User:Gelbrekt/Heroic Refrain Team/Extreme Gimmick Team (Requires 8 Players)

NOTE Regarding the Page

Because the team composition complex and the Gw Wiki is messy to type in; Write the results in the GDOC instead. [Called: "HR - General Insights"]

TEAM OVERVIEW

• The "Lightbringer" skill represent PvE skills to use. Suggestions:
  • Ebon Battle Standard of Honor
  • Pain Inverter
  • Ebon Battle Standard of Courage
  • Summon Ice Imp

• • "There's Nothing to Fear!"

1. Heroic Refrain Paragon		Heroic Refrain "They're on Fire!" Aria of Zeal Lyric of Zeal Verata's Gaze "Go for the Eyes!" Lightbringer Lightbringer	Leadership: 20 Motivation: 20 Death Magic: 20 Spear Mastery: 9+

2. Spawning Power Ritualist		Weapons of Three Forges Malign Intervention Animate Bone Fiend Signet of Creation Optional Optional Lightbringer Lightbringer	Death Magic: 20 Spawning Power: 20

3. Avatar of Dwayna Dervish		Avatar of Dwayna Eremite's Attack Whirling Charge Mirage Cloak Verata's Gaze Sand Shards Rending Aura Meditation	Mysticism: 20 Death Magic: 20 Earth Prayers: 20 Scythe Mastery: 9 Wind Prayers: ?

4. Player with Volfen Blessing		Volfen Blessing Summon Ice Imp Air of Superiority Verata's Gaze Quickening Zephyr Optional Optional Optional	Death Magic: 20 Wilderness Survival: ?

5. Player with Ursan Blessing		Ursan Blessing Summon Ice Imp Air of Superiority Verata's Gaze Optional Optional Optional Optional	Death Magic: 20 Healing/Protection: ?

6. Contagion Necromancer		Contagion Burning Speed Animate Bone Fiend Foul Feast Masochism Signet of Agony Chilblains Lightbringer	Death Magic: 20 Soul Reaping: 20 Curses: 8

7. Contagion Necromancer		Contagion Dark Aura Animate Vampiric Horror Foul Feast Spirit Bond Infuse Health Optional Optional	Death Magic: 20 Soul Reaping: 20 Protection Prayers: 20 Healing Prayers: 1 [+3+4]

8. Energy Surge Mesmer		Energy Surge Shatter Hex Arcane Conundrum Drain Delusions Verata's Gaze Unnatural Signet Barbs Mark of Pain	(Approximate) Fast Casting: 20 Domination Magic: 20 Inspiration Magic: 14-16 Illusion Magic: 14-16 Curses: 14 Death Magic: 14

Pitch of the team

Overview of what is achieved (Minimal details on WHICH skills are used to maximize conciseness)

• Not everything is listed here; this is just a summary of the most important aspects. Also, note that this only describes what the build currently does; it leaves a decent number of skill slots available for additional skills.

• The team creates about 86-96 minions.
  • The majority [50-60] are created *without consuming corpses* [using Malign Intervention]
  • The remaining 36 minions are created from corpses.
    • 2/3 of these are Bone Fiends [Greater damage output than regular minions]
    • 1/3 are Vampiric Horrors [See reason below]
  • *Minions stats*:
    • Level 22-23 [23 if "Master of My Domain" is applied]
    • INDEFINITE DURATION [Due to Avatar of Dwayna healing them at a much faster rate than their max health degeneration]
    • Significant resistance to AoE damage [Again caused by the fact that AoD heals them much more rapidly than they degenerate]
    • +33% Attack Speed [Volfen Bloodlust]
    • +30 Base Attack Damage [Ursan Roar + Ebon Battle Standard of Honor]
    • Enemies have -40 armor against most of their attacks [Due to "Go for the Eyes spam + Cracked armor]
    • Additional situational skills:
      • Continuously gain a random weapon spell every 20s or so [Ritualist spamming a Maxed Weapons of Three Forges -See WotF section below for more discussion.]
      • +15 Damage [Barbs] [Only applies to specific targets. Barbs has -60% casting time due to being cast by mesmer]
      • 50 Damage (only to Adjacent foes) [Mark of Pain].

