Curse

xDusT II · May 12, 2007, 07:02 AM // 07:02

This is an idea that I am yet to test (need to get my ranger through NF + get heroes to a decent state). Theoretically this team build can be done with only 2 people if they have fully equipped heroes. Combining the idea of spirit way with the insane power of splinter weapon the build is able to dish out over 3000 damage aswell as interrupt and provide huge amounts of energy to the healers, ontop of damage reduction from spirits.
Designed to give the players the highest possible advantage, this looks like a very promising build to test.

Human 1: Ranger/Ritualist

[skill]Barrage[/skill][skill]Splinter Weapon[/skill][skill]Distracting Shot[/skill][skill]Charm Animal[/skill][skill]Comfort Animal[/skill][skill]Fertile Season[/skill][skill]Symbiosis[/skill][skill]Favorable Winds[/skill]

Splinter barrager 1, Human controlled. Placement of Fertile Season and Symbiosis is crucial. Place them somewhere behind the party so they will just effect you but not any enemies ahead. Since we don't have any close range attackers in the group you don't have to worry about people going out of the spirits range. If you placed the spirits too close to the enemy don't fret. Fertile season's armor bonus is bypassed by splinter weapon which is your main damage source. You'll notice you don't have a res, this is because with 5 heroes using hard resses, you'll probably never get one off anyone. Plus we shouldn't be dying that much. If you insist on taking a res then replace comfort and charm animal with both rupture soul and flesh of my flesh. Use rupture to take down symbiosis or fertile if they are causing more harm than good.

Hero: Ranger/Ritualist

[skill]Barrage[/skill][skill]Splinter Weapon[/skill][skill]Distracting Shot[/skill][skill]Charm Animal[/skill][skill]Comfort Animal[/skill][skill]Edge of Extinction[/skill][skill]Energizing Wind[/skill][skill]Favorable Winds[/skill]

Same deal as before. If he is a hero then disable energizing winds. Always place energizing winds down AFTER quickening zephyr unless you are using 25 energy skills.

Hero: Ranger/Ritualist

[skill]Barrage[/skill][skill]Splinter Weapon[/skill][skill]Distracting Shot[/skill][skill]Winnowing[/skill][skill]Quickening Zephyr[/skill][skill]Conflagration[/skill][skill]Winter[/skill][skill]Flesh of My Flesh[/skill]

Same deal again here. Disable Quickening zephyr if this is a hero and manually place them. Conflagration and winter could also be disabled if you want to really micro-manage them and make sure both heroes aren't placing the same spirit down twice. Winnowing will cause more damage to your enemies than you because splinter weapons damage is physical and thus gains the bonus from it.

Hero: Ritualist/Ranger

[skill]Splinter Weapon[/skill][skill]Warmonger's Weapon[/skill][skill]Wailing Weapon[/skill][skill]Wielder's Zeal[/skill][skill]Muddy Terrain[/skill][skill]Conflagration[/skill][skill]Winter[/skill][skill]Flesh of My Flesh[/skill]

I suppose you could say this character slot is optional but he is handy to have around and cuts down on time waiting for skills to recharge. Splinter weapon can be used on the rangers to give them a 16 specced splinter. Warmonger's and Wailing should be used for mass interrupts (this needs testing whether each barrage shot will interrupt).
Muddy terrain is optional. Again this needs testing to see if it will counter the speed boost that enemies gain from HM which makes shooting them annoying.
Conflagration and winter should be kept up always. Enemy archers will now be facing a 100 armor target instead of 70 with both these spirits down. It also means your arrows will trigger spinal shivers.

Human 2: Necromancer/Ritualist

[skill]Order of the Vampire[/skill][skill]Blood Ritual[/skill][skill]Spinal Shivers[/skill][skill]Shivers of Dread[/skill][skill]Mark of Pain[/skill][skill]Awaken the Blood[/skill][skill]Signet of Lost Souls[/skill][skill]Flesh of My Flesh[/skill]

This is the hardest but possible the most helpful role to play. This should be a human and if you must have a hero run this, diable ALL of their skills except for signet of lost souls and manually control them. Run 16 in blood and 13 or higher in curses. Put whats left into soul reaping. Don't worry about health as you will have 2 enchantments on you all the time which gives you 200 or so health from symbiosis. Unfourtunately we don't really want lots of health with this build, so limit your blood rituals unless it's an emergency. Now energy can get a bit tough to manage with this depending on how much you use spinal shivers and shivers of dread. Ideally, you want to use them on bosses and hard hitting casters (such as margonite sorcerers). With both conflagration and winter down, all arrows will be doing cold damage so that's alot of interrupting to the poor fellow with the hex on him. Ont he same hand it's going to kill your energy so be careful.
Mark of pain in this build is BROKEN. Why? because every splinter hit is counted as physical damage. Yep, that means that in a group of 6, with a level 13 mark of pain your doing:

