Concept build. SS/bloodspike

16 curse
10 reap
10 blood

Spiteful spirit
insidious parasite
enfeebling blood
Opressive gaze
Vampiric gaze
Lifebane strike/shadowstrike
vampiric bite
Wallows bite

The point of this build is mass aoe while protecting yourself.

Lay on enfeebling with opressive then launch SS. While there killing thmeselves use vampiric gaze and lifebane strike. Vampiric bite and wallows is for when you might get attacked yourself.

any ideas to make it better?

Might be better to start with enfeebling, then SS, then insidious. Use the gazes when they start hitting you. The bites are probably not suitable as you probably won't have the energy left to use them much. Since you're going blood and curses, why not add Awaken the Blood? Then u can replace the two bites with that and perhaps one more from your sec prof.

Definitally some potential here. Great AoE effect. Uses hexes, conditions, and direct damage spells. Great balance. You may want to consider Parasitic Bond as a cover hex with a nice removal bonus, and barbed signet for energy management. Awaken the Blood is also a great idea. Since your weakness duration is soo long, you may want to reorder your spells.

Awaken the Blood --> SS --> Parasitic --> Enfeeble --> Lifebane Strike --> Barbed Signet --> Opressive Gaze

This covers SS with a heal, still provides weakness in time to prevent damage, still activates the 50% catch with Lifebane, and counters the health loss from Barbed Signet with Opressive Gaze.

Quote: Originally Posted by Kaida the Heartless

This is extremely close to the Blood/SS combo build that I've been using in PvE.

14 Curses (11+2+1)
13 Blood (11+2)
9 Soul Reaping (8+1)

Awaken the Blood (for 16 Curses and 15 Blood)
Spiteful Spirit
Enfeebling Blood
Opressive Gaze
Vampric Swarm
Shadow Strike
Vampiric Gaze
Utility (Rez, Parasitic Bond, Life Syphon, or Well of Blood)

I love using the Enfeebling Blood/Opressive Gaze combo alongside SS. I also like Vampiric Swarm because its of its massive AOE range ("in the area"), so I use that whenever the enemies aren't close together enough for Enfeebling Blood/Opressive Gaze (which is only "adjacent").
Then of course there's the basic Shadow Strike --> Vampiric Gaze combo for single targets.

The only thing that can get fustrating is all the crazy enchantment stripping in Phrophacies, which can make using Awaken the Blood difficult at times with its 45 second recharge.
Lucky for us there isn't much enchantment stripping going on in Factions (Mesmers in Factions are all about interrupts for the most part), so Awaken the Blood is much easier to keep up.
Also, I find that 90%-95% of the time a cover enchantment is not needed to cover SS in PvE. But for the rare areas where it is needed, I bring Parasitic Bond as my utility skill.

A basic AOE attack looks like this:
Awaken the Blood --> Spiteful Spirit --> Enfeebling Blood --> Opressive Gaze --> other (usually Vampirc Swarm and/or another Opressive Gaze).

Great build IMO. Both effective and fun.

Enfeeble is not a hex.

Barbed wont get a good return, but oppressive gaze (AoE spell) will heal for what the signet did not. If it still bothers you, you could just start the chain with it instead, but IMO, that's less efficient.