Curse

arcady · Nov 28, 2007, 07:16 PM // 19:16

Got Livia yesterday for the first time, with one of my monks.

I noticed she comes built as a Blood Necromancer, and I'm wondering if I should keep to that theme or switch to something else. Through my Necromancer I have capped both SS and BiP. Also have Depravity, Order of Apostasy, and Reaper's Mark.

Keeping her blood, using BiP, sounds appealing, but I've never put together a blood necromancer, and I'm also not sure how well she, as a hero, would perform with it.

Did a search yesterday for Livia on the forums, and all I came up with was threads about her looks, not about how to use her.

Thoughts?

Cathode_Reborn · Nov 28, 2007, 07:51 PM // 19:51

Nec heroes are both good at MM bombing and healing as an N/Rt. Both are very effective. Besides Spoil victor and Blood ritual, blood just kinda sucks in pve. The damage is much too low and many of the utility skills just arn't that great in pve

Heroes arn't very good at using SS but having all those antimelee spells is still nice. Or you can just use some other random build and spec into curses a little just for Enfeebling blood. Whatever build she uses is upto you really.

CDittric77 · Nov 28, 2007, 08:02 PM // 20:02

I've kept her as a blood necro and have used her with a number of elites, BiP, SS, etc. At the moment she's using

[skill]Spoil Victor[/skill]

peanut_chew · Dec 04, 2007, 11:33 PM // 23:33

hero's do very well as MM's. any generic build that's simple will work great!

Longasc · Dec 05, 2007, 12:41 AM // 00:41

Olias is already my MM
Master is my SS
I am Necro myself, to make her even more superfluos...

Livia as blood necro is a waste IMO. The heroes do not spam skills like mad, and for a blood battery, no need for a full blood necro imo. She does not play it well, just like heroes make poor assassins as they do not execute chains or spam certain skills. But she does really well with short recharge/duration weapon spells.

So how about a Ritualist healer? N/Rt. +1 Soul Reaping Headgear, I gave her survivor armor and attunement runes.

Basically, Sab's N/Rt build.
http://www.pvxwiki.com/wiki/?title=S...SzJ 3wccWVvYA

Shines in 6 man vanquishing areas. Was playing something like that myself as we had 8 man in Darkrime Delves and only 1 Monk, and we survived... though I would still have preferred a 2nd monk tbh. Enduring healer of a different kind, I like it. Should try a N/Mo with WoH another time.

I tried Pure Was Ming Li, but two item spells confuse heroes and she picks Kaolei 99% of the time anyways, you would have to manually use Ming Li to have party wide instant condition removal.

Kwan Xi · Dec 05, 2007, 02:31 AM // 02:31

My Elementalist is a Guy so I felt it might be best for Livia to replace Olias as his MM actually his best heros are all girls coincidently

For my Monk I'm actually thinking of making Livia a MM with Olias and having two at the same time see how that turns out? Otherwise She might be a SS, BiP Battery, or some curse Necro.

Shadowmere · Dec 05, 2007, 06:44 AM // 06:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kwan Xi

For my Monk I'm actually thinking of making Livia a MM with Olias and having two at the same time see how that turns out?

If you want to go the 2 MM route i can offer you some advice.

*You can reduce the corpse fighting between the two by setting one up to use Malign Intervention+Verata's Gaze as their main minion skill, they ARE smart enough to use this to good effect, and you'll essentially gain 2 minions out of nearly every corpse.

*Try setting one up as a more "Standard MM" and the other as a "Support MM" the support MM uses the Malign/Gaze minion system, as well as a variety of other skills (of your choosing) to improve the minion's function; i.e. Barbs, "Fall Back!", & Life. Just to name a few.

*Have only 1 BotM between them, with a higher minion count BotM hurts a lot more so the one carrying it should also have some skills to help with that; a better self heal, dark bond, or Aura of the Lich

lol wow I'm gonna stop now before I write a book

but hope it helps!

Terraban · Dec 05, 2007, 07:17 PM // 19:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shadowmere

If you want to go the 2 MM route i can offer you some advice.

*You can reduce the corpse fighting between the two by setting one up to use Malign Intervention+Verata's Gaze as their main minion skill, they ARE smart enough to use this to good effect, and you'll essentially gain 2 minions out of nearly every corpse.

*Try setting one up as a more "Standard MM" and the other as a "Support MM" the support MM uses the Malign/Gaze minion system, as well as a variety of other skills (of your choosing) to improve the minion's function; i.e. Barbs, "Fall Back!", & Life. Just to name a few.

*Have only 1 BotM between them, with a higher minion count BotM hurts a lot more so the one carrying it should also have some skills to help with that; a better self heal, dark bond, or Aura of the Lich

lol wow I'm gonna stop now before I write a book

but hope it helps!

I have never ever been able to get heroes to use Verata's Gaze.

