Saccer

A Saccer is a type of build designed to deal extreme amounts of Point Blank Area of Effect (PBAoE) damage which trigger on the death of the character, in effect sacrificing themselves for the party. Sometimes known as a sapper or Bomber, builds typically make use of skills that require high Sacrifice costs. In its earliest forms, it was often used to power fast creation of minion armies and for Death leveling.

Although generally less popular now, the basic idea can be used as a basis for extremely effective builds with a specific function, e.g. Batteries or ensuring a win in Snowball Dominance.

Characteristics

A typical Saccer includes:

• Necromancer as a primary or secondary profession, for access to damage-on-death skills.
• Low health, using three or more Superior attribute Runes.
• A method to kill oneself, i.e. vampiric weapons and sacrifice skills (e.g. Illusion of Weakness or Infuse Health).

Evaluation

Strengths

• Delivers high damage to a large number of foes on demand.
• Helps to divert aggro away from the rest of the party and ball up foes.

Weaknesses

• Vulnerable to enchantment stripping and Daze.
• Sometimes unable to be of use more than once per combat.
• Can be countered by certain protection skills or strong healing.

Current variations

1-HP BIP

This Battery build is used to provide 10 seconds of energy-regeneration to each party member every 8-12 seconds (depending on the size of the party). The BiP sacrifices his/herself upon zoning so that they have only 1 point of health; this allows them to repeatedly cast Blood is Power without any noticeable cost.

Jade Quarry bomber

This Saccer-build is based around Contagion, Death Nova, and Dash, to help cap shrines in the Jade Quarry.

Snowball Dominance Necromancer

During Wintersday, a Necromancer under the Yuletide disguise positions his/herself in the center of the opposing team and uses Holiday Blues to cause minor damage and massive health degeneration. With proper timing, they can eliminate all but a few foes within 30 seconds.

Monster builds

• Hopping Vampires and Thought Stealer can use Suicide Health and Suicide Energy respectively, killing themselves to make a target lose all health or energy respectively.
• The Jade Brotherhood Demolitionist uses Jade Brotherhood Bomb to generate up to 750 damage as they die.
• Although their AI does not cause them to sacrifice themselves, Afflicted in Winds of Change generate powerful Soul Explosions that have much the same impact.

Historical variations

Minion Apocalypse

Under the October 2011 Flux-effect of Minion Apocalypse, Saccers were somewhat common in PvP: several team mates could sacrifice themselves to generate a group of minions that could help take down opposing player characters or shrine guards, allowing easy mop-up by teammates.

Minion factory

Minion Factory at PvX

This team-build included Saccers, minion masters, and fast-casting Rezmers (Mesmers with resurrection skills). The MMs created a minion army from the corpses of the Saccers and the Rezmers brought them back to life to repeat the process again.

EoE bomb

Aspenwood Bomber at PvX.

The EoE bomb was an 8-player team-build that used multiple Saccers to rush into the center of battle (causing damage and inflicting conditions), rezmers to bring them back, and Edge of Extinction to help mop up the remnants of the opposing forces. The build made use of Light of Dwayna and Mark of Protection for resurrection. If timed correctly, the build could cause as much as 728 damage within 5 seconds.

Trivia

• Some players believe that the minion factory was created by Isaiah Cartwright, the ArenaNet developer in charge of skill balance for Guild Wars.

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