VIMulence Build

dorkelf

dorkelf

Active Member
ViMulence Build, take a look and post your comments and suggestions.


1 Me/N Virulence Spiker
http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Me/N_Virulence_Spiker

1 R/A trapper with poisonous head +energy staff
16 WS, 12 Shadow Arts, rest in Expertise
Barbed Trap, Dust Trap, Troll Unguent, Death’s Retreat, Caltrops, Viper’s Defense, Brambles, Res

1 E/N Shockwave Warder with Necrotic Traversal and Kinetic Armor
Max Earth, 10 Death Magic for Traversal, rest in Energy Storage

2 E/W 'ViMferno' eles with Flame Burst, Glowing Gaze, Inferno, Immolate, Fire Attunement, Victory is Mine (Tactics Elite), None Shall Pass, Res
Max Fire, 8 Tactics, rest in Energy Storage

1 Protection Healer

Description: The virulence mesmer is able to inflict a combination of health-degen hexes and conditions on a target. This helps to bring down a soft target quickly at the beginning of the match while also causing conditions needed for the ViMferno eles. The trapper's traps, Caltrops, Brambles and Viper’s Defense will all cause conditions. The Shockwave Warder uses Necrotic Traversal followed by Shockwave to poison the enemy (another condition) and destroy nearby spirits, and the wards help to contain the enemy and mitigate damage. Finally two fire eles loaded up with the health and energy replenishment potential of VIM are able to spam massive spike (immolate) and aoe damage. They are also able to knock down fleeing enemies.

Strategy: The first step during battle is for the Virulence Spiker and ViMferno eles (using Immolate spams) to quickly take out a single target. Preferrably the first target would be a ritualist, conditions-removal monk or a high-value target in the center of a large enemy group. When the first enemy target goes down the N/E traverses in to the corpse, poisoning all nearby enemies, and drops shockwave plus wards (Shockwave will be likely to destroy nearby spirits, they take extra damage from it). The trapper initially protects the group from thumper attack, then deliberately into harm’s way to trigger Viper’s Defense. The trapper continues to drop traps as they recharge and uses death's retreat whenever necessary to retreat to the warder. ViMferno eles use mass damage whenever possible when they're in range to do so - it is important for them to be aware of the range of each spell.
 
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Sounds pretty offensive, sounds like it would work pretty well. Where will the healing come from for the mesmers and warder?
 
I was thinking about the healing part - it also occurred to me that two Virulence mesmers is probably overkill, because those hexes won't stack on a single target. So we can simply stick a protection healer into one of those slots. That would stave off any initial spike and make the group more survivable. And one ViMulence plus two inferno spammers should be plenty of offensive, especially with solid offensive support from the shockwave warder and trapper.

Paul
 
No offense to us, but SF is a build that very rarely wins HoH anymore (according to the people who play HoH all the time on GameFAQs and GWGuru). VIMulence is a build that will catch enough people off guard that if we can get the timing right, it's not out of question to take the hall. I will work on getting the skills necessary ASAP. Time to go capping...
 
We never really did a true SF ele build, we were always somewhat balanced. What I think we might have lacked with balanced SF was the ability to overload the monks and sustain our attacks. But still we could have won halls with it, we had a very close match every time we got to the Hall with balanced SF. The playing environment has shifted a bit lately though, like Pastori said.

Paul
 
dorkelf said:
We never really did a true SF ele build, we were always somewhat balanced. What I think we might have lacked with balanced SF was the ability to overload the monks and sustain our attacks. But still we could have won halls with it, we had a very close match every time we got to the Hall with balanced SF. The playing environment has shifted a bit lately though, like Pastori said.

Paul
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ya we did really well when we changed the Rit to more of a offensive tool then a defensive guy.
Dredd and I were testing the Mesmer build last night, it looked really good. 1v1 against a SF ele (Me) and i barly beat him but once he interrupted a spell or two i was gone hands down. and he was able to kill my base (except GL) while i only got half of his down. Cant wait for tuesday!
 
I like the mesmer build although it has one flaw. It runs out of Energy so fast. I can only spike one person and than I have to stand there and wait for the energy to recharge half the time. an RC monk ould wreck the mesmer but usually the spike happens too fast for him to do anything. I agree Bill that SF will not win halls which is why we never ran a real SF build not what we are doing will still get us a lot of wins with our Balanced SF it will not win the halls. Contrary to popular belief I am not stuck on one build and will only run that build. As paul and STC and a few others know I been working to find something that is original and is ours. We have always done other peoples builds with our own flair and our take on it and made it our own. I think we are on the verge of a breath through on this team. I like this build that paul has come up with and with some tweeking I think it can be very effective! We will be testing this Build Tuesday. Get the skills and be ready early! I want to get as many runs with this as possible.

