Builds

By Cymmina

All comments by Cymmina for builds.

Dire Pet Training (Mergoyles)

That method will not work on certain pets, such as the White Moa (and possibly the Rainbow Phoenix), because they cannot be attacked.

2008-06-06 13:44:47.586046-04

Did you not notice that Price of Failure has a 20s recharge? Price/Spirit of Failure is used in PvP for the chance to miss more than the secondary effect (damage/energy gain). Price cannot be kept up all the time on more than one target, and most GvG teams take at least two melee party members; some teams take a ranger or paragon as well. Concentrating on shutting down a single target works fine in PvE, but is a recipe for disaster in PvP.

Weakness does not reduce attack damage anymore.

2007-07-18 07:31:11.363115-04

Attuned Channeler

Heroes will not be able to use this build to it's fullest extent because they don't treat Attuned Was Sonkai the same way they treat the [element] Attunement skills. They'll wait until they're almost out of energy before using it.

2007-06-29 07:36:59.817246-04

Icy Shackless Flag Runner

Compare Icy Shackles side by side with Mind Freeze and you will have your answer. Exhaustion plus a conditional snare make Mind Freeze unattractive.

2007-06-27 20:33:26.942012-04

Furious Thruster

Neither skill can be kept up all the time, so you need both if you want to have increased adrenaline gain all the time. Yes, most "increases" are capped.

2007-04-24 20:55:22.513637-04

TA/RA Stardancer, Expel Hexes

Having a big energy pool isn't energy management, though. Ask any elementalist, you'll be hard pressed to find one that isn't using Glyph of Lesser Energy and/or an elemental attunement of some sort. Maybe it's not meant to be a "spam build", but in an extended fight, you're not going to be able to keep up.

You have a very expensive deep wound there (15en between 2 skills). It doesn't seem like a very wise skill choice considering how many people are taking condition removal (particularly Mending Touch and Signet of Malice) and other professions can do it much easier and cheaper. Then there's Distortion eating away your energy pool with nothing to offset it's cost. Plus, you too many attributes in illusion magic when most of your damage is in domination.

You've picked some good skills, sure, but not a set of skills that complement eachother very well. What you end up with is a build that's only semi-useful.

2007-04-22 22:43:39.149271-04

Fire Degeneration Dagger (FDD)

Why would you take Fire Storm on an assassin? You have 14 dagger mastery, that gives you roughly +20 armor ignoring damage for all of your dagger attacks. Fire Storm is going to do less damage than that once you factor in armor. Yes, Conjure Flame does even less damage, but look at how much damage you'll get for just 10 energy and 60 second duration (assuming full duration). If your reason for using a "bad" skill is to use against "bad" players, it's a bad reason to bring it. Bring a better skill and you'll do better against skilled and unskilled teams, once you get rid of your handicap (Fire Storm). You really lack a speed boost.

Flashing Blades would not be my first choice as an elite for a PvP assassin.

2007-04-21 10:27:06.185323-04

Endless Focus

Your equipment suggestions matter less than you think. There's really no point in taking +energy armor with this build since it costs almost no energy to perform, especially when +heath or +armor is going to be more beneficial once you start taking damage. You could even take a +15%/-5en mod on your bow and still be just fine.

2007-04-19 10:47:00.0338-04

SS

This build really lacks focus. It looks like you just picked all the utility skills that didn't quite fit nicely on the rest of your hero's/team's bars, so you stuck them on your necro. Sometimes, that's just what you have to do, but that doesn't make it a build, you know what I mean?

I'm not sure why you even bother with Kitah's Burden. It's kinda meant to be a weak energy management skill, but you have so few points in illusion that you lose energy on it. Sure, it's almost free, but there are better options for snaring... they just happen to be for other professions.

2007-04-16 10:33:58.749593-04

Balthazar's Stability

You list Extend Enchantments as an alternate skill, but you don't need it at all with this build. All of your enchantments last 20 seconds or more, EE can't make them last any longer than they already do.

2007-04-14 22:27:23.386191-04

Signet of Suffering

Your attributes are spread very thin. Instead of Phantom Pain/Shatter Delusions, you could take Ether Phantom/Drain Delusions, both of which are in inspiration. The other alternative is to not spec domination at all and crank up your curses so you get more out of Soul Barbs and Signet of Suffering.

