May 09, 2006, 11:54 PM // 23:54
|
#1
|
Krytan Explorer
|
Alliance Battle Team Builds - What's Everyone Running?
Alliance Battles have been out for a while, and I've found it to be a nice casual form of PvP when only a few guildies/alliance members are online. Team Arenas is also a quality 4-player PvP format, but Alliance Battles seem more interesting in a different way because of the non-combat objective.
So what kinds of 4-player team builds are people running? I'm interested in hearing about builds that work well as its own self-contained team of four.
In general, the ability to respond to changing map situations seems to be more important than the ability to strike down single targets quickly. The most obvious way to improve mobility is to use a "Charge!" Warrior. Perhaps snares would work to hinder opposing players' mobility - has anyone tried using a crip-shotter or a water ele on their team? In terms of monkage, I found that the standard boonprot works wonders, as always.
Most of the builds I've played on were pretty traditional and basic. One of them was 2 Warriors, 1 Monk, and a utility Necro with Verata's Aura (yes, it was funny when we stole Flesh Golems). Another example was when we tried 1 Warrior, 1 Monk, and 2 Airspike Mesmers - the damage was decent, plus Windborne Speed helped our mobility.
But there were two things that I found didn't work all the time. First of all, I found that having a minionmaster was sometimes a blessing, but most of the time a liability. If you can gather a lot of bodies and raise bone dudes, you'll have significant presence on the field. The problem is, since much of the time in this mode is spent moving, that undead army might just slow your team down - you also spend lots of time raising new guys and keeping existing ones alive. As well, it's ridiculously easy to just run the other way when you see a massive army slowly moving down the field.
My other thought was that the Resurrection Signet doesn't look to be ubiquitous - you don't get much mileage out of three resses that never recharge during the match, plus you res automatically anyway.
|
|
|
May 10, 2006, 12:20 AM // 00:20
|
#2
|
Krytan Explorer
Join Date: Aug 2005
Guild: [KoA] Knights of the Alliance
Profession: Me/
|
To quote the build straight of my guild's forums (with minor modifications from the last few runs):
Quote:
Originally Posted by Harvester
#1 Warrior/Assassin
16 Swordsmanship, 12 Tactics, 7 Strength, 2 Shadow Arts
Charge!{E}, Hamstring, Galrath's Slash, Death's Charge, Savage Slash, Silverwing Slash, Frenzy, Res signet
#2 Warrior/Assassin
Same as number 1
#3 Mesmer/Assassin
16 Illusion Magic, 13 Inspiration Magic
Crippling Anguish{E}, Imagined Burden, Energy Tap, Recall, Drain Enchantment, Conjure Phantasm, Mantra of Persistence, Ethereal Burden / Kitah's Burden (they are the same spell)
#4 Monk/Mesmer
16 Healing Prayers, 10 Divine Favor, 4 Protection Prayers, 9 Inspiration Magic
Healing Light{E}, Ethereal Light, Mend Ailment, Healing Seed, Inspired Hex, Reveal Hex, Vigorous Spirit, Signet of Rejuvenation
Build description
Well, alliance battles are about control points. Whoever has the most points for the longest amount of time is pretty much the winner, though if you have people who keep sacrificing themselves you might lose. The two warriors will be doing a chain charge, keeping the whole group moving at a 25% faster rate until we reach a destination. That destination will almost always be a control point, and all the damage skills on the warrior's bars are how we clear out said control points. Hamstring is a snare, because, well, we want to avoid direct combat most of the time. Snares help us get away if we need to, and keep people from running if we do fight. The build is fairly energy-intensive, so dropping savage slash for another adrenaline attack skill (such as sun-and-moon slash) might need to happen. Gladiator's armor with knight's boots is the recommended setup, and with the new armor crafters in cantha you don't need to have the ugly look that goes with glad's
The mesmer stops pursuit, simple as that. With a number of long-lasting snares, he can easily slow 75% of an enemy team. If, on one of out travels between control points, we find a group that starts to tail us/snare us/attempt to kill us, then this guy falls back and slows them down, degens them, makes it clear we are not going to stop and fight, but are going to make it hard to keep up with. Recall allows the mesmer to do all this, and then return to the monk's side at will. This character will, in most cases, not kill anything. What he does do is anger people to the point of stupidity, and further the mobility of our group in relation to an enemy group.
