GrindwaY h/h build for rep farming and general

I use E-Surge for damage more than E-Denial, though it is effective on some monk mobs as that too. Epidemic on that bar isn't too efective either without a lot of conditions being spread around, which this build won't do.

And idealy, power lock isn't needed, and leech signet helps for extra E-management. [[Bestial Mauling] + [[Plague Sending] + [[Epidemic]. You might as well use the conditions picked up by Foul Feast against the enemy.

Mesmers are better at shutdown than damage, 33% faster recharge = win vs casters in Varajar Fells. A Mesmer will interrupt multiple foes, Power Lock can disable Maelstrom on one Ice Imp while it tosses Power Spike on another. Leech Signet is weaker than [[drain enchantment].

[Bestial Mauling] + [Plague Sending] + [Epidemic]. You might as well use the conditions picked up by Foul Feast against the enemy.

Mesmers are better at shutdown than damage, 33% faster recharge = win vs casters in Varajar Fells. A Mesmer will interrupt multiple foes, Power Lock can disable Maelstrom on one Ice Imp while it tosses Power Spike on another. Leech Signet is weaker than [drain enchantment]. Good points, though Drain Enchantment is conditional on opposing enchantments.

If you go back to Plague Sending and FF on the SS Necro like my first build, you can throw Protection spells on the MM (Prot Spirit or Spirit Bond, and Aegis).

So, that ends up with these three builds...

[build name="Bront's MM Bomber" prof=N/Mo Dea=12+3+1 Sou=8+1 Pro=10][Jagged Bones][Animate Bone Minions][Death Nova][Blood of the Master][Putrid Bile][Protective Spirit][Aegis][Signet of Lost Souls][/build]

If you want to not spec in Prot, you can stick in a resurect and/or other death magic spells. Fairly standard minion bomber beyond that.

[build name="Bront's SS Necro Feaster" prof=N/Rt Cur=12+1+1 Sou=12+1][Spiteful Spirit][Barbs][Mark of Pain][Enfeebling Blood][Foul Feast][Plague Sending][Signet of Lost Souls][Death Pact Signet][/build]

Disable DPS durring combat and use it manualy. Or replace it with Weaken Armor. Beyond that, the SS helps the Minions do damage with Barbs and Orders, SS is always functional, and she'll cure conditions and send them to opponents.

[build name="Bront's Interupt Mesmer" prof=Me/Mo Dom=12+1+1 Fas=10+1 Ins=8+1][CoF][Power Lock][Power Spike][Power Drain][Hex Eater Signet][Epidemic][Mantra of Recovery][Vengeance][/build]

Based off the Dark Spirit build, and with help from Antithesis. Drain Enchantment or Leech Signet can be used instead of Hex Eater Signet for low hex areas. You can throw Empathy in there if you need instead of Power Spike.

On a side note, I noticed I was using Weaken Armor over Order of Pain origional. My mistake. Nevermind.

Good points, though Drain Enchantment is conditional on opposing enchantments. If there's a Monk, Ele, Assassin or Derv in an enemy mob you'll find plenty of ammo for Drain Enchantment. Varajar Fells is full of them.

PS I don't think Heroes can use Shatter Enchantment.

It was shatter hex.

Ok, I think I like this better. Revised in the post up 2 spots. It adds protection and hex removal. Sorry i meant [[shatter hex].

Not sure about [[order of pain], i'd leave it out as you're not spec'ing into Blood and the sac is a bitch without a full bar built around it. You could try Rac's Orders N/Rt.

For interest's sake, here's what i use for HM Varajar Fells -

[Jagged Bones][animate bone minions][death nova][blood of the master][putrid bile][ancestors rage][splinter weapon][signet of lost souls]

[mantra of recovery][power lock][cry of frustration][power spike][drain enchantment][power drain][hex eater signet][vengeance]

[weapon of quickening][mend body and soul][spirit light][protective was kaolai][shadowsong][life][signet of lost souls][death pact signet]

I like the 50% Rezmer recharge. Casters present a greater threat than Physicals, so i leave the SS out. Shadowsong takes care of anything that penetrates the meatshield and things blow up fast enough to not worry about Barbs etc. I leave Vengeance enabled on the Mesmer, the corpses can be a good supply of Minion fodder in low corpse areas.

Did more testing late last night at the master of damage with only me and the heroes. Once mins are built, the avg is 200ish dps per second. That doesn't reflect SS, much death nova - olias was healing the mins, icy veins bombs or mop. Ahem....



That's 232 damage per second with 1 lvl 19 Pet and 2 x lvl 5's and 10 Minions. I could have cheated and dropped [[brutal strike] onto their bars for additional DPS, but i didn't.

