Curse

Legendary Shiz · Aug 20, 2006, 10:01 PM // 22:01

On that shock war, I think subbing Sprint in for Rush would be much smarter considering the build is very adren heavy and dependent as it is.

shardfenix · Aug 21, 2006, 05:41 AM // 05:41

you forgot one

Quote:

RA Touch Ranger
12 Blood, 12+3+1 expertise

Vampyric Bite
Vampyric Touch
Dodge

Seef II · Aug 21, 2006, 07:05 AM // 07:05

The thumper is missing the IAS; most matches don't last long enough for Comfort Animal to matter IMO, but Tiger's Fury disables res sig, so it's sort of a wash. But it's definitely one of the more fun builds to run in RA since you are pure offense.

Good read.

LightningHell · Aug 21, 2006, 07:10 AM // 07:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by shardfenix

you forgot one

When you play RA you want to get to TA after 10 consecs, I believe. Getting a toucher means you'll get fried in there.

galkraft · Aug 21, 2006, 08:30 AM // 08:30

I disagree with leaving. The player swap mechanics added since late spring make it more devastating to players who STAY, potentially ruining THEIR chance of glad points. So, if all but 1 ally is dead, and you don't see him making an attempt to rez, then say "gg" and leave. OR, if your team has too much defense and too little dps, resulting in very long winded battles, everyone agreeing to quit is also acceptable.

Other than that, you do not really improve yourself by quitting early. Working with a team, even a random team, involves making calls, suggesting tactics (yes, "rez" is the most common word of education...), telling them in between victories how to better play the next match, etc. Working with a team means adapting builds and play styles. If an Assassin rushes in and gets himself killed, but your fellow necro always gets ahead by it, consider it a lucky mix and go with it. Or if you have a non-Mesmer ally who actually brought a slow rez, but has an excellent ability to survive while doing so, don't rage quit yelling "nOOb". I have earned most of my glad points (I'm a rank 1 gladiator and rank 3 Hero atm...) with a degen/regen/shutdown necro and high healing Restore Life. The majority of my losses were due to early quitters who wouldn't tolerate anything but rez sig, or as mentioned before, a low DPS team. You MUST be tolerant of non-conventional play styles.

If you REALLY don't like your team, and REALLY need to make your time more efficient, and REALLY don't mind being a quitter, then just let the team lose, in your own clever way. Heck, interrupt your own rez sig. That way they'll never resent you for quitting in the middle of a streak.

Quote:

Originally Posted by LightningHell

When you play RA you want to get to TA after 10 consecs, I believe. Getting a toucher means you'll get fried in there.

Farming glad points in RA usually means getting your 10 wins, losing after a few matches in TA, then going back to RA. If you want a good team in TA, you plan it. Unless you believe in the "monkeys will eventually write Shakespeare" theory.

My point? Touchers work fine in RA. I'm sad to say.

Taelith · Aug 21, 2006, 01:25 PM // 13:25

Here is a build I play in RA and TA.

Interupt Ranger: R/N

Expertise: 14 (10+3+1)
Marksmanship: 13 (10+1)
Wilderness Survival: 9 (8+1)
Poison Recurve Bow of Fortitude

Punishing Shot {E}
Distracting Shot
Savage Shot
Plague Touch
Lightning Reflexes
Apply Poison
Troll Unguent
Resurrection Signet

The key to this build is to spread the degen on as many targets as you can. Tab through and interupt the key spells/skills. Know who on the opposing team is a priority target (this depends on your team composition).

Some priority targets with some skills you should watch for:

Ritualist: Binding Chains, Disenchantment, Displacement, Dissonance, Shadowsong, Shelter, Soothing, Union, Wanderlust {E}, Preservation {E}, Recuperation, Boon of Creation.

Necromancer: Life Transfer {E}, Soul Leech {E}, Faintheartedness, Price of Failure, Reckless Haste, Shadow of Fear, Soul Barbs, Spiteful Spirit {E}, Well of the Profane.

Mesmer: Backfire, Diversion, Energy Burn, Energy Surge {E}, Shame, Signet of Weariness, Migraine {E}, Signet of Humility, Spirit Shackles, Spirit of Failure.

