Zergway - feedback / advices appreciated

Here is the latest version of the build:



- The SoS now carries Spirit Siphon (it should have been like that since the beginning).
- I now have 2 necros again with Death Nova.
- I got rid of the res on the mesmer (the other N/Mo now has one), and I took Hex Eater Signet instead, which works surprisingly well. I didn't have many options anyway: that was that or Hexbreaker Aria, which costs a lot, or Remove Hex (ewww...).
- The Para now uses Sabres's build. I just got rid of Fall Back! and replaced it with Aria of Zeal, which allows me to drop Signet of Lost Souls on a few heroes.


Now, there are still a few things that are bugging me. First, what do you think of the mesmer bar (skills 2-4) - I'm still unsure about that? Also, hero #5 no longer needs a Signet of Lost Souls, so I'm willing to replace it with a healing spells. 2 things could improve this build: something to heal the minions (but I didn't find any skill, besides Heal Area, which costs A LOT of energy off combat), or some kind of direct heal.

The party members almost never get hit, thanks to the impressive minions / spirits wall, and when they do, it's for 10 or 20 hp thanks to the defensive skills. However, on rare occasions, someone gets spiked, and I find the heroes a bit slow healing-wise (of course: they're not dedicated healers), so I think one more direct heal wouldn't hurt (NB: that's not a big deal: you really need to over agro - and I really mean over agro - and be outta luck to see someone dying with this build). Any suggestion?

moldmaker, here is the temple code. But keep in mind everything here is built around a human ranger: that wouldn't work with another profession (unless you change a few things).

OgEUcR7g38SsGghxg8gIHXFPG0G
OANEYZx98JFzcUpAiGUPEQ8ORTA
OAhlYgESBfUh5UVjZHV7AiYYKN7E
OACjQqgoIPI3q51sc+Nj2MTMG
OANDYZxdOV1laVQNgGMaT/3J
OASjQmhZBPNTnZMrKMMncSzxJ
OQlkAgC7wZmDNY6J4Md74acGYEC
OQCjgul6pOB5HcE2C3jTxaY5N

Okay, I cringed doing this but here you go. Tried to keep it as close to your original as I could.

On you I dropped Dshot for Dwarven Stability. This will allow you to 100% your Serpent's Quickness, which means more uptime for your "Save Yourselves!". Your Mesmer will be taking care of interrupts.

On the next guy, I would suggest dropping Succor for something useful and using a Zealous Bow. The skill sucks, but you seem adamant on using it so I didn't change it.

On the N/Rt I dropped Shadow of Fear (redundant with Enfeebling Blood) in favor of Spirit Light, the powerheal you said you needed somewhere.

On the Rt/X, I dropped Spirit's Gift in favor of Ancestor's Rage. Spirit's Gift was moved to your other Rit to yield better results, but we'll get there in a second. It was pointless on this char because most of the heals it was providing are going to be at the beginning of the fight when you don't need em.

On the N/Mo, I dropped Rotting Flesh, another terrible skill, in favor of Blood of the Master. You have enough heals that the sacrifice won't matter. Putrid Bile is another option here. Overall, I think you have too many "minion" characters, but it's your call.

On the Rt/N, I dropped Protective was Kaoli in favor of Spirit's Gift. They are redundant to one another. Spirits gift will proc twice off each "Bone Minions" skill cast. You'll see better results with it here.

On the Mesmer, I replaced Overload, which heroes don't use properly, to Cry of Frustration to cover some of the Interrupts Dshot is going to miss. They have the same recharge, but CoF interrupts the whole group.

On the Paragon, I dropped Spear of Lightning to Merciless Spear. His most important job is to spread Deep Wound, since it is your only source. Merciless Spear also is synergistic with Anthem of Fury, which I would suggest changing since only 2 party members are effected by it. With the energy left over, I bumped Finale of Restoration to Mending Refrain, which is easily kept up on all characters with "They're on Fire!", "Fall Back!", and "Save Yourselves!". You will see better healing results this way (due to less over healing) and your Paragon will spend more time attacking and spreading deep wound.

Thank you Kaida, a lot of good advices.

Just one remark: yes, I do agree that Succor sucks, but the thing is... I didn't find anything else to get energy. I already have a zealous bow, and that's not enough. The only other option I have would be to micro the second hero for his BR. I tried that, and it doesn't work. I mean... It does work for me, but then he has little time to do anything else (basically, that's BR on me most of the time, then BR on a few other heroes, then minions things - that's it).

Concerning Blood of the Master... Again, the first time I used the JB hero, that was because I forgot to change his skills bar, and he had BotM. I freaked out the first time he used it. In places where there are a lot of corpses (typically, Factions missions), I can have up to 38 minions. BotM is deadly. Prot Spirit + BotM would do the trick, but that would be a lot of microing, so I'm not sure about this skill.

I'm gonna test the other changes. Thanks.

PS: Why Rotting Flesh is a "terrible" skill?

probably cause rotting flesh is a 3sec cast time, which is annoying

OK, so I've just tested a few of your suggestions in FoW, Kaida, and I must say I'm a little bit disappointed. It sounded great on the paper, but in practice, I decided to resign after 'Restore the Temple' to switch back. That was not a complete failure, but I had 3 deaths when usually no one dies at all there.

Concerning Dwarven Stability: yeah, it sounds great. However, it costs 5 energy. That's nothing for any class but rangers. We manage our energy by reducing the cost of skills, and it doesn't work with spells. Even with Succor (yeah... Suxor) and a zealous bow, I couldn't spam my skills because of DS. So this is definitely not a replacement for Distracting Shot. Eventually, I could replace For Great Justice! with that - gotta try to see if it works.

Concerning the Rt/N with Spirit's Gift (that was previously on the SoS): that was a bad idea IMO. For some reason, with this enchant, he was always out of energy and needed BR most of the time. Without it, he's fine. I guess I had found the right balance energy-wise. I must say as well the loss of a second Kaolai was what caused the deaths during this run (they were due to the AoE of the skeleton mes and ele).

I have to disagree with you as well when you say Spirits Gift on a SoS provides healing at the start of a fight only. Unfortunately, spirit spammer heroes are kinda dumb and won't recast a spirit if there is one of the same kind in the radar. So basically, they use spirits when they want to... Furthermore, I noticed as well that without the cheap heal from a second Kaolai, the Rt/N spent much more time healing single targets, and therefore was generally late for creating minions, which defeat the purpose of Spirits Gift on him.

Concerning the mesmer now, yeah Cry of Frustration is good. Again, she uses more energy now, but that's ok. BR is here in case (as long as she doesn't need it all the time, that's good).

Merciless spear on the para is alright I guess, but I didn't notice more deep wounds. I dunno, I'm gonna keep it for now and check it again. It costs a lot of adrenaline after all.

I'll check the other suggestions later.

EDIT - Actually, concerning Spirits Gift on the EG MM, I'm gonna try to replace boon of creation with Spirit Siphon and see it makes things better.

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