User talk:Foo/GoM

The Theory

The First Task

Get XP while AFK indefinitely.

This requires a place where enemies spawn indefinitely, and there are at least three such places, and a Meta hero team can probably just camp in any of those places, killing the enemies as they spawn.

The Second Task

Optimize XP rate.

This is done by maximizing the rate of spawns, minimizing the number of party members in agro, and using the most suitable XP scroll, which is of Berserker's Insight. The highest rate of spawns is definitely that of the Titan's Chaos Rift in Gate of Madness (GoM), as each half a minute spawns 2 Titans which spawn 6 more in succession.

Since an AFK player can not deal any meaningful amount of damage, one hero is required, so there are two party members in agro.

Didn't we forget something? Yeah, let's do NM for now. (2 party members in NM is more XP than 3 in HM, so it must be 2 anyway).

The Third Task

Kill and Survive.

Let's solve the first part quickly by having the hero be an optimized Keystone Mesmer backed up from spirit range by EoE. Done.

Now let's Survive.

To prevent enemies from exerting pressure on the hero, the player must tank.

A reliable way to constantly (afk) tank many enemies is with low health (which also helps preserving agro), Protective Bond, and the Lightbringer title applied last. Here is the math:

Final damage = 5% of max health - LB rank

if we set Final damage <= 0, we get:

LB rank >= 5% of max health

or

Max health <= 20 * LB rank

And since Protective Bonds rounds damage down, what it really means is

Max health <= 20 * LB rank + 19

For LB 0, 1... 8, this corresponds to health values of 19, 39, 59, 79, 99, 119, 139, 159, and 179.

Let's, for now, ignore the fact that sub-55 max health is impossible to have without Death Penalty (which is removed with xp gain), and remember that 0 damage is not enough for surviving, as the Titans apply Bleeding and Burning, which must be countered.

Burning and Bleeding cause 10 pips of health degeneration. Bonds can reasonably supply 7 pips of health regeneration. Even with Purifying Veil reduction of conditions' durations, this can cause a temporary loss of about 80 health, which makes running it with LB 4 and below, a bit iffy. (at 4, it's better to have 105/115/119 health and get 1 damage per packet, then go with lower health).

Conveniently, an armor set of 5 superior attribute runes gets a character to 115 health after closing one Chaos Rift for a 2% morale, so this will be our baseline. (See more about health value optimization below).

We've kind of covered the first tricky part - Keeping the player's health above zero by using condition duration reduction and health regeneration. (The pressure on the titans also helps reduce the amount of conditions applied).

So now to the second tricky part - Keeping the bonders' energy above zero!

With an average of 4 enemies attacking the player, Protective Bond's energy cost is pretty massive, and therefore best shared between enough heroes so that each one would pay the minimal 1 energy per damage packet. That can easily sum up to around 4 pips of energy degeneration, for bonders who are already at 3 pips of regeneration.

Energy can be recovered in 3 main ways:

Mantra of Recall

MoR generates 1.16 pips of energy regeneration, and Blessed Signet generates 0.75 pips per enchantment, for a total of:

4 + 2 x (-1 + 0.75) + 1.16 = 4.66

Throwing in Succor give a "free" 0.75 pips, but require higher DF.

Quickening Zephyr

QZ can get Blessed Signet to recover the equivalent of 1.28 pips of energy per maintained enchantment, meaning that each enchantment nets 0.28 pips. Have each bonder maintain 7 enchantments for a total of:

4 + 7 x (-1 + 1.28) = 5.96 pips.

If one of the enchantments is Succor, cast on each others, add another full pip.

Necro bonders

Necro bonders with 16 SR can recover the equivalent of 12 pips of energy regeneration, but since they can not naturally have 13 Protection, 4 are needed, or one must use a +1/20% item, or have Heroic Refrain (at 0 leadership).

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See examples of these three variants in the next section:

This Build's Evolution and current state

At the beginning, I was doing GoM AFK with a full team of heroes fending off the Titans, but that's a really bad way to AFK.

Then, I tried out the Keystone-Bonding build on pvick, but there were a lot of things I didn't like about it, so I tried to improve it.