3 x (6 x 36) ( 5 splinter hits + the arrow multiplied by 36 damage from the hex from 3 Rangers)

That's 684 armor ignoring damage. Ontop of the 3 x (6 x 19) = 114 damage from Order of the Vampire. All together that's 800 armor ignoring AoE damage from 1 character. Crazy.

Hero: Ritualist/Mesmer

[skill]Life[/skill][skill]Recovery[/skill][skill]Recuperation[/skill][skill]Displacement[/skill][skill]Shelter[/skill][skill]Union[/skill][skill]Ritual Lord[/skill][skill]Power Drain[/skill]

Standard spirit spammer. Not much to say here. Micro manange things like Shelter and Union if you want.

Hero: Necromancer/Ritualist

[skill]Spirit Light[/skill][skill]Mend Body and Soul[/skill][skill]Spirit Transfer[/skill][skill]Wielder's Boon[/skill][skill]Preservation[/skill][skill]Life[/skill][skill]Signet of Lost Souls[/skill][skill]Death Pact Signet[/skill]

The first healer, spirit light and spirit transfer are huge heals without much of a consequence. Wielder's boon makes sense if used on the rangers. Max out soul reaping and Restoration. Death pact signet should be disabled if your using a hero. It's a good mid-battle res for a healer and very good to recover from wipes because you don't have to wait for everyone to heal up and such. Use signet of lost souls in times when your energy runs low and, if failing that call a BR from the necro (be prepared to heal him as he will be saccing well over 100 health).

Hero: Necromancer/Monk

[skill]Heal Other[/skill][skill]Jamei's Gaze[/skill][skill]Vigorous Spirit[/skill][skill]Dwayna's Kiss[/skill][skill]Dismiss Condition[/skill][skill]Aegis[/skill][skill]Signet of Lost Souls[/skill][skill]Rebirth[/skill]

Similar to before, max out soul reaping and mix points between healing and protection (use 7 or 9 in protection, NOT 8). Aegis is wonderful because it effectively gives the whole party 100 health in messy situations and can lessen the stress on the healers. Vigrous spirit is obviously for the rangers. Dwayna's kiss and Dismiss work well because the whole party should be under the efects of either Order of the Vampire or Aegis. Signet of lost sould should only be used if you are running a hero. Otherwise swap it out for an e.management of your choice.

The Damage

I'm going to use a best case scenario here. 6 enemies that are clumped in their original group fairly tightly (Every so often, a group of enemies resets their patrols and the all run to the same spot, this is the time you should attack them).

6 Arrows ||| (3 x (4 x ("Splinter Damage" + 4))) + (3 x (6 x "Order of the Vampire Damage")) + (3 x (6 x "Mark of Pain Damage")) + (3 x (6 x ("Barrage Damage" + 4)))

With a 19 damage Order (16 + 2 from awaken the blood) and a 36 damage mark of pain (13 curses) and a 35 damage splinter weapon (10 in channelling) the damage is:

3330 armor ignoring damage + Barrage Damage

With a 16 specced splinter weapon on all 3 rangers (from the ritualist) the damage is now:

3932 armor ignoring damage + Barrage Damage

Your barrage damage will take that over 4000 damage. Very nasty.

Keep in mind this is just a theory and has yet to be tested. Anyone that can give this is whirl is more than welcome to do so and can report back with the results. Have fun.

Pericles · May 12, 2007, 10:11 AM // 10:11

First of all i would like to say that conflagration negates the lifestealing of Order of the Vampire and why do u put signet of lost souls on your monk and rit, it's a soul reaping skill so it'll only give 10 health and 1 energy.
So you'll have to choose between mark of pain +/order of the vampire +/ winnowing OR spinal shivers +/ conflagration +/ winter (i'd go with the first one).
"Enemy archers will now be facing a 100 armor target instead of 70 with both these spirits down"
This doesn't make any sense because you wil now be facing enemy archers with an armor boost as big as yours.
I'd suggest that u drop conflag and winter for charm/comfort animal.