Damage output in addition to minions

• The 2 necromancers are capable of dealing (a minimum of) 260 armor-ignoring AoE damage each every 2 seconds [Triggering Dark Aura with Foul Feast, having Masochism + 3 conditions which are pulled between the necros. More damage is dealt if enemy teams inflict conditions which the necros can pull to themselves.]
• The Necromancers also maintain Burning and Bleeding on enemies (and frequently Poison as well, although poison will do no additional damage due to 10 degen being a cap, unless the enemies themselves have regeneration).
• Players using Pain Inverter can basically INSTANTLY ANNIHILATE enemies that deal area damage due to the extreme minion count.
• Two players maintain Ursan Blessing & Wolfen Blessing, respectively [spamming the provided skills] and are boosted by Aura of Superiority and with skill recharge times cut in half by Quickening Zephyr.
  • While the forms are active, these players also have summoned 1 Ice Imp each, having its "Ice Spikes" ability with halved recharge time [due to Quickening Zephyr]
• The Mesmer has a multitude of AoE damage-dealing skills [E.g Esurge, Shatter Hex and Unnatural Signet].
• The Dervish has multiple AoE attacks, including Eremite's Attack + Sand Shards, and Whirling Charge.

Healing

• Avatar of Dwayna gives massive continuous AoE Heals [Should be at least 30 health per second on average]
• Extreme single-target heals from a necro spamming influence health [who in turn is in turned healed by 100% of the damage dealt by his vampiric horrors, who all have their damage boosted massively as per the lost above]

Protection

• All party members take -45% damage. [A necromancer continuously inflicts Burning "In the area" [Burning Speed + Contagion], causing "They're on Fire" to reduce all incoming damage by 45%]
• One necro has 20 protection Prayers + Spirit Bond [+ potentially Aegis].
• Weapons of Three Forges:
  • Helps to protect all party members (randomly).
  • Has a 15% chance to grant minions a weapon spell that causes blindness/interruption.

General / Utility

• Quickening Zephyr cuts recharge times of all skills by half. While this puts a much bigger demand on energy-management, most players have got this covered well enough to be able to spam their skills almost non-stop without running out of energy.
• Strong Enchantment Removal with Chilblains [while it is very expensive due to QZ, the user has extremely good energy management].

More detailed explanation of how the stuff above is achieved

• Heroic Refrain - Increases all attributes. Combined with attribute-increasing consumables like Grail of Might, Golden Eggs, etc, this allows players to get a maxed 20 in their attribute ranks for 3-4 attributes. Of course, this makes all skills stronger, but some skills become SIGNIFICANTLY stronger [this is too much to discuss here though].

• Malign Intervention & Verata's Gaze - These minions can then be taken over by OTHER allies through Verata's Gaze. This has two huge advantages:
  • This allows the team to far exceed the minion cap (of max 12 minions) since many party members share the minions.
  • The corpse is not consumed when a minion is summoned with this skill. This allows more minions to be summoned; Animate Bone Fiend is used here to spread out the minions (less vulnerable to AoE).
• Avatar of Dwayna - A dervish using this skill can do ridiculous AoE healing by spamming dervish enchantments. This is especially true when combining with Meditation, giving the dervish practically infinite energy. This means that the dervish can indefinitely keep all minions alive, and even to a large degree heal up any AoE damage that they take.

