Curse

lennymon · Jun 19, 2007, 01:06 AM // 01:06

Here's the build I took for HM THK this weekend (got bonus too). Of note, I brought my buddy Norgu with hypochondria among other stuff.

Marksmanship: 12+1
Wilderness Survival: 8+1
Expertise: 10+3+1

[skill]Distracting Shot[/skill][skill]Burning Arrow[/skill][skill]Concussion Shot[/skill][skill]Apply Poison[/skill][skill]Throw Dirt[/skill][skill]Barbed Trap[/skill][skill]Tripwire[/skill][skill]Flesh of My Flesh[/skill]

Sophitia Leafblade · Jun 19, 2007, 09:37 AM // 09:37

Ive found Glass Arrows to be devasting in the Desert missions where the enemies have high AL.

[skill]Glass Arrows[/skill][skill]Savage shot[/skill][skill]Marauder's shot[/skill][skill]Dual shot[/skill][skill]Forked Arrow[/skill][skill]Throw dirt[/skill][skill]Troll Unguent[/skill][skill]Rebirth[/skill]

Using stats 12+2 in expertise, 12+1+2 in Marksmanship and 3+1 in wilderness. I use a Vampiric longbow while using this build too, this is too increase the damage and for a little self healing.

When i unlock it i plan on Replacing Marauders with Triple shot to increase my dps even higher. I also give Razah brutal weapon to cast on me which buffs the damage even higher.

On a side note i also found the build works in alliance Battles too after i took a guildy to his first AB to show him the ropes and was too tired to change build.

HalPlantagenet · Jun 19, 2007, 01:53 PM // 13:53

Thanks Ms. Leafblade. I hadn't considered trying Glass Arrows in HM, but obviously it's worth investigating for those not uncommon situations where blocking is a real problem.

Quaker · Jun 20, 2007, 04:23 PM // 16:23

There are a lot of different builds in this thread, but most of what I've seen (I haven't read the entire thread) don't seem to mention what sort of group these builds are used with. Perhaps they are all for PUGs.

Now that I'm retired (yes, I'm that old), I have a lot of time to play and most of the time there are no Guildies around to play with. So I often just play with heroes and henchies in a self contained mini-P/B group. With this group I have vanquished all of Elona (with 2 exceptions) and most of Cantha (in progress). Plus I use it to do LB runs in the Domain of Secrets in Hard Mode. The group consists of Me, Jin, Margrid, & Olias(mm) & 2 henchie healers, henchie Mesmer, & henchie Paragon (in Elona) or Rit (Cantha) (This varies sometimes, depending upon available henchmen)

My build - only minor runes:
Beast Mastery 9
Expertise 11
Marksmanship 14 (I also have masks with Major & Superior Marksmanship)
EDIT (see 2 posts below) - Healing Prayers 2 (leftovers)

[skill]Healing Breeze[/skill][skill]Distracting Shot[/skill][skill]Barrage[/skill][skill]Disrupting Lunge[/skill][skill]Throw Dirt[/skill][skill]Comfort Animal[/skill][skill]Charm Animal[/skill][skill]Rebirth[/skill]

EDIT (see 2 posts below) - the first slot can be thought of as an 'optional slot'.
Healing Breeze is replaced by Lightbringers Gaze where applicable. Lately I've been experimenting with "Never Rampage Alone" instead of HB.

Acolyte Jin (and Margrid) have the same attribute distribution as I, except that they each have a Major Marksmanship and so Marksmanship is 15. All the Heroes have appropriate Runes and Insignias (including Major Vigor). Both rangers use flatbows - I mostly use a Flatbow, but sometimes a Shortbow when enemies are close or FW is down.

Jin uses:

[skill]Barbed Arrows[/skill][skill]Favorable Winds[/skill][skill]Punishing Shot[/skill][skill]Distracting Shot[/skill][skill]Healing Breeze[/skill][skill]Comfort Animal[/skill][skill]Rebirth[/skill][skill]Charm Animal[/skill] - FW is 'disabled' (Shift click) so I can get her to use in as desired.

Margrid uses:

[skill]Favorable Winds[/skill][skill]Barrage[/skill][skill]distracting shot[/skill][skill]Throw Dirt[/skill][skill]Healing Breeze[/skill][skill]Comfort Animal[/skill][skill]rebirth[/skill][skill]charm animal[/skill] - She does FW automagically.

