User:XT-8147

My characters and the PvE builds they run

Could also be interpreted as proven builds for these class combinations, except as noted, and with notable exception to my two newest characters who don't have a lot of options open to them skill-wise yet.

Changed the format of the page slightly, to allow more builds to be listed. Side effect is that any of these builds can be considered for inclusion in the Builds section.

Rie Tanaka
Named after my favorite Japanese voice actress, because Nami Tamaki was already taken.

Usual class combos: Necromancer/Monk, Necromancer/Mesmer

Armor: Full 1.5k Scar Armor, dyed blue. Separate head scars for Blood/Death/Curses (use red dye to turn those head scars blue). Alternate foot armor (Bloodstained Boots) for MM or when I want to speed up a well with blood magic, the one energy difference between the foot scar and the boots isn't all that problematic.

Builds I usually play:
 * PvE Blood Spike (works pretty well actually, you need very few warriors and even then they're just there to absorb damage. Get a decent MM in the party and you can go all ranged/caster.)
 * N/Mo Factions-enhanced Minion Master
 * Echo SS/SV (I did a bunch of oro farming in SF before the book trick nerf. Haven't done any 2-man UW yet, don't have very many guildies with 55 monks who still play Prophecies)

Pedro No Es Pequeno
Small explanation: besides the fact that Pequeno really should be Peque&ntilde;o (yay for English character limitation), the name translates to "Pedro is not small". When I made him, I set his height as short as possible so he'd be in denial. This name itself originates from my archer named Pedro that I had back when I still played Champions of Norrath. That was most likely a reference to the character from Excel Saga.

Usual class combo: Ranger/Monk (though I will change it on occasion to try out stuff)

Armor: Full 15k Druid's Armor, mask undyed, coat/gloves dyed silver, leggings/boots dyed blue. Separate (1.5k) gloves/boots for swapping in/out superior runes (I usually run two superior runes, I've found that if you stay the hell back like you're supposed to that the health hit really isn't that much of a problem)

Builds I usually play:
 * Quick Shot Gunner
 * B/P in Tombs of the Primeval Kings (I maintain the stance that the smart rangers take Dust Trap instead of Throw Dirt)
 * Runner

Future builds:
 * PvE Bunny Thumper (I want to adapt that PvP one, it looks fun as hell)
 * Beast Master (gonna pen my own build for this)

Past (retired) builds:
 * Mobile Disruption Sniper
 * JI Sniper

Dance The Nite Away
Named him that solely to make fun of the Mesmer's dance.

Usual class combo: Mesmer/Monk

Armor: 1.5k Enchanter's on everything but the feet, Courtly boots for the +15 armor while casting. Dyed random colors using the dyes I had available at the time, actually looks semi-decent.

Builds I usually play:
 * My own piece of crap build that needs to be thrown out and redone entirely, possibly integrating some of those fun new skills from Factions

Holy Sheryl
Name intended to have the first syllable of Sheryl stretched when spoken, just for fun.

Class combo: Monk/Mesmer (hasn't ascended yet, can't change secondaries)

Armor: 1.5k Ascetic's Armor (Dragon), dyed red, with a set of cheapie Ascetic's Armor (Star) for 55 monking

Builds I usually play:
 * My take on a healing monk
 * 55 monk

Bob the Victorious
Bob is possibly the best name ever. He's Bob the Victorious because Bob the Warrior, Bob the Fighter, and Bob the Gladiator were (get this) already taken. He's also only level 13 and is in Yak's Bend, I started him when I got my 2 extra slots for preordering Factions.

Armor is full Ascalon Ringmail, because I didn't feel like buying a fur square for a piece of the damage-reduction armor. But then I went and bought a Steel Ingot for the axe mastery helm, so you have to wonder if I'm really "all there".

Having only ever played the ranged/support classes in Guild Wars, I find playing a Warrior to be quite strange. I can keep two warrior henchmen alive through continued spammage of "Watch Yourself!", which charges really quickly with "For Great Justice!" and a good positioning so that Cyclone Axe hits as many things as possible. I'm trying not to be "that noob wammo". Actually, I tried being a noob wammo, but my energy didn't regen quite fast enough to use the few energy skills I had with Mending on. 2 energy regen is really plenty for this build, considering it's half adrenaline, a signet, and Resurrect takes energy but it's not like I'm using it constantly. So I really only have 2 skills that use my energy on a regular basis. What sucks is that once I get enough death penalty, my max energy will be too low for me to use "For Great Justice!" or Resurrect. Fortunately, I'm holding onto a staff that adds +6 energy just for when that happens.

Playing a Warrior for the first time introduced me to a new level of stupidity in the henchman AI: if I'm the only human in the party, Alesia will camp out on the front lines. This means three things: Come on, ANet, give henchmen an IQ above their level. Please?
 * 1) She's usually the first to die.
 * 2) She dies every other battle, so she usually runs fairly high death penalty. (Henchmen DO seem to suffer it)
 * 3) She barely heals me and the other henchmen because she's busy healing herself because she's stupid.

Arcanist Michelle
My elementalist! Named after a character in a story I wrote about some mages (to put it simply). She's still in pre-searing but she's only got a couple of quests left.

Armor is full pre-searing collector's armor.

What makes me laugh every time I'm in town is the number of people going "WTB spider legs" or one of the other items needed to get the collector armor. If you just go out and KILL the things you'd find that they only ever drop a Spider Leg, a Spider Web, Dye, or Gold (Giant Tree Spiders also have a chance to drop a random POS weapon). I went through the spider-infested part of Regent Valley just south of Fort Ranik (the area with the Basket of Apples that makes more spiders spawn after you pick it up) and cleared them all out, I got 13 spider legs, a fair amount of gold, 3 spider webs, and some orange and purple dye. One run through them and you can get that armor piece. I save the Spider Webs to take to post-searing and expert salvage into Silk, for no real reason because none of the armor I need uses it and it sells for crap.

The only time I ever party with anyone in presearing is when I'm doing Adventure with an Ally and Across the Wall, typically both at the same time. Of course, I haven't done those two yet.

By the way, self-healing-wise, Aura of Restoration+Orison of Healing works quite well. At a decent Energy Storage level you'll be getting back a lot of health from casting spells, and Orison of Healing will add a bit to that. It's like the poor man's Divine Favor.

Once I get to post-searing and get the skills, I plan on making her a water mage. Which means that I need to farm Flint Fleshcleaver so I can get Flint's Wand (I already have Flint's Artifact).

Factions Characters
None yet. My rule of thumb is "Prophecies primary class, Tyrian character. Factions primary class, Canthan character." Plus I'm waiting for them to start selling character slots. The above characters are all on one account, and buying more slots looks to be marginally cheaper than buying another account ($10/slot as opposed to $50/account). I'll be buying at least two, for my future Ritualist and Assassin, any after that will be (much needed) mules and therefore PvP characters so I can just leave them in the guild hall. If I buy any more actual accounts, it will just be to add both collectors' editions to my existing account. If they still sell Prophecies collector's edition keys, that is.

Other stuff
I might write random articles from time to time that have no real place on GuildWiki other than my user page. They'll be listed here.

Skill reviews
Every arbitrarily-lengthed time period, I'll pick a skill, use it a bunch, and write up an article about it explaining strengths/weaknesses, good synergies with other skills, possible party builds, etc. This is because I have too much time on my hands.


 * Escape