• We then have a number of skills that together massively increase minion Damage:
  • Wolfen Blessing - Increases minion attack speed (+33%).
  • Ursan Blessing - Increases minion attack damage (+15).
  • Ebon Battle Standard of Honor - Increases minion attack damage (+15).
  • Weapons of Three Forges - Gives the minion a random weapon spell. About half of the 20 weapon spells it chooses from can potentially deal damage (or increase DPS).
  • "Go For the Eyes!" → Causes minions to critically hit (100% chance). Can be spammed very frequently due to "For Great Justice" (which is almost maintainable due to Quickening Zephyr).
  • Cracked Armor → Increases minion damage (by about 40%; only referring to the base-damage)

• Quickening Zephyr: Cuts the recharge times in half, meaning (1) The dervish can heal much more rapidly with Avatar of Dwayna. (2) The damage boosts from Wolfen & Ursan Blessing become almost maintainable.

• There are a bunch of other nice synergies in the team comp as well, but it's too long to include here.

Additional Comment Regarding Weapon of 3 Forges

• There is an argument that WotF shouldn't be used, considering that it has a relatively high chance of producing bad skills such as as the following:
  • Completely useless: Weapon of Renewal [Only affects attack skills, Weapon of Aggression & Weapon of Quickening [Both useless here since recharge time and attack speed is already taken care of by other skills]
  • Very situational / Largely Useless: Resilient Weapon, Weapon of Warding → These are bad since minion survivability is already (mostly) ensured by the AoD spam.

• HOWEVER, consider this: The team summons in total 5*10+3*12 = 84 minions. There are 8 players and 2 asura summons, meaning that the team has at least 96 allies affected by weapon WoTF. Approximating this to 100 allies (which IS achievable by boosting some of the players from 16 death magic to 20), leads to some interesting conclusions with WotF. Wotf gives a random weapon spell, and there are 20 weapon spells available, so each one has a 5% chance of being chosen. *This means that the team will on average with WotF gain each weapon spell about 5 times. This means that a SINGLE CAST of WotF gives on average*:
  • 5 Brutal Weapons → +18 damage with each attack.
  • 5 Splinter Weapons → 65 damage to 3 adjacent targets for 6 attacks.
  • 15 Weapons capable of "reflecting" damage [Xinrae's Weapon, Weapon of Remedy, Vengeful Weapon] → Dealing 75-100 damage for each ally to any enemy that strikes this ally (Powerful against enemies using AoE attacks on clumps of minions).
  • 10 Warmonger's / Wailing Weapon → Interrupting Skills / Attacks.
  • 10 Sundering Weapon / Weapon of Shadow → Inflicting Cracked Armor / Blindness.
  • 15 Weapons that protect against area damage (only defensively):
    • Nightmare Weapon: Heals for 189
    • Vital Weapon: Increases max health by 220
    • Spirit Light Weapon: Heals for 40 every second.

• So in conclusion: Yes, WotF is not bad at all, considering the damage output above; it has about a 60% chance to give a meaningful impact for any player/minion (what is listed above is already very good, and there are other benefits as well).

The team

Important considerations

IMPORTANT READ BEFORE PROCEEDING:

• General remark: These builds have been designed with two key ideas in mind (They would be significantly less useful in other circumstances, which is why they can look fairly bizarre at first sight):
  • (1) Basing each build in the team primarily on skills that are disproportionately affected by Heroic Refrain. See this article for more details: User:Gelbrekt/Heroic_Refrain_Team/Project_Summary
  • (2) Synergy between skills not just within individual skill bars, but across the entire team.

• Also consider that: * Four attributes at rank 20 is viable, so in these builds, I simply list the attribute points that the bars end up with AFTER all bonuses. See this link for more details: User:Gelbrekt/Heroic_Refrain_Team#Enabling_the_use_of_3-4_Attributes

Tags

• [AAA] - Means the skill is a no-brainer
• [BBB] - Means that the skill is a very solid choice, but not written in stone.

