User:Darktemplar56/buildarchive/bp

Barrage/Pet is the general appellation of a class of "speed" builds for the ruins of the Tomb of the Primeval Kings. Despite this, it is entirely possible to use this team in other areas. This article will, however, only consider builds used at the tombs.

As always, a decent build in the hands of a strong player is much more powerful than a perfect build in the hands of a player who doesn't know what he's doing; minor variations (runes, attribute points, non-essential skills, and choice of weapon in particular) are not harmful. Indeed, they are generally helpful, as they tend to suit a particular player's playing style and can be used to synchronize the party's abilities even more.

Overview
This build utilizes the synergy between Barrage, Favorable Winds, and Winnowing to inflict high damage on multiple foes, with a wall of pets and minions to defend the party. This build requires only loose coordination between players, and a large spectrum of variants are viable. Barrage/pet builds are resilient to dropped players, as only two roles, the Monk and the Minion Master, can be said to be essential.

There are a total of four general roles in the team - the Barrager, the Minion Master, the Supporter, and the healing Monk. A "full team" consists of five barragers, one Minion Master, one Supporter, and one Monk. A "half team" may consist of two barragers, one Minion Master, one Supporter, and one Monk, or three barragers, one Minion Master, and one Monk.

Barragers
The barragers have nearly endless variations (even more so than the other three characters) due to the fact that many skills work extremely well with Barrage. In general, barragers should stay behind the wall of pets and minions to avoid damage. Shown below are a few example builds.

The primary profession for a barrager is the Ranger due to the extra four attribute points they can obtain in Marksmanship; however, other primary professions can sometimes do well in this position.

All barragers should use a Recurve Bow, due to its excellent timing between its firing rate and the recharge of Barrage (they are exactly equal, so the character will always be attacking with Barrage). Also, a Longbow or Flatbow is useful for pulling groups of monsters.

A Vampiric bow string is useful to increase the damage; Sundering bow strings can be used to a lesser extent, but without any health degeneration. The bow grip is essentially a matter of preference; a bow grip of Fortitude helps in case the barrager is attacked, while a bow grip of Marksmanship increases the damage the character deals. Other bow grips are not as commonly seen. Because there are few times when the barragers take damage, a Strength and Honor inscription adds consistent damage.

Because of this, Elswyth's Recurve Bow is a common choice (both in popularity and in availability).



R/Mo Rebirth Barrager
The sole advantage of this build is the presence of Rebirth. Should the group wipe, this character has the ability to resurrect all fallen teammates without aggroing monsters. It also brings an interrupt for interrupting Wurm Siege from Chaos Wurms. However, it deals much less damage than any other barrager presented here.

R/Mo Insightful Barrager
This ranger makes good use of the fact that while Barrage removes preparations, it does not remove enchantments. Judge's Insight provides a generous amount of armor penetration, in addition to keeping the bonus damage from Orders spells (if brought).

Due to the fact that many enemies in the tombs carry Shatter Enchantment, this barrager should attempt to stay behind the front line.

R/Rt Splinter Barrager
Although this variant's pet is weaker than that of a normal barrager and his arrows deal slightly less damage, his overall DPS is significantly higher. Casting Splinter Weapon on himself deals a significant amount of damage with Barrage; casting it on allies before battles increases the party's DPS by an extreme amount. Destruction adds damage and can body block.

Additional skill options include Bloodsong and Nightmare Weapon, the latter of which could replace Predator's Pounce.

R/N Painful Barrager
The Painful Barrager's job is to cast Mark of Pain on a foe before attacking with Barrage and Predator's Pounce. The extra damage from Mark of Pain is extremely potent - especially when combined with it triggering off of other party members' arrows and pets. A nicely placed hex, in bottleneck situations with a large number of foes, can reportedly deal an estimated 1500 damage in the space of three seconds (reported in this archive).

R/Rt Healing Barrager
This barrager uses Recuperation and Life from the Restoration Magic line to add a large area constant healing ability to your party, pets, and minions - meaning that your party's tanks will be alive for much longer, as Recuperation alone will negate the health degeneration that minions suffer for the first minute or two of their life.

R/E Burning Barrager
This build requires a Fiery bow. Thus, it is most useful in an Elemental Barragers team and less effective with a party carrying Orders (though still very effective).

The use of this build is simple: Pre-cast Conjure Flame. When your party engages the enemy, attack normally until they stop moving around. Then attack with Barrage. Doing this will maximize the number of enemies affected by both skills.

