Does discordway needs an AP caller?

Improvavel

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Apr 2007

Apparently some player seems to believe that Discordway is only good when you run an AP caller build and that heroes wont use discord properly without it.

That is incorrect.

Heroes will attack any target you call, regardless of you casting hexes and conditions there or not.

Discord heroes are one of the most powerful heroes setup for 1 man and a trio of those necros are still a great addition to a 2 players team.

Of course you can't use the PvX wiki build though.

You will have to build a trio of necros that will cast hexes/conditions, provide protection and healing and a minion wall.

The key is to have hexes and conditions that are useful and affect more than one target.

Lets look at some builds.

MM discord:

[Discord][Animate Bone Minions][Death Nova][Aegis][Protective Spirit][Signet of Lost Souls][Optional][Optional]

Discord Restoration:

[Discord][Mend Body and Soul][Spirit Light][Protective was Kaolai][Life][Signet of Lost Souls][Optional][Optional]

Discord Curses:
[Discord][Enfeebling Blood][Barbs] ( [Shadow of Fear] or [Reckless Haste] ) [Signet of Lost Souls][Optional][Optional][Optional]

These are the bare bones of a trio of necros that require no input by a human player. As you can see you still have 7 slots to mess about.

[Foul Feast] is quite a powerful skill and very useful to remove blindness from you if you are a physical attacker.

[Weapon of warding] and [Shield of Absorption] are very strong protection skills.

[Putrid bile] can easily be sloted for more hexes and some AoE.

[Rip enchantment] can be used to remove annoying enchantments and create some bleeding.

[Weaken armor] and [Withering Aura] are options to create more conditions.

[Mark of Pain] is still a decent hex to cause extra mayhem.

[Convert Hexes] and [Remove Hex] are useful to remove anti-physical hexes.

Even more interesting is that you can drop for example the healer necro/rit and replace it with some channeling SoS rit or some RoJ/Strength of Honor smiter or replace the MM for something else in areas with low minions.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Some player will say "but then your discord heroes wont spam discord, so what is the point?".

That is obvious a fallacy for a few reasons.

First, Discord isn't about spamming - It is about spiking. Spamming discord on recharge will do less than 50 damage per second. Decent for a hero, but even other heroes like Paragons can match that on sturdier armor.

Second if the heroes only spammed discord and the build went with AP caller casting is stuff and discord discording away the enemy in a "BAM BAM BAM" style of play, the other skills in discord bars would be useless.

Discordway can spike an enemy every few seconds, it is true, but they wont be able to kill an entire mob in HM (for the nitpickers in these forums, there might be a mob or another around GW that will die that way) before dying without using the other skills.

So Discordway is about casting discord in the intervals of casting the skills required to survive.

Then,while the AP caller isn't very suited for most (if not all) of the physical professions, that doesn't mean the necro trio using discord isn't still one of the best all round 3 heroes setup.

Very important is the fact physical professions can deal tremendous amount of damage, outpacing the damage of the AP caller.

Sabway way of killing, SS and Splinters have their problems. Discord is faster all round.

Racway while good is prone to the physical counters. In some areas can replace discordway with no loss but in others the variety offered by the physical component of the player and the spell component of the discord is far superior.


The main points are: once the hexes/conditions/enchantments are set discord works the same and the physical damage provided by the player will be the same or greater than the AP caller. Any hexes/conditions you cast are a bonus. The fact some, if not all, of the physical characters can run SY! is a boon not to be sneezed at.

In conclusion, discordway can be used with no loss by a physical character. You can use the above builds, with minor area related alterations (or even change the MM or the Restoration necro for some other char - use ur best judgment to which one is the least useful), to do the missions in HM and do your vanquishers, fast and easily (it helps if you know what a physical character, especially a melee one, are supposed to do and how to play it).

Unreal Havoc

Guest

Join Date: Dec 2007

I'll solve your query really easily, especially so because you can run 8 men in a party (or women if you want to be an ass about it).

Have an Assassin run AP caller with Discordway fully focused on spike (it works best with Assassin sheerly because of the utility of having an open secondary proffession) and have a Dragon Slash SY Warrior team up with him and run Sabway fully focused on physical support. You then get the very best of both worlds.

Watch stuff explode.

It doesn't matter how much you whine about it, we all have our preferences. Some of us like to use a physical setup, some of us don't. There is no best, each setup has its strengths and weaknesses, while most setups will nearly always need some form of tweaking to suit the area ahead of you.

Saying that you MUST run builds like Discordway and Sabway in a specific way is to deny the very thing that makes them so good in the first place, their versatility. The key to success with both builds is setting them up to what suits you, by focusing them on both your strengths and your weaknesses.

For the record I've ran Discordway with both an AP caller (Assassin) and a physical (Paragon) in HM areas such as FoW etc, and have always prefered the AP caller as it gives a much cleaner and quicker spike with KD lock while leaving four slots and attributes for utility such as extra heals, more damage spells, etc (whatever you feel you need for the area your fighting in), or even leaving you plenty of room to bring a weapon with supporting attributes and skills to boot if things should go to shit.

Also you don't need to run a shit load of healing on Discordway bars while packing utility on my Curses Necromancer. It's all about finding the right balance. A good offence in most cases is a good defence.

The debate is pointless because you're not going to change what people find good for themselves and reccomend to others because it works so well for them.

majikmajikmajik

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Aug 2007

SATown~Tx

Guild Hopper!

R/

All Discord NEEDS is a condition and a Hex, to think it needs AP caller is a joke. AP just exploits the fast killing power of discord team while being able to spam powerful PVE skills with ease.

Super Igor

Banned

Join Date: Mar 2008

why should you kno? Oo

A/W

Your Discord setup will work as long as there is a hex and condition somwhere in the setup, eventually heroes will put a hex and a condi on the target and spam away.

However, if you want you Discordway to operate efficiently I suggest you look into the AP caller. It's the fastest way to apply all of the Discord requrement and assist the spike powerfully with 4 second kd-lock, good spike, unblockability, snare.
You also free up slots on your Discord heroes to fill in with utility and are left with 4 free slots yourself.
Because the primer gets applied in less than a second and your discord heroes dont have to waste time on applying the primer themselves they can spike with discord right away.
You can ofcourse prime using other skills like AS + Wounding Strike for example, but that can be countered easily, doesnt have as much power and utility and is generally slower making it less efficient.

