User:Khomet/Flameway
Synopsis[edit]
Flameway is built around the Burning Barrage paragon and heros designed to maximize its potential. Burning Barrage provides mass damage and degen and both offensive and defensive support for the team but in order to make the most of this build we need more burning, damage buffs such as Splinter Weapon and Cracked Armor, AoE snaring capability and additional damage from other team members to spike entire groups quickly. The team below is what I consider to the the optimal companions for Burning Barrage at present but it is certain to be improved over time. The reduction of armor levels in hardmode has made this build stronger since Barrage does more damage and elemental damage is greater as well. Some characters are secondary Paragons so that they can bring Signet of Return; this is not required, but I like this skill because it resurrects fallen comrades at 40% health and 8% energy even at 0 Leadership, it costs nothing to activate and recharges quickly... in short, it is a good combat resurrection skill.
Key features:
- Burning Barrage has Imbagon-like damage resistance for the team while delivering massive damage; with damage buffs applied the paragon can deliver 1500+ damage in one barrage while giving the team up to 59% damage reduction against any kind of damage.
- Mass burning, weakness, and cracked armor on foes.
- AoE snaring and knockdown to keep foes in the killzone
- AoE damage from Barrage, Splinter Weapon, Searing Flames, Unsteady Ground and other skills
- Ebon Battle Standard of Honor boosts elemental damage as well as arrow damage.
- Mass enchantment, hex, and condition removal.
- Strong party healing provides immunity to health degeneration
- Additional damage mitigation from spirits and minions
Advantages vs. melee teams:
- All team members stay in the ward and shout zone to gain maximum benefit from them
- Not affected by crippled, snares, kiting, etc.
- Can switch targets instantly
Team Build[edit]
Flameway v3 (http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/User:Khomet/Flameway ; current)
Flameway v2 (http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/User:Khomet/Flameway_v2)
Flameway v1 (http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/User:Khomet/Flameway_v1)
- Player: P/R Burning Barrage : OQKjkxmDKTLGtYWYAh9YoY7i5iA
- Hero 1: Rt/P SoS healer : OAmjEyiM5MYsq51scKNncMT5NA
- Hero 2: N/Mo AotL Prot : OANDUspPOax6mcoKkGQDT1qK
- Hero 3: E/Mo Unsteady Ground : OgNDkMnfO1Do/Okp1nRG0iUB
- Hero 4: E/N Searing Flames N : OgREQypKz48JsD0tdxYFZQLwFA
- Hero 5: E/P Searing Flames P : OgljowMopO+4aMdbXMWRG0CcBA
- Hero 6: Me/P Panic : OQlDApwTOFVcKNw0lDW+jQ5N
- Hero 7: Mo/Me Unyielding Aura : OwUTMwmC5pLeRYIhxv3dbEG3AA
This team has completed elite missions and the Winds of Change quests in hardmode without using any consumables and I believe it has surpassed any reasonable standard of worthiness. In the few areas where it would not be effective (e.g. foes immune to Burning) you can change the burning skills or else change to a different team; Kway is a good alternate. Rangers can take the place of the paragon fairly easily, just run R/W with Barrage, Save Yourselves, EVAS and EBSoH. You lose some defense against armor ignoring damage but you gain defense against armor-affected damage and the barrage damage is slightly better.
If you don't have all of these heroes don't worry, henchmen will do fine. For the remainder of the group, the following henchmen are best: barrage ranger (Aidan), mesmer (Odurra/Dunham), elementalist(Cynn), healer(Mhenlo). If you are with another player, physical attackers and elementalists have good synergy, especially those that can cause Burning.
Author's note: I bind keys so that "9", "0", and "-" activate skill 1 on each of the first three heroes, so I get Splinter Weapon, Judge's Insight and Protective Spirit on demand... it's like having 11 skills on your bar.
Burning Barrage[edit]
 Paragon /  Ranger
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| Marksmanship | 12 |
| Leadership | 12+3+1 |
| Command | 3+1 |
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Mass damage and strong team defense. This can provide roughly 60% damage reduction against everything, including armor ignoring damage. Team skills such as Enfeebling Blood and Stand Your Ground reduce damage even further. More info and screenshots at http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/User:Khomet/Burning_Barrage
SoS healer[edit]
 Ritualist / Paragon
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| Restoration | 12+1 |
| Channeling | 12+3+1 |
| Spawning | 3+1 |
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This hero is a partial healer but the main reason to bring it is Splinter Weapon at 16 channeling magic. Splinter Weapon @ 16 can deliver 1060 armor ignoring damage, and with consumables the hero can reach 17 channeling magic which increases splinter weapon's damage potential from 1060 to 1344 (4 x 56 x 6). Splinter Weapon appears to have a bug, it damages 4 adjacent targets instead of 3... however I am not complaining. :)
AotL Prot[edit]
 Necromancer /  Monk
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| Death Magic | 12+2+1 |
| Soul Reaping | 10+1 |
| Protection Prayers | 8 |
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Mass damage and defense from minions and spells and good protection as well.
