Curse

Divineshadows · Jun 16, 2006, 11:17 PM // 23:17

The idea behind this build is to be as disruptive to your opponent as possible by forcing them to kite, knocking them down, locking up their skills, and draining key enchantments to prevent the opponents from executing their plan. Once a member of the opposition is downed, the plan is to dominate their rez signets using the same disruptive skills and knockdowns. The damage comes from the axe warrior and the air ele, while the mesmer (and the monk to some degree) create virtual damage by limiting the opposition's effectiveness.

Eviscerate {E}
Executioners
Disrupting Chop
Rush
Bull's Strike
Frenzy
Shock
Rez Signet

Axe - 16 (12+4)
Strength - 12 (11+1)
Air - 6

Expel Hexes {E}
Blackout
Diversion
Drain Enchantment
Arcane Thievery
Shame or Arcane Larceny
Gale
Rez Signet

Domination - 14 (12+2)
Inspiration - 10 (9+1)
Fast Casting - 9 (8+1)
Air - 5

Ether Prodigy {E}
Blinding Flash
Lightning Orb
Lightning Strike
Gale
Draw Conditions
Heal Other
Rez Signet

Air Magic - 15 (11+4)
Energy Storage - 11 (10+1)
Healing - 10
Protection - 1

Mend Ailment
Reversal of Fortune
Guardian or Protective Spirit
Hex Breaker
Holy Veil
Divine Boon
Drain Enchantment
Energy Drain {E}

Divine Favor - 16 (12+4)
Protection - 10 (9+1)
Inspiration - 9
Domination - 3

sno · Jun 17, 2006, 12:22 AM // 00:22

I'm in a bit of a rush so I'll just list a few things (no particular order) that I noticed :P

a: mend condition is a must on your boon prot, as is contemplation of purity. no exceptions, period. Drop drain for cop, and possibly run inspired instead of veil since you have an expel mesmer.

b: Gale/shock is going to exhaust the hell out of your entire offense. It'll be great for awhile, but once you're all exhausted out you're toast. The low energy pool on a mesmer can't afford exhaustion, and the exhaustion from both prodigy and gale will overpower the eles larger pool. Hammers are the way to go for KD's on a warrior.

c: thievery and larceny don't work well together. on their own they have their uses, but since they often steal the same skill twice, it's not worth having 2 copies. I'd drop them both for another enchant removal and probably shame.

d: in TA I find that defense (preventing damage) is better than healing, so I'd probably go with earth instead of healing and run wards on your ele. That's personal preference really though.

All in all not a bad build, well thought-out, but it's a one hit wonder. If you don't kill them in the first 1:30-2:00 you're screwed.

Van Goghs Ear · Jun 17, 2006, 02:30 AM // 02:30

thing is sno, the meta game of ta is in flux. Everyone and their dog is jumping on the new broken iGi wither hex spam build faster than a four man touch group, and as much hex removal as possible is essentially a must.

Divineshadows · Jun 19, 2006, 06:28 PM // 18:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by sno

a: mend condition is a must on your boon prot, as is contemplation of purity. no exceptions, period. Drop drain for cop, and possibly run inspired instead of veil since you have an expel mesmer.

Mend condition does not work as well with a teammate having draw conditions as mend ailment does. I may try cop/hex breaker/inspired instead of drain enchant/veil/hex breaker sometime. There are still those teams out there who run no hexes and I find them to be more frequent than a team with no enchantments. Though the number of teams without enchantments is climbing

Quote:

Originally Posted by sno

b: Gale/shock is going to exhaust the hell out of your entire offense. It'll be great for awhile, but once you're all exhausted out you're toast. The low energy pool on a mesmer can't afford exhaustion, and the exhaustion from both prodigy and gale will overpower the eles larger pool. Hammers are the way to go for KD's on a warrior.

With players that have no idea how to pace themselves with exhaustion spells it sure will. With players that know using the exhaustion skill once every 30 seconds on average will achieve steady state, I do not see the exhaustion as a problem except for perhaps the ele having 2 exhaustion spells. I have seen a prodigy ele with gale work in GvG, but perhaps this doesn't scale right to 4v4. With a hammer warrior, I would want devastating and bash, but this does not work well with frenzy/rush/bull's strike due to loss of all adrenaline on bash. So, I opted instead for shock axe which can get an early knockdown in at the beginning of the match to interrupt a key spell to gain initiative.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sno

c: thievery and larceny don't work well together. on their own they have their uses, but since they often steal the same skill twice, it's not worth having 2 copies. I'd drop them both for another enchant removal and probably shame.

Shatter enchantment and shame could work too and ditch thievery/larceny. Only a fool though would use both on the same caster consistently (thus increasing the odds of stealing the same skill). When running both, it is better to steal from two different casters to throw off the way two players use their skill bars.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sno

d: in TA I find that defense (preventing damage) is better than healing, so I'd probably go with earth instead of healing and run wards on your ele. That's personal preference really though.

I agree 100% that preventing damage is better and less time consuming than fixing it. However, heal other helps in every match whereas ward v melee does not. Not every team nowadays has a warrior, thumper, or sin.