The Team Build
This build is mainly used in the Tomb of the Primeval Kings , but is sometimes used in Guild versus Guild
IWAY is a name of a team build that relies heavily on the use of "I will avenge you!" in combination with pets. The warriors in IWAY are rarely anything other than Warrior/Rangers. The trick is that "I Will Avenge You!" works for pets too. IWAY will give the warriors an attack and healing boost for each dead pet within a large area. Having several dead pets nearby is enough to maintain a user's IWAY boost indefinitely.
Basics
* A group of Warrior Rangers with Axes and Pets, wearing Gladiator's Armor with any of the other types of armor on hands and feet. The usual IWAY warrior build uses Eviscerate, Executioner's Strike, Disrupting Chop, "I Will Avenge You!", Cyclone Axe, and sometimes Warrior's Cunning
* One Primary Necromancer ("Orders Necro"), mainly secondary Monk, with high Blood Magic. The Orders Necro is equipped with Order of Pain, Order of the Vampire, Blood Renewal, and Life Siphon.
* A Necro/Ele ("Tainted Necro") with Tainted Flesh, Well of the Profane, Maelstrom, Meteor Shower, Windborne Speed, and Consume Corpse.
* Spirits:
* Winnowing, usually taken by a trapper.
* Predatory Season, always equipped by an IWAY Warrior.
* Edge of Extinction, usually taken by an IWAY Warrior.
* Nature's Renewal, generally used by a trapper.
o Don't use against other IWAY teams.
* A group will almost always have a Warrior/Ranger with Sprint for Altar and Relic capturing maps. It's a good idea for this person to take Distracting Blow incase another Ghostly hero has made it onto the Altar first.
* Teams will usually take two trappers (R/Me). These trappers will have Spike Trap, Flame Trap, Barbed Trap, Dust Trap, Mantra of Resolve and one spirit.
* Pet Skills: Revive Animal (Non-fame-farming IWAY teams will want to take this for maps with more than one team, to easily transport pets to other parts of the map and use their bodies for IWAY and corpse controll skills) and Charm Animal.
* Every Warrior Ranger should have a pet and a Longbow.
How it works
Most teams will start out placing Predatory Season and Winnowing within range of where the team will be fighting. If the enemy team is not IWAY, a trapper will drop Nature's Renewal to slow down enenmy enchantment and hex casting.
The IWAY team will then use bows on the enemy team to send their pets at them, setting off traps and giving players who don't know how to correctly counter them the opportunity to kill the pets so that they may be made into wells and such.
After the traps are clear, the W/Rs and trappers rush in while the Tainted Necromancer uses Maelstrom on the enemy team. The Orders Necromaner stands back and casts Order of the Vampire and Order of Pain to boost the team's health and attack.
On Altar Capturing maps, the Sprinting warrior will take the Ghostly Hero. When the doors open, the Tainted Necromancer will place Windborne Speed on the Ghostly Hero to make it run as fast as the sprinter.
On "Relic Runs," the team's trappers will trap their Relic. Most IWAY teams defend on 'Relic Runs'. After defeating most of the enemy team, the Sprinter and Tainted Necromancer will push ahead, taking the relic and applying Windborne Speed to him to make him run as fast as possible (The relic reduces the holder's running speed by around 50-75%)
Fame Farming
The IWAY build was not meant to take and hold the Hall of Heroes, but to gain quick faction for those using the build. This is mainly because IWAY is so quick to put together and so easy to understand and use.
Another version of Fame Farming is to win the first 3 maps and then leave, regroup, and do it again, fighting mostly inexperienced teams and gaining a 6 Fame for 25 minutes or less of play. Whether this is actually more effective than playing the normal way, or not, is a matter of dispute.
Counters
Several tactics that work against warriors and groups of warriors will still be effective counters against IWAY teams, including:
* Protective enchantments like Aegis and Healing Seed. Note, however, that if the IWAY team has a chance to put Well of Profane up, taking these skills will be in vain.
* Use the corpses before the IWAY necromancer can. This can be best done with a Mesmer/Necromancer.
* Use Hexes like Shadow of Fear, Spiteful Spirit, Blurred Vision, Thunderclap Fevered Dreams ... that are effective against the clumps of warriors.
* Traps are very effective against IWAY, but beware, most will have trappers aswell. Full trapper teams are usually massacred by IWAY.
* Cause blindness and weakness.
* The Orders Necromancer is the softest target in an IWAY team, go for him and you can greatly reduce their ability to heal or damage. A warrior, enchantment stripper, or ranger can easily take these out.
* Staying close, a ball, is a bad idea unless you can interrupt Maelstrom and keep their trappers with low energy. Some IWAY warriors will also carry Cyclone Axe to deal with balls and groups that stay together.
* Simply avoid killing all the IWAY pets at once to decrease the bonus warriors get from "I will avenge you!". Attack the pets last.
* Drop a Greater Conflagration nature ritual to totally negate the damage boost from Order of Pain and Order of the Vampire.
* Ward Against Melee, Ward Against Foes, and other slow downs greatly reduce the effectiveness of warriors.
* Frozen Soil greatly hinders most IWAY teams.
History
For quite awhile, IWAY consisted completely of 6 W/Rs, 1 Tainted Necromancer, and 1 Orders Necromancer.
The September 29th, 2005 update reduced the maximum attack speed bonus to 33%, down from 50%, slightly reducing the effectiveness of the IWAY build.
Modifications
"Trapway" is a refinement of IWAY, consisting of 2 Trappers, 4 W/R, 1 Orders, 1 Tainted build.
There have been many modifications of the IWAY build since its creation. Some have ignored the Necromancers, using two Elementalist/Monks with Heal Party, protection Monks, Elementalist/Mesmer fire "nukers", Elementalists with Wards, and so on. Few of these see use for very long. Though the use of a protection monk was once picking up popularity, most players abandoned this for the "Trapway".
Note: Like any very popular build this build is being frowned upon by many players as being "overused" and "taking no skill".
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