Gaming Guild Wars

[Dodeca]

[SIZE=1]I bought GW:Factions yesterday, partly out of boredom, but moreso to continue toying with the Ritualists, which immediately caught my eye in the PvP weekend way-back-when. Now I'm just trying to decide on the secondary profession, but overall I'm leaning towards Mesmer.

As for my main Prophecies character, I'm really not sure whether I want to use her in Cantha [once I get around to ascending her, that is]. Not that I'll delete my oldest character or anything, but I'd prefer to make a new Necro with one of Factions' jazzed up hairstyles and a twist of Rit.

Oh, and Desbreko, I absolutely love hammer Warriors, though I've never tried to make one outside of PvP. I personally go for Air magic as it's handy for knockdowns and interuptions at both medium and melee range, though it's a bit of a pain with the Exhaustion on Gale. I love chasing down Monks and knocking them down whenever they try to heal themselves or their party, even if it takes a long time.
It's also pretty handy if you [or one of your party members] is being swarmed by Warriors/Assassins, as you can whip out a Whirlwind/Counter Blow + Belly Smash to blind the lot of 'em and give space for your party to heal, etc. It's not a great build for taking damage, but it's reasonably good for avoiding it and messing up the enemy's front line or [individual] healers. : P

...Blah.[/SIZE]

[Papa Smurf]

Dodeca, if you're leery of the Exhaustion, look into W/A for Deadly Arts, primarily Siphon Speed and Iron Palm.

Siphon Speed is one of the best hexes I've seen, because if you're playing Warrior, it's invaluable. It slows the target by 20%. It increases your speed by 20%. It's a hex with a fast recharge. And it's cheap (5 energy). It's a gem of a skill.

Combine that with Iron Palm, which is a ranged spell that knocks down your target if they're suffering from a hex or a condition. Iron Palm costs 10 energy, so it costs the same as Gale straight-up, but ends up costing less due to no Exhaustion.

It has a recharge of 20 seconds, so that kind of hurts, but then again, with the Exhaustion KDs from Air magic...realistically you're only looking at using them every 15 seconds anyway, so I suppose it all balances out.

In terms of utility, I don't think any other combination comes close for Warriors. W/N for Plague Touch, yeah. And possibly W/E for...whatever (but those options are really limited these days). But other than that...W/A trumps everything.

Not to mention a Warrior effectively utilizing Shadow Stepping is a force to be reckoned with. Death's Charge and Scorpion Wire are two skills that come to mind.

[Boo]

[size=1][quote name='Dodeca][size=1]As for my main Prophecies character, I'm really not sure whether I want to use her in Cantha [once I get around to ascending her, that is'][/size][/quote]

Meh, it doesn't mean she's stuck there forever, so you can just get her to Cantha when she's starting to bore and still be able to go back to Kryta for a FoW round every now and then >>'[/size]

[Dodeca]

[quote name='Boo][size=1']Meh, it doesn't mean she's stuck there forever, so you can just get her to Cantha when she's starting to bore and still be able to go back to Kryta for a FoW round every now and then >>'[/size][/quote]
[SIZE=1]
It wasn't so much about having her stuck in Cantha, just that I prefer one of the new Canthan Necromancer haircuts over her Prophecies one. Still, I've changed my mind a little since, and probably will [eventually] get her over there for some of the Cantha-specific skills.

Oh, and on a related note, said character got her birthday present just a few days ago. A cute 'ickle Whiptail Devourer. Okay, it doesn't match up to the Kuunavang, and I would've preferred something a little more... exotic... but it's still fun to have [I]something[/I] scuttling around your feet. I guess...[/SIZE]

[Papa Smurf]

This thread needs a good Smurf to the groin, I suppose.

I captured a new Assassin Elite skill earlier yesterday. It's called Assassin's Promise and it's really cool. It's a hex that recharges all of your skills and gives you energy back if the target dies while Assassin's Promise is on him or her. The skill has a 45-second recharge, which initially is really disgusting, but the best thing about Assassin's Promise is that it recharges itself as well.

