Curse

Shadowmere · Jan 14, 2008, 06:05 PM // 18:05

I recently picked up several blood magic elites in a skill hunt, and decided to try and find a use for some of them. I'm looking at [wiki]soul leech[/wiki] and [wiki]life transfer[/wiki] to be adapted to pvp use.

I'm aware that Life Transfer is kind of a taboo elite around here, but I personally don't give a damn and wanted to try it myself anyways. So I put together this build for AB.
Blood Magic 16
Illusion magic 9
Soul Reaping 10
[wiki]life transfer[/wiki]
[wiki]arcane echo[/wiki]
[wiki]life siphon[/wiki]
[optional] (usually vampiric gaze)
[wiki]foul feast[/wiki]
[wiki]angorodon's gaze[/wiki]
[wiki]blood drinker[/wiki]
[wiki]illusion of haste[/wiki]

Not really groundbreaking, use echo to extend life transfer, it can be maintained for 24 seconds on a single target this way, with a 6 second downtime before it can be up for another 12. Along with life siphon this amounts to 11 degen on a target, if they aren't using a strong regen skill they'll be already feeling the hurt when the life stealing starts, if they are packing strong regen the degen will reduce if not overpower it. With the life stealing from feast, angorodon's, and blood drinker it can effectively take out most people lacking a dedicated monk for support. I've also been able to solo cap everything except mesmer shrines using this.

As for soul leech I'm trying to adapt it for use in RA or elsewhere as a type of caster hate

your thoughts?

Tab · Jan 14, 2008, 06:09 PM // 18:09

Transfer, Siphon, Gaze, Feast, Angorodons, Blood Drinker and Illusion all range from sucking to being bad.

Stormlord Alex · Jan 14, 2008, 06:31 PM // 18:31

hai guyz

i herd
[skill]soul leech[/skill][skill]riposte[/skill][skill]deadly riposte[/skill][skill]healing signet[/skill][skill]vampiric gaze[/skill][skill]vampiric bite[/skill][skill]blood of the aggressor[/skill][skill]resurrection signet[/skill]
... was EPIC gud

Ahem.
Seriously, though...
[skill]spoil victor[/skill][skill]signet of lost souls[/skill][skill]resurrection signet[/skill] --Cover hex - [skill]parasitic bond[/skill] or [skill]life siphon[/skill]--
then... umm... try and do something useful with the last 4 slots, if that's possible on a Blood guy.

Blood is generally pretty crap, SV at least serves as a versatile shut-down hex.

Songbringer · Jan 14, 2008, 06:54 PM // 18:54

blood doesnt suck....IMO the infamous bspike?

Stormlord Alex · Jan 14, 2008, 07:36 PM // 19:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by Songbringer

blood doesnt suck....IMO the infamous bspike?

Aye, that wasn't crap.
That was lame instead.

Solo Blood guys are weak, still. One of them Bloodspikers would fail pretty hard if you put him in a balanced team.

Moloch Vein · Jan 14, 2008, 07:58 PM // 19:58

Soul Leech is much better than Life Transfer.

Spoil Victor is better still.

Blood Drinker + Angorodon's Gaze is imbalanced and very good in RA and AB.

A coordinated 4-man Bloodspike team will pretty much destroy whatever it is likely to face in AB. That includes "good" AB teams.

Shadowmere · Jan 14, 2008, 09:23 PM // 21:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by ibreaktoilets

Transfer, Siphon, Gaze, Feast, Angorodons, Blood Drinker and Illusion all range from sucking to being bad.

Don't knock it 'till you tried it.

It's consistant damage, plus it's all armor ignoring, not to mention each one of your damage spells also doubles as a self heal. And I agree that illusion isn't the best as far as straight up running skills go. But where I use it it's a true utility skill in every sense, it's an easily maintanable speed boost for getting from shrine to shring faster and once you're in position you can let it run out for a free condition to fuel Feast and Angorodons. Not to mention it lets you rid yourself of crippling easily when you need to get the heck outa Dodge.

