Curse

Rikimaru · Sep 29, 2007, 12:14 AM // 00:14

I made a new elementalist PvE character, and I plan on making him a melee earth-type. I've been working out a build for him, and I'd really like some help to get it as good as it can be (I don't have much experience with Eles). Here's what it looks like so far:

[skill]Mystic Sweep[/skill] With 4 enchants, this deals great spammable damage.
[skill]Shockwave[/skill] Since this is a melee build, your targets will often be in melee range, causing this to deal 189 damage to all adjacent foes every 15 seconds, with a 3/4 second cast and low energy cost.
[skill]Victorious Sweep[/skill] This functions as a good normal heal to go with the regeneration, and the more people you have on you, the more it heals. You'll very easily have greater health than anyone you hit too, 'cause of the great defense.
[skill]Grasping Earth[/skill]This works much like an AoE cripple with a very low cost and cast time, with a very long duration, and since it's a hex rather than a condition, it's much harder to remove. This allows you to prevent any of the multiple enemies you'll be attacking from kiting you. This is only useful in PvP, so it should be replaced with something else for PvE.
[skill]Armor of Earth[/skill]This grants an amazing amount of extra defense very easily, putting the ele up to 122 armor against all types all on it's own. And at 16 Earth Magic, the speed loss is negligible.
[skill]Stoneflesh Aura[/skill]With the armor rating from the other enchants, you'll almost never take more than 33 damage, except through +damage skills or spike spells. This will reduce almost all damage taken to 0 (does it affect +damage?)
[skill]Stone Striker[/skill]With Geomancer armor, this will effectively up your armor by another 20 (142). And because it uses the actual armor worn for that extra defense, it bypasses the Multi +defense cap. This also makes a good cover enchant, until you have to reapply Stoneflesh Aura.
[skill]Mystic Regeneration[/skill]This removes almost any worry of degeneration, which would have otherwise been a serious worry since it's not affected by +defense or damage reduction. It will also quickly heal any little bit of damage you take. It also only requires 3 points in Earth Prayers to get 8 regeneration from it.

The attributes should be-
10 Scythe Mastery
12+4 Earth Magic
7+2 (the major rune basically works as 3 attunement runes crammed on one piece of armor. The -35 health shouldn't be a problem with this builds defense)
4 Earth Prayers

The scythe seemed like the obvious choice to synergize with the high energy and enchantments used by the build, and it also allowed me to take advantage of Earth Prayers, which go well with Earth Magic.
The idea behind this build was to give it unstoppable and nearly absolute defense, then giving it as much melee damage as possible after having achieved that. I'm not going for an ordinary "invincible" build though, since being able to take any amount of damage is totally worthless if you can't do enough damage to actually make yourself a high-priority target in teams, or enough to harm someone faster than they can heal when your playing solo so you can actually kill them.
After deciding on the scythe, I also realized that I should take advantage of the AoE ability, which combined with the great defense, would allow it to also function as a great solo/farming build.
I plan on using this in all areas though, PvE, PvP, 1v1, and Farming. I'll just make small variations for each.
Keep in mind a lot of these skill descriptions on those icons are a little screwed up, even the icon on Armor of Earth.

Important Posts:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rikimaru

And now I know that Aftershock sucks for damage unless the foe is knocked down. I think Magnetic Surge is probably better, since it ignores armor.

If I go fire instead, I could gain crazy damage, but I'd lose the defense. Does something like this look good?:
Obviously it'd have a fire damage scythe
[skill]Mystic Sweep[/skill] [skill]Flame Burst[/skill] [skill]Mark of Rodgort[/skill] [skill]Flame Djinn's Haste[/skill] [skill]Conjure Flame[/skill] [skill]Mystic Regeneration[/skill] [skill]Fire Attunement[/skill] [skill]Elemental Attunement[/skill]
On top of the spammable 4 energy Flame Burst, all of my attacks will inflict +23 damage and 4 seconds of burning.

If I put a little more into Earth Prayers, I could replace something with Armor of Sanctity and gain a good amount of damage reduction, since everyone around me will be perpetually burning.

Does this look better?: (on a 60AL target with average max health and below 50%, Reaper's Sweep should do 156-188 damage, 229 on a critical.)
[skill]Searing Flames[/skill] or [skill]Reaper's Sweep[/skill] [skill]Mark of Rodgort[/skill] [skill]Flame Djinn's Haste[/skill] [skill]Armor of Sanctity[/skill] [skill]Conjure Flame[/skill] [skill]Mystic Regeneration[/skill] [skill]Conviction[/skill] [skill]Fire Attunement[/skill]
12+4 Fire Magic, 9 Scythe Mastery, 9 Earth Prayers, 5+1 Energy Storage.
It's definitely looking way the hell better than the earth build. Max regeneration, massive burning, only slightly worse defense, constant 33% run speed, and what should be good damage. Besides, Destroyer gauntlets & a Destroyer scythe would look totally bad-ass.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rikimaru