It's in Deadly Arts, which means most players won't even use it ever, but I'm starting to think it's even better than Moebius Strike for skill recharges. I've been using a build with the following skills and it's been amazing.

Mark of Instability (a Dual Attack knockdown)
Siphon Speed
Black Lotus Strike (Off-Hand, has to strike a hexed foe, good damage, good energy return)
Twisting Fangs (found in most Assassin builds)
Falling Spider
Death Blossom
Assassin's Promise
Critical Eye

What I usually do is MoI-->Siphon Speed-->BLS-->Twisting Fangs-->Falling Spider/Assassin's Promise or Assassin's Promise/Falling Spider-->Death Blossom

The reason I listed the combo like that is because depending on the target's health, sometimes they'll die after Falling Spider, so I need to sneak in A.Promise before that. It's not terribly hard, though, because A.Promise has a 3/4 second cast time, and provided your reaction speed is good enough, you can sneak it in a split second before your target dies.

I should also mention that A.Promise is very versatile. You don't need many points in Deadly Arts for the duration and energy gain, and you don't need any points for the skill recharge. This is rather mind-boggling, and I'm expecting the skill to get changed. Probably a Failure rate while the Deadly Arts attribute is 7 or below or something like that.

But right now...I don't think any "recharge" skill comes close to matching Assassin's Promise. Oath Shot maybe, but if you miss with that, you've got no skills to use. Plus the timing with A.Promise is much more guaranteed, especially if you're hitting a weakened off-target in PvP.

[Meggido]

I recently got to the Nahpui mission. I keep attempting it with henchmen cause I'm lazy and can't be bothered looking for a group. ANyway I keep getting two of the avatars down, Kirin then turtle first time, Dragon then Phoenix second but I keep failing to get three down.

I have to say Papa that I find death blossom to be the best duel strike attack out there. I mean if you crit and get two hits (yes I mostly split my points so I have a decent amount of points in everything) then it's upwards of 150dmg a mob and that's just with the daggers I'm using.

[Desbreko]

[color=#4B0082]Assassin's Promise is good if you're using many spells--especially if you're using them in your attack chain--since Moebius Strike only recharges attack skills. I imagine's it's also better for PvP, since it can be tricky to catch a target with Moebius while they're below 50% health if there's a monk around, whereas Promise can be slipped in at any time without disrupting your chain.

I think Moebius would come out on top for taking down the tougher PvE targets, though. With Moebius you only have to get them below 50% health with your chain and then you can repeat it to finish them off, but with Promise, you have to be able to kill them all in one go. Otherwise you're stuck with little energy left and your skills are still recharging.

A great example of that would be when I fought Kuunavang. (A big dragon boss--the same one you get a mini-pet of with the CE.) Getting her down to below 50% health was kind of hard, but as soon as that happened, the fight was as good as over. I cycled through my attack chain three times in maybe ten seconds and she was defeated. Other than needing meatshields to take damage for me, I could've taken her out by myself after that.

Death Blossom is pretty cool for PvE, and I've taken to using it over Twisting Fangs. At first it was just because the damage from the deep wound from Fangs was hard to judge, so I would accidentally kill things before I could tag them with Moebius Strike. But I'm also really liking the AoE damage now. At 16 dagger master it's doing +42 damage, so with it being a dual attack, that's +84 damage to my target as well as 84 damage to all baddies adjacent to the target. Which is especially nice when taking out those stupid Afflicted Ritualists, since they tend to sit next to their spirits.

