Team Build of Spinal Shivers

Ironchest

Ironchest

Pre-Searing Cadet

Join Date: Aug 2005

Royal Crusaders of Tyria

W/N

okay, this is my first post, so, I'm sorry if isn't the greatest...

Anway, I was playing with my spinal shivers necro, when I got this crazy idea for a team build, I have never played monk or ranger too well but, here goes:

I know monks have some kind of skill that when team mates get hit, they gain energy or something, and combined with spinal shivers, would stop spinal shivers from ending...

So, if you had a ranger put down winter, and a bunch of Mo/N or N/Mo use that energy skill I mentioned above, as well as spinal shivers on an enemy no other Mo/N or N/Mo has put on... Then you could use smiting skills, to deal wide range dmg(maybe dark aura + dark pact or touch of agony, but hp might be a problem), and because of winter, all the enemies would be, conceptually, stopped. With something like order of the vampire, order of pain, or weaken armor, or that skill that monks have that increases dmg, you could deal more damage.

Obviously, there are some flaws, like, not knowing exact skills, but, please pot your thoughts, opinions, and improvments.

BTW, the point of the team build would be that the enemy could never really do much, and you would be dealing out constant dmg.

Dispeyr

Pre-Searing Cadet

Join Date: Jul 2005

Ninja Tiger Sharks [NTS]

Mo/W

Nature's Renewal would stop this cold, as you're relying heavily on enchantments and hexes - especially with a hex that shoots up to a 4 second casting time under NR. If the shutdown side of the other team is haflway on their game, that spell will never get cast.

I'm also guessing that you're referring to either Balthazar's Spirit or Essence Bond as the monk skill, and neither would function well enough to counter the Spinal Shivers energy cost in a PvP setting - Essence Bond is reliant on the enchanted target taking physical damage to return energy to the caster, and Balthazar's Spirit would only farm enough energy to counter the degen from Spinal if you were the target of the other team's focus. Considering that you want almost every member of the team to have Spinal running on almost every member of the other team, you're looking at the whole group taking a 6 energy hit every time the enemy takes damage from any one of you wielding the aoe spells. You'll stop the other team for all of 5 seconds or so, and then be bone dry.

You'll also be dealing with Hex Breaker on quite a few Mesmer primaries and secondaries as well, but that's a lesser concern.

knives

knives

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Jun 2005

USA

Grenths Rejects [GR]

Me/

Why not just use a ranger with inciendary arrows + tigers fury + choking gas?

Jake

Academy Page

Join Date: Jul 2005

W/

spinal shivers on the NR ranger at the start, then a warrior with an icy weapon beats on him for the rest of the match

sounds good on paper at least!

Mitsu Bishi

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jun 2005

Austria

Need for Seed [SeeD]

Mo/Me

Smiting won't work because it isn't elemental damage and therefore NOT converted into cold damage

JackOften

Academy Page

Join Date: Jul 2005

ZF does ele damage

AcidRock

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Apr 2005

Quebec

Think Big Sti [PING]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jake
spinal shivers on the NR ranger at the start, then a warrior with an icy weapon beats on him for the rest of the match

sounds good on paper at least! And where will the energy required to maintain spinal shiver will come from ? if i remember correctly you loose 10-6 energy every time the target is it by cold damage (or is interupted i dont know )... somehow you need to find a way to regain the energy lost to keep SS up that long ... considering you have to recast it every 15-26 seconds or so for another 10 energy lost.

btw, could anyone confirm how SS is working ? the description says "whenever target foe is struck for cold damage, that foe is interrupted and you lose 10-6 Energy or Spinal Shivers ends"... do you loose the energy every time the target actually receive cold damage ? or only when the target is interupted ? because if the target isnt doing something interuptable... then i dont see why SS would interupt him and make you loose the energy ...

arredondo

arredondo

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: May 2005

You only lose energy when successfully interrupting. You regen the entire time. Since most targets don't like to lose the use of skills by being interrupted continually, they stop doing those actions which is a win for the SS spammers (unless they have a Mesmer Mantra on of course). Energy problems are not a major problem in an actual fight from my experience with the skill. Two or three skills max are usually interrupted.

