User:Zaq/Marbecue

Possible Changes

 * Give the Ranger QZ and EW, since they have both Beast and Wilderness anyway, but low expertise.
 * Give the Ranger Life Barrier, and give the Mesmer Arcane Mimicry. The Ranger uses the Bonds, the Mesmer uses the Barriers. SoI makes the Mesmer have a rank of 16 in that, remember, and maintained enchants don't disappear when Arc Mimicry ends.
 * Give the Mesmer Glyph of Sacrifice as well, to better align the casting times. We'll see just how different the timings can be and still work... however, staggering the knockdowns might be beneficial.
 * Give the Ranger Brambles, for a little extra damage (and bleeding) from the KDs caused by Meteor Shower.

Skills which I just kind of threw in

 * Rodgort's Invocation: Seemed like a good way to pick off backline stragglers.
 * Lava Font: Seemed like a good way to a) cause scatter if they get too close, and b) deal damage to pick off stragglers.
 * Muddy Terrain: It'll help to have the Margonites slowed down, right? And we're not moving at all, either.
 * Dust Trap: See Lava Font. Flame Trap might be better since Flame has a lower cost and the Ranger has minimal Expertise.
 * Dervish as a possible slot instead of the ranger bond? Fill the optional with self survival like conviction, and mystic regen + random enchantment for the ability to spam Mystic Healing? Should hit everyone with only 3-4 people. However, that means the E/Mo will need to switch to E/R with EoE instead of a ranger. The flawed concept with the derv is that we need to get hit with life bond on for it to gain any energy, Hits from 12+ margonite wars and dervs will kill us regardless of life bond or not (think = damage reduction as ward against melee). Or, it could be a Mo/D primary with blessed?

About the Dervish
I think it could work if we use the "let the mesmer Mimic Life Barrier and have the other character use Bond" method. That'd drastically drop our damage taken, especially in tandem with Ward against melee (Barrier at lv. 16 is 52% damage reduction, so call it 50% for easy calculations. -50% from barrier, -50% from bond, -50% from Ward, that's cutting damage down to around 12.5%... should be plenty for the four-five seconds that the margonites are alive, with the Derv spamming Mystic Healing). So here's the Dervish's bar, then... The Interventions are to a) provide cheap, long-lasting enchantments to fuel Healing and b) to provide a little extra protection. The ele would then go E/R... maybe 12 fire 12 beast 3 storage, but bring both EoE and Energizing Wind. We have to wait for MS to recharge thanks to Sacrifice ANYWAY, so what's it matter if we have to wait a little longer? That would also help the mesmer a whole lot, too. We'd lose Muddy Terrain, but we didn't have Muddy Terrain when we did this the FIRST time, so we don't really need it. I think we can make this work. I don't know what the ele would use for their elite... maybe you don't need one. Hell, I never used one back when Shiro'ken farming used to work, so elites aren't always strictly necessary when you're dealing with farming. The problem now is that we need a Dervish who has Life Barrier. I don't know any Dervishes who would bother to cap Life Barrier. It's way the hell out of the way, it's Tyrian only, and it doesn't make any sense for a Dervish to have it... unless... unless we could micromanage Melonni to do it. They just have to maintain the enchants and spam Healing, right? This could work. That's simple enough that I can handle micromanaging it while doing my own job. I think we can make this work. Zaq 14:25, 9 March 2007 (CST) Something to that effect.

Saddenning that our guild doesnt even have enough people that we can create a 3 man farm without difficulty. But oh well, if that works, then its just my job to design an E/R that can deal significant damage without much energy. I doubt that we need glyph of sacrifice, because casting range is SLIGHTLY out of the aggro bubble, after that, we just need to pull back again. If MS does indeed trigger its "first hit" on the third second, then we need to somehow be damaging the charging warriors and dervishes down to at least 90% before they get hit by EoE. Methinks SF would do the trick, because I definately remember seeing the two Ele heros spamming that on the dervs and warriors. Anyway, i plan on doing the string of quests later today, then we can work out a build.

Scratch all this, starting fresh
I've just had an epiphany. If this works, this will be my crowning achievement, my most glorious masterpiece of Rube Goldberg-style over-complicated plans centering on, yes, a Mesmer. Suspend your incredulity for a minute and feast your eyes on this.

The New Procedure
Yeah. I know. You're looking at that, and thinking "he's lost it. Zaq's finally lost it." But hear me out. Here's how it works. We get to the designated point, aggro, die, and wait for the Margos to get in that lovely little clump. The Ranger sets up EoE and EW. The mesmer (hereafter referred to as "I" or "me") uses, in this order, Mantra of Inscriptions, SoI, Symbolic Celerity, Arcane Echo, Arcane Mimicry on the Ranger (becomes Shadow Form), echoed Arcane Mimicry on the Ele (becomes Glyph of Renewal), SoI, Kinetic Armor, SoI, Shadow Form, SoI, Glyph of Renewal, Meteor Shower, SoI, Glyph of Sacrifice, Meteor Shower. At this point, the Reapers and Executioners will be swarming around me, so the ele (hereafter referred to as "you") will be giving me Healing Seed and Protective Spirit (Shadow Form will shield me from attacks and from the ravages of the Seers, but it won't stop Mystic Twister, which is untargeted, hence Kinetic and your monk skills) to shield me against Mystic Twister. Furthermore, since they'll be swarming around me, you'll then cast YOUR meteor shower on their frontline (mine are targeting the backline, see), and use your other skills to "bat cleanup", so to speak. Crazy? Crazy? Yeah, it probably is, but I think this is our best chance. Mystic Healing, Healing Spring, LoD, these aren't going to cut it against 18-20 margonites out for our blood (those being just the frontline). Healing is not the way. We need prevention, and there's no better prevention than Shadow Form. (I considered Mist Form, but the Seers can drain my energy in seconds, which would be very very bad). Yeah, this is complex as hell. Yeah, this is bending the very limits of one character's capabilities, the very limits of Signet of Illusions, the very limits of the game itself, (the very limits of my exaggeration, heheh) but I genuinely think that if ANYTHING will work, it will be this... and if anyone can pull it off, it will be us. Now I know for a fact that your ele has all of these skills, that I have all of MY skills, and since the ranger has naught but three skills and basically just casts the spirits and sits back, they can be a hero with no trouble at all. If you don't have the quest yet, dammit, I'll help you get there, but we WILL do this. I'm convinced that this is the way. It will either be a glorious failure or an even more glorious success, but either way, dammit, WE WILL DO THIS.