Tips for beating Nahpui Quarter:

[list]
[*]The mission tips say to take out the monk boss (the kirin) last to make it easier, but they lie. The monk boss is a smiting monk and does not heal other baddies at all so far as I can tell. Mainly it just spams Signet of Judgement, which isn't very dangerous.
[*]The dragon boss--an air elementalist--is by far the most dangerous celestial in the mission. If you want to take it out last you have to go out of your way, but it will make the mission easier.
[*]The turtle uses Life Siphon and Grenth's Balance, which makes the little clones somewhat hard to kill, so always take them out last in a group of baddies. They take the longest to kill, and if you're not doing damage to them, they can't spike you with Grenth's.
[*]The phoenix boss is a complete pushover and definitely the easiest of the four. I'd recommend killing it first, as the little clones mainly just spread a bit of degen around.
[*]If you're using henchies, [i]always pull[/i] once you've beaten two of the bosses. The little celestials usually pull separately from the tengu things, so whip out your longbow and draw them away.
[/list][/color]

[Papa Smurf]

So there's some new skill balancing on the horizon, and one of the new Mesmer Elites, Arcane Languor, is getting a buff. A buff that I feel is entirely unnecessary...or at least entirely too powerful.

At a 4-second duration, Arcane Languor will obliterate a caster's energy. At 5 or 6 seconds (a duration increase I'd be okay with), it's still almost overpowered.

The upcoming buff will increase the max duration to 8 seconds.

[quote]Arcaned Languor

Mesmer/Necromancer
Level: 20

Fast Casting: 11 (10+1)
Domination Magic: 14 (10+4)
Inspiration Magic: 6 (5+1)
Curses: 10

- Arcane Languor [Elite] (Fast Casting)
For 4 second, all Spells cast by target foe cause Exhaustion.
Energy:10 Cast:1.3 Recharge:15

- Diversion (Domination Magic)
For 6 seconds, the next time target foe uses a skill, that skill takes an additional 53 seconds to recharge.
Energy:10 Cast:1.95 Recharge:10

- Complicate (Domination Magic)
Interrupt target foe's action. If that action was to use a Signet, it and all other Signets are disabled for 15 seconds.
Energy:10 Cast:0.16 Recharge:20

- Spirit of Failure (Inspiration Magic)
For 30 seconds, target foe has a 25% chance to miss with attacks. You gain 3 Energy whenever that foe fails to hit in combat.
Energy:10 Cast:1.95 Recharge:10

- Arcane Echo (Mesmer other)
If you cast a Spell in the next 20 seconds, Arcane Echo is replaced with that Spell for 20 seconds. Arcane Echo ends prematurely if you use a non-Spell skill.
Energy:15 Cast:1.3 Recharge:30

- Arcane Thievery (Domination Magic)
For 33 seconds, one random Spell is disabled for target foe, and Arcane Thievery is replaced by that Spell.
Energy:10 Cast:0.65 Recharge:10

- Reckless Haste (Curses)
For 15 seconds, target foe and all adjacent foes are Hexed with Reckless Haste. While Hexed, they attack 25% faster but have a 38% chance to miss with attacks.
Energy:10 Cast:1.3 Recharge:25

- Resurrection Signet ()
Resurrect target party member. That party member is returned to life with 100% Health and 25% Energy. You may use this Signet only once per mission.
Energy:0 Cast:3 Recharge:0[/quote]
This build isn't entirely finalized, because I still want to see a cover hex in there, but...Arcane Echo+Arcane Languor, and cover any downtime with Diversion.

You've got e-management through Reckless Haste and Spirit of Failure, not to mention slipping in Drain Enchant will be very possible, since Complicate might be useful, but Drain Enchant is a very nice skill.

[Desbreko]

[color=#4B0082]Eight seconds. . . . Wow, that's going to be nasty. I wonder if they're going to increase the recharge along with the duration, or maybe the energy cost. Otherwise that's entirely too spammable, considering it's basically on par with Backfire only it's for shutting people down instead of outright killing them. At the very least I hope most of the duration break points are at levels 12+ so you have to pump fast casting way higher than you normally would.

