Curse

Minus Sign · Jul 09, 2006, 09:59 PM // 21:59

Three example builds revolving around cap teams, balanced teams, and the almighty holders. If you’ve read either of the guides I have posted as yet, you know that I make quite a distinction between one and the other. Here I hope to lay out what each is through direct example, to help people more easily fit “the build”.

First up, one every Luxon should love

Minus Sign’s Copious Cappers.

A/W

12 Dagger Mastery (minor rune and headpiece)
8 Shadow Arts (minor rune)
9 Critical Strikes (minor rune)
8 Deadly Arts (minor rune)
7 Tactics

1 Siphon Speed/Shadow of Haste (pure user preference)
2 Watch Yourself/Critical Defenses
3 Way of the Fox
4 Recall/Return
5 Unsuspecting Strike
6 Temple Strike {E}
7 Horns of the Ox
8 Shadows Refuge

Nightstalker’s on Chest and Legs; Infiltrators and Shrouded on hands and feet.

I know, I know. I’m the one who’s always saying to bring Shroud of Silence/Shadow Shroud for their Elite and here I bring a Dagger Mastery skill into the mix and no evade skills. Well, temple strike does kick some rear with Way of the Fox to make sure it goes through, and Recall is a quick applied “get out NOW!” when things start to get hot. You’ll get your combo off and then some before you have to Recall/Watch Yourself to boost your armor for the return trip into the fray and give a nice little buff to your long range casters for 8 seconds. Isn’t that nice of you? With all the chaos of 24 people (half of them enemies) and NPCs running around loose, Siphon Speed should always be up…which means you should always be running.

If you know you’ll be spending a lot of time in no mans land due to map or team strategies, consider Shadow of Haste. With good timing you can run to the cap, strike, and disappear. Recall synergizes very well with tis skill as it most often drops you deep into your teams own flank, allowing you to surprise anyone who might be following, hit them, and then teleport back to your team. With this constant disappearing act and liberal use of Shadows Refuge during downtime, those hearty evade skills aren’t all that missed.

Critical Defenses can be worked in place of Watch Yourself if you’re feeling greedy. Remember to swap atty points to do it. Note though, that while you do gain 80 AL for your downtime and 95 for most of your combat, you are NOT and warrior. Those teleports are in here for a reason; use em!

W/E
14 Axe (minor rune and headpiece)
7 Strength (minor rune)
12 Tactics (minor rune)

Skills:
1 Axe rake
2 Dismember
3 Flurry
4 Shove {E}
5 Shock
6 Wild Blow
7 Sprint
8 Heal Sig

Armor: Glads on Chest and legs, Knights boots and Stonefist gauntlets.

I like to tinker, and this shock/shove combo is surprisingly effective with its Wild Blow critical hit bashing on a regular basis. 3 guaranteed hits is a nice thing on a build like this, but mana (and adrenaline) takes a hit in the face, so I take the Totem Axe for its +5 energy upgrade. Swap to Victo’s for extra life in a pinch.

R/Mo

14 Expertise (superior rune and headpiece)
12 Wilderness (minor rune)
11 Marksmanship (minor rune)

1 Crip Shot
2 Apply Poison
3 Hunter’s Shot
4 Dust trap
5 Distracting Shot/Savage Shot
6 Dodge
7 Holy Veil
8 Troll Unguent

A solid degen build and snare, I prefer Dust trap plopped right on the control point while I wait for my bar to fill. This can be replaced with another run skill/avoidance stance, but since the point of a cap team is to avoid most fights, Dust trap lets you do this and still help your hold teams out. Any all melee teams that charge your cap are going to be instantly pissed. I recommend Longbow and Shorbows for this build, preferably with + to cripple against players and poison against NPCs.

