Another good LOL for me, "Don't swing your melee so you don't get energy and so you lose your ursan!"
Actually, serious LOL on YOU. Use your brain a bit, yea? If you're tanking, you're getting the shit pummeled out of you, which means an overflow of incoming energy. Signet of Stamina is used to buff your health, but if you attack, it goes byebye.
As for the rest of the thread, back in the old days when usually only decent players got through DoA, any build was viable. Didn't have an ele to nuke? Fine! Go SoI mesmer and fast cast some shit. I've seen almost every class in the game tank for DoA, and not using the Ursan Blessing. All it takes is good players. I used to play with some incredible folk (holla to old crew; ecko, buns, omega, lone, thargor, speedi, hollerith, etc. miss you guys!) and some of the craziest stuff got us through; and this was the "old hardmode" - a.k.a. what hard mode is now used to almost be the old NM.
For the sake of discussion, I'm using the word "tank" fairly interchangably with the ability to "hold agro" and do damage because some classes or team builds that I've used allow more/less flexibility.
Warriors - tank
Assassins - tank
Dervish - tank, other melee scythe-y things
Paragon - tank, imbagon, support w/ energy buffs (if no necro), damage (ball of agro + Cruel spear + Fevered Dreams=gg)
Ranger - tank, splinter/barrage, BHA epidemic
Elementalist - tank, nuker, snare, utility
Necromancer - BiP/spirits, orders, SS, other hexing (weaken armor is dead sexy, fyi)
Mesmer - tank, fast cast nuker, melee/caster shutdown
Ritualist - splinter barrage, rit buffer, utility/heal
Monk - tank, heal, smite
I list up there everything I've seen done in DoA with those classes (maybe forgetting some), but those are just some possibilties, of course there is more.
I think the answer to the OP's question is obvious. Of COURSE DoA can be done without ursan, or a nerfed ursan and use all sorts of classes. How do you think it was done before? I think you mean to say, "can bad players continue doing DoA utilizing creative builds?" To that, my answer is no.
As for the rest of the thread, back in the old days when usually only decent players got through DoA, any build was viable. Didn't have an ele to nuke? Fine! Go SoI mesmer and fast cast some shit. I've seen almost every class in the game tank for DoA, and not using the Ursan Blessing. All it takes is good players. I used to play with some incredible folk (holla to old crew; ecko, buns, omega, lone, thargor, speedi, hollerith, etc. miss you guys!) and some of the craziest stuff got us through; and this was the "old hardmode" - a.k.a. what hard mode is now used to almost be the old NM.
For the sake of discussion, I'm using the word "tank" fairly interchangably with the ability to "hold agro" and do damage because some classes or team builds that I've used allow more/less flexibility.
Warriors - tank
Assassins - tank
Dervish - tank, other melee scythe-y things
Paragon - tank, imbagon, support w/ energy buffs (if no necro), damage (ball of agro + Cruel spear + Fevered Dreams=gg)
Ranger - tank, splinter/barrage, BHA epidemic
Elementalist - tank, nuker, snare, utility
Necromancer - BiP/spirits, orders, SS, other hexing (weaken armor is dead sexy, fyi)
Mesmer - tank, fast cast nuker, melee/caster shutdown
Ritualist - splinter barrage, rit buffer, utility/heal
Monk - tank, heal, smite
I list up there everything I've seen done in DoA with those classes (maybe forgetting some), but those are just some possibilties, of course there is more.
I think the answer to the OP's question is obvious. Of COURSE DoA can be done without ursan, or a nerfed ursan and use all sorts of classes. How do you think it was done before? I think you mean to say, "can bad players continue doing DoA utilizing creative builds?" To that, my answer is no.

