Spinal Shivers Shutdown

This build shines in 4v4 when one or two monks at most are ever present in most situations. Haven't attempted 8v8 fights yet.

N/W - In my opinion, this build is far better at shutting down than a ranger. With a sword you'll be attacking faster (Atleast that's what I belive) than a short bow. And if they get out of range somehow, you'll have a wand to keep them down.
If you really wanted, you could use an axe instead. It still works, but a sword attacks faster I believe which is key.

Strengths: Incredible interrupt power.
Weaknesses: Very energy extensive. No survivability.

Equipment:
* Sword (Icy Hilt + Whatever) / Idol (20/20 Blood)
* Accursed Rod (20 Recharge) / Idol (20/20 Blood)
* Scar Pattern armor set (I prefer energy for this build, but whatever.)


Attributes:
14 Curse (+1 Head Piece, +1 Major)
11 Blood (+1 Minor)
2 Soul Reaping (+1 Minor)
10 Swordsmanship


Skills:
1.) Flurry - Faster Attack
2.) Sever Artery - DoT
3.) Hamstring - A Snare
4.) Plague Touch - Condition Removal
5.) Parasitic Bond - Hex Stack (Read Bottom @)
6.) Spinal Shivers - Interrupt (Important to have 14 Curses at minimum!)
7.) Offering of Blood - Energy Gain
8.) Rez Signet - A rez...


How To:
* Begin by casting Spinal Shivers on your target and then immediately Parasitic Bond.
* Move into melee range and spam Flurry to keep shut down.
*Hamstring to stop them running. (Owns in 4v4 since the only condition removal in the team is the monk you're shutting down.)
* Everytime you interrupt you lose energy, so use OoB constantly to recover energy.
* Sever Artery to add DPS.
* Use Plauge Touch to remove conditions from yourself and further hinder your target.

Tips:
* Watch your energy! If you hit 0 energy Spinal Shivers ends. If you have to, stop attacking till you recover enough or can use Offering of Blood.
* Target Elementalist last! They have a larger energy pool than you and if smart enough, they'll just let you interrupt them till you run out of energy thus removing Spinal Shivers.
* If Hamstring isn't lasting long enough, you could drop a couple points from Blood to Swordsmanship.
* Have your team attack something other than your target. It saves you time, effort, and energy. It'll piss off the person you're on. The person is already shutdown, no need to kill him yet


@Doing this gives the enemy a pink health bar which signifies if and when they try to remove hex. So basically, every time they remove hex, you recast Parasitic Bond so your Spinal Shivers is safe still. You'd need a 2 timed hex removals to remove Spinal Shivers.
Also, you can use Parasitic Bond as a timer to recast Spinal Shivers if you're on top of it. Parasitic Bond lasts 20 seconds and two of these equal 40 seconds. Spinal Shivers lasts 38 seconds, so about when the second Parasitic Bond ends is when you need to recast.

I've made a very very similar build. Maybe I'll submit it. And I tend to hit elementalist first because they have longest spells and are easiest to interrupt. Remember they don't gain energy from attunements if they get interrupted.

idk when i first saw spinal shivers getting upped i thought you would do better as a ranger with marksmans wager/spinal shivers. but then there are better interupts for rangers (choking gas/practiced stance, serpents quickness/IA) etc.

intersting idea, although i suspect you will run out of energy realy fast. you might want to try a similar build as a ranger with marksmans wager, then you can add pin down instead of hamstring, TF instead of flurry (you wont have that much of an energy problem with wager), etc. nice build all in all

Ok heres the deal, N/W is the way to play this build, and I have perfected it for the most part. You run only curses and axe. 12 axe 12 curses, with a curse headpiece and minor rune gives you 14 curses which is just enough to get over that 6 energy hump.

Skills are as follows:

frenzy
sprint
eviscerate
axe rake
penetrating blow
executionars strike
spinal shivers
res sig

If you dont have anyone else on your team to stacka hex then substitute executinors or penetrating for parasitic. Energy is not an issue at all. Only thing that costs mana is spinal. I kill fast enough so that I dont have to interrupt that many times. I have yet to meet a monk that could stand up to eviscrate and all those others whilst being interrupted. This build obviously has its counters, but it packs one heck of a whallop when they arent exactly ready. If im on a solid team I like to bring wild blow instead of penetrating so i can stop them from blocking or evading. this is definitely the way to do this build, energy is not an issue at all.

I have no experience with SS, so I have a few questions:

Gabriel, what if the team is hosting 2 monks, how is Energy not an issue then, cause it seems to me that you need to be able to substain SS (with/without Parasitic Bond) hence OoB.