E/*
16 Air (superior rune and headpiece)
14 EStorage (major rune)

1 Ether Renewal {E}
2 Air Attunement
3 Windborne Speed
4 Blinding Flash
5 Gale/Shock
6 Lightning Hammer
7 Whirlwind/Chain Lightning
8 Shock Arrow

No energy issues in a cap group thanks to the two non-elite enchantments that should be on you regularly. Shock Arrow is solid DPS, a good hammer kicking things off with an early hard punch for your team to mop up. Whirlwind is for that inevitable cap team to cap team fight. It’s replaceable with Chain Lightning due to Flash, but valuable AoE Knockdown in a PvP pinch.

Team Strat: Sin leads the charge on caps with haste or acts as finisher for the tank with Siphon most times. Windborne can be applied to your fast paper melee fighter as he goes in to shorten the time between agro and whacko. Either way he’s always out fast, so the Tank grabs NPC agro and holds it while the Ranger applies degen to the entire mob and the ele cleans house with hammer and DPS. “U” should always be used to keep the minimap open so your team leader can use the compass to direct teams to their next target. While this team has good front end damage and some great diversion with running skills, they won’t last long against a balanced team if they don’t kill the monk, and hold teams will just walk right through them. Capture points above all else, supporting other teams in the clinch. But be prepared to spend most of your game running; that’s what cap teams do best.

The Mobile Minion Master.

N/Mo
16 Death (sup rune+headpiece)
11 Soul Reaping (minor rune)
8 healing Prayers (runes NA)

Armor: Factions Minion Armor on chest and legs, scar armor equivalent on hands and Bloodstained boots for them feet.

Skills:
1Animate Flesh Golem {E}
2Animate Fiends
3BotM
4Taste of Death
5Healing Breeze
6Deadly Swarm
7Malign Intervention
8Verata’s Gaze

The build is simple. If there are dead bodies everywhere press 2, then spam 1. If people aren’t dead yet, press 7&6 (and 8 soon after). If you’re about to die press 4 (aka the big red button). If you see an enemy MM, just press 8 a lot. They burn mana while you steal minions. Priceless. Malign Intervention creates an instantly exploited corpse, requiring only that you gaze your new minion to your will.

W/E

13 Sword (minor rune and headpiece)
10 Strength (major rune)
12 Tactics (minor rune)

1 Charge{E}
2 Shock
3 Sever Artery
4 Gash
5 Frenzy/To the Limit!
6 Hamstring/Watch Yourself
7 Wild Blow
8 Heal sig

Armor: Glads on Chest and legs, Knights boots and Stonefist gauntlets (of course)

Almost every PuG warrior I’ve met (who would talk to me afterward) has complained that the mission was much harder since he had to solo the mission while my slow MM lagged behind. Here’s a crazy suggestion: wait for me or buff my butt! Charge does this nicely, and making this character a shock warrior to boot gives my minions more chances to hit stuff. Watch Yourself is a nice, inexpensive, quick apply buff to take along, while the old faithful Sever Artery/Gash combo cuts down the time between seeing a monk, and seeing a monks exploited corpse. Cripple the squishy while he’s on the ground to make sure he doesn’t get away and he’ll probably burn his CoP on that, instead of your truly devastating combo.

Mo/*
15 DF (rune and headpiece)
16 Healing(Superior Rune and headpiece)
rest in prot

1 Healing Light{E}
2 Dwayna’s Kiss
3 Dwayna’s Sorrow
4 Mend Ailment/Mend Condition
5 Vigorous Spirit
6 Smite Hex/Holy Veil
7 Release Enchantments
8 Ethereal Light

Dwayna’s Sorrow has no reason not to be on every ally you come near (minions included). All team members should have Vigorous Spirit applied as well, turning Healing Light into a 2 mana spike heal. With those two enchantments on you anyway (and Veil if you want a boost) Release Enchantments becomes a decent Heal Party for much better mana dividends. With no CoP, Mend A is preferable to MendC.

