My Petway

Any comments or suggestions for improvements?

Keep in mind, this is hard mode; No minions or spirits.

edit: What I mean is the construction of the team is hard mode (no minions or spirits). However, I am using this for HM as well.

I'd replace aura of restoration for something else because it is a pretty bad heal skill and replace defensive anthem because you and your paragons won't be affected by it for long.

Pets work well if you are body/corner blocking with them. They do survive quite long, contrary to popular belief; and hero healers/prot keep them alive. But in regards to combat in large open areas, it's tough to get the agro to stick to them most of the time.

Just in case it wasn't clear in the OP, he wants to improve the concept, not scrap it completely for standard meta stuff. Further posts of 'omg use minions and spirits instead' or 'this is crap lol' will not be tolerated.

No way is that team going to stay alive for HM content.

- Low DPS
- Low healing
- Ineptitude + Spiteful Spirit = Not very ideal

Though it has just given me an idea to try out minions + spirits + pets o.O

I want to try that

Change Ineptitude to panic and SS to a curser (pain of disenchantment) with splinter weapon.

i had a guildee who used to run a similarish petway build, he used a roj/soj monk with strength of honor for amazing dmg from pets, as he was spamming great dwarf weapon on them as well. with your save yourself being up most of the time, pets should be fairly safe. fit in some splinter weapons or something, anyways just some ideas for you
good luck

this build needs moer mark of pain.
remove dismis condition on the necro for mop
drop defensive anthem for empathic remvoal since you lack in de hex removal part.
Add more anthem of envy, and maybe ditch the whole motivation line.
put 2 attack skills on every para.
The concept will work for sure with a bit of tweaking.

Definitely needs more physical synergies. Try MoP.

Also, SS isn't ideal when you've got mesmers shutting things down.

Quote: Originally Posted by jackinthe

i had a guildee who used to run a similarish petway build, he used a roj/soj monk with strength of honor for amazing dmg from pets, as he was spamming great dwarf weapon on them as well. with your save yourself being up most of the time, pets should be fairly safe. fit in some splinter weapons or something, anyways just some ideas for you
good luck SY only affects party members, which pets aren't.

Quote: Originally Posted by thetwistedboy

I'd replace aura of restoration for something else because it is a pretty bad heal skill and replace defensive anthem because you and your paragons won't be affected by it for long. Aura provides fodder to fuel ether renewal.

Well, looks like a solid concept , I run a similar one myself and it tears through HM. I like how the AoD/Orders covers a dual role in the party, but that itself won't be enough to sustain in HM. I suggest that on yourself you bring Ebon Battle Standard of Honor, The damage from the para's+orders still won't pack that much of a punch and its always nice to have extra damage from the party, in general, from the ward. I'd also suggest maybe finding a way to put Splinter Weapon into your party as well. There's a lack of AoE which is a key concept when going into PvE, but is not always the case (Discord); it also adds that much more damage to your paragons.

The paragons themselves are a seperate issue which I'll start with your first. I see that you have Defensive Anthem, its a great skill, but there are better ones that might suit your team better; since half of them are physicals. That paragon looks like its dedicated to the command line, so I'm not going to suggest to swap with a defense-supportive skill, since Command is rather oriented towards being offense-supportive, again with a few exceptions. I think it would be a good idea to maybe look into Crippling Anthem, I know that cripple isn't a large factor in PvE, but you have to keep in mind the slow AI of the pets and travel-time, So cripple may serve as a useful function to keep your enemies closer together, and slowing down physicals trying to get to your back line. Bladeturn refrain isn't that good of a skill in general, so maybe swap that with Anthem of Weariness/Flame to for more synergy with the other paras, or another utility skill (Fallback, maybe?)

I'd leave the second one As-is, but maybe throw in Blazing Finale; Heroes actually use it rather well on pets in my expierence. The third Para needs a bit of work though. First, it needs at least one attack skill, you want to exploit the fact that paras work well together so if you have one attack skill you can benefit from all the shouts that trigger on them. Second, I'd ditch Anthem of Restoration for Purification; Not only can it git rid of party-wide conditions quickly, but it can be a life saver for when your physicals are blind. "Find their Weakness!" seems a bit irrelevant to the build, so that would probably be the skill I swap; maybe try Vicious Attack since you have two copies of "GtfE!".

All-in-all its a solid concept for a team build, but I'd make a few more adjustments, that would overall boost your healing/damage output as they lack with your current setup. Your Curses Necro can go /Rt and bring Splinter+ARage. Also, you can probably make your E/Mo Protter go hybrid, since you can invest relatively a small amount of points into Protection Prayers and it will still be effective. The Ineptitude Mesmer seems like an excellent source of damage and is an all-around effective build, but it seems to be out-of-place with your team and lacks synergy with them. I'd suggest that you maybe consider a different hero that can add more to your team, instead of just raw damage.
I hope you found this post helpful and that your future endeavors may lie at peak prefromance.

Oh, next time add attribute points too, please.

Edit: Ahh, remember as well that Pets are treated as "Allies" not Party Members, so make sure that you read the descriptions to see if they affect your pets. Also, Black Bears would be particularly useful for your teams since they have the inherent skill "Brutal mauling" which can trigger a few of the Paragon shouts.

Quote: Originally Posted by Infectious

Aura provides fodder to fuel ether renewal. It's possible he means Song of Restoration, which is a pretty terrible skill. Slayer's Spear is a little meh, and is probably outclassed by Vicious Attack - don't be afraid to use 2 of them!

Motivation in general is a little lacklustre, I'd suggest replacing Song of Resto with Empathic Removal.

Thanks for all the comments. I'll see if I can work something in.

Response to some skills:

Ineptitude: I find that the blind from ineptitude is invaluable. I'm actually thinking of going BSurge on that hero. Then again, none of these are physicals.

Blazing Finale: I'll definitely work blazing finale into the team if they use it on pets.

Song of Purification: Fantastic skill, but doesn't work on pets. :\ I'm still debating this issue.

Empathetic Removal: Another fantastic skill, but then I'd lose a pet. I'm actually considering a pet-less physical team and that'd definitely be on one of the paragons.

FtW: It looked really pretty with its +50 damage at 15 command. I'll adjust and play around.

Ah, yes of course, you'd lose the pet. Ignore the suggestion then.

I'd make the Orders guy a Nec, give him Mark of Pain and Cultist's Fervor, remove the SS Nec and put in an SoS channeling Rit with Splinter Weapon and a couple of Restoration heals.
And DKiss over Shield Guardian every day.

Well...I'd lose the healing from the Orders.
And SoS has spirits.
And DKiss is not AoE heal though.

Quote: Originally Posted by delta function

Well...I'd lose the healing from the Orders.
And SoS has spirits.
And DKiss is not AoE heal though. The SoS Rit can take heals easily.

Signet of Spirits, Bloodsong, Splinter Weapon, Siphon Spirit, Mend Body and Soul, Spirit Light, Protective Was Kaoli, Flesh of My Flesh or Death Pact Signet or something else if you don't want a res (not a third heal).

And Shield Guardian barely acts as a heal, even worse in the hands of the AI.

But I don't want spirits.

I'll try out the effectiveness of DKiss.

Quote: Originally Posted by delta function

But I don't want spirits. Missed that in the OP. Well your loss.
I still suggest merging the Orders and Curse bar as I mentioned.

Quote: Originally Posted by bhavv