Curse

]HM[ Sabre Wolf · May 19, 2009, 09:08 PM // 21:08

What new build do you see in play?

With the new Meta change for this weekends mAT... I have seen a raise in Hexes, Physical Damage and even the use of Paras... but the most effective builds I have seen have been Hex heavy with extra heals.

Front: Shock Axe, Dev Hammer
Mid: VoR, LC, Weaken Knees
Back: RC Monk, WoH Monk, Flag

This seems to be the the most use trend this week... what do you think?

Also, here are some new builds that have seen play again...

- Battle Rage Axe tested and spikeable every 3-4 seconds (run same as WE except with Body Blow and Agonize Chop. Also Battle Rage doubles as Rush to cancel Frenzy)

[build prof=Warrior/Ritualist name="BR W/Rit DP" AxeMastery=12+1 Strength=12+1+1 RestorationMagic=3][Body Blow][Dismember][Agonizing Chop][Protector's Strike][Frenzy][Battle Rage][Bull's Strike][Death Pact Signet][/build]

This build plays close to the WE build that got nerfed last update... the spikes are decent and can be dished out quickly with the x2 Adr from Battle Rage. The is a small issue with Energy from repeated use of Frenzy and Prot Strike... but overall, it a decent play.

- Mo/E Flagger w/ GoLE and Heal Party (PwK got scaled back even more and you need extra hex removal now and split ablity)

[build prof=Monk/Elementalist name="Split/Flag WoH Monk" HealingPrayers=12+1+1 ProtectionPrayers=8 DivineFavor=9+1 AirMagic=5][Word of Healing][Patient Spirit][Mending Touch][Cure Hex][Guardian][Glyph of Lesser Energy][Heal Party][Storm Djinn's Haste][/build]

I have use this build extensively the past few days along with the E/Rit Flag... and overall, this build seems to have been doing better then the E/Rit. Although you do loose some damage ([[Energy [email protected]]) and/or snare ([[Freezing Gust]), your heals are a lot better to cope with the increased damage. With [[Protective was [email protected]] being scaled and [[[email protected]] having it own limits, I have seen that [[Heal [email protected]] has shown more benifits the the above combo. In one battle from long range (Radar) I was able to cast Heal Party 4 times for a combined (72x8x4) 2,304 HP! The heals I find are better then any E/Rit or Rit/W can do... and you still have the speed of [[Storm Djinn's Haste]. The other minus to this build however is loosing [[Energy [email protected]] with this energy and defensive ability... but its a sacrifice to gain more healing ability over a skill that only heals for 51 HP, [[Wielder's [email protected]]...

EDIT: have no idea why the skill code is not picking up the format... :-/

xDementia · May 19, 2009, 09:53 PM // 21:53

Expecting Soul Bind to see some play as well instead of Weaken Knees in hex builds maybe.

The death of Aegis and midline party healing puts more emphasis on party healing on the flagger as ever compared to the previous meta. It's a consequence of no more N/Rt because omegaspike is dead until someone finds a way to revive it, no more Me/Mo FC smiters with LoD either. Hexes like Rising Bile pretty much nullify what is left to deal with pressure...

Sun Fired Blank · May 19, 2009, 11:04 PM // 23:04

Do any of you even play the same Guild Wars that I do?

I Angra I · May 20, 2009, 03:16 AM // 03:16

Hexes and fire ele splits are going to dominate this monthly. I assume some euro guilds will use some kind of honor balanced spike though.

Battle rage is kind of nice but with spikes toned down it's not as effective as it would have been in the previous meta, had WE not been there.

I expect to see a hex vs hex finals, aka really boring.

Snow Bunny · May 20, 2009, 03:40 AM // 03:40

HEXES.

It be humorous if it were on Jade and we had practically come full circle.

matthew5276 · May 20, 2009, 11:38 AM // 11:38

The meta at the moment has been very variable, although is becoming more standard, and I expect it to be even more hex dominated by the mAT, which is, incidentally, not this Saturday, but the next (30/5). But at the moment, hexways seem to be seeing the most play, with variable amounts of hexers in the midline, and variable amounts of frontliners in the frontline, although I'm sure that the strongest hexway will be found fairly soon, and become 'meta'.

Apart from hexes, many Mind Blast splits are seeing play, but I'm still not sure that they will pose a huge threat in the mAT. Apart from that, there is the odd honor balance, and the occasional paragon seeing play; usually in a 2 warrior, para, mesmer, b-bot build.

So I would expect many hex builds in the final, and perhaps more copies of hex breaker.

English Warrior · May 20, 2009, 11:49 AM // 11:49

Euro balanced with Para>Dom Mes i think some people will run.

