I've been trying to do this build with both guildies and pugs to mixed success in DoA. We first tried doing this with trappers and 2 SF nukers but it seemed to go by to slow. So the current build is a balanced one. Anyways, the whole idea of this is to use the combination of Winter + Greater Conflagration (an old idea by the way) to make all the damage into cold damage. Then, have everyone use Mantra of Frost to decrease damage across the board for 30-42% with some minor energy bonuses across the board. Please feel free to critique this, my main problem with the balanced build in PuGs is getting a tank who can manage to avoid dragging aggro onto the rest of the group which makes it 100x easier. This is broken up into three parts:
1: General Overview
2: Skills/Atttributes
3: Strategy
General Party Make-up:1 W/Me OR 1 R/Me (I'll explain why below - Warrior preffered though) 1 R/Me 2 Mo/Me (Healer, ZB protect) 1 Rt/Me (Spirit Spammer with Soul Twisting) 1 N/Me (SS) 2 E/Me (Searing Flames Nukers)
Optional Variants:
If you can't get a Ritualist, your best bet is to find a Bonder who understands how disenchantments work. Blight / Infuse works somewhat well from what guildies have told me. You can drop one SF E/Me for a Paragon with Energy management skills and "They're On Fire" for extra damage reduction at the cost of DPS. You can also drop bonds for another nuker or damage class as well. Better yet, if I find an Angelic Bond Paragon and see how it works I might drop bonds out of this completely. You can't remove Angelic Bond from the tank and Vocal Minority shouldn't be a problem if your monks bring hex removal like they should!
Also, I'm well aware they remove enchantments so it's certain zones are better without using bonds maybe. It's up to you I suppose. Also, Lightbringers Gaze IS useful when they're all bunched up. Finally, since this build is still very early I'm not sure what type of runes you'd want to use quite yet but it's up to you. I'm providing you with the base numbers and it's up to you to decide how to modify it.
Specific Skills:
W/Me
[Stance Tank]
Inspiration: 9
Axe Mastery / Sword Mastery: 11 + 3 (1) + 1 = 15 (13)
Tactics: 8 + 1 = 9
Strength: 8 + 1 = 9
Skills:1-2 Attack Skills (if you're not going pure tank - conditions [Sever, Gash, Dismember], LB gaze is useful as well in terms of damage for energy cost) Defy Pain Signet of Stamina (optional, if you want to attack replace this with an attack skill - awesome for pulling though!) Dolyak Signet (Make sure you realize how this affects your run speed :P) Mantra of Frost "Watch Yourself" "Shields Up" Sunspear Signet
Edit: I've edited this tank - I believe it's best to just use this character as a pure tank to increase the survival rate. This means you'll have to depend on your other characters to DPS the enemies to death.
Edit #2: I actually beat the City using a Dervish tank. It's entirely possible for a Dervish to tank this given the right skills.
OR, you can bring a Ranger and have him tank the mobs for you. With Winter and Greater Conflagaration out, the ranger has an AL of 100 against all attacks while the Warrior only has 80 or 100 depending. If you wish, you can bring a Ranger using a Scythe with Apply Poison, Barbed Trap, Viper's Nest, Trapper's Focus etc. to tank for you... [[NOT TESTED]]
R/Me:
[Winter/Greater Conflag + Interrupts]
Illusion: 9
Inspiration: 8
Beast Mastery: 8 + 1 = 9
Expertise: 5 + 3 + 1 = 9 [[Expertise isn't that useful since spirits are cheap]]
Wilderness Survival: 10 + 1 = 11
Marksmanship: 0
Skills:Winter Greater Conflagaretion Lightbringer's Gaze Sympathetic Visage Ancestor's Visage Symbiosis Mantra of Frost Sunspear Signet
I've beaten the city myself using this build. We used a Dervish and he could boost his HP to around 1k and take a nice beating with a spirit spammer Ritualist. Your job is mainly to keep Winter, Greater Conflagaration, and Symbiosis up wherever you are and to SV/AV the tank after you or the tank pulls a group of enemies. If you have bonds, Symbiosis is even more useful. You need to make sure to bring both a bow and a staff and use it to switch to stop E-surge from mesmers if you're going to be pulling. Just make sure your spirits don't die when you're out there grabbing a group of enemies.
1 Rt/Me
[Spirit Spammer]
Communing 12 + 3 + 1 = 16 (I'm assuming ours was max, but it's variable)
Spawning Power 10 + 1 = 11
Inspiration: 8
Skills:Soul Twisting Union Shelter Displacement Boon of Creation Mantra of Frost Lightbringer's Gaze Flesh of My Flesh (or Lively was Naomi)
I think most people underestimate how useful Ritualists are, especially in DoA where they rip off Protective Spirit and bonds with ease. With a good spirit spammer, he should be able to keep the spirits up for long enough for your group to kill the enemies barring any possible errors on pathing and such.
