Curse

jummeth · Aug 29, 2006, 11:46 PM // 23:46

Hey, we have run a build like this tonight, its brought us good success, although with ladder lock, we'll take that with a pinch of salt.

Background first, it is a split build: http://gwshack.us/8020c
we have it because our home map is Meditation, so it pretty much requires one. Its a simple 6/2 split.

The idea is for the gank team to cap the top flag (oblisk) first, while the water ele spams snares on the flag runner delaying it. He also has Sac-Deep Freeze.

Hopefully, the flag runner can only be about 10-20 seconds late on arriving with the first cap. We find that the extra fireballs provide very nice extra pressure.

Gank team goes on to gank the NPCs while the flag team digs in. Vapor Blade is for spirit control, since its non-LoS and does hideous damage. Orb is there to assist in spiking and with gale and blind, just to add pressure. We also have two Prod-HPs in there just incase the poop really hits the fan.

Sac-Res is a nice res-sig every 30 seconds and it only takes 1.5 seconds to activate. The hammer warrior is a bit meh, still experimenting with it, but return is quite nice. For when backline is recieving pressure and also to shadow step to spiked target. It does take a bit of keyboard acrobatics though unless you wish to give the spike away.

We found that, the gank team were able to kill/maime the flag-runner in most cases, which led to early morale steals.

Couple of Q's, Should I replace the res sig on the air ele for another skill?
Hex control could become a problem so we are working hard to fit a B-Light in there, however, Boons are just to much easier to play. However, yes that is where we are really lacking. What about a convert instead of the Res on the air ele?
Also, ideas for an energy management skill for the mesmer would also be good, I don't want to swap too much of the attributes around.

In away matches, we tended to go out en-mass and let the sin+mes sneak off mid fight. Most of the time to harras the flag-runner or kill NPCs.

Thanks in advance ^^

llsektorll · Aug 29, 2006, 11:49 PM // 23:49

water runner is better than air ele runner.... armor of the mist lasts much longer...

Drewfense · Aug 30, 2006, 04:36 AM // 04:36

Well...I would go a water runner with bflash myself, but not because armor of myst lasts longer... Windborne (1s cast, lasts ~10s, 5s rech) has a shorter cast time and recharge than Mist (2s cast, lasts ~20s, 30s rech) so in a 22 second period they are equivalent. Over 30s, the air runner is faster. What makes windborne good though is it can be cast on anyone so it helps the team a lot when the ele is with the group (it compliments the other eles ice snares), but more importantly if you have to put someone else to run (say either strategic or because of dp), the windborne can give that person a speed boost going into and out of the flagstand.

Anyways! Keep the GoS Hard Rez...GoS is really hot and you need a good rez for the main group, especially since you are playing with a 5 man squad. I think the biggest change would be the Water Guy. Your flagstand group is really light on hexes so Blurred Vision will not be effective. Also I've never really seen a use for Vapor Blade... I'm guessing it is there for some sort of spike, but you really aren't going to kill anyone on the other team with 3 guys (and in spikes, your target is going to be enchanted...), it is more just to apply pressure than anything to force them to make an akward split. I would replace those skills with ward melee and purge/convert. With the idea your applying pressure with 2 man gank type teams, not killing...I would even consider dropping a warrior for a more versatile character such as a Crip Shot.

I dont know how effective the mesmer ganker is, but I have always been found of the A/E + A/W combo for these builds. A/E is your standard shock ganker and the A/W loses the AoE for Shove, but adds a valuable Shields Up!

jummeth · Aug 30, 2006, 08:02 AM // 08:02

Mesmer is a good ganker, its more difficult to shut down both a caster and a melee character. So one blinding flash/snares ele doesn't necessarily subdue both. Also with clumsiness and the heavy degen, vs NPCs its perfect, they don't stop attacking and also, you have a lot of fire and forget weapons so you can get yourself out of harms way and heal up.

A lot of the time, the gank team can be attacking 2 targets simultaneously. Crip Anguish is saved for when the gankers piss off the other team enough and we need it to cover our escape.

At the stand, the spike is actually 4 characters, sure the wate guy doesn't add too much to the damage, but his snares are invaluable. We normally keep up the mini adreno spikes just with the hammer+axe when the air is running, then when we do have the extra person there, we spike with all 4 offensive chars there.

Vapor blade is just useful to 1 hit KO most spirts, this build because of our boons, have a really difficult time with QZ and NR/tranq so its really important we have a non-LoS, heavy hitting weapon. Its recharge is nice aswell.

I want to keep the 2 warriors in there because it keeps the offensve punch, 2 warriors adreno spiking with the added punch of the air ele's orb does actually mean we score a couple of kills even when we re heavily outnumbered.

Its not like we lack the the damage of a full flagstand team, since when the flagger is there, we have the people for a usual spike. We do however lack some enchnt removal, and that des need to be put somewhere. B-Light is more and more appealing now =P

Thanks for your comments.