Curse

Zinger314 · May 15, 2007, 02:50 AM // 02:50

People play as SS Necros because they are damn good. Spiteful Spirit does a consistent amount of armor-ignoring damage, along with the benefit of anti-melee skills. But I have one question; why don’t people use more than one SS?

The Hero AI has the ability to avoid Hex redundancy, i.e. they won’t cast the same hex on a person already hexed with that hex.

As such, a well placed timing of 3 SSes would theoretically cause a huge DPS yield, and it’s much more efficient and safer than MMs.

Therefore; the build!

Me (PC): 16 Curses 13 Soul Reaping
[skill]Desecrate Enchantments[/skill] [skill]Defile Enchantments[/skill] [skill]Enfeebling Blood[/skill] [skill]Insidious Parasite[/skill] [skill]Signet of Lost Souls[/skill] [skill]Spiteful Spirit[/skill] [skill]Reckless Haste[/skill] [skill]Resurrection Signet[/skill]

Olias: 16 Curses 11 Soul Reaping 8 Domination
[skill=icon]Desecrate Enchantments[/skill] [skill]Defile Enchantments[/skill] [skill]Rip Enchantment[/skill] [skill]Signet of Lost Souls[/skill] [skill]Spiteful Spirit[/skill] [skill]Empathy[/skill] [skill]Well of Darkness[/skill] [skill]Resurrection Signet[/skill]

Master of Whispers: 16 Curses 11 Soul Reaping 8 Domination
[skill]Desecrate Enchantments[/skill] [skill]Defile Enchantments[/skill] [skill]Rip Enchantment[/skill] [skill]Signet of Lost Souls[/skill] [skill]Spiteful Spirit[/skill] [skill]Empathy[/skill] [skill]Well of Silence[/skill] [skill]Resurrection Signet[/skill]

These builds have one main goal in PvE: Hex. EVERYTHING!

My build is more precise, while the Hero Build is more practical. My build needs strong player interaction, the heroes can do whatever they want (that’s why I didn’t use any anti-melee or Backfire on the Heroes; they can’t choose those targets correctly) The less micromanagement, the better.

In my build, Reckless Haste and Enfeebling Blood is standard anti-melee. Insidious Parasite helps greatly. (but I can’t trust it to Heroes)

Spiteful Spirit does not discriminate against anyone in PvE! It does damage, all the time, no exceptions.

The heroes will stagger Empathy among all enemies. Empathy is still useful, even on casters, since casters in PvE never stop attacking.

Desecrate and Defile do massive AoE damage. 64 armor-ignoring damage is close to a Searing Flames when you factor in armor. 6 total copies of it is nearly an AoE spike.

Signet of Lost Souls is…Signet of Lost Souls. No explanation needed.

Rip Enchantment is incredibly useful as quick-recharging Enchantment removal, especially 2 copies.

The two wells make sure that I don’t waste corpses. But they both have decent effects.

Well, this is mostly theorycraft, and I’ll test it later. But right now, it seems more efficient at quick killing than 2 MMs could ever be.

The build's only true weakness is Expel Hexes. And only one enemy in the entire game uses it (Jade Brotherhood Mesmer), and he's not in any missions, so I don't really care.

(But I have one question: What do I use as my 3rd Hero? Using Norgu has another Hexer would be overkill, and using more damage would also be overkill. A hyper-defensive Morgahn might work, though…or Razah with Weapon of Quickening. Gah. Any ideas?)

taurus999s · May 15, 2007, 04:44 AM // 04:44

How about a minion bomber added to the mix? With all that SS, it is going to kill something, by adding in a minion bomber, you refuel all necros?

Lutae · May 15, 2007, 04:57 AM // 04:57

Quote:

The Hero AI has the ability to avoid Hex redundancy

Can someone confirm this? If it is indeed true, this would be awesome.

FoxBat · May 15, 2007, 05:33 AM // 05:33

They won't start casting a hex on someone who already has the same hex. (unless its a self-associated one like parasitic bond) However I think they can end up casting the same hex on the same target at the same time, which would cause waste. Still better than your average human though...

If you are thinking hard mode, I'd probably add a healer to the slot. Hench healers are truly horrible.

howlinghobo · May 15, 2007, 06:28 AM // 06:28

no, heroes defineately dont stack same hexes like that
not much chances of simultaneous casting

Zinger314 · May 15, 2007, 10:58 AM // 10:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by taurus999s

How about a minion bomber added to the mix? With all that SS, it is going to kill something, by adding in a minion bomber, you refuel all necros?

Not worth it after the SR nerf. Otherwise, I'd be more liberal.

I don't think the AI would directly cast SS on the same person very often; the odds are low. Same skill, same time, same target.

squan · May 15, 2007, 11:39 AM // 11:39

hmmm gonna try it out, but i must say its very interesting.
Heroes are smarter then i thought

ZenRgy · May 15, 2007, 11:47 AM // 11:47

Blood ritual helps a lot for hero / henchy monks/casters, and I say bring that over Empathy, or bring like suffering. (just don't like running domination magic on a necro)

blackdoctor · May 15, 2007, 03:54 PM // 15:54

I will avoid use of domination skills, and add instead a cheap and great skill from the cursers line: parasitic bond, it will help with the 9% sacrifice from Rip Enchanments.

And i will add a Jin with full set interruption build, in my experience i am not having a lot of problems with henchies monks if i have a full set of interruptions in Jin.

Regards

ArKaiN · May 15, 2007, 06:46 PM // 18:46

It works(the two legendary vanquishers in my guild use double SS's), but take out empathy. They just cast it on all the mages, it makes me want to cry.

Lurid · May 15, 2007, 08:41 PM // 20:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zinger314

Not worth it after the SR nerf. Otherwise, I'd be more liberal.

Heroes still minion bomb very well, i've been running a bombing build since the update and Masters usually has more energy than with any other minion build variant that i've tried.

Zinger314 · May 15, 2007, 09:15 PM // 21:15

After doing some testing...I'm unsure.

The main problem I'm having is SS's recharge time. Curse Necros just basically sit around after SS is cast. They can't do much else due to the long cooldowns of the skills, whereas dual SF can just keep spamming and spamming and spamming.

3 SS might not work either in that case; too much downtime equals enemies not being killed. I'm considering just me as SS, Olias as SS, and MoW as MM...

Marverick · May 19, 2007, 02:27 AM // 02:27

Are you sure they don't stack hexes?
I never tried with duplicate copies of hexes but from their other behaviors it doesn't seem likely that they hex multiple monsters.

If target is casting something, Jin and Norgu will both try to interrupt the same spell.
Heroes will constantly spam Enfeeble on a target already weakened 5 seconds ago to "renew the condition" or something, and they spam Epidemic constantly to "renew conditions" or whatever. So they probably hex the same monster to "renew the hex".