Oh, and I finally got 15k Kurzick armor for Chloe, my assassin. Check it out:

[URL=http://img346.imageshack.us/my.php?image=chloenamir15kkurzick2tj.png][IMG]http://img346.imageshack.us/img346/4093/chloenamir15kkurzick2tj.th.png[/IMG][/URL]

I dyed it Blue+Green+Green+Black, which I think looks great; it's a nice dark green. I ended up sticking with the normal Shing Jea mask, though, since the 15k Kurzick version sticks out of her hair on the sides. It also just looks kind of stupid with a little slot that exposes the nose.[/color]

[Meggido]

grats on the 15K armor desi.

ANyway onto what I'm up to. Reached the temple mission (can't be bothered typing out the full name). ANyway looks like a mission I either need to get my 70ac armor for or go with a group. went once and looks like it will be quite difficult with henchies. I killed 2/8 before wiping on the third.

[Desbreko]

[color=#4B0082]/dance + YouTube = Awesome

I came across these while browsing around the Guild Wars Guru forum and then looking through the related videos on YouTube. The first is a really well done music video, the second is a dance party to end all dance parties, and the third is just funny. Check 'em out, they're awesome.

[url=http://youtube.com/watch?v=G0kQICdlAIs][u]Heeding the Call[/u][/url]
[url=http://youtube.com/watch?v=mCepqvZDiQw][u]INC-Frosty Dance Video 6[/u][/url]
[url=http://youtube.com/watch?v=fL5ZeSGROYY][u]Guild Wars Mambo[/u][/url][/color]

[Guest Macha]

im a guild leader in MH and im not good at guild wars in only lvl 57 and most of the ppl that do the guild wars are like lvl 80+ and im like 'hello lvl 80+ player O.O' *runs away* its so embarasing :animeswea :animeshy: But im doind some hard core training and should be lvl 58 tomorow :D

[Boo]

[size=1]I'm happy. My Monk had her anniversary today and she got a Mini Temple Guardian.

It was actually one of the only ones that I found worth not selling. Teehee, it's cool. :P

[b]Edit:[/b] By the way. Person above. Your post makes no sense. The level's max is level 20 XD[/size]

[chaos Alvis]

X_X I'm such a noob in guild wars. i dont have a guild. Since i'm a loner :cool:

If you have any tips or usless items you dont need please message me!

O YA i also need help on the quest about defending the northern wall. i got to it...then i was like well i guess i could use the map key BUT when i used it i went back to the town...and i had to restart it all over again X_X... during that time i was trying to look for the peices of armor of that ghost... dont remember his name.

SO if you're one of those ppl who can help. Please msg me!!!

I need help...

[Desbreko]

[color=#4B0082]I finally beat Factions with Amelia yesterday! Which, more importantly, means I was able to get 15k Canthan armor for her. ^_^

[URL=http://img58.imageshack.us/my.php?image=amelia15kcanthanzy2.png][IMG]http://img58.imageshack.us/img58/4285/amelia15kcanthanzy2.th.png[/IMG][/URL]

I dyed it green+blue+silver+silver. While the trim came out just how I wanted, the rest of it is still a tad dark for my taste. But I guess there's not much to be done about that, what with all the black mixed in with the green-dyed pattern. I may go back and try just green+silver+silver some time, but at least for now I'm happy with how it turned out.

Oh, and by the way: earth magic [i]rocks.[/i] (Ha ha, get it?) I don't put out the massive damage like when I use fire magic, but wow do I mess things up. I switched to E/N in order to use Enfeeble --> Stoning --> Ash Blast for knockdowns and blindness and it really gives things the works. My current build:[/color]

[quote]The Edge - Guild Wars Utility
[url]http://renobrothers.waynereno.com/[/url]

Class: Elementalist / Necromancer

Attributes: (cost) '+' indicates Rune attributes
Energy Storage: 10+1 (61)
Earth Magic: 12+4 (97)
Curses: 8 (37)

Total attribute points used: 195/200

Skills: [Attribute] (Energy, Cast Time, Recharge TIme)

1) Stoning [Earth Magic] (15,1,5) Spell: Stoning strikes for 95 earth damage if it hits. If Stoning hits a foe suffering from weakness, that foe is knocked down.

