Weighted Companion Cube
Brinstar and half the blogosphere have already beaten me to talking about it but, oh well, it's still awesome so I'm going to do it anyway. I have been busy lately, in addition to all those things I mentioned yesterday, seeing just what's inside the Orange Box. I've been waiting for Team Fortress 2 for years now and it's as advertised. And I'm, sadly, one of those people who missed out on Half-Life 2 when it first came out. I know, I have no idea why, either. So, I was content to pick up Valve's value-packed bundle for those alone. But the game I've been playing the most has turned out to be Portal.
I'm not normally prone to hyperbole so you'll hopefully believe me when I say that Portal is roughly fifteen times better than pure awesomeness distilled into liquid form and injected into your veins. I thought Team Fortress 2 was going to be the gem of the Orange Box and while that's a fun game in and of itself - love the different combinations of classes and tactics to play around with (Heavy and Meds ftw, for me) - but Portal has just consumed me lately. And the promise of future iterations with multiplayer and more just fill me with glee. Here, if you don't believe me, go play the flash version.
Maybe that's why I've been flagging lately. Or maybe it's because I've been trying to burn myself out on Guild Wars. Trying to get it out of my system before the opening bell of NaNo rings on the 1st. I've nearly beaten all three campaigns with all my characters now, just one more push through the DoA and I'll be done. And some backtracking means I'm pretty close to maxing out a few titles, too. Of course, now I'm thinking about starting up a Ritualist. Which makes absolutely no sense, as I have no idea how you even play a Rit in PvE these days. Sigh, such an addict.
Oh well, here's to a better tomorrow.
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PvE Support Rit
Ritualist/Monk
Level: 20
Spawning Power: 9 (8+1)
Communing: 11 (10+1)
Channeling Magic: 16 (12+4)
Restoration Magic: 3 (2+1)
- Ancestors' Rage (Channeling Magic)
- Splinter Weapon (Channeling Magic)
- Sundering Weapon (Communing)
- Agony (Channeling Magic)
- Offering of Spirit [Elite] (Channeling Magic)
- Shelter (Communing)
- Union (Communing)
- Flesh of my Flesh (Restoration Magic)
Pretty effective. Splinter Weapon is usually the MvP - it does a ridiculous amount of damage in PvE because the AI doesn't scatter from it. Hence 16 in Channeling.
Sundering Weapon is better than it looks, IMHO, because so many NPCs have really high armour - Cracked Armour is really more of a PvE condition than a PvP condition.
Bloodsong is tempting but not really worth it because PvE fights are usually over so fast.
For extra support, bring this hero:
Physical Support MM
Necromancer/Elementalist
Soul Reaping: 8
Curses: 10
Death Magic: 12
- Barbs (Curses)
- Mark of Pain (Curses)
- Animate Bone Minions (Death Magic)
- Death Nova (Death Magic)
- Glyph of Lesser Energy (Energy Storage)
- Signet of Lost Souls (Soul Reaping)
- Jagged Bones [Elite] (Death Magic)
- Resurrection Signet ()
Add warriors/paragons and a pair of monk henchmen. Throw in a BHA ranger if you need more disruption and less steamrolling power. Note that Barbs and Mark of Pain both proc on Splinter Weapon (which does physical damage). Both sorts of minions also proc the two hexes.
You're not supposed to be feeding my addiction, Clammy, you're supposed to be helping me ween myself of the digital drug. Also, blog more before we declare you legally dead again.
On the builds, way ahead of you. I'd have to check the exact build but my Razahs either run something like what you've posted with weapons and a few choice spirits. Or go into full-on Rit Lord spirit spam for massive party wide protection.
My Necro henchies tend to be either SV bastards (Sometimes I pair an SV and a SS although generally, I'd rather just bring more SF Eles) or MMs. The Minion Masters are N/Mo since I want them to have Heal Area to keep their minion armies alive. Switching to slash E for GLE would mean dropping that but I could always pick up Blood of the Master and, lately, with a sensible Jagged those minions are dying too fast to do much about it anyways. But I've been packing Barbs for a long time now. Never thought about Mark of Pain although that would be a nice addition.
My go-to party, though, is two SF Eles with secondaries tailored to purpose and a BHA Ranger. Monk henchie (plural if I'm not on my own Monk. If I am, I usually grab another nuker. I have bad memories of Orion et al from Prophesies days but Cynn is actually pretty nasty in later campaigns.), a tank, and lately I've been having good results with the Mesmer henchies of all things.
As for me, I got bored/frustrated/listless one day and started one up. Still stuck in newbie land on Cantha but at decent enough level to start rounding into shape. Splinter Weapon was the first skill I bought. Don't have GW:EN yet so Sundering's out of the picture. I've been using Brutal, the +dmg one with a duration of roughly forever, instead. Put that on the Warrior henchie, keep slapping Splinter up on the Sin henchie - who should attack faster even without buffs thanks to double hits from the daggers - and use both to fuel Wielder's Boon or whatever the heal that requires the target to be under a weapon spell is. Shelter I haven't had much use for yet since we're low enough level that nothing's hitting hard enough to require a Prot Spirit but Union's a staple. No elite, either, so Offering of Spirit is out in favor of an item spell - I switch back and forth between Generous and Mighty there. Since we're in four man party territory, I've been trending towards the defensive/healing side of support so I can take the spot of a Monk in the group but the idea is pretty similar to what you've posted - add damage to the bangers and prot everyone up.
And I agree with you about Cracked Armor. It's more for PvE and I mostly find it to be best when you're going up against insanely armored targets like a boss or the high level characters that PvE is teaming with. There, like a Deep Wound, it just lets you kill stuff before it wipes you. In PvP it's just not going to sit there long enough to matter even with the minimum 60AL hamstringing it. If they took that off, and let it sink bellow caster armor (Although anyone with a +AL shield will still be around 60AL) then it might actually be tempting.
But, for the most part, it's too fiddly to apply and doesn't provide enough of a damage boost compared to Deep Wound (I saw someone had worked this out, a bit, but I forget where and I'm not about to go surfing around looking for it. Or do the math myself, not today. But it shouldn't be too hard to figure out how much extra damage you get on, say, an 80AL target versus how much a Deep Wound gives your damage a percentile increase.). Getting a DW is relatively easy as there are plenty of ways to do so but Cracked Armor only has a few, poor skills to provide it (It seems like they wanted to let only casters do it - outside of PvE fun and games - so there could be some cross-class synergy. Which works alright since most of them don't really have Deep Wound causing skills but when you need your Ele and your Warrior to co-ordinate Shellshock and Body Blow for a spike why bother when you can just have your Warrior hit them with Eviscerate and a Lightning Orb? Or just have the Warrior swing with Evis? Body Blow, though, awesome for GW:EN PvE. I'm hoping to take something like an FGJ/Enraged Charge/Dev Hammer/Flail/Low Blow/Body Blow/Heavy Blow hammer guy for a whirl once I finally break down. I'd have to run the numbers and work out the exact sequence but it should be a pretty sustainable chain kicking out a lot of damage as long as FGJ lasts. No self-heal though but tanking is for pussies and just means I can run a pure Hammer/Strength build.). Like Sundering Weapon which, even with absurd levels of Communing, only lets you proc Cracked Armor which just barely matches the recharge once every ten seconds. That works alright in set-piece PvE battles but not with how often you'll need to switch targets in PvP.
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