User:Discgolfer2000

Hello Page under construction =About Me=

=Builds= Builds I want to keep after the Builds Wipe

Attributes and Skills
Echo Nuker

 SS Nuker

 Minion Master

DoA Tank
 * See Variants for possible skills for the optional slot.
 * Karei's Healing Circle is the Factions equivalent skill for Heal Area.
 * The skill set presented here is an example. No claims are made to its supremacy.

PvP SF Ele

Renewal Nuker

Dual Attunement Air Spiker

E/Me Echoed Invoker

E/Mo Earth Tank/PBAoE
 * Glyph of Lesser Energy can be replaced with Aura of Restoration if entering an area with many Enchantment removing enemies although higher energy management is required - consider asking a Necromancer to bring Blood Ritual.
 * Switch Resurrection Signet for Blinding Flash when going into AB to blind your attackers.

N/any BiP Necro The BiP necromancer (also known as a battery) is a powerful source of energy for the party using the skill Blood is Power. The core of the build involves using BiP on party members, getting healed (or self-healing) and doing the same over and over.



  N/any Icy Blighter This is one of few builds that utilizes the Soul Reaping skill Icy Veins in order to deal massive area of effect damage and shut down heavy enchantment monks. This build is primarily aimed at PvE usage. 
 * Scar Pattern Armor is recommended for energy. Adding Superior Runes to reduce health is an option.
 * Any staff (or wand and focus item combination) that provides +5 Energy and fast recharge and cast time for Blood Magic is optimal. An item which reduces health or one that lengthens enchantments (for Blood Renewal and BiP) can help also.

 Mo/any 55hp Solo Monk  The 55hp Monk is used to solo many popular farming locations containing Griffons, Hydras, Mountain Trolls, and Minotaurs. It is an enchantment heavy build, so it is not suitable for areas with disenchanting mesmers or necromancers.

This build is often called "55 Monk" because of its low health -- only 55 hp. The low health makes Protective Spirit, which limits damage to 10% of a character's maximum health, reduce all received damage to 5hp/hit, which is easily countered by the 8 pips of health regeneration granted by Healing Breeze (16 hp regained every second).

This build no longer works as described because of the Wednesday 25th of October monster AI update, whereby monsters that can be knocked down no longer kill themselves on Shield of Judgment (meaning Hydras can still be farmed with this build for they cannot be knocked down). If you run past the Mountain Trolls in the cave outside Droknar's Forge, use this build to farm the Tundra Giants, be sure to use a skill like Dolyak Signet against them so you can cast your healing skills and Shield of Judgment to prevent them from disrupting you with their stomps. This also works well with Sand Giants  in the Scar area of the Crystal Desert.

It does work in areas such as the zone with Hydras and Griffins outside of the Augury Rock. It is still effective only takes longer. In the Nightfall campaign of Guild wars the build works real well against the groups of  Tusked Hunters and Tusked Howlers outside Yohlon Haven

See the article Invincible Monk for a discussion of the concept of the build.  Mo/any Word of Healing Monk 

 Rt/any Ritual Lord  Through spamming protective spirits, the Ritual Lord is designed to greatly reduce damage dealt to the team.  W/Mo Full Vigor Paladin  This Paladin is designed for fast-pace PvE action and combines both high damage and powerful self-healing. In opposition to common Mending builds it is very economical concerning Energy. It has little to no downtime between fights and can also increase the self-healing of team mates. Both builds require Prophecies and the axe build requires Factions unless the Eviscerate variant is used (see Variations).

Alternate setup for Axe

 * Take Resurrection Chant (or Rebirth for difficult areas).

Equipment

 * Choose either a furious weapon haft for faster Adrenaline generation or a vampiric weapon haft to increase the inflicted damage. For the Axe version, a zealous mod is necessary to spam Cyclone Axe and Triple Chop.
 * Choose the best (while enchanted) gear available.
 * Wing's Axe or Sskai's Sword with an Exalted Aegis (unique item) (Strength) are good weapon sets to use.

Usage

 * Stand as far away from combat as your spirits can be and still affect allies.
 * Use Boon of Creation for Energy management. Cast it first, then begin casting Shelter.
 * Activate Ritual Lord during shelter. Like a stance, it has zero casting time so it can be cast during other skills.
 * Invoke Displacement then Union.
 * Be sure to constantly refresh Boon of Creation and Ritual Lord.
 * Typically, Displacement will run out fairly quickly, at which time Union will start eroding. Before Union runs out, your Displacement should be recharged and ready. Invoke it as soon as it becomes ready again.
 * For the duration of the battle, try to balance Union and Displacement so that at least one of them is in effect, while always maintaining Shelter. This will make healing extremely easy.