Elementalist: Lightning Surge {E}, Thunderclap {E}, Earthquake, Unsteady Ground, Meteor, Meteor Shower.

Assassin: Any Lead or Off-Hand Attack

Ranger: Any Preperation, Troll Unguent

All: Resurrection Signet or other Rez skills

To interupt Assassin chain attacks and touch skills (Vampiric Touch, Blackout, etc.), time your interupt as the target is about to reach their target. For some assassins that use shadow stepping, as soon as you see the animation and sound for it you can usually catch their lead.

LightningHell · Aug 21, 2006, 01:53 PM // 13:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by galkraft

Farming glad points in RA usually means getting your 10 wins, losing after a few matches in TA, then going back to RA. If you want a good team in TA, you plan it. Unless you believe in the "monkeys will eventually write Shakespeare" theory.

My point? Touchers work fine in RA. I'm sad to say.

It is the nature of probability that the improbable will happen, however. Also, touchies are easily eaten at will by cripshots. I think cripshots are quite common nowadays...

llsektorll · Aug 21, 2006, 02:27 PM // 14:27

i can't say this enough... still noobs do it... the way you win RA is <b>BRING A RES SIGNET</B>

The Real Roy Keane · Aug 23, 2006, 11:34 PM // 23:34

Generally, I find any Assasin build with Horns/Falling/Twisting to be very effective in RA.

just rude · Aug 23, 2006, 11:46 PM // 23:46

RA is junk. It's just a place to go when your bored.

WHY? you ask....

Illusion of weakness
Illusionary weaponry
N/W with a sword
E/W obsidian flesh+stone daggers
W/N with virulence
Toucher rangers
Mo/W with BB+Holy strike

the list goes on, its a crap place for crap builds. If you put an eight man team of the most popular RA build VS an eight man team thats actually thought out the RA team would get creamed.

RA is for bored ppl and noobs.

Can some1 pls put in the link as to why we have dont have an RA forum

Gosu · Aug 24, 2006, 02:09 AM // 02:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by Warskull

This lets you know who is worth supporting and who gets priority on rez. For example, you are playing a Boon Prot. Your teammates are a W/Mo stance tank, a thumper, and an interrupt spam ranger. The thumper is outputting excellent damage so you should prioritize your healing and condition removal on him. Meanwhile the W/Mo for the most part is dead weight. You can toss spare heals on him, but you aren’t very concerned with the enemy trying to shut him down (he is already doing nothing for your team.) Lend support to the strong players and don’t waste effort supporting the weak players. Rez the strongest players first.

I have to say great points most of your comments are more or less correct and i agree with most of what you said in your post.

Except this one paragraph which i quoted from your post. now I know we may have different play styles and ethics to playing monks but i feel you are sort of contradicting yourself here, when you say that getting kills is what helps you to win in Ra but you will more or less happily let your warrior/monk kick the bucket in order to save the energy and in some cases the res signet.

Don't you feel action like that is a detriment to the team and could actually put your side on the backfoot?

As i said our styles to playing the monk class vary, when i play monk i prefer to really keep all my team alive no matter how useless i deem them. I feel that the more people fighting in my favour the greater the chance i have of winning the battle.

Also the way i see it that warrior/monk could potentially be diverting attention away from the monk. Diverting attention which could end up being focused on your monk had that warrior been killed in battle, which would inevitably put that monk player under more pressure.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Greedy Gus

This is also why I take a lot of issue with Master Fuhon's response. Frankly, I've been farming glad pts this past week with a very strong warrior build with only endure pain as my self-survivability. I run a build that allows me to precisely dismantle even the best enemy team, as long as I have a decent boon prot teammate enabling me, and 2 other people on our team that have a pulse.

Also in corrospondence to Greedy Gus's comments about taking endure pain, I would really consider taking that maybe in an orgainsed group like in Ta or something. As you clearly have control over who you take so you can easily just bring in a really good boon prot.

As i said we all have different playing styles, now as you have stated you are relying quite a bit on having a decent boon prot to look after you. Though the chances of you getting a decent monk or a monk for that matter in Ra are all down to luck of the draw.

Wouldn't it be more wise to put in some versatility there so you are not depending on having a decent monk to necessarily back you up all the time.

