Curse

SerasCain · Apr 10, 2006, 08:19 AM // 08:19

I've been trying to flesh out this hex heavy build for gvg, but something just doesnt seem to fit. Any suggestions or constructive criticisms would be helpful

War/Necro
12+1+3 Sword
10+1 Tactics
8+1 Str

Charge {E}
Sever Artery
Gash
Final Thrust
Savage Slash
Frenzy
Heal sig
Res sig

War/Ele
12+1+3 Axe
10+1 Tactics
8+1 Str

Eviscerate {E}
Executioner's Strike
Axe Rake
Disrupting Chop
Sprint
Frenzy
Heal Sig
Res Sig

2x Mes/N
12+3 Inspiration
10+1+1 Illusion
8+1 Fast Cast
2 Curses

Migraine {E}
Mantra of persistance
Spirit of Failure
Price of Failure
Power Drain
Conjure Phantasm
Imagined Burden
Res Sig

Monk/Mes
12+1+3 Divine Favor
9+1 Prot
9 Inspiration

Energy Drain {E}
RoF
Guardian
Mend Condition
Prot Spirit
Divine Boon
Inspired Hex
Holy Veil

Monk/Mes
12+1+3 Divine Favor
9+1 Prot
9 Inspiration

Restore Condition {E}
RoF
Guardian
Mend Condition
Sig of Devotion
Divine Boon
Inspired Hex
Drain Enchantment

Ele/Monk (unclear of stats)
11+1+3 Water
11 Healing
9 Energy Storage

Heal Party
Ether Prodigy {E}
Ice Spikes
Shard Storm
Rust
Blurred Vision
Deep Freeze
Armor of Mist

Necro/Ranger
12+3 Blood
10+1+1 Death
8 Wilderness

Virulence {E}
Plague Sending
Signet of Agony
Life Siphon
Vampiric Gaze
Storm Chaser
Troll Ungent
Res sig

The migraine mes is pretty much FnlD's build except with imagined burden for slowdowns. Idea was to have them harass warriors with the spirit/price combo while using migraine on casters and then spam conjure on everyone for degen. Warriors would mostly stay on casters and try to disrupt skills while applying pressure and for spiking on low targets. The e/mo is a flag runner and uses water spells for snares and cover hexes. The necro/ranger is a unorthodox flag runner, but is really good at soloing NPCs.

I figured this would be enough hexes to overpower most team's hex removal, so it would be able to keep up a steady pace of degen pressure but that doesnt seem to be the case. The other idea i had was to run the standard degen hex stacker necro (i.e. faintheart, life siphon, parasitic) in place of the necro ranger but the water e/mo doesnt seem to do to well trying to solo run the flag...could just be player skill or maybe the build, I'm not sure. Any help would be great as I previously said. Thanks.

Vermilion Okeanos · Apr 10, 2006, 08:28 AM // 08:28

In my view, you are not going to be able to kill anyone with those without good tactic plays.

Probably drag a long stalemate if you survive. (how long will depend on your opponent's build; one e-burn mesemer can run your team like chaos) Without CoP, your monk is a sitting duck for hexes; then again it might be good gamble as most people expect every monk to have CoP.

Patrograd · Apr 10, 2006, 08:43 AM // 08:43

For the sword warrior I would take sprint or rush in place of savage, as a frenzy cancelling stance, but that doesnt address the issue you are having.

Looking at it, I'm not sure that two mesmers can realistically be expected to create enough degen to overpower heal party. Two heal parties at 10 healing, which is pretty much the norm, heals for between them 29.5 points per second if the skill is spammed, which is more than enough to take care of the degen you are creating without the use of any hex removal or indeed any other monk skills

I think that if I was looking to create this kind of build I would be looking at less warriors and I would be looking to add a necro or mesmer spike to finish targets rather than an adrenal one, and I would be looking to find ways to shut down heal party, possibly through the employment of an interrupt ranger with poison for extra degen (savage, punishing, apply poison, distracting etc)

In my experience a water emo will struggle a little to solo the flag against certain types of opponents, and perhaps the best solution to this is to not try and solo run the flag with a water emo where there is a chance he will get intercepted.....dont get me wrong, I love water eles as "default" flag runners, but not so much because of their flag running ability as their ability to hold enemy split squads in base when paired with a monk. My opinion is that you need to try and avoid situations where your water ele gets caught 1 vs 1 and I believe you need to try and avoid thinking of him as the "flag runner" and think of him more as a defensive support character who runs flags when he is free to do so, with someone else doing it if he cant. This kind of flexibility in a team build is a big part of what wins games

[Edited to correct numbers on heal parties as I had neglected to include cast times in my calculations]

Kabale · Apr 10, 2006, 08:49 AM // 08:49

Condition stacking is quite a lot of fuel for mend ailment. As I haven't been gvg-monking this season, I wouldn't know if it's still a regular on boon prots' skillbar...

tafy69 · Apr 10, 2006, 09:15 AM // 09:15

There are 2 things as I see it:

The Necro needs total reworking, a OOB hex spammer is a better choice and he could have Blood Ritual for the monks too

2 Migrane mesmers is a bit overkill, personally I would run just the 1 and have the other guy with ineptitude or something if you know what I mean. Oh and get Distortion on them since they are speced highly in Illusion.

