What Henches With Racway
chris1234565
hi i dunno if this is in right part but o well
Anyway im running a imbagon para with racway heros and according to the build description it said the derv does enough healing for 1 less monk hench but can i have some advice from somone as i want to get the best from this setup
Anyway im running a imbagon para with racway heros and according to the build description it said the derv does enough healing for 1 less monk hench but can i have some advice from somone as i want to get the best from this setup
[Morkai]
I believe he used a Monk, an Earth Ele, Rangers and the Motivation/Dervish hench. Don't quote me on the last two though.
Gift3d
I know what you're thinking. "i'm killing things slow as all hell and getting mollywhopped in normal mode with this shit... i must be using the wrong henchman!"
Don't worry, you're not. The team build just sucks, rlyrlyrlybaed.
Don't worry, you're not. The team build just sucks, rlyrlyrlybaed.
samerkablamer
If you place ward of honor around your paras properly this build actually has insane damage with alot of healing. Only problem is is that it is easy to counter with blocking etc.
upier
Para, Mhenlo, Devona, the mesmer.
And I don't run the orders guy - I'd rather take Jin.
VQing has never been easier.
And I don't run the orders guy - I'd rather take Jin.
VQing has never been easier.
chris1234565
upier
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Originally Posted by chris1234565
and what would jin run?
I run this:
[build=OgkjcxZrpRqGPG8a3awGjYVgWYA]
http://pvx.wikia.com/wiki/Special:Pv... ji+poizvedbo
[build=OgkjcxZrpRqGPG8a3awGjYVgWYA]
http://pvx.wikia.com/wiki/Special:Pv... ji+poizvedbo
Snow Bunny
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Originally Posted by Gift3d
I know what you're thinking. "i'm killing things slow as all hell and getting mollywhopped in normal mode with this shit... i must be using the wrong henchman!"
Don't worry, you're not. The team build just sucks, rlyrlyrlybaed. What are you talking about?
Sure, you'll kill shit slower than Cryway, but it doesn't suck.
Don't worry, you're not. The team build just sucks, rlyrlyrlybaed. What are you talking about?
Sure, you'll kill shit slower than Cryway, but it doesn't suck.
faraaz
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Originally Posted by Snow Bunny
What are you talking about?
Sure, you'll kill shit slower than Cryway, but it doesn't suck.
At the risk of being flamed, compared to any "team build" out there, be it smiteway, sabway, discordway...yees, it does suck...
Sure, you'll kill shit slower than Cryway, but it doesn't suck.
At the risk of being flamed, compared to any "team build" out there, be it smiteway, sabway, discordway...yees, it does suck...
upier
Snow Bunny
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Originally Posted by faraaz
At the risk of being flamed, compared to any "team build" out there, be it smiteway, sabway, discordway...yees, it does suck...
Faraaz, it's better than Smiteway for sure, and with a physical, it's absolutely better than discordway.
Close tie with sabway though.
Close tie with sabway though.
upier
I finally got around to VQing Archipelagos on my para - and it seemed a bit difficult. And then - halfway though I discovered why.
I forgot to add the monk hench.
So I was running the warrior, earth, mesmer and interrupt hench with the paragon heroes (Hayda had limited motivation) and a RoJ monky (Tahky had no additional healing other the Cure Hex and the DF bonus. Sadly, I had to run her because despite running Emphatic on BOTH paras - the hexes STILL got to me, so she ran with 3 additional hex removals!). We wiped a few times, but at the end managed to do it.
When running paras, you'll need completely different things than you would in a full caster team. So you can't really compare what a caster heavy team and what a physical heavy does, but they will both get the job done.
Just differently.
I forgot to add the monk hench.
So I was running the warrior, earth, mesmer and interrupt hench with the paragon heroes (Hayda had limited motivation) and a RoJ monky (Tahky had no additional healing other the Cure Hex and the DF bonus. Sadly, I had to run her because despite running Emphatic on BOTH paras - the hexes STILL got to me, so she ran with 3 additional hex removals!). We wiped a few times, but at the end managed to do it.
