User:Jasminethetender/builds/para

Paragon

=Para Thumper= The P/W ParaThumper is a very loose, and powerful version of the popular R/W hammer wielding ranger concept (see ).

Equipment

 * Most armor works with this, as long as your energy pool is larger than 35.
 * Ebon, Vampiric, and Zealous Hammer of Fortitude.

Usage

 * When getting ready to engage enemies, cast Aggressive Refrain then Focused Anger.
 * When charged, use Hammer Bash and follow up Crushing Blow to inflict a Deep Wound.
 * Spam Irresistible Blow as energy allows it. Follow up with Crushing Blow whenever you manage to cause a knockdown.
 * Be sure to use "Go for the Eyes!" enough to cause Aggressive Refrain to remain on you.
 * Out of battle, use Anthem of Flame to keep Aggressive Refrain up.

Counters

 * Kiting.
 * Standard Anti-Melee counters.
 * Anti shout skills such as Vocal Minority

Variants

 * Irresistible Blow can be swapped out for Awe to inflict Dazed.
 * "Lead the Way!" can replace Irresistible Blow if a speed buff is needed.
 * Leader's Comfort can replace Anthem of Flame if a self heal is needed.
 * This build can be used very similarly with an axe, simply by replacing your Hammer Attacks with Axe Attacks. The most effective choice would be Dismember, Critical Chop, and Executioner's Strike.
 * The points in Hammer Mastery would be reallocated into Axe Mastery.
 * This build can be used very similarly with a sword, simply by replacing your Hammer Attacks with Sword Attacks. The most effective choice would be Barbarous Slice, Gash, and Galrath Slash.
 * The points in Hammer Mastery would be reallocated into Swordsmanship.

=Ebon Dust Skirmish= The Ebon Dust Skirmisher is built around supporting its group through chants and conditions. The enchantment Ebon Dust Aura is combined with the Paragon's ability to attack quickly and precisely to apply Blind indefinitely. This build has remarkable utility while remaining specialized enough to fit a specific role within a team.

Equipment

 * You should carry three different spears with you:Vampiric, Zealous, and Ebon. Make sure you have your Ebon Spear equipped when trying to Blind opponents.


 * Make sure to equip a Rune of Clarity, and it might be wise to bring one weapon with an "I can see clearly now!" inscription.


 * You will need to have at least 35 energy for this build to work effectively.

Usage

 * Apply Aggressive Refrain before the battle begins and use Anthem of Flame to renew it out of battle.


 * Use "Go for the Eyes!" for energy management and to keep Aggressive Refrain up during combat.


 * Cast and maintain Ebon Dust Aura when targeting opponents that rely on attacks.


 * Swift Javelin should be used while your enchantments are active.


 * Use Barbed Spear to apply bleeding and blind.


 * Leader's Comfort is your self-heal.

Counters

 * A little taste of your own medicine in the form of a Plague Touch or other blinding skills.


 * On-hit hexes like Insidious Parasite.


 * Enchant removal can hinder your ability to blind.

Variants

 * Swap points in Command for points in Motivation and take Energizing Chorus or Chorus of Restoration instead of "Go for the Eyes!".


 * Dump points from command into Earth Prayers and swap GftE for a skill like Conviction or Vital Boon. In the case of Vital Boon, take Signet of Pious Light instead of Leader's Comfort.


 * Or, put attribute points into earth prayers and take Wild Throw instead of GftE for more offense at the expense of energy management.


 * Drop Barbed Spear for Mighty Throw for more damage output at the expense of quick activation and bleeding.


 * Drop Swift Javelin for Mighty Throw for 2 spammable attack skills and better energy management.


 * Replace Leader's Comfort with Vicious Attack for GvG.

=Conditional Para= This Build is designed for RA. It causes pressure with conditions, then dazes its target with Stunning Strike. Effective for disabling and killing casters.

