New to speed clears - Questions

The title can be a bit misleading, so first let me clarify by saying that my friend and I are not yet entirely ready to start participating in speed clears.

A friend of mine and I have recently gotten back into GW, and are interested is trying out speed clears. Primarily because, whereas vanquishing can be fun, some days you just don't feel like doing it, and it looks like a fun time.

We've both looked at the stickies here and have watched some of the vids pertaining to what our roles would be. I am a Mesmer, so I would be running a Me/Rt E-Surge build from the Terraway list.

My friend that I would be looking to SC with (along with others we'd pug) is a Ranger primary. He's willing to make a Rit if need be, but can any of the Rt/R builds in the Terraway list work as R/Rt? Is the Spawning Power in the SoS Vale Team build absolutely required (we've duo'd UW for ectos numerous times and we both have experience running SoS builds as our current primaries)?

That being asked, there is a R/A build further down the list, one for Mountains, one for Pits. We'd like it if we could run the same area though, given that we regularly do things together as is and know how each other plays.

Terraway link for easy reference w/out going to other thread: http://www.gwpvx.com/Build:Team_-_UW_Terraway

Along with that, we were curious how to get started. We would be willing to guild hop if necessary once we have everything required (gear/builds), but it's not like any SC guild will take anyone, to my knowledge. If I am wrong on that, please feel free to correct me. Therefore, would we just go sit around in the Temple of Ages and advertise that we're looking for a practice sc and get into running with a regular group?

Thank for your time in reading this post and any information/pointers would be greatly appreciated. =]

Well, in essence you could run it as a ranger. Pugs probably won't accept however, and it is vastly inferior to ritualist. Myself however hate UW for especially dhuum is really boring.
Therefore I'd advise joining a guild, and doing Messpike FoWSC instead. With pugs you could play MoP spiker as a Mesmer. FoW is much more fun, and easier to learn and get into as starters. If you want you can hit me up ingame for the details and some help on your first few runs. ---- Elena Windbow

The Rt/R build can't be run as R/Rt with anywhere near the effectiveness of running rit primary. The R/A builds are some of the more difficult and technical roles in the team so you would really need to have some experience on speed clears before attempting them. If i were you i would both make rits and go as a dwg/SoS vale team, or alternatively try fowsc as ed suggested.

Ah, cool thank you.

We've been looking into doing FoW as well (I wasn't aware it was easier). In all honesty, we're only interested in doing it to have two more statues for our HoM.

Is there a particular reason that FoW is easier? I've never been in there at all. Having duo'd UW, I can imagine that it would still be quite a doozy.

EDIT: Just looked up FoWSC builds, and I noticed that the MoP build listed in N/A. Can Assassin's Promise be swapped out with any other energy gain skill? I realize the usefulness in AP is that it recharges all of your skills.

I would be willing to level a Rit to 20 and get all the skills required. I personally just hate leveling to 20 (so much so that I've only done it twice. I have 3 level 20 characters, the last only hit 20 because of the loophole to repeat the Commando quest).

Sorry for all of the "noob" questions, and again thank you two for having already answered questions presented.

The reason Spawning Power is so effective compared to expertise is because you get stronger spirits. Dhuum casts a spell called Judgement of Dhuum which deals a crapload of aoe damage very quickly. You need the spirits to stay alive for as long as possible while the spell is taking place. (reason being: the more times they get hit, the more damage Dhuum takes from the Mesmer's Pain Inverter)

Quote: Originally Posted by Saru The Boss

The reason Spawning Power is so effective compared to expertise is because you get stronger spirits. Dhuum casts a spell called Judgement of Dhuum which deals a crapload of aoe damage very quickly. You need the spirits to stay alive for as long as possible while the spell is taking place. (reason being: the more times they get hit, the more damage Dhuum takes from the Mesmer's Pain Inverter) Ah, I see. I knew that spawning power increased the total amount of hit points that spirits had. I have never heard it explained in relation to PI though. Good knowledge to have.

I'm not sure if this is some new discovery or not (I highly doubt it), but the other day we were duoing UW and my friend put an expertise skill on his bar, not sure which, and was amazed that expertise raised the effectiveness/damage of his spirits, because he had never taken into account that they're "binding rituals".

Quote: Originally Posted by Korain

I would be willing to level a Rit to 20 and get all the skills required. I personally just hate leveling to 20 (so much so that I've only done it twice. I have 3 level 20 characters, the last only hit 20 because of the loophole to repeat the Commando quest). Regarding that, you can simply level to 10 regularly and then go to Gunnar's Hold ASAP and repeat Fronis Irontoe's Lair until you hit 20. Going from 10-20 that way should not take more then an hour or so, give or take. Was a while since I did that so my estimate is probably a little off but it is incredibly fast if all you want is to hit 20.

Or you can just start getting the reqqd pve skills as soon as lvl 10. My war was deep and FoW ready skillwise at lvl 18