Thats why I say you should run Discord with AP caller. I know it will work with another caller and even without but everything works in pve so you must look for efficiency, AP caller + Discord is most efficient.

SmokingHotImolation

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Mar 2008

Odense, Denmark

E/

do we really need a thread to tell us that discord works without the AP caller as long as you have another source of hexes/conditions? seems pretty obvious to me.

Super Igor

Banned

Join Date: Mar 2008

why should you kno? Oo

A/W

Quote:
Originally Posted by SmokingHotImolation View Post
do we really need a thread to tell us that discord works without the AP caller as long as you have another source of hexes/conditions? seems pretty obvious to me. No, we dont and I believe that everybody knows that everything works in PvE.

Icy The Mage

Icy The Mage

Forge Runner

Join Date: Apr 2008

Canada

E/

Personally, I like having Cripple + KD/interrupt + Cracked Armor + 260 Damage + 20% healing reduction all in less than 2 seconds. Especially since you can bring 5 skill slots for random utility, including things like pain inverter that will kill something on it's own fairly often, ebon assassin which will assist in knock-locking, interrupts / energy management / conditions. I honestly don't see why you would run a physical damage dealer over an AP caller.

Of course, if you're in a 6+ person area, you can take both, which is even better :P


tl;dr - You can run without an AP caller, I don't see why you would though.

AtomicMew

AtomicMew

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Apr 2005

N/A

Im just going to quote myself since your question was already answered a billion times. If you want to TLDR it: AP caller is FASTER. NO you don't NEED an AP caller. If you don't play an AP caller, there's better builds out there for you than discord.

"MS/DB of course, does work. You might even be able to a few areas that discordway would have trouble with because MS/DB allows you to do more sustained damage. MS/DB sin with discordway does work, but don't be fooled into thinking it's faster than an AP caller. The very fact that MS/DB is melee, and the fact that it takes ~1-2 seconds to even get into melee range, means it is slower.

There is no comparison. An AP caller can do ~250 damage in 1.5 seconds with norn shouts. EVAS does ~200 damage costing you 1.75 seconds and knocklocks.

On the other hand, assuming completely ideal conditions (i.e., everything shadow steps to you in melee range), MS/DB takes 1.75 seconds to do ~100 damage (asura scan + first hit)... and doesn't even prime for discord (condition req). "

Improvavel

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Apr 2007

Quote:
Originally Posted by traversc
View Post

On the other hand, assuming completely ideal conditions (i.e., everything shadow steps to you in melee range), MS/DB takes 1.75 seconds to do ~100 damage (asura scan + first hit)... and doesn't even prime for discord (condition req). " This bit is where everyone seems a bit lost.

If you have a heroes with hexes and conditions only, what will he cast when you engage battle?

Lemme think, hexes and conditions!

So why the hell does the assassin/warrior/paragon/ranger/dervish needs to cast hexes and condition (it can bring it anyway, and will bring at least some conditions like deep wound)?


Now lets look at the AP caller. What does he need to do?

Cast his primers then AP in time (or just cast AP if no hex removal). So he has 4 slots for utility. But if he is using utility, is that utility creating the requirements for discord?

What does a warrior/assassin/derv/etc, do meanwhile? Damage. Damage all the time. And knocks. And shout SY!

I'm sorry to disappoint you, but SY! is much more useful than PI.

And physical heroes have access to knocks too.

Ideal conditions my ass - as soon as the first mob goes down with the AP caller the discord heroes will be doing other things and the AP caller too it seems, since he has so much use to give his 4 marvelous utility skills slots.

I bet a warrior or an assassin caller will be casting loads of utility!

I didn't start this thread with the objective of bashing Primary Caster AP callers. YMLaD, FH and EVAS are great skills, better than many skills casters have access to.

I started this thread because to the question of "what heroes should I use with my "physical" character?" the answer seems to always be "Either run Sabs or play as an AP caller".

Which is false. You can run discordway with a physical character and no AP caller. Its faster than sabs and it is, at least, as fast as the AP caller discordway version.


And if the AP callers are such powerhouses to which a physical can't compare, why don't we see human teams with 4 or 5 of them as the main damage dealers? After all they deal so much damage, knock so much and have so much utility space!

Why is the prefered build to the gimmicks SF based team builds, which don't have competition in terms of speed, physicalway builds?


In conclusion:

For those that want to play their warriors, assassins, dervishes, paras and rangers as warriors, assassins, dervishes, paras and rangers, you can do so and use a modified version of discordway, and it will be as efficient if not more as the one with AP callers.

And for those that have problems with aurora glades HM, you can solo it with the above builds + a healing hench and some other hench. You just need to have a pair of running skills and keep capping the middle and the left shrine, while having your heroes flagged near the mid shrine (hint: you can control the flux of enemies going to your heroes by capping or not the left shrine).

And I wont even go on 2 player + 6 heroes teams.

For some reason, some persons seem to think I'm flaming discord. I'm not. I'm saying it is the most effective player+ 3 heroes build. Just don't use AP caller on your physical, first because its boring to do so on a physical character and second, physical characters aren't as good casters as casters.

AtomicMew

AtomicMew

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Apr 2005

N/A

Quote:
This bit is where everyone seems a bit lost.

If you have a heroes with hexes and conditions only, what will he cast when you engage battle?

Lemme think, hexes and conditions!
No, you are the one who is lost, sir. Let's do a little thought experiment. Suppose you had a discorder with discord + a bunch of damage/buff hexes/conditions. What is the purpose of the hexes and conditions? To do damage. What is the purpose of discord? To do damage. You have just wasted 7 slots on your hero's bar being redundant.
Quote:
So why the hell does the assassin/warrior/paragon/ranger/dervish needs to cast hexes and condition Now lets look at the AP caller. What does he need to do?

