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bellissima
07-07-2006, 04:38
Hello Ritualist Community!

There have been a number of posts and threads recently by people wishing to farm UW with their Ritualists. So I present to you the Ritualist+Mesmer Duo smite run. While there is nothing totally new in either of these builds, there are some slight differences in the way they are played.

Basically we have a Rt/Mo 600 health spirit bonder and a Me/R SV/AV Famine damage dealer. So, what are the differences?

The original concepts:
600-hp monk (http://forums.gwonline.net/showthread.php?t=401956)
Famine/SV combo (http://forums.gwonline.net/showthread.php?t=404284)
55 Rt/Mo-Me/R test run (http://forums.gwonline.net/showthread.php?t=408571)

Using a Rt/Mo instead of a Mo/Me 600 hp build means you can still survive against those nasty Graspings with the help of the staple Ritualist farming skill Vengeful was Khanhei (and deal a pretty nice amount of damage also). We want to shutdown interrupts as much as possible so our Mesmer will bring both Sympathetic Visage and its mirror skills Ancestor's Visage. This will also combo with Famine for extra damage.

The Builds:
Here's the skill bar for the Ritualist tank:
http://img363.imageshack.us/img363/1114/ritbar8rw.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Armor's not a big deal here but remember you health must be >610 when all is said and done. I used Halcyon's armor for energy with a Restoration hat. I had one superior Restoration rune and a Major Vigor. Weapons and offhands are largely unimportant as you will be holding the Ashes of Khanhei for most of the time.

Attributes:
Restoration: 16
Protection: 12


Here's the skill bar for the Mesmer:
http://img363.imageshack.us/img363/136/lanbar4kc.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Again, equipment's not a big deal here. Sinnes was using Enchanters armor with a Domination mask. His weapon of choice was a 10/10 domination staff with +5 energy and +30 health.

The stats line up like this:
Illusion: 10
Domination: 14
Wilderness Survival :11


How to play:
Set up:
Before each group make sure the Ritualist has 3 maintains and the mesmer lays Famine. The rest of the skills used may vary depending on the foe you are about to engage.

Aatxes:
For this you will need to be spamming 2 10 energy spells, so I didn't bother with QZ unless I was pulling a large group (more than 3 at once). The energy cost gets quite high with QZ, so you need to have plenty guys beating on you if you want to keep PS/SB/VwK up all the time. Before aggroing, the Rit casts Prot Spirit and Spirit Bond. The mesmer casts SV on the Ritualist. When the Ritualist aggros she must cast VwK as the bulls are approaching. Leave it too late and you are vulnerable to interruption. Once the bulls are striking you, they will lose energy quickly and you will be able to cast safely. The Ritualist must keep Spirit Bond and Prot Spirit up at all times. Cast VwK as soon as it recharges and spam VW as much as possible. The mesmer must be close enough to power spike any Dying Nightmares that spawn. This is a one hit kill. If two spawn, the Mesmer kills one with power spike and interrupts the other with power drain. After the interruption, the nightmare will BiP the bulls and die. The mesmer must maintain a cycle of SV->AV on the tank to keep the energy and adrenaline denial up.

Grasping Darknesses and Smites:
For this you don't need Prot Spirit or Spirit Bond. The mesmer must lay QZ (use SQ to speed recharge) so that the Ritualist can keep VwK up at all times. Again the cycle of SV->AV must be maintained on the Rit. Once QZ is down and SV is up, aggro the mobs and cast VwK quickly. If you allow the Graspings to get too close before casting VwK you may get interrupted. Once they have hit you a few times they will not have the energy to interrupt you any further and you can cast safely. If for some reason you do get interrupted, don't panic! Just spam VW and Soothing Memories and you can stay alive long enough for VwK to recharge. (remember QZ is up for this one)

Coldfire Nights:
These guys are a pest so sometimes you want to kill them just to get them out of the way. It's not difficult to kill them with this build, but it's not as fast as killing all the melee mobs because your SV/Famine combo won't work. You don't even need Prot spirit or Spirit bond for these guys, just aggro them with VwK active and spam VW. QZ can help you with this and the extra energy expenditure will cause them to trigger Famine occassionally. Move out of Maelstrom when they cast it on you. The coldies will eventually die, and they're no big deal.