2) Enfeeble [Curses] (5,1,5) Spell: Target suffers from weakness for 13 seconds.

3) Ash Blast [Earth Magic] (5,1,8) Spell: Target foe is struck for 41 earth damage. If Ash Blast strikes a knocked-down foe, that foe is blinded for 10 seconds.

4) Earthquake [Earth Magic] (25,3,15) Spell: You invoke an earthquake at target foe's location. All foes near this location are knocked down and are struck for 105 earth damage. This spell causes exhaustion.

5) Ward Against Melee [Earth Magic] (10,1,20) Spell: You create a ward against melee at your current location. For 21 seconds, allies in this area have a 50% chance to evade melee attacks.

6) Ward Against Elements [Earth Magic] (15,1,20) Spell: You create a ward against elements at your current location. For 21 seconds, nearby allies gain +24 armor against elemental damage.

7) Earth Attunement [Earth Magic] (10,2,45) Enchantment: For 61 seconds, you are attuned to Earth. You gain 30% of the energy cost of the spell each time you use Earth Magic.

8) Elemental Attunement [Energy Storage] (10,2,45) Enchantment: For 48 seconds, you are attuned to air, fire, water, and earth. You gain 50% of the energy cost of the spell each time you use magic associated with any of these elements. This is an elite skill.[/quote][color=#4B0082]As you can see, it's a pretty defensive build, but it still puts out a decent amount of damage. Getting smacked with Stoning every 6 seconds hurts, and Earthquake (or Dragon's Stomp if you want) provides some nice AoE damage + knockdown.

I also tend to swap out Ward Against Elements a lot if I'm not going to be facing much elemental damage. Ward of Stability (prevents allies in its range from getting knocked down) is a big help in some areas, or sometimes I'll trade it for another damage skill like Aftershock.

I still like swapping back to my fire magic build for doing mass ownage, but this is turning out to be a lot of fun as well. I think I'm going to play with water magic next.[/color]

[Meggido]

Damn Desi, thought you dropped us for planetside for a while there. ANyway my Necromancer is still 3-4 missions away from completing the prophecies campaign and just can't be bothered going back and finishing it on him. ANyway my Assasin/mesmer is up to mission 6...I think. The one where you have to enter a temple get an item with the ashes of some hero and then escape the collapsing temple. At the moment I seem to going at a pace of a mission or 2 a month in factions campaign as I'm still spending too much time playing WoW. I almost finished said mission but while on vent was called by my WoW guild to run an end game instance.

[Desbreko]

[color=#4B0082]Nah, I don't play PlanetSide that much anymore. I got one of the free trial accounts instead of subscribing again since I only play once in a while. There's really only so much to do in an FPS, and I did nearly all of it that interested me while I was subscribed. So unless I happen to be in the mood for an FPS I mainly stick to GW and my console games.

Anyway! Arborstone (the one with the urn and the collapsing cathedral) is a pain, especially for assassins. You've got low armor, you're in melee range, [i]and[/i] there's no way to avoid the collapse damage. I came really close to doing it with all henchies on my assassin, but I ended up wiping on the very last fight because they'd built up too much death penalty. (The Onis towards the end completely raped them.) After that I found a real group and got through okay, though; you just have to keep a really close eye on your health.

Myself, I did Vizunah Square last night on my necro. I decided to play minion master again, since I hadn't done it since the update that made it so you could only have 10 minions at a time. I gotta say, I realize now why they changed that: If there was still no cap, I probably would've gotten up to 25+ minions in that mission. So many things were dying I was having trouble just spending all the energy I was getting from soul reaping.

Basically I'd just stand around raising minions, keeping Aura of the Lich/Blood Renewal going, spamming Blood of the Master, and occasionally throwing up a Well of Blood. All the while my little army of fiends and vamp horrors would be rampaging around owning the afflicted. Even with another minion master there were plenty of corpses to spare.

