Hard shutdown build with NO blackout!

Anyone using/tried this build?

Arcane echo, Echo (elite), Arcane thievery, ignorance, signet of humility, energy tap, drain enchantment, rez sig


I cast arcane echo, then thievery, echo, and thievery again, and thievery again i usually get 3 different skills, and they are all shut down for 35 secs depending on your domination att. i then cast ignorace to kill sigs for 20 secs, and use sig of humility if the opponents elite is still up. I then use energy tap/drain enchant to bring mana back up. It is theoretically possible to disable your opponents entire skill bar for 13 to 20 secs, and 3 skills for 35 secs. I have been using this build in 4v4 for a while, and it seems to be more effective than a blackout build, in the sense that you can disable skills for longer, and yours in turn aren't disabled at all. Obviously this build is worthless angainst IWAY or any kind of ranger spike, but if the team is running any kind of bonder or boon prot, you can basically negate the monk entirely for longer periods of time. My favorite skills to steal are RoF, divine boon and Mend ailment. Use ignorance to kill his sig, and drain enchant to kill divine boon, and he's done.

comments?

This seems to me to be an awfully expensive way to blackout... even if it is for a longer period of time. Why not Blackout then Diversion, then Thievery, then Humility. With high Dom you should get your diversion off a fraction of a second before the target's blackout ends, either freezing them for another 6 seconds (oh if only) or trapping a skill for 50seconds (more likely). Then Thievery and Humility should steal 1 to 2 more. With Mantra of Inscriptions you can recharge Humility to spam levels. You will still have two more slots + rez, Sig of Weariness for e-denial and whatever elite you feel would work better... maybe: e-surge (for more e-denial) or P-block, for a one skill shutdown.
Just an alternate take, I don't play these builds, so I don't really know. I just think that the 20e you spend on the echoing, + the cost of using the same spell again and again might make this build too expensive and too focused on one target.

I've been using this build for a while, but definately ditch Ignorance. It's simply not that useful. I go with Arcane Echo, Echo, Arcane Thievery, Diversion, Blackout, Signet of Humilty, Mantra of Inscriptions and Rez signet. Against Mesmers, Necros and Elems I use Arcane + Echo + Thievery. HOWEVER, against Monks, Echo + Blackout definately works better. Then, as you're waiting for Echo to recharge, hit them with Arcane Echo + Arcane Thievery and Humility (Inscriptions so you can keep their Elite down indefinately), then a Diversion.

It works well because of the fact that these are all fast casting spells, except of course Humility and Blackout, and that best of all, they're not hexes and continue even after you die. Definately take out Ignorance, because it's simply too expensive for you to shut down usually a single skill when you can do better with Diversion. Also, the Rez Sig disabling is good, but if you shut down one rez sig there's still 3 more out there.

The big problem with this build is sometimes you Thieve more than one skill. I've personally gotten Smite Hex three times in a row, as well as Orison and such. So I make it a point to to go for Monks with this, since Blackout + Echo works so much better.

Hmmmm very interesting Dragg. I'll have to try that echo blackout setup. To be honest tho i usually get 3 different skills maybe 50% of the time, and the rest i get maybe 2 identical spells and a third. I was so excited after trying this build (It is SO fun when you know you got 5 or more skills shutdown for a while, and you can almost hear the guy sayin "WTF!?") that I had to post. Good to know that there are even better variations on this. thx guys.

i was doing exactially what u were doing last week, in my findings i found it uneffiecient, instead i combined e-denial(e-surge/burn/weariness/wrack), with blackout and archane thievery, seemed to work alot better.

hmmm.. in my opinion i feel that shutdown and e-denial are two seperate things. If u're e-denying then u shouldn't shut him down. Cos in E-denial one of the ways to actually deny his energy quickly is by him casting spells, since surge, burn and weariness alone can never bring a monks energy from full to zero. therefore blacking him out serves no purpose.

shutting down someone is not letting him cast even a single spell or at least his more important spells..

That's why i feel if u wanna go e-denial, go full e-denial, otherwise go full shutdown, dun do both. they kinda cancel out one another..

dunno if i'm making any sense here..

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My build was made to counter a certain type of build my guildmates use (since we regularly fight each other in TA arenas). Because hexes simply don't work against them (Holy Viel, + Purge Signet x2), I've resorted to shutting down their Monk through this means. It's effective, hard to interrupt, and even stealing just one skill, and disabling another with Signet of Humility, will be painful to them.

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