When running paras, you'll need completely different things than you would in a full caster team. So you can't really compare what a caster heavy team and what a physical heavy does, but they will both get the job done.
Just differently.
faraaz
Ah, I've been travelling the last day and a half so I didn't get on before this. To respond to Upier & Snow Bunny...the reason I find it sucks are the following:
1 -> No MM = no wall of minions to soak up aggro
2 -> Not enough protting (not an issue if you are a primary paragon, I understand...but then, you could use ANYTHING with an imbagon and you would have enough protting...right?)
3 -> Too easy to go down to excessive armor ignoring damage which includes things like assassin's bonus damage, necros, mesmers & what have you.
4 -> Doesnt match the damage output of things like Sabway/Discordway as physically spearing everything takes longer than say...YMLAD + AP + FH! spam every few seconds.
I realise its a different style of gameplay, but fwiw, its weak & lacking in a lot of ways. If you disagree, I would love to see how it is good. I HAVE used it extensively, and although it works well enough in NM, it is weak in HM on anything other than a paragon primary (and ofc, I dont use paragons...dont like 'em personally).
1 -> No MM = no wall of minions to soak up aggro
2 -> Not enough protting (not an issue if you are a primary paragon, I understand...but then, you could use ANYTHING with an imbagon and you would have enough protting...right?)
3 -> Too easy to go down to excessive armor ignoring damage which includes things like assassin's bonus damage, necros, mesmers & what have you.
4 -> Doesnt match the damage output of things like Sabway/Discordway as physically spearing everything takes longer than say...YMLAD + AP + FH! spam every few seconds.
I realise its a different style of gameplay, but fwiw, its weak & lacking in a lot of ways. If you disagree, I would love to see how it is good. I HAVE used it extensively, and although it works well enough in NM, it is weak in HM on anything other than a paragon primary (and ofc, I dont use paragons...dont like 'em personally).
Paul Dawg
I've never thought Racway was anywhere near as good as any of the triple-nec combinations. There are some concepts in it that I like, and I occasionally use the command para (with some important variations I've made) and the D/N in specific situations, but the team as a threesome just doesn't cut it. I don't think the motivation para is particularly useful in HM, for that matter, either.
AtomicMew
Sure it's sturdier than triple necro ,but it's much, much slower. The very fact that there is no MM in racway should make this point painfully obvious.
FoxBat
Racway was MADE for imbagons, I don't see why you even consider evaluating it without that. He said up front the reason he doesn't bring prot or minions is he has SY to handle the job.
faraaz
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Smiteway, Discordway, Sabway...all are meant to be used with ANY primary profession character, one of the reasons why they are so popular. By saying that Racway must ONLY be evaluated when used by a primary Imbagon, you are going to sound incredibly naive. If that is the case, you must then accept that it is a niche, subpar build which is inferior to the more universally applicable team builds.
upier
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Originally Posted by traversc
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I tried replacing the D/N with a fiend MM N/Rt with Splinter Weapon, FF, in Archipelagos HM, and that worked quite well, even with just 1 hex removal.
My 2 Paragon heroes have DA, Cruel Spear, Strength of Honor, Gfte, Fall Back, Anthem of Weariness and Envy, etc. Henchmen taken were Sister Tai, Zho, Kai Ying, and Argo.
The Ebon ward increases the damage of the fiends as well as the paragons. Gfte and Fall Back synergizes with the minions also. Minions provides meat shield, and increased damage.
I am still tweaking it, but the MM goes something like this:
[build prof=N/Rt death=12 sou=8 res=2 cha=10][Aura of the Lich][Animate Bone Fiend][Putrid Bile][Death Nova][Splinter Weapon][Animate Shambling Horror][Foul Feast][Flesh of My Flesh][/build]
Since all my characters are ranged attackers, if I pull carefully, my melee minions will go forward, and soak up attacks, while I stay behind with the fiends and the rest of the party with ebon ward of honor. The bolded parts made no sense.
