Curse

furanshisuko · Nov 15, 2007, 03:07 PM // 15:07

like the title said i needda finish prop so i can get hm

Keithark · Nov 15, 2007, 03:27 PM // 15:27

SS, Wreckless haste, insidious parasite, barbs, sig of lost souls, mark of pain, rez

also could use price of failure or weaken armor or whatever

furanshisuko · Nov 15, 2007, 03:38 PM // 15:38

is suffering good?

nebuchanezzar · Nov 15, 2007, 04:55 PM // 16:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by furanshisuko

is suffering good?

At times yes it is. It puts pink bars on lots of mobs which is ideal if one has a hex removal they will hopefully waste it on Suffering. You can either start with suffering to provoke mobs into removing that and then start spamming SS or you can try to cover your first SS with Suffering. If the mobs have Purge Sig or a mass hex removal then the first option is better and if they don't then imo the second option is better. Know your enemy.

As far as build goes I'm a big fan of Arcane Echo + Spiteful for lots of pretty number flying around. Those are your two main skills. The rest depends on the area/teammates. I don't really like Insidious myself but my bar is currently crowded by 3 pve skills. Barbs is great if you have an MM in your team or lots of physical damagers(Wars, Sins, Derv, Ranger) and Mark of Pain can be nice but does cause scattering quickly. I like carrying Parasitic Bond for my cover hex personally but really it's up to you. With Reckless having a shortened duration I find myself using it much less often. That and the fact that HM mobs attack so quickly already I don't feel the need for it anymore.
Lately my bar is usually: Arcane Echo, Spiteful Spirit, Ebon Battle Standard of Wisdom*, Necrosis*, Air of Superiority*, Signet of Lost Souls, open and open. I carry Rez Scrolls instead of a rez skill nowadays. The marked skills are all PvE only skills and they can be changed depending on missions or my team build. Like I said though, for an SS build your job is to throw as many Spiteful's around as inhumanly possible as fast as possible.

furanshisuko · Nov 15, 2007, 05:02 PM // 17:02

ok ty

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Str0b0 · Nov 16, 2007, 03:15 AM // 03:15

Actually reckless haste isn't as good as it used to be. You have to cast it twice to cover one SS duration and it's recharge time rarely allows that not to mention it's an energy drain even with the best e managment. I saw someone suggest that in a post. This is what I use in GW:EN now, beat the game and am now doing dungeons in HM with much success.

[skill]Awaken the blood[/skill][skill]Arcane Echo[/skill][skill]Spiteful spirit[/skill][skill]enfeebling blood[/skill][skill]Signet of Lost Souls[/skill]or[skill]Insidious Parasite[/skill][skill]Pain Inverter[/skill][skill]Blood ritual[/skill] whatever res you want here

ATB boosts your SS to 41 damage per trigger 43 if you have a+1 curses staff when it triggers. Arcane Echo is utility for your whole bar. Yeah you can echo SS for maximum damage or you could echo Pain inverter for those stubborn bosses. Enfeebling blood is good stuff in GW:EN HM where you often encounter lvl 24-28 bosses. Lowering damage by 66% and knocking down their attribute is a nice thing for the whole party since it has an AoE effect. SoLS is e managment but I rarely use it. BR is to keep your monks really happy just don't use it while ATB is up for god's sake. Pain inverter is too nice in a PUG or with H/H you know your party is going to ball up and get hit by whatever nasty AoE spell any given enemy boss may have. 80x8 is 640 damage in one big clump, armor ignoring damage I might add. I have yet to play around with hexer's vigor but I see it in many bars.

furanshisuko · Nov 16, 2007, 03:36 PM // 15:36

masochism might work good

Coloneh · Nov 16, 2007, 10:15 PM // 22:15

no. but auspicious incantation does. use it on the echoes version of SS.

so thats: AtB > AE > SS > (para bond) > Auspicious incantation > echoed SS > (para bond) > (insidious parasite) > SS

=DNC=Trucker · Nov 17, 2007, 03:40 AM // 03:40

in heavy hex removal areas I have found ether nightmare a good cover hex to keep them busy removing hexes. Compared to the 'nearby' 15 energy hexes in curses, its not a bad alternative for 10 energy and 'in the area' Of course, the skill kind of stinks unless you have near max lux/kurz

peanut_chew · Nov 17, 2007, 01:29 PM // 13:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Str0b0

I have yet to play around with hexer's vigor but I see it in many bars.

i just started using hexer's vigor and it's saved my life countless times already. i took out my rez for it (using rez scrolls now). not only is it cheap to cast and lasts a while but it helps take some pressure off your monks.

zwei2stein · Nov 17, 2007, 01:42 PM // 13:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by Keithark

SS, Wreckless haste, insidious parasite, barbs, sig of lost souls, mark of pain, rez

also could use price of failure or weaken armor or whatever

That is somehow good SS build

Quote:

Originally Posted by Str0b0

[skill]Awaken the blood[/skill][skill]Arcane Echo[/skill][skill]Spiteful spirit[/skill][skill]enfeebling blood[/skill][skill]Signet of Lost Souls[/skill]or[skill]Insidious Parasite[/skill][skill]Pain Inverter[/skill][skill]Blood ritual[/skill] whatever res you want here

That is somehow bad one.

MoP + Barbs (they are > echo and awaken respectivelly, big time. echoing 10r skill is just waste of effort if you can cast mop instead of that lengthy and pricey comco. same applies to barbs and awaken.)
Rhaste + Eblood is a must.
SS and SolS is kinda core.
then Res and free slot for whatever.

