Ravenheart Gloom (6 PPL run)

It's impossible. The mobs are unkillable. Wrong.

Heres the complete build: Ive completed Gloom Run several times with this
1.
Mo/Me (the tank)
14 Divine 10+3+1
14 Prot 11+3
10 Inspiration

Skill Bar: Mantra of Resolve, Prot Spirit, Shield of Absorbtion, Spirit Bond, Spellbreaker, Balths Spirit, Essence Bond, Blessed Aura

Weapon: I use the cheap and effective Kephkets Refuge.

Armour: I use the armour from Shing Jea with a sup vigor, sup divine, sup prot and vitae runes---> 435 hp before smiter bonds you up and 600+ after (depending on his protection attribute level).

Take a few Candy Canes because after 2 deaths its hard to get DP back under control.

Summing up Strategy: You take the majority of the hits so just figure out the casting rhythm and don't worry about dying too much (it happens). The first group coming down the hill is tough. I call my energy on first cast always for br to keep energy regen. Try to pull 1 of the 4 groups before the others. Afterwards it is pretty much smooth sailing, but if you see a spawn of all earths and fleshes with no casters---STAY AWAY (update+melee+call of torment= way too many torments to handle). Make sure your mana is full and you have on mantra before casting SB (they can interrupt you all the way to 0). I usually follow the wall around and kill the groups as I see them appear. It is possible to take out first group and run for the cave though. Why the first group? To make sure that everyone understands what they have to do (jumpy eles and smiters.... basically just to make sure that everyone is comfortable). There is a part of the Gloom which is towards the gate to the Foundry which does have alot of patrols (6 or so). Who cares? You will and so will the rest of your group as it is tough to set yourself up in a spot where they can res you. Watch out for Abyssals and Meteor!! Dont tank big groups! Just go 1 by 1 and take them out. You will probably get a green drop here as well (or two).

The Cave: If you make it and have cleared out the Gloom beforehand this is the deciding moment. Res won't help you at all. Tank and cast and hope you dont get interrupted.

The Portal: Pretty simple but be careful about the spawns. Same thing tank and cast.

The Darkness: Go 1 at a time and they eventually turn into earth torments. More Green Drops.

2.
Mo/X (smiter bonder)
16 Smite 12+1+3
15 Prot 12+3

Skill Bar: Vital Blessing, Life Attunement, Holy Wrath, Retribution, Signet of Judgement, Signet of Rage, Bane Signet, Rebirth

Weapon: Whatever

Armour: Whatever just put on smite scalp and superior smite rune and a superior prot rune.

Strategy: Bond up and stay back(just like in FoW and UW). In the end come up and help clean with signets. Do not change signet of judgement for shield of judgement!! You wont have any energy to cast except for when the tank dies. If you have to recast because you got killed, cast holy wrath last.

3.
Mo/N (bonds/br)
13 Healing *good point
15 Divine
rest in blood (7 or 8)

Skill Bar: Mending, Watchful Spirit, Succor, Holy Veil (or signet of devotion), Spellbreaker backup, Blessed Signet, Blood Ritual, Rebirth.

Weapon: Whatever--20% recharge is nice for sb

Armour: Just make sure you have the attribute points necessary.

Strategy: Bond up the tank. Each time before the tank goes in on a group hit him once or twice with br because casting take almost all his energy. Stay back as you have 0 offensive value. Hit the eles with br as well when they call for it. When the interrupts start coming spam sb on monk, but only if you can do it without aggroing the enemy.
Do the mending and the rest of the bonds do that much? I feel more comfortable with them on (you may think that it lowers your gem drop chances).

4.
R/mo (qz)
16 Wilderness 12+1+3
15 Beast mastery 12+3

Skill Bar: Quickening Zephyr, Serpents Quickness, Edge of Extinction, Brambles, Lacerate, Lighbringers Gaze, Trolls Unguent(or something else), Rebirth

Weapon: Staff for recharge

Armour: Whatever... just take scalp and superior runes.

