VSF variants; ideas?

I've searched a bit threw the forums and didn't find any similar threads. But, recently in between speed clears and dungeons i've been doing a lot of vsf'ing
(voltaic spear farming).. and i find it funny that a lot of people try getting in pugs with the wrong characters//horrible builds, like W/Me cryers and stuff, on my second account i made a monk just to do vsf, and it took no more than 2 days to level to 20, advance threw eye, and get the proper skills/gear... so stop being lazy!, i understand you want to learn, but do it the right way and stop wasting peoples time!...... but with that out of the way, i've been experimenting with my different toons, trying different buffs and etc to make the runs quicker. and the point of this post, is too see if anyone else has any good buffs/ideas that make vsf go smoother and quicker, other than the obvious, vanguard wisdom [skill]Ebon Battle Standard of Wisdom[/skill] and the more commonly used skills.

my contribution is, other than RoJ and HB i've made my monk 1hp bip, also made my rit bip, but monk is better because of this reason, you know when you first go up to BiP perma when he's pulling everything to the door/wall, and if you're not quick enough, or even when you go in for a second bip, lots of times you get hit with desecrate enchantments and sometimes, stray glitched arrows, and having 1hp, you die instantly, well dying means you cant bip the group which makes everything slow down, the healing, the killing, and the run could possibly be a disaster making everyone have to wipe, and people get pissed and it's never good, so for my bip, i've added Divine Intervention [skill]Divine Intervention[/skill], which prevents fatal damage, and Reversal of Fortune [skill]Reversal of Fortune[/skill], and sometimes i use guardian [skill]Guardian[/skill] to have a chance of blocking those stray arrows, but any block skill that lasts a decent amount of time and has quick recharge would work i assume. well with divine and reversal, i can go in to bip perma/hb/whatever as many times as i want without the risk of dying.

for my fs, instead of bringing mediocre heals that the usual r/rt's or rt/r's bring, i bring buffs as well as extra aoe(rift/agony/destruction/etc)[skill]Spirit Rift[/skill][skill]Agony[/skill][skill]Destruction[/skill][skill]Technobabble[/skill], well for the buffs, i think all rits or rangers playing the fs role should bring Weapon of Quickening [skill]Weapon of Quickening[/skill], in addition to vanguard wisdom [skill]Ebon Battle Standard of Wisdom[/skill], with WoQ you buff all the roj's even the perma if you'd like, and while WoQ lasts a decent amount of time, mine lasts about 30 seconds, it provides 33% recharge of all spells, so the roj's can pump out lots of what they're supposed to be doing, which significantly speeds up the run a lot. Basically it's like if someone brings QZ [skill]Quickening Zephyr[/skill], but better, as QZ increases the amount of energy you need to cast spells, so it's a double edged sword and i don't believe the recharge out-weighs the amount of energy, so QZ is not good for vsf. also, if you're going to bring any of the asuran summons, bring Ice imp! [skill]Summon Ice Imp[/skill], he's the only summon that does AoE, but as a nice bonus, he causes snaring, which means, JT and those pesky demolisher's wouldnt be running back up the hall and hiding from the perma as much. as a side note, if thommis, or a demolisher is ever being stubborn and not following the runner, all you have to do is drop SF and have the hb spam heal party, and they'll follow you instantly.


anyway, thanks for reading my wall of text lol, and please add your ideas!


edit: oh yea, i forgot to note that; the only thing that sucks about WoQ is that it has a 2 second casting time, so i bring mindbender [skill]Mindbender[/skill] which reduces it to 1 second, not much of a speed buff, but it definitely helps spamming.

PS. don't bring snow storm [skill]Snow Storm[/skill] it causes major scatter and un-balls the mobs so RoJ isn't as effective!.

The idea for WoQ is very cool. It has always been an elite I find rather underused for its potential. Yesterday someone ran that while i was RoJing and it made me feel as if I always had a recharged RoJ. He did not have mindbender though, which made QZ less useful. The FS has some optional slots that he always fills with the worst choices

As for the W/Me cryers, I wouldn't accept them in my group when I'm running on my sin, neither would any sane person around.

Just curious, any suggestions as to what a non monk/ mesmer primary can bring for RoJ builds? I only have my paragon and I am lucky enough to get in a group for the vsf even though i'm not the mo/me.

I am guessing p/mo would be best otherwise I would have to be cry only and cause more scatter. I am bringing the ward, air of superiority and ural's hammer along with RoJ but I am pretty much a one trick pony. I don't know if any other pve skill would help better.

I guess I could always resort to a p/n 1hp bip? Even though I wouldn't really have a whole lot of support skills to work with.

Well I have always been annoyed of the corpses which quickly turn into minions and they eventually explode on the perma. So I thought of using the corpses before they turn into minions tried few wells [well of the profane] [well of blood] but they were not so efficient then I used [putrid explosion] and wow its a big plus to the team speeding things as there are less minions and more aoe damage.

This is the build I use its very effective and enjoyable give it a try you going to love it .
[build=Necro Cryer;OAVCUsxUMwNoNoSwSwXwaZVF]

@Maya, the wells do help a little, but i haven't tried putrid, although i know that it would definitely help, that is a good idea.

and

@Mercenary, I've found N/P's to be the best bips, although they lack the ability to negate fatal damage, they definitely keep the party energized, i cannot find any reason why a P/N with 55 armour, couldnt 1hp bip, i do it with my rit and monk all the time, just bring the wells above^^ as well as [skill]Song of Power[/skill] [skill]Aria of Zeal[/skill], and obviously [skill]Blood is Power[/skill] [skill]Awaken the Blood[/skill]
also, you could be an effective cryer, just bring the chant/shouts with CoP, ether nightmare, echo, archane, etc the standard cryer... get to atleast r3 kurzick/luxon title, so ether nightmare is a tiny bit more potent. this would work fine, or you could always pair up the chant/shouts with FS and EoE and play that role. You will probably still have a hard time getting in groups, best bet is bip. And to make finding groups easier, the best thing you should do, is start your own pug, doing this with a friend makes it easier, but know what you're talking about, and know who to bring in your pug and you shouldnt have too much trouble. i would recommend that you make sure you can run any of those builds, being versatile definitely helps your chances of finding/staying in groups.


oh yea, I've also started bringing [skill]Protective Bond[/skill] on my hb, i bond the perma with it once he gets back to the wall, and even though it takes 1pip of energy away, with a good bip it's not a problem at all, and it definitely is much more effective at keeping the runner alive, than prot spirit. most hb's don't even bring prot spirit, and you don't need to prot the roj's because they shouldn't be in range, and should be killing the warders before they get off too many casts anyway. so throw bond and healing breeze on perma, and then back up and spam heal party and words of comfort, dwayna's kiss, or cure hex, whatever you like to bring.