Team Build: Cuckway

As we have two weeks left on guru it may be nice to share a build that is both very amusing to play and highly effective.

Cuckway build

Cuckway focuses on cucking the hell out of mobs with severe interrupts of attacks and spells, which, when combined with Frustration, causes a very high damage output. Signet of Clumsiness has good synergy with Frustration since heroes abuse the skill to its full potential. As a result of the severe spell/melee shutdown mobs cannot perform many actions at all.

The profession of the human player can be anything, although obviously certain profs are more effective than others. I personally prefer an Assassin's Promise monk or rit as the human player.

Over the course of the next few days I will be updating this post and adding another build. For now though, here is the build and associated template codes:



Hero 1. Cuckway BiP OAhjQgGaIPVvxZzOeKNncV17AA
Hero 2. Cuckway Rit OAWlEIDGIHGk7kn7BZAnZmz6NPxm
Hero 3. Cuckway MM OAhjQgGaIPVvxZzOeKNncV17AA
Hero 4. Cuckway Icy Veins OAVDEjwGP55cwFg0VEGCV1aG
Hero 5. Cuckway Mesmer 1 OQNEAawD2Cln1DkBgA2TxBhG5TB
Hero 6. Cuckway Mesmer 2 OQNEAawD2Cln1DkBgA2TxBhG5TB
Hero 7. Cuckway Mesmer 3 OQNEAawD2Cln1DkBgAuCwBhG5TB

PS: For certain areas, feel free to switch the Tease of hero 5/6 for Ineptitude.

Equipment: On the MM I use dual +15/-1 mods to bring its energy to around 83. This is so that BiP is not spammed whenever Animate Bone Fiend is cast.
The BiP itself has a spear with +5 energy and 20% enchantments plus an offhand with +30HP and 15/-1 mods.
The rest of the party can have +60hp staves or 40 recharge setup, depending on personal preference. Same goes for superior runes, go with what you prefer. I personally use a Superior Death on the Minion Master only, the rest has minor runes.

If you want to talk about Tyran's build do so here.
If you want to talk about Zephyr's build do so in his thread.
If you want to persist with personal bickering, out of context replies to two+ year old posts, etc, do so elsewhere because you can't post while banned. Opting to reply to rubbish rather than use the report button makes you no better than the person posting rubbish in the first place.

I would argue that what was being discussed was my build, and why it is better than another one. This is a relevant point when it comes to build discussions.

However, I do get your point that some persons were getting a bit emotionally compromised.

As for Cuckway, it has been thoroughly tested and I dare say perfected. Despite this I always welcome any constructive improvement suggestion. Consider yourself hereby challenged

At a later time I will indulge in explaining the more precise workings of the build. There are a couple of abusive/overpowered mechanics involved that, were Anet still here, I'm sure would land on their 'nerf list'.

Good luck

Well, let me put this nicely then instead.

I'v tried his team with some of my friends..
And came quickly too the conclusion that Soul Reaping wasen't working out the way you described, as expected.
The BiP overclocked bigtime, and died a couple times being surrounded, while also BiP'ing.

The ST, MM, and Mesmers were constantly floating around 0-10% energy in almost every encounter, there are too much energy intensive skills on their bar which get spammed so much the BiP can barely cover the entire party.

Skill like : Animate Bone Fiend, Recuperation, Dissonance, and Clumsiness were major skills that drains them almost to 50% of their energy within the first cast.

Their Signet spikes were good vs the melee.
However there was barely no caster hate covered and they'd took alot of spell damage for breakfast.

I'd still recommend to bring some Mistrust, Cry's, and atleast one Panic to cover the spell hate against your party.

However, i think Clumsiness could be easily replaced for Arcane Conundrum, and Tease for really any other skill.

Tease looks good, but only in big packs, its really bad on single targets, even worse then Leech Signet.
I think Psychic Instabillity is more functional then Tease for this reason, or even Ineptitude, Shared Burden.

Yeah, the Signet of Clumsiness is what tears them up.

As for the problems you have been experiencing, they are not supposed to happen.

But I see where the problems lie.