Equipment

 * Blessed Insignias
 * A Silencing Spear of Fortitude
 * A Command Shield of Fortitude with a "Luck of the Draw" Inscription

Usage

 * First use Aggressive Refrain, and then start attacking a caster.
 * Spam Anthem of Flame and "Go for the Eyes!" as much as possible to maintain Aggressive Refrain.
 * Do the same with Barbed Spear and Blazing Spear.
 * When you get 10 Adrenaline, use Barbed Spear or Blazing Spear and then Stunning Strike.
 * Quickly use Barbed Spear again to cover the condition.
 * When the target is under 40% health, use Merciless Spear to finish them.

Counters

 * Anti-melee tactics such as Blind, Spiteful Spirit, and Spoil Victor.
 * Condition removal or prevention such as Avatar of Melandru.

Variants

 * Replace Anthem of Flame with "Never Surrender!"
 * Replace "Go for the Eyes!" with Signet of Malice
 * Replace Anthem of Flame or "Go for the Eyes!" with Leader's Comfort.

Equipment

 * Armor: Two minor attribute runes, one major attribute rune. One superior rune of vigor. One +2 energy rune or One rune of clarity to reduce blindness and weakness on you.
 * Hands: Furious PvP Spear of Fortitude with a PvP Shield of Fortitude (+30 HP), with your mods of choice. Bring a Zealous Spear as well.

Usage

 * Single team capping tactics: Your ideal single team will be individuals who can use 'attack skills' that trigger your Anthem of Flame, meaning Assassins, Warriors, Rangers, Paragons, and Dervishes. Use Dwayna’s Sorrow followed by Godspeed to move your party toward capping. Use Anthem of Flame to increase damage for your team as a whole, paying attention to who is using attack skills so you can time them to ultimately increase burning duration. Use ‘They’re on Fire!’ to reduce damage to your party, likewise, you should target your burning on offensive characters, ideally. You should have enough energy, and enough energy gain, to keep spamming these shouts as often as they come up (where useful), however your energy gain is proportional to the people they land on, so keep this in mind. You may switch to a Zealous Spear to gain energy if you’re low. Your fast attack rate will allow you to regen.


 * Mob Confrontations: This is where you really shine. If you see a huge mob confrontation taking up anywhere between 8-12 people from each team, it'll be your choice to get involved, but if you do you will find your shouts (and Dwayna’s Sorrow) affecting everyone in the battle. You most likely want to spam all your shouts as often as possible, because you most likely aren't totally aware of the life amount of all the friendlies around you.

Counters

 * Necromancer anti-Paragon hexes will cause you problems, such as Well of Silence and Vocal Minority.
 * Anti-Attacking spells or blindness will inhibit your personal offensive ability.

Variants

 * Replace Barbed Spear for any attack of your choice, such as Slayer's Spear, or Mighty Throw, which will go well with your very fast attack speed.
 * If you're secure in the faith of your dedicated healer, Blazing Finale might be useful to place on them for both offensive and defensive ends.
 * If you're hurting for energy, replacing an attack with "Go for the Eyes!" will help keep it up.
 * If you're really hurting for energy, Glowing Signet will give you all the energy you need. Removing Barbed Spear, Blazing Spear, and Soldier's Fury for Cruel Spear or Stunning Strike, Aggressive Refrain, and Glowing Signet is a possibility.

=ToF Tank=

The ToF Tank combines the offensive power of the Paragon's Burning skills, the Warrior's damaging area-of-effect attacks, and the defensive power of the Paragon skill "They're on Fire!".

This build is most effective in PvE, but not as effective in PvP, due to the great amount of anti-Burning skills used.