Cast his primers then AP in time (or just cast AP if no hex removal). So he has 4 slots for utility. But if he is using utility, is that utility creating the requirements for discord?

What does a warrior/assassin/derv/etc, do meanwhile? Damage. Damage all the time. And knocks. And shout SY!

I'm sorry to disappoint you, but SY! is much more useful than PI.
So what you are effectively saying is, an AP caller can do more DPS with just 4 slots than a physical. I fail to see how that is an argument against an AP caller.

Quote: Ideal conditions my ass - as soon as the first mob goes down with the AP caller the discord heroes will be doing other things and the AP caller too it seems, since he has soo much use his utility skills. I'm sorry, can you fix your grammar please? What do you mean "he has soo much use his utility?" I honestly don't understand what that means.

Quote: I started this thread because to the question of "what heroes should I use with my "physical" character?" the answer seems to always be "Either run Sabs or play as an AP caller".

Which is false. You can run discordway with a physical character and no AP caller. Its faster than sabs and it is, at least, as fast as the AP caller discordway version. No it is faster. The very fact that MS/DB is melee, and the fact that it takes ~1-2 seconds to even get into melee range, means it is slower.

There is no comparison. An AP caller can do ~250 damage in 1.5 seconds with norn shouts. EVAS does ~200 damage costing you 1.75 seconds and knocklocks.

On the other hand, assuming completely ideal conditions (i.e., everything shadow steps to you in melee range), MS/DB takes 1.75 seconds to do ~100 damage (asura scan + first hit)... and doesn't even prime for discord (condition req).

Quote:
And if the AP callers are such powerhouses to which a physical can't compare, why don't we see human teams with 4 or 5 of them as the main damage dealers? After all they deal so much damage, knock so much and have so much utility space! Because it's CBA too much trouble, difficult to coordinate, and if AP gets removed (lol) it's goodbye WIPE.

Quote:
Why is the prefered build to the gimmicks SF based team builds, which don't have competition in terms of speed, physicalway builds? Because SF + massive AoE spike = no threat... duh....

Finally,

If you don't want to run AP, then there are better hero options; if not sab, then something else. That much should be clear, which makes your entire argument for "discord + melee" moot.


PS:

Quote:
For some reason, some persons seem to think I'm flaming discord. I'm not. I'm saying it is the most effective player+ 3 heroes build. Just don't use AP caller on your physical, first because its boring to do so on a physical character and second, physical characters aren't as good casters as casters. And you think I'm not not flaming discord. I'm saying discordway isn't end-all-be-all. There are outright better options if you want to play melee.

FoxBat

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Apr 2006

Amazon Basin [AB]

Mo/Me

Heroes generally focus fire on your target, and discord is the fastest way to take out single foes. Humans can do better by spreading their damage out when appropriate, whether via AoE tank-spank gimmicks or some physicals buffed to high heaven converging on different targets.

Improvavel

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Apr 2007

Quote:
Originally Posted by traversc View Post
No, you are the one who is lost, sir. Let's do a little thought experiment. Suppose you had a discorder with discord + a bunch of damage/buff hexes/conditions. What is the purpose of the hexes and conditions? To do damage. What is the purpose of discord? To do damage. You have just wasted 7 slots on your hero's bar being redundant.
Because that curses can't carry MoP and Barbs to increase damage or use enfeebling blood/reckless haste to mitigate damage. All wasted slots! And it can't bring a rez, foul feast, hex removal, etc.

Quote:
So what you are effectively saying is, an AP caller can do more DPS with just 4 slots than a physical. I fail to see how that is an argument against an AP caller.
The question is, what will you do with the other slots. And more important to the debate in question, is with what energy a physical profession will be casting AP+YMLaD+EVAS+FH and the other 4 skills in his bar?


Quote:
I'm sorry, can you fix your grammar please? What do you mean "he has soo much use his utility?" I honestly don't understand what that means.
It has been fixed before you posted. Later hours and non native language + blurry eyes cause stuff like this. The fixed version means: what damn utility will a physical profession bring that it can actually cast with the leftover energy?


Quote:
No it is faster. The very fact that MS/DB is melee, and the fact that it takes ~1-2 seconds to even get into melee range, means it is slower. On the other hand when the battle is over the MS/DB assassin is ~1-2 secs ahead of the party so in the next battle it will be ~1-2 secs faster.

Quote: There is no comparison. An AP caller can do ~250 damage in 1.5 seconds with norn shouts. EVAS does ~200 damage costing you 1.75 seconds and knocklocks. While a moebius sin might not deal ~250 damage in 1.5 second, he can deal a nice bunch this second + a nice bunch the next second+ a nice bunch the second after. Will an ASSASSIN AP caller be able to have the energy to execute its combo every 1.5 seconds?

Quote:
On the other hand, assuming completely ideal conditions (i.e., everything shadow steps to you in melee range), MS/DB takes 1.75 seconds to do ~100 damage (asura scan + first hit)... and doesn't even prime for discord (condition req). You are forgetting that when the battle ends the assassin MS/DB is ahead. Even if it stops to catch the stuff, so will the AP assassin to move to pick up, stop to pick up and then only move on.

I can't remember the last time I used a shadow step in PvE with the purpose to jump into a mob....

And while Black Mantis Thrust might not be useful in every area, that kind of assassin will by itself do the 100 damage and prime for discord. Not that he has too. Hexes/conditions will soon follow from the curses necro.

Then, if needs must, you have Withering aura.

See, after all the moebius dude doesn't even need a curser necro.




Quote:
Finally,

If you don't want to run AP, then there are better hero options; if not sab, then something else. That much should be clear, which makes your entire argument for "discord + melee" moot. Clearly you lack some experience with playing h/h with physical professions.


Quote:
Originally Posted by FoxBat View Post
Heroes generally focus fire on your target, and discord is the fastest way to take out single foes. Humans can do better by spreading their damage out when appropriate, whether via AoE tank-spank gimmicks or some physicals buffed to high heaven converging on different targets. This is very true.

But that focus on your target mean a curse hexer, if needs to, will be quite adept at fulfilling the discord requirements.