I D E L E T E D I · May 20, 2009, 12:13 PM // 12:13

This Meta sounds just as RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GOing horrible as the last one...

Divinus Stella · May 20, 2009, 01:15 PM // 13:15

Well the usual course of action when facing an 8v8 hex build like that would be take a smiter, SoH got nerfed but i think judges will work just as well.

Smite hex and with deny hex's and the 2 divine favor party heals makes for one hell of a support character if your certain you are facing hex's.

Also power block will be pretty awesome meaning theres a good to reason to take a dom mesmer now.
Its not so bad for balanced, atleast all the warriors endurance shitters will have a hard time killing anything.

Vanquisher · May 20, 2009, 01:23 PM // 13:23

The last balance update was very well thought out and the issues raised were clearly well addressed.

Seriously. Nerfs to party heals were ridiculous and with PnH scaled down, coupled with a half assed change to Lingering, this was always gonna happen. Heavy Physicals is another build that could crop up thanks to no Aegis/good party healing and obviously splits with Wurms (twice) and Frozen in the rotation.

]HM[ Sabre Wolf · May 20, 2009, 02:39 PM // 14:39

Yes I agree... very Hex heavy and probably Split heavy as well...

But I think Divinus Stella is on to somthing though... with the Smiter... but with the 1 Second casting times on most Smite Spells... could the Mesmer be the primary and also carry Expel Hexes or Ephatic Removal? This will releave a lot of pressure on the Monks while still being able to doing some damage. One smite off near a Warrior in a Frenzy will do over 100 damage. But either way, yes on the Hex Breaker like in the last Final.

As for the Party Heals that someone else mentioned... another reason to go with the Mo/E above with the 2,300 HP Party heal ability...

But that would mean 4 Monks on one team? ouch... thats kinda blah and very little damage.

Divinus Stella · May 20, 2009, 03:35 PM // 15:35

Why worry about 1 second casts?

Hex teams and split builds tend to drop disruption so you can afford to take long casts.

Apok Omen · May 20, 2009, 09:29 PM // 21:29

The Aegis nerf, I understand. Because the DPS from warriors has been crucially decreased, thanks to WE being nerfed, bringing old Aegis would mean even less DPS, resulting in nothing dying. Also, you have to admit, it was too good of a passive defense skill, regardless of energy cost or range.

What I don't understand is why LC didn't have it's AoE nerfed. I would've felt that simply making it target only one foe would be enough, even with the old 33% health debenefit. Same with VoR; the skill would be fine if it only targetted one foe.

However, the map rotation seems very split-friendly. Will we still see hexes? Hell, yes. The most popular hexway out there is:

1 Whirling Axe (Gets rid of Hex Breaker/Mantra of Resolve)
1 MageBane/Mel Shot with Needling Shot (Needling=New Hunters)
1 LC
1 VoR
1 WK

Nerf to PwK was iffy. If the touched the cast time, as everyone said to do, it would be fine. With a 25 sec recharge, they are pushing it. Definitely gonna see E/Rt's packing Life, maybe Divine Healing on PnH.

More MB Eles are switching to E/D's for FeatherFoot and Dwayna Touch, so Whirling would be pretty much useless against them.

But hey, at least OmegaSpike was nerfed.

Massive Impulsa · May 22, 2009, 05:33 PM // 17:33

Current Builds

Balance
Axe
Hammer
Mel/Magebane/Paragon
Pblock/Esurge
FC Snare/BS
RC
WoH
Ether Prism

---------------------------
Balance Hexway
Crippslash
Axe/Hammer
Melandrus
VoR
LC
RC
WoH
Ether Prism

-----------------
Super Fagway
Crippslash/WS/x
Melandrus/ IA
VoR
LC
WK
RC
WoH
Ether Prism

------------------
MB Split
Hammer
Hammer
Melshot
Mind Blast
Mind Blast
Prot
WoH
Runner

-------------------

Spikkey
Evis
Hammer
Paragon
Pblock/GoR/Esurge
Mind Shock
RC
WoH
E/rt E-Blast

-----------------

Heavy Physical
Evis
Hammer
Sword
Ranger
Buffer/Support/Dom
RC
WoH
E/rt
Im really pleased with the current builds and variation!

Altough i hope LC and VoR gets tooned down a little, since theire pretty strong when cooped toghetere!

Derelict Daily · May 22, 2009, 08:19 PM // 20:19

A build I haven't seen mentioned in this thread is being run by StP and some others. It's 2 warriors, Mel's ranger and 2 paras. One of the paras is a Cruel Spear; the other is a P/Mo with Empathetic Removal. I observed StP beat dP (running heavy hexes) on Burning with this. It's physical pressure and seemed pretty good at countering the hexes.