NOW I want people's input on this but WE will NOT be jumping of this build in one night. We will lose but I do not want to hear people complain everytime we lose. If you saw something we did wrong speak up and give input on how to fix it. But if you don't have a suggestion than please we all are frustrated enough when we lose a few Just have fun and enjoy the company. Thank you!

Andrew
 
one2dredd said:
An RC monk would wreck the mesmer but usually the spike happens too fast for him to do anything.
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There is one disadvantage to Restore conditions, you can't use it on yourself. So if we ever run into one we spike him first and then deal with others.

I think this build will do great in HoH and sounds pretty stable. I was wondering if a dervish would work better than an assassin? I have never played an assassin before and know that Dervish posses an advantage cause they can hit multiple targets at one time. Also instead of the traps which could be interrupted easily we could use the dervish enchant/disenchant to cause conditions. Also dervish would be a good in the aspect of annoying and taking attention off of the other characters. I was messing around with my dervish and I had 5 enchanting skills that caused conditions (burning, weakness, crippling, blinding, and bleeding). I was thinking once the battle starts the dervish enchants using the 5 enchants and then we call a target. The mesmer casts fragility on the called target and then the dervish starts attacking the target. Once the eles. start spiking with damage the dervish uses mystic sandstorm to remove all the enchantments onto the adjacent and nearby foes. Good idea? Bad idea? Should I stick to PvE? :p
 
Also the Dervish Can use Avatar of Malandru and cannot be effected by Conditions! And they can self heal really easy.


I also see the point of the Trapper though. I don't think you can go wrong with either. I think we will try it with the trapper first.
 
Just some thing to throw out there

Pestilence: Nature Ritual. It was: Create a level 1...8 spirit. For any creature that dies within its range, all Conditions on that creature are spread to all nearby creatures. This spirit dies after 30...78 seconds. (Wilderness Survival)

Lacerate: Elite Nature Ritual. Create a level 1...8 Spirit. Bleeding creatures within its range suffer -2 health degeneration. When this Spirit dies, all creatures within its range that have less than 90% Health begin Bleeding for 5...21 seconds. This Spirit dies after 30...126 seconds. (Beast, I dont see this one working but eh..)

Toxicity: Nature Ritual. Create a level 1...8 Spirit. Poisoned or Diseased creatures within its range suffer -2 Health degeneration. This Spirit dies after 15...51 seconds. (Beast)
 
one2dredd said:
Also the Dervish Can use Avatar of Malandru and cannot be effected by Conditions! And they can self heal really easy.


I also see the point of the Trapper though. I don't think you can go wrong with either. I think we will try it with the trapper first.
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I completely agree with you and SP that the dervish might be a good alternative to the trapper, since it adds a little melee into the group while dishing out lots of conditions. We can try both and see what works.

Mirawyn, Prince Cor and I did some preliminary testing of this build in Zaishen Challenge. We only had the Virulence Mes, Trapper, a single ele and a healing hench, and then we dropped the trapper in favor of the warder. I did learn about a couple of ups and downs of this strategy. First, the mesmer is able to deliver a very powerful initial spike, and even with a single ele taking out any single target is pretty easy. However, like Dredd said, after that the mesmer was out of energy and couldn't run the sequence again. Unfortunately, the suggested energy recovery skill (drain enchantment) for the mes is really iffy because it depends on finding a target who is enchanted. One thing I am looking at is arcane echo instead of the energy recovery. That way, fragility can be echoed and then the mesmer can spam fragility around the rest of the group after the spike instead of worry about delivering a second spike (we still do have 2 eles after all). The important thing to keep in mind about the mesmer in this build is that they're supposed to knock out a single target to allow the warder to traverse - subsequent spikes are nice but not absolutely necessary.

Second, I discovered that Sandstorm may be a nice alternative to Shockwave for the warder, especially since it can be dropped even before the initial target goes down. BUT, when it is dropped in the middle of an enemy group they are going to scatter, which is exactly what you don't want them to do. It can be reserved for after a traversal and ward against foes - that is probably best.

Paul
 
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Stc95 said:
Just some thing to throw out there

Pestilence: Nature Ritual. It was: Create a level 1...8 spirit. For any creature that dies within its range, all Conditions on that creature are spread to all nearby creatures. This spirit dies after 30...78 seconds. (Wilderness Survival)

Lacerate: Elite Nature Ritual. Create a level 1...8 Spirit. Bleeding creatures within its range suffer -2 health degeneration. When this Spirit dies, all creatures within its range that have less than 90% Health begin Bleeding for 5...21 seconds. This Spirit dies after 30...126 seconds. (Beast, I dont see this one working but eh..)

