Curse

Berzerk · Sep 28, 2006, 02:34 AM // 02:34

http://gwshack.us/c8bba
http://www.gwshack.us/61582 v2.0

Here's a build my guild just started testing. We've gone 3/1 with it in one night, with a big win against a rank ~200 guild (we are currently ~400).
The idea is to just apply alot of straight forward pressure and call spikes often, while still having plenty of defense:
Infuse covers spikes, which comes in handy alot.
We seem to have plenty of warrior hate coming from the eles, more hex removal than usual, and alot more condition removal (which is great against all those degen/pressure builds). 3 copies of HP is great for topping off health and keeping our monks relaxed a little.
Spikes are great. The damage is just overwhelming for most monks it seems, especially when one of them is KD or blacked out.
We can usually apply enough pressure to hold the stand, allowing me and the axe to split off and annoy their NPCs. With DP, the remaining war and eles have no problem picking people off. 5 KD and snares usually means we can hold the stand long enough for morale.
The one loss we had came from one of those heavy pressure cripshot/melandru's builds, but with a sin for ganking. We had to break off people to stop the gank, and meanwhile their pressure just overwhelmed us at the stand.
I'm not really sure how to fix this problem. With VoD coming so fast now, a dedicated gank would tear us apart, concidering we really dont have a defined gank. The mesmer seems weakest, so I thought maybe of replacing it with a ganking sin of our own. This means they have to break off to stop it, and we probably have enough pressure to push them hard at the stand. Another idea was a tainted necro for even more pressure, either with some more heals, maybe aegis, or even gale. A smiter could also take its place. We just can't decide, and more testing would help, but I just wanted to throw the build your way to see what you think.

Envy Eternum · Sep 28, 2006, 02:56 AM // 02:56

change your mesmer to have e-burn. Having e-surge with e-burn a waste.
Infuse isnt needed really. RoF from the boon prot can stall enuff time for teh blight to follow up with gift or something. If your having problems with spilts change ur monks around a bit. Mainly the blight. Give him /Assassin with dark escape and return. Changes your monks to something like this:

Boon prot

rof
sig o d
mend ail
prot spirit
gift of health
energy drain
inspired hex
divine boon

Blessed Light Mo/A

blessed light
rof
guardian
sig of d
gift of health
spirit bond
return
dark escape

Dont need e-management on a blight really. 4 regen a good choice of weapon swaps is solid enough

Instead of infuse take draw conditions on one ele And your condit removal is settled. Since you alrdy of two heal party emos an emo flagger isnt really needed. Try a crip shot or heck do a gank assassin and fit in windborne on one of the eles and he can partially run flags with the sin. Dual flagger + gank ftw. Backbreaker slows down ur spiek actually. Take devastating hammer becuz that 1.5 sec knockdown is long enough (make sure for stonefist) bulls strike on a hammer is not needed take firece blow for better spikage. And consider taking sprint on the axe war. That way one war is always secure with a speed boost in crucial situations. Otherwise its a pretty basic build.

Stealth Rider · Sep 28, 2006, 04:13 AM // 04:13

IMO, change the res ele around so it has:

Orb
Enervating
FLash
Prod
Draw
Ward/Melee
Glyph/Sacrifice
Res Chant

Three HPs is overkill, the Ward will help more IMO.

Also, Backbreaker will be Blacked Out more than you'd like. Either take TTL instead of Bull's Strike on him, or switch him to Dev/Crushing/Fierce/Bulls/Frenzy/healsig/Rush/Res Sig.

Taking sprint on the Shock will also help.

Dragannia · Sep 28, 2006, 06:53 AM // 06:53

I agree with the above. A Ward will migitate much of the damage healed by 1 HP. 2 HPs is probably enough. Draw on the Elementalist is also good. And To the Limit should definately be there if using Backbreaker, but not strictly necessary. And as Stealth Rider put it, Sprint on the Shock warrior will make for a faster split.

fatboyslimerr · Sep 28, 2006, 09:21 AM // 09:21

2 Gift of Health Boon Prots is better than any combination of boon prot and BL imo. Against NR, unbooning still means you've got ok heals and an energy management elite. Against non NR, boon+ gift =200 something heal which you can't really complain about. Catching spikes with a booned gift is gg

I would definitely take wards on one of the eles since perma blind isn't enough these days for anti warrior.

I know this isn't nearly original but I like taking dark escape on surge mesmers because when your being spiked distortion doesn't stop nasty Orbs. Dark Escape will make you a lot tougher and give you a run buff to help chain run flags or something. But that means losing gale but you hardly need gale and blackout.

If you have 2 E/Mos at the flag, imo you should use a crip shot flag runner but thats upto you and your guild and how you play. Although crip shot is definitely my preferred flag runner due to their split capabilities.

A nice build though.

Patrograd · Sep 28, 2006, 10:53 AM // 10:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by fatboyslimerr

I would definitely take wards on one of the eles since perma blind isn't enough these days for anti warrior.

Perma blind is never a good idea. Its a total waste of energy

A good blindbot has the ability to blind you just as you spike. If you have 2 competent players on the bots who can spot incoming spikes then 2 blinds is easily enough to break adrenaline spikes, and imo is a stronger play than wards, as it takes a really good player to put wards in a position where they actually serve a useful purpose. Putting them in the wrong place can cost you a game against a good team.

As the meta is currently ranger heavy, blind also scores massively over wards.

Other than that, you really need sprint on the shock axe as previously commented, and if you want to spike fast then dev/crushing/fierce is better than backbreaker.

As for emo vs cripshot runner. IMO, the current heavy degen meta means that you cant have too many HPs or extinguishes. Alot of builds are running 3 dshots at the moment, and 3 debalancing shots for your monks. Midline healing is ftw imo, and lots of it.

fatboyslimerr · Sep 28, 2006, 04:42 PM // 16:42

Suppose your right but tbh I don't think the meta is really degen heavy. Sure a few people run that 3 ranger build..sometimes with NR, but I don't really think a dominant metagame has been established yet. I've seen guilds running caster spikes, 3 warrior pressure builds, dual surge e-denial, 3 monk/2 assassin gank builds and countless more.

I wasn't saying wards by themselves is enough, I mean wards as well as the prespike blindage at least copes with the evil damage from adrenal pressure/spikes.

Another HP is useful but 3 HPs is overkill imo. If your really worried about condition degen take a martyr shutdown mesmer or something.

I'm still gonna take my crip shot :P

Berzerk · Oct 13, 2006, 02:06 PM // 14:06

So, after everyone's suggestions and some more playtesting, we tweaked the build a little bit. I edited the OP to include the new site.