I'm not so sure Soul Barbs is the right choice for this build, since you only have 3 guaranteed triggers for it.

2007-04-11 12:14:45.229062-04

Domain of Anguish Solo Farming

Here is a video of it on YouTube.

2007-04-09 15:17:17.379954-04

Mo/A Shadow Healing Light

Deny Hexes now has the same recharge/casting time/cost as Holy Veil, but it can remove up to 3 hexes at once for your build and no fumbling around with killing maintained enchantments. You might want to look at Signet of Rejuvenation instead of Signet of Devotion. Little longer recharge, but faster activation and it heals for a little more.

2007-04-08 18:30:39.094137-04

Lyssa's Runner

Yes, I had thought of that. While chest running, it's usually a case of run in, open the chest, and go straight through to the next safe spot. There's a number of chest running locations with narrow paths (think Vabbi) where there is no way past a group of guys other than to run straight through them. At that point, what do you gain by being able to teleport out?

2007-04-07 13:59:28.698342-04

Assassin Barrage - Pet

Why bother taking a pet if you aren't taking beastmastery? Your pet's damage is affected by beastmastery, so with 3 BM, it's doing almost nothing. Instead of wasting those last two skill slots, you could be taking a resurrect, Signet of Malice, Assassin's Remedy, Disrupting Dagger, etc. Anything else would be better than taking a pet that's going to do almost no damage and risk having all of your skills disabled (the actual damage part of your build) when it dies because you don't have the energy or attributes to continue healing it. It doesn't seem like a very good trade-off.

2007-04-06 12:16:47.092482-04

Vow of Silence Runner

Do you really need Harrier's Haste? The only significant running I've done with my dervish is to get my Elonian "treasures", and that's a lot tougher than doing an LA to Sanctum run (hint, use Avatar of Melandru to get to the Temple of the Ages). I found that in most situations, I was able to stop once I cycled through Featherfoot Grace, Enchanted Haste, Featherfoot Grace. That would free up space for KD protection on the runs where it is necessary.

Also, you only need 8 Earth Prayers to hit the +3 regen breakpoint on Mystic Regeneration. That would give you at least one additional second of duration for each of your run skills (Wind Prayers)... which is usually more helpful than the extra 8 health Vital Boon will give you at 10.

I was a cheapass and just used my preorder scythe for most of my running, but I ended up getting a +5+10en staff with +20% enchantment duration along the way (which I share with my Shadow Form running assassin) and find it a lot more helpful (especially if I do have to use Fleeting Stability for KD areas).

2007-04-04 15:36:40.802453-04

R/Mo helping ranger ab

Why would you take a build like this into AB? If this can kill, you must be going up against some exceptionally bad players because you have almost no damage. You've stacked yourself defensively to the point of being a useless team member. If you want to play support, there are other professions that do a much better job at it.

Mending is such a terrible skill for anything other than running/solo farming, why is it here sucking up one of your precious pips of regeneration?

2007-03-30 07:57:23.909125-04

Star Bert

Attack skills with +damage, like Galrath Slash, deal armor ignoring damage, so it will always do at least 35 damage... unless the target has damage reduction (Protective Spirit, Shielding Hands, etc.). Sun and Moon Slash might come out to be about the same amount of damage for this particular build, only because it would trigger Conjure Flame's damage twice.

2007-03-29 07:41:38.719011-04

FoW Forest Farming

Here are some YouTube videos of this in action:

2007-03-24 09:20:19.11494-04

Ele UW Solo

YouTube videos:

2007-03-22 17:24:05.097655-04

Vengeful Solo UW

Found a video on YouTube with this build in action (kinda low quality, speed x2).

2007-03-20 18:05:03.748308-04

Speed Trapper

I found a video on YouTube that shows this build in use.

2007-03-20 07:41:05.286466-04

Channeling Spiker

I was using this build in PvE for a while, since I could cap the elite rather quickly compared to other builds. I found I preferred Protective was Kaolai as my item spell, instead of Generous was Tsungrai, since the new heal party behavior comes in rather handy. Generous does look like the better choice for a team of 4, but for a team of 8, I really like Protective.

