 2007, 07:54 PM // 19:54

1. I usually BiP with low health, sometimes even 55. The lower the health, the less you sac, the more you can use with regen.

2. For BiP Necro, I usually run N/Mo like this:
BiP
Blood Renewal
Well of Blood
Healing Breeze
Heal Party
Heal Other
xx
xx
Res

You can have anything you want really, but BiP/Blood Renewal are the main skills for a BiP necro.

3. Spam BiP. Keep it on all casters regularly. I'd rather BiP them while they have high energy so they don't go low then BiP them on low and they have to wait a couple of seconds for regen. Another reason why lower health is better.

4. While BiPing in Deep this weekend, I kept BiP on about 9 casters. It's very useful to have another necro in the group with BR to help you.

Acidic Won · Feb 12, 2007, 07:58 PM // 19:58

Ok first thing BiP sacrifices health so you your max health (key to remember) should be lower than normal, and you should stay in the back-line with the monks.

Next question, you DO NOT need Blood Rit. on your bar if you have BiP. I do not see any reasoning behind it at all. Blood Renewal is a great skill to bring when BiPing, I would reccommend using it. Other than that your support, maybe go /Mo or /P for party buffs.

Number 3, this really comes from experience. Some people use bonders which should be one of your primary targets when BiPing. Other than that just throw some BiPs out here and there.

Number 4, a good BiPer should be able to support a whole team. BiP has no recharge, low energy, and low cast. Do not BiP under focus fire at all, and try not to BiP more than 2x in a row without heals.

Arkantos · Feb 12, 2007, 08:11 PM // 20:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Acidic Won

Do not BiP under focus fire at all, and try not to BiP more than 2x in a row without heals.

Which is another reason why low health is best. With say 55 health and blood renewal up, you can spam BiP without any concern of dying, unless you get hit by an enemy.

TheRaven · Feb 12, 2007, 08:34 PM // 20:34

Thx for the tips guys. I think my main concern at this point is the 55 health. Even if I'm in the back lines, I run the risk of getting hit with an enemy AoE spell.

In the elite areas where BiPs are useful the enemies are hitting for 100+ damage at a time. In the warren there was an area we were forced to cross with a heavy health degen. How do 55'ers survive?

Also, my necro is currently an Elementalist secondary. Is this build only feasible with a monk 2nd?

blakecraw · Feb 12, 2007, 08:38 PM // 20:38

I've never played a bip either, so I was wondering if it's viable to run protective bond on yourself with low health (and no points in prot. prayers), in case an enemy does get to you. I'd think soul reaping and the low cost of bip should make up for having only 3 pips, but I wasn't sure. Or, if protective bond is too costly, does a prot. spirit bip work very well? (With some points in protection for prot. spirit)

Arkantos · Feb 12, 2007, 08:44 PM // 20:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheRaven

Thx for the tips guys. I think my main concern at this point is the 55 health. Even if I'm in the back lines, I run the risk of getting hit with an enemy AoE spell.

In the elite areas where BiPs are useful the enemies are hitting for 100+ damage at a time. In the warren there was an area we were forced to cross with a heavy health degen. How do 55'ers survive?

Also, my necro is currently an Elementalist secondary. Is this build only feasible with a monk 2nd?

As blake said, maybe Protective Bond would work. Never tried it though. That should solve most problems for damage. Also, you don't have to be N/Mo to play BiP, although that is what I prefer being.

Cathode_Reborn · Feb 12, 2007, 10:26 PM // 22:26

N/Mo is probably the best choice since you can use Prot Spirit which will really lower the damage you take. That's the reason why I never got into BiP'ing, it's only useful if you have low health. I tried a N/D BiP build with 441hp and worked fine, but the problem was half my skillbar was full of healing spells.

Coloneh · Feb 12, 2007, 11:26 PM // 23:26

things you need to know to BiP:

1.STAY BACK
2.lower your hp(hopefully to 1)
3.stay back
4.keep bip on the monks at all times, then the eles, then trappers(if you have them)
5. take a skill to regen some energy after you get rezzed
6.your still not back far enough, get back farther
7. dont bip warriors
thats all i can think of, its really easy.

Foldesur V. · Feb 13, 2007, 12:21 AM // 00:21

As a Bip ( battery necro as it use to be called) there are a few ways to play. One is the guy that helps with hexs while adding power to others or the second way is to act as a first aid kit and saport eather Damage, healing, or buffs as you spam your Blood is power around.

There are alot of good builds to run as a Bip(battery necro) here is a real basic one.

for A "first aid kit" to helping monks out you can go with a wide range of skills but here is the one that is really eazy to tweek, you can figure out the rest on your own or by trying other things as you see or tend to see alot of people need help in.

note at 16 blood:Blood is power{E} adds 6 bips of energy for a sack of 33% max hp at 5 energy for 10 seconds ,Blood Ritual adds 3 bips of energy at 17% sack max hp at 10 energy a cast for 14 seconds, and there is a monk skill called Succor that adds +1 hp regen and +1 energy regen with -1 energy with each cast of target allys Spells. so you can get a total of 10 energy regen if you really want to go all out.