Unreal Havoc

Guest

Join Date: Dec 2007

The advantages of using an AP caller are (based on using an Assassin):

#Supplies hex and condition for spike within one second while KD'ing a target.
#Supplies snare & knock lock from doing so when chained with EVAS, target cannot attack while spike is being pulled off when he is on the floor.
#Unblockable Ebon Assassin (Iron Palm, Fox Fangs, Nine Tail Strike) chain, stances and blocking enchants are useless against the spike. It's possible to get a couple of these running at once with high enough ranks.
#Throws on Cracked Armour and Deep Wound to finsh off the target.
#This is all done at range meaning it is pulled off faster than melee can pull it off. Targets can be dropped quite literally in seconds.
#Shouts are uninterruptable and work even if you are KD.
#AP Callers damage is armour ignoring, including the attack skills from the EVAS.
#Spike is completely recharged along with any other long recharging skills you may have.
#Skill compression, it takes just 4 skills to initiate all of the above, leaving an open secondary proffession for an Assassin and four open skill slots to use whatever you want. You can throw on extra hexes, extra damage, extra heals, extra protection from numerous proffessions.
#Assassins have extra runes for Deadly Arts to bump it higher meaning longer duration of AP and more energy gain.
#Assassins hae 4 energy regeneration compared to other physical classes.
#Running a caller means more utility for your heroes for healing, enchantment removal, or maybe something more specific to the area you are in, etc.

I don't really see anything bad about that if you know how to use it properly. I don't see how a physical can really compare. You can argue that a standard melee physical can do more damage over time, but truth be told if you need that extra time to kill something you're doing something very wrong.

As for all this speed drama, it makes little difference as in both cases you still should be waiting for the rest of your party before engaging. Meaning the AP caller is actually faster.

Lastly if you really want to pack Mark of Pain or Barbs feel free to, like I've said before the beauty of Discordway is its versatility. I'm sure the EVAS will love it if stuff lives long enough for your Necros to actually use it.

AtomicMew

AtomicMew

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Apr 2005

N/A

Quote:
Will an ASSASSIN AP caller be able to have the energy to execute its combo every 1.5 seconds?
YES!...

A sin has 4 pips e-regen just like a caster. A sin has a higher level Promise which gives back more energy than casters. Furthermore, almost EVERY secondary option has strong e-management options.

A sin is arguably BETTER at AP calling than other casters (besides of course the necromancer.)

Quote: Doesn't have to be, can be any profession so N/A is fine too.

Quote:
You are forgetting that when the battle ends the assassin MS/DB is ahead. Even if it stops to catch the stuff, so will the AP assassin to move to pick up, stop to pick up and then only move on. ...

I'm going to give you one free take-back for the above statement. Go ahead and use it, please. For my sanity.

Marverick

Marverick

Forge Runner

Join Date: Aug 2006

R/

Barbs is bad, way too long a cast time unless you disable and manually control it for bosses and stuff.

Also physicals can fulfill DIscord requirements... take Asuran Scan (which also increases your own energy) and have a necro hero put Withering Aura on you.

_Nihilist_

_Nihilist_

Will Bull's Strike for $!

Join Date: Apr 2006

Isle of the Dead

Edification (the Asuran-area effect if you have the Asuran Title active) increases energy.

Asuran Scan is a hex that increases the damage the caster deals against the hexed foe.

Other than that, yes, even Physicals can fulfill the requirements to meet the conditions for Discord to be usable, but better than an AP Caller? Not as efficiently. See Unreal Havoc's extensive list, it's quite solid.

I say "Not as efficiently." because AScan takes up one of your PvE skillslots, which on an AP Caller afford KD/Cripple/Damage (YMLaD!), KD/Damage (EVAS), and Cracked Armor/DW/Damage (Finish Him!). Lose some of that, and you lose some of the speed and strength that Discordway does have.

I said Discordway has speed and strength... I'm gonna go wash my mouth out with soap, now...

Quote:
As a disclaimer, I personally think Discordway isn't the best teambuild to run, but if there's going to be a comparison on which is better for Discordway, the facts are the facts, and the MathCraft and practice seems to show that ranged AP Caller has better overall performance than a Physical running AScan + Conditioning. The Physical that is going to have the most hindrance running an AP Caller build is the Warrior (2 regen - ouch), a Sin should have no problems (imba 4 regen on a Physical what what what?! <- just my POV, to be sure, lol) running a Caller build. Just my opinion, don't get your panties in a twist, folks.

Trader of Secrets

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Jun 2006

They do use discord properly w/o AP caller. The AP caller only as fast application for the discord conditions making it more effect that just relying on the heroes/hench/minions to apply the discord conditions. It is helpful though to run a build that can help apply the discord conditions in some way. In a heavy hex-removal area, my war runs a dslash build, with severy artery and asuran scan that helps to apply the conditions.

upier

upier

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Mar 2006

Done.

[JUNK]

Hopefully all the people that are arguing for the insane speed of Disco kills are all microing Disco, right?
You do know that without doing that a lot of the things said here are just a nice theory?
2. The problem with marrying Discordway with one set of heroes and Sabway with another is that you'll have two full-time MM's, making yourself extremely corpse-dependent, and that won't be so efficient in all zones. If I were putting together a second set of heroes for a Discordway team (aside from another Discord set), I'd want a primary monk to take a stronger version of dwayna's sorrow, and probably also a Rt spirit spammer in there somewhere too, and then probably a para with skills like blazing finale and purifying finale if your second human is a warrior yelling SY. In other words, I'd completely scrap Sabway. Drop minions on Discord, or better give Shambling Horrors to a pair of Discord heroes so they act like backup MM's.

Improvavel

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Apr 2007

And AP+FH+YMLaD+EVAS is 35 energy and even a 16 rank AP will return 21 energy. i really doubt you can spam the combo every 2 secs. Lets avoid talking about the supposed support skills an AP caller should be spamming too.

And this is for an Assassin - and the assassin can slot nice mesmer signets to get the rest of the energy. What about a warrior or a ranger?

I guess if you are stuck with "AP is needed", which I demonstrated that it isn't since there are other options, its no surprise you say that pvx discordway won't work on physicals like the warrior.