I ran a D-Slasher because your W/P build is silly and i couldn't be arsed sticking Great Dwarf Weapon into a build, i used Brawling Headbutt to test Bestial Mauling usage. I was careful to run down the bar from D-Slash > Brawling Headbutt > Steelfang Slash > Go for the Eyes in keeping with the spirit of the build. I could have cheated and spammed D-Slash but i didn't.

The builds are in the Pic and are close to those i suggested - I brought Mark of Pain and the Splinter Weapon version of the Ranger.


And looky here...



A MM, Curser and D-Slasher as God-mode intended, 10 Minions + 1 Pet for 233 DPS. Granted, 2 of my Pets were lvl 5 so it's not an entirely fair comparison, but both builds are doing more than 200 DPS. Sorry, but your build could be improved and/or your pets could be dropped.

big pics and much text lol my sin kills faster all by his lonesome

impressive amounts of damage though /tiphat

lol my sin kills faster all by his lonesome

impressive amounts of damage though /tiphat The point of the post was not to boast nor to show the build does a heap of damage. It was to point out that 200+DPS is easy to do and the OP's build ain't all that.

The point of the post was not to boast nor to show the build does a heap of damage. It was to point out that 200+DPS is easy to do and the OP's build ain't all that. A warr spamming [dragon slash] and [brawling headbutt] significantly ODs a spear chucking W/P on a totally stationary target?? Do tell... glad you took the time to screenie and prove that... what a revelation.

The reason I mentioned testing on the Master of Damage was to refute your contention that my build was not "high dmg." I never claimed my build wins some kind of master of damage award, but still maintain that 200ish dps on a three hero/human core qualifies as "high damage," especially given the other defensive and convenience attributes of the build.

On to some substantive points.

1. The first line of my first post states that I was working "too hard" on my warrior fronting H/H in NM and HM rep grinding, quest running and missions (Guess what build I was using btw sans [brawling headbutt]... eh sometimes some [triple chop] too). I thought this would be self-explanatory. Apparently not. To elaborate, I found that I was spending lots of time chasing mobs with [flail] on when [enraging charge] wasn't up as they ran around in their AI fashion trying to hit the kiting monks and other squishies. I estimate it was taking me an average of 2 seconds of non swinging time (maybe more) between mobs due to distance and obstacles, just an estimate, but lots of wasted time, effort, and loss of dps. I wanted a build that would require little micro, do high front loaded dmg, party utility, and not have me running around so much. Hence, W/P, lots of useful high adrenal skills in the paragon skillset, with a fast attack speed that builds adrenaline quickly. A para would be better, but the reality is I'm running a warrior, not a para, through the expansions, so I make do.

2. [Rage of the Ntouka] allows near instant use of the entire bar, at the beginning of the battle when I want it. I don't have to spend threeish seconds getting to the first mob. If I get blinded, blurred, hexed, etc. I can still instantly front load the adrenal skills and use them. I have found that the quicker the first top priority mob goes down, the quicker the battle. Quicker battles = faster farming, and this sort of thing isn't reflected by master of dmg results.

3. I can stand where I am throughout the entire battle and hit mobs. Though the damage on the W/P is only 35-40ish, and the D-slash does 70ish, more ranged dmg is actually applied to mobs due to not having to spend time moving between them and getting body blocked by other mobs or my own minions or teammates or geography. Sometimes they ball up, that's great, but in my experience, they spend more time spread out. Yes, D-slash is better, no comparison, but for farming rep and running around, it gets old and is tiresome chasing mobs, getting blocked, etc. as a melee. Just the advantages of ranged attack that everyone will agree with. In a human team, I'll go melee almost always. That's where warrs shine as we can all agree. I had the same troubles on my sin, so turned him into a crit wanding monk knockoff to great effect, but that's another build...

4. I had started using sabway months, maybe even a year ago... not certain, on other characters after playing around with all kinds of hero builds. My account is UAX, so tweaking hero bars is one way I enjoy the game. Sabway is great for its purpose, highly defensive with the N/Rt, but it is too defensive for NM and HM easy area rep farming and needs more physical dmg dealers.

How to add more offense, while sacrificing as little defense as possible? My initial solution was pets because they made great targets for [splinter weapon] and [great dwarf weapon]. Unlike casters, they are always attacking, maximizing the buffs, and unlike minions, they are easy to target in the party window. Moreover, while MM and company sometimes lag the group, pets don't, and give a generally faster meatshield than minions. Many times, before minions are built, or running areas or missions, or when mins get blown up by aoe, there is little physical dmg in a three necro team to fuel [barbs], [mark of pain], two of the chief dmg engines of sabway. So... I started using pets on the rit with great success. Farming rep on my rit is fast and effortless, in large part due to this.