Strategy: Keep up qz at all times. Without it the monk will definitely die as he cannot recast SB. Use EoE to help when the enemies approach their unavoidable deaths. When eles come in and start bombing the leftover cast brambles and lacerate for added damage. And then attack with lb gaze. Stay back most of the time and spam qz and serpents.

5&6.
2x E/mo (meteor/sf)

It is the basic SF/meteor with lightbringer gaze and rebirth.

Strategy: Don't get jumpy! Stay back and don't aggro. The damage in the build doesn't revolve around you guys this time. But you are equally important because without the eles it's impossible to finish them all off. Wait for the tank to ping and come in for the kill. Take out the spirit torments (interrupts) then the mesmer torments and then the monks. Call for energy if needed. On the third quest (darkness) you will have to come in fast and bomb the hell out of them because the tank won't have enough energy to keep recasting due to minimal number of hits the deal on him. But stay away when they turn into earth torments as they will run wild on you.


** Is this a fixed 6 man build? Nope... u can take out 1 ele and possibly 1 monk ( drop the healing bonder *not the smite bonder*)but I'm gonna stick with 6.

You can also do foundry (positioning is tough) and maybe the city (haven't tried it yet) like this. I've been working on this in the Gloom since last monday.

Heroes can come but they are a pain and I'd rather share drops with real players anyways.

If you die on 1st group don't worry, that's the toughest one other than the cave.

I want to thank Narutoscryed for the original SoA build cause its all based on that. You da man.

Quarx Mooncloak yes it is your team build and tactics, im just sharing it with others

all thanx to Quarx

Nice work!

A few suggestions:
1. Have the tank carry Holy Veil instead of Balth's Spirit - better to self-manage hexes.
2. Have the Mo/N use Balth's Spirit on both self and on tank.
3. Have the Mo/N use Lifebond and Life Barrier on tank instead of Mending/Watchful.

If the tank is getting lots of hits, the Life Bond should give the Mo/N plenty of energy to feed BR to Ele's.

The decision becomes Mending, Watchful Spirit or Succor as the Mo/N's remaining bond. Personally, I would go Succor. If the Life Bond hit rate is high enough, it could even be fed to the Ele's.

Note: with Life Bond, Life Barrier & Balth's Spirit, the Mo/N can setup one or more secondary tanks in a pinch. (I utilized that strategy against those pesky titans as the Ele's MS will break aggro). Bonds don't work with SB/touch skills. SB heals through touch skills from other sources of damage, bonds don't. Your idea, won't work.

Essence Bond - since when is it restricted to one bonder? Anyone/everyone can bond the tank with this. Been doing that for eons. Of course, unlike Mending, etc. the energy reward doesn't go to the tank (except for tank's OWN copy of Ebond). The energy only goes back to each specific bonder. That's one of the key benefits of utilizing a tank in the first place.

The tank won't see anybody else's copy of Essence Bond anywhere on his/her screen, but the energy will still feed back to all those Ebonding that tank. Try it, you'll like it. /true

when we were doing 3 man fow all the time, everyone had 1 copy of essence bond on the tank (including the tank himself) and we all received energy from it.

Before the big AoE nerf, Meteor Shower was a dominant spell. As you know, it will break aggro, and that makes it riskier and less effective to use. Mobs don't stick around to take the hits and tend to re-engage onto squishies.

But still, everyone keeps picking MS for their builds. The Ele's can engage the mobs much sooner if they can refrain from spells that trigger mobs to immediately break away from their lock on the tank.

One may consider modifying the ele build so they can contribute more damage continually rather than just mopping up at the end.

And thanks for the support Koning. Actually it doesn't break aggro if there's just one copy of Meteor Shower, because of the KDs. Trust me.

And if you want lots of damage - Meteor Shower + Earhbind + 2x Searing Heat = win! They take massive AoE damage and can't get out of it.