Moloch Vein · Nov 17, 2007, 04:57 PM // 16:57

I'm not going to reiterate my discussion on Arcane Echo. If people are incapable to read and counter it I'll simply post links to the relevant posts.

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...91&postcount=3

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...3&postcount=17

Hells_Faithful · Nov 17, 2007, 05:02 PM // 17:02

then what is a good SS build???

Cathode_Reborn · Nov 17, 2007, 07:41 PM // 19:41

Arcane echo combines well with many nec hexes, not SS only. It seems people suggest barbs/MoP alot without actually knowing if the person has any physical damage on the team but they are decent with an MM on the team. Melee heroes/phys damage henches are pretty bad if you ask me.

I still see Awaken used often but I feel it's not worth it at all. The damage increase from SS/IP are too minor for it to be worth it. Most other curses spells in a common pve bar don't get much of a boost from it. If you want extra damage, Defile/Desecrate enchantments is what you want. If you know stuff will block often too, don't forget Defile defenses.

Moloch Vein · Nov 17, 2007, 07:49 PM // 19:49

Yes, Awaken the Blood is definitely sub-par. Compare to Glyph of Elemental Power (shivers.)

Chthon · Nov 17, 2007, 09:18 PM // 21:18

[skill]Spiteful Spirit[/skill][skill]Reckless Haste[/skill][skill]Mark of Pain[/skill][skill]Barbs[/skill][skill]Enfeebling Blood[/skill][skill]Awaken the Blood[/skill][Optional][Rez]

1. I'm assuming you have a MM or MB in the party to take full advantage of MoP and Barbs.

2. I'm assuming your placement of SS, MoP, and Barbs is intelligent enough to take full advantage of awaken. By selecting targets that will cause maximum triggers, you should be able to get better DPS out of a few extra damage per trigger on those spells than anything else you could bring (except perhaps another copy of one of those spells via arcane echo).

3. Change Awaken for Arcane Echo if you prefer, and don't mind losing your hard rez.

4. For the optional spot, I usually bring direct damage, unless I have a specific need for something like Spinal Shivers, etc. For heroes, Desecrate Enchantments is (unfortunately) the best direct damage available. Player builds can use that (if you expect to face clustered enchanted foes) or Necrosis or other PvE-only skills. Some other non-direct-damage options include: Pain Inverter (although PI is kinda an anti-combo with EB and Reckless, it's still so good it's worth considering), Spinal Shivers (if you have something you'll need to interrupt), BR, if your team can't manage their own energy, and SoLS (particularly if you use arcane echo for a pricey chain).

Longasc · Nov 17, 2007, 11:37 PM // 23:37

I second Chthons build.

But I would put in Necrosis and Signet of Lost Souls instead of Awaken the Blood.

Ensign · Nov 18, 2007, 03:52 AM // 03:52

Spiteful, Barbs, Enfeebling Blood. The rest of the bar can be blank for normal mode.

nebuchanezzar · Nov 18, 2007, 05:06 AM // 05:06

Enfeebling Blood is a no brainer in HM imo but Barbs needs to have an MM for it to be a good choice(again imo). If you pug it's amazing how many physical damage dealers don't deal physical damage....IDS, FDS, whatever. However, in a serious group where you know you have physicals not using Elemental damage mods then Barbs is amazing(and moreso with an MM).
Ensigns advice(as always from my experience) is spot on. I would add Arcane Echo as a no brainer though too. I wont go into the specifics as Molochs links to his previous posts cover it very well and I echo (=] pun intended) his ideals in that regard.
GL and HF....remember the most important part is have fun =].

Ensign · Nov 18, 2007, 12:24 PM // 12:24

There are a couple decisions you have to make.

Are you trying to bulldoze trivial content, or are you attempting to take on more difficult content?

Against easy trash you want to go all-in on Spiteful Spirit; there's really little incentive not to. Take Arcane Echo, put a few out there, see numbers, and move on. Barbs is something you'll pull out against bosses and Enfeebling Blood is only going to be used on over-aggroed mobs. If you're playing against more difficult content, however, Enfeebling Blood immediately supplants Spiteful Spirit as your #1 priority; in that case Arcane Echo becomes a very weak skill.

How organized is the team? If you're playing tanknspank go wild with Spiteful; if you're not controlling aggro so strictly it's lower priority. If you have multiple physicals and are calling targets Barbs becomes exceptionally good, otherwise it's again a niche skill.

Essentially those 3 skills form the backbone of what you can do with a curses guy; one of them is pretty stellar in just about any situation. How they balance out for you is going to dictate the rest of your bar.

As you might be able to guess I don't put much value on Arcane Echo; it's only a remotely acceptable skill against easy content, or if you're carefully controlling aggro and balling up mobs. While it is worthwhile if that is all you need to do, in general a 30 energy, 5 second cast Spiteful Spirit on a minute recharge is not a good use of a skill slot. Those costs can be avoided if you pre-cast Arcane Echo and wait a little bit before aggroing the mob; however if you have any real responsibilities beyond putting out Spiteful Spirits, that isn't a realistic plan and Arcane Echo turns into a wasted skill slot.

If you're playing with heroes and henchmen, Barbs is absolutely amazing. Call your target with Barbs, and watch the heroes home in on that target while you spread Spiteful and EB. The numbers you should get with a few physicals on the team should be pretty phenomenal.