The end result of this build is that the party will almost always take no more than 30-38 Damage Per Hit and will avoid most attacks.
 * In Alliance Battles and certain missions (Amatz Basin, etc.), the effects are even better. All 3 spirits affect allies, as opposed to only party members. Thus, even 1 Ritual Lord can turn the tide of battle.

Counters

 * Removing Boon of Creation will greatly reduce the energy management within this build.
 * Likewise, any energy denial skills can greatly impact the build's effectiveness.
 * If targeted, the build will usually die quickly as it does not have attack or healing skills.
 * Interrupts while creating the spirits will force the player to wait the full length of recharge time.

Variants
There are two optional slots in the skill bar. These can be filled as follows:


 * Soothing
 * Suggested as a near must have for one of the optional slots. This is not a universal opinion, but should be considered. It will go a long way towards shutting down Adrenaline users.


 * Armor of Unfeeling
 * Pointless in PvE, excellent in PvP. A flat-out damage reduction to give more protection than any amount of Armor. Not always effective.


 * Mighty Was Vorizun
 * So-So in PvE, great in PvP. Can't go wrong with additional Armor and Energy, although you lose any Fast Casting/Recharge mods on your weapon.


 * Feast of Souls
 * Overpowered in PvE, excellent in PvP. This far outstrips Heal Party. Chances are, Shelter won't die before it recharges. Feast of Souls can therefore be cast to give the party a strong heal. Used early it will give the party a very strong Heal.


 * Signet of Creation
 * Good in PvE, good in PvP. Gives Union and Displacement a helping hand before they die.


 * Shadowsong
 * Protects caster and caster's spirits from melee attackers that try to bring them down.


 * Spirit Siphon
 * By using two Superior Runes, one each of Communing and Spawning Power, and a Minor Rune of Channeling Magic and putting Communing and Spawning Power at 14, you can put 11 into Channeling Magic and use this skill for much more efficient energy management. Great for PvE, if you stay out of aggro range. Dangerous in PvP because of much lower health.


 * Mantra of Resolve
 * If your secondary class is Mesmer, put 3 into Inspiration. Not needed in PvE, but you may want it for PvP. Binding Rituals are not spells, so there are less interrupting skills to affect them, but interruptions will not trigger Ritual Lord's Recharge reduction, thus, it's really bad to be interrupted. Don't worry about the low Rank: There will be Energy to spare if Boon of Creation is managed properly.


 * Mantra of Concentration
 * A longer lasting, cheaper variant of Mantra of Resolve. Only stops one interrupt per cast however.


 * Frozen Soil
 * Many teams (most notably IWAY) prefer to have one Frozen Soil-spirit carried by the Ritual Lord, to prevent enemies from reviving dead teammates. This requires Ranger as secondary profession.



Equipment

 * Any 20% of Enchanting, preferably with extra energy. A Totem Axe or Rajazan's Fervor is ideal.
 * The off-hand item is the -50 Grim Cesta obtained via the Cities of Ascalon quest.
 * Ascetic's Armor offers the most energy which is beneficial to this build, all armor pieces have to have Monk superior runes: one of each with one extra to bring your health down to 105 (this doesn’t include health deduction with the -50 Grim Cesta). Keep in mind that you don't need high armor for the build, so any Ascetic's with maximum energy will do.

Usage

 * Cast the first 4 enchantments before the fight. You won't have any energy regeneration, so use Blessed Signet to regain energy out of combat.
 * Before aggroing mobs, cast Protective Spirit. You should not need Healing Breeze unless you have more than 3 foes that cannot be knocked down (such as hydras), or 5 that can be knocked down (such as forgotten).
 * The energy gained from Essence Bond and Balthazar's Spirit should be more than enough for all situations.
 * Blessed Aura and your weapon of Enchanting will prolong your Shield of Judgment, which is your core offensive spell.
 * The build is most successful against melee attackers and is least successful against spell casters (especially Mesmers). To use it for farming, find an area with a heavy concentration of melee attackers (such as the Blessed Griffons in Snake Dance or the Hydras in Skyward Reach) and take them on.

List of Soloable Bosses

Wajjun Bazaar Lian, Dragon's Petal - (aggro as many as possible for energy benefit)Instead of Essense Bond bring Zealot's Fire for additional damage.