It's not meant to deal super insane damage, it's meant to deal good damage while still maintaining survivability and utility.

Moloch Vein · Jan 14, 2008, 09:59 PM // 21:59

I have tried it. Life Transfer is a weak elite. It's eminently suitable for a newbie (either absolute or newbie to the N class) in lower-end PvP arenas. However if you are speccing hard Blood for an offensive caster and you're supposed to play "good" there is no excuse to bring anything but SL or SV out of the Blood line. (Maybe OoB but... meh.)

I'd also like to add that your proposed skill bar does not bring any utility. All it brings is degeneration and life stealing. That in itself does not make it a failure, and I know that the build will help you stay alive pretty well, but that doesn't make it optimal.

Oh, and Illusion of Haste as you've set up the build is really weak. It must be combined with a condition transfer to be of true utility. Otherwise i'd go with something like Dash.

Shadowmere · Jan 14, 2008, 10:14 PM // 22:14

ok, point taken, I see what you mean about Transfer, the bar as it is works wonders on shrines and those without monk support, but it has too much downtime with transfers recharge, which outways it's degen pressure.

But the one thing i don't quite get is why is Illusion of Haste really weak here? The only thing I can see is having to recast it quite often. It gives you a movement boost, and a 2nd gauranteed condition when it ends to boost the power of foul feast. The actual crippling condition isn't an issue as you can ride it out while taking a shrine or simply hit Illusion again to purge it from you for a while longer. Yes it'll catch up with you eventually but it's designed to use that downside to your advantage.

Necrotic · Jan 14, 2008, 10:20 PM // 22:20

Maybe drop "ignorance" into that optional slot and keep the tanks worried, 'course it would require a few points in Domination.

Moloch Vein · Jan 14, 2008, 10:37 PM // 22:37

IoH being weak for the build has to do with a few facts:

1, It's linked to Illusion and needs speccing into Illusion to be much good, which subtracts your SR power

2, It's a spell with a 1 second casting time, thus it's subject to spell hate

3, It's an enchantment and thus subject to enchantment hate, if you drop it, you have 0 enchantments (I don't count Arcane) which is a huge plus

4, If you run, you don't really want to stop to recast it while being chased, but sadly often you will have no choice

A stance like Dash will have none of those downsides, there are other stances to consider, and your Cripple isn't used effectively since you already have Blood Drinker as the condition trigger for Angorodon's Gaze.

Cathode_Reborn · Jan 15, 2008, 08:22 AM // 08:22

Life transfer at 16 blood = 190hp life lost.
Spoil victor if triggered twice = 210 life lost.

Blood renewal + Spoil victor is win.....low your temporarily to help SV trigger a few times.....seconds later you gain 200hp. The healing from Blood renewal actually outheals the regen from LT. SV becomes much more attractive when you see how spammable it is and how much trouble it could put monks in. If you're aware of fights going on around you, you can toss it on some random guy beating up one of your allies on low hp - then watch as he loses like 300hp from SV in seconds.....yes that happens often if you use it at the right times.

I hate Foul feast cause the recharge sucks....you could cast Blood of the aggressor or Dark pact multiple times withint those 10 secs and get more damage than Feast. Illusion of haste should be taken out for a more useful speed boost. Pious Haste could be kept up permanantly but removes an enchantment on end....it goes well with Blood renewal to control the healing effect.

Blood drinker/Angorodon's gaze isn't that great, but there's pretty much nothin better to use offensivley within the blood line so necs are kinda doomed to use it.

I'd Echo (elite) Angorodon's Gaze before I use LT.....it would actually outdamage it.

Khasar · Jan 15, 2008, 04:41 PM // 16:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cathode_Reborn

I'd Echo (elite) Angorodon's Gaze before I use LT.....it would actually outdamage it.