Unsteady Ground[edit]
 Elementalist / Monk
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| Earth Magic | 12+3+1 |
| Energy Storage | 9+1 |
| Smiting Prayers | 9 |
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This hero brings area-effect snaring (Earthen Shackles), blind, knockdowns, and damage. Judge's Insight increases physical damage (from barrage) by up to 87% against any kind of foe and it completely destroys minions and undead.
Searing Flames N[edit]
| Elementalist / Necromancer
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| Fire Magic | 12+3+1 |
| Energy Storage | 8+1 |
| Curses | 10 |
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Mass damage, burning, knockdown, weakness and cracked armor. Energy stays high all the time with 4 energy management skills. (!!)
Searing Flames P[edit]
| Elementalist / Paragon
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| Fire Magic | 12+3+1 |
| Energy Storage | 8+1 |
| Command | 10 |
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Mass damage, burning, knockdown, defense and health regeneration. Energy stays high all the time with 4 energy management skills. (!!)
Panic[edit]
 Mesmer / Paragon
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| Domination | 12+2+1 |
| Fast Casting | 9+1 |
| Inspiration | 9+1 |
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This hero delivers AoE damage and interrupts, destroys opposing spirits and minions and has mass hex and enchantment removal.
Unyielding Aura[edit]
| Monk / Mesmer
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| Divine Favor | 12+2+1 |
| Healing Prayers | 10+1 |
| Inspiration Magic | 8 |
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This hero brings mass healing, mass hex removal and instant resurrection. With Unyielding Aura active Divine Healing and Heaven's Delight are healing the whole party for 96 every few seconds, and Gift of Health heals for 230 with the divine favor bonus... it's like an unconditional non-elite Word of Healing. Divine Intervention works pretty well here, it can prevent death and provide a huge heal at the same time, and this is usually enough so that the hero never needs to rez with UA at all; it also makes Deny Hexes remove up to 4 hexes at once. Also consider Signet of Devotion as an alternative.
Screenshots (The Deep hardmode)[edit]
These were taken during a guild run through The Deep in Hard Mode on 2012-01-06. No consumables were used, we didn't need them. The Hardmode/Elementalist update gave the monsters lower armor and higher health, and this has made the Flameway build even stronger... Barrage and the elementalist spells do more damage and Burning Refrain triggers more often. (Flameway v1)
Screenshots (Urgoz hardmode)[edit]
Doing Urgoz hardmode with a close friend, no consumables were used anywhere in the run. (Flameway v3)
Screenshots (ToPK hardmode)[edit]
The next set of screenshots were taken from a heroes-only run through Tomb of the Primeval Kings in hardmode. As usual, no consumables were used. ToPK is among the harder areas for this kind of build because the enemies don't usually ball up nicely, most groups have both melee and casters and this reduces the effectiveness of all AoE damage including Splinter Barrage, Searing Flames, etc. Still, it works well enough. (Flameway v1)
Screenshots (Villainy of Galrath hardmode)[edit]
Team composition was Flameway v2; no consumables other than some DP removal. Here we see a nearly perfect shot against a perfectly balled group... this shot hit the maximum number of foes and expended every pulse of splinter weapon all at once. Notice that there are exactly twenty -53s from Splinter Weapon and six other damage numbers from Barrage. Splinter actually hits four adjacent foes instead of three with each pulse, so if you have 5 pulses of damage you get 5 x 4 = 20. Damage on each arrow is boosted by Judge's Insight. Unfortunately I stepped out of the Ebon Battle Standard of Honor when taking the shot because the foes were slightly uphill from me. EBSOH would have added another 90 points of damage (15 x 6).
Screenshots (When Kappa Attack hardmode)[edit]
Used a modified Flameway team for this one; I replaced the Unsteady Ground elementalist with a minion bomber, replaced the Healing Burst monk with an N/Rt Icy Veins healer, and replaced the smite monk with a UA monk. Continual improvements to the team eventually led to Flameway v3.
