Guild Wars: Night of Failure
One of those nights where nothing seems to be working. Played a few rounds of HA with a crazy Clamor of Souls build dreamed up by a guildmate. I asked before we started "What happens if they don't ball up?". Turns out the answer is "you lose". Didn't win a match. We did beat the NPCs at the beginning in 10 seconds one round which is a new speed record for me. Not terribly consoling though.
Then tried Divineshadows' hex shutdown TA build (the one at the bottom of the linked page) with Sausaletus Rex and a couple of randomly drafted XoO types. I think we had some poor player chemistry - 4 people who wanted to play midlines and no melee/monk types - but the build failed spectacularly, losing every game. Doesn't fill me with confidence for the GvG hex build. One note of interest was playing against a mesmer (Rusty) who schooled me in GvG a few days ago - well, ok, it wasn't so much being schooled as being hit by a schoolbus. Turns out the guy is a good player but also an infamous GW troll and used to be in XoO.
I feel like I should make a new TA build but working on builds seems a bit pointless given the skill tweaking coming up this weekend. If I did, I'd probably just make something a whole lot like the build that the good TA team was playing:
* Melandrus Dervish
* BSurge Mesmer
* Burning Arrow Ranger
* ZB monk
Then tried Divineshadows' hex shutdown TA build (the one at the bottom of the linked page) with Sausaletus Rex and a couple of randomly drafted XoO types. I think we had some poor player chemistry - 4 people who wanted to play midlines and no melee/monk types - but the build failed spectacularly, losing every game. Doesn't fill me with confidence for the GvG hex build. One note of interest was playing against a mesmer (Rusty) who schooled me in GvG a few days ago - well, ok, it wasn't so much being schooled as being hit by a schoolbus. Turns out the guy is a good player but also an infamous GW troll and used to be in XoO.
I feel like I should make a new TA build but working on builds seems a bit pointless given the skill tweaking coming up this weekend. If I did, I'd probably just make something a whole lot like the build that the good TA team was playing:
* Melandrus Dervish
* BSurge Mesmer
* Burning Arrow Ranger
* ZB monk
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posted by Clamatius | Thursday, January 18, 2007
5 Comments:
Rough night, yeah. Still, as I said, nice to play some rounds with you (I had a feeling the other in the party were plucked from the teeming masses of the Xen masters based on interest rather than, you know, aptitude. But I didn't really want to say it so bluntly. I mean, it's not like I'm a very good player myself at the moment, so I don't like to criticize others but none of us exactly coated ourselves in glory last night.).
I wouldn't give up on the hex build quite so easily, myself. The Arena's a very different format than GvG (And I think we've gone over this point before so I won't belabor it) and the main difference isn't so much the team size or the lack of map objectives - it's the speed. Most Arena battles are decided in the first few minutes if not in the first encounter. It puts a premium on killing things quickly which, of course, degen isn't so good at. In GvG, though, there's more time and space for that pressure to really take its toll and cause the other team to break spectacularly.
If you ask me the real problem last night was that we just didn't have enough defensive measure in our build to last long enough for our degen to work - not being able to spike effectively was a problem, of course, but I think that was more down to people getting used to each other and how their builds worked. It might have been better to have your Necro set up as more of a secondary Monk or included some more shutdown in my build (I could have had Faintheartedness, too, maybe, instead of Malaise) - we weren't going to roll people so we should have been thinking about how to outlast them.
Not sure if that's what you want to do in GvG but I think the idea of overloading people with hexes has merit - you just need to find an effective way of doing so.
The Reapers guy already has Faintheartedness and Gift of Health.
I think the problems aside from general poor play were:
(a) not having a melee character, the P/E is a terrible fit for the build
(b) Against the oh-so-common ZB, it needs to be Sig Humility'd so that the monk doesn't have a good counter-degen skill.
(c) Spoil on the opposing offense is generally better than on their monk and the build comment should reflect that.
(d) I'm not a fan of the listed Grenth build - relying on the monk to draw off Wearying seems like a bad idea. You do need a way to inflict deep wound though.
(e) I think a good fit given the current meta may be Spirit Shackles instead of Malaise. Should be reasonably effective against all the thumpers and dervishes.
Against the oh-so-common ZB, it needs to be Sig Humility'd so that the monk doesn't have a good counter-degen skill.
Generally, by the time I'd figured out when to press which buttons to make the pretty lights on screen (ie got a little familiar with the build) as soon as I saw the Monk was ZB, I focused on Humiliating them but it didn't seem to help out that much - and there's still a gap when they can use it even with the Mantra up. Plus, you know, I suck still and couldn't do it reliably.
The Reapers guy already has Faintheartedness and Gift of Health.
Right, and a Well. I'm saying that's not enough. Faintheartedness would be the nastiest melee shutdown that you could swap out for Malaise without respeccing and two of them would make sure one was, in all likelihood, up. But I like the Spirit Shackles, too, or maybe Spirit of Failure. Whatever, just another hex to toss out there to shut down the opposing offense or at least blunt its effectiveness.
Spoil on the opposing offense is generally better than on their monk and the build comment should reflect that.
Ah, like a Backfire that only kicks in when they start damaging you? Yeah, I was trying to get it on the Monk most of the time. Not exactly a skill I'm familiar with at this point - even though it's been around since [i]Factions[/i].
I'm not a fan of the listed Grenth build
Didn't pay much attention to the Dervisher but I agree with you. Maybe a Melandru's version would work better? It's not as much enchantment removal but with all the hexes flying around Rending Sweep could be viable. Not as sure a thing as Grenth's but takes some condition removing pressure off the Monk.
the P/E is a terrible fit for the build
Ye-ah. That was...interesting. Probably could work in another team but what a team like the one we had needs in that spot is someone to really kick out the damage.
I have seen it done however, in GvG.
The whole shabang with hex-stacking on melees.
I believe it was when I was obsv'ing [RISC], who at the time was #33 take on a #300ish guild.
Upset to say the least; they were pushed to VoD and lost.
It was on Weeping Stone.
Okay, I know that says nothing about team-build synergy clashes and map-layout and the other things that proper analyzation would yield.
That said however, the Necro on the underdog team was trying to DPS the opposition instead of dulling it with degen.
The result? Reckless Haste and Price of Failure hurts. Stack it all up and throw in a Signet of Suffering for a mild spike.
Only saying this because it seems not many guilds are packing Divert Hexes (though I've seen it run with a Fast Cast prot with Draw Conditions and whatnot).
Still, don't give up. That DPS HURTS.
You aren't doubling up Reckless Haste with Price of Failure for the damage - if that's an issue they just won't attack. It's just for stacking the miss chance so the melee guy is near-useless until the hexes are removed.
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