As you said - the only reason why minions would be a nice addition is to potentially soak up the hexes. You don't need them for anything else.
And if they don't soak up the hexes - you have a wasted slot. I'd rather just take sufficient hex removal instead.
The best parts of the MM bar you posted in terms of a heavy physical team are Splinter and FF. Everything else is pretty much just included in paragons having 100 AL.
My 2 Paragon heroes have DA, Cruel Spear, Strength of Honor, Gfte, Fall Back, Anthem of Weariness and Envy, etc. Henchmen taken were Sister Tai, Zho, Kai Ying, and Argo.
The Ebon ward increases the damage of the fiends as well as the paragons. Gfte and Fall Back synergizes with the minions also. Minions provides meat shield, and increased damage.
I am still tweaking it, but the MM goes something like this:
[build prof=N/Rt death=12 sou=8 res=2 cha=10][Aura of the Lich][Animate Bone Fiend][Putrid Bile][Death Nova][Splinter Weapon][Animate Shambling Horror][Foul Feast][Flesh of My Flesh][/build]
Since all my characters are ranged attackers, if I pull carefully, my melee minions will go forward, and soak up attacks, while I stay behind with the fiends and the rest of the party with ebon ward of honor. The bolded parts made no sense.
As you said - the only reason why minions would be a nice addition is to potentially soak up the hexes. You don't need them for anything else.
And if they don't soak up the hexes - you have a wasted slot. I'd rather just take sufficient hex removal instead.
The best parts of the MM bar you posted in terms of a heavy physical team are Splinter and FF. Everything else is pretty much just included in paragons having 100 AL.
upier
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Originally Posted by Daesu
The problem with 100 AL is that it doesn't stop all forms of damage. People in this game, just overrated SY to be equivalent to "god" mode invincibility. That is just naive.
SY alone can never be a complete replacement for all the benefits provided by minions.
Also, keep in mind that the first teams you run into when running minions - you fight them as a team of 7. The MM does nothing. Which means, unless the first teams are super dooper easy, you should be able to do other things without a MM also.
If the MM is really that vital, the first battles before you get your minions up and running, should be insanely hard.
They are not.
And at the same time - the battles AFTER you get your wall up and running aren't that insanely easier to justify potentially running around with just 7 party members.
Minions are completely over-rated for a physical team.
The meat shield that they provide isn't needed and the best thing they do is potentially serve as a magnet for hexes and conditions. And like I said - I'd rather have something that is more reliable for this.
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Originally Posted by Daesu
As for the SoH, I used to bring melee henchies for SoH but forgot to take it out when I switched. I dont like the melee AI.
Ahh, ok!
chris1234565
thanks guy i think after what people have said im gonna use my own veriant of discord as not many ppl think this Racway is any good
AtomicMew
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Originally Posted by upier
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Yes I did.