Another step up for the build:

[skill]Savannah Heat[/skill] [skill]Crippling Sweep[/skill] [skill]Phoenix[/skill] [skill]Burning Speed[/skill] [skill]Conviction[/skill] [skill]Mystic Regeneration[/skill] [skill]Conjure Flame[/skill] [skill]Fire Attunement[/skill]
Crippling Sweep gets multiple people, right?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rikimaru

You're totally confused on the stats. It has 9 swordsmanship, 9 tactics, 16 fire magic, and 4 energy storage (might be 5, I forgot).
And I need to test it more, but I'm like 90% sure that Flurry doesn't affect conjure. If it is affected by Flurry, that means it's also affected by the +35% damage mods. If it is, it comes out to 40.8 damage per hit, if it's not, it comes out to 40.1, so it doesn't matter either way

(hilarious that the overall damage would be higher if it is)
And thanks for mentioning Barbarous, I completely forgot that it has a stance active, lol. For some reason I was thinking that Bonetti's was the only stance in the build.
[skill]Star Burst[/skill] [skill]Savage Slash[/skill] [skill]Flame Djinn's Haste[/skill] [skill]Mark of Rodgort[/skill] [skill]Flurry[/skill] [skill]Healing Signet[/skill] [skill]Bonetti's Defense[/skill] [skill]Conjure Flame[/skill]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rikimaru

A second version I was thinking over for team arena, where a self heal wouldn't be absolutely necessary:
9 Swordsmanship, 16 Fire Magic, 10 Earth Magic, 4 Energy Storage.
[skill]Star Burst[/skill] [skill]Savage Slash[/skill] [skill]Flame Djinn's Haste[/skill] [skill]Mark of Rodgort[/skill] [skill]Flail[/skill] [skill]Earthen Shackles[/skill] [skill]Ward of Weakness[/skill] or [skill]Armor of Earth[/skill] [skill]Conjure Flame[/skill]
The DPS is a little better from using Flail instead of Flurry, you keep a constant 90% speed reduction on the target, pretty much forcing them to attack you, and Ward of Weakness would allow you to keep them perpetually weakened (-66% damage and -1 to all attributes). Armor of Earth would reduce the damage from spells or people outside the range as well, and would require less energy, but it could be stripped off.

Another version:
[skill]Lava Font[/skill] [skill]Flame Djinn's Haste[/skill] [skill]Mark of Rodgort[/skill] [skill]Flail[/skill] [skill]Earthen Shackles[/skill] [skill]Armor of Earth[/skill] [skill]Conjure Flame[/skill] [skill]Elemental Attunement[/skill]
Just reduce Earth Magic to 9 and put the extra points into Energy Storage.

Edit- I've just found out that Lava Font, the skill no one ever uses, does completely insane damage if you can keep the foe from moving like with Earthen Shackles. Using the sword & shield build I posted earlier with Lava Font instead of Star Burst, I killed the Master of Damage in 5 seconds

If I used the build directly above, I should use Flurry instead of Flail, 'cause they won't live long enouph to charge Flail and get much use out of it.
Just use Flame Djinn's Haste, Hex them with Mark of Rodgort & Earthen Shackles, then rush in, place Lava Font, jab them with a quick Flame Djinn's Haste right after for 127 damage, and hack away with Flurry for around 100DPS. (Lava Font deals 53 per second, normal attacks deal 40 per second, and Burning deals 14 per second)
Best of all, because of Elemental Attunement, this can be kept up for a crazy amount of time. In fact, 'cause they die so fast, should I keep Armor of Earth, or is there something better I could take?

unknown1 · Sep 29, 2007, 02:01 AM // 02:01

4 Earth Prayers is good cause of weakness

Rikimaru · Sep 29, 2007, 02:11 AM // 02:11

I didn't think about that, thanks. Having the regeneration cut in half by such a simple condition as that would be pretty crappy.

Sir Pandra Pierva · Oct 02, 2007, 02:57 AM // 02:57

.......................How about not using a scythe and just going all out earth tank with shockwave and one other dmg spell?

Rikimaru · Oct 02, 2007, 03:34 AM // 03:34

Having a melee weapon makes it way easier to tank, since you'll run up automatically instead of having to follow foes manually.
Someone swinging a big scythe at you seems much more of a threat than someone following you around, occasionally tossing out spells, causing people to actually have some chance of deciding to attack you in PvP.
Having the Dervish secondary is already very valuable, 'cause it gives me access to Mystic Regeneration.
A melee weapon offers more consistent damage than pure spells, and pressure is the kind of damage tanks need.
Scythes have style.
Etc.

Coloneh · Oct 02, 2007, 04:53 AM // 04:53

leave the melee to melee characters. if you do nee a tank this wouldnt work, because areas that need a tank generally have enchantment removal and armor ignoring damage and things of that sort.

