Shatterspiker

Yay!!! First post in this boards! I'm really new at this game (experience wise... but then again, I'm an extremely quick study, since I get ocd about everything)

Without further adieu...

E/R Shatterspiker

Water 16 (12 + 1 + 3)
Wilderness Survival 8
Energy Storage 11 (10 + 1)

Water Attunement: 10/2/45, 68 sec duration
Aura of Restoration: 10/.25/20, 60 sec duration, 334% heal (~16.7 per Spear)
Ice Spear: 5/1/0, 74 cold dmg
Glyph of Lesser Energy: 5/1/30, 20 RT w/ quickness
Serpent's Quickness: 5/0/45, 23 sec duration
Shatterstone: 105 cold dmg, 105 cold dmg
Vapor Blade: 143 (or ~71.5) cold dmg
Rez Signet

The idea behind this is the shatterspike... obviously. My energy management is GoLE (casting quickness during it's 1 sec cast time... hope my computer doesn't lag), which reduces it's recharge to 20 seconds. Wilderness 8 gives quickness a duration of 23 seconds, which gives me ample time (about 1 second leeway... i reiterate, hopefully my computer doesn't lag out), which gives me 1 recast of GoLE, essentially allowing me to cast 2 shatterspikes in the space of Serpent's Quickness's recharge time.

Those few extra seconds that may come up between recharges and whatnot can be spent spamming ice spear under attunement and aura for eeking out some extra damage, and self healing.

I'm much happier with this build than my earth spiker... but alas, I have tested neither.

Oh, btw, I did all the math in my head, and it doesn't really matter anything that I'm in calculus, because I can't do simple math >_>. So if you'd like to point out any blatant error that royally f---s up my idea, PLEASE speak up.

As far as I can see, energy is of no concern in any situation (other than e-denial or something ludicrous like that, but who would target an ele?). So I intend on wearing battlemage's armor, and a Water Staff (20/20) with two +30 Health Mods.

With work, this build will become my baby...

The problem with Shatterstone and Lightning Surge is that you give away the spike (a large part of it anyway).

It is my opinion that Ice Spear, Aura of Restoration, and Water Attunement don't really do much. Aura's problem is that if you're taking damage, you're usually trying to run away or something of the sort, not staying there casting spells. Ice Spear isn't anywhere good, and without Ice Spear Water Attunement seems like a waste.

I've screwed around with these in RA. Icy Prism is probably a better choice for an afterspike than ice spear, though. It has normal range and isn't a projectile. I'd also try and work glyph of elemental power into there, as it gets you to just over 480 damage, enough to kill most 60 AL targets with your combo.

It's fun as heck when it works, as all 3 together will pretty easily take out a 60 AL target. Problem is, it fails if the target is enchanted, fails if the target has significant armor, and fails if the enemy monk has a pulse.

EDIT: I think I had something like

Shatterstone
Vapor Blade
Icy Prism
Glyph of elemental power
Aura of Restoration
Water Attunement
Glyph of lesser energy
Rez

Not enough damage...1 RoF + Orison could save whoever is getting spiked.

Also like LightningHell mentioned, the Hex totally gives the whole thing away.

However I think its the best the water line can offer in term of "spike".

I think it's the best elementalists have in the way of a spike... and still not good enough. (surge mebe)
I agree that it's rediculously easy to heal through, especially since most monks are going to have some sort of enchant on their bar - PS or SB.

water magic is very very good, but is always overlooked just like earth magic used to be. this build seems very good but i would add in something like deep freeze for an AoE snare and to stop charging warriors/sins.

For me personally, what makes water so hard to kill with is cost. On average, it's the most expensive elemental line to run. After a few rounds of spells, you are utterly spent. Even with dual attunements. Second Wind can keep you going a little longer albeit at a slower pace. Prodigy a little longer. The only thing that can keep water going, was Ether Renewal when it was 'the god spell', but then that's not a surprise is it?
It's just not very good for killing anything with over 70 armour. At least compared to the other lines...

The way the build is set up now, with GoLE being used about every 20 seconds, and the recharges of shatterspike being 8 + 7, that pretty much means that in the space of one Serpent's Quickness recharge, I get 4 shatterspikes... for

5 + 5 + 0 + 0 + 15 + 15 + 5 + 0 + 0 + 15 + 15 = 75 energy... under water attunement, that's 50 energy per 45 second cycle. So, no, I don't believe water attunement is a waste, given my *current* build, which is up to debate right now.

To get rid of one of the weaknesses, maybe I could try something slightly different, and maybe go E/Me and replace quickness with Drain Enchantment/Shatter Enchantment? If I get drain enchantment, then I could possibly replace aura of restoration with Ether Feast as well. But I really like the synergy between Quickness and Glyph.

I'm going to try this build with different spells as filler instead of Ice Spear, but my original idea was that this builds pretty much implies that I'm going to be doing almost nonstop casting, with infrequent 4 or 5 second pauses, so I'm not sure how Icy Prism's recharge is going to work with that. I'll test that out, and Glyph of Elemental Power in place of Ice Spear as well. (I'm leaning towards using Elemental Power, I like the recharge on that).

Water Attunement and GLE are both absolutely neccessary to keep your energy up. I like versions of this character in TA, but think that he requires too much from his teammates to be viable in RA.

Peace,
-CxE

I farm RA with my shatterspiker, as it is a lethal solo spike (even if it give it away). Not terribly useful in higher tier PvP, but this is a great and extremely strong build. With blurred vision, armor of mist, etc, you become rather durable as well.

Changed the build (just got prophecies, so I could finally test Serpent's Quickness :P) to become much more survivable.

Water Attunement
Troll Unguent
Ice Spikes / Deep Freeze / Maelstrom
Glyph of Lesser Energy
Serpent's Quickness
Shatterstone
Vapor Blade
Resurrection Signet

To help insure the efficiency of the spike, a 20% HRT Wand & Focus would be perfect (just in case Quickness ends by some stance breaker or by losing too much health). Only stipulation is that 20% HCT will screw up the spike, so avoid that if possible. Energy armor and mods will work great, and feel free to adjust Wilderness Survival levels (instead of Energy Storage) to suit your needs with Quickness's duration. I find that 10 works great for me, for the +8 regen from Unguent.

I found that Aura was irritating to maintain and didn't heal when I wanted it too, while Unguent is a cheap, heal when you need it heal. You could keep it up indefinitely as well, but make sure to keep Quickness's duration in mind when you have to recast Glyph to keep the energy engine running. 3 second casting time can hurt.

For the enchant issue, why not drop /R and add /N and use strip enchant for extra healing?

I thought about the enchant issue, and the pros and cons of using E/R as opposed to E/N or E/Me, however, I found that being able to cast the spike more often, for free (or discounted in between Glyph recharges) outweighs the extra damage from a much more expensive, and slower recharging spike.

Also, Ice Spikes is better replaced for Glyph of Elemental Power, to improve the damage of the Shatterspike used in between GoLE recharges. That greatly improves the energy efficiency of the build. However, Diversion on either parts of the spike will make you just about useless, so be (extremely) wary of that.

Glyph of Elemental Power can also help compensate for the possibility that your target has an enchantment on them.

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