Olias has a more or less standard MM build with Superior Death Magic and all points in DM and Soul Reaping:

[skill]animate vampiric horror[/skill][skill]animate flesh golem[/skill][skill]animate bone horror[/skill][skill]animate shambling horror[/skill][skill]blood of the master[/skill][skill]heal area[/skill][skill]deathly swarm[/skill][skill]rebirth[/skill]

Of course, there are many techniques that have to be used to make this work. They vary depending upon the mobs you encounter etc. Basically, you need to use flagging extensively. For example, I usually flag the group at some point and pull the mobs to them. Also, if I die, and things are going bad, I make the rest of the group run by flagging them out of danger and then use the flag to carefully bring the survivors back within range to use rebirth.
I manually use Jin's FW before pulling a group or when Margrid's goes down or hasn't recharged yet.
Another thing to keep in mind is to temporarily disable Comfort Animal (Shift-click) on Jin and Margrid if you are in the midst of trying to rez the group, so that they don't rez their pets and cause agro.

Btw, the 2 places where I didn't use henchies, I had a Guildie (also a B/P) with me. In those cases I had Olias, Jin, & Tahikora with me - he had Jin, Margrid & Dunkoro.

Also, I've done TotPK (in normal mode) with these heroes plus 2 henchie healers and 2 henchie archers. In that case Jin had the same build as Margrid.

Also, also - I generally use the same Ranger build shown above when I'm in a PUG too.

XvArchonvX · Jun 20, 2007, 05:16 PM // 17:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quaker

My build - only minor runes:
Beast Mastery 9
Expertise 11
Marksmanship 14 (I also have masks with Major & Superior Marksmanship)

[skill]Healing Breeze[/skill][skill]Distracting Shot[/skill][skill]Barrage[/skill][skill]Disrupting Lunge[/skill][skill]Throw Dirt[/skill][skill]Comfort Animal[/skill][skill]Charm Animal[/skill][skill]Rebirth[/skill]

According to your attribute spread, you spend 10 energy on 10 seconds of 3 health regen, but I have a feeling that's a typo.

Personally, I believe that it's solely a monk's job to make red bars go up, but a good defense on a player to prevent them from going down to fast or too much is a good idea. For this reason, I would strongly suggest a defensive stance such as Lightning Reflexes, Natural Stride, or Whirling Defense instead of a self heal that requires a separate attribute investment in order to be effective.

Quaker · Jun 20, 2007, 10:43 PM // 22:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by XvArchonvX

According to your attribute spread, you spend 10 energy on 10 seconds of 3 health regen, but I have a feeling that's a typo.

Personally, I believe that it's solely a monk's job to make red bars go up.....

Actually I have 2 points in Healing Prayers (leftovers), so it's +4.

But, you are right, it is the monks job to do healing. Just because I have HB with me, doesn't mean I'm going around using it all the time. Even the Heroes use it very rarely. The only time I use Healing Breeze is on those occasions when the monks are down, or out of energy and I need a minor heal to ensure I, or someone else, survives. For example, if everyone in the group gets killed, and I'm the only left, and I'm bleeding....
The advantage to taking HB as opposed to some defensive stance, is that I can use HB on another player, or pet, or even some NPC's.

Maybe I should have pointed that out specifically, but I did say I replace it with Lightbringer's Gaze when appropriate, and I am currently trying out [skill=text]Never Rampage Alone[/skill] instead, as sort of a combined Tiger's Fury and HB. (NRA's energy cost - 14 with expertise of 11 - is a bit high, so I mostly use it only once at the start of battle. And your pet needs to be alive to use it.)
I would, in fact, have put NRA in the skill listing but it displays as "Unknown skill:Never Rampage Alone" because it's not on Wiki at this time and, therefore, would mess up the nice skill display.

Lourens · Jun 21, 2007, 10:51 AM // 10:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by HalPlantagenet

The energy saving of [skill=text]Archer's Signet[/skill] enables you to launch and repeat 3-4 high energy skills, i.e. [skill=text]Concussion Shot[/skill] that you wouldn't be able to combine with such immediacy in other circumstances, even with high Expertise. It's not just its benfit with one other skill. It's difficult to imagine that anyone that uses it isn't aware that they're giving up their Elite slot.

Having said that, my sense is that degen, particularly poisoning, is the key to what I've played of Hard Mode and there are several interesting variations within that theme that are possible. [skill=text]Needling Shot[/skill] and an IAS are almost always constants with me in that context.

An exception to my previous posts comes to mind: the dock's mission in Elona, (which I've always particularly enjoyed.) [skill=text]Splinter Weapon[/skill] and [skill=text]Barrage[/skill] are phenomenal there, particularly with two rangers thus equipped. In that case, it's useful to bring along Olias and his entourage to play interference.

And the Signet has a recharge time maybe a good idea to trow in mantra of inscriptions the build i use in HM is a Poison Arrow/Blleeding Preperation Build