On obs right now is frog running this on Burning - and beating DirT.

]HM[ Sabre Wolf · May 22, 2009, 09:19 PM // 21:19

yes, all those builds seem to be the main stream... my only question is, on hard core Split, becuase I have seen double sin splits also, how does a team with 2 W, 1R, 2 P or 2 W, 3 Mes (VoR Hard Rez and 2 Fast Cast Curses w/ Distortion), break up to cover this?

Also, after everyone said the changes are going to force a faster battle... all signs have shown a middle length, 12-15 minute battles and not that 4-6 minute shorties. This is going to be one heck of a fight this month since there are very little spikes in this meta (no more Omega) and lots of pressure. Also, if the matches go longer... kinda plays into [rawr]'s style.

Ec]-[oMaN · May 22, 2009, 09:27 PM // 21:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by ]HM[ Sabre Wolf

yes, all those builds seem to be the main stream... my only question is, on hard core Split, becuase I have seen double sin splits also, how does a team with 2 W, 1R, 2 P or 2 W, 3 Mes (VoR Hard Rez and 2 Fast Cast Curses w/ Distortion), break up to cover this?

Also, after everyone said the changes are going to force a faster battle... all signs have shown a middle length, 12-15 minute battles and not that 4-6 minute shorties. This is going to be one heck of a fight this month since there are very little spikes in this meta (no more Omega) and lots of pressure. Also, if the matches go longer... kinda plays into [rawr]'s style.

Just like how everything else is done, you build 8v8 you build to break teams, especially backlines. I don't mean to generalize but it's been apparent for the last year+ Euro meta likes heavy pressure builds, they face a split and try score kills and base rezzes on key characters before the match even reaches 12minutes vs a split team. Indeed it will be a more entertaining MAT than what we've had for a very long time, which I'm pleased about, build variety is sort of just starting to come back, but there will always be those relatively easy 2-3 builds which take notice or are easier to run over others.

Derelict Daily · May 22, 2009, 09:45 PM // 21:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by ]HM[ Sabre Wolf

yes, all those builds seem to be the main stream... my only question is, on hard core Split, becuase I have seen double sin splits also, how does a team with 2 W, 1R, 2 P or 2 W, 3 Mes (VoR Hard Rez and 2 Fast Cast Curses w/ Distortion), break up to cover this?

Also, after everyone said the changes are going to force a faster battle... all signs have shown a middle length, 12-15 minute battles and not that 4-6 minute shorties. This is going to be one heck of a fight this month since there are very little spikes in this meta (no more Omega) and lots of pressure. Also, if the matches go longer... kinda plays into [rawr]'s style.

I have a feeling that americans might benefit somewhat from this change in the meta. The euros were always good with the old Aegis, while americans seemed to always like stance monks.

Ec]-[oMaN · May 22, 2009, 09:52 PM // 21:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by Derelict Daily

I have a feeling that americans might benefit somewhat from this change in the meta. The euros were always good with the old Aegis, while americans seemed to always like stance monks.

Has very little to do with that. If Euros build for pressure don't run hammer, since Americans love b stance, proceed to by-pass that with any standard axe+sword, maybe slotting whirling to break the stance while not killing adren and able to use bulls+Shock, proceed to push backline while hexes rape the rest. Americans love their splits exempt by about 1-2 American guilds, in either case split's midline/backline needs to stay alive at key moments to allow the split to do it's job, and frankly with the abundance of hexes and nerf to pnH it's even harder. provided decent play there are still really only 2 split maps in this up-coming MAT rotation, bank on seeing 8v8 builds take crown.

Derelict Daily · May 22, 2009, 10:56 PM // 22:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ec]-[oMaN

Has very little to do with that. If Euros build for pressure don't run hammer, since Americans love b stance, proceed to by-pass that with any standard axe+sword, maybe slotting whirling to break the stance while not killing adren and able to use bulls+Shock, proceed to push backline while hexes rape the rest. Americans love their splits exempt by about 1-2 American guilds, in either case split's midline/backline needs to stay alive at key moments to allow the split to do it's job, and frankly with the abundance of hexes and nerf to pnH it's even harder. provided decent play there are still really only 2 split maps in this up-coming MAT rotation, bank on seeing 8v8 builds take crown.

well, who knows? But I just saw yumy roll StS and BadV. They ran blasters on wurm, but an 8v8 hex build on frozen. yumy is fairly good at buildwars. They are good at splits, but not as dependent on them as a lot of american teams.