There is no point to run sabway when if you change the elites of sabs to discord and modify attribute spread, discord is faster.

The fastest discord with 3 heroes is N/A. The curious thing is that he only needs 2 discord heroes and slots in those useless curses too. And he still is the fastest. I generally use a Para or a Ranger on the last slot in that case.

Super Igor

Banned

Join Date: Mar 2008

why should you kno? Oo

A/W

Quote:
Originally Posted by Improvavel View Post
And AP+FH+YMLaD+EVAS is 35 energy and even a 16 rank AP will return 21 energy. i really doubt you can spam the combo every 2 secs. Lets avoid talking about the supposed support skills an AP caller should be spamming too.

And this is for an Assassin - and the assassin can slot nice mesmer signets to get the rest of the energy. What about a warrior or a ranger?

I guess if you are stuck with "AP is needed", which I demonstrated that it isn't since there are other options, its no surprise you say that pvx discordway won't work on physicals like the warrior.

There is no point to run sabway when if you change the elites of sabs to discord and modify attribute spread, discord is faster.

The fastest discord with 3 heroes is N/A. The curious thing is that he only needs 2 discord heroes and slots in those useless curses too. And he still is the fastest. I generally use a Para or a Ranger on the last slot in that case.

I will have ebergy problems after 3 full casts of the chain, but then the mob is dead.

Also, wtf mesmer signets, GoLE is the way to go and Ele secondary will give you nice blocks and buckup hexes/condis, even para secondary is better.
Like I said, you dont know how to play Discord.

Your Sabway with Discord idea is trash, its not faster, because it does neither job well.
Just run a proper Sab if you dont want to run proper Discord.

AP caller is by far superior to other callers. More burst damage, loads of utility, kd ect.

Improvavel

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Apr 2007

Quote:
Originally Posted by Super Igor View Post
I will have ebergy problems after 3 full casts of the chain, but then the mob is dead.

Also, wtf mesmer signets, GoLE is the way to go and Ele secondary will give you nice blocks and buckup hexes/condis, even para secondary is better.
Like I said, you dont know how to play Discord.

Your Sabway with Discord idea is trash, its not faster, because it does neither job well.
Just run a proper Sab if you dont want to run proper Discord.

AP caller is by far superior to other callers. More burst damage, loads of utility, kd ect. Yes because a warrior can use Gole, for example. And because gole reduces the cost of the shouts! And because gole wont increase the casting time of your chain.

No, you just have your mind set and never tried anything else.

Til you tried both you are just theoricrafting and coming with twisted ideal scenarios.

Not only does the present build works, and works for any physical character, but if you know what you are doing with a physical character, it is as fast if not faster the discordway with AP caller.

You just never tried and so you don't know. Your only answer is that "you don't know how to play discord", regardless of even knowing what is my killing speed.

I guess it is you that don't know how to play physical professions, since you are clearly convinced that, for example, an AP caller sin will do more damage than a MS/DB one.

And that is why people start saying physical characters will have problems fulfilling the discord requisites, because the only things they know that can cause conditions and hexes are AP, YMLAD and Asuran Scan.

More, you main critic to the build is that it doesn't have an AP caller, even though it doesn't need one, because basically you want a character that does what an AP caller does and play like. The characters that play like AP callers are AP callers.

This is about playing different roles and still reap the rewards of discord in heroes (more because the AI sucks than because the intrinsic power of discord).

But you have never tried and never will because it doesn't have an AP caller.

So your contributions to this are devoid of any importance because, 1) you aren't pointing short comes of the hero builds presented nor the player build; 2) you have no field experience of it, which is quite different from your ideal theoricrafting world, and 3) you only talk about the ASSASSIN AP CALLER, which is the best of the physical professions at being the caster and aren't capable of presenting a solution that works better for physical professions.

If Sabs worked better for a physical profession, you wouldn't run your assassin as an AP caller, now would you?

MercenaryKnight

MercenaryKnight

Forge Runner

Join Date: May 2006

Wolf of Shadows [WoS]

P/

For the people saying you don't gain back enough energy with an ap caller. You don't always have to cast finish him and ebon vanguard sin (if you don't replace that with pain inverter anyway). For me I run a paragon with ap, ymlad, pain inverter and finish him. My usual casts are ap and ymlad if monster is going to die easily I will then cast pain inverter on a fresh target that will pretty much kill themself as heroes spike down first target.

You can manage energy quite easily and sustain damage. But no discordway does not rely on a caller. The fact is, if you make discordway self reliant on hexes/ conditions they will spend more time away from discord inorder to prep targets. The more time it takes for them to set up naturally with ai the less effective the spiking is.

The ap caller is used to make spiking quick and effortless for their ai. Not having one lowers the effectiveness of the build because of the speed of them setting up sucks generally.

Improvavel

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Apr 2007

Quote:
Originally Posted by MercenaryKnight View Post
For the people saying you don't gain back enough energy with an ap caller. You don't always have to cast finish him and ebon vanguard sin (if you don't replace that with pain inverter anyway).
Doesn't this means you are dealing less damage?

Aren't people saying that AP caller SIn, for example, deals more damage than a MS/DB sin, and that is why is ridiculous changing a caller for a normal sin?

Wouldn't a paragon that chucks spears be dealing more damage as he won't run dry on energy/adrenaline?

Quote:
For me I run a paragon with ap, ymlad, pain inverter and finish him. My usual casts are ap and ymlad if monster is going to die easily I will then cast pain inverter on a fresh target that will pretty much kill themself as heroes spike down first target.
So you run no other hexes/condtions on your heroes? Because I can easilt apply a condition with a para and hexes aren't hard either, for example with asuran scan and anthem of weariness/find their weakness.

Quote: The thing with these builds is that they work on corpses to manage energy (Soul Reaping) and healing (Dwaynas Sorrow). Running two MMs is fine in most areas as long as you drop minions on the other Necros.

One thing you could do with your heroes is have one MM run full protection support and have the other run full healing support. That way attributes aren't as gimped for either Protective Spirit and Aegis, or Dwaynas Sorrow and whatever other heals you might bring.