Equipment

 * Armor with Radiant Insignias
 * Axe with either a Sundering or Vampiric Mod, and a Command Shield

Usage

 * Cast Aggressive Refrain at the beginning of combat, and recast it if it expires.
 * Cast Blazing Finale on yourself and other melee units, if applicable.
 * Cast Anthem of Flame for the positive Energy gain, the refreshment of Aggressive Refrain when out of combat, and the Burning.
 * Use Triple Chop and Cyclone Axe when fighting groups to quickly charge Adrenaline.
 * Use "Go for the Eyes!" whenever it is available, which will generate massive Energy for the Paragon, dramatically increase the damage of all melee units, and quickly trigger Blazing Finale.
 * Keep "They're on Fire!" constantly on the party.

Counters

 * Anti-Shout skills, such as Vocal Minority and Well of Silence.
 * Anti-Melee skills and conditions, such as Reckless Haste and Blind.

Variants

 * Use "Stand Your Ground!" instead of a Resurrection Signet in areas where a resurrection skill is unnecessary (i.e. Alliance Battles).

=Spear DPS=

The goal of this paragon is to replace a damage dealer middle with its ranged versatility. It's been used by many top 100 guilds. This build does work well with similar characters middle. This build revolves around maintaining Aggressive Refrain and pumping out Anthem of Flame.

Equipment

 * Centurion's Armor
 * Generic Swap: Vampiric Spear of Fortitude, Shield of Fortitude ("I Can See Clearly Now" inscription)
 * Aggressive Refrain Swap: +5e Spear of Fortitude, Focus ("Live for Today" inscription)
 * Elemental Swap: Elemental Spear of Fortitude, Shield of Fortitude ("I Can See Clearly Now" inscription)
 * Anti-Cripple Swap: +5e Spear of Fortitude, Shield of Fortitude ("Swift as Wind" inscription)

Usage
Cast Aggressive Refrain at the beginning of the match, and before entering combat, use Anthem of Flame to maintain it. In battle, feel free to burn skills such as Barbed Spear to burn out your Anthem of Flame, especially if you're using this build in conjunction with another similar character. Harrier's Toss is used as a spike follow-up or as general damage. Cruel Spear and Harrier's Toss synergize well during a spike as one penalizes the target if it's moving, the other, if it isn't. If your Aggressive Refrain, for some reason, goes down during the fight, use your +energy swap to recast, and slowly Anthem of Flame to gain energy when it's up (because it nets you 6 energy around enough teammates). Use your Remedy Signet to remove long duration blinds or other conditions.

Variants

 * Cruel Spear can be swapped for another elite such as "You're All Alone!" or Crippling Anthem.
 * Barbed Spear can be replaced by another damage skill such as Wild Throw or Blazing Spear but it's not recommended.
 * Replace Resurrection Signet with Signet of Return
 * Barbed Spear can be replaced by Wearying Spear if accompanied by a -duration weakness rune, in addition to shield inscription.

Counters

 * Obstacles
 * Kiting
 * Block

=Hybrid Spiker=

Using Paragon's energy management and critical hit capabilites, the P/D Nightfall Hybrid Spiker allows you to deal critical hits with a scythe, one of the more deadly weapons in Guild Wars.

Equipment

 * Any max armor, Vigor/Vitae Runes if possible, Centurion Insignias as Aggressive Refrain should always be active.
 * Zealous Scythe for battles, have an energy set ready for emergency Aggressive Refrain.

Usage

 * Activate Aggressive Refrain just before entering battle.
 * After a few hits, activate "Go for the Eyes!", and immediately use Reaper's Sweep.
 * If the hit was critical, the damage will be outrageous. Follow up with Eremite's Attack as to not give your enemy a chance to heal.
 * When affected by weakness or blindness, use Remedy Signet.
 * When running particularly low on health, use Victorious Sweep.

Counters

 * Anti-shout skills.
 * Energy denial.
 * Unluckiness (80% chance to hit critical with Reaper's Sweep.)
 * Kiting.

Variants
Suggested variant:
 * Blazing Finale. Exchange for either signet, definitely helps add cumulative damage to all adjacent targets.
 * Burning Refrain. Works similarly to how Blazing Finale works, except it can be recycled forever. This requires extra energy or else you won't be able to chain with Aggressive Refrain.