COMMON skills viable to use for multiple players

Nature Rituals

• Quickening Zephyr - Required Cornerstone skill.
• Other suggestions:
  • Tranquility - Optional; In order to use together with the derv for faster healing due to AoD. However it has bad synergy with other enchantments like Dark Aura.
  • Edge of Extinction - Normally terrible when having minions, but in this case it could actually work, due to the extreme constant AoE Healing, menaing that minions are much less likely to die, meaning that EoE will be triggered on them much less frequently. This also helps the team itself, since players are likely to be above 90% health. Might still be risky if fighting humans.
  • Optional

Who Uses them???

• SUGGESTION: Even though the Norn-blessing players are technically not ideal for using QZ, they are probably BEST candidates; See comparison below:

• Advantages:
  • The team currently has no ranger - and the necros have their secondaries locked on monk/elementalist - meaning that any other profession [e.g Mesmer / Paragon] would have to sacrifice their necromancer secondary [and thereby Verata's Gaze] if they are to use QZ. The norn blessing characters can still use both though, since they can be Ranger / Necromancers.
  • QZ remains active even when using a Norn Blessing, making it suitable for those characters
  • The team already has 5 melee characters, and the norn-blessing characters already support the party nicely by boosting and maintaining additional minions, so they can afford temporarily leaving the frontline to place the QZ.

• Disadvantages
  • These characters are on the front-line, making it less suitable for them to place QZ since it is a very expensive and vulnerable spirit.
  • While a norn blessing is active, the spirits cannot be re-summoned in case it dies or if the party advances outside of its range.

PVE skills to use

Similarly to the nature rituals, for many PvE skills it makes no difference WHICH player uses each skill. These skills are denoted simply by adding the "LIGHTBRINGER" skill as optional in the builds below.

• Ebon Battle Standard of Honor - Must-have due to the minions. It is likely worth having 2 players with this to affect as many minions as possible (despite the fact that QZ makes this easier to maintain on multiple minions).
• Pain Inverter - Extreme single-target damage due to the high minion count.
• "By Ural's Hammer!" - Nice because of the long recharge (which isn't a problem in this case) and the damage boost. HOWEVER, it has bad synergy considering the amount of players using minions (who become masterless upon the master's death)
• Summon Ice Imp - Nice due to becoming almost TWICE as good due to QZ, halving the recharge of its Ice Spikes, and I have checked that it DOES have enough energy to use Ice Spikes much more frequently - also, Aria of Zeal Spam covers the energy cost.
• Ebon Battle Standard of Courage - Could be used to protect the many minions from AoE in areas where this is prevalent, though i suspect this isn't the best option.
• Optional
• Optional

1. Paragon with Heroic Refrain

• 20 Leadership
• 20 Motivation
• 20 Death Magic
• 9+ Spear Mastery

1. [AAA] Heroic Refrain - To ensure that players can max out 4 attributes.
2. [AAA] "They're on Fire!" [Extreme synergy w Contagion + Burning Speed]
3. [AAA] Aria of Zeal
4. [BBB] Lyric of Zeal
5. [BBB] Verata's Gaze
6. [AAA] "Go for the Eyes!" - No-brainer given that it can increase the base damage of minions by 40% (since it lowers armor by 20 and i am REASONABLY CERTAIN it stacks beyond the armor cap);
7. [XXX] Lightbringer - Don't fill in the skill here; Refer to the list of useful PvE above.
8. [XXX] Lightbringer - Don't fill in the skill here; Refer to the list of useful PvE above.

Optionals

• [BBB] Angelic Protection - EPIC synergy with QZ and Heroic Refrain; Makes a target almost completely immune to all damage and can be kept up 2/3 of the time.

• If warrior:
  • [BBB] "For Great Justice!" - Extreme Synergy with Go for the eyes AND Lyric of Zeal AND is Maintainable due to Quickening Zephyr.
  • [BBB] "Save Yourselves!"
  • Optional

Other suggestions

• Heroic Refrain could IN THEORY not be needed provided that the team uses max cons, runes, and no more than 3 attributes.