Also, keep in mind that the first teams you run into when running minions - you fight them as a team of 7. The MM does nothing. Which means, unless the first teams are super dooper easy, you should be able to do other things without a MM also. If the MM is really that vital, the first battles before you get your minions up and running, should be insanely hard. They are not. And at the same time - the battles AFTER you get your wall up and running aren't that insanely easier to justify potentially running around with just 7 party members. Completely missing the point. And I mean utterly, and completely. 1) First of all, MMs can do all sorts of things besides MM. Prot spirit, aegis, remove hexes, remove conditions. 2) By your same logic, ALL necros are bad because tthey are worse off until the first kill and soul reaping kicks in. 3) The first battle is NEVER the hardest. 4) Lastly, the thing you really need to understand, or else there is no hope for you, MMs are primarily meant to speed things up NOT make a sturdier build! The battles after you get your minions up may not necessarily be "easier" but they are faster, because you get hella less hexes/conditions/damage and your team as a whole can spend more time blowing everything up. Sure you can make a sturdier build, add in another healer instead, pull carefully and never ever risk dying at all. Me, I'd rather just smash through everything. Maybe I'll die a bit more often than you. That's acceptable. In short, I agree with Daesu. Gigashadow
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Originally Posted by traversc
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4) Lastly, the thing you really need to understand, or else there is no hope for you, MMs are primarily meant to speed things up NOT make a sturdier build! The battles after you get your minions up may not necessarily be "easier" but they are faster, because you get hella less hexes/conditions/damage and your team as a whole can spend more time blowing everything up.\ This is pretty much the crux of the matter. Devoting 2 skill slots (animate bone fiend + death nova) and 12+2 (or even 10+2) in Death to minions, seems a reasonable overall tradeoff for me in terms of making the run faster, while not really bogging myself down too much if I don't have any minions up for a particular fight (and I don't have Dwayna's Kiss either because I really don't want to crutch on the whole MM/DK synergy THAT much). This is certainly way more true for vanquishing than HM dungeon crawling, as vanquishing is so much easier. I'm open to suggestions, though. My main reason for trying to come up with something better than minions is that the MM spends most of his time casting Death Nova, and I'm looking to find something else that will help the team kill about as fast. I haven't found it yet though. I don't, however, think that minions auto-attack for 40 dps on hard mode targets. Level 18 fiends and bone horrors hit for an average of around 27 on level 20 normal mode targets. They also attack random targets, and barbs is by no means guaranteed to be on those. In fact, I was a little surprised when I found out when my curse necro, who has barbs as his most spammable skill, didn't have it up on as many targets as I thought it would be. This reminded me a little bit of the situation with Weaken Armor when he used to have it, which he also didn't spread around as much as I was hoping. AtomicMew
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Originally Posted by Gigashadow
I don't, however, think that minions auto-attack for 40 dps on hard mode targets. Level 18 fiends and bone horrors hit for an average of around 27 on level 20 normal mode targets. They also attack random targets, and barbs is by no means guaranteed to be on those. In fact, I was a little surprised when I found out when my curse necro, who has barbs as his most spammable skill, didn't have it up on as many targets as I thought it would be. This reminded me a little bit of the situation with Weaken Armor when he used to have it, which he also didn't spread around as much as I was hoping.
Personally, I use a combination of fiends, minions and the one that makes stuff bleed spread over 2 MMs. Fiends DO attack the same target. Minions are irrelevant, mostly and are just there to blow up and block.
40 DPS is a very, very, very conservative number. With 8 minions up, that's each of them doing 5 DPS. Fiends do ~13 DPS against lvl 20 targets. I cba to figure out how that translates exactly to HM, but I'm pretty sure 5 DPS is pretty damn reasonable. Axel Zinfandel
You don't use minions for damage, you use them to soak up damage.
Unless your bombing said minions. If you're doing anything else with them, you're doing it wrong Carinae
@SY not protting all damage: The entire party becomes essentially immune to Elemental and Physical damage.
Originally Posted by traversc
NOT TOO SHABBY FOR ONE SKILL SLOT! Pretty good bar compression there, even if you count Dark Fury or more than one copy of SY, the effect is incredible and I challenge you to get more bang for your skill-slot-buck. Will you still want hex removal, condition removal, enchant removal and other utility skills? Yep. ...and now you have room to fit them all in. Your arguments have now been neutralized. @everyone: If you are running Orders, then you take henchmen that trigger Orders. Axe, Sword and/or Hammer hench Archer (NOT Aidan/Zho except in EotN) Paragon Prot/Healer Aidan, Zho and Dervish hench usually do NOT trigger Orders. If one of these isn't available, take the Earth hench. If more than one isn't available, do your best or get a friend. _______ Smiting Orders 13 Blood 11 SR 10 Smiting Order of Pain Dark Fury Empathic Removal Smite Hex Smite Condition Strip Enchantment/Convert Hexes Masochism Strength of Honor (disabled) There's your Orders with heavy hex removal, heavy condition removal and enchantment removal. Problems solved. Quote: A single physical will never outdamage a MM up and running.