While most teams will prefer a boon Prot in a hold team, this build allows me to showcase another little gem:

Rt/*
15 Spawning (superior rune and headpiece)
12 Commune (major rune)
11 Channeling (minor rune)

Skills:
1 Painful Bond
2 Ancestor’s Rage
3 Shelter
4 Dissonance
5 Pain
6 Bloodsong
7 Boon of Creation/Nightmare Weapon
8 Ritual Lord {Elite}/Soul Twisting {E}

Who needs a boon prot when you can hit every ally in the area with Shelter? Your DPS is high, but you’re locked into the fight. Stick near the shrines when you can, but try to avoid enchant strippers with this build (they love to rip off BoC but thanks to your monk, it shouldn’t be a serious problem). Soul Twisting can be supplemented for Rit Lord, a useful trick to have in your bag if you need to spam shelter during heavy fighting. As this will require less spawning power, reset atty points between SP and Commune when you go single spirit spammer. Nightmare weapon is a nice addition of damage and a useful self heal, but derides your Emanagement in the process.

Painful Bond should be applied at the beginning of any assault, to the largest, closest cluster you can hit.

Team Strat: No, I’ve never run this build in all honesty. The usually run of nuke, BoonProt and tank is a standard fair here for a reason: it works really well on holding turf. But I wanted to stick at least one Rit build into this discussion, so we’ll talk how to make this effective.

Hold teams do not spend much time running. If your warrior insists on capping, do him the courtesy of removing him upon return to outpost. Charge helps speed you up, but you will always be a slow moving group due to minion maintenance. But thanks to those minions, the term Juggernaut quickly comes to mind. Once you start your horde up, any team that sees you will be running for the hills or rolled over without much fuss. Charge with KDs helps you chase down stragglers, but this build is designed first to blunt any strong offensive that comes at it. Thanks to Shelter, heals need not be so frequent. Heal spikes will take center stage, infrequent, more costly but more supportive to your horde.

Spirits add a little something extra to cap defense as you slowly make your way from one point to another (you will have to move or the enemy can simply wait for your horde to degen out).

Avoid degen areas like the melee shrine in Etharan Keys. Trying to take that is a death sentence to your army. Stick to center points and rez, the most important caps in the maps. While smart enemies will learn to avoid you, they do so at the cost of position.

It’s a waiting game. How long can you sit on the top of the hill before the enemy gets tired of seeing you there and decides to act, or your minions suffer terminal degen and you have to hit something to refresh your horde. TS is recommended here to keep in constant touch while you wait out one of these 2 scenarios…and to verbally chew out your tank if he gets them itchy feet. Doing this, nothing can stop you except a full assault with another MM. Doing otherwise….unsupported MMs die in seconds. heals repair the damage a tank can do, but no MM will live long if you leave him alone with only the monk for backup.

Patience and maturity are a prerequisite to any hold team. So let the pre-teens cap to their hearts content. I wanna win damnit.

Minus Sign’s Balancing Act.

W/Mo

14 Axe (minor rune and headpiece)
7 Strength (minor rune)
12 Tactics (minor rune)
Rest in Prot

1 Axe rake
2 Sprint
3 Evicerate {E}
4 Frenzy
5 Purge Conditions
6 Holy Veil
7 Heal sig/Med Condition
8 Wild Blow

Armor: Glads on Chest hands and legs with Knights boots for the reduced damage.

I trust my monk, but only so far. When someone starts spamming conditions on me, I want them off! Purge is the way to go with this rock steady build, relieving much of the poor squishies mana for healing my teammates. When there’s a bad clinch, I’ve found MendC a valuable sneak heal, but tried and true heal sig still holds its place on my bar. You may notice that all three warriors are equipped with Wild blow. Hmm…funny that…

Me/N
1 Illusion of Haste
2 Plague Touch
3 Blackout
4 Diversion
5 Wastrel’s Worry
6 Energy Tap/Complicate
7 Echo
8 Ether Feast

The masses Wail: There’s only 1 damage skill on the whole lineup and its WORRY! How can that build be any good!???

