Blood or Curses for PvE General?

NecroticChanter

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Nov 2007

Toronto

Real Eyes Realize Real Lies[Tree]

P/

I am currently running SS and see that the damage isn't really all that great against high level bosses. Also the curses line requires your team to attack one target or the enemy itself has to attack or react a certain way. With the recent buffs to some blood spells, would be worth it to convert to a blood necro? Is the armor ignoring damage needed at high end PvE like dungeons and HM?What is your opinion? thanks in advance.

the kurzick eater

the kurzick eater

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Sep 2007

1323 lancelot dr. greenwood PA

wat

Mo/

the thing with SS is that it effects everyone around whoever u cast it on, and it triggers whenever they do ANYTHING... including attacking/casting/posting lolcats on threadz. the effects of SS are also multiplied in HM due to the faster attack rate.

Malice Black

Site Legend

Join Date: Oct 2005

Curses.

Blood is rather ineffetive on just one char. SS+major degen is the way to go. Adding Barbs and a MM can double your dmg output.

Stormlord Alex

Stormlord Alex

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Dec 2005

Beyond the Forest of Doom, past the Cavern of Agony... on Kitten & Puppy Island

Soul of Melandru [sOm]

W/E

Quote:
Originally Posted by NecroticChanter
I am currently running SS and see that the damage isn't really all that great against high level bosses. SS doesn't kill bosses.
[skill=text]Barbs[/skill] does.

Racthoh

Racthoh

Did I hear 7 heroes?

Join Date: May 2005

Scars Meadows [SMS], Guild Leader (Not Recruiting)

Blood has Order of Pain and Dark Fury.
Curses has a toolbox of goodies for any party setup.

DarkSpirit

DarkSpirit

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Feb 2006

Redmond

Quote:
Originally Posted by Racthoh
Blood has Order of Pain and Dark Fury.
Curses has a toolbox of goodies for any party setup. Blood also has Spoil Victor which is great against tough bosses.

The curse line is more flexible but Blood is more specialized for certain purposes.

Racthoh

Racthoh

Did I hear 7 heroes?

Join Date: May 2005

Scars Meadows [SMS], Guild Leader (Not Recruiting)

Quote:
Originally Posted by DarkSpirit
Blood also has Spoil Victor which is great against tough bosses. I wouldn't spec highly into a weak line to use an elite that will be useful maybe half a dozen times per zone.

Stormlord Alex

Stormlord Alex

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Dec 2005

Beyond the Forest of Doom, past the Cavern of Agony... on Kitten & Puppy Island

Soul of Melandru [sOm]

W/E

Quote:
Originally Posted by Racthoh
I wouldn't spec highly into a weak line to use an elite that will be useful maybe half a dozen times per zone. Agreed. As great as SV is in the situations where it is truly useful; Pain Inverter does pretty much the same thing except without wasting a character on otherwise-worthless Blood Magic.

The only thing that SV covers that Inverter doesn't is making healer mobs cry, but they can easily be brute-forced by a physical-heavy team... or Wail of Doom.

Carinae

Carinae

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jun 2005

Inside

Fifteen Over Fifty [Rare]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Racthoh
I wouldn't spec highly into a weak line to use an elite that will be useful maybe half a dozen times per zone. I agree.

To be honest, SV has one and only one GREAT use: It kills Shiro. It bypasses Battle Scars, and triggers multiple times off of Impossible Odds.

I'm not joking. Shiro=Factions. SV=Factions. I literally think SV was intended for this use specifically.

Keekles

Keekles

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: May 2005

Floating amongst the ethereal seas of placating breezes.

Like A [Boss]

Mo/

SV makes shiro go pop.

I run curses. Big bag of goodies in there. Barbs + MM = lots of numbers.

Moloch Vein

Moloch Vein

Forge Runner

Join Date: Apr 2007

Reactive Hexing Sucks

[Thay]

N/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Racthoh
I wouldn't spec highly into a weak line to use an elite that will be useful maybe half a dozen times per zone. Neither Order of Pain nor Dark Fury is an elite.