However Discordway can work just aswell regardless of what you run alongside it. Motivation Paragons work very nicely with them (extra healing and energy from chants and shouts), aswell as Elementalists with Wards (hey lets slow them right down and provide some blocking too so I can drop Aegis).
Spirit Spammers have proven efficient just lately with the new buff though it's probably better run on a hero as they can place them better.

It's always about experiemnting and finding what works best for the area ahead of you. Discordway is just a general build, for something more specific you should dig a little deeper.

Quote:
You can manage energy quite easily and sustain damage. But no discordway does not rely on a caller. The fact is, if you make discordway self reliant on hexes/ conditions they will spend more time away from discord inorder to prep targets. The more time it takes for them to set up naturally with ai the less effective the spiking is. This is obious false. If the discord heroes only needed to cast discord and the best use of their time was discord all time, the rest of their slots would be empty.

They aren't. PvX discordway as for example enfeebling blood and shadow of fear there. Putrid bile too.

So, no, the target preparation is less complicated and time consuming that you guys are trying to make and the cast of skills like enfeebling blood and shadow of fear or aegis are very welcomed.

Quote:
The ap caller is used to make spiking quick and effortless for their ai. Not having one lowers the effectiveness of the build because of the speed of them setting up sucks generally. Because a physical can't easily cause deep wound or cast asuran scan or have withering aura and have all or half of the conditions met?

Still theoricrafting that doesn't happen in a real battle.

http://pvx.wikia.com/wiki/Build:Team_-_Discordway <--- Do I see 2 second casting time skills? Do I see conditions and hexes on the heroes? Wont they raise minions to refresh death ones mid battle? Wont those things make the heroes cast less discords?

Or maybe the discord team actually needs to setup some defense during battle and stop casting discord?

Or are your discord heroes all immune to enemy damage? Do you run their other skills disabled most of the time, because the minion wall is all you need, and only enable them if something exceptional happens?

Unreal Havoc

Guest

Join Date: Dec 2007

Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Dawg View Post
Basically I agree with everything you're saying in this thread, but I have two comments about this section.

1. Why does the AP caller have to be an assassin? Wouldn't N/A (or whatever) be fine?
N/A is probably better energy management wise and support wise.

What makes the Assassin strong is the free choice of secondary proffession. It's not the best class to use in Discordway, but it's definitely the best physical class to use in Discordway because of it's caster themed alignment.

Quote:
2. The problem with marrying Discordway with one set of heroes and Sabway with another is that you'll have two full-time MM's, making yourself extremely corpse-dependent, and that won't be so efficient in all zones. If I were putting together a second set of heroes for a Discordway team (aside from another Discord set), I'd want a primary monk to take a stronger version of dwayna's sorrow, and probably also a Rt spirit spammer in there somewhere too, and then probably a para with skills like blazing finale and purifying finale if your second human is a warrior yelling SY. In other words, I'd completely scrap Sabway.
Originally Posted by Improvavel View Post
If Sabs worked better for a physical profession, you wouldn't run your assassin as an AP caller, now would you? Sabway offers better support for a physical character, but as an Assassin why play Sabway when I can run an AP caller efficiently with my Assassin and blow stuff up even better? I don't need sustained damage in my spike build because I know how to operate my spike build in some of the most dire circumstances. I've cleared FoW, cleared the entire Southern Shiverpeaks and pretty much most of EotN on HM with Discordway and an AP caller.

People know that you can run physicals in Discordway, people know that you can use the Necros to trigger Discord. What most people are telling you is that it is less efficient to do so. I've already told you myself that I have played both ways, and which I found more efficient. Even a Discordway hater has said himself that AP calling is more efficient at providing the spike assistance and prime for Discord.

You're just theorycrafting that an Assassin cant offer any support using his utility slots. You don't actually know this, and I can tell you have never played as an Assassin AP caller. Why don't you actually try it before even continuing this discussion.

I know this because I play an Assassin and often use skills in my utility slots to offer support to my team when needed. For the most part those skills aren't needed because stuff blows up way too quickly, but they're there anyway for when I do need them. Several secondary proffessions offer good energy management for an Assassin AP Caller, making an Assassin a good choice to use as an AP caller. You're also lacking taking +4 energy regeneration, high energy sets, and outside energy management, into account.

The argument is pointless and is going nowhere because while you sit here and complain that people aren't listening to what you say, you're not really listening to what others say in your own blind faith that physicals can provide a ranged spike and support better than an AP caller can.

The fact that you're judging your entire arguement on a PvXWiki build that is actually quite subpar compared to alot of good player versions throws your whole debate into dispute anyway. As I've told you before, the builds strength is it's versatility, if all you run is that PvX version and never change it or adapt it then you're a god aweful player.

Super Igor

Banned

Join Date: Mar 2008

why should you kno? Oo

A/W

Quote:
Originally Posted by Improvavel View Post
Yes because a warrior can use Gole, for example. And because gole reduces the cost of the shouts! And because gole wont increase the casting time of your chain.

No, you just have your mind set and never tried anything else.


Til you tried both you are just theoricrafting and coming with twisted ideal scenarios.
Wrong and wrong.

You were talking about assassin running AP caller, thats why I said /E or /P would be better.
I also have tried EVERYTHING thats the whole point. I ran my Discord without a caller entirely, something what you do, I ran my Discord with non-AP caller but AP caller setup was the strongest. Thats why I can say that the person who really havent tried anything else and stubbornly defending a position for the sake of it is you so do your research then come shit all over the forum with misleading statements.


Quote:
Not only does the present build works, and works for any physical character, but if you know what you are doing with a physical character, it is as fast if not faster the discordway with AP caller.

You got it all wrong, everything works in pve. You can beat pve with an empty skill bar.
If you want it to run effectively though, you should stop screwing your Discord over and run it like it should be.

Quote:
You just never tried and so you don't know. Your only answer is that "you don't know how to play discord", regardless of even knowing what is my killing speed.
I dont have to, but I have none the less. You should, because if you were good enough to theorycraft you wouldnt have made such stupid comments. You really dont know how to play Discord.