Some minor tweaks and you should be set basically

JR · Apr 10, 2006, 12:42 PM // 12:42

Your Mesmers have the ability to spam plenty of degenerating hexes. Sadly Power Drain alone will not allow them to live up to their full potential. You are also lacking in enchantment removal, so fitting a Drain Enchant on each of them would kill two birds with one stone.

Vindexus · Apr 10, 2006, 04:31 PM // 16:31

The Fialures combo can kept up on two warriors at a time, and you're normally looking at facing two warriors in most of your GvGs. Because of that, I'd swap out those two skills slots of one of your mesmers for maybe Drain Enchantment and Arcane Conundrum. Also, I' dsuggest dropping that Necro entirely for an OoB spammer with Siphon,Shadow,Faint,Blood Rit, ect ect. Then you could make him a N/Mo (best class) and etiher have him spec into healing for Heal Party or into Smiting for Scourge Healing to counter their heal parties. Personally I'd go with him having Heal Party.

The problem your build has right now is that your only real degen is Conjure and Migraine coming from two characters. So the most you can hope for on one character is -8 degen, which isn't anything Heal Party won't keep up with. If you add the necro you have more degen hexes that will stack and compliment your other hexers.

Savage Slash is a pretty bad skill when compared to Distracing Blow, I'd probably take that out for DBlow, but thats a matter of preference. I know that I'd definetely want a stance cancel for Frenzy on the sword guy as well. Hell, you might want to take out one of those Warriors for a Hammer warrior so that you can spike without Imagined Burden. As it stands right now that's your only counter to people kiting your adrenal spikes.

Phoenix Arrows · Apr 10, 2006, 04:46 PM // 16:46

I would switch the Water E/Mo "flagger" into an Air E/Mo "flagger" with 1 or 2 Water spells. The Air E/Mo would have Lightning Orb, which would help with the Adrenaline spiking of your Warriors. Also, not all of the opposing team would be Rangers or Warriors, so I prefer Blinding Flash over Blurred Vision. Also, most E/Mo's have Healing at 10. 9 Energy Storage isn't enough time for Prodigy or for energy in general.

Switch Sprint out for Rush. Rush > Sprint unless running.

SerasCain · Apr 10, 2006, 08:44 PM // 20:44

k so reworking it into something like this:

Sword War
16 sword
11 tactics
9 str

Charge*
Sever
Gash
Final Thrust
Rush
Frenzy
Heal sig
Res sig

Hammer War
16 Hammer
11 str
9 tactics

Backbreaker*
Crushing Blow
Irresistable Blow
Protector's
Rush
Frenzy
Heal sig
Res sig

Migraine mes/n
15 Inspiration
12 illusion
9 fast cast
2 curses

Migraine*
Spirit of failure
Price of failure
Conjure Phantasm
Power Drain
Drain Enchant
Mantra of persistance
Res sig

Migraine mes/mo
15 Inspiration
12 Illusion
9 Fast cast

Migraine*
Conjure Phantasm
Power Drain
Drain enchant
Mantra of persistance
Remove hex
Arcane Conundrum or Sympathetic Visage/Soothing images?
Res sig

Hex stacking Necro/monk
10+1+3 Blood
11+1 Curses
10 Healing
(unsure of stats, just guessing here)

OoB*
Life Siphon
Faintheart
Parasitic
Heal Party
Vampiric Gaze
Shadow Strike (or Shadow of fear/Suffering?)
Res sig

Water Heal Party Ele/mo
15 Water
11 Energy Storage
10 Healing

Ether Prodigy*
Heal Party
Ice Spikes
Shard Storm
Deep Freeze
Rust
Armor of Mist
Ice Prison

Restore Mo/me
16 Divine
10 Prot
9 Inspiration

Restore Condition*
Divine boon
CoP
RoF
Guardian
Inspired Hex
Drain enchant
Sig of Devotion

Boon/prot Mo/me
16 Divine
10 Prot
9 Inspiration

Energy Drain*
Inspired hex
CoP
Guardian
RoF
Mend Condition
Prot Spirit
Holy Veil or Drain Enchant

Is this better?