Ensign · Dec 05, 2007, 11:11 PM // 23:11

Blood Magic is terribad as a main line in a team setup. Personally I use her as a Curses guy for when I want dual Curses, or for an alternative rune setup to what Master of Whispers has. Dual MM's is virtually never what I want out of my heroes; I think it's only really attractive in Vizunah Square. N/Rt Healers are worse than N/Rt Curses guys with a couple Resto skills now in my experience.

Shadowmere · Dec 05, 2007, 11:52 PM // 23:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by Terraban

I have never ever been able to get heroes to use Verata's Gaze.

Really? I run Olias with this setup to backup my necro MM on a regular basis, he seems to get 75-85% of all the horrors from malign, the ones he missess are usually when Gaze is recharging too.

Moloch Vein · Dec 06, 2007, 12:10 AM // 00:10

Heroes use Verata's Gaze.

N/Rt healer is still viable if you run with a MM or minion bomber and limit the number of spirits to Life and Rejuvenation. Used it on my player character during Gyala Hatchery HM to make sure none of the turtle pets bit the dust, and boy, it can spam.

Problem with heroes is they don't realize the potential of the build thus do not spam enough in the right situation.

Cathode_Reborn · Dec 06, 2007, 07:33 AM // 07:33

I didn't like using N/Rt healers till the update that made ai alot less stupid with weapon spells. Before the update, there wasn't much of a reason to use them imo - a monk spec'd into healing with nothing but 5e spells can keep his energy up for a very long time. Now that heroes can use Weapon of warding properly, they're much more effective. The nerf to LoD made healing monks a little less attractive too....henches are horrible at dealing with aoe stuff

[skill]Spirit Light Weapon[/skill][skill]Weapon of Warding[/skill][skill]Wielder's Boon[/skill][skill]Spirit Light[/skill][skill]Mend Body and Soul[/skill][skill]Life[/skill][skill]Protective was Kaolai[/skill][skill]Signet of Lost Souls[/skill]

I use Weapon of remedy over Spirit light weapon sometimes.

Chthon · Dec 06, 2007, 06:19 PM // 18:19

When I use 2 necro heroes on a team of 8 and I am not myself playing a necro, I frequently use:

[skill]Spiteful Spirit[/skill][skill]Reckless Haste[/skill][skill]Mark of Pain[/skill][skill]Barbs[/skill][skill]Enfeebling Blood[/skill][skill]Desecrate Enchantments[/skill][skill]Awaken the Blood[/skill][skill]rebirth[/skill]
and
[skill]Jagged Bones[/skill][skill]Death Nova[/skill][skill]Draw Conditions[/skill][skill]Infuse Condition[/skill][skill]Putrid Flesh[/skill][skill]Animate Bone Minions[/skill][skill]Well of Suffering[/skill][skill]Rebirth[/skill]

These two builds synergize nicely with each other, and work pretty well with the hero AI.
Couple notes:
Desecrate and Awaken are kinda so-so skills, but the heroes use them more intelligently than other options. Feel free to experiment.
Rebirth on a hero has some drawbacks that you may or may not find worth the benefits. Substitute a rez of your choice.

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If you're just using 1 necro hero, I'd bring the SS build above in most cases.

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If you're bringing 3 necro heroes (in a team of 8), I'd use the two above and add a SV guy.

A lot of folks are totally ga-ga over SAB's builds. They do an admirable job of compressing an entire team's functions down into 3 builds, which makes them excellent for 4-man vanquishing, but I find them very lackluster in an 8-man setting. Also, there's a lot of AI issues with the skills, particularly on the resto build, which I would prefer avoid whenever possible. I wouldn't recommend any of the three as a hero build in an 8-man team.

If you want some less-traditional hero necro builds for 8-man situations, you might check out this thread. Just remember that they all rely on a minion bomber to power the energy engine.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ensign

Personally I use her as a Curses guy

And I thought the things Gadd made her do were depraved...

Sir Pandra Pierva · Dec 06, 2007, 09:35 PM // 21:35

HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA that is funny

Also i use her as a death pact rezer with a little dmg power. Or if I am running nec i run
SS nec
SV nec
MM

always is interesting to watch the dmg with those 3 cookie cutter builds going at once.

System_Crush · Dec 07, 2007, 09:39 AM // 09:39

[skill=text]Light of Deliverance[/skill] got nerfed, so now instead of 2 monks I replace one monk with a necro hero readied with:

[skill=text]Signet of Lost Souls[/skill]
[wiki]Cure Hex[/wiki]
[wiki]Spotless Soul[/wiki]
[skill=text]Glimmer of Light[/skill]
[wiki]Healing Ribbon[/wiki] or [skill=text]Dwayna's Kiss[/skill]
[skill=text]Signet of Rejuvenation[/skill]
[skill=text]Blood Ritual[/skill]
[skill=text]Restore Life[/skill]

As a soul reaping powered healer, it's as good as any healing monk; Still take a protection hybrid too of course.