Curse

rangersaurus · Jul 25, 2006, 01:45 AM // 01:45

Well I have been messing around with two builds in the RA's and I have had mixed results with both so I thought I would post them and see if anyone had some suggestions.

Here is the first build:

I really liked curses and thought I would try to to a build that used a few. I knew from the start that faintheart and enfeeble would be great against warriors. I threw life siphon in there for some healing and additional degen. I tried using parasitic bond at first but later switched for ether feast becuase of the energy drain and the instant health. Soul barbs seemed like a natural choice since I was using several hexs. I could have gone with mantra of recall or e-drain... I prefer e-drain. I had suffering in there, but swapped it for mantra of resolve because I was getting interrupted a lot. I found that while I could go 1v1 with most warriors, but touch rangers, bunny thumpers, and assasins typically proved hard to deal with. The degen I could apply was not significant enough and they would usually beat me out. Now that's not to say this build was a failure. I did get 2 glad points with this build (I was in a team with a war, a monk, and a rit), so this build can do well with the right team. My biggest complaint was the limited degen this build could deliver. I think something like conjure phantasm might help, and perhaps distortion would help against the thumpers and assasins, but with so many mes skills in there, it seems like I might as well just make a mes instead. I tried using wither and malaise and using power drain for energy management, but I started to feel like I was spreading my self to thin trying to cover energy degen, warrior nerfing, and health degen, so I decided to stick with just health degen and some warrior nerfing. Any thoughts?

Here's my second char:

It is a pretty standard knockdown warrior. I just keep finding that when it comes to thumpers or assasins, that they get the knockdown so much quicker than I can and once I hit the ground or if they interrupt my chain... I'm screwed if there is no monk in the group. I was thinking of switching to devastating hammer, then combo it with crushing -->fierce hammer--> irresistible. Or perhaps use shove, crushing, then irresistable though that would get rather energy heavy. I know axes and swords tend to be more effective in the RAs but I really like hammers and want to get better with them. I tried dropping rush and using "To the Limit" for adren build up but without a running skill it is a pain in the ass. Also, this build lack bull's strike which would be nice to have. Again, any help is appreciated.

Sparrow · Jul 25, 2006, 03:43 AM // 03:43

For the Necro build: Looks like a good foundation. Your job with this build is to survive the melee threat, shutting down as many of the other team's melee/rangers as you can -- which also helps your team survive. And also to spread degen to as much of the other team as possible, helping to stress their monk. You're a support character, not a primary damage dealer. A few suggestions:

1) 15 Blood/12 Curses could be of more benefit in the long run. Curses last a long time anyway.

2) You could use OoB as your elite for better e-management at the expense of health. Another reason to use 15 Blood/12 Curses.

3) Soul Barbs does not seem to be helping you with your primary goals, melee/ranger shutdown and spreading degen. With its long recharge its basically a single target at a time. I'd drop it for something else. a) Parasitic Bond is a great cover hex, provides a nice heal, and -1 degen. b) Vile Miasma does damage and more degen (conditionally), though it has a long recharge and relatively short duration -- not sure I would recommend this but it's there to consider. c) Spirit of Failure or Price of Failure -- more melee/ranger hate, but very long cast times.

4) Distortion is helpful against not only ranger interrupters but also adrenal/assassin spikes. I would definitely consider it. See which you like better and which fits your playstyle better. You could put the 3 in Soul Reaping (not including rune) into Illusion for -3 on Distortion.

Cover hexes are golden when facing a team with a monk. It may be the difference between making your Faint/Siphon stick or not -- both of which you really want to stay on.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BowLad21

Let me tell you an RA story. Once upon a time, I brought smiter to RA. All I did was spam Signet Of Judgement. I had mixed success. Conclusion: RA is a joke.

Conclusion: Sometimes you can win even if you let your teammates carry you.

rangersaurus · Jul 27, 2006, 01:33 AM // 01:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sparrow

For the Necro build: Looks like a good foundation. Your job with this build is to survive the melee threat, shutting down as many of the other team's melee/rangers as you can -- which also helps your team survive. And also to spread degen to as much of the other team as possible, helping to stress their monk. You're a support character, not a primary damage dealer. A few suggestions:

1) 15 Blood/12 Curses could be of more benefit in the long run. Curses last a long time anyway.

2) You could use OoB as your elite for better e-management at the expense of health. Another reason to use 15 Blood/12 Curses.

3) Soul Barbs does not seem to be helping you with your primary goals, melee/ranger shutdown and spreading degen. With its long recharge its basically a single target at a time. I'd drop it for something else. a) Parasitic Bond is a great cover hex, provides a nice heal, and -1 degen. b) Vile Miasma does damage and more degen (conditionally), though it has a long recharge and relatively short duration -- not sure I would recommend this but it's there to consider. c) Spirit of Failure or Price of Failure -- more melee/ranger hate, but very long cast times.

4) Distortion is helpful against not only ranger interrupters but also adrenal/assassin spikes. I would definitely consider it. See which you like better and which fits your playstyle better. You could put the 3 in Soul Reaping (not including rune) into Illusion for -3 on Distortion.

Cover hexes are golden when facing a team with a monk. It may be the difference between making your Faint/Siphon stick or not -- both of which you really want to stay on.

Conclusion: Sometimes you can win even if you let your teammates carry you.

Testing OoB at the moment, I am not a huge fan of it but I will keep trying it. I really like e-drain because it steals energy from others and give you more back so it not only functions as energy management but also as energy denial for you opponents.

The stat switch was a good call, noticibly better. As far as distortion, I know it is excellent for avoiding melee, I just find it to be a pain in the ass to recast every 5 seconds and the energy loss can be nasty if you get hit hard and quick enough. That's why I use enfeeble... not only to protect my teammates from melee but also because it is a good self-defense spell.

Price of Failure + Spirit of Failure combo is great for energy, but if you face a team of casters it is pretty useless (again going back to e-drain being favored because it is useable on casters and melee chars).

I use enfeeble to cover which may seem silly for casters as oppose to parasitic but it works, though on melees I have no cover, but enfeeble is such a quick recast it can outpace even the fastest removals like remove hex and definitely the more popular inspired hex. I tried to switch out soul barbs for parasitic but not having the mini-spikes from the soul barbs was a noticible loss. The problem like I said before is a lack of damage. Parasitic definitely isnt going to be able to replace soul barbs. I thought about dropping ether feast and throwing in Wastrel's Worry for some really fast spiking with Soul Barbs + WW, gonna test it out. I know you said I should focus on degen, but I think having the capacity to do damage is invaluble. Obviously the lack of a self heal is gonna mean I need to really be on my toes... will let you know how it works. (I also thought about throwing Soul Bind in for kicks just to piss off warriors... will let you know how that goes too =P )

Keep the suggestions coming. Thanks.

NatalieD · Jul 27, 2006, 04:31 AM // 04:31

Um, Enfeeble doesn't cover hexes, since it isn't a hex. In theory it could cover other conditions, but you don't have any.

rangersaurus · Jul 27, 2006, 08:59 PM // 20:59

Woops. I could have sworn it was a hex... d'oh... o well... now I guess I should get a cover hex in there. Silly me.