DarkAynjil

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: May 2005

Quote:
Originally Posted by arredondo
You only lose energy when successfully interrupting. You regen the entire time. Since most targets don't like to lose the use of skills by being interrupted continually, they stop doing those actions which is a win for the SS spammers (unless they have a Mesmer Mantra on of course). Energy problems are not a major problem in an actual fight from my experience with the skill. Two or three skills max are usually interrupted.
Been playing a Mes/Necro SS build for a day or two now, it works. You only lose energy when you interrupt, so if you take leech sig, and I take Energy Drain [E] you should rarely run outta energy. I shut monks down easy.

Ilya Khan

Ilya Khan

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Apr 2005

Los Angeles, CA

-FdM-

Me/Mo

Uh...how about Greater Conflagration + winter?
Then you could all wear frostbound and (supposing your ranger, if not, then an anti-cold/elemental outfit) use Storm Chaser. This should keep your energy nice and high!

Carinae

Carinae

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jun 2005

Inside

Fifteen Over Fifty [Rare]

I'm not the one selling this, nor do I know the person.

But this is the perfect SS wand. Winter not required!!

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...t=deadly+cesta

arredondo

arredondo

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: May 2005

Necro weapons tied to the Death and Curse lines are cold weapons naturally, including the PvP-only versions.

DarkAynjil

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: May 2005

Quote:
Originally Posted by arredondo
Necro weapons tied to the Death and Curse lines are cold weapons naturally, including the PvP-only versions. Yeah, I take the PvP Curses Truncheon with Increases Curse Casting Speed and a PvP Cesta with Increases Curse Recharge and Cast Speed /w +12 en...
they deal cold damage already - hence no need to cast damage spells (if you're just using SS for the interrupts, which I am.)

Eonwe

Jungle Guide

Join Date: May 2005

New Jersey

Idiot Savants

I think the monk skill you were refering to would be essence bond. The energy loss from spinal shivers would be tight for 3 pips and essence bond to keep up with. Hex removal would also be a big problem that I can see. Also, just dropping a winter would not work. An easier way of doing it (though I don't recommend trying this build), would be to just have the rangers bring Icy bow strings. If you wanted to go the spirit way, you would need Winter + Greater Conflag. Because greater conflag changes all *physical damage* to fire damage, and winther would then changed that *elemental damage* to cold damage.

DarkAynjil

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: May 2005

Hex removal isn't too much of a problem in tombs, IMO. I usually cast SS and follow with Parasitic to "bury" it. If they have a /me secondary, I parasitic first in case of Hex Breaker, then SS and Parasitic to bury.
Then wand away. One Monk locked down. You could have wars or rangers with Icy mods, but then you would want to spread over several targets for mass disruption.
Winter isn't necessary, Nor is greater Conflagration. Use an Icy bowstring and save a skill slot.

Eonwe

Jungle Guide

Join Date: May 2005

New Jersey

Idiot Savants

Saying that Hex removal isn't a problem would be ludicrous, sorry. Atleast against teams that have a clue as to what they're doing.

DarkAynjil

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: May 2005

Quote:
Originally Posted by Eonwe
Saying that Hex removal isn't a problem would be ludicrous, sorry. Atleast against teams that have a clue as to what they're doing. Didn't say it wasn't a problem, said "It isn't MUCH of a problem."
I've yet to see a team strip my shivers. Usually, they only have 1 or 2 monks carrying Smite Hex/Inspired Hex each. If you're careful and are watching for it, you can easily interrupt their hex removal, if you have a clue what you are doing, that is.