Thank you for playing! That is so wrong it's beyond words. Onto the rest of your comments: A single Bone Fiend averages ~14.5 DPS versus 60AL by itself. So, a MM with 10 Fiends averages ~145 DPS.....spread against ALL targets. Assuming a mob size of 6 that comes to ~24.1 DPS per enemy. That's pressure, not DPS. That could be more or less doubled with OoU and EBSoH, but hero MM's can't run either of those. Heroes also don't aim for a 10 Fiend army, so the numbers will only go down. I've run as a human MM (10 Fiend OoU+EBSoH) in a VQ of Morostav with 4 Discord heroes, myself, a human Paragon and a human AP/MoP, and I felt like I was significantly outdamaging all four Discord heroes combined, at least on the minions side of the equasion. When I (tried) running minions on Racthoh's field trips, I couldn't really keep up, let alone make a significant contribution. The battles were over that fast. By the time I got the minions engaged, everything was within milliseconds of death. Except for Urgoz runs, but that's an MMs playground. I also grant that there were usually several humans in the party. If minions are speeding up your killing, then you aren't killing as quickly as you could be. I realize that people are limited by the primary professions they are locked into, and Discord offers fair speed with a high chance of success, especially for caster classes. But outdamage, let alone outrun, a physical team? No way. Not even close. Daesu
The biggest problem I have with SY is that it is so overrated. People call it "god-mode" but if you look at it closely is it really "god-mode"? "God-mode" to me implies invincibility but try taking SY without any healing in most hex heavy areas and tell me if it you still feel it is "god-mode". Because of this "god-mode" mentality many of the SY based builds just do not have enough red barring to be effective in most HM areas when encountering hexes and armor ignoring damages. There is a BIG difference between calling it a good skill versus claiming that having said skill implies "god-mode". SY can also be stopped through many hexes. There is an over-reliance in SY.
Second, I usually dislike dual Orders on a single character because that implies 34%hp sacrifice every 5s or so. Unless you have special provisions for that character, that character would be a "magnet" for spikes because of his low hp. Pvx racway certainly has the physical damage but it is abit of a paper cannon. The conditions in the area have to be right for it to shine. If you are in a hex heavy area, or an area with lots of armor ignoring damage, multiple aegis, etc. then it tends to fail more often than sabway. You have no PS, or Aegis. You also have no minions to mitigate damage, you dont even have AoE damage and you also dont have any enchant removal. It lacks universality, which is a factor to be considered for rating pvx builds, and like most builds there, the ratings are terribly skewed. When considering damage number, you should also take the form of damage into account. Does the damage ignore armor? Does it require line of sight? Does it interrupt or cause knockdown? How fast do the skills recharge? Is the damage affected by blocking? When I play a MM, I dont just rely on my minions for damage, I make sure that I am dishing out damage on my own at the same time as my minions are. I would be throwing out MoP and attacking the target with my spear, so just counting my minions DPS would be way off. Racthoh
The biggest issue you'll discover by using the build without a Paragon as the player is the lack of "There's Nothing To Fear!". The additional healing and damage reduction of that one skill becomes obvious when just using "Save Yourselves!" to mitigate. Another problem is the role your character plays. Are you melee, ranged, or healer? Part of the issue with the AI (last time I played anyhow) was their obsession with staying in 'formation', most evident when I used the same builds on my warrior. As I was constantly on the move, especially in hard mode where kiting becomes an issue, the heroes and henchmen would follow behind rarely making any sort of action. You're basically forced to plant a flag before every encounter to ensure this doesn't happen. Not to mention using a melee weapon makes you more susceptible to physical shutdown; swapping to a Wand as a melee physical to avoid things like Blind to maintain "Save Yourselves!" isn't a bad idea.