From your experiences, since you allready have Sprint, is it really necessary to carry a snare (Axe Rake)? As Zenny noted, wouldn't switching to the rod suffice to some degree until Sprint recharges?

BTW, Swords and Axes have the same attack rate.

sprint is a neccesity for those times when you are against that monk that does nothing but run at first. You gotta sprint so you can hit him enough times to charge your adrenaline for the cripple. I like to get my adrenaline charged or almost all the way charged and then hit them with spinal shivers. that way its already too late for them when they realize they are hexed. And no energy is not a problem. The dmg is very good and can reach close to 100 with eviscerate and executinors, so i find that most of the time im interrupting maybe 4 spells. thats 20 energy at lvl 14 curses, which regens in no time. try it out with the same exact skills i listed you will have a ball. It will pi@@ you off when you are usiong frenzy and get spiked since you will die in about 2 hits but its fun if you got a decent monk.

If they have two monks then interrupting one alone is not enough. pair yourself with a kd/as warrior and sic him on the other monk then you will be having fun.

The reason I prefer SS over a rangers prepartion shutdowns is there are going to be downtimes while casting and downtimes.

Then there's the Bow vs Melee. Maybe I just have bad experience with a bow, but I've had better success when I'm in their face rather than plinking sticks at them.

Hmm, I'll have to fiddle with an axe then. Good to know.

i know a better idea though, but im not sure if itll work, it follows the same concept.

R/N
12 curses
12 marks (8+3+1) archers mask
10 expertise(9+1)
Wep( Anything with a icy bow string on it), prefferable if you get a bow that deals+dmg vs hexed
Skills:
Marksmans Wager
Called Shot
Favorible Winds
Spinal Shivers
Plague Sending
Pin Down
Rez Signet
*Anything*

youd run outta energy SO fast!!

Works well, but try maybe having a E/N hexer that uses it and the warrior is just the one that inturrupts, that way the warrior can use IAS skills like Tigers fury or flurry while the necro is the one that has to worry about the energy loss. Not sure how well it works in tombs though.

Try using a E/N using Ether renewal and then spam ice spells.

Isnt that what i just said?

And I dont think you can argue that an E/N that uses ice spells can inturrupt more frequently then a warrior with a hilt, maybe a combination of both the ice e/n for snares and the warrior with ice hilt would work though.

umm, like what - water trident?
no, all you would need is a cold damage wand/staff. Under ether renewal, use armor of frost, with aura of rest, and maybe ice spear? Water is hard to spam, unless you have Water Trident.

Er... Penetrating blow doesn't work with evis/exec/rake, why can't I fight more ignorant people like you who think they have "perfected" their build when it actually sucks. =/ One smite hex and you're done. Also, frenzy and sprint both cost energy, it's not just spinal.

I tried ranger with marksman's wager and just isn't the same. And he won't run out of energy, trust me. Nothing funny like killing monk when he fails to cast his heal 6 times in a row.

I did something like that
Axe 16
Curses 9 or 10 forget
Tactics at 10-12
Str w/e was left
Dismember
Axe rake
Axe Twist
Victory is mine
Spinal Shivers
Rigor mortis
Flurry

Id go and cast Ss and then Rigor. Run update hit Flurry. Dismember, rake, twist, VIM when enrgy was low. Basically I could get two VIM out of one cycle of conditions one vim would get me 15 energy 2nd time about 10 I think

Worked really nicely

Are your referring to Gabriel's or Zenny's build?

Nope. Your post did not mention Ether Renewal, ice, or spam.

I was thinking Ice Spear, since Trident is Elite.

Generally speaking I never had any problems with energy without any energy regaining spells using sword and spinal shivers. Unless I got energy drained of course.

Thanks!

PVP archer your a fool. Did you even try the build I listed or did you just jump right into criticism? I've played that so many times and I have never had any problems with energy. Penetrating doesnt work with eviscerate? am I confused or are you stupid. Its there cause it costs 5 adrenaline and does a nice chunk of dmg. smite hex? give me a break.

When it's played how its supposed to be smite hex is not a problem at all. I CRIPPLE FIRST dumba@@. that means I hit them enough to axe rake so that once i cast spinal i dont have to run all over gods creation trying to hit him. Or maybe you didnt read the rest of my post, the whole parasitic bond hex buff thing???? once again, the axe attacks do plenty enough dmg to knock them out quickly. and If i have someone else helping me (anyone ever heard of team arenas?) i may interrupt them three to four times. hmm thats about 25 energy with frenzy and sprint, about half of my total mana pool, which is constantly regenerating. do some research before you go calling people ignorant.