Standing back, "First aid kit" Battery.
Blood 16, healing 10 ,rest in to soul

(you can get away with lowering your hp to 105 to 300 if you think or fear getting killed, but with this build you are standing back anyway and dp tends to help a sacker.) don't forget though Blood renewal is going to heal you for 6 energy regen and for 200hp after 10 seconds so you can time your hp eazy and cut your max hp down and know you will be ok if you take a hit or 2 while its up.

Blood Renewal,Blood is power,Blood Ritual (for if you really need to build someone up fast) ,Gift of healing,Vigorous Spirit(cast on yourself warriors, spammers to help with healing and to cut down your sack a little), Well of blood(adds a small some what safe zone while in combat),

your 7th skill can be anything you want it to be.
I normaly take;
Order of Pain, Gaze of contempt,Convert hex,or Extinguish ( because Convert and Extinguish work on a wide spread just like Heal party and will still be efective with out points in potection) a rez of your choice.

so again thats
1. Blood Renewal
2. Blood is power
3. Blood Ritual
4.Gift of healing
5.Vigorous Spirit
6.Well of blood
7. ----you choice of skill------
8. your choice of rez.

it is important that you stay back and not to wand or cast spells on foes.
this will limit the amount of attention you will bring to yourself.
by casting Vigor then Blood Renewal on yourself you can spam ruffly 4-6 bips off with hp at 300 before you have to wait a few seconds to cast a few more.

Vigor helps alot on team mates but can be subed out for a number of things just like alot of these skills can. if you want to help with damage take skills like Gaze of contempt, Blood of the Aggressor, so on and so on but it is improtant that you don't over do it so you have enough energy to spam around if you need to.
Try it, never had a problem with it and once you get it down its a no brainer.

Naf Olbaid · Feb 13, 2007, 08:15 AM // 08:15

The more times you die, the better. lower your hp to 105 or 55 and cast mending(at 8 healing prayers) on yourself & blood renewal, it is impossible to sacrifice enough to killyourself with health that low and that much regen (life sac is healed almost instantly).

*important*
before you leave make sure a team member has a 100% life or life based rez such as flesh of my flesh, resurection chant, etc. when you die your HP will consequently become 1 and a rez that does 25% of your health will kill you instantly as soon as it finnishes casting (25% of 1 health is 0.25, rounded down to 0 health).
Can't stress this enough.

If a team member has the appropriate rez, you can easily get by with 1HP, infact i often kill myself purposely so I don't need to sac anything when casting BiP.

Just keep way back, and avoid environmental effects such as the Degen from the twisted bark. Also try to keep your DP far from 60%, because it is often useful to switch back into your full HP regular set for tricky situations.

Effendi Westland · Feb 13, 2007, 08:21 AM // 08:21

I generally run with 150~180 health, though I would like to try 1 hp

I usually run with:
blood renewal
blood is power
order of pain
heal party
mending
well of blood/smite hex
blood ritual
rebirth

Used this in Urgoz, seemed to work nicely. It's basically Blood renewal --> BiP --> BiP --> BiP --> order of pain --> heal party --> blood renewal --> BiP. If things get tricky I try and spam Heal Party as much as possible.

Spellforge · Feb 13, 2007, 08:59 AM // 08:59

Work your way down toward 1 or 55 HP in steps until you find your own level.
400 HP OK for you - go down to 300 HP
300 HP OK - go down to 200 etc etc etc

ScorpiusX · Feb 13, 2007, 12:21 PM // 12:21

Hi Raven, you mentioned the 1hp BiP, and said you don't see how it works. I've only played one once and that was in City of Tor'Qua in DoA, but these are my observations from it:

BiP makes you sac 33% life, 33% of 1hp is .66hp which is rounded to 1hp, therefore you don't sac any life.

The team I was with had 1 Obsidian tank who was the front row, 3 Searing Flames Ele's second row, 3 Monks 1 Healers Boon - 1 Spell Breaker - 1 Bonder and me the 1hp BiP we four were the back row (so far back they had to ship daylight to us). If things go exactly to plan (which they don't always do) the tank holds aggro, the Ele's cast from as far away as possible, and the monks and I stay as far back as possible (the Spell Breaker Monk has to keep darting in to cast spell breaker on the tank).

If you use a +5 energy 1 handed weapon with 20% longer enchants BiP lasts for 12 secs instead of 10 saving you some energy (not much) over time.

Death is very very very sudden and mostly unexpected despite all your precautions. However a good team know that their battery is a little on the flakey side and expect you to die, Indeed if you find yourself with more than 1hp due to DP being below 15% then its time for you to take one for the team and die again.