N/W
Spear/Focus
Blood 12+1+3 Soul Reaping 12+1
For Great Justice - Flurry - Order Of Pain - Dark Fury/Mark Of Fury - Spoil Victor - "Save Yourselves!" (two optional)

Works just fine. What elite would you rather bring? I guess sorta maybe Wail, that's just about it.

Racthoh

Racthoh

Did I hear 7 heroes?

Join Date: May 2005

Scars Meadows [SMS], Guild Leader (Not Recruiting)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Moloch Vein
I guess sorta maybe Wail, that's just about it. It would come down whether the player finds bosses more of a threat or every other encounter. Would you prefer an elite that's useful for every situation, or one that is most potent for the trickier encounters?

DarkSpirit

DarkSpirit

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Feb 2006

Redmond

Quote:
Originally Posted by Moloch Vein
Neither Order of Pain nor Dark Fury is an elite.

N/W
Spear/Focus
Blood 12+1+3 Soul Reaping 12+1
For Great Justice - Flurry - Order Of Pain - Dark Fury/Mark Of Fury - Spoil Victor - "Save Yourselves!" (two optional)

Works just fine. What elite would you rather bring? I guess sorta maybe Wail, that's just about it. There is also this build from pvxwiki:

http://www.pvxwiki.com/wiki/Build:N/D_Mystic_Orders

...if you replace blood bond with Dark Fury.

or

http://www.pvxwiki.com/wiki/Build:N/...of_the_Vampire

or

http://www.pvxwiki.com/wiki/Build:N/Mo_Boss_Farmer

SV can be useful depending on your team makeup and your build purpose.

Tyla

Emo Goth Italics

Join Date: Sep 2006

Blood has very few uses outside gimmicks...
Order of Pain, Dark Fury are really the only good ones, Spoil Victor has very few uses.

Curses has Spiteful Spirit for some damage, Enfeebling Blood for your own personal Protective Spirit...

Qdq Swi

Qdq Swi

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Nov 2007

N/

Blood has a limited amount of usefull spells... wheras Curses has a bunch of great spells.. Enfeebling Blood, Barbs, Rigor Mortis to name a few.

SV 'can' be usefull in certain circumstances... however.. its not worth investing attributes in Blood Magic for.

Its just whats best 99% of the time (curses) against whats okay some of the time (blood).

isamu kurosawa

isamu kurosawa

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Nov 2005

United Kingdom

Me/

I have been doing a few dungeons with alliance members recently using a N/Rt like this:

Channelling 12
blood 10+1+1
soul reaping 8+1

splinter weap
warmonger's
spirit rift
bloodsong
offering of spirit
order of pain
BR
death pact sig

If we took a MM we replaced BR and orders with barbs and mark of pain then movedpoints to curses.

Rest fo the team consisted of rangers and paras with 2 hybrid monks.

Absolutly tore through frostmaws, foW, kathandrax, rragars and bogroot so far.

spamming channeling spells means we dont need to take a necro elite and it deals more dmg than SS in our team build anyway.

(can you guess what we where going for? )

Stormlord Alex

Stormlord Alex

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Dec 2005

Beyond the Forest of Doom, past the Cavern of Agony... on Kitten & Puppy Island

Soul of Melandru [sOm]

W/E

Quote:
Originally Posted by isamu kurosawa
splinter weap
warmonger's
spirit rift
bloodsong
offering of spirit
order of pain
BR
death pact sig Just curious... Why Spirit over Offering of Blood?
OoB offers much greater energy return - 17 energy @ 12 as opposed to Offering's 10; and if you drop Spirit you no longer find any need for Bloodsong - you can then fill that spot with Ancestor's Rage or Dark Fury for more lulz.

Just as an idea.

Chthon

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Apr 2007

Quote:
Originally Posted by Moloch Vein
Neither Order of Pain nor Dark Fury is an elite.

N/W
Spear/Focus
Blood 12+1+3 Soul Reaping 12+1
For Great Justice - Flurry - Order Of Pain - Dark Fury/Mark Of Fury - Spoil Victor - "Save Yourselves!" (two optional)

Works just fine. What elite would you rather bring? I guess sorta maybe Wail, that's just about it. The mere possibility of running SY on a necro for H+H purposes makes this build pure gold.