1. Don't use this build with friends; it is hero-only. Humans are inferior at BiP, interrupting and playing MM.

2. The problem with the BiP overclocking is easily resolved.

The MM is probably getting Bipped whenever he uses Animate Bone Fiend. In actual fact he is only rarely meant to get Bipped, even with Animate Bone Fiend on his bar. To help this, you need at least one, but preferably two, +15/-1 mods. The higher energy pool (I got my MM up to 83 energy) will cause BiP to rarely get triggered. The BiP itself also carries one 15/-1 mod, so that Recuperation does not lower its initial energy pool as much.

The use of a 15/-1 mod will probably come as a surprise to you, as it is usually associated with energy loss. But when it comes to Soul Reaping, in general it causes a counterintuitive energy gain. The way it works is as follows:

Soul Reaping only rarely gives its energy three times spread evenly over 15 seconds. More often, it replenishes energy in an energy spike spread over a few seconds as mobs and minions die in rapid succession. A sudden influx of 45 energy into an energy pool that has a maximum capacity of around 50 will frequently cause energy to be lost as the capacity is not high enough to contain this energy. Therefore, having a higher capacity mitigates this as it leaves more breathing space for Soul Reaping.

To simplify the question: can the loss of -1 energy regeneration be offset by the increased efficiency of Soul Reaping caused by 15 extra capacity? To do so it would need to prevent only 5 energy (from the -1) per 15 seconds from being lost to draw even. This is quite easily achieved in general, and, depending on the situation, it can be significantly more. However, the due to the variable nature of combat the workings of this mechanic are difficult to quantify. You should really try it for yourself to see how it goes.

As for two 15/-1 on the MM, this adds even more breathing space. But its workings are not necessarily more energy efficient beyond the first +15/-1. But this is not the purpose in this case. The main goal of having a second 15/-1 on the MM is so that the BiP does not overclock like a lunatic.

And inb4 any argument that Soul Reaping is an unreliable energy source: this is a untrue. If you are not killing things to trigger Soul Reaping, then your build does not do enough damage. Furthermore, the death of your ebon vanguard assassin, which you should be using with Assassin's Promise, gives Soul Reaping energy, as does the death of minions, naturally. So there are many sources to consistently trigger Soul Reaping.

3. You say that Dissonance drains the ST to 50% of its energy in the first cast. Something is wrong there. A hero should be using Dissonance with Soul Twisting (-15 energy), and Boon of Creation, (-6 energy). Therefore Dissonance costs a mere 4 energy instead of 25...

4. Using Cry, Panic, and Mistrust inherently calls for one or more domination mesmers. The problem with mesmers is that they cannot reasonable skill Domination and Illusion together, as they usually need fast casting and inspiration already. You would have to suggest an actual skill bar before this is can be considered.

5. Clumsiness should not be too much of a burden on energy. Your energy problems should be resolved by the above fix to the MM. It is exactly the spammability of Clumsiness which is why its here. It has very nice synergy with the likes of Frustration and Wandering eye. A mob with these three hexes takes around 300 damage when it tries to attack.

6. As for Tease, you are correct that many other elites may look more tempting. However, Tease has the best synergy with this build.

Psychic Instability has been tried before. It has poor synergy since this build requires mobs to kill themselves through actions. Furthermore, the PI would be competing with many other interrupts for being triggered (PI is best used in a build where it is the only interrupt).
Ineptitude was already suggested to replace one Tease in certain situations. It is useful when there are too many mobs. But it is not the most ideal elite for general use as it does not trigger when a mob has Wandering eye or Clumsiness on it. Signet of Clumsiness also prevents Ineptitude from being triggered. And, as you know SoC gets spammed a lot.
Shared Burden. I actually used this previously for a while, in combination with Cripping anguish (x2). My only reservation is the lack of damage and defensiveness. With frustration, Tease becomes an offensive spell that does similar damage to Power Spike. But, like every skill, there will be certain situations when Shared Burden shines.

As for Tease itself. No, I would never claim it to be the greatest elite. But yes, I would argue that it has the best synergy, in general, with the rest of this build.

Updated OP to add note about 15/-1 items.