My party only had a single monk and a ritualist (who dropped out after the first battle), and we still only had one death. With two MMs with 20 minions between us, it was pure ownage. They mowed down the afflicted like a knife going through butter and we easily got the master's reward.

I think I'm going to be playing my necro more often again, now that Amelia has beaten Factions. :toothy:[/color]

[Meggido]

So on the 28th-30th of July Guild Wars is having a PvP event where we're able to test out the two new classes that are going to be availble in the second Expansion [I]Nightfall[/I]. I don't know much except what was posted on the GW site.

[Quote]July 18, 2006 (BELLEVUE, WA) ? ArenaNet®, developer of the world's leading subscription-free online roleplaying games Guild Wars® and Guild Wars FactionsTM, and NCsoft® Corporation, the world's leading developer and publisher of online computer games, announce today the title of the next game in the award-winning franchise, Guild Wars NightfallTM. Further, Guild Wars Nightfall has entered the beta testing stage and Guild Wars players worldwide are invited to participate in an exclusive, first-look player-versus-player (PVP) event, July 28 ? 30, 2006.

During the PVP Preview Event, both Guild Wars and Guild Wars Factions® players will get a first look at Guild Wars Nightfall, and will be able to try out the two new professions being introduced in the game; the Dervish, a scythe-wielding holy warrior, and the Paragon, guardian angel of the Elonian people. In addition to testing out the new professions and arenas, players will also be able to compete for items that will be exchangeable for a variety of rewards throughout the weekend event.

The Guild Wars Nightfall PVP Preview event will kick off on Friday, July 28 at 12:01am PDT and will continue through Sunday, July 30 at 11:59pm PST.

Guild Wars, an instant bestseller worldwide upon its release in April 2005, and Guild Wars Factions, the number one game in both North America and Europe earlier this year, are global online roleplaying games. Guild Wars Nightfall will continue the tradition of inviting players to immerse themselves in an epic storyline centered in a vibrant fantasy setting, build personalized characters, compete in head-to-head battles with players from around the world, and find adventure in missions and quests, in a Guild Wars game unlike any players have seen before.
[/Quote]

ANyway I'm still stuck in Arborstone. Got into a group today and was third invited, but when they needed to drop someone to get a nuker or extra healer they just dropped me. SO I went through with henchies and got to the last boss before getting owned. I also dropped my character out of QKT since the Otakuboards guild seems dead.

[Desbreko]

[color=#4B0082]Bah. I'm stuck at Arborstone as well, though not in the same way. I'm going for the Defender of Cantha title and I only need to get masters on two more missions: Arborstone and Gyala Hatchery. Gyala shouldn't be too hard, but I've been trying Arborstone and it's turning out to be a real pain in the ***.

Even when I managed to recruit a couple people from the guild/alliance to help me, we were 25 seconds too late. The rest of the group just had to screw around and aggro about five mobs that we could've passed by, which stalled us for a couple minutes. It would be no problem if I could get together a full team of guild/alliance members, but the incompetence of the randoms we pick up keeps dragging me down. :animeangr

It's also annoying that, as a monk, I'm 100% reliant on the rest of the party to go fast enough to get masters. I can keep people alive through hell and high water, but if they don't kill crap fast enough, I'm still screwed. Really makes me want to whip out my necro and start mowing through things with a horde of minions or Reckless+Spiteful.[/color]

[Papa Smurf]

I'll run Arborstone with you guys. I've been toying with the idea of going A/E for Ward of Stability to negate the KDs in the mission. Provided I can tweak my Assassin's Promise build a bit (the attribute levels are tricky with the 4 attri spread), I could probably do fairly well.