2 Mo/Me (one slot should be Mantra of Frost if possible!)
[Healing Prayers]
[ZB Protect]
The monk builds are pretty well-known and most monks should have a general clue as how to run these so I'm going to save my hands and just talk about them in general. Zealous Benediction is a great elite - make sure you bring that instead of Life Sheath or Shield of Regeneration and such.
N/Me
[Spiteful Spirit]
Curses 12 + 3 + 1: (with runes)
Soul Reaping: 9 + 1
Domination: 5
Inspiration: 8
Skills:Spiteful Spirit Reckless Haste Insidious Parasite Shadow of Fear (optional, switchable for others) (Yes, I really mean it's optional...) Desecrate Enchantments Enfeebling Blood (This is a good suggestion
)
Mantra of Frost
Sunspear Signet
I could have skipped over this one as well but I've listed it for completeness. Mantra of Frost is somewhat optional but it really helps take out the damage the enemies do when Enraged goes off.
2 E/Me
[Searing Flames]
Fire Magic: 12 + 3 + 1 (runes again)
Energy Storage: 10 + 1
Inspiration: 8
Skills:Searing Flames Liquid Flame Meteor Shower (I usually bring this with on mine but it's up to you) Glowing Gaze Mantra of Frost Fire Attunement Glyph of Lesser Energy Sunspear Signet
Strategy
This is only a general strategy on how this should operate since I've only been in like 7-8 mobs deep into the City before we started dying when we're doing this without Bonds and as a trapper group.
The general idea of this is to have the ranger maintain Winter and Greater Conflagaration at all times when you're fighting enemies and keeping the spirits out of harms way so that all damage (physical and elemental) is cold. This idea is NOT new but I've found it helps to cut down a lot on the damage when you're pulling and with a bonder and a good tank you can eliminate it easily. Mantra of Frost gives an impressive damage reduction in most of the damage - I've been hit for 200 when Winter was down and it was cut down to 57 with Winter as a Ranger. This is mainly because rangers get their AL boosted to 100 always when Winter and Greater Conflagaration are down - they're capable of tanking when Mantra of Frost is on and do it just as well as the warriors do if not better depending on the warrior's armor. Just make sure Winter and Greater Conflagaration always stay up and you can enjoy 30-40% damage reduction along with +2 energy every time you're hit.
In general, for pulling and tanking, the idea is to let the tank get FULL aggro meaning that every mob is hitting on him. The easiest method I've found to doing this is to use the walls and ledges to your advantage. In general without going into specifics, you need find spots where the melee will get stuck on your tank who is body blocking and attack him instead. Some people want the tank to pull but I feel it's sometimes easier if I pull and train (choo choo!) the enemies onto him. Then after you loose aggro you slap SV and AV on your tank to decrease their DPS. If there are enemy monks (Ki) in the group you pulled, kill them first. Sometimes you will have dual Ki groups which will require a little bit of luck of positioning to get them to bunch up. Lay down MS on Ki first and nuke them down fast with LB Gaze. I've found LB Gaze to be a GREAT skill here regardless of your class because it allows you to do damage and interrupts! If there are no monks but lots of melee, your best bet is to MS the melee first to kill them off and free your tank. If it's all casters and ranged, then of course MS + SF them. I can only explain this so much, the more you play the more you will understand on how this works with Margonites and other mobs...
That's it for now. I'm still learning about DoA and it's challenges. This build can't do the Stygian Plains because of the mobs that spawn from the quest do dark damage...
Please feel free to help me out. I'm not too good at remember the specifics of the cookie cutter builds like SS and monks and such so please feel free to ignore and adjust accordingly. Feel free to try this out and tell me about any adjustments you made. My major problem right now is the lack of DPS and the difficulty in keeping aggro on the tank. I also want to test more if a stance tank is better or using Mantra of Frost is superior.
Sidenote: If anyone could post a decent Angelic Bond Paragon build, that would be great! I have a Paragon myself but I'm using him to spam GftE every time he lands a blow (or two if I drop "For Great Justice") to power Energizing Finale and/or Finale of Restoration. Anyways, I think Angelic Bond might be superior to Monk bonding here! Try it and post your experiences here.
Screenshots:
We beat the City using only this build of one monk (who had err7 before we killed Lord Jadoth, BiP, SS, 2 SF nukers (one who left), a Dervish tank, and me... took us 1 hour of trying to get a Ritualist and 4 hours of killing:
Also, you get Primeval Armor Remenants for killing named Margonites and other named mobs, I got one piece when we killed the named monk at the end of the City.... so here is Olias with Primeval:
Have fun guys!
