Xander's Hero Builds

Quote from trademeimfamous

this is probably meme-build territory, but have you tried a team build to max out the effect/targets of the rit anniversary elite?

I have thought about it and I didnt like the idea. The weapons you will get are completely random and therefore have a very high chance of just being "meh" or straight up useless:p. Besides, to fully take advantage of the PvE Elite, you'd have to run a physical focused team that can be quite easily stopped by either: a lot of conditions, a lot of hexes, blocks, "general melee hate" (aka Shadow of Fear, Shared Burden, you name it). I dont know how well hero AI will use stance removals or whether they see it as just another attack skill. I know that foes use them as general attacks over using them as a stance removal.

First test run with a Warrior setup. Helped a guildie do Gate of Madness NM so it was a perfect place to give it a test.

This was the result with a N/Mo Order of Pain Prot, N/Rt Bip Resto, Rt/Me Expel Resto Splinter, Rt/Mo Empathic Bond Smiting Splinter, Me/Rt Panic, Me/P Ineptitude and Me/Rt Guildie (in that order):

I will post builds another time as I already had to close the game as my laptop was a little hot:p Only pointer for the Player build so far is that I need either a Zealous Scythe or some more energy management atleast.

Alright so I have come up with a solution for the energy problem (hopefully)

The idea is not to go for a Zealous scythe and also not to change my own build. Shove the problem onto the heroes So I changed the Rt/Mo for N/Mo since I felt like 2x splinter was a little much anyways. Most groups didn't last long enough^^ So the idea now was: if I could get more adrenaline, I could use Radiant Scythe more often = no energy problem. By adding a 3rd Necromancer, I gave all of them Mark of Fury (both N/Mo's Mark of Fury will give 2 extra adrenaline per strike -> 3 strikes per enemy -> FGJ makes that 6, so instant Radiant Scythe on even 1 enemy!! I also added Dark Fury for that little extra, just in case FGJ is on cooldown. Also by adding Weakened Armor, there is a higher chance Body Blow will inflict Deep Wound = less HP for enemy so less hits necessary I am not too sure about defile defenses but didn't feel like I'd need anything else. 3x Mirror of Disenchantment is also very nice to have. During Gate of Madness, it stripped Mirage Cloak very fast from all the little beetles^^

the 12+5 should be 12+4 :p

Quote from Baklawa

Quote from Gentleman Xander

Alright so I have come up with a solution for the energy problem (hopefully)

The idea is not to go for a Zealous scythe and also not to change my own build. Shove the problem onto the heroes So I changed the Rt/Mo for N/Mo since I felt like 2x splinter was a little much anyways. Most groups didn't last long enough^^ So the idea now was: if I could get more adrenaline, I could use Radiant Scythe more often = no energy problem. By adding a 3rd Necromancer, I gave all of them Mark of Fury (both N/Mo's Mark of Fury will give 2 extra adrenaline per strike -> 3 strikes per enemy -> FGJ makes that 6, so instant Radiant Scythe on even 1 enemy!! I also added Dark Fury for that little extra, just in case FGJ is on cooldown. Also by adding Weakened Armor, there is a higher chance Body Blow will inflict Deep Wound = less HP for enemy so less hits necessary I am not too sure about defile defenses but didn't feel like I'd need anything else. 3x Mirror of Disenchantment is also very nice to have. During Gate of Madness, it stripped Mirage Cloak very fast from all the little beetles^^

the 12+5 should be 12+4 :p

Imagine the possibilities with duo player GWAMM

Honestly would be dope to do haha

I was thinking maybe something like this would work pretty well. Rt/E has quite good offensive AoE pressure thanks to 2x PI mesmers for Aftershock. Weaken Armor for more armor-respecting damage, 2x PI for AoE knockdown, Deep Freeze for another snare, Me/Mo Keystone for a little extra healing to be on the safer side:p

Here is the final product, gear and all I will be using a nice Bo Staff dyed red

Probably my fastest time on Dunes of Despair :o (with bonus ofc)

Ice Caves of Sorrow NM + Bonus.... :p I could literally spike all the large groups by myself damage-wise, the numbers were all over (precast DwG+intensity->run in-> Ancestors+DwG+Intensity+drop DwG) You can clearly see Evannia wasn't happy that I wanted to take a picture of my speedy time QQ

Quote from Nomis

Tried to incorporate your Build Ideas into a Mesmer-Team, wanted to try a more KSS styled Team for a long Time instead of standard Inept+Panic or Energy Surge. Having fun in NM so far but in Hard Mode it seems to fragile. Do u have any Ideas or Suggestions maybe? I didnt use a conset, as for me it should run well enough without. Dont want a conset as a Requirement to make it work in HM.

Well thats what i put together:

Am currently doing Nightfall. Was thinking of switching Razah in as an PI-Resto instead of Master.