I was wondering when people would start using spinal shivers. It's a brilliant skill when used properly, with decent energy management- something that isn't all that difficult to do when you're a mesmer or elementalist primary.

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God Zenny I didn't know you had an account on here...

This is my N/W build, and to be frank, it rocks. But if you're looking to shutdown someone completely, get a Mesmer.. I've ran this build in the past, those who may have faced it in 4v4 or Tombs may have noted as an "uncommon" sight, before I pummelled you to death. I don't run this build anymore. No point...

1. Flurry
2. Penetrating Blow
3. Dismember
4. Disrupting Chop/Executioner’s Strike
5. Malaise
6. Wither [E]
7. Spinal Shivers
8. Rez Signet

Notes: Malaise and Wither on team’s target, Spinal Shivers on the target you want to interrupt. ALWAYS keep Flurry on, otherwise you may not be fast enough to interrupt all spells/skills. Spam axe skills as they come up. I prefer Disrupting Chop for HoH; Executioner’s Strike for Arena.

I went and rolled up a PvP character and used this build. I must say that it completely rocks; there's nothing like running up to the Monk or Elementalist on the team and completely owning them while they scream, "WTF I CAN't CAST?!?!?//<die>"

My only real problem is my survivability. I'm in the random 4v4, so I won't always get paired with warriors and monks, and if I run into their team first I almost invariably die. If I can live and get around the frontline then things work out gloriously; if not, then... not so great.

Interestingly, this build is good against almost everything. I can dispatch hybrid warriors with it quite easily, as well as rangers. The only real difficulty for me are pure warriors, especially of the hammer variety. If they aren't casting, but instead trying to pound me to death, I generally die.

I guess I will post mine, as it addresses the issue of arena survivability.
Copied directly from my guild's article section . Admins can put this into builds directory if they want.

Spura's Assasin

Necromancer/Warrior

Curses 10+4
Tactics 11 (10)
Swordsmanship 10 (11)

Spinal Shivers
Plague Touch (Parasitic Bond)
Sever Artery
Gash
Hamstring
Victory is Mine! {E}
Shield Stance (Watch Yourself, Distracting Blow)
Healing Signet (Frenzy)

Arena (8v8)

Icy sword of Defense and Shield

You may want parasitic bond in arena as well, depends on how much of a problem is hex removal.

Generally try to get close to target as possible before casting Spinal shivers. In arena that usually allows you to interrupt attempts to self remove hex. If you are pacting parasitic bond, then cast bond first to get through possible hex breaker. If you encounter hex breaker, watch for activation animation. After they activate it the second time, break it with bond and cast spinal shivers. Generally, try to have covered spinal shivers with parasitic bond all the time. Learn to recognize remove hex target (not casting) animation and you can detect smite hex, because you take damage. In that case recast Parasitic Bond. Also recast it if you receive 114 health. That means 20 sec timer has run out. Anyway, after spinal shivers is on target(and covered with bond if you are using 8v8 variation) just attack the target with sword and you will interrupt their skills. Use sword skills: Hamstring->Sever Artery->Gash. After that use Victory is mine, that should give you enough energy and health to keep going.

Ideally you will have poison ranger or disease necro on the team and with few enemies around you, you will easily get healed 300+ HP per victory is mine.
In arena use healing signet to avoid getting dotted to death and shield stance if you are getting focused. In 8v8 use frenzy cautiously.

Generally skills cost at least 5 energy(rangers are exception here). So in the worst case you are trading 5 en for 5 en, while doing damage and they get no effect. But usually you can get 5 en for 15 en.

Target Selection:

Elementalists are ideal targets:
- Exhaustion kicks in even if spell is interrupted
- Attunements don't give energy back if spell is interrupted. Those double attunement elementalists will soon find themselves out of energy.
- The have quite long spells and thus are easy targets for disruption at the rate of 1 per 1.33 sec.

Monks are good as well:
- Disrupting a few consecutive heals in arena often kills the monk.
- Sometime you can manage to disrupt few Reversals of Fortune in a row (0.25 sec cast).

You can disrupt Troll Unquent, various resurrects, preparations even warrior and ranger attacks. I even disrupted Power Spike.

Another funny thing in arena is people putting backfire and shame and stuff like that on me, after I have gotten the Spinal shivers off.

Oh, ViM! That should help the energy issue more.

I personally never experienced an energy issue. However, I really do like Spura's build (and I think I have enough faction for all the necessary sword skills) so I'll go give it a shot. ViM sure would increase survivability, at that, though I think I may stick with axe for now just since deep wounds are so terribly giggle-inducing.

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