2. Spawning Power Ritualist

• 20 Death Magic
• 20 Spawning Power

1. [AAA] Weapons of Three Forges
2. [AAA] Malign Intervention
3. [AAA] Animate Bone Fiend
4. [AAA] Signet of Creation - Very Useful as it triggers Lyric of Zeal AND has epic synergy with Quickening Zephyr.
5. [XXX] Optional
6. [XXX] Optional
7. [XXX] Lightbringer - Don't fill in the skill here; Refer to the list of useful PvE above.
8. [XXX] Lightbringer - Don't fill in the skill here; Refer to the list of useful PvE above.

NOTES

• NOTE: There may be an argument for the ritualist NOT to prioritize Restoration Magic, as many of the typical restoration magic skills are redundant/useless in this composition.
  • Life and Recuperation are overkill in this case, since the QZ-boosted dervish already provides extreme AoE healing.
  • Recovery & "Mend Body and Soul" is bad because the necromancers BENEFIT from having conditions and from removing conditions from allies themselves.
  • Any weapon spell, including Weapon of Warding (which otherwise is a great skill for thsi combo), would be overwritten by Weapons of Three Forges.
  • Spirit Light is bad if the team doesn't use spirits (and many spirits here are questionable). Quickening Zephyr is used, but it might not always be active..
  • Resurrection skills like Flesh of My Flesh are effective even at low ranks, and can be substituted for resurrection scroll.

OPTIONALS

• Crucial is that at least 1 ADDITIONAL energy-management skill is used (on top of Signet of Creation): More energy-management is needed:
  • [BBB] Boon of Creation - IF it triggers on Malign Intervention, it would practically be a no-brainer since it would help a lot with the energy management early on, allowing constant spam of MI.
  • [BBB] Spirit Siphon - Very powerful if using Channeling Magic and a few spirits

• [BBB] Explosive Growth - IF it triggers on Malign Intervention, it would be great.
• Rupture Soul - Deals 170 AoE damage + Blindness at 20 Spawn.
• Mark of Pain + Barbs - Most likely better to use by the mesmer s (see builds below), but these are still nice skills.

• Channeling Magic:
  • [BBB] Ancestors' Rage - Strong AoE skill with great synergy with QZ, since this skills is mainly restricted by its recharge time.
  • Bloodsong - For use with Spirit Siphon
  • Destruction - For use with Spirit Siphon + Rupture Soul
  • Optional

3. Avatar of Dwayna Dervish

• 20 Mysticism
• 20 Death Magic
• 20 Earth Prayers (Required for Mirage Cloak. Potentially lower if using Sand Shards)
• 9 Scythe Mastery
• ? Wind Prayers

1. [AAA] Avatar of Dwayna
2. [AAA] Eremite's Attack - 1. Triggers AoD hex removal. 2. Triggers AoD Healing due to teardown. 3. Has just a 3s cd due to QZ.
3. [AAA] Whirling Charge
4. [AAA] Mirage Cloak - No-brainer; 93% block chance. [BBB] Optional Meditation
5. [AAA] Verata's Gaze
6. [BBB] Sand Shards - Great, but potentially BAD synergy with Mirage Cloak since Mirage cloak requires high earth prayers, making Sand Shards' end slower to trigger.
7. [BBB] Rending Aura
8. [XXX] [This slot can either be used as an additional Derv Ench OR a PVE skill; See list above for PvE skills]

Optionals

• Contemplation of Purity - Is a VERY strong optional [although it requires Verata's to be dropped]. With only a 5 second recharge time, it can heal the entire party + allies for 300 every 5 seconds, since you can spam both flash-enchantments and non-flash enchantments during this time. There WILL be enough energy available still. This is because while meditation cannot be kept active indefinitely, it GRANTS you energy for all flash enchantments while active, meaning it can cover the energy loss while it's recharging.
• Optional
• Optional

General

• Remember to use teardowns (since dervish players can use this effectively). Emerite's should be considered given that it just has a 4s recharge time with EoC!
• Remember QZ is used, so Lyssa's haste isn't needed. Also Whirling charge is effective even at 0 Wind Prayers, so a commitment on Earth Prayers works.
• Optionally some energy-intensive skill instead of Verata's, since the derv has a huge surplus of both energy and attribute points.

