User:Zdain/N/Me Painful Leech

The Painful Leech is designed to shut down enemy healers and spirit spammers in RA. It can also be effective against many casters in PvP and PvE.

Equipment

 * Cabalist's or Tormentor's armor with a Rune of Superior Vigor.
 * Vanahk's Staff or similar Blood weapons.

Usage
Try to pick the most effective healer or protection caster in the group as your target. You will most likely have to change strategies throughout the battle, but here's a few for specific build types:

vs
Assuming they use Inspired Hex, Remove Hex, or similar - hit them with Mark of Subversion first to disable the removal. Follow with Soul Leech. Web of Disruption is best used when you can interrupt a slower cast spell, but it can also become an instant, if expensive, cover. Spam Vampiric Gaze and Blood of the Aggressor until the target is below 1/2 health. Use Signet of Lost Souls, and repeat. A good Boon/Prot will use Contemplation of Purity fairly often during this kind of treatment - try to lay down Soul Leech immediately afterwards.

vs
The same basic strategy as above, except that Holy Veil is it's own obstacle. Try to interrupt it with Web of Disruption. Even if the interrupt misses, they'll often remove Holy Veil to remove the resulting hex, leaving you to cast your remaining hexes at normal speed. Offering of Blood under Soul Leech will leave them very vulnerable to attack - make sure to ping them as your target if you see their health drop from this.

vs
Follow the guides above for dealing with Inspired Hex and Holy Veil, but the faster the casting, the better Soul Leech will do its job. And, you don't have to worry about Contemplation of Purity.

vs Spirit Spamming Ritualists
Ritualists cast slowly enough that Web of Disruption will often get both of its interrupts in play. Soul Leech and Mark of Subversion are generally not effective on the spirit spamming builds, so don't waste the energy unless you see spells being cast. Target either the Ritualist or a spirit in the center of their mob and spam Spiritual Pain. If you get low on energy, remember that Signet of Lost Souls works great on spirits, too. Most of the time you'll be killing spirits at a quick enough rate for Soul Reaping to let you keep spamming Spiritual Pain. Back off or find an obstacle if Wanderlust or similar targets you.

vs Other Casters

 * Restoration Ritualists should be treated like Boon/Prot monks, although their hex removal will most likely be inferior.
 * Mesmers should be hit with Soul Leech immediately, then pounded with Vampiric Gaze and Blood of the Aggressor. If you're lucky enough to get the first spell off, you'll likely be in good shape.
 * Elementalists should be hit with Soul Leech, then try to interrupt their next spell with Web of Disruption to cover and annoy them. You can tank Flare and Stone Daggers fairly well if you're being healed from Soul Leech each time, but don't let them get close to you and move out of AoE/DoT unpleasantness.

vs Melee and Ranged attacks
This is a squishy build, and you will need to kite from attacks. Don't expect to go toe-to-toe versus any non-caster with it. But that doesn't mean you can't help kill them...


 * Dervish are the most vulnerable - hit them with Soul Leech and Mark of Subversion as often as possible.
 * W/Mo's and Assassins are the only others generally worth putting Soul Leech or Mark of Subversion on. For the rest, just spam Blood of the Aggressor and Vampiric Gaze, and kite a lot.

Counters

 * Very weak versus melee and ranged attackers.
 * Interrupt Mesmers and Rangers will hurt - try to get Soul Leech on the Mesmer use obstacles vs Rangers.
 * Solid hex removal and other defenses against hexes (e.g. Nature's Renewal) may reduce you to doing direct damage.

Variations
This build was derived from a basic Monk-killing build to adapt it to the current meta-game where spirit spammers are far more common. The build it was derived from was:

Attributes and Skills
The above build is usually more effective versus Monks, but unfortunately rather useless versus spirit spammers.