[quote]Critical Strikes: 11 (10+1)
Dagger Mastery: 14 (10+4)
Deadly Arts: 9 (8+1)
Earth Magic: 8

- Assassin's Promise [Elite] (Deadly Arts)
For 11 seconds, if target foe dies, you gain 14 Energy, and all your skills are recharged.
Energy:5 Cast:0.75 Recharge:45

- Black Lotus Strike (Critical Strikes)
Must strike a Hexed foe. If it hits, Black Lotus Strike strikes for +26 damage and you gain 16 Energy.
Energy:10 Cast:0 Recharge:25

- Twisting Fangs (Critical Strikes)
Must follow an off-hand attack. If it hits, Twisting Fangs strikes for +17 damage and struck foe suffers from Bleeding and Deep Wound for 16 seconds.
Energy:10 Cast:0 Recharge:15

- Falling Spider (Dagger Mastery)
Must strike a knocked-down foe. If it hits, Falling Spider strikes for +34 damage and target foe is Poisoned for 19 seconds.
Energy:5 Cast:0 Recharge:8

- Ward of Stability (Earth Magic)
Create a Ward of Stability at your current location. For 18 seconds, non-Spirit allies in the area cannot be knocked down.
Energy:10 Cast:1 Recharge:30

- Mark of Instability (Deadly Arts)
For 20 seconds, the next time you hit target foe with a dual attack skill, that foe is knocked down.
Energy:10 Cast:0.25 Recharge:20

- Critical Eye (Critical Strikes)
For 28 seconds, you have an additional 5% chance to land a critical hit when attacking. You gain 1 Energy whenever you score a critical hit.
Energy:5 Cast:0 Recharge:30

- Death Blossom (Dagger Mastery)
Must follow an off-hand attack. If it hits, Death Blossom strikes for +38 damage against target foe and all adjacent foes take 38 damage.
Energy:5 Cast:0 Recharge:12[/quote] Something like that I think.

18 seconds (if the duration is accurate) is pretty respectable, and provided I can still chain kill with the lower CS and Dagger Mastery, that 18-second window will be peachy. I may even be able to drop Earth magic down a bit more and boost up Dagger Mastery, since when I kill a target, Ward of Stability will get recharged.

[quote]Assassin/Elementalist
Level: 20

Critical Strikes: 11 (10+1)
Dagger Mastery: 15 (11+4)
Deadly Arts: 9 (8+1)
Earth Magic: 6

- Assassin's Promise [Elite] (Deadly Arts)
For 11 seconds, if target foe dies, you gain 14 Energy, and all your skills are recharged.
Energy:5 Cast:0.75 Recharge:45

- Black Lotus Strike (Critical Strikes)
Must strike a Hexed foe. If it hits, Black Lotus Strike strikes for +26 damage and you gain 16 Energy.
Energy:10 Cast:0 Recharge:25

- Twisting Fangs (Critical Strikes)
Must follow an off-hand attack. If it hits, Twisting Fangs strikes for +17 damage and struck foe suffers from Bleeding and Deep Wound for 16 seconds.
Energy:10 Cast:0 Recharge:15

- Falling Spider (Dagger Mastery)
Must strike a knocked-down foe. If it hits, Falling Spider strikes for +35 damage and target foe is Poisoned for 20 seconds.
Energy:5 Cast:0 Recharge:8

- Ward of Stability (Earth Magic)
Create a Ward of Stability at your current location. For 16 seconds, non-Spirit allies in the area cannot be knocked down.
Energy:10 Cast:1 Recharge:30

- Mark of Instability (Deadly Arts)
For 20 seconds, the next time you hit target foe with a dual attack skill, that foe is knocked down.
Energy:10 Cast:0.25 Recharge:20

- Critical Eye (Critical Strikes)
For 28 seconds, you have an additional 5% chance to land a critical hit when attacking. You gain 1 Energy whenever you score a critical hit.
Energy:5 Cast:0 Recharge:30

- Death Blossom (Dagger Mastery)
Must follow an off-hand attack. If it hits, Death Blossom strikes for +40 damage against target foe and all adjacent foes take 40 damage.
Energy:5 Cast:0 Recharge:12[/quote] In both of these builds, there's no Rez, I know. I'm working on that, heh.