Eonwe

Jungle Guide

Join Date: May 2005

New Jersey

Idiot Savants

Maybe you're just used to rolling over scrub teams :| .

stumpy

stumpy

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Feb 2005

Canucklehead BC, Canada

Advanced Necro Undead Society

im a scrubby guy with common sense and that means build around whats weak in the game. Hex removal is probably the weakest link in the game so most teams will prepare for it. If I'm in a PUG, my expectations drop as I have yet to see one take it over 'breeze' wtf? this one still tickles me pink .

DarkAynjil

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: May 2005

Quote:
Originally Posted by Eonwe
Maybe you're just used to rolling over scrub teams :| . Could be, I'll admit, a lot of teams in tombs are scrub, but I don't think that's it because of the fact that I have faced GOOD teams, and with the possibilty of slamming another hex up as fast as they can remove it, and/or wand-interrupting smite/remove hex, I can (9 times outta 10) keep SS on my target. There have been a few teams who got it removed, but they were well coordinated and it took a mesmer interrupt to keep it from coming back for a few seconds. Hence the need for a cheap "spammable" hex in the build (I use parasitic bond.)
Still, the only real threat here is smite hex, and if you're good at tabbing targets while wanding, you can use an interrupt such as leech sig to stop it.
It almost takes 2 monks to remove it. Seriously, give the build a shot in a tombs match.

Yukito Kunisaki

Yukito Kunisaki

Forge Runner

Join Date: Mar 2005

Chicago, IL

W/N

If it's not broke, don't fix it. However, I see something broken here...

edit* did some skill checks to be sure, but a Arcane Echo + Convert hexes maneuver can stop [though very expensive] most hex spammer type builds...

I think in order for a hex to work these days, you need N/E for a NASTY combination setup [and yes, with spinal added in, it can work...]

AoE hexes like these can be downright devastating since there isn't an AoE Hex removal skill anymore... [and with that, the return of ICE is now]

Ice Spikes
Frozen Burst
Deep Freeze
Suffering
Shadow of Fear
Spiteful Spirit {E} [though not AoE, it affects an AoE]

Some examples, however, these hexes are mostly limited to incoming enemy warriors, but escaping casters will probably hate your guts to no end. [the fact that the biggest AoE hexes are in ice line coupling with Spinal Shivers may be quite useful as well. Problem? how to keep your energy going... Maybe going E/N instead (which is good due to Ether Renewal and E. Storage]

DarkAynjil

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: May 2005

In tombs for a team-build I would probably have another Mes spamming Diversion and another hex, or maybe just interrupting, and looking out specifically for smite/inspired hex, etc. But with 2 Mes/Necros casting SS and other nasty stuff, I don't see too much of a need to worry heavily about hex removal - just make sure SS has other hexes on top of it, and wand away. Energy Management isn't too much of an issue, unless you're facing mass e-drain mesmers, which IMO are much more likely to stop you cold, due to the fact that SS ends when you have no energy. For that reason, I keep Energy Drain and Leech Sig on my bar.

The build I'm currently testing/tweaking is:

Mesmer/Necro

11 Insp. (+1 hat) (+3 Rune) = 15 Insp.
12 Curses
rest in fast cast (5 or 6? can't remember... with a minor rune.)

Skills:

SS
Parasitic Bond (Used to break Hex Breaker and "bury" SS)
Shadow of Fear
Energy Drain [E]
Leech Sig
Rend Enchantments
Power Drain
Res Sig

Odai

Academy Page

Join Date: Apr 2005

Columbus, Ohio

Quote:
Originally Posted by Carinae Dragonblood
I'm not the one selling this, nor do I know the person.

But this is the perfect SS wand. Winter not required!!

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...t=deadly+cesta
You can get this in Mineral Springs from a collector
I can't remember his name but he is just north of the western most rez portal.
He shares a hut with a materials trader at the west end of a valley.

UberRusty

Banned

Join Date: Jun 2005

amsterdam, where male prostitution is legal

[GGG] Gay Guild Gals

W/R

Selling Superior Rune of Flaming, P S T.

I have run my fair share of Spinal Shiver builds, and it is best to use it only on 1 target, with one cold damage dealer on the target. Otherwise your energy will turn to 0.