Also wouldn't that extra versatility help for your build to play in different four man teams in Ra where a monk isn't there maybe?

QuixotesGhost · Aug 24, 2006, 07:30 AM // 07:30

Quote:

Farming glad points in RA usually means getting your 10 wins, losing after a few matches in TA, then going back to RA. If you want a good team in TA, you plan it. Unless you believe in the "monkeys will eventually write Shakespeare" theory.

My best TA teams have always been ones that we've taken up through RA. I've definatly had more 50+ win streaks with brought up RA teams then Lobby-built TA teams. After the RA team splits up you put everyone on friends, and put out the TA bat-call everytime you want to stomp TA.

JiggyFly · Aug 24, 2006, 07:57 AM // 07:57

Well technically the best RA strategy is to just sync join with other people, and roll everything. Otherwise I'd agree with the Boon Prot, or Total Offense approach....even though whenever I play my Monk all I get is multi-monk teams it seems like...

Loch · Aug 24, 2006, 08:22 PM // 20:22

Quote:

Don't you feel action like that is a detriment to the team and could actually put your side on the backfoot?

As i said our styles to playing the monk class vary, when i play monk i prefer to really keep all my team alive no matter how useless i deem them. I feel that the more people fighting in my favour the greater the chance i have of winning the battle.

Also the way i see it that warrior/monk could potentially be diverting attention away from the monk. Diverting attention which could end up being focused on your monk had that warrior been killed in battle, which would inevitably put that monk player under more pressure.

When you play to win, you play to win against good teams and not idiots. Even half-decent players will ignore stance tanks. If the stance tank is doing zero for you team, why is your energy going towards his survival?

TheOneMephisto · Aug 24, 2006, 08:57 PM // 20:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by JiggyFly

Well technically the best RA strategy is to just sync join with other people, and roll everything.

QFT. Love getting 4 guildies on vent on the same RA team.

Greedy Gus · Aug 25, 2006, 03:09 AM // 03:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gosu

Also in corrospondence to Greedy Gus's comments about taking endure pain, I would really consider taking that maybe in an orgainsed group like in Ta or something. As you clearly have control over who you take so you can easily just bring in a really good boon prot.

As i said we all have different playing styles, now as you have stated you are relying quite a bit on having a decent boon prot to look after you. Though the chances of you getting a decent monk or a monk for that matter in Ra are all down to luck of the draw.

Wouldn't it be more wise to put in some versatility there so you are not depending on having a decent monk to necessarily back you up all the time.

Also wouldn't that extra versatility help for your build to play in different four man teams in Ra where a monk isn't there maybe?

You're not wrong in your thoughts. However, I do sort of play RA as if it were TA. I don't worry too much about leaving groups at the start if they look terrible, and I'll leave a group after the first game if I don't think it has the ability to go for a long streak (I don't screw them, they'll get a new random teammate).

Basically, I won't gimp a build just so it will be decent in a team with 3 crappy teammates that I can't count on. This is what some people will do, and where we differ. I'm looking to get one or two good teammates and steamroll through a 7-10+ game streak, getting fast wins, a decent amount of faction per minute, and maybe a glad point. I'm specifically not in RA to 'overcome the odds' or to make friends. (Strangely enough, I generally do make a friend or two on successful streaks who ask if they can add me to their friends list

. That's along with the 30 haters I get whispering profanity at me for leaving poor teams)

Not that I have anything against a self-heal/self-defense. On builds where it makes sense, absolutely bring stuff that will increase your chance of staying alive and therefore easing pressure on monks.

Warskull · Aug 26, 2006, 05:27 PM // 17:27

Quote:

Except this one paragraph which i quoted from your post. now I know we may have different play styles and ethics to playing monks but i feel you are sort of contradicting yourself here, when you say that getting kills is what helps you to win in Ra but you will more or less happily let your warrior/monk kick the bucket in order to save the energy and in some cases the res signet.

Basically, what I mean is you care less about the W/Mo than the strong members of your team. If it gets to the point where someone is going to die, let the W/Mo be the one who dies. The strong members always get hex removal first, condition removal first, and priority on healing. Most of the time you should have plenty spare to toss some heals on the W/Mo. However, when it gets tight you need to know who the strong players are and focus on winning the game with them.