The breakthrough happened when I found out that when the Lightbringer title is re-applied after the bonds, it can, at LB 5, reduce all damage to zero. That meant that a lot of bonds could be removed, which resulted in this version:

It required only one Keystone, so it got more XP, and the bonding was simple as it was only 6 bonds, all applied to the Tank.

The next thing I wanted to do is to remove QZ. QZ serves two purposes: It allows higher DPS by shortening the recharge of Keystone Signet, and it provides more energy to the Bonders by shortening the recharge of Blessed Signet. Mantra of Inscriptions took care of the Keystone, and Mantra of Recall provided additional and free energy to the Bonders. QZ removed!

I also figured that Signet of Disruption is bad and replaced it with a signet that can always be used.

Both variants work well, but both are not ideal.

QZ has gaps in it (If you're not willing to go through the tricky process of eliminating them), and Mantra of Inscriptions is slightly less effective than QZ, and both do not provide the energy management that Soul Reaping can provide.

In order to have the Bonders be Necromancers and still only pay 1e for Protective Bond's effect, 4 are required, or 1 of the 3 has to reach 13 Protection using Heroic Refrain or a +1/20% item.

For both simplicity and the best stability, I run this as a Necro player:

• First build is a Necro player with max SR, max Lightbringer, high energy, and:
• +2% morale, 4 sup runes, 1 major rune, Focus with Fear Cuts Deeper, a +24 health mod for focus or weapon, for a total of 179 health, or:
• +10% morale, 4 sup runes, 1 rune of restoration, -50 health grim cesta, for a total of 178 health.
• Purifying Veil cast with 12 Protection
• Mending cast with 8 Healing
• EoE cast with 16 BM
• QZ cast with 12 WS, by two ESurge mesmers.
• Keystone has a +1/20% Fast Casting shield.

This setup is made for extra safety and stability. For instance, QZ can be dropped with no issue, and the specific gear and high health are not critical at all.

What Now?

Can the Keystone bar be improved for extra damage? Maybe. There might be a small improvement in playing around with the signets. Maybe even changing the secondary. Other professions do not have many foe-targeting signets, but maybe another skill could somehow enhance damage output.

Can energy management be improved? Succor can help, mainly the Monks' version, but that doesn't change much.

To consider alternatives for the Bonders or other idle heroes, see User:Foo/Idle_Skills.

Health

While having 105 / 115 nets zero damage for LB 5 and higher, higher health provides a better margin of error against health degeneration.

This is the formula for the maximum max health a player can have and still take zero damage under Protective Bond + Lightbringer:

Max Max Health = 20 * LB rank + 19

This means that ideal values for LB 5, 6, 7, and 8 are 119, 139, 159, and 179.

Default health for a player with 5 superior runes is 105, and there are several types of modifiers available:

Profession:

• Dervishes get +25 health.

Morale:

• 0% of morale (achieved by dying) are of course equal to no change.
• 2% of morale (from closing one rift) are equal to +10 health.
• 10% of morale (from morale cons) are equal to +48 health.

(Other values are harder to get).

Runes:

• No superior Rune: +75 (enables using Rune of Restoration)
• Major rune instead of superior: +40
• Prenerf Major rune instead of superior: + 25

Weapons and focus:

• Weapon mod of Fortitude: +10...30
• Focus mod of Fortitude/Devotion: +10...45
• Grim Cesta / Life is Pain: -20 / -50 (can't use Fear Cuts Deeper)

So for instance:

• A LB 8 can get 179 health with 2% morale, a major rune instead of a sup rune, and a +24 weapon/focus mod: 105 + 10 + 40 + 24 = 179.
• A LB 8 can get 179 health with 10% morale and a +26 weapon/focus mod: 105 + 48 + 26 = 179.
• A LB 8 can get 178 health with 10% morale, a Rune of Restoration instead of a sup rune, and a grim cesta: 105 + 48 + 75 - 50 = 178.
• A LB 7 can get 159 health with 2% morale, a +15 weapon mod, and a +29 focus mod: 105 + 10 + 15 + 29 = 159.
• A LB 7 can get 153 health with 10% morale: 105 + 48 = 153.

Note that:

• In order to use Fear Cuts Deeper one can not use the negative modifiers.
• In order to use a Rune of Restoration one would have to use the +75 modifier.

This means that:

• It is impossible to use both and still have sub-180 health, meaning without taking damage.