In an Elemental Barragers team composed of multiple of these rangers, Distracting Shot could be replaced with Conflagration, allowing other bow strings to be used.

R/Me Domination Barrager
This barrager, effective against The Darkness, utilizes the enemy caster AI in order to increase damage exponentially but requires some thought on the part of the player. First, Backfire should be cast on one enemy caster; second, Guilt should be cast on a different enemy caster. This will result in one caster casting himself to death while another has one spell prevented (if you're lucky, Energy Surge or Meteor Shower) and providing you with energy.

A/R Critical Barrager
In this variant, any number of Rangers can be replaced by Assassin/Rangers. Even though they can only resurrect teammates once with the signet they carry, they have a greater chance of making critical hits. This barragers critical hits deal will deal 40 damage against an AL 60 target, whereas a Ranger primary with 16 Marksmanship will deal an average of 26 damage against the same target (before additional modifiers). Substitute Resurrection Signet for Sunspear Rebirth Signet if you don't have Nightfall, but remember that the resurrected party member will not be teleported to your location.

A big requirement for this variant is a bow that requires 12 or less Marksmanship - otherwise, the barrager will deal half damage.

R/P Barrage Shouter
This variant utilizes Paragon Shouts and Chants to increase the effectiveness of the entire party at the cost of his pet. Go for the Eyes!" is an effective buff for any attacking ally, no matter what their build; Anthem of Envy is a strong chant to use at the beginning of a battle; "Brace Yourself!" is useful when combating mobs guarding Chaos Wurms (as the Wurm will attempt to knock down your allies before engaging in combat). Using "Find Their Weakness!" before "Go for the Eyes!" makes it very likely that many enemies will suddenly find a portion of their health bar turning gray.

Sunspear Rebirth Signet can be swapped for Signet of Return if a "hard" resurrection skill is desired.

R/D Pious Barrager
This build uses Dervish enchantments to conditionally supplement its damage. The real selling point on this build is Pious Restoration, which can be used to remove the many hexes present in the tombs and take pressure off the monk; the other enchantments are mainly provided to supplement this spell.

This character must stay back behind the front lines; many enemies in the tombs carry enchantment removal such as Shatter Enchantment, which can be deadly to this character.

W/R Penetration Barrager
This unorthodox barrager may be frowned upon by PUGs, but can be highly effective. The first requirement is a set of armor with Radiant Insignias; the second is a perfect Sundering hornbow. Finally, all attack made, in an ideal situation, must be attack skills.

When using a Sundering bow string and a Hornbow, he can achieve armor penetration of up to 46% against all his targets (and always have 26% armor penetration). Using Sundering Attack bumps this armor penetration up to a maximum of 50% and a minimum of 30% (average 34%). When not using Sundering Attack, he averages 30% armor penetration, making him very effective against enemies with high armor (particularly Grasps of Insanity, which are Warriors). He is as effective in a Elemental Barragers team as in a normal team, and Signet of Strength increases his damage in either team.

Although Sundering Attack uses less energy than Barrage, it should be reserved for single targets. This is because the idea of the team is to deal large amounts of damage to multiple targets; Sundering Attack sacrifices this ideal for an extra 4% armor penetration and a small amount of extra damage.

In the very worst situation, when the party must flee, this barrager can stay back and distract enemies from the rest of the team if necessary. Endure Pain, Dolyak Signet, "I Will Survive!", and Lion's Comfort are included for this reason. The Warrior's extra armor, especially against physical damage, also help here. If your party is confident that this will not be a problem, ranks in Tactics should be switched to Beast Mastery (and perhaps decrease base Strength ranks to 11 or even 10 so Beast Mastery can be increased to 6 or 8, respectively) and various skills from that line should be brought. Recommended skills include Predator's Pounce, Poisonous Bite, Call of Protection, Otyugh's Cry, Call of Haste, Brutal Strike, and Scavenger Strike, though other skills can certainly be viable.

A major problem with this build is energy management. Although it is an old joke, Blood Ritual or Blood is Power should be maintained on the warrior as much as possible if available.

If the party contains an Insight Barrager, that character should cast Judge's Insight on the penetration barrager if possible. This will increase maximum and minimum armor penetration under all circumstances by 20%; thus, a maximum armor penetration of 70% is possible. The average armor penetration with Sundering Attack will then be 54%; without it, the average is 50%.

Sundering Attack can be replaced with Penetrating Attack if so desired.

