Clearing the Underworld - a Guild and Hero Christmas Plan - advice appreciated

Hi All, Npot sure if this should be here or in builds, but as its more than just the builds I'm discussing, hopedully its the right place!
I'm part of a small guild, who has often visited the underworld as part of a PuG, but due to various problems with DCs, hidden invinci monks and bad timing in general, we've never managed it entirely.
With heroes being able to enter the UW, we now stand a chance and are organising some times over Christmas to try and finally clear grenth's realm.

Our plan is to do the central chamber, wrathful spirits and escort of souls first to give us xp to fall back on to irradicate any DP, but not to complete any other quests until essentially clearing the entire place. We will activate the keepers quest so we can teleport where needed to make a quick getaway! We'll then move on to the individual reapers quests.

After re reading the Underworld FAQ and discussions, we've come up with the following team, was hoping for any input/strategy advice.

1) The Tank. (player)
Not sure on exact skills - player is working on it!
Support Chars:

2) The Monk Mo/Me, maxed healing/Divine Favour
(Dunkaro, Radiant armour with minor div favour, sup vig, sup heal, purity and recovery)
[skill]Word of Healing[/skill] [skill]Dwayna's Kiss[/skill] [skill]Healing Breeze[/skill] [skill]Orison of Healing[/skill] [skill]Remove Hex[/skill] [skill]Signet of Devotion[/skill] [skill]Mantra of Concentration[/skill]? [skill]Rebirth[/skill]

3) The Paragon 10+3+1 Command, 12 Restoration 8+1 Leadership(General M, Radiant Armour, runes as above, purity and recovery)
Essentially a variant on the Soglon's Legacy Build on guru:
[skill]Vocal was Sogolon[/skill] [skill]Recuperation[/skill] [skill]Soothing Memories[/skill] [skill]"Incoming!"[/skill] [skill]"Never Surrender!"[/skill] [skill]"Never Give Up!"[/skill] [skill]"They're on Fire!"[/skill] [skill]"Signet of Return"[/skill]
Was considering rotating in [skill]Hexbreaker aria[/skill], [skill]Resilient Weapon[/skill] or [skill]Song of Concentration[/skill]

4) The Ritualist. Depending if someone manages to unlock Razah before we go, either E/Rt Energy Storage/Communing, or Rt/x Spawning/Communing.
Either:
[skill]Ether Prodigy[/skill][skill]Vital Weapon[/skill] or
[skill]Ritual Lord[/skill] [skill]Boon of Creation[/skill]
And...
[skill]Union[/skill][skill]Shelter[/skill][skill]Dissonance[/skill] [skill]Flesh of my Flesh[/skill] [skill]Shadowsong[/skill] [skill]Pain[/skill]

5) The Nuker (player) Max fire, Inspiration 8, rest in storage. Sup Fire, Minor Storage, purity and recovery runes.
[skill]Searing Flames[/skill] [skill]Glowing Gaze[/skill] [skill]Fire Attunement[/skill] [skill]Glyph of Lesser Energy[/skill] [skill]Meteor Shower[/skill] [skill]Revealed Hex[/skill] [skill]Mantra of Resolve[/skill] [skill]Sunspear Rebirth Signet[/skill]

6) SS Necro (player)
Not sure of build - player is very experienced, and I don't know necros that well!

7) BiP Necro. (player)
Again, necros aren't my strong point. For sure I know of:
[skill]Blood is Power[/skill][skill]Blood Ritual[/skill] [skill]Aegis[/skill] [skill]Rebirth[/skill] Probably blood spike. This player is restricted to Prophecies/Factions skills.

8) Ranger (Player)
Barrage/Interupt is all I've been told so far! I believe he's bringing
[skill]Barrage[/skill] [skill]Choking Gas[/skill] [skill]Distracting Shot[/skill] [skill]Savage Shot[/skill] [skill]Rebirth[/skill] as the core of his build.

That is a really bad monk, and barrage strips preps.

Barrage is used in most areas, choaking gas in mesmer land without the use of barrage. As its a player, not a Hero, they can make the distinction without fuss. They have however been discussing alternate elites.

And what's wrong with the monk - you've got to give more than thats a bad build or I'll ignore your comments

Oh, and the BiP is using [skill]Holy Veil[/skill] as well.

My guild went off for a 100% clearance as well, but in the end we failed at four horsemen, as it was our first time. If we had another try, we would most likely complete it - not easily but still. Our setup was:

Tank warrior
Another warrior
SS
Nuker
CG-ranger
Trapper
Healer
Prot

That build simply kicked ass - some notes to you here:

That monk should be looked over again. Healing breeze simply sucks here, it should be replaced by infuse health or something.

Spiteful spirit necro is a must here. A huge boost to your team's damage and everybody knows that more damage to monsters -> less damage to your team.

Barrage does not work with preparations - you should get trapper and cg ranger invidual.

Great to hear it can be done!

I've an SS at position 6 at the moment

I was reluctant to include a standard prot monk due to the frequent enchant strips (and with the prot monk likely being a hero), hence why I went with the Rit and Paragon instead.

I'll talk to the ranger and see what he more specifically had in mind other than "interupts and damage"

[skill]Healing Whisper[/skill] maybe instead of [skill]Healing Breeze[/skill].

you can still play a prot monk in the UW. sure some of your enchants will get removed but not all (maybe better to have a Prot Monk as a player rather than a Hero).

As for your current monk -

Drop Breeze and Orison. Probably change Remove hex for Smite hex (I assume a hero would try and cast Holy veil on everyone instead of casting and then removing it). I am a huge fan of Vigorous Spirit, you could replace Breeze with VS. Maybe some condition removal instead of Orison.

Also, if you reduce most of your spells to 1sec or less cast time, you probably don't need MoC, but its up to you

I like having an Illusion mesmer around in the UW (even when it is not me playing it) to spread blinds and anti-melee around. The last time I UW'd with a full group we had a idiot monk who stopped healing...I was able to tank 2 ataaxes and help kill 3 grasps (who were being tanked by our tank) so that we could res and keep going (I was using Inept, Epidemic, and Clumsiness).

Should be fun and good luck

You're Prot monk is missing one of the most important skills ever for UW.

Protective Spirit!

a paragon with angelic bond wouldnt be a bad idea. I wanted to try running one with bonds too but I don't have NF to try it out with.

@ LouAl
I also love VS when monking, but am VERY conscious about using enchants in the later areas of UW, especially when the monks are Heroes!

@ Rhal.
Yup, I know.. Was hoping Shelter would be an adequate substitute, but beginning to think we do need a prot monk.. but how to rejig the team. The player of the Prot Monk would likely be the ranger, so would need to use a hero for the ranger, and drop one of the other members of the group. Probably the paragon or rit. I just love the usefulness of spirits later in the UW and They're On Fire is awesome
I originally thoguht of having the Bipper go /P, but he doesn't have nightfall

Quote:

Blah I can't stand Glowing Gazes little Graphic avitar, it looks like someone is taking a big...anyways have your ranger and necro carry Smite hex. For a Tank, go with a Armor of Earth Dolyak-WY! Barbarian(Invinsible)yeah.

We did it!!!!

Well.. we completed the free the reapers quest, and all the individual reapers quests apart from Chaos Plains (Four Horseman) and Bone Pits, mostly because we decided to try the four hoursemen first

Congradulations, sounds like you had fun.