Longasc

Longasc

Forge Runner

Join Date: May 2005

The killing potential of Blood Magic is unfortunately weak.

The damage is not that high, and for single-target damage, there are better professions or builds out there.

It works in some very specialized builds, with many necros, but it is not a good choice for PvE, and IMO for PvP neither.

If you want to use blood magic, use the support skills: Blood Ritual already works with a low spec and is quite useful.


Curses offers damage and defense in one package: Enfeebling Blood is very useful in Hard Mode to reduce damage to your team, or to provide trigger conditions. Earth Elementalists just love weakness (Stoning), and necros provide it readily.

Stormlord Alex gives a good example. Barbs is a very underrated skill. But with Minions and physical attackers, like Warriors, Rangers, whatever, it provides constant +14/16 damage.

Spiteful Spirit is a fire and forget hex, best used in the middle of a melee mob gone wild.


Spoil Victor is great to kill a boss - no doubt. But SS and Pain Inverter do the same, and they are more useful on the way to the boss. A good place where you can run blood magic is the final fight against the big destroyer boss, just SV and use Pain Inverter and suck his life away.

Pyro maniac

Pyro maniac

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Apr 2006

Order of pain
Dark Fury
Blood is Power
Strip Enchantment
Splinter Weapon
Ancestors Rage
Foul Feast
Flesh of my Flesh



12+2 blood
8+1 soul
10 channeling

Div

Div

I like yumy food!

Join Date: Jan 2006

Where I can eat yumy food

Dead Alley [dR]

Mo/R

Curses is pretty awesome, with wail of doom.

isamu kurosawa

isamu kurosawa

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Nov 2005

United Kingdom

Me/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Stormlord Alex
Just curious... Why Spirit over Offering of Blood?
OoB offers much greater energy return - 17 energy @ 12 as opposed to Offering's 10; and if you drop Spirit you no longer find any need for Bloodsong - you can then fill that spot with Ancestor's Rage or Dark Fury for more lulz.

Just as an idea. To be honest it was a hero running the build at the time and they got pretty sac happy. with bloodsong+ranger rituals spirit meant livia didnt kill herself. and with SR anyway spirit was more than enough.

If we run it with a full human party offering of blood would probably be more effective though.

NecroticChanter

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Nov 2007

Toronto

Real Eyes Realize Real Lies[Tree]

P/

Thanks for the replies...I guess I'll stick with SS. Boring tho lol

Cathode_Reborn

Cathode_Reborn

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Sep 2006

Spoil Victor becomes alot stronger with an MM, especially an mm bomber using bone minions (because of their low lvl/hp).

Best use I've had with SV is in Slaver's exile (dealing with the monks) and HM Darkrime delves....it triggers many times on those damn jotuns. Echo'd it there, saw lots of big numbers

jrk247

jrk247

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Mar 2006

Twenty Gold For Mountain Troll [Tusk]

Go with curses, SS/Pain Inverter/Mark of Pain/Reckless Haste/Enf. Blood/etc. if you are going to be the only necro in the party, if there are more than one one of you someone should go blood and run a SV/blood support build.

Queen Undertaker

Academy Page

Join Date: Dec 2005

Sim Techs

R/N

one thing i enjoy is when running curse line either echo SS, standard or echo BARBS, especialy if have a MM in the group, see where the minnions are heading and barb the guy, if he isnt a boss or something and if teams with 5 minnions, he will die in seconds, you will see 16 and 17 all over due to them little hits. Barbs is not considered a aoe for sure and they will stand and fight, put on ss and insidious parasite, and he will sit and kill himself in seconds. did this the otherday with 2 MMs in the party, yeah I eched babrs and the human players wre dropping, well they being hit by 10 + minnions hehe, put a human derv or assassin hitting them, they really drop.

but i do like the soul reaping elite repers mark, like to echo it, is anther nice energy tool and gives them -5 degen, stack it with conjour nightmare hehe, -13 degen.

just my thoughts, Razor of Death

masta_yoda

masta_yoda

Banned

Join Date: Feb 2007

most hated players in the [game]

R/Mo

curses no doubt