User:Artist of Healing/builds/Midnight Solo

The original build's history

The Midnight Solo is one of a very few builds centered around the Mesmer elite skill Signet of Midnight. This solo build will work on all Warrior bosses located in the Jade Sea. It should be applicable to most Warrior and Assassin bosses in other areas, as long as you isolate them.

This build has been proven to work on:
 * Geoffer Pain Bringer (Boreas Seabed (Explorable))
 * Sskai, Dragon's Birth (Boreas Seabed (Explorable))
 * Jacqui The Reaver (Gyala Hatchery (Explorable))
 * Reefclaw Ragebound (Gyala Hatchery (Explorable))
 * Chkkr Locust Lord (Melandru's Hope)

This build focuses on blinding the target and uses failure hexes to get energy as well as deal some damage. With a high chance to miss with attacks (25%+25%+52% from hexes and 90% from blindness) the target will simply never hit you with an attack. Mixed with -9 Health degeneration this build is very effective and can kill almost any Jade Sea Boss in 60 seconds.

Equipment

 * +5 energy Wand or Sword and any collectors Curses offhand.
 * Wicked Scar Pattern (Curses +1).
 * Superior Curses Rune.

Usage
The usage is very simple.
 * Find the boss, cast Mantra of Resolve and pull him out.
 * Try to cast Signet of Midnight before his first attack. Normally he will hit you once before you can blind him and you should survive it.
 * Now cast the 3 failure hexes, start with Spirit of Failure to start getting energy right away.
 * Follow with Price of Failure which will deal 32 damage on each attack attempt.
 * And finally finish with Reckless Haste to speed up killing. This hex will also keep us safe with 52% chance to miss.
 * The total hit rate, factoring in all miss rates, is 2.7% for any melee boss.
 * Now cast Ignorance to disable Healing Signet.
 * And now cast Conjure Nightmare to add some final fun with -8 Health degeneration.
 * Cast Parasitic Bond as soon as possible as it will heal you only after 20 seconds.
 * Recast Signet of Midnight, Ignorance and Reckless Haste as soon as they are ready to cast, they are the key skills in this build.
 * Recast Conjure Nightmare and Price of Failure with Spirit of Failure as soon as their effect ends.

Variants

 * If you feel safe and don't need healing you can exchange Parasitic Bond for Empathy or Suffering.
 * If you feel you don't need protection against interrupts you can exchange Mantra of Resolve for Enfeebling Touch it will lower damage you receive from attacks and speed up killing. You can also exchange Mantra of Resolve with Mantra of Inscriptions to speed up recharge time of Signet of Midnight.
 * You can also replace Ignorance with a damage-dealing hex when the boss doesn't use Healing Signet.
 * Replace Parasitic Bond and Conjure Nightmare with Empathy and Vampiric Touch or Vampiric Bite. Move your attribute points from Illusion Magic to Blood Magic. You get a more immediate life steal skill in exchange for no degen on your target; but requires more careful energy use.
 * Chkkr Locust Lord farming: replace Mantra of Resolve and Ignorance for Spirit Shackles and Drain Enchantment (or Shatter Enchantment) to get rid of his Shadow Refuge or his Locust's Fury. Mind Wrack can also be used instead of Drain Enchantment.

Counters

 * Even though the hit rate of the boss does become 2.7%, if you are really unlucky, you may still die if the boss get some hits through between the time your hexes has worn off and before you get to replace them (most notably Reckless Haste).