Lastly, the monk. Of all the characters this is the only one with a fairly odd build, so I'll try and go into a little more depth and explain what his job is. If you remember, this build is not about dueling it out with every team we come across. If we can we will avoid combat, only fighting at control points and when we have no other options. Since the build lacks a huge offense however, battles could be a bit drawn out. As such, a more traditional setup (like boon prot) would be less effective, due to high energy costs. This monk is designed with efficiency in mind, and that is what he tries to produce.
First, Vigorous Spirit. This skill provides the warriors with some healing during combat, but more importantly, it is in here to power Healing Light's energy return, making Healing Light a 2-energy 104 point heal. Ethereal light is way more efficient than Orison of Healing, but costs and casts in the same time. The downsides? Easily interruptible and a 5 second recharge. Still, since we will be attempting to avoid combat, this skill should work very well. Mend Ailment is self-explanatory, we need condition removal. Same with Inspired Hex. Healing seed on one of the warriors during an assault on a control point should lessen the amount of healing needed considerably, and will help when attacking control points that have fast-attacking enemies like warriors. Signet of Rejuvenation is a 60-point heal on a target doing nothing, and a 110 point heal on an attacking/casting target. Unlike signet of devotion however, it casts in one second.
|
Good mobility, with the mesmer tending to have a very large effect on fights (snaring assassins trying to slaughter the monk, for instance). The res signets on the warriors might be dropped soon, but not until it has been run a few more times.
|
|
|
May 11, 2006, 02:27 PM // 14:27
|
#4
|
Forge Runner
Join Date: May 2005
Guild: StP
Profession: R/
|
I think alliance battles are the only place where a Res sig is a waste of a slot. People res in under 20 secs anyway so its no use taking one.
|
|
|
May 11, 2006, 05:53 PM // 17:53
|
#5
|
Ascalonian Squire
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Fargo, ND
Guild: The Basin [AB] & Clan W A S D [WASD]
Profession: W/
|
Actually, there is a glitch right now, where if someone is ressed before the timer, and the next time they get shrine ressed, they have no countdown timer. This is a bit of a glitch right now, but is definately is worth a slot to bring a hard res or res sig into battle for this reason.
|
|
|
May 12, 2006, 03:25 AM // 03:25
|
#6
|
Frost Gate Guardian
|
when I'm sans guildies, I usually bring my air spiker, works good especially with all the wars, rangers and sins, running around. I find that i can usaully hold the ele shrine alone against a 4 man team. Don't ask why I am alone, cause I am about to go crazy with all the stupid noobs who just want to slash and hack in the middle.
Ran a 4 man rspike on a whim 3 r 1 monk with guildies. used dual, power, punish. Work incredibily well with the lack of infusers mowed down like 8 ppl coming from the hillside res shine. Too bad the only points luxon were able to hold was dragons roost and the seashore shrine, the ones we took. Never saw another person from luxon the whole game, can't figure out how we lost. But it was real fun to see ppl mowed down like that.
I imagine an air spike team would work as well.
edit:it was hilarious seriously try it, if u like rspike. You don't even need to count just target and fire, we all had a good laugh.
Last edited by just rude; May 12, 2006 at 03:51 AM // 03:51..
|
|
|
May 12, 2006, 04:43 AM // 04:43
|
#7
|
Banned
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: I is not canadien
Guild: Guillotine Tactics [GanK]
Profession: R/
|
1 W/E Axe/Shock
1 W/Me Hammer/Hex Breaker
1 Mo/Me Boon/prot
1 R/Me Cripshot
Pretty much a nice utility build. Can take points, help with the big battles and hold their own against other 'squads.'
|
|
|
May 18, 2006, 06:51 PM // 18:51
|
#8
|
Desert Nomad
Join Date: Jun 2005
Guild: The Amazon Basin [AB]
|
thumper
|
|
|
Thread Tools |
|
Display Modes |
Linear Mode
|
Posting Rules
|
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
HTML code is Off
|
|
|
All times are GMT. The time now is 11:22 PM // 23:22.
|