Toxicity: Nature Ritual. Create a level 1...8 Spirit. Poisoned or Diseased creatures within its range suffer -2 Health degeneration. This Spirit dies after 15...51 seconds. (Beast)
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Great suggestions STC. The Beast Mastery is the trick, BUT expertise isn't as important for this trapper anyway so we could probably work something out. I particularly like the idea of Lacerate, maybe that and Pestilence or Brambles.

Paul
 
I actually Dropped the Distortion skill and brought an interrupt that If I interrupt a spell I gain 21 energy. That helped alot also I was playing around with Web of Deception instead of Distortion as well. Distortion wastes engery btw and I found I can spike rather quickly without it.
 
Some good energy gaining skills for mesmer:

Ether Lord (inspiriation magic) Hex Spell. You lose all Energy. For 5...9 seconds, target foe suffers -1...3 Energy degeneration, and you experience +1...3 Energy regeneration. 5 energy cost, 2 sec cast and 20 sec recharge

Ether signet (ins magic) Signet. If you have less than 5...9 Energy, gain 10...18 Energy. 1 sec cast 60 sec recharge

Leech Sig (ins magic) Signet. Interrupt target foe's action. If that action was a spell, you gain 3...13 Energy. 1/4 sec cast and 30 sec recharge.

The Avatar of Grenth is also a good dervish elite b/c removes enchantments with each attack. Balthzar would be good to beat on targets that are running or haveing a running skill would help.
 
Some updates and further comments

1 Me/N Virulence Spiker
http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Me/N_Virulence_Spiker

Illusion of weakness might be switched out for drain enchantment. Or for alternative energy recovery, Channeling could be used.

1 R/A trapper with poisonous head +energy staff
16 WS, 12 Shadow Arts, rest in Expertise
Barbed Trap, Dust Trap, Troll Unguent, Death’s Retreat, Caltrops, Viper’s Defense, Brambles, Res

The Expertise points could instead be invested into Beast Mastery, allowing for the use of spirits suggested by STC.

1 E/N Shockwave Warder with Necrotic Traversal and Kinetic Armor AND VILE MIASMA (added)
Max Earth, 10 Death Magic for Traversal, rest in Energy Storage

Could also be a Sandstorm warder. Could also be a Virulence warder! :)

2 E/W 'ViMferno' eles with Flame Burst, Glowing Gaze, Inferno, Immolate, Fire Attunement, Victory is Mine (Tactics Elite), None Shall Pass, Res
Max Fire, 8 Tactics, rest in Energy Storage

For those who might want to consider removing ViM for another elite such as searing flames, here's a breakdown of possible ViM energy/health gain with 8 tactics (which can be repeated every 15 seconds)

1 condition - no net energy gain, 41 health
2 conditions - 5 energy, 82 health
3 conditions - 10 energy, 123 health
4 conditions - 15 energy, 164 health
5 conditions - 20 energy, 205 health

So the inclusion of ViM may depend on the minimum number of conditions a targeted enemy is likely to have. I think 3+ conditions is what we'd be wanting to see for ViM to be worth it, pumping the eles up with a minimum of 10 energy and 123 health every 15 seconds (but potentially much more.) There are 9 possible conditions and I think our build is capable of causing just about every one.

Paul
 
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Hey Dredd last night with that random TA we did i brought Blood Ritual for you, did that help at all. i know that during out SF build BR would have helped me a lot. just wondering


also if the Mes build is to take out one target really fast, well we have 6 people and they have 6 people.... 6 mes, spike 6 different people, 6 vrs 0. eh..
 
Stc95 said:
also if the Mes build is to take out one target really fast, well we have 6 people and they have 6 people.... 6 mes, spike 6 different people, 6 vrs 0. eh..
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LOL That would be funny! Unfortunately, there's no flexibility if you do that. If something goes wrong, you are in SERIOUS trouble. :eek:

But it sure would be funny... I can just imagine the, uh, colorful metaphors that would come flying over local chat... :D
 
MaidMirawyn said:
LOL That would be funny! Unfortunately, there's no flexibility if you do that. If something goes wrong, you are in SERIOUS trouble. :eek:

But it sure would be funny... I can just imagine the, uh, colorful metaphors that would come flying over local chat... :D
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play the game the C$ way and un-check the chat :p
 
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