My reply: Try it. Try it and you’ll understand that you’ve just become a snaring shutdown factory, locking down the enemy of your choice for your warrior to run in and mutilate. I’ve run this build several times with no complaints from my team in game. They just couldn’t understand why the monk never healed himself and the touch rangers kept trying to wand our tank to death.

You want Illusion to be low so that you can easily run up to your target and Black him out, quickly followed by removing your own Cripple on the hapless critter. Cast Wastrel’s during the second break between Blackouts and Diversion while Echo recycles from your 24 second snared shutdown.

While I admit that this build makes no use of the mesmers awesomely powerful Dom damage hexes or illusionary Degen, its still a powerful niche build. Tis better to choose who you lock down than to be chosen by someone else.

Mo/Me
15 DF (sup rune and headpiece)
12 Protective
10 Inspiration

1 Mantra of Recall{E}
2 Inspired Hex
3 Reversal of Fortune
4 Guardian
5 Mend Condition
6 Contemplation of Purity
7 Divine Boon
8 Prot Spirit

Oh, there’s that Boon Prot. Slow moving, but imho the best overall team healer in the game, the Boon Prot is the most oft used monk build here. But the least often used skill is Prot Spirit. I have no idea why. It has they effect of turning a 5, 6, and even 9 hit combo spike into a short self healing frenzy instead of 1 2 3 4 dead, move on to the next target. My guess, no one has learned Energy management yet.

Heal what will live. Sometimes, this is no ones fault (you included so don’t take death too personal) but more often? What doesn’t kite gets to die. Remember Boonprots: you can’t heal stupid so don’t keep trying. With this simple motto (and not griping at others like some uber leet “omgz! I can monk so listen to ME or no HEELZ!!1!” I’m regularly recruited by other guilds.

R/N

12 Blood
16 Expertise (superior rune and headpiece)
rest Wilderness Survival or Death Magic for subs

1 Vampiric Touch
2 Vampiric Bite/Dark Pact
3 Offering of Blood {E}/Grenth’s Balance {E}
4 Dodge
5 Zojun’s Haste/Awaken the Blood
6 Whirling Defense
7 Plague Touch
8 Vampiric Gaze/Pin Down/Taste of Death

Yeah, that’s right. Touch Ranger omg. While the build is much derided by those who decline its use, it is atm a smooth runner and high damage dealer with good energy management. For heavy kiters, Gaze or Pin Down makes for an ideal last ditch strike or a chance for a quick (and short) increase of DPS. Synergizing well with the Deep Wound Warrior build above, this touch is the smoothest running build I’ve played.

This is the Balanced team’s swing character. Able to slip into cap and hold teams for fast support and easy self-management, this is the character most ready and willing to run off and support allied teams while the other three stay together.

The italicized substitutions create an old school GB spike ranger. While mana issues are more prevalent, the powerful 1 time spike of GB (guaranteed with a good finisher following target calls) turns the build from DPS monster to 1-man death squad. It’s harder to run, but immensely powerful in a good team.

Team Strat: Looks like a good cap build with all those run buffs in there, don’t it? Its not. Good monks don’t run; they kite. Any addition of a run buff for him will weaken the team’s offense, which is atm a very balanced setup. While your mesmer shuts down one monk, you can take on the second (hold team), the MM (hold team!) or just trounce his target and not thing one they can do about it. Without a healer it’s a quick mop-up for your high DPS.

This is a PvP build. It can cap, easily, but it’s more suited to cutting off cappers at the pass and pounding said teams into quick submission, or fast disruptive strikes to hold teams with small hordes in the making. It can pound as long as the boon prot lives, but once he’s down the team tends to crumble without support.

If board control is established, its often best to break this team up, since most teams I ally with are cap teams, so to further increase their Dot and resilence against strong assaults. The monk, mesmer and tanks can hold out for a hold teams slow moving support, making the R/N the perfect choice to fold in with a Cap team and give some assist on the other side of the field.

More later

Play Fair and Good Gaming

"-" Minus Sign