Lord of the Beetles[edit]
- 15-16 Beast Mastery (Due to the strong defensive nature of the build, there is absolutely no problem in using a Major Beast Mastery Rune. Even a Superior Rune isn't out of question.)
- 14 Expertise (A major rune is a MUST due to breakpoint!)
- Do NOT use 5 Beastmaster's Insignias -> This is what i have used BEFORE, but upon closer thought, Radiant Insignias should be better since the actual player is standing far away from combat, has a shield set, and can kite using Run As one, so the extra armor from Beastmaster's is likely superflorous.
- A zealous spear of Defense/Shelter (and a normal spear to hold while not attacking)
- A shield with "Run For Your Life!"
- Anniversary Sword "Prominence" is ideal for this build!
- Do not forget to equip +30(-2) energy sets - this is very useful for spikes and in short battles!
- Description
- Flux-effects
- All In - ABSOLUTLEY AWESOME for this build, since it already uses skills solely from a single attribute.
- REMARK: It is likely worthwile getting 9 spear mastery with this build because: 1. Having [18 BM / 15 E] instead of something like [16 BM / 14 E] with higher than 3 Spear Mastery doesn't cause the pet to deal significantly less damage (and it has minor impact on the skills). 2. Having a third attribute increases the value of the bonus from All In (with only 3 points invested in Spear Mastery the spear dps is basically 0, so it has a more significant effect here!)
- Additional remark: It may be worth getting 7 or 8 spear mastery and a lower req spear for this (that is, from PvE put on the PvP character). HOWEVER this is likely not necessary because of the +2 bonus in spear mastery.
- ALTERNATIVE: Get 17 expertise, since this cuts 10-e skills to only 3 energy.
- Meek Shall Inherit - Aside from the increased damage due to the rank of 17-18 in beast mastery, this flux also provides awesome energy manegement since the Expertise rank can be increased to 17 (Skills that cost 10 energy are then reduced to cost only 3 energy!) in addition to the extra pip of energy regeneration and the +2 health regeneration. Melandru's Assault (PvP) is likely the best replacement for the elite skill in this case.
- There Can Be Only One - Awesome for 2 reasons: 1. This build focuses on dealing heavy armor-ignoring damage from the use of skills, which is precisely what is empowered by this flux. At the same time, most ranger builds in RA focuses on degeneration, snares, and interrupts, which are completely unaffected by this flux. As such, this flux heavily favors this build compared to other ranger builds. 2. Rangers tend to heavily rely on their bonus armor vs elemental damage and their blocking-ability for survivial. Since both are unaffected by this build, they have a hard time defending themselves from the empowered attacks of this build.
- Parting Gift - A pretty pointless flux since very few builds benefits more from it than any other build. However, this build is somewhat special in this case since it is almost in no way dependant on holding weapons. This allows you to hold the gifts for long durations when needed, without restricting yourself.
Balanced Ritualist[edit]
- Description
- Provides good healing, condition-removal and damage-dealing. Can spam skills constantly due to good energy management and short cooldowns.
- Requires a melee teammate in order to make use of Ancestors' Rage (PvP) and Nightmare Weapon. Hammer Warriors works exeptionally well; when they throw spears to build adrenaline they trigger nightmare weapon, and when they knock-down foes they prevent escaping from Ancestors' Rage (PvP).
Grenth Dervish[edit]
- Description
- Very balanced build: Good damage (both damage over time and spike damage), good survivability and multiple interrupts.
Best Anti-Monk Mesmer[edit]
- Optionals
- Conjure Phantasm
- Shrinking Armor (great cover for Conjure Nightmare)
- Power Drain - Can be difficult to use properly, and removes the useful cover-hex [Shrinking Armor/Conjure Phantasm], but having an interrupt is usually an extremely effective (and often vital) defense against enemy teams using spells like Diversion. Also, due to the high level of inspiration magic, this skill gives a whopping 29 energy when sucessfully used!
- I think that Power Leech should be a viable substitute for Energy Drain, because
- Energy Drain really isn't a very impressive skill.
- Using interrupts tends to be very powerful in random arenas as it can be used for both offensive and defensive purposes (as stated before; the team is highly vulnerable to skills like Diversion when it lacks interrupts), and this build lacks interrupts at the moment.
- Being a hex spell, Power Leech synergizes with the rest of the build since many other hex spells are used. A monk can easily handle one or two hex spells, but this build is already forcing the monk to deal with Ether Lord, Ether Phantom, and a constant spam of Conjure Nightmare, leaving little space for hex removal for Power Leech.
- Managing to interrupt the monk's Hex removal with Power Leech while at the same time having the monk hexed by Ether Lord is the ideal scenario. Should this happen, the monk and his team will be seriously screwed.
- As noted below: the build is weak vs elementalist teams. In these cases, Power Leech is ideal since it can shut down a single elementalist (use with 40/40 set to disable an elementalist completely for 20 seconds, as long as cover hexes are used.
- Ether Phantom is also not a very impressive skill - reasonable replacements:
- Description
- Conjure nightmare does 208 damage in total and has only a 5 second cooldown. Due to the energy-management skills it can be used frequently despite its high energy cost. Sure, it can be removed before the damage has been dealt, and even if it isn't removed it is very easy for monks to heal the affected targets before they die.