General ranger variations
At least one ranger must bring Favorable Winds (often abbreviated as FW) and one ranger must bring Winnowing (often abbreviated as WW or Winn). Troll Unguent is a good skill to swap out for either spirit, as the monk (below) should be taking care of all the healing. If you decide to bring FW instead of Troll Unguent, reduce your Wilderness Survival to 0 and move the remaining points to Expertise. If you instead choose to bring Winnowing, you may want to move a few points from Beast Mastery to Wilderness Survival to create a heartier spirit. (Note that the Wilderness Orders support character can bring Winnowing if necessary.)

Perhaps the most important skill choice for an optional slot is a skill that interrupts to stop the party being devastated by Wurm Siege. Savage Shot and Distracting Shot are common choices; Concussion Shot has a much higher energy cost, but can be much more effective.

The purpose of the pets is to tank for the group (at least until the Minion Master produces an army to do so) and to provide corpses for the Minion Master. A dead pet with an exploited corpse serves no purpose, so it is important for the rangers to raise their pets at every opportunity.

Beast Mastery skills are generally useful; Otyugh's Cry and Call of Protection in particular can help the pets out, Revive Animal can be helpful in the right situations, and pet attacks increase the general DPS of the party. Spirits, however, should not be brought without the consent of the party, as many work against the humans.

All rangers should try to keep their Expertise level at or above 8 (including runes), as this will make 5-energy skills (most importantly, Barrage) cost three energy. Optionally, having 9 Expertise will make 10-energy skills cost only 6 energy.

Minion Masters
The Minion Master must be able to do two things: He must be able to raise a large undead army, and he must maintain said army. It is nigh-useless to bring a "primer" (a skill to kill the first enemy, which can then be made into a minion), as your allies should be able to kill at least one foe for you.

Unlike many other minion mastery builds, the minions here are not intended for pure damage, but rather to body block the Grasps of Insanity from reaching the ranger line.

The most restrictive variable on a minion master is time. The recharge time on many minion skills is quite long, as are the casting times. Therefore, a weapon that reduces both these times is desirable, as is one that increases the level of the minions. Since recharge time is longer than casting time (and therefore more important to reduce), an ideal staff would be an Adept 20/20 Staff of Death Magic.

For additional information, please see the general minion mastery guide

N/Mo Golem Bonder
This character raises a hardy group of tanks, including an extremely hearty and renewable Flesh Golem, to make the monk's job easier. Simply wait for corpses to appear and begin animating. When you are in danger, use Dark Bond.

Optionally, consider bringing any rune for Soul Reaping, and a minor rune of Blood Magic.

N/Mo Jagged Bomber
This variant is useful in dealing damage and raising a number of minions. Animate Bone Horror is the main animation skill in this build; Animate Shambling Horror should be used when available, but it is not as spammable as Animate Bone Horror is. Jagged Bones should be cast whenever it is recharged and the character controls at least one minion. (Keep in mind that the two minions produced by this spell will stack with the Jagged Horror produced by Animate Shambling Horror.) When the character controls few minions, he may target the nearest minion manually, enchant it with Jagged Bones and Death Nova, and then kill it with Taste of Death when it is near foes. This will effectively damage the enemies and create a new bodyguard for the party.

Optionally, consider bringing any rune for Soul Reaping, and a minor rune of Blood Magic.

Rt/N Explosive Animator
The Ritualist primary attribute Spawning Power allows a minion master to create heartier, if weaker, minions, and allows for additional healing through Signet of Creation. Because most of the damage in this team comes from the rangers, the loss of offensive power is not a big issue, although the loss of armor can be.

Unlike other minion masters presented here, this build deals a large amount of damage from Explosive Growth and Death Nova. The idea behind this is that as the tanks die, they will damage the remaining enemies - hopefully reducing or eliminating their need now that they are dead.

Support characters
These characters greatly enhance the damage output of the barragers by various means. They should carry equipment helpful for using many skills in a short period of time and making these skills last longer, if possible.

N/Mo Orders Necromancer
This character should use as many superior runes as possible to reduce his health, decreasing the amount of health he sacrifices with his spells and increasing the rate of healing from Blood Renewal. As a result of this, he should stay well back from combat - remember that the key spells on this bar, Order of Pain and Order of the Vampire, will affect everyone on the necromancer's sphere of influence. Succor should be cast on the Monk so that he will not have as many energy management problems, and Heal Party should be used to alleviate pressure on the monk.

N/R Wilderness Orders
An unusual combination for an orders caster, the ranger secondary is nevertheless effective. He can run into the midlines with the rest of the humans, cast Blood Ritual as needed, and then flee when attacked by using Storm Chaser (possibly gaining energy as he runs for later use). Additionally, if the support character brings Winnowing, the rangers can allocate attribute points into damage-dealing attributes instead of Wilderness Survival.