2007-03-18 16:06:50.735931-04

The Angelic Commander

It's surprising just how much survivability Signet of Synergy, Song of Restoration, and Ballad of Restoration brings to a PvE group. I ran a similar build while getting my Legendary Survivor title. At one point, a friend of mine says to me, "We're gonna die, I'm sorry you're going to lose your title". But I don't think any of the heroes died, my friend and I certainly didn't.

2007-03-15 07:26:05.737169-04

Icy Gwerbert

His point is that against an intelligent team, warriors are the lowest priority targets. Your Mirror of Ice and Riposte are wasted slots in that situation, and I agree. Why attack a high AR target, especially one that's stacked so defensively, when something squishy like a Monk or Mesmer will go down faster?

However, given the intellect of your average RA team (assuming that's where you plan on using it, you don't specify), it's not useless because bad teams will frequently concentrate on warriors first. But don't you think it would be better to plan your build against the smartest team you might be facing? After all, they're the teams that are most likely to beat you, not the bad ones.

Don't be discouraged because someone might label a build as "bad", because even "bad" builds can serve as inspiration for better builds.

2007-03-10 12:50:44.454272-05

Sorrowful Minion Master

I think Signet of Lost Souls would be a better choice than Rotting Flesh, to give you a bit of energy management along with healing. I usually run my MM builds with Offering of Blood (PreNF) because fiends are so expensive. Healing Ring is a nice alternate skill for (Karei's Healing Circle/Heal Area) for NF only accounts, but it doesn't heal the caster.

It does seem like Dwayna's Sorrow was designed to be used with minions.

2007-03-04 17:50:56.228796-05

Searing mark/ward melee

Mark of Rodgort seems out of place, unless you have a second fire ele working in concert with you. Your only choices for skills to trigger Rodgort's burn are Glowing Gaze (which I would never use on a target that isn't already burning, especially given the expense of your other skills) and Searing Flames (it's burn will override the burn from Rodgort because of the longer duration). It becomes a tough choice as to which skill to use as your lead.

2007-03-02 07:34:12.554387-05

DA Lyssa's Punishing Daggers

I've used a variation on this build for PvE, specifically to deal with the priests and monk boss in Thirsty River. With them casting as often as they do, you can solo them within seconds. However, I personally found the recharge time on Golden Phoenix Strike a little limiting and wished I had a second lead attack (Golden Lotus Strike would be my pick, for the extra energy) to alternate with.

2007-02-24 21:41:44.704455-05

Insect Farming Build

I'm curious as to why you have 8 Healing Prayers just to get Mending to +3 regeneration, when you could take 8 Earth Prayers instead and have Mystic Regeneration at +3 regen for each enchantment.

2007-02-06 18:18:25.549191-05

Motivational Battery

I found that with all of the chants/echos I was using, I couldn't build enough adrenaline to keep using "Watch Yourself!" every 4 seconds. The higher armor rating from having 8 tactics is useful to the whole party, rather than just the few I'm able to keep Energizing Finale up on.

2006-12-07 11:06:17.205276-05

flesh wound paragon

Flesh Wound has the advantage of no activation time and faster recharge, both of which are critical in fast-paced environments. Don't believe me? See how much better it performs vs Abaddon, where daze, kd, and blind run rampant and those who stand idle are punished. The 2s activation time of Cautery Signet is just begging to be interrupted.

2006-12-07 02:04:44.925036-05

Damage Assassin

With the assassin's high attack rate, Conjure [Element] is going to be a much more cost effective way of increasing your damage than simply spamming Flare. Also, your fire magic is way too low to justify bringing any skill in that attribute, let alone one for damage. However, using utility skills in water magic like Armor of Mist and Ice Prison can get away with using that low of an attribute investment and still be useful.

Your build seems to suffering from a lack of direction. You take Jagged Strike, which only causes bleeding, when you could be taking Leaping Mantis Sting for the extra damage/chance to cripple or Disrupting Stab for interruption... but, you've already got an off-hand attack that doesn't need a lead attack (Palm Strike). Why not make use of that "lead" off-hand by using something like Repeating Strike or Horns of the Ox/Falling Spider?

2006-09-11 15:05:16.84227-04

Guild Wars Gamependium