Originally Posted by faraaz
Playing a healing role with the AI suffers similar issues. You need to call targets to have focused fire and if you need to kite they'll usually come with you. This is also the reason why melee heroes/henchmen are so undesirable because of their ineptitude to stay on target. If however you play a ranged character a lot of the AI issues go away. I always found the easiest way to make hero builds was to make them as simple as possible so the AI couldn't screw up. Necromancer heroes eventually became one of my least favorite to use for Hard Mode because of the fragility of Soul Reaping; unless it was being abused you could wind up in a lot of trouble. However the build was indeed designed with the Paragon running a specific build in mind. My warrior ran different heroes, my monk ran different heroes. Had I ever found three builds that meshed well with those professions in mind they too would probably fall into the niche. I would argue while there are builds that work well for all 10 there has to be options that appeal better to each of them, something that capitalizes on their individual strengths. Quote: |
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Quote: Originally Posted by Daesu 1) No enchant removal which can be a pain when fighting targets with strong protection spells. Need to adjust the build in some areas. Spear Swipe, Stunning Strike, change targets. There is no reason you can't unload on one target to draw out those enchantments and then switch onto the caster of those enchantments.
Quote: Originally Posted by Daesu
2) Weak red barring combined with limited hex removal can make it weak against hexes and other armor ignoring attacks. Need to adjust the build in many areas.
The healing becomes an issue with the henchmen and their AI, not with the build; Cracked Armor's application with Aggressive Refrain became the most annoying thing in the world as a Paragon when playing Hard Mode. However the fact that it can survive despite henchmen throwing out Blessed Lights/Dismiss Condition/Draw Conditions/Mend Ailment on recharge is a testament to the defense the build showcases.
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That makes sense to me.
Originally Posted by Daesu
3) Only single target, non-armor ignoring physical attack and no AoE attacks.
Order of Pain and Ebon Battle Standard of Honor are a lot of armor ignoring damage. AoE is never necessary outside of The Deep and Urgoz. But again this goes back to the niche design of the build itself where the PvE skills and being a Paragon play a huge factor.
The biggest issue you'll discover by using the build without a Paragon as the player is the lack of "There's Nothing To Fear!". The additional healing and damage reduction of that one skill becomes obvious when just using "Save Yourselves!" to mitigate. Another problem is the role your character plays. Are you melee, ranged, or healer? Part of the issue with the AI (last time I played anyhow) was their obsession with staying in 'formation', most evident when I used the same builds on my warrior. ... I would argue while there are builds that work well for all 10 there has to be options that appeal better to each of them, something that capitalizes on their individual strengths.
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Yes I agree and that is also what I have been saying. I tend to feel the need to tweak it more often than using sabway or discordway and if I dont and just stick to the default version in pvx, then I can expect wipes in HM.
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I'm not quite sure I understand the argument here. There aren't going to be situations where the armor ignoring damage is going to overwhelm the heals, especially not when you consider how much damage is being reduced through "Save Yourselves!". Armor ignoring damage isn't going to be delivered with the frequency and size of regular damage, not to the point where red bar skills can't deal with it. The only way it wouldn't be able to handle it would be in AoE form, but were that the case Shield of Absorption, Protective Spirit, or Reversal of Damage (why is that listed exactly?) wouldn't be of much use either. Basically what I'm saying is you can easily red bar what wasn't mitigated through "Save Yourselves!".
This is also related to what I mentioned as having insufficient red barring in the build. Also take into account the huge amount of sac, about every 5s, from the dual Orders D/N that is burdening your heals. SY does nothing to help with that, so I would say in certain areas it is possible for the armor ignoring damage (including degen) to be delivered to the point where red bar skills in the build can't deal with it. Quote:
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