Quote: I guess it is you that don't know how to play physical professions, since you are clearly convinced that, for example, an AP caller sin will do more damage than a MS/DB one.
Well in that case you dont know how to play the game after your 5000+ hours because max rank AP caller has higher burst damage than MS/DB, it obvious.
Even if you buff the shit out of your melee AP caller wins simply by the fact that melee has to get there first and that while your heroes are bosu casting hexes and buff around I wiped a mob.

Quote:
And that is why people start saying physical characters will have problems fulfilling the discord requisites, because the only things they know that can cause conditions and hexes are AP, YMLAD and Asuran Scan.
Not only that, but they are the fastest way. If you cant understand that I just pity you.

Quote:
More, you main critic to the build is that it doesn't have an AP caller, even though it doesn't need one, because basically you want a character that does what an AP caller does and play like. The characters that play like AP callers are AP callers.
It doesn't need one, but having one is so much better, entire forum told you that ffs.

Quote:
This is about playing different roles and still reap the rewards of discord in heroes (more because the AI sucks than because the intrinsic power of discord).
The fact youre saying that AI sucks alone means you should /uninstall, seriously.

Hero AI is arguebly one of the most imbalanced things Anet ever came up with, you just have to know what they can run which you unfortunately dont by the looks of it.
Really, no player has the same inhuman reaction they have when it comes to block, powerheals, interrupts. They can spread conditions, hexes and enchantments like death nova better than most players because they know exactly when they are going to end and target that needs them and you telling me the suck, LOL.


Quote: And they still are shit as melee. They will still remove blind from a caster. They will still remove cracked armor from a para. They will still use PS to heal someone. So?


Quote:
But you have never tried and never will because it doesn't have an AP caller.

So your contributions to this are devoid of any importance because, 1) you aren't pointing short comes of the hero builds presented nor the player build; 2) you have no field experience of it, which is quite different from your ideal theoricrafting world, and 3) you only talk about the ASSASSIN AP CALLER, which is the best of the physical professions at being the caster and aren't capable of presenting a solution that works better for physical professions.

If Sabs worked better for a physical profession, you wouldn't run your assassin as an AP caller, now would you? Whole reason I'm running an AP caller if because I tried everything else.

I actually doubt that you tried anything, youre just stuck to your shitty setup that doesnt even have a caller and is so weak it cant survive a second without SY! LOL

Improvavel

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Apr 2007

Quote:
Originally Posted by Super Igor View Post


The fact youre saying that AI sucks alone means you should /uninstall, seriously.

Hero AI is arguebly one of the most imbalanced things Anet ever came up with, you just have to know what they can run which you unfortunately dont by the looks of it.
I actually doubt that you tried anything, youre just stuck to your shitty setup that doesnt even have a caller and is so weak it cant survive a second without SY! LOL I play all the 10 professions. Took me 2 weeks to get an heavy bag by doing the zaishen PvE quests. I love to farm those easy missions like boreas seabed HM.

If your AP assassin caller is faster at killing then a moebius sin you are the one doing something wrong.

Playing an AP caller is far from being a rocket science!

Improvavel

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Apr 2007

Quote:
Originally Posted by Unreal Havoc View Post
Sabway offers better support for a physical character, but as an Assassin why play Sabway when I can run an AP caller efficiently with my Assassin and blow stuff up even better? I don't need sustained damage in my spike build because I know how to operate my spike build in some of the most dire circumstances. I've cleared FoW, cleared the entire Southern Shiverpeaks and pretty much most of EotN on HM with Discordway and an AP caller.
So what? Ive legendary vanquisher, legendary master of the north and a few legendary guardians.

5000+ hours played, loads of DoA with heroway, blah di blah.



Quote:
You're just theorycrafting that an Assassin cant offer any support using his utility slots. You don't actually know this, and I can tell you have never played as an Assassin AP caller. Why don't you actually try it before even continuing this discussion.
I did. It isn't as efficient. Body blocking and SY, plus knocks are quite a good support.

While I don't play it with my Assassin I play with my necro. Which has better energy management and support than an assassin will ever have.

Quote:
I know this because I play an Assassin and often use skills in my utility slots to offer support to my team when needed. For the most part those skills aren't needed because stuff blows up way too quickly, but they're there anyway for when I do need them. Several secondary proffessions offer good energy management for an Assassin AP Caller, making an Assassin a good choice to use as an AP caller. You're also lacking taking +4 energy regeneration, high energy sets, and outside energy management, into account. Still, if you are casting that support, and what support do you use btw?, who is casting the hexes and conditions?

Isn't your main pro for the caller the fact it casts the hexes and conditions, making it faster?

If you are casting the other support, unless they are hexes and conditions, you aren't priming for discord.

Quote:
The argument is pointless and is going nowhere because while you sit here and complain that people aren't listening to what you say, you're not really listening to what others say in your own blind faith that physicals can provide a ranged spike and support better than an AP caller can. No. Physicals won't provide a ranged spike. They will add sustained damage. You wont need to spike from 100%->0% because they will be under 100% and so the discords will finish them between casting their other skills (or you can bind their discords and do clean spikes).

Additionally you chose to ignore the fact the physicals can also create the condition and hex really fast and do damage.

Quote:
I told you, if you know what to run on them. If you give them what they can run they will play it better than any player.



Quote:
The fact that you're judging your entire arguement on a PvXWiki build that is actually quite subpar compared to alot of good player versions throws your whole debate into dispute anyway. As I've told you before, the builds strength is it's versatility, if all you run is that PvX version and never change it or adapt it then you're a god aweful player. As you can see I don't run a pvx build. So by curiosity what is the bare bones of your build?


And yes, playing a caller is easier than playing a melee.

Super Igor

Banned

Join Date: Mar 2008

why should you kno? Oo

A/W

Quote:
Originally Posted by Improvavel View Post
And they still are shit as melee. They will still remove blind from a caster. They will still remove cracked armor from a para. They will still use PS to heal someone. So?
If your AP assassin caller is faster at killing then a moebius sin you are the one doing something wrong.