JR · Aug 29, 2006, 12:29 AM // 00:29

Relating to the posts I deleted: Please keep on topic.

Conjure Pwntasm · Aug 29, 2006, 01:02 AM // 01:02

To be successful in RA, you must first understand why its there. Unfortunately, the people who hate on RA are probably those who don't understand why its there. Its like they go there expecting to have a monk every time or that all their team-mates are using the same cookie-cutter builds that they are. When they don't, they get frustrated, call everyone a noob and then rage quit. That simply isn't what RA is meant for.

Ask yourself this: Why do you play in RA? Most people will respond with "im am bored" or "too lazy to join or make a group in TA/HA". So there you go. RA is providing you a service. It allows you to get into the action right away without spamming for groups, checking builds...blah blah blah. It also allows you to test builds against real people instead of wooden dummies in 'Nameless. So if you know what you are getting into, why complain about it? You can't have your cake and eat it too.

Don't get me wrong. The quality of RA can be improved if the people who play in it are informed. Some of these suggestions have already been made:

1. Go in as level 20. No excuses.
2. Bring a rez sig (not spell...signet). [Mephisto, a glyph of sac/rez chant would work here if you are an E/mo but im not too sure about the fast casting combo. Specially since the percentage of energy returned will be little considering you just used 10 for the chant. The E/Mo probably has a good supply of energy to use that 29% efficiently.]
3. Don't rage quit after dying. Wait until the end of the match.
4. Don't rage quit before the match if you have no monk, one monk, two monks, three monks, 3 mesmers...whatever. Just play the round, die and start over. What is 2 minutes out of your life? If you happen to win but you still don't like your team, leave but make sure you give enough time for another player to be assigned. Don't leave with 0 seconds remaining.

As for my own advise, I say this: I agree with the person who suggested that you don't handicap your build, see what team you get, and rejoin (after finishing the round of course) until you land in a team you think has a chance to get to 10 but I myself like to provide some kind of utility in my builds in case I don't have a monk.

For example, non warrior classes should bring at least one evading or blocking skill. Usually a warrior that sees he isn't hitting his target will immediately lose interest and switch.

As for warriors, I myself have had success with a hammer warrior with monk secondary. No I don't use HH, healing breeze or heal area but one skill from the monk line: mend ailment. This follows the idea of a W/N with plague touch but the advantage of this is that you can remove conditions without being in touch rage. I can also occasionally mend cripple or deep wound on my monk or support characters while still having 7 slots available for my spike knock down chain, an interrupt for opponent rezzes and my own rez sig of course.

Obviously in "normal" pvp you would not have to worry about this. You would simply call off the blind for your monk to take off and you can use that one slot for shock as ALL other "real pvp" warriors do. But again, this isn't what RA is about. So there you go. A build that works in RA with a disclaimer so new players don't start taking W/Mos into HA and get laughed at by all the uber-leet players who like to hate on RA but still play there under different names.

kvndoom · Aug 29, 2006, 03:56 PM // 15:56

If you're thumping in RA, Heal As One wouldn't be a bad skill to bring, even though it is by NO means worthy of being an elite. But, it's about the only decent heal you can provide with the attributes you're allowed. For TA, either Ferocious or Enraged, obviously.

Nobody focused on the aspect of runners. They are a very real part of RA and by far the most annoying aspect. They are scrub asshole players who run away as soon as they see that their team has no chance to win. They will just continue to run from you until a) you manage to kill them or b) your team gives up and quits. The most common types of runners are those who can chain nonstop speed boosts (Warriors with Charge and Sprint, for example).

If your build allows for it (and it depends on the class you play), you should try to squeeze in one snare or degen skill. Mesmers and Necros have plenty o' degen to choose from (Crippling Anguish will eat any fool runner alive), and Eles have snare spells. In RA Cripshot wouldn't be too bad an elite to have for this one reason. Can't be blocked or evaded, and snares the target. Regardless of how you counter them, they should be considered. Chances are in a 10-win streak you'll encounter at least one runner. If no one on your team is specced to take one out, a match that should've lasted 50 seconds might take 10 minutes or more because of idiots who run.