N/Mo Orders is Power
This Orders Necromancer uses Order of Pain as his exclusive damage-dealing spell and focuses on party support and energy gain. All three energy management skills should be used on the monk, Minion Master, or Penetration Barrager, as appropriate for the current situation.

P/any Burning Command
This paragon focuses on spreading burning and Deep Wound among his foes for damage. "Incoming!" is also useful if enemies break through the front lines; however, this character cannot directly heal himself or his allies. That job remains the monk's priority.

Monks
Monks must focus on healing, though they can bring a skill or two that removes hexes. Enchantments should not be used at all when the party is fighting Banished Dream Riders or Scythes of Chaos. Equipment is mostly optional - if all goes well, the monk won't need to do much healing at all, and most monk spells cast quickly enough that there is little danger of them being interrupted or not activating fast enough.

A few example monks are presented below, though they are by no means definitive.

Mo/Any Word Monk
A pure healing monk, specifically designed for and tested in the ruins of the Tomb of the Primeval Kings. Word of Healing is the main healing spell in this build; Orison of Healing can sop up minor cuts and scrapes, but if a Grasp of Insanity gets through the front lines, Word of Healing is much more useful. Heal Other supplements Word of Healing if the latter is recharging. Heal Party should be used when three or more allies need minor heals, as this is faster and can be more energy efficient than using Orison of Healing a number of times.

Mo/Me Inspired Boon
This monk uses cheap heals to heal his allies for large amounts. Because Healer's Boon is a maintained enchantment, this monk appreciates Blood Ritual from a support character.

Cast Dwayna's Sorrow on the minions - should they die while enchanted, the entire party will be greatly healed. This AoE enchantment is particularly effective if used before engaging Terrorweb Dryders, as their Meteor Shower has a tendency to wipe out many minions at once (providing an exceptionally powerful version of Heal Party).

Mo/E Blessed Energy
This monk removes various hexes from his allies in addition to healing them. Remember that Deny Hexes is most effective when Blessed Light and Signet of Devotion are recharging.

Elemental Barragers
Because nearly all foes in the ruins of the Tomb of the Primeval Kings have no additional armor against elemental damage, it can be advantageous for all barragers to bring an elemental bow string. (Alternatively, one barrager could bring Conflagration and all barragers could bring a bow string as they would normally.) The damage dealt due to the enemy's reduced armor will even out the damage lost from any Order spells, and will open up the options of the elemental Conjure spells (Conjure Flame, Conjure Frost, and Conjure Lightning) and the hex Mark of Rodgort, which can be extremely potent in this team.

Note that while Order spells will be useless in this team, other support characters can be brought. However, Order of the Vampire does make the monk's job easier, so this team is not recommended for monks not comfortable with their job.

Also consider bringing Greater Conflagration and perhaps Winter, which will cause all (or near-all) damage done to the rangers to be significantly reduced, especially if they have Pyrebound Insignias. Note that bringing Greater Conflagration will cause Mark of Rodgort from Terrorweb Dryders to trigger much more often. (By the same token, bringing Winter without Greater Conflagration, though perhaps with Conflagration, will significantly reduce burning on the team.)

Necrotic Wells variant
The corpses provided by the barragers can be used for spells other than those that create minions. In this variant, the Minion Master is replaced with a necromancer specializing in Death Magic for spells such as Well of Suffering, Death Nova, and Putrid Explosion. Because the pets must form the wall between the characters and the enemies, all barragers should increase their Beast Mastery attribute to approximately 9, and bring defensive pet skills such as Otyugh's Cry and Call of Protection. Symbiosis should not be overlooked - although it relies on enchantments, the health boost to those enchanted is considerable. Pets with two or three enchantments and Symbiosis on them can tank considerably better than those without these, though they become more vulnerable to Shatter Enchantment.

The party must be much more careful with aggro management in this variant. Thus, it is not recommended for uncoordinated PUGs.

Predatory variant
This risky variant replaces the monk with another barrager. All healing is instead done through Predatory Season (which also increases the durability of the minions) and Order of the Vampire (which must be brought). Additionally, the Orders necromancer should bring Heal Other for emergency situations. Everything in this team is designed to deal damage, and the damage must be done quickly - all eight players must be present at the start of the run, and players disconnecting is a much larger issue than in other variants. When used right, this variant can clear the ruins in less time than any other variant.