- However, this becomes a very difficult task when their elite skill (which is Word of Healing in 9 times out of 10) is nearly constantly disabled, and they have +4 energy degeneration from Ether Lord + Ether Phantom while bein drained with Energy Drain. Should they protect themselves from this using Holy Veil, Ether Lord (covered by Ether Phantom) is used on an ally instead which usually results in Ether Phantom being removed, further draining the energy away.
- Strengths
- Massive damage over time.
- Decent energy drain. Unlike most forms of energy drain, the energy drain from this build cannot be prevented by Energy hiding (aside from Energy Drain).
- Signet of Humility is extremely powerful against monks at high inspiration magic, as their elite skill almost always is their primary source of healing making them severely crippled when it is disabled. As the Signet is just that; a Signet, most non-ranger interruptions cannot interrupt it (as they only work on spells), and the Rangers themselves usually cannot interrupt it either due to Distortion.
- Weaknesses
- The build is weak in very short battles, as it needs time to exhaust the enemy monk and deal damage through degeneration.
- Aside from Power Drain, which is optional, the build has no interrupts which makes it easier for the enemy team to shut down the own team's monk.
- The worst-case-scenario I can imagine is when the enemy team focuses on builds that tries to win the battle as quickly as possible, for example a Mind Shock Air Magic build - without using a target suitable for Ether Lord / Ether Phantom, such as Rangers. If the enemy team is composed of 1 monk with Holy Veil and 3 elementalists (with high energy bars and strong energy management), Ether Lord will not be effective, and the damage from Conjoure Nighmare will be mitigated by skills like Aura of Restoration.
(Almost) Unstoppable Dervish [For FA or potentially JQ][edit]
- Strengths
- VoS neutralizes nearly all spell damage, while Frenzied defense combined with the high armor rating (70+24+15=109) negates nearly all physical damage. This makes this build potent to nearly everything!
- Decent damage output.
- Acceptable self-healig through Grenth's Aura, VoP and a vampiric sythe.
- Weaknesses
- Has some severe vulnerabilities, such as to indirect enchantment removals or unblockable attacks.
- Optionals
- Protector's Strike - much more useful than banishing strike as banishing strike doesn't work with Grenth's Aura.
- Mystic Sweep - Might be more useful that Protector's Strike, as it does more damage for the same energy, BUT: it has longer cooldown and activation time, so it triggers Grenth's Aura less frequently. Also, energy management might be problematic with Protector's Strike.
- Sprint - Over Lyssa's Assault, in order to rush into combat when the match starts, prevent kiting, and cancel Frenzied Defense if needed.
- "I Will Avenge You!" - Excellent skill for this purpose; 1. Lasts 30s because all allies are dead (When trolling in Random Arenas). 2. The increased attack speed feeds Grenth's Aura and results in more damage dealt. 3. Causes desperately needed healing that doesn't depend on attacking with the scythe (+3 health regeneration). 4. This isn't a stance or enchantment spell, so it works well with WoS and FD. 5. No attribute investment is needed. 6. Very low energy investment needed.
- Useage
- Use this skill on the Luxon side of Fort Aspenwood, or in any side of the Jade Quarry.
- Use Grenth's Aura in the short window where you are not enchanted by Vow of Silence. Vow of Piety will reapply itself constantly throughout the battle, as long as you activate it before the battle begins.
Psychic Instability - FA Mine Cap[edit]
- Summary: The build excels at capturing the mines and command posts in Fort Aspenwood as quickly as possible, while also surviving against player attacks [The survivability and speed is great considering it has two strong self-heals, hex-removal, heavily reduced cripple duration from Featherfoot Grace and equipment, as well as a permanent speed boost]. This is by far the best build I have found for that purpose after LOTS of testing with many different professions.
More information is available at: User:Gelbrekt/Fa Mine Cap
Fort Aspenwood Life Attunement + Divine Boon Protector[edit]
- USEAGE
- The sole purpose of this bar is to go all-in for protecting the Kurzick Necromancers in Fort Aspenwood, preventing the gates from being destroyed.
- Strengths
- Life Attunement affects ALL indirect healing (except for health regen), including Divine Boon, Life Bond, Divine Favor, Watchful Healing and Shielding Hands.
- With 13 Divine favor, Divine Boon + Divine Favor heals for 142 [80+62], on top of the effects of the skills. I remember when i thought Glimmer of Light was good because it could do the same thing; however in this case it is for only 2 energy in addition to casting an enchantment on them.
- Spirit bond heals for 127 health every time the target takes more than 50 damage.
- Air of Enchantment provides great energy management, enabling the build to be effective even with 2 upkeep enchantments. Only Spirit Bond drains a lot of energy, but this can be used sparingly since it has a long duration (and can be expected to heal a large amount in addition to Divine Boon's healing.
- Spirit Bond is great at dealing with large damage packets, while Shielding hands and Shield of Absorption deal with small damage packets.
- Weaknesses
- Not effective at healing multiple targets. This is however not required as long as the necromancers survive.
- Has no condition removals. This is however not necessary for keeping the necromancers alive, since they can remove it from themselves. Also, the most devastating condition (Daze) is unlikely to be applied to the user as long as they are behind a gate, and can also likely be dealt with since the protection prayer skills have fast casting times.
- Vulnerable to extreme enchantment removals like Rend Enchantments and Gaze of Contempt; however these skills are less common in FA in my experience, since the Kurz side are disincentivized from using it due to the siege turtles.
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