Finally i think that without the errors u made above this still is a very nice concept but i'd really like to know where u plan on using it, maybe tombs and urgoz. "Hero: Ritualist/Range-Hero: Ritualist/Mesmer" these guys MUST have rupture soul with high spawning as it is extremely powerful.
Also i would consder using this on the weapon spammer:
"Ghostly Haste [edit] Enchantment Spell. For 5...17 seconds, spells you cast while within earshot of a Spirit recharge 25% faster. "
And by the way i don't know why u are using symbiosis as it DOESN'T trigger weapon spells.

I'm definitely going to try this in Urgoz/Tombs because it looks very promising and u have 2 party spaces left fo which i suggest using an mm or/and another ranger.

Excelent thread, congratulations!

xDusT II · May 12, 2007, 11:38 AM // 11:38

ahh yes hmm, I forgot conflagration would mean I can't use order of the vampire. Ill probably swap that out for something else as I'd prefer the damage buff from OotV.

The 2 healers are necro pimary to gain as much energy as possible from soul reaping with all the spirits and pet deaths. Signet of lost souls makes a good e.management choice as they will have soul reaping maxed.

I will probably swap out the whole spinal shivers deal and just rely and wailing and warmongers weapon for interrupts. Throwing an MM in there can fill tanking roles aswell.

Much better that I do all the planning and picking apart beforehand before I spend a couple of hundred plat equipping all my heroes then finding theres a weak link.

Symbiosis is there because OotV means everyone will always be enchanted. I also just reliased the second monk doesnt have an elite skill...

MercenaryKnight · May 13, 2007, 07:15 AM // 07:15

My advice would be rit spirit spammer to ditch ritual lord go rt/r and use serpent's quickness to do recharge then for elite go attuned was songhkai (think that's the one that reduces energy cost) so that way you could spam spirits more (dunno what attribute it is but maybe it's the same.

Maybe for the n/monk elite you could try life sheathe or zealous benediction.

Mesmer in Need · May 13, 2007, 07:48 AM // 07:48

I think your numbers are a little extreme. They can do this amount of damage no doubt, but only in near perfect conditions, with tight groups of enemies and coordinated teams. As for some suggestions, I think you should drop the pets on the first two rangers, and put in another copy of fertile season, and maybey a rez sig for a quick rez. Mercanary's idea for the rit lord would be nice, but drop his restoration magic and put in boon of creation, pain, and something like vital weapon, soothing, shadowsong, dissonance, or disenchant. Switch wielders boon or spirit transfer for recuperation on your n/rt. Put in healers boon for a good elite on your necro/mo, put it in for dwaynas. drop winter/conflag on your rangers and put in another interrupt and a rez. For the orders, put in oop for one shivers.

rick1027 · May 13, 2007, 07:56 PM // 19:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pericles

First of all i would like to say that conflagration negates the lifestealing of Order of the Vampire and why do u put signet of lost souls on your monk and rit, it's a soul reaping skill so it'll only give 10 health and 1 energy.

if you read his post it says the monk is a necro/monk with maxed out sr. really not sure if i'd trust a hero that way but ssignet of lost souls would make sense then

Marverick · May 14, 2007, 02:24 AM // 02:24

And what are you going to do against single targets?
I'd run 3 Dervishes with Splinter Weapon; they can hit single targets harder and you won't find many scenarios where more than 3 enemies bunch up.
Rit lord really needs Boon of Creation...

Skuld · May 14, 2007, 07:23 AM // 07:23

Its gonna take so much effort, you'll have to manually splinter-up the heroes again and again and again..

Searing Flames ftw.

viper11025 · May 17, 2007, 01:10 AM // 01:10

Yes BUT.
If you steamline the skills by knocking a few off you can do about 1k dmg.
IF they use them right!

xDusT II · May 17, 2007, 06:40 AM // 06:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skuld

Its gonna take so much effort, you'll have to manually splinter-up the heroes again and again and again..

Searing Flames ftw.

I'm assuming the heroes are smart enough to put splinter weapn, if not on themselves but on one of the other rangers and not overlap weapon spells except in cases where someones weapon spell is specced higher than the current one on the target. One problem with adding an MM could be the heroes putting splinter weapon on them.

Searing flames to me has made GW extremely boring, atleast on my elementalist. I prefer not to use it to keep the game more interesting.

Valshia · May 21, 2007, 10:32 PM // 22:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by xDusT II

I'm assuming the heroes are smart enough to put splinter weapn, if not on themselves but on one of the other rangers...

They're not. A splinter/barrage hero will cast splinter weapon on just about everyone but themselves.