4. Ranger/Necromancer or Necromancer/Ranger with Wolfen Blessing

• 20 Death Magic
• ? Wilderness Survival - High rank required for QZ, but not necessarily 20.

1. [AAA] Volfen Blessing
2. [AAA] Summon Ice Imp - GREAT choice; Note that it is (1) Significantly boosted by Quickening Zephyr. It should basically DOUBLE its rate of Ice Spikes since the recharge time is cut in half, and the (very similar) Naga Shaman does have enough energy to spam Stoning [10 times during its duration]
3. [AAA] Air of Superiority - No-brainer since it doesn't end upon using Volfen Blessing
4. [AAA] Verata's Gaze - No-brainer since the minions are active even while Wolfen Blessing is active
5. [AAA] Quickening Zephyr - Extreme synergy with a large amount of skillls.
6. [XXX] Optional
7. [XXX] Optional
8. [XXX] Optional

Optionals

• Since Wolfen Blessing will be active for most of the time, it makes sense for this build (and the Ursan Blessing build) to use skills that have some combination of these features:
  • (1) Energy Dumps, like Chilblains, since e
  • (2) Long Recharge times and/or durations, such as Binding Rituals or Echoes [since Echoes can be maintained indefinitely]
  • (3) Active for long periods of time and/or have long recharge time. Examples:
    • Binding Rituals [Especially Communing since the WotF rit likely uses Channel Magic]
    • Long-lasting hex spells

Specific Suggestions

• [BBB] Rotting Flesh - GREAT if fighting humans, as this skill will inflict disease on the allied necromancers, increasing their damage output (since they do more damage the more conditions they have active).
• [BBB] Throw Dirt - Great since the team currently at the time of writing has protection vs melee.
• [BBB] Winnowing - Normally terrible, but in this team it could actually add up quite nicely considering the huge minion count, lack of regular skill usage due to the norn blessings, and that the rit can use Spirit Siphon.
• [BBB] Kindle Arrows - Is Not removed by Volfen Blessing, allowing it to affect attacks; the attacks themselves are boosted just like the minions, so basic attacks are relevant.

• Optional
• Optional
• Optional

5. Player with Ursan Blessing

• 20 Death Magic
• Unknown which secondary to use here - Consider:
  • Healing/Protection since the team largely lacks this.

1. [AAA] Volfen Blessing
2. [AAA] Summon Ice Imp - See skill bar 4 for explanation.
3. [AAA] Air of Superiority - See skill bar 4 for explanation.
4. [AAA] Verata's Gaze
5. [XXX] Optional
6. [XXX] Optional
7. [XXX] Optional
8. [XXX] Optional

Optionals

• Similar rules as the Wolfen Blessing build.

6. Contagion Necromancer 1

"GENERIC" Skills

NOTE: There are two contagion necromancers; these builds have multiple skills that are required/strong but are not required on both necros, namely:

• [AAA] Signet of Agony - For bleeding
• [AAA] Chilblains - For poison & Enchantment removal
• [BBB] Wearying Throw Wearying Throw - It IS worth using this on the paragon considering that: (1) The duration of the weakness can be increased by using a spear mod for weakness increasing weakness [Heavy Axe Haft]; this applies even to self, meaning that it will have its duration EXTENDED by constantly pulling it between 2 necros. (2) If having 4 conditions, Dark Aura can deal: 65/5 = 325 damage upon triggering from Foul Feast. (Also recall that FF will heal 60 for each condition pulled.)