Farin · Apr 10, 2006, 10:29 PM // 22:29

Looks better, I would probably make a few changes though.

I'm not sure if that first prot booner you have is gonna work with restore. I would just go with E drain or Mantra of Recall.

I'm not a big fan of rust, but I guess it could work to counter those healing sigs. I suggest using Draw Conditions one you're mesmer or necromancer, it helps a lot to keep your warriors clean.

For the warriors, drop rush and add In sprint for the sword guy. He can afford it and can have a 24/7 boost with sprint and charge. Also I think your hammer warrior is a little too energy intensive but maybe it's just me.

Looks solid enough to have success, get it going and let us know how it works. If you have trouble and you're not killing anything with your degen call down an adrenal spike with your warriors and necro.

Lorir · Apr 12, 2006, 01:47 AM // 01:47

Just a couple of observations/comments

Your second 'boon' monk doesnt have boon in his skill list!

Give your Me/Mo Hard res (ie: ressurect). Let him res anyone except monks who should be res signeted.

Migrane isnt as useful in gvg - its almost certain you'll be facing boon prot monks. Even if the 0.25 second cast times arnt bad enough, you can bet they have CoP to remove your hexes.

SerasCain · Apr 12, 2006, 02:29 AM // 02:29

oh schnap. lol my bad uhhh replace veil with boon

Vindexus · Apr 12, 2006, 04:24 AM // 04:24

Take out Armor of Mist for a Res Sig on your Water Ele.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lorir

Just a couple of observations/comment
Give your Me/Mo Hard res (ie: ressurect). Let him res anyone except monks who should be res signeted.

Agreed.

Quote:

Migrane isnt as useful in gvg - its almost certain you'll be facing boon prot monks. Even if the 0.25 second cast times arnt bad enough, you can bet they have CoP to remove your hexes.

Cast it on something else.

zoozoc · Apr 12, 2006, 05:35 AM // 05:35

Migraine is a killer, especially with teams bringing very few hex removal. Simply throw it on that e/mo hp spammer or that energy surge mesmer and your set.

shepard · Apr 12, 2006, 10:51 AM // 10:51

Most of your Characters have Superior runes. You've got 16 divine on boon prots, only really need 14 which means you can take a Major rune, have 10insp and 11 protection. Drop the Superior runes on most of the other characters as well, you need as much health as you can get in gvg. The majority of gvg builds are over-powered spikes, ranger spike, rainbow spike, necro spike, adrenaline spike etc. Even if the build is balanced usually both warriors work together with an emo and spike with each other. Also boon prots lack Infuse health, only anti-spike skill in reversal of fortune, other than that to counter spike take as much health as you can get.

JR · Apr 12, 2006, 11:15 AM // 11:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by shepard

Most of your Characters have Superior runes. You've got 16 divine on boon prots, only really need 14 which means you can take a Major rune, have 10insp and 11 protection.

No, Majors are trash. Paying 50 health for +1 to an attribute is not as justifiable as paying 75 for +2 (assuming a minor).

Quote:

Originally Posted by shepard

Drop the Superior runes on most of the other characters as well, you need as much health as you can get in gvg. The majority of gvg builds are over-powered spikes, ranger spike, rainbow spike, necro spike, adrenaline spike etc.

Be carefull about your use of the word over-powered.

I certainly wouldn't say anything but an Infuse Monk and Flag Runner ever need to use only Minors, but then most people use PvE characters these days so you can switch anyway.

Quote:

Originally Posted by shepard

Even if the build is balanced usually both warriors work together with an emo and spike with each other. Also boon prots lack Infuse health, only anti-spike skill in reversal of fortune, other than that to counter spike take as much health as you can get.

Two booned RoFs/PSpirits is a decent enough spike save without infuse. Not to mention something of a misunderstanding you have. The counter to spike is NOT healing or health, it is disruption. You will not stop a decent spike without it, because it completely negates healing and will do enough damage to kill anyone. This build has two Migraines which is going to give Caster Spike a big problem, and the Necro wont make life that easy for Ranger Spike.

Vindexus · Apr 12, 2006, 05:18 PM // 17:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by shepard

Also boon prots lack Infuse health, only anti-spike skill in reversal of fortune, other than that to counter spike take as much health as you can get.

The counter to spike is by no means fast healing, it's disrupting, knockdowns and interupts.

Also, that necro really isn't going to do anything against ranger spike. All they do is press the buttons sooner. It's not a bad character, but don't expect to roll Ranger spike because you have Faintheartedness.

SerasCain · Apr 12, 2006, 05:28 PM // 17:28

Edit: abbrasive and pointless, and yea, Vin, the only idea i had for fighting a ranger spike was to split....or run away or soemthin like that