Rikimaru · Oct 02, 2007, 01:10 PM // 13:10

If I come to an area with a lot of enchantment removal, I'll just replace Stone Striker with Obsidian Flesh (which can be kept up 25 out of 30 seconds), and Shockwave with Aftershock.
And armor-ignoring damage would be just as much a problem for anyone, primary melee character's wouldn't magically have an easier time with it. Besides that, from my testing so far, it seems that the damage reduction works against armor-ignoring damage. If I was seeing things right, I'm pretty sure I've been taking 0 damage from Power Attacks and whatnot.

Sir Pandra Pierva · Oct 02, 2007, 07:29 PM // 19:29

also if you are worried about having the melee issures then why don't you just use a melee weapon like the totem axe or something so you get a enchant buff and a energy boost plus the chase things down lazy style as well. Then you can use a good earth offhand like Goligords Scroll or something like that and take advantage of energy. Also why are you using stone striker unless you area using geomacers armor? Even then go mes secondary and use mantra of earth but you would lose your regen ability. I would replace it with [skill]Armor of Earth[/skill]. Just a few thoughts.

Rikimaru · Oct 03, 2007, 12:21 AM // 00:21

come on guys, I said right at the top of the OP that I want to play a melee earth-type ele. I'd rather get advice on how to improve it than just being told melee eles are crap and I shouldn't try.
The comment on Stone Striker being bad for the build was good, I noticed that a couple days ago. I need another enchant to replace it with though so I can keep the 8 regeneration. Would Sliver Armor be good? The problem I see with it is that it can only be kept up 1/3 of the time, and creates another deterrent from having people attack you.

Coloneh · Oct 03, 2007, 01:13 AM // 01:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rikimaru

come on guys, I said right at the top of the OP that I want to play a melee earth-type ele. I'd rather get advice on how to improve it than just being told melee eles are crap and I shouldn't try.

alright then ill leave you alone, but please warn your team that they might want to kick you before you start any missions.

Rikimaru · Oct 03, 2007, 01:27 AM // 01:27

It looks to me like I should replace Stone Striker with either Earth Attunement or Aura of Restoration.
The healing from Aura of Restoration is all but worthless, but Earth Attunement has a 2 second cast and I don't know if I need the energy management.

moriz · Oct 03, 2007, 01:31 AM // 01:31

i'm all for creativity, but creativity for the sake of creativity is just dumb. especially if the result is that.... whatever that thing is. (see, i'm learning to be polite. i could've simply called that build a piece of crap).

Sir Pandra Pierva · Oct 03, 2007, 04:23 AM // 04:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coloneh

alright then ill leave you alone, but please warn your team that they might want to kick you before you start any missions.

That is one of the funniest lines i have seen in a while.

Ok also to the topic creator the build is nothing new it's a twist and a very bad one at that on a over used idea, also melee eles aren't a good idea but just use a sythe if you want to. How ever be forwarned you wont get groups cept retards and henchies.

Div · Oct 03, 2007, 04:35 AM // 04:35

I'll be looking forward to your next post that says Normal Mode is too difficult and that missions should be made 10x easier.

Sir Pandra Pierva · Oct 03, 2007, 04:38 AM // 04:38

Who me?
or the topic guy?

Rikimaru · Oct 03, 2007, 10:29 AM // 10:29

The build isn't that bad, I've nearly soloed half of Prophecies so far with an incomplete version of it. Back in that mission where you have to protect the Vizier while he raises the boat, I held off the whole right side all by myself (and I was killing stuff). It doesn't matter how many people you're fighting at once if they're all doing 0 damage.

Dr Strangelove · Oct 03, 2007, 03:26 PM // 15:26

You can tank them with a healing hands/mending wammo too, that doesn't mean it's a good build. Complete hard mode with that build and we'll talk.

rick1027 · Oct 04, 2007, 04:00 AM // 04:00

not really sure where to start. not going to say this is great build. for starters victorious sweep i'd pull for another scythe attack you got mystic regen with 3 other enchants they should be more then enough on health. one thing i do like mystic sweep. id probably edge up earth prayers up to 8 by lowering one of the other numbers. that would almost double your regen by only dropping another by a point. thats all im gonna say for now. you got some ideas there i think you need. ive never been crazy about a caster trying to be melee. i think there is always a better way around

Coloneh · Oct 04, 2007, 05:43 AM // 05:43

guys stop it. he already said he dosnt want help unless you can make a melee ele good. let this sink into the depths of unbumped threads.

Savage Striker · Oct 04, 2007, 03:21 PM // 15:21

[card]Meteor[/card][card]Searing Flames[/card][card]Meteor Shower[/card][card]Fire Storm[/card][card]Liquid Flame[/card][card]Fire Attunement[/card][card]Aura of Restoration[/card][card]Resurrect[/card]