Heyo, thanks for showing interest in some of my stuff!:)

First off, I see you don’t have a N/Mo Prot Hero in your setup. Imo it matters a lot if you bring one and their builds are 99% customizable. You should change one Me/Mo for it. N/Mo can be optimized for any area. Diverted Hexes is a spam multi hex+condi removal while Restore Conditions is a full condi cleanse with insane heals if a lot of condis are removed. Aura of Faith is also a very strong skill but it works a lot better with a melee character since they are more likely to focus that target more. If you want a very fast res, Unyielding Aura is an option too. Also make sure you change one of the N/Rt bars to Rejuvenation since you are running 2 copies of Life at the moment.

Furthermore, I’d say you should drop the Me/N Keystone Minion Bomber for Me/A with Signet of Deadly Corruption and Signet of Toxic Shock and try to get 2 of these. The Keystone Domination would be the other option to change. I have noticed that this build has done the most damage across all Keystone builds I tried out. The Assassin Signets will be at 16, since you will be using Symbolic Celerity so you can still put 12(+1-3) in Domination.

If you swap Icy Veins for Toxic Chill (source of poison for Signet of Toxic Shock). If you’d play Fevered Dreams with a few conditions (Signet of Deadly Corruption needs 3-4 conditions to hit max damage cap iirc). In addition to this, you could change Frustration to Fragility on the Me/R for more condition synergy.

Finally, I’d say that Wastrels Demise is better than Wastrels Worry, since there is no guarantee for damage. So you could use spells such as Shatter Hex, Shatter Enchantment and Spiritual Pain (also a very very strong damage option with a short cd). It also helps that it will kill spirits quickly, something that Keystone setups lack.

Hope this helps, and if you don’t want to change it that drastically I will see what else will be good:)

On the Me/R I would change Signet of Clumsiness for Accumulated Pain. As for the PvE Skills for you, “You’re All Weaklings!” and “You Move Like a Dwarf!” are solid options imo. I also don’t know if this skill combo still works but I know it used to be broken at some point. Epidemic paired with Hypochondria I think it was called. It will suck all AoE conditions to your target (triggers fragility for starting/ending conditions) and then Epidemic and spread them again.

Also I would not run Reversal of Fortune on the N/Mo since it heals the amount of damage you take (so it can be very low return)

No worries, anytime. I just love figuring out builds etc:)

What do you mean by “dont want to run the same team build”? Do you mean the one I originally made? As for the player build. I think Mesmer has a lot of cool options, but it depends on your playstyle or what you like more. There are plenty of possibilities so maybe you should tell me what you like (and dislike; for example I hate AP caller builds since they are super boring and just 1-2-3-4 etc, plus if your AP gets stripped, you’re useless for a while). So: maybe think about what kind of Elite Skill or 2nd profession you want and I will go from there:)

P.S. I always optimize hero builds based on the player build, so that should take priority:)

Here are some of the Player builds I just came up with.

1. Domination Keystoner: Tryptophan Signet is quite a nice snare, especially combined with Keystone Signet as it will also do damage and instantly recharge if Keystone is cast.

2. Condition Keystoner: This build will probably work quite well with condition based teams, however it does cause Diseased condition, which may spread to your party so be warned:p

3. PI Domination: Pretty much full shutdown with big damage. Waste not want not is for some energy management, Battle Standard will increase your teams DPS by quite a lot too

4. Esurge: Just a pretty basic Esurge build (if you are running multiple Esurges in a team to the point where the energy of mobs is too low, consider bringing Aneurysm)

5. Esurge: Another pretty basic Esurge build (if you are running multiple Esurges in a team to the point where the energy of mobs is too low, consider bringing Aneurysm)

6. Echo Domination: You can pretty much Echo any skill you got. Spiritual Pain will probably be the new Flare, but only with much higher and armor ignoring damage lol.

7. Echo MoP: This build might be a fun one to play if you run a pretty physically stacked team and a good snare or two^^ It is highly reliant on heroes to do damage so it might not be your playstyle. Just thought it was a fun concept to just throw in the ring :p

Regarding the build you sent, I am personally not a fan of Mind Wrack. If your target reaches 0 Energy and hasn't died, it usually means your damage is too low (atleast in my mind lol). I would also remove Chaos Storm and add Arcane Echo and Aneurysm. The beauty of Aneurysm is that it gives me one everytime I have to think on how to write that word... Just kidding, it's nice in the way that it also sucks the energy of all surrounding enemies, but this might decrease the damage you do with Esurge after that target dies. So in that sense you need to get skilled enough with it that you can time it. Even if their energy is sucked away, you can give it back again with Aneurysm, so in that sense it also fuels damage. Like I said, it's a bit more of a "you need to get good at it" kinda skill.

Let me know what you think!:)