Curse

Divineshadows · Feb 26, 2007, 07:45 PM // 19:45

Given that I'm not in the mood to play TA or HA until lamentation gets a 2 second cast time, I figured I'll release the two most powerful builds I've played lately for others to enjoy:

http://gwshack.us/e6d81 - NR build

Keep NR in your opponents' range if they're using hexes or any long casting enchantments. Players on your team kite opposing melee into the traps. Use debilitating shot on their primary source of condition removal (i.e. anyone with draw conditions or restore condition). Interrupt like mad. Have fun

If the person playing the trapper wants to use whirling defense instead of natural stride, then that's fine.

http://gwshack.us/9b371 - Dual rampage build with weapon of monk stomp

It's a farming build and takes less skill overall to run than the NR build.

Weapon of fury is for the rampage thumper and weapon of monk stomp is for the rampage spearchucker. The spearchucker should use a zealous spear all the time unless he's missing a lot (due to heavy blind, miss hexes, or shields up) in which case a furious spear can be used instead. The spearchucker typically attacks the monk unless you really need him interrupting something else on the opposing team and the rampage thumper pressure and disrupts some other soft target (necro, ele, mesmer, ritualist, assassin, etc.).

For more damage but less disruption, the ramapage thumper can be replaced by a dragon slash warrior with a knockdown skill like bull's strike or shock. Weapon of fury, dragon slash, and sun & moon slash go great together.

moko · Feb 26, 2007, 08:28 PM // 20:28

i remember the NR build being played ages ago by [Kame] teams - very deadly. took us a good while to figure out a way to beat that. you used to run a thump back then, though. havnt seen it in ages.

the dual rampage, i dunno about that one. we've been facing it a couple of times now (at least 3-4), including decent teams and rolled it flawless.

hmm, maybe guided weapon on the rit and wildblow on your R/W? this would make stances less of a pain - and distracting blow doesnt really seem too useful with dlunge (<3).

*edit* faced it while making this post - rolled badly again. they didnt really seem to get a lot of damage out, our eda just owned them. :\ i dont get it. <_> i think its simply too weak against blind.

Divineshadows · Feb 26, 2007, 09:08 PM // 21:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mokone

i remember the NR build being played ages ago by [Kame] teams - very deadly. took us a good while to figure out a way to beat that. you used to run a thump back then, though. havnt seen it in ages.

The TA NR build originated with [Eat] with it's creator being Van Goghs Ear during Factions. Back then, the monk ran blessed light, healing touch, gift of health, hex breaker, i-hex, and distortion. The only two monk skills that are the same in fact are draw conditions and signet of devotion. Both rangers ran whirling instead of natural stride. The purge signet wasn't necessary on the oath trapper cause the monk used blessed light and there were not the nasty Nightfall hexes. The cripshot ran blackout instead of mending touch. The warrior bar is identical to the [Eat] version of Factions NR. Several guilds, including [Kame], say the success [Eat] was having with the build and began running it but typically favored a ferocious strike or enraged lunge thumper instead of the warrior. [Eat] eventually developed a variant of the build that swapped the cripshot and shock axe for two shove/horns of the ox sins.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mokone

the dual rampage, i dunno about that one. we've been facing it a couple of times now (at least 3-4), including decent teams and rolled it flawless.

hmm, maybe guided weapon on the rit and wildblow on your R/W? this would make stances less of a pain - and distracting blow doesnt really seem too useful with dlunge (<3).

*edit* faced it while making this post - rolled badly again. they didnt really seem to get a lot of damage out, our eda just owned them. :\ i dont get it. <_> i think its simply too weak against blind.

I suspect your opponents are running it wrong, because it should be a tough match. If the rampage thumper is on the same target as the spearchucker (which is a foolish mistake), then an ebon dust dervish can get a 3 for 1 on the blind (the thumper and both pets) that is devastating. Do you know if the ritualist for the opponents you have faced even has condition removal? Shouldn't be that weak against blind with MB&S and draw conditions. Not only that, the spearchucker gets a reduced blind shield and a reduced blind rune.

Thomas.knbk · Feb 26, 2007, 09:24 PM // 21:24

What's with Smite Hex on the first monk bar? Why not Holy Veil?
I'm not sure about the rit bar in the second build. You will want to protect the target under attack with weapon of shadow/warding, but you can't use both on the same target. That doesn't seem too efficient.

moko · Feb 26, 2007, 09:27 PM // 21:27

about the NR one - it wasnt that old, maybe 2 months or so. :P

regarding the other - im fairly sure all of those rits did carry condition removal, although not all monks (at least half) had dismiss only.

the one time we faced them with the EDA derv they actually did the very silly mistake and let me (the monk) lure together so the EDA could mass blind. the other matches we were running an EDA paragon (because range is actually ftw :P)

i cant really judge the quality of those teams, i just recalled names (P A T) and others i forgot, so i assumed it was a high-ranked "quality" team.

if it was indeed a mistake from the players, ill have to apologize. we dont face american teams that much (and im guessing it is a lot more popular at your servers, hardly anyone in euro runs R/P anymore). still interesting in meeting a good team with it then. petition to nerf lamentation so you play again maybe? :P or maybe ill just try and come along once and see for myself. ;o

Quote:

I'm not sure about the rit bar in the second build. You will want to protect the target under attack with weapon of shadow/warding, but you can't use both on the same target. That doesn't seem too efficient.

recharge on weapon of shadow most likely, and the simple fact that you can keep 1-1 on two diff targets. :P

Quote:

What's with Smite Hex on the first monk bar? Why not Holy Veil?

NR?

Thomas.knbk · Feb 26, 2007, 10:01 PM // 22:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mokone

NR?

Ah, my bad.
1234

Divineshadows · Feb 26, 2007, 10:25 PM // 22:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thomas.knbk

What's with Smite Hex on the first monk bar? Why not Holy Veil?

Obviously veil is the only single hex removal in the game you want to use on your monk, but it's not good under NR as you already have the double cast time on hex effect and you don't want to be brought to 2 pips everytime you cast veil. The 2 pips thing isn't really that big of a deal since you can just cast and then immediately un-maintain the veil to remove the hex you just don't need it for pre-veiling since you have NR. Even at 3 smite, the damage from smite hex can add up over time. The area damage on the skill is huge and 25 damage hitting 3 or 4 players in TA is nothing to sneeze at. Of course, smite hex does 50 damage to any warriors in frenzy or any idiot monks in frenzied defense. That's just an insult when a monk can do 50 damage to the opposing team's monk.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thomas.knbk

I'm not sure about the rit bar in the second build. You will want to protect the target under attack with weapon of shadow/warding, but you can't use both on the same target. That doesn't seem too efficient.

Having weapon of shadow and weapon of warding on the same bar allows you to protect both the rit and the monk at the same time. Or you can cycle them on the monk if the opposition is focusing on your monk more than anything. Weapon of shadow is the more powerful effect, but has the longer recharge so warding is needed to supplement it.

The rit has to resist the urge to put these defensive weapon spells on the rangers since it overrides the offensive weapon spells. If the rangers are taking too much damage, then they should just be told to kite better (after all they have rampage as one which allows for fast kiting).

Divineshadows · Mar 09, 2007, 06:12 PM // 18:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Divineshadows

Given that I'm not in the mood to play TA or HA until lamentation gets a 2 second cast time, I figured...

Lamentation got fixed in a slightly different way, but fixed nonetheless. I'm a happy moogle as I got to play TA last night with my friends and actually picked up a new friend from the TA PuG Organization thread