Basic PVE Paragon build

Coleture

Pre-Searing Cadet

Join Date: Feb 2009

Da Ville, IN.

There is a lot off talk about Paragon builds (Imbagon, etc.). Here is a general PVE build I use often (which I think works rather well). Created for player who don't have/haven't made it to the other campaigns and picked up those other skills. Hope it helps you get there and die less. I call it Burning Soldier's Fury Spear Mastery=11+2, Command=8+1, Leadership=11+1+2 /Vic. Att.(for deep wound)/Blazing Spear/Spear of Redem.(for blindness)/GFTE (give VA deep wound)/Ant. of Flames (attack buff)/TOF (Damage reduction)/SF(IAS, adren.)/Sig of Return. If you have other ideas, I'm all ears.

MarciNoExcess

MarciNoExcess

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Aug 2009

Budapest, Hungary (Europe for Mindstorms)

P/W

Every paragon without "There is nothing to fear!" is a newbie!
><"

Zzes Tyan

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Mar 2009

Florida

[Play]

D/

no use for AoF without Aggressive Refrain.

Gennadios

Gennadios

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jun 2009

N/A

Switch TOF for for There's Nothing to Fear. Unless you also have a searing flames ele hero with you, anthem of flames alone won't provide enough burning to compete with TNtF. True that you can power Soldier's Fury with it, but Can't Touch This! works just as well.

Besides that, I've fallen in love with We Shall Return! as the rez of choice, spamming GFTE and AOF will provide the 25e to use it in under 5 seconds with careful skill selection.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Zzes Tyan View Post
no use for AoF without Aggressive Refrain. Get thee out! No use for aggressive refrain. Period.

It's a skill entirely for noobs and imbas (uber noobs.)

Coleture

Pre-Searing Cadet

Join Date: Feb 2009

Da Ville, IN.

Your right about the searing flames ele hero. I keep one in my group, should have added that. I like your idea on the We shall Return! I'll try it.

Tenebrae

Tenebrae

Forge Runner

Join Date: Feb 2007

Spain

LHV

R/N

Soldiers Fury , TNTF and Stand your ground is all you need. Add random adren spear attack + vicious attack + random comm /leadership shout and GFTE. Done.

PD: Ofc Sig of Return , best hard rez imho. If you dont want it , use a useful pve skill .

MisterB

MisterB

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Oct 2005

Planet Earth, Sol system, Milky Way galaxy

[ban]

W/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gennadios View Post
Can't Touch This! + Soldier's fury = constant 33% adrenaline gain and 33% faster attacks. and the combo takes 1sec/30sec to get going (agressive refrain has a 1sec casting time and lasts 30 sec, CTT has no cast time)

Agressive Refrain = 25% faster attack, the only way to keep it up consistantly is /w a low recharge, non-adrenal skills. In this case either anthem of flame (1sec cast/8sec) or anthem of weariness (1sec cast/10seconds)

AR will waste 3sec of your time over the same 30 second period to maintain, give you an 8% slower attack rate, will still require a separate adrenaline boost skill, and gives you cracked armor. If you consider that in the top 5 paragon skills, you must really not have a high regard for paragons.

And I didn't overlook the OP's choice of Elite. That's why I suggested CTT. One "wasted" slot to keep SF up is worth 2 "wasted" slots to keep AR up and generating adrenaline. Aggressive Refrain costs 25 energy and 2 seconds to cast in the entire zone. You activate it once, and you are done. Once it's up, it can never be removed, nor should it ever drop. Soldier's Fury costs 5 energy each time, and an additional second to activate, during which you may not attack. Aggressive Refrain may be maintained with [email protected] Leadership. You can even use a Superior Leadership on a helmet swap to activate it, which will increase it's duration even when it renews, then switch back.

The Aggressive Refrain versus Soldier's Fury argument has been done before. I don't care to repeat it. You can win PvE with either or neither.

Can't Touch This is a very poor skill; at least choose something that provides a useful effect like Stand Your Ground, They're on Fire, etc.

There are many numerical errors(in bold) in your post on various skill effects and durations.

@OP: You might consider Blazing Finale in place of Anthem of Flame with all the GFTE spam. If nothing else, you can run up adjacent to the caster ball and spear them in the face with GFTE on you to trigger it. H/H tend to focus all attacks on called targets, so AoF will only burn a single foe. They may attack separate foes if you do not call; I don't know.

