One thing that I think Sab's build lacks is attention to the player's skill bar. Maybe this is more apparent to me, as I play a Necromancer most of the time. Additionally, it loses power in areas with heavy holy damage, lots of AoE damage, or no corpses - the minion master can't keep up enough minions to power the batteries, so to speak. It also loses power when faced with heavy spell prevention, such as [wiki]Vow of Silence[/wiki], [wiki]Spell Breaker[/wiki], or [wiki]Obsidian Flesh[/wiki]. I've been working on my own synergized skill bars - it started off as one additional bar to shore up the weaknesses, and turned into a whole team build that is viable on its own. I have been testing mostly in [wiki]Varajar Fells[/wiki] in Hard Mode, which has (among other things) Vaettir (direct damage/life steal including smiting damage; no corpses), Ice Imps (AoE elemental damage), Elementals (AoE elemental damage; no corpses) and Gryphons (AoE smiting damage, Spell Breaker).
The basis of my build is two Paragon skill bars, one leadership/command and one motivation/tactics. Currently, this is augmented with a curses skill bar (similar to Sab's curses necro) for extra damage and a hammer warrior to take full advantage of the Paragon boosts. In areas with corpses, you could replace either of the supplemental builds with the MM from Sab's build. With some changes I believe you could also replace either supplemental build with a critical barrage assassin, any of several ranger builds, a fire magic elementalist, a spear paragon, a splinter weapon ritualist, or several other builds. This allows for a 4-bar synergy between a player and 3 heroes for many professions. I'm going to post my current builds here, along with my analysis and suggestions for each if that is your player's primary profession. Please post input on all of the current bars, as well as suggestions for supplemental bars for other professions. On all builds, I have used the runes I am most comfortable with, but feel free to use larger or smaller runes as you feel appropriate. These bars seem to be working well at this point, but I think they could definitely be improved. Any suggestions are welcome.
Paragon 1 - P/W Motivation/Tactics:
This build is based off of the PvX wiki P/W Party Support build, but has been modified to synergize better with the team builds.
Motivation: 12+1+2
Leadership: 8 (+1 if desired, has no effect on break points)
Spear Mastery: 8+1
Tactics: 7
[skill]Signet of Synergy[/skill][skill]Song of Restoration[/skill][skill]Ballad of Restoration[/skill][skill]Zealous Anthem[/skill][skill]"Shields Up!"[/skill][skill]"Watch Yourself!"[/skill][skill]Signet of Return[/skill]
Notes: You can use any spear skill you desire, as long as you have one to trigger "on attack skill" effects. If you go with more builds that have spells and fewer that have attack skills, switch [wiki]Zealous Anthem[/wiki] for [wiki]Aria of Zeal[/wiki]. You could also switch [wiki]Ballad of Restoration[/wiki] for [wiki]Aria of Restoration[/wiki]. I think this build may need some more adrenal skills to take full advantage of the build synergy.
Player skill bar: Substitute either of the Tactics skills for There's Nothing to Fear!. If desired, drop tactics entirely and replace the other skill with [wiki]Angelic Protection[/wiki], moving points into leadership. You might want to upgrade to a major rune at this point, as well. Bringing one of the Norn shouts might be appropriate, as well.
Paragon 2 - P/Any Command/Leadership
This is loosely based off of the PvX wiki P/any Aiding Fury build. The end result only has 3 skills in common, but I feel I should give credit.
Leadership: 12+1 (breakpoint for Anthem of Fury)
Spear Mastery: 8+1
Command: 10+1+1
[skill]Blazing Spear[/skill][skill]"Go for the Eyes!"[/skill][skill]Anthem of Fury[/skill][skill]Blazing Finale[/skill][skill]"They're On Fire!"[/skill][skill]"Stand Your Ground!"[/skill][skill]Anthem of Envy[/skill][skill]Signet of Return[/skill]
Notes: Again, any attack skill is okay as long as you have one to trigger "on attack skill" effects, although I would steer clear of the ones that have casting times. You could switch Blazing Finale or Anthem of Envy for [wiki]Burning Refrain[/wiki] or [wiki]Anthem of Flame[/wiki].
