User:Kami No Kei/ParaTeam

This is just my attempt to flesh out a fun team for my Paragon to run while trying to complete all there is to do in the game without dying. This will be largely a stream-of-consciousness post until I get more details worked out and ready to be applied. I know that everyone loves Imbagons because they're way overpowered and pretty much the standard human build for paragons. There are two problems with this build for someone with my goals:

Aggressive Refrain reduces the Paragon's AL by 20. This results in more damage, more targetting by enemies, and just lower survivability.
"Save Yourselves!" boosts all allies AL by 100. While this is incredibly useful for damage mitigation for the party it also puts the 76 (80+16-20) AL Paragon in harm's way again.

Considering my goal is to not die, even if this build buffs my team by leaps and bounds it STILL seems more likely to lead to my death if things ever get bad. It also requires pretty constant key mashing, retargetting, and monitoring of adrenaline to make sure SY! is up constantly. That leaves less time to monitor the overall situation and my health. So, instead, I'm looking for a more passive role.

Before I can really choose what to run for myself, though, I need to think about my Hero team's setup. This is because, aside from the Imbagon build, Para builds really seem to excel when they mesh with a team. Do I want to run the popular 7 Hero Player Support team [1]? If so, then a motigon using Aria skills (for energy/health) might be useful. Or maybe a condition remover in IJaFW or CS might be useful. If running the 7 Hero Player Support team, I'd likely NOT load up on Spear attacks too much and I'd pretty much disregard the Command line. I'd go Leadership/Motivation with some Spear Mastery just because unmodded spear damage is still additional DPS.

Alternatively, I could go with a Rit/Mesmer/Necro back/midline supplemented by either straight-up melee (W/D/A) OR the Paraway-type build. Something in me really wants to run a 3-4 Paragon team (Me, Morgahn, Hayda, Razah as a Para) simply because of the awesomeness factor. But I know it's sub-optimal in many situations. Still, maybe I'll develop that plan first and then work off that to modify it.

Sure, let's start there. Now the first decision is actually what to supplement 3 (or 4) Paragons with in 8-man areas. Do I want the Paragons to form the core physical damage, supported by a more typical mid/backline arrangement? Or do I want a Warrior/Dervish frontline, supported by 3/4 Paragons with a backline (probably N/Rt)?

Here are the two breakdowns as I see it.

4 Paragon Front/Mid breakdown[edit]

All spearchuckers in some form, I would probably take the Soldier's Stance/"To the Limit!" kind of build. Throw in Dwarven Stability and I've got near-permanent 75% chance to block, 33% increased attack speed, and could toss in a few spear skills (adrenal only, like Holy, Blazing, Redemption, Merciless, Barbed?). Watch Yourselves since I'll be speccing Tactics(?) or TtL because of it's duration. 14 Spear Mastery, 12 Tactics, 3+1 Leadership. No real energy management needed as SS is 5 energy every 15 seconds as is TtL!. Everything else is adrenaline. It's a subpar version of a warrior damage build, essentially, but it gives me near-permanent 33% IAS, 75% chance to block attacks, and I do NOT suffer the -20 AL from AR that most Paras will get.

1 hero would be a commandgon with 3 or so spear attacks, another would be a motigon with 3 or so spear attacks, and the other would fill in whatever role needed (probably another commandgon, but we'll see as I flesh out this idea more). So that gives 4 attackers, and because the other paras would be running AR we will all be attacking fairly fast. 4 physical attackers begs for Orders, and the fact that we're all ranged begs for something like splinter weapon. Orders would also be useful for fueling adrenaline which is nice.

So assuming the command/motigon take care of minor amounts of support we want the four mid/backline roles to be protection/prevention, minion bomber, orders, and healing. Protection/prevention seems like a job for a N/Rt. In fact, I could run a 3 Necro backline, making one a minion bomber / protector, one a healer/minion bomber, and one an orders and BR necro. Final spot would either be ritualist for damage or Mesmer for Panic / E-Surge.

So P/W, P/W, P/?, P/?, N/?, N/Rt, N/M, EITHER M/E OR Rt/?

4 Paragon Midline[edit]

Still spearchucking going on, but this time throw in two W/As (or D/whatevers) for real frontlining/aggro action. This takes some pressure off the team as a whole because there are "dedicated" tanks, even though I'm aware that heroes do not typically fill these roles well. This leaves similar roles for the 4 paragons as mentioned above (though, perhaps, two motigons to help out with healing to accomodate the lower power backline). Would still want an orders Necro and then maybe a high-powered N/Rt healer to help out with redbar powers!

I don't like this one, if I'm using 4 Paragons I want a solid backline with Orders, Minion Bombing, and some protection/heals. Can't fill all of that into a two-person backline. Seems like the idea of a 4-Para front/mid is where it's at for me, then.

Possible Human Paragon Skills[edit]

Paragon / Warrior
Spear Mastery	12+1+1
Tactics	12
Leadership	3+1

Just a direct copy/paste of Khomet's build. Some ideas for variant skills are: Barbed Spear, Mighty Throw, Unblockable Throw, Wild Throw (all adrenal spear skills).