Usage
Use Agressive Refrain before battle and keep it up with Anthem of Flame. Once in battle, cast Serpent's Quickness followed by Focused Anger and repeat as necessary. Proceed to spam "Go for the Eyes!" and Anthem of Flame.

Variants
Any skills from the three attribute lines this build uses can be used in place of Vicious Attack and Spear of Lightning as long as they require no activation time as you will want to spend as much time as possible attacking to build adrenaline.

However adding other adrenal skills is not recommended since it will add to the recharge time of "Go for the Eyes!"

Attributes and Skills

 * You can lower the Leadership attribute in favor for more Command but keep at least 12 for a 3 second burning effect from Blazing Finale.

Equipment

 * Centurion's armor since you will be under the effects of Aggressive Refrain. Any Command requirement shield.
 * Any 15^50 axe. Tanzit's Cleaver works well.
 * A Minor Rune of Leadership can be used if you prefer more health.

Usage

 * Cast Aggressive Refrain before entering combat.
 * Cast Focused Anger when possible and refresh whenever it recharges.
 * Cast Blazing Finale when possible and refresh whenever it expires.
 * Use "Go for the Eyes" to maintain energy levels, set enemies on fire, and refresh Aggressive Refrain.
 * Spam your attack skills.
 * Once you get going, there shouldn't be any energy issues unless you run into some counters (or stray too far from your party). If the mob is near-finished, try keeping "Go for the Eyes!" charged so you can use it to refresh Aggressive Refrain while moving to a new mob.

Counters

 * Blindness.
 * Adrenaline denial.
 * Anti-melee skills.

=Party Support=

This support Paragon together with the two healer henchman can cover all the defensive needs of the Nightfall campaign. The core of this build can also be used as basis for a PvP motivation Paragon/Warrior.

Equipment
You should focus on defense with your gear, since energy is easily managed by staying close to your team.

Armor: Weapon: Shield:
 * Insignias: Centurion's insignia on all armor pieces.
 * Runes: Major Motivation, Major Leadership, Minor Spear Mastery, Vigor (highest possible), and Vitae.
 * Use a spear grip of Defense.
 * Use the inscription "I have the power!" for +5 Energy.
 * Use whichever spearhead will support your skills best -- Furious will allow you to keep "Watch Yourself!" ready to use relatively well even with all the chants and echos that you're casting.
 * Use a Shield that requires Motivation.
 * Use a Shield Handle of Fortitude.
 * Use either the inscription "Master of My Domain" for extra Motivation or "Luck of the Draw" for damage reduction.

Usage

 * This Paragon is very efficient in preventing and healing the damage to the whole team (like AoE spells, generic pressure, and health degeneration of the team). "Shields Up!" is also useful to prevent spike from archers, which is very common in the Nightfall campaign.
 * Using "Watch Yourself!" for energy management lets you can easily spam all your other skills except Mending Refrain. However, with your high number of shouts and chants you are able to maintain Mending Refrain on all the members of the team during long fights.

Counters

 * If you can't acquire adrenaline you can't spam all your skills.
 * Necromancer's Anti-Paragon hexes totally shut down this build.

Variants

 * Replace Signet of Synergy with Spear of Lightning.
 * You may prefer to use another elite in some areas of PvE.
 * You can replace Signet of Return with another resurrection skill, or even with Lightbringer's Gaze when you need it. Like a monk, using this build you will not have time to resurrect while in combat.
 * Mending Refrain can be replaced by Finale of Restoration.