And now that I think about it, the only problem with the build is lack of Rez. Though I don't know. If I can utilize the Ward appropriately, I could probably help cut down on the team deaths in the first place (KDs suck), which then is basically acting like a team-wide Divine Intervention. lol

[Desbreko]

[color=#4B0082]As I mentioned over AIM before, there's one problem with that build: I'm pretty sure Ward of Stability doesn't stop the interrupts in Arborstone. When I played the mission as Amelia, I switched to earth magic specifically to try that out, and it didn't seem to work. My conclusion is that they don't count as knock downs, but just normal interrupts, since Mantra of Resolve worked but Stability didn't.

Ward of Stability is still really nice in that mission, though. The warrior type wardens all use hammers and the shout "None Shall Pass!" and the Stone Rains use Gale and a Tenai's Wind + Aftershock combo. That last one is especially deadly against assassins if you can't avoid being knocked down by Tenai's Wind.

I managed to get masters on Arborstone yesterday just with a PUG, amazingly enough. I think I sat around the outpost for about an hour, searching for a group that looked even halfway competent. Two or three of the invites I got were 7/8 and didn't have any other monks or ritualists. . . . Makes me shudder just thinking about it. But I finally saw a warrior and a mesmer forming a group, asking for a good setup (second tank, nuker, SS, MM, two monks), so I joined.

We actually ended up with three warriors, a mesmer, an elementalist, a necro minion master, me playing boon/prot, and another monk. So no Spiteful, but we still rocked the mission. Arborstone is a great mission for showing people's skill levels, and everyone there was pretty good. Only a couple deaths happened on the Onis towards the end. (Those are a real pain when you go through the center path: Shadow Shroud on me, so I can't heal myself with RoF/Guardian, and the other monk getting interrupted by all the collapse damage makes for a dead boon/prot). But we rezzed fine and then kicked *** on the end fight--not a single death there--against all the Stone Rains, Stone Judges, etc. We almost managed to killed every last one of the buggers before Danika opened the door, but alas, three were left standing.

Whatever, though; I'm just happy we got masters, since that also meant I got the Protector of Cantha title. So now I have Tyrian Exploration, Protector of Tyria, and Protector of Cantha all maxed (3/5 towards Kind of a Big Deal). I also only need 8% more to max my Canthan Exploration title, and 8 more elites to get the third level of the Skill Hunter title.

Speaking of which, if anyone wants to do Hell's Precipice or make a skill cap run into Mineral Springs, I'd be happy to come along. I have two elites to cap in Hell's and three to cap in the Springs.[/color]

[Meggido]

So with the event I've been testing out the Dervish and paragon classes. The Dervish I found really simple to play with the premade PvP character and could actually hold my own, easily adapting to situations.

The Paragon on the other hand I found a bit harder. Seems they're almost meant to be played like a ranged warrior. I mean their skills are essentially somewhat similar but they throw a spear rather than rely on close combat.

On another note played my necro today and got to ring of fire. Only 3 missions to finally finish prophecies once.

[Papa Smurf]

[center][URL=http://img149.imageshack.us/my.php?image=gw395webve8.jpg][IMG]http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/5572/gw395webve8.th.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
[/center]

Yeah. Your eyes aren't deceiving you. That IS the health and energy return from Mysticism+CoP.

Dervish is obscene? Yeah...it is.

[James]

[font=arial]Just to let you know, I now have Factions. I'm on dial-up, so I have absolutely no idea how I'll fare - gameplay should be okay, but loading new areas will be a pain. I'll see how I go, though.[/font]

[Boo]

[size=1]Eggnog still makes your screen go fuzzy, but rice wine and dwarven ale now make it go grey. That's probably because Eggnog is not updated as it is a christmas event item.[indent]Here's the result of 10 Dwarven Ale and 2 Rice Wines.

[URL=http://img308.imageshack.us/my.php?image=drunkbeaconsjv0.png][IMG]http://img308.imageshack.us/img308/7140/drunkbeaconsjv0.th.png[/IMG][/URL][/size][/indent]