Busy

Ok, it has officially been a month between posts. Little has been done by way of Guild Wars this month as I have been working on my research paper and finishing up this semester. These are nearly complete, so hopefully I’ll be able to unwind a bit and play on GW some more.

Vanquishing, Builds and Me

I have 100 areas left to vanquish across the world. My mission, should I choose to accept it (and I do) is to vanquish each area with a different build. Now, I don’t mean 1-2 skills changed different, I mean something completely different from what I used in the area before. I like the idea of “anything you can do I can do better” though, what I’ve found for me at least is it turns out to be “anything you can do I can do also.” Realistically I won’t have a different build for every area because some of these areas involve caravaning, but you get the idea. I’m looking forward to exploring my 4 Necro attributes further and playing around with my N/X options. I gotta save up for some items though.

So, in the coming months as I successfully vanquish area after area, I’ll be posting the build I use. I have to say, listing my vanquishing accomplishments was an idea shamelessly stolen from Kousei, but I wanted to challenge myself further and try some new angles to playing a Necro, because frankly, I’m sick and tired of Spiteful Spirit.

Below is a list of all of the areas I still need to vanquish. If you’re in game, give me a whisper (Belzan Furu) if you want to tag along. Don’t bother clicking below if you don’t care about what I need to vanquish though…you aren’t missing much.

Medusa Update

Not one day after I post my build (the one I’m really enjoying) does ANet go and change the pivotal skill. No longer does Angorodon’s Gaze steal lots of health and make for an excellent spike when echoed. Here is the change:

Angorodon’s Gaze: decreased Energy cost to 5; decreased Health stolen to 10..40; decreased Energy gained to 1..9.

It is now effectively free to cast this spell and it will often return energy, however, it does not do as well with the steal/damage. In addition, it isn’t viable to echo this skill as much as before. Still it is nice to have on the bar.

Side note: If you’re ok with the “up-close-and-personal” Blood Mage, then this skill now works well in conjunction with Vampiric Spirit as the life steal is increased and you are still essentially casting the spell for free. Likewise, this has better cooperation with the many condition transferring skills since you’re going to be a conditions magnet anyway.

*off to do more playtesting*

Medusa

I call this build “Medusa” because of all of the Gaze attacks. Posted below is the build as I’m currently running it. I’ve included attribute levels and equipment as well (so you can try it out yourself). Following shortly thereafter are alternative skills and their usefulness.

The Medusa is a blood magic build based on spamming life stealing spells. This version is focused on doing so from spell range, rather than “up close and personal” as some of the other blood builds. This tactic is frequently used by E/Me to copy Fireball and is commonly knows as an Echo Chain.

My current PvE bar

Lately I’ve been running a Curses bar. I made Belzan long ago to be a Minion Master (based off of an old character from Diablo II). I continue to enjoy Minion Mastery, but as of late I’ve been using the Sabway build and filling the role of the Curses Necro. I do it a tad bit differently.

Ebon Vanguard Assassin Support
Spiteful Spirit (though more recently Feast of Corruption)
Pain Inverter
Enfeebling Blood
Weaken Armor
Barbs
Mark of Pain
Rez

Why this build you say?  A number of reasons.

EVAS works well to draw aggro and, combined with Barbs or MoP, does some nice spike damage.  SS is a given for nice AoE damage, but I’ve been using FoC for 100+ AoE damage (in conjunction with an area hex such as Shadow of Fear or Reckless Haste).  Pain Inverter does a lot of damage to a single foe and I use it to quickly take down troublesome foes such as barrage rangers, dervishes and axe warriors.  EB and WA I’ve been using to weaken foes.  They have an area of effect (not very large mind you) and provide nice conditions to foes (weaken and cracked armor respectively).  Thanks ANet for the boost to Weaken Armor!  Finally, Barbs and MoP are excellent sources of damage in conjunction with minions.  I love to see the number 42 appear on my screen from MoP.  In fact, it is more like a parade with so many 42’s, 37’s and 17’s on my screen

I have to say, despite its effectiveness, I am flat tired of Spiteful Spirit.  I’m considering trying out a blood magic build for a bit and letting Master of Whispers take over the SS carnage.  I haven’t done much with Blood Magic lately and I think it is time for a change.

*wanders off to check PvX wiki for some blood magic builds*

A sad day for gamers

Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons, died today at age 69.  One article puts it more elequently…”Dungeons & Dragons co-creator Gary Gygax rolled a natural one on his fortitude save today, dying at level 69 at his home in Lake Geneva.“

I’ve spent over 10 years playing D&D.  I’ve made several friends at the table.  Gygax will be missed.

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