Playing an AP caller is far from being a rocket science! If my Discord works like it should be I'm doing something wrong? lol wtf. AP caller + Discord kills the fastest, thats how it is, thats how it should be.

Your say playing AP call isn't rocket science yet you managed to fail at it so badly it couldnt kill fast enough......

Super Igor

Banned

Join Date: Mar 2008

why should you kno? Oo

A/W

Quote:
Originally Posted by Improvavel
View Post
Hehehe.

So someone is able to kill faster with a moebius sin. Your conclusion is that they need to be bad with the AP caller which is go there YMLAD, EVAS, HEX or AP, FH and AP (if you haven't cast it yet)!

It is really easy to be bad at that!

I think I understand why you love the AP caller - it is easy! Guess it makes you feel warmer inside if you believe it is the fastest thing on earth! If it isn't than you would have to run an Assassin at melee range, and OMG, they are squishy and easy to shutdown! More like someone cant run an AP caller with his Discord and see why it makes things so much better but argues against anyway. lol, maybe the quests for unlocking the pve skills requred are too hard for you.....

Everything else you said doesnt make sense.

Everyone in this thread confirms that AP caller is faster, it's actually pretty obvious and you say you can go faster with some magical crap of yours that doesn't even have any kind of caller...

Fine then, post your build, tell us your secret! LOL Because so far it sounds like you stubbornly defend your ms/db because you cant run anything else.


Also, if you believe that sins are squishy you suck, nothing is squishy in pve you simply cant die. I run AP caller because it makes my Discord setup perform so much better and faster, fast primer and high dmg spike, utility, range all increase your killing speed.




EDIT:

Saw your setup and I must say. It's terrible and you never ran an AP caller.

Just by looking at your setup, you use SoLS, that means your heoes run out of energy that means that you arent killing fast enough because I run almost identical one for MM and resto and never have any energy problems anywhere because things get blown away very fast.

Tenebrae

Tenebrae

Forge Runner

Join Date: Feb 2007

Spain

LHV

R/N

Quote:
Originally Posted by Super Igor View Post
More like someone cant run an AP caller with his Discord and see why it makes things so much better but argues against anyway. lol, maybe the quests for unlocking the pve skills requred are too hard for you.....
Good try , but you didnt flame good enough.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Super Igor View Post Everything else you said doesnt make sense.
Says the guy that believes AP Caller and Discord is Hard to use and setup ... yea thats the reason ppl use it.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Super Igor View Post Everyone in this thread confirms that AP caller is faster, it's actually pretty obvious and you say you can go faster with some magical crap of yours that doesn't even have any kind of caller...
No matter what he or anyone says or proofs because you are gonna always go with :
1- You are lying and X is not so effective
2- If you are doing with X more damage your Discordway setup must be terrible ( or something like that ).

Quote:
Originally Posted by Super Igor View Post
Fine then, post your build, tell us your secret! LOL Because so far it sounds like you stubbornly defend your ms/db because you cant run anything else. Woah, go ahead and tell us yours ! oh wait .... LoL any1 knows Discordway here is unskilled and with an AP caller is just button smashing but you still claim it to be HARD to play and have SOME magical secret that makes yours go faster , kill faster and do 2X damage than anyone elseĀ“s.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Super Igor View Post
Also, if you believe that sins are squishy you suck, nothing is squishy in pve you simply cant die. Well not all Sins come from Kripton like yours dude but maybe the ENTIRE WORLD and wiki is wrong when they say that they are one of the most squishy chars ( melee , low armor , and brutal agro because its a DDealer )

Quote: No it is not, and that pretty much just shows YOUR own fail. On my necro, I cast the full chain all the time (AP YMLAD, EVAS, FH!). When I tried micro, I am usually not able to cast the full chain before the target dies.

Now math: 300 damage (micro'ed) + 250 (shouts) + hench dmg, random AoE/degen etc. is already enough damage to kill most things. In other words, I wouldn't even be able to cast EVAS.

This is not theorycraft, but logic to back up experience. In other words, if you have trouble killing without micro-ing, YOU fail not discordway.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Super Igor View Post
I run AP caller because it makes my Discord setup perform so much better and faster, fast primer and high dmg spike, utility, range all increase your killing speed. Like anyone else dude ..... like anyone else. And i will tell you the other reasons :
-Needs almost 0 skill
-Needs almost 0 adaptation
-Differs almost 0 from one prof to another.

Now make up something you believe we dont "know" about that build and its usage for god sake.

AtomicMew

AtomicMew

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Apr 2005

N/A

Quote:
Originally Posted by upier View Post
Hopefully all the people that are arguing for the insane speed of Disco kills are all microing Disco, right?
You do know that without doing that a lot of the things said here are just a nice theory?
Someone stating that an assassin AP caller will deal more damage than a Moebius or Scythe sin isn't exactly a great recommendation. Except it does.

I've given MS/DB all considerations and benefits of the doubt. Not even taking into consideration the fact that it is melee, MS/DB takes 1.75 seconds to pull of asura scan + 1st hit. That's ~100 damage and a hex. AP caller takes 1.5 seconds to pull of ~150 damage (250 incl. DW) as well as knockdown. When you take into consideration the fact that melee has to run from target to target on the order of ~1 second, there is just no contest.

Besides, if MS/DB is as good as you say it is, your target shouldn't even be lasting long enough to rotate MS/DB. Doesn't that make the entire build, moot?

I have yet to see any attempt to prove MS/DB does more damage. It is not enough to say "lol rotating MS/DB on MoD gives 200 DPS". Formally speaking, you need to account for the fact that MS/DB is melee, the fact that it's easier to shutdown, the fact that it doesn't knocklock (unlike AP caller), the fact that your target should be dead before you even get to rotate MS/DB, the fact that you need to divert attributes/skill slot on heroes to buff up MS/DB to anything reasonable.

Even taking ALL of that OUT of account, I've already shown as per above that an AP caller can output more DPS than MS/DB. Sorry, you cannot just ignore solid math and reasoning and expect to have a valid argument.

Any valid reply will take into account ALL the downsides I've listed above in attempting to prove the superiority of MS/DB.