5. While using the pets in modified sabway, I noticed overall dmg to the team was going down more than I had expected. As posted earlier, pets add a nice hp buffer to the team, they body block mobs, suck up hexes, aoe conditions and aggro, do extra dmg with barbs, are heartier than minions, are totally passive, cost no energy, take up one slot on the bar, don't get dp, don't degen,are easily ressed in a batch, add to the number of potential bombs... these are most of the advantages there are others. I noticed that my hench monks and casters weren't kiting as much with 3 540 hp 80 armor units added to the meatshield. Moreover, pets cut down the chance of heroes doing the wrong thing at the wrong time. I want the MM raising mins, applying death nova, etc., (but don't mind at all if he takes a second to hit a barbed mob with volley or to interrupt a maelstrom, will deal with the ranged attack caster thing next). In open spaces without lots of traps, the pet slot has proven itself useful in any hero /R bar to me and I highly recommend it. BTW, in my rit H/H build, I had [call of haste] also.

6. So I have three necros with pets. This worked great on my rit, and was planning to do that with the warr. I noticed the necros always had full nrg bars, and lots of recharge time with nothing to cast, wanding stuff. So began thinking, how could I use the extra energy and time? The answer was to put recurve bows on the necros, and replace [call of haste] with [volley] and [savage shot]. Tried it, and noticed the dramatic increase of interrupts immediately. Bad stuff was still getting through, but lots of stuff was being interrupted. We all know how good AI is at this, so no surprise. [Volley] is perhaps interchangeable with some other attack skill, but is low nrg, fast recharge, and hits multiple stuff.

I find that the necros will shoot an initial volley, then cast once or twice, then volley, then cast. This has the unforeseen benefit of getting the pets to engage faster, as sometimes with non martial necros, they don't actually attack while the necro is casting. Because the necros usually start off from the edge of aggro with a volley, the pets engage instantly. I find bow shooting to be an efficient use of their time. They interrupt LOTS, stuff still gets through, but mobs rarely get a long cast spell, healing sig, etc. off. I don't see any reduction in their casting effectiveness at all from using bows, and the difference between the necro abilities at 12-13 is not noticeably gimped from 14-15. I find they only need 7-9 SR to still have great nrg running a pool of 45ish nrg, so the staves/wands aren't missed. Normally, I wouldn't run a 4 atrribute split, but on necro heroes, I don't miss the last expensive points in curses, blood, death or SR, as I used to run three attributes on them all. If anything, they are much more effective generally.

With pets and bows, I add 6 physical dmg dealers for [barbs], [mark of pain] and ["Go for the eyes!"], three for [anthem of envy]. I have tried N/Me, and they work fine, but lack some in fast killing power, and I find that heroes do not use cast interrupts as well as they use bow and melee interrupts, no evidence, just seems that way. The beauty of [savage shot] is that it interrupts any skills, so compresses the bars from a standard interrupter some. It may even allow me to drop zho for cynn.

7. I tried the Icy necro as a N/Rt two nights ago with [splinter weapon] and ancestors. He worked great, could notice increased damage on some of the easier mob groups in Varajar, cows especially. He cast the spells fairly well, splinter always on the two other volleyers, never on me though. Once I got to the harder parts where you end up fighting cents, vaettirs and/or elementals at the same time, I noticed that because these mobs are more spread generally, splinter and ancestors weren't optimizing, interrupts were fewer, and the pets were absorbing 1/3 less aggro. My hench healers were kiting more, casting less, and taking significantly more dmg. In the end, the dmg bonus on the easy mobs was not worth the defensive sacrifice, so back to N/R on the icy necro.

8. Last night, I H/H ed through GOLEM and Destruction's Depths NM, easily on the first try despite having forgotten much of the missions as I haven't done them in awhile. The disc at the end of DD gave some trouble, and we had a couple wipes there, but the PETS and I eventually wedged him up against a wall and took him down while the rest of the party healed me and the pets from a distance. No great achievement, but I mention it because without the pets, and with one flameburst killing minions, having heartier body blockers in the party made a huge difference, as that boss will make short work of most any offense oriented H/H party when allowed to move freely.

The build is working great, is an excellent build for its stated purpose, and for those warrs who want to use H/H to kill quickly without running around in melee, please give it a try.

And Antithesis, please spend more time "proving" with screenies that a D-slash, brawling hb ODs other warrior builds... amusing.