Player skill bar: Switch [wiki]anthem of envy[/wiki] or [wiki]"Stand Your Ground!"[/wiki] for There's Nothing to Fear!.
Supplemental - N/P Curses Necro
Curses: 12+1+3
Soul Reaping: 9+1
Spear Mastery: 9
[skill]Spiteful Spirit[/skill][skill]Mark of Pain[/skill][skill]Barbs[/skill][skill]Enfeebling Blood[/skill][skill]Reckless Haste[/skill][skill]Merciless Spear[/skill][skill]Signet of Lost Souls[/skill][skill]Signet of Return[/skill]
Notes: Yes, I'm using a spear on my necro - this contributes to barbs/mark of pain and also allows the necro to trigger "on attack skill" effects. Again, you can use any spear skill you want. Surprisingly, I rarely find myself using [wiki]Spiteful Spirit[/wiki], as it is obvious with this team build that barbs + mark of pain does more damage, both single target and AoE. I have been having some e-management problems - I'm considering switching it out for [wiki]Reaper's Mark[/wiki]. I tried running an orders build ([wiki]Order of the Vampire[/wiki] and [wiki]Dark Fury[/wiki]), but it clashed with [wiki]Signet of Synergy[/wiki] and seemed more distracting than beneficial.
Player skill bar: I'm currently running this build with [wiki]Pain Inverter[/wiki] and [wiki]Ebon Vanguard Assassin Support[/wiki] instead of Enfeebling Blood and Reckless Haste. Instead of the assassin, you could run [wiki]Ebon Battle Standard of Courage[/wiki] or [wiki]Great Dwarf Weapon[/wiki].
Supplemental - W/P or W/Rt Hammer Thumper
Hammer Mastery: 12+1+3
Strength: 12+1
[skill]Counter Blow[/skill][skill]Devastating Hammer[/skill][skill]Crushing Blow[/skill][skill]Fierce Blow[/skill][skill]Enraging Charge[/skill][skill]Flail[/skill][skill]"For Great Justice!"[/skill][skill]Death Pact Signet[/skill]
Notes: You can use any thumper build that you want, just make sure to take advantage of the extra adrenaline you'll be gaining from Anthem of Fury. Since the secondary is used only for the res, you can switch to /Rt or /Mo and include the res of your choice, depending on your personal preference.
Player skill bar:
You could bring [wiki]Whirlwind Attack[/wiki] instead of [wiki]Yeti Smash[/wiki] and "Save Yourselves!" in place of one of the attack skills.
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I didn't say that the build failed, I said it lost power. I wasn't trying to degrade the build, only offering my observations.|
Originally Posted by Build History
Original W/P Hammer Thumper
[skill]Staggering Blow[/skill][skill]Yeti Smash[/skill][skill]Counter Blow[/skill][skill]Devastating Hammer[/skill][skill]Crushing Blow[/skill][skill]Fierce Blow[/skill][skill]Irresistible Blow[/skill][skill]Signet of Return[/skill] ~ Dan ~
If you're not melee or ranger yourself, you take physical hench. I don't see how sabway fails against skills like [skill]Vow Of Silence[/skill].
Para builds: Why would you run anything outside of SY/TNTF/Focused anger? Necro build: Spear? lolwut? If you want maximum efficiency out of barbs and mark of pain, you use physical party members or an MM. Not a spear chukking caster. Warrior build: Terrabad. And as you're only using the second prof for a res, why not /Rt: [skill]Death Pact Signet[/skill] ? Xylia
Quote:
Originally Posted by dan-the-noob
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Your main offense (the curses necro) is completely shut down, especially when there is a whole group of foes who are using one of those skills. In HM many of them are able to keep them up 95% of the time. Physical hench can eventually wear them away, but the foes will attempt to smash your backline before that can happen.
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