Agreed. I've run that build in RA occasionally with Vampiric gaze and you can pretty much just spam them almost non-stop if you're using dual 20/20s. You can out damage LT with just 3 casts of Angorodon's which also takes alot less time.

SL and SV are still > though.

Pyro maniac · Jan 15, 2008, 06:58 PM // 18:58

Blood is just sucky damage with mere self-heal at huge costs

NamelessBeauty · Jan 30, 2008, 06:31 PM // 18:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pyro maniac

Blood is just sucky damage with mere self-heal at huge costs

But again nothing stop it even Prot Spirit. Only SB, Shadow Form, and such skills can stop those which is not relavant in most builds!

Blood nec can be used as a supporter such as BiP, Blood Rit, Blood Bond, Dark Fury, OoP, Strip Enchant and the last 2 wells.

Blood need to have a team of at least 4 Nec in order to make it effective.

Though Alex have pointed out the N/W build. It's actually a really fun build to run in RA (not in TA or any other.)

DRGN · Jan 30, 2008, 08:29 PM // 20:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by NamelessBeauty

Though Alex have pointed out the N/W build. It's actually a really fun build to run in RA (not in TA or any other.)

So is [skill]Unyielding Aura[/skill]. That doesn't make it suck less. Point is, yeah that stuff is armor ignoring, but still does less than armor-affected spells after the armor damage reduction most of the time. Yeah, it has some fun stuff like Dark Fury + an SY para, but is it even worth it most of the time? You can stick Blood Rit or Dark Fury on a curses nec with a few points into Blood. Strip Enchant is outstirpped(lol see wut i did thar) by Rip Enchantment. You could run BiP, yeah, that can be useful, but you aren't going to do jack squat for damage.

LightningHell · Jan 30, 2008, 11:26 PM // 23:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shadowmere

Don't knock it 'till you tried it.

It's consistant damage, plus it's all armor ignoring, not to mention each one of your damage spells also doubles as a self heal. And I agree that illusion isn't the best as far as straight up running skills go. But where I use it it's a true utility skill in every sense, it's an easily maintanable speed boost for getting from shrine to shring faster and once you're in position you can let it run out for a free condition to fuel Feast and Angorodons. Not to mention it lets you rid yourself of crippling easily when you need to get the heck outa Dodge.

It's not meant to deal super insane damage, it's meant to deal good damage while still maintaining survivability and utility.

It's not going to deal enough damage so that it matters, nor is it going to save you when it matters.

Quote:

But again nothing stop it even Prot Spirit. Only SB, Shadow Form, and such skills can stop those which is not relavant in most builds!

But again it doesn't matter, since the larger threats in your team would know how to switch targets, mm? Keeping up pretty much inconsequential damage on a single person is borderline idiotic.

Quote:

Blood need to have a team of at least 4 Nec in order to make it effective.

I agree. Only because I'm referring to Bloodspike.

Moloch Vein · Jan 31, 2008, 07:37 AM // 07:37

Additionally I would like to note that one other reasons why Life Transfer sucks is that it needs to be echoed due to its insane recharge for such a limited effect. Thus you waste two skill slots on a subpar elite.

Seriously the recharge on Life Transfer should be HALVED.

Stormlord Alex · Jan 31, 2008, 10:30 AM // 10:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moloch Vein

Seriously the recharge on Life Transfer should be HALVED.

Even at 5/1/5 LT still would be pretty crap, on account of the Blood line as a whole failing miserably.

By comparison, Reaper's Mark and Corrupt Enchantment actually do something useful, and are in attribute lines that are useful too.

Ensign · Jan 31, 2008, 11:24 AM // 11:24

Life Transfer on a 15 recharge would be a reasonable skill; I think it'd be slightly better than Reaper's Mark, albeit in a questionable attribute. The skill on a faster recharge than that would be nutty. Of course, it's trash in its current form.