• Optional
• Optional

Build

• 20 Death Magic
• 20 Soul Reaping - 20 is not strictly speaking required, but (1) The necro is mostly just using DM [and HR allows 4 attributes at rank 2], so it should be able to AFFORD 20 SR without any issue. (2) Higher SR causes Foul Feast to heal more, becoming able to remove all lost health from the massive self-inflicted damage.

1. [AAA] Contagion
2. [AAA] Burning Speed - Extreme Synergy with Contagion + They're On Fire; Just rank 1 Fire Magic to get it boosted by HR is sufficient. Basically 100% effective at 0 fire magic.
3. [AAA] Animate Bone Fiend
4. [AAA] Foul Feast
5. [BBB] Masochism
6. [XXX] Optional
7. [XXX] Optional
8. [XXX] Optional

Optionals

• [BBB] Crystal Wave - If using a Fragility Mesmer; Can deal extreme AoE due many conditions. If used: Consider changing the Derv build so that it inflicts more conditions, e.g Attacker's Insight.
• Optional
• Optional
• Optional

NOTES

• Factor to consider: If the necro build i used in my previous composition (HR Team rework) were to be used here, the necro would have WAY too much energy, because of the fact that: (1) Animate Bone Fiend, while very expensive due to QZ, would most likely only be used 12 times, since after that point the minions will last indefinitely [not just from the AoD healing but also from being protected by the 30 bone/vampiric horrors in the front] (2) The remaining skills that are used are not energy intensive, AND the necro gains energy from the two (significantly boosted) paragon Zeal skills. As such:
  • Veil of Thorns should probably be DROPPED; It is the least important skill and also has a sort of bad synergy with "They're On Fire" (since you get diminishing returns when stacking several percentage-damage reduction skills)
  • Some highly energy-intensive skill(s) should absolutely be considered.

EXPLANATION

• Note that this necro should NOT use Dark Aura -- This is used by the other necro instead OR by the ritualist due to Vampiric Horror [See explanation elsewhere].

Optionals

• Optional
• Optional
• Optional
• Optional

7. Contagion Necromancer 2

The other [not elementalist] necro SHOULD most likely commit to using Vampiric Horrors; Despite the inconveniences, the party currently has no space for a healer/prot, and a Necro fuse PERFECTLY fills this role. ADDITIONALLY, the rit could compensate for this by going into combat first, causing the rit's minions to take most of the punch. As such: Remove dark aura from the rit-build and put it here.

• 20 Death Magic
• 20 Soul Reaping
• 20 Protection Prayers
• 1 [+3+4] Healing Prayers [No more required]

BUILD

• Same as build 6, but with slightly different skills:

1. [AAA] Contagion
2. [AAA] Dark Aura - Cornerstone skill.
3. [AAA] Animate Vampiric Horror - Provides extreme healing due to the massive minion-bonuses.
4. [AAA] Foul Feast
5. [AAA] Spirit Bond - Strong Protection. Fits the extreme energy management.
6. [AAA] Infuse Health - Makes use of the extreme healing from the Vampiric Horrors. Also, the necro has extreme energy management due to 20 soul reaping and overall mostly cheap skills. Note that MINIMAL investment in Healing prayers is fine.
7. [XXX] Optional
8. [XXX] Optional

Optionals

It seems pretty clear that the contestants for the last skill slots are either:

• • [BBB] Aegis - Nice cheap skill which is now fairly EASILY MAINTAINABLE due to QZ.
  • [BBB] Protective Bond - Normally way too expensive, but in this case it could actually work due to the extreme energy management. A potential risk is that this could burn all energy at a critical moment and prevent healing with Infuse Health.
• [BBB] Masochism - Nice skill but strictly speaking not necessary since (1) Contagion + FF already trigger DA to an extreme extent. (2) Soul Reaping & Death Magic can already be maxed.