Armor

 * 5x Centurion's Insignia
 * Command Crest with a Rune of Superior Command; use while fighting
 * Leadership Crest with a Rune of Superior Leadership; use while running
 * Duplicate armor piece (hands or feet are cheapest) with a Rune of Superior Spear Mastery and a Rune of Vitae
 * Rune of Superior Vigor
 * 2x Rune of Vitae

Weapons

 * Set 1 - Running :::: Spear of Warding (+5 energy, +7 armor vs. elemental), Shield of Valor (+10 armor vs. fire, +60 hp while hexed)
 * Set 2 - Driftwood ::: Fiery Spear of Shelter (15^50, +7 armor vs. physical), Shield of Fortitude (+10 armor vs. slashing, +30 hp)
 * Set 3 - Spiders ::::: Zealous Spear of Shelter (15^50, +7 armor vs. physical), Shield of Fortitude (+10 armor vs. piercing, +30 hp)
 * Set 4 - Pulling :::::: Flatbow

Note: Mods on the Flatbow and the prefix of Spear 1 are not important, though preferably not zealous or vampiric

Usage

 * Enduring Harmony allows you to maintain "Stand Your Ground!", providing a +24 armor bonus and another +10 due to Centurion's Insignia. This skill also makes it possible to use "Lead the Way!" for running, granting a near-constant 25% movement boost (7.5 second duration, 8 second recharge), and extends the +5 health regeneration from "Never Surrender!" to 15 seconds (20 second recharge).


 * Soldier's Fury increases your attack speed by 33% while under the effect of a shout or chant, which is a constant in this build. This IAS allows you to easily build the adrenaline to spam Blazing Spear and finish off with a Deep Wound from Merciless Spear.

If you are not familiar with farming the beach and cave of FoW, it is recommended that you try a warrior build first. Once you know the area and the general idea of the farm, adjusting to this build is simple. To run to the beach, equip Set 1 and your armor piece without the Spear rune. Run with "Lead the Way!", using Enduring Harmony first to provide a near-constant 25% movement boost. Once at the top of the hill overlooking the beach, engage the first group of Snarling Driftwood (using Weapon Set 4 to pull if necessary). Switch to Set 2; the Driftwood are weak against fire damage, while your spear and shield will provide extra damage against their attacks, which are slashing damage. Activate Enduring Harmony, "Stand Your Ground!", and Soldier's Fury. Auto-attack, spamming Blazing Spear as often as adrenaline allows. When your target dips below 50% health use Merciless Spear to inflict a Deep Wound, allowing you to finish it off easily. Whenever you have less than 75% health use "Never Surrender!" for +5 health regeneration - use Leader's Comfort for a stronger heal if necessary. Continue to eliminate the Snarling Driftwood and Doubter's Dryders, using your flatbow in Set 4 to pull any groups near Ancient Skales, who you must avoid entirely. If you do aggro a group of Skales, use "Lead the Way!" and run until you lose all aggro so you can regenerate before proceeding.

When you reach the mouth of the cave, switch to Set 3. Pull the Dryders away from the cave (one at a time, if you are not comfortable with fighting multiple) and kill them - they deal a very small amount of damage with their regular attacks, so save your skills to activate when they cast Wastrel's Worry on you. Once you kill the Dryders, a large mob of Armored Cave Spiders will begin spawning inside the cave entrance. Back away while they spawn, and wait until they have settled down. Then, use your flatbow to pull groups of Spiders (each group consists of 3) - start off with one group at a time, until you feel comfortable enough to take on more. To kill spiders, try to get them to spread out; they use Healing Spring, which will out-heal your damage if they are all together. Make sure you have Set 3 equipped, as it gives armor against the Spiders' piercing damage. Maintain "Stand Your Ground!" and Soldier's Fury like before, using "Never Surrender!" to counter the poison degeneration and Leader's Comfort whenever your health gets to around 50%. Cave Spiders use Melandru's Resilience so don't use your Merciless Spear until they are around 25% health, or you will just be healing them. Once all of the orignal Spiders are dead, continue into the cave. Pull and kill the Dryders - each one will trigger 6 more Spiders - until the cave is cleared.

Note that this is also a good time to open a few chests if you have keys with you. Enduring Harmony, "Lead the Way!", and "Never Surrender!" provide enough of a boost to run through many areas of FoW to find chests.