Variants

 * Monk
 * Replace Essence Bond with Zealot's Fire for more damage output. See the notes on casting in succession to avoid breaking aggro.
 * Replace Blessed Aura with Smite for more firepower. Note that if you are used to Blessed Aura, then getting used to the decidedly shorter durations of Healing Breeze, Protective Spirit and Shield of Judgment will take some time.
 * Replace Essence Bond with Strength of Honor while using a melee weapon to do more Damage.
 * Replace Essence Bond with Symbol of Wrath and use it right after Shield of Judgment tends to kill Mountain Trolls with one round of Shield of Judgment.
 * Replace Healing Breeze with Shield of Absorption for 0 damage (With Totem Axe and Blessed Aura, Shield of Absorption will come back soon enough to recast before it ends.
 * Use Watchful Spirit for more regeneration
 * Warrior, secondary
 * Replace Essence Bond with Bonetti's Defense for an excellent energy providing skill, though dodging will reduce the DPS average.
 * Replace Essence Bond with Balanced Stance to protect yourself against knockdowns, such as Meteor casted by Hydras. This will make Hydra-Farming a lot easier.
 * Replace Essence Bond with Dolyak Signet to securely eliminate knockdowns from monsters such as Tundra Giants
 * Elementalist, secondary
 * Replace Essence Bond with Aftershock. This works fine with the knockdown provided by Shield of Judgment and does not break aggro like Zealot's Fire.
 * Replace Shield of Judgment with Glyph of Renewal and use Sliver Armor for damage.
 * Replace Essence Bond with Bed of Coals.
 * Necromancer, secondary
 * Replace Essence Bond with Suffering. Use this after Shield of Judgment, when the enemy(s) are knocked down because of its 2 second cast time it's easier to interrupt. For large mobs, cast it into the center of the group.
 * Mesmer secondary, you could do one or more of the following:
 * Replace Essence Bond with Channeling to gain tons of energy from crowding foes (this works well in conjunction with Zealot's Fire).
 * Replace Blessed Aura with Arcane Echo to lengthen the effect of Shield of Judgment.
 * Replace Essence Bond with Mantra of Resolve against enemies with interrupts. This can be useful against Titans and Mountain Trolls.
 * Replace Balthazar's Spirit with Sympathetic Visage. This will deplete enemies' energy and cause spellcasting monsters such as Hydras to attack you more once they no longer have the energy to power their spells.
 * Ranger, secondary
 * Replace Essence Bond with Serpent's Quickness for back to back Shield of Judgment casting.
 * Replace Blessed Signet with Brambles to add damage and inflict bleeding when enemies are knocked down by Shield of Judgment. Remember that Brambles is Factions only.
 * Dervish, secondary
 * Mystic Regeneration based:


 * Benefits - more points in Divine Favor and Smiting Prayers means Shield of Judgment does more damage for a longer time. Mystic Regeneration is far better than Healing Breeze (0.25 cast, up to +16 health regen for 24 sec).
 * Replace Watchful Spirit with Mending if you don't have WS.
 * Replace Watchful Spirit with Fleeting Stability if getting knocked down is a problem ("only" get max +14 health regen though). Suggested: Protection Prayers at 9 and Earth Prayers at 6 for longer Fleeting Stability.
 * Additional equipment: a wand + the Grim Cesta in another weapon set. If an enemy runs away, switch to wand, attack it then switch back to usual set. Unless the AI has changed, it should run back to attack you.
 * Mystic Regeneration for healing.

Counters

 * Enchantment removal
 * Interrupting
 * The dazed condition
 * Life stealing
 * Degeneration

Hero Skills
Jagged Nova Bomber

<BR> A/any Critical Fox <BR>


 * Your optional slot is normally reserved for Critical Eye, but there are a few other choices here:
 * In a full PvE party, Resurrection Signet is the best choice.
 * Way of Perfection is usable as a long-term heal, and can serve to keep Way of the Assassin active (the downside is the short duration and small heals at lower levels of Shadow Arts).
 * Another Dual Attack, such as Critical Strike, will provide more energy management and a critical hit on-demand.

<BR>
 * If kiting foes are a problem, Leaping Mantis Sting is a viable alternative to Golden Fox Strike.
 * When playing with a normal party, energy isn't a big deal for this build. It's probably a good idea to switch out Critical Eye in favor of a resurrection skill.
 * If survival is an issue, you can go A/D and switch Shadow Arts for Earth Prayers (see Variants, below).