• Optional
• Optional

• If Dervish [Less recommended]
  • [BBB] Mirage Cloak
  • [BBB] Veil of Thorns

Optionals;

• Go Secondary monk to get Infuse Health. Advantage: Grants the party extreme single-target healing. Disadvantages: Significant self-damage despite being front line. Also: A ritualist is more suitable to use Vampiric horrors due to Spawning Power.

Ultimately, Infuse health is more or less a no-brainer, Because what it means is that the necromancer with vampiric horrors will be able to share all of the extreme healing that he gets from those minions with his allies. At the same time, he also has extreme energy management given the aforementioned reasons. This means the team basically has the healer role covered without any further addons, because the Dervish handles the area of thick tailino, the area of effect healing And the necromamcer handles the single target healing with infuse health.

8. Esurge Mesmer

(Approximate, can boost more with Superior Runes)

• 20 Fast Casting
• 20 Domination Magic
• 14-16 Inspiration Magic
• 14-16 Illusion Magic
• 14 Curses
• 14 Death Magic

• 20 Fast Casting
• 18-20 Domination Magic
• 16-20 Illusion Magic
• 16-20 Inspiration Magic
• 16-20 Death Magic
• 16-20 Curses
• NOTE: While this has 5 high attributes, Illusion Magic, Death Magic and Curses are less crucial and work even on low ranks.

ISSUE: The build has 6 attributes.

1. [AAA] Energy Surge
2. [AAA] Shatter Hex
3. [AAA] Arcane Conundrum
4. [AAA] Drain Delusions
5. [AAA] Verata's Gaze
6. [AAA] Unnatural Signet [To trigger Aria of Zeal; Also synergy with QZ + FC]
7. [AAA] Barbs
8. [AAA] Mark of Pain

EXPLANATION

• While the build at first looks like a *total mess*, each skill is carefully chosen. Advantages:
  • Fast Casting stacks with Quickening Zephyr, leading to all mesmer spells having massively reduced recharge time. QZ's recharge time is also very powerful for Unnatural Signet, MoP and Esurge since these skills are primarily limited by their recharge rather than their cost.
  • Has multiple strong sources of area damage:
    • Esurge, Shatter Hex, and Unnatural Signet for constant AoE
    • Barbs increases minion damage and has a massively reduced casting time.
    • MoP increases damage and has a massively reduced casting time.
  • Despite having a ton of energy-intensive skills, the build has powerful energy management through:
    • Arcane Conundrum + Drain Delusions; They both grant a large amount of energy (especially due to the attribute boosts) and have a massively reduced recharge time.
    • Unnatural Signet triggers Lyric of Zeal. Energy is also granted through Aria of Zeal.
  • Shatter Hex removes hexes, which the party doesn't otherwise have.

USING SIX ATTRIBUTES???

There is actually an argument to use 6 attributes here:

• 1. Fast Casting for reducing CD, 2. Domination for Primary damage, 3. Illusion and 4. Inspiration for 1 energy management skills each (synergizing with each other, 5. Death Magic for minions and 6. Curses for MoP and Barbs.
• This looks insane, but remember that FOUR of these attributes either only have just 1 skill associated with them and/or are not crucially affected by the attribute. So this might actually work.

• SUGGESTION for SETUP: Spreading attribute points equally across attributes counting the headger rune results in either of these:
  • Two attributes in rank 9 + Four attributes at rank 7
  • Two attributes in rank 10 + Four attributes at rank 6

• Boosts from HR and Cons: 8 [4 from HR, 4 from Cons]. This results in:
  • Two attributes in rank 17 + Four attributes at rank 15
  • Two attributes in rank 18 + Four attributes at rank 14

• Taking option 2 then allows the mesmer to choose MAJOR runes for Domination Magic & Fast Casting, and minor runes for Illusion Magic and Inspiration Magic. RESULT:

• 20 Fast Casting
• 20 Domination Magic
• 14-16 Inspiration Magic
• 14-16 Illusion Magic
• 14 Curses
• 14 Death Magic