One thing that I feel that I was missing considering I was N/R was running skills. When the inevitable happens and the crap hits the fan, i.e. the tank loses aggro, those running skill would come in handy. Mainly so that I could outpace the rest of the team whilst screaming AAARRRRHHHHG I'M TOO PRETTY TO DIE. Remember if you die your energy will be low which means effective BiPping will be harder, and because it comes so suddenly you hardly ever have the chance to swap to a low energy weapon set, I found I was dead before I could reach the button to swap weapons.

After all that I don't know wether a 1hp BiP would be any use in Urgoz, you mentioned an area with degen? Degen and 1hp = Necro shaped corpse, so I'd take your normal armour with you to swap to before going in that part.

Edit: To reinforce what someone said earlier your Main priority for BiPping are the monks, in the case of the team I was on I had this as my priority list 1 the Bonder (if they cant maintain bonds on the tank we're stuffed) 2 the Spell Breaker (they need to be able to keep the tank from getting stripped when Obsidian Flesh is down) 3 the Healers Boon (heal party is an energy sink or so I'm told) 4 the Ele's (not being able to BiP these results in slower kills, but slower kills beats party wipe any day) 5 err there isn't a 5 unless you count BiPping the tank just before they run in to aggro but thats not really necessary 6 ME I WISH!! I was advised to try and keep a pool of about 25 energy for emergencies, to control your own energy usage is probably the hardest part of BiPping, I found that counting to 12 when I BiPped the bonder and then sarting the whole cycle again helped (I used 20% longer enchants).

TheRaven · Feb 13, 2007, 07:25 PM // 19:25

Thx for all the tips guys. For now I'll work on putting together my 55 armor then I'll try to talk some friends into letting me practice with them in fow. I don't think I'm ready for the 1 hp build yet.

I think the hardest thing to get used to will be staying in the back. I'm used to using my Blood Necro to spike damage. I'll feel so useless not doing any damage, especially if my team is full of energy.

flyinhigh · Feb 14, 2007, 08:37 AM // 08:37

my biggest suggestion would be, go 1 hp. you can toss around bip's as long as you have the energy. i run a bip in urgoz and in the DOA. (switching to regular armor when i have to move in foundry) the only thing to whatch for is that your monk knows that your are a 1 hp'r cuz they HAVE to bring either rez chant or flesh of my flesh. you will die. get used to it. but it makes up for it. as a 1 hpr i keep a team of 11 peeps full on energy and never run dry.

Shadowmoon · Feb 14, 2007, 02:53 PM // 14:53

Lately i've been using a N/P bip build
Blood renewal
BiP
aria of zeal
aria of restoration
mending reframe
signet of return
two optional

its something different, but still somewhat useful

Glints Bane · Feb 14, 2007, 03:26 PM // 15:26

Heres my BiP Necro it is N/Mo and does prot prayers

Atts
16Blood
10Prot
~8Soul Reaping

1.Prot SPirit
2.BiP[e]
3.Shield of absorbtion, Reversal of Fortune or Spirit Bond
4.Order of Pain
5.Aegis
6.Blood Renewal
7.Blood Ritual(for a little extra nrg for bonders)
8.Rebirth

Yeah I love this build and so has everyone I've played with. Because you have OoP for the tanks energy for casters and good prot spells that help relieve the healer monk. I use this build in the FoW more then any other because its just so fun!!! Yeahthe trick too this build is to get your health down to 105hp or even 55 if you want to take a big risk. If an enemy is about to attack you throw up Prot Spirit and blood renewal and you can tank better then the tanks!!! Well hope it helps you!!!

Samuel Dravis · Feb 20, 2007, 03:59 AM // 03:59

I only play BiP in FoW, usually with this build (usually low-HP works best, 100 or less):

[skill]Blood is Power[/skill][skill]Blood Renewal[/skill][skill]Mend Condition[/skill][skill]Reversal of Fortune[/skill][skill]Protective Spirit[/skill][skill]Aegis[/skill][skill]Well of Blood[/skill][skill]Rebirth[/skill]
9 Prot, 14 Blood, rest in SR

However, lately I've been using the blood bonder build:

[skill]Blood Bond[/skill][skill]Mystic Healing[/skill][skill]Dwayna's Touch[/skill][skill]Blood is Power[/skill][skill]Mystic Regeneration[/skill][skill]Vital Boon[/skill][skill]Blood Renewal[/skill] and [skill]Resurrection Signet[/skill] or [skill]Well of Blood[/skill]
8 earth prayers, 10 wind prayers, 14 blood, and rest in SR

I think I'm liking the second better right now because it lets me do a whole lot of healing on the team as well as being a superb battery. This build particularly shines in groups that are bonded, because that gives you free regeneration and also because more enchants powers Mystic Healing and DTouch. It's very fun to play. Dwayna's Touch can be switched out for Order of Pain if necessary (+15). If you don't take Well you can put Blood down to 13.