Firstly, I should point out that I was in two minds as to whether this belonged here, or in the builds section, but since that seemed to be for single classes, I decided on this section - if it is wrong, then please feel free to move it.
The aim of this post is to set out a build for a whole team of 8 people which I believe to be good for questing in the Fissure of Woe.
The characters required are as follows :
1. Mo/* - Bonder/Protector - 6 Smite, 15 Prot, 15 DF.
2. Mo/Me - Divine Healer - 16 Healing, 15 DF.
3. Rt/Mo - Spirit Caller - 16 Communing, 15 Spawning.
4. E/Me - Echo Nuker - 15 (11+4) Fire, 14 (11+3) Energy Storage, Remainder on Inspiration
5. Mo/* - Bonder/Protector - 6 Smite, 15 Prot, 15 DF.
6. N/Me - Standard SS build.
7. W/Mo - Damage Warrior - 15 Weapon, 14 Tactics, remainder on Strength.
8. Me/Mo - Energy denial mesmer - 15 Inspiration, 15 Domination, 6 Fast Casting.
The basic philosophy for the team is as follows.
The two bonder/protector monks have two separate roles depending on the area :
Standard role : For areas in the absence of necros with total enchant removal skills, and in the absence of Nature's Renewal, the bonders will each bond half of the team with two bonds ( Life Barrier and Life Bond ), and maintain these bonds, using Balthazar's spirit on themselves to assist with energy management when facing mesmers.
Second role : To use, between the two of them, protection skills - condition removal, hex removal, reversal of fortune, prot spirit etc... to assist with the protection of the team in the areas where bonding is inappropriate.
The healer's role is quite trivial.
The ritualist will assist in both protecting the team with binding rituals, i.e. union and shelter, and inflicting damage and conditions on the enemy - with pain, bloodsong, shadowsong etc...
The echo-nuker should, with the assistance of energy tap and the SS's BR, be able to maintain a reasonable level of energy, besides this, their role is quite trivial.
The absence of a large number of damage dealers requires that the warrior delivers a lot of damage rather than using the traditional "tank" builds in which their sole purpose is to soak up damage. The high level of protection allows them to do this with no significant detrimental effects. The build should include balanced stance to avoid knockdowns and energy management skills, but can afford to be a high adrenaline build since one bonder should be able to maintain balthazar's spirit on the warrior.
The SS serves the usual function, in cursing groups of enemies and rending enchantments.
Finally, the mesmer serves two functions, to deny energy to enemy spellcasters, and to place and remove hexes with the stolen energy. Shatter hex is useful when dealing with both ancient skales and shadow beasts. Echo-Energy drain and energy tap, combined with spirit shackles should deal with even the most stubborn monks - essentially reducing the monk count by one without killing them. The hexes - empathy and spirit of failure - are used for damage on warriors.
Characters 1,3,7,8 ( or 3,5,7,8 ) should have repeatable resurrection capability and both the SS and Nuker builds have room for a signet if necessary.
I will provide the specific skill collections in a further post in the near future since it is getting very late now.
S