Aeon221

Aeon221

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Jan 2006

[TEW]

N/

I have a big paracrush on Find Their Weakness and Fall Back. Fall back is great pretty much always, and FTW gives you an on demand dw+domage that can't be blocked (because it stays active til an attack hits). They both happen to keep up Aggressive and remain viable in a primarily caster group -- aka, almost all h/h groups -- unlike AoF or AoW.

The Juggernauot

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Aug 2009

HOA

W/Me

before i would run Cant Touch This to maintain Soilders Fury ... i would run a useful chant/shout to at least help the rest of the party like Hexbreaker Aria for no points at all you can give your monks and fellow casters a huge releif on hexes and maintain your req for soilders fury. Heck id even dip into tactics and grab maybe Watch Yourself before i would use Cant Touch This. Been playing para since day one its a very underrated profession, but its funny to see ppl jumping on the bandwagon since the updates to the skills. Also aggressive refrain was cool back in the day but now its kinda ..meh.

Tenebrae

Tenebrae

Forge Runner

Join Date: Feb 2007

Spain

LHV

R/N

Agree with Gennadios on Agg Ref , if you can have Soldiers Fury , its BS ..... but , i also agree with Juggernauot , Cant Touch this its BS . Like i said before , its better to alternate TNTF with Stand your Ground and its done , Solidiers Fury working 100% of the time.

Coleture

Pre-Searing Cadet

Join Date: Feb 2009

Da Ville, IN.

Wow, appreciate all the ideas, especially all the free thinkers. I agree about AF why use two slots when I could use one. Tenebrae, I like your ideas on TNTF and SYG, I think I'm going to use them. Gennadios, tried the We Shall Return! it didn't work for me. If you die 2-3 times you don't have the energy pool to use it. With only 8 slots, need every 1 to count. This is my is my 4th character I've beaten all campaigns but Prophecies (so far) with my A/D. People need to experiment more, there is more than one way to skin a cat. Most builds can only be made after running thru a few campaigns, so what do you do till then... experiment. Thanks for the ideas.

Reverend Dr

Reverend Dr

Forge Runner

Join Date: Dec 2005

Super Fans Of Gaile [ban]

W/

Why are we talking about aggressive refrain vs soldier's fury when there is the perfectly broken drunken master which doesn't require a second (largely worthless) skill to keep it functioning?

I really do prefer to keep the elite on paragon open. There are very many wonderful elites, Song of Purification, Song of Restoration, Defensive Anthem, Anthem of Fury, Empathic Removal, Order of Vampire, Blood is Power, etc. especially since it is not that difficult for a decent spec into a secondary for the secondary's elite. I know suggesting something other than P/W, what is wrong with me.

Reverend Dr

Reverend Dr

Forge Runner

Join Date: Dec 2005

Super Fans Of Gaile [ban]

W/

Must use TNTF on recharge to keep up aggressive, which means you won't be able to save it until right before a large damage wave comes in. As such either you give up the efficiency that controlled activation of TNTF gives you, or you bring a worthless skill to keep up aggressive.

MisterB

MisterB

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Oct 2005

Planet Earth, Sol system, Milky Way galaxy

[ban]

W/

Find Their Weakness(PVE) is FTW for Aggressive Refrain. It's not useless, either. DW + damage, unconditional. I use that in place of an attack skill.

angmar_nite

angmar_nite

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Feb 2007

[SNOW] of [YUM]

E/

i mean during battle you will be spamming plenty of other shouts and stuff like GFTE, so you no longer have to rely on TNTF for AR and can use it whenever

Bobby2

Bobby2

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Jun 2007

Delayed in order to meet ANet's high standards

[MaSS]

W/E

+1 for Aggressive Refrain:

- it's a 1-time cast. If you don't want to devote another skill to keeping it up yourself, bring a Hero that can shout for you. (Morgahn on Anthem of Fury, hell yeah.)
- it's non-elite. Soldier's Fury deprives you of all the other groovy elites available (such as FA or Anthem of Fury, hell yeah.)
- it doesn't take up a PvE slot. I like Drunken Master too, though, but scarce stance removal is still worse than non-existant echo removal, so I guess it balances out.
- it doesn't require a crap skill to make it work. Every time someone suggest Can't Touch This just to keep SFury online I can't help but laugh. Stand Your Ground is a better suggestion in general but quite redundant next to SY!.
- people who think Cracked Armour is a problem should FF more or die crawled up in fetal position.