User:XT-8147

A bit about me
I've picked it up again after 10 months or so. My power supply had died, which was a major barrier to getting back into GW, but I got a new one earlier this month and am refamiliarizing myself with stuff and figuring out which skills I loved that they've nerfed.

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.

I'm going for Fissure armor! Wish me luck and ectos/shards!

Builds I usually play:
 * PvE Blood Spike
 * N/Mo Factions-enhanced Minion Master

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 combos: Ranger/Monk, Ranger/Assassin

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)

Pet: Level 20 Black Moa.

Titles obtained:
 * Tyrian Grandmaster Cartographer
 * Protector of Tyria

Titles I'm going for with Pedro:
 * The cartographer tracks
 * Protector/Guardian tracks
 * Drunkard (a paltry 200 some minutes, as I'm a) poor and b) feel like doing just about anything except idling in town double clicking a stack of ale for hours on end)
 * The elite skill tracks
 * the Wisdom track
 * Sunspear rank (eventually...)

I also wish that more of these titles were account-wide, like Skill Hunter. If I've gone through all the work of capturing all those elites I want bragging rights regardless of which character I'm playing :( . Cartographer and Protector I understand being character-specific though.

Builds I usually play:
 * Arrows of Doom
 * Beast Master

Past (retired) builds:
 * Resilient Barrager
 * Mobile Disruption Sniper
 * JI Sniper
 * Quick Shot Gunner
 * Bunny Thumper
 * Runner (*sniff* Escape used to last so long *sniff*)
 * Totem Axe Farmer (I got my totem axe, lulz)

A build I threw together on the fly for a pug that worked really well:
 * Hell's Precipice Winter Spammer

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 SCREW YOU ANERF. 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

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

I was into the habit of using Rebirth at the exact point in Mantra of Recall's recharge time that Mantra of Recall ends shortly after Rebirth takes all my energy, but then I kinda switched over to a WoH healer *gasp*

Don't let word of this get around too much, but after hating on the skill for so long, I've actually switched over to a Word of Healing build. Despite not really liking the skill much, when you have a skill bar filled with only 5 energy spells, you don't need much in the way of energy management, unless you decide to go crazy replacing your resurrect with Zealot's Fire and heal spamming in AB.

I've taken a liking to Dwayna's Kiss though. It can easily be the largest heal in the entire game. I remember one AB where the blood necro on our team had a couple hexes and several enchantments on him (some courtesy of me), he started getting focus-fired, I hit Dwayna's Kiss, and he got healed for around 400 health, counting divine favor.

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 already taken. He's a hammer warrior because I like to play the builds that aren't the most popular.

Usual class combo: Warrior /Monk

Armor: 1.5k Canthan, dyed red. One Stonefist insignia, the rest Survivor.

Current build:

Retired Builds:
 * Friendly Neighborhood Hammer Tank
 * Farming build

His weapon is a Victo's Maul that I had lying around. I liked the look of the Summit Hammer he had before that better, but oh well. I actually want a Mursaat Hammer for him, just because I like the skin, but thanks to the wonders of random number generators, I can never get a decent one to drop.

He also carries a crappy fire staff with an innate Energy +10 on it so he can weapon switch for two quick Rebirths.

I did tests at the Master of Damage for the three variations of this KD chain build I've run so far (FGJ!, Berserker Stance, and Backbreaker/Staggering Blow), and this version edges out Devastating->Fierce->Heavy->Crushing ever so slightly in terms of overall damage and DPS. It was sad to see "None Shall Pass!" go, but I barely used it as it was. The change to Berserker Stance simply put FGJ! to shame. Even with Backbreaker needing as much adrenaline as it does, Berserker Stance still charges it before it ends.

Arcanist Michelle
My elementalist! Named after a character in a story I wrote about some mages (to put it simply).

Skill bar cycles around the energy management between Glyph of Energy and dual attunements depending on the area my whim, really.

Armor is 15k Sunspear armor, Survivor insignia, dyed blue.

Rebirth seems like a waste of energy on an elementalist and I don't really want to spare the attribute points to make Restore Life viable, hence I stick with Resurrect. Since I picked up the game again, I'm taking her through Nightfall, despite my ranger being my cartographer/skill hunter.

She uses Flint's Wand and Flint's Artifact.

I love using slow hexes to cause AoE scatter. Normally it would be bad to do this, but they barely go anywhere when they're slowed by 66%.

I've noticed that all the slow hexes available under Water Magic are fairly effective at aggro management. There have been multiple cases of enemies charging right past the warriors in the party to get to me/the monks, only to be whacked by one of my slow hexes, then they seem to retarget to whatever is nearest, which is the warriors. When I can time Ice Spikes correctly to do this, it works quite well. Against single enemies that are already moving towards the party, Shard Storm is much more effective and efficient.

I realize that by reading this character list you may have noticed that all of my characters typically have a Monk secondary. I much prefer having an easily reusable resurrection spell to a single-use "must kill a boss to use again" signet.

Factions Characters
I'm really really tired of levelling up characters. I'm contemplating deleting my rit and forgetting that factions added professions altogether.

Arcane Ritual
My ritualist. Hasn't done much so far, I really just wanted to create her. So far she's up to level 7 and doesn't have a secondary. I don't really have enough skills available to decide where I want to go with her.

Cpt Stabs A Lot
Just like with my ritualist, no real idea where I want to take her yet.

Erikkson The Cursed
Named after a character I played in a message board rpg. He was a wheat farmer with a scythe. Lots of back story. He's currently trying again at survivor because he pulled too many skale :(

Cmdr Spearchucker
I just want to use "Never Give Up!" and "Never Surrender!" together on the same skill bar.

PvP Character
Deleted to make room for a dervish during the nightfall preview event.

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

Party Build Ideas

 * Synergy with Brambles

Token User Page Links

 * Elite Skills

Random stuff

 * "Ni!" - Sleep deprivation combined with habitual reading of talk pages.
 * The Art of Skill Bar Organization - I attribute writing this to boredom.
 * Skill Wish List - It started as a way to bring more Monty Python and the Holy Grail references into Guild Wars, and then evolved into fixing every frustration anyone ever experienced.
 * Sandbox - Random build inspirations or what have you.