And that's the run. Thanks to my darling husband (Zeittotschlager) for humoring me on this. Happy Hunting!

A couple screens:
http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/3306/smiterun29jw.th.jpg (http://img404.imageshack.us/my.php?image=smiterun29jw.jpg) http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/6265/smiterun67bi.th.jpg (http://img186.imageshack.us/my.php?image=smiterun67bi.jpg)

bellissima
07-07-2006, 04:42
Aatxes:
http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/630/smiterun18us.th.jpg (http://img166.imageshack.us/my.php?image=smiterun18us.jpg)

Aatxes and Graspings:
http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/4391/smiterun83oy.th.jpg (http://img301.imageshack.us/my.php?image=smiterun83oy.jpg)

Smites:
http://img423.imageshack.us/img423/2503/smiterun40lq.th.jpg (http://img423.imageshack.us/my.php?image=smiterun40lq.jpg)

Coldfires:
http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/3082/smiterun53cg.th.jpg (http://img260.imageshack.us/my.php?image=smiterun53cg.jpg)

Zeittotschlager
07-07-2006, 15:16
This was a fun little experiment. I was surprised that it worked as well as it did, especially against the coldies... I thought we'd have to leave those alone, but apparently not. With that said, I don't think that this is going to be the latest craze... more a proof-of-concept.

The spirits are just not very practical. You have to do your fighting in range of the spirits, so they have to be placed in the right spot to avoid getting aggro on them. Plus, you have to wait for them to recharge between each group which can be annoying.

Bella also mentioned a thread suggesting that kills caused by Famine do not give the player experience nor drops... Which would defeat the entire purpose. :sad: But it was fun to have a 2 man team that could solo this area with no 55.

remmeh
07-07-2006, 17:47
the Famine/SV combo is cool. :)

JeanDeathwish
07-07-2006, 22:12
Shouldnt this be in the Ritualist Guides section?

Very nice. And it doesnt use monks and necros, unique. Unfortunately, to try this out I need to bring my Rit to Tyria, get her ascended, get all the needed skills and then have the patience to farm UW.

Cambeul
07-07-2006, 22:39
you dont need to be ascended in Tyria, there is a Entrance in Factions, I beleive it is at or after the Temple mission. Cant Remember. Thouhg you will have to goto Tyria to get all skills

bellissima
07-07-2006, 23:12
It's true, my Ritualist has not set foot outside of Lion's Arch. We entered the UW from the shrine in Zin Ku Corridor. Passing the test of Weh No Su counts as ascension for the purposes of entering UW.

JeanDeathwish
08-07-2006, 02:22
Opps. I once knew that...
How often does Famine trigger? Is the regeneration significant enough to cause, for example, Famine to trigger 3 times for 3 Aataxes if they each attack once?

bellissima
08-07-2006, 02:59
It's difficult to say because Famine doesn't show any damage numbers for either the Rit or the Mes. We tested the build on the Vermin in Xaquang Skyway with and without Famine. Having the spirit down made a huge difference in killing speed there. I would expect this to be true vs melee mobs with 4 regen pips.

With warrior mobs it might be a little different. Fewer regen pips means they may not have regenned a full point of energy before again being drained to zero. Sort of the same concept to why Spirit Shackles + Mind Wrack on a sword warrior isn't going to kill him if he keeps swinging. He swings so fast his energy never rises above zero. Means you can't mind wrack him more than once.

As far as comparisons go, it felt like the aatxes were dying at a comparable rate to SS damage while smites died much faster.

antoninus
11-07-2006, 12:03
Amazing bellissima!:afro: Nice to see this run completed. I loved that 600hp ritualist build >_< I thought the coldfires would be hard to kill or even unkillable because you'll only be using VwK plus they use an ele attunement. :D I was gonna ask how you dealt with 2 nightmare spawns when i remembered the rit wasn't a 55 =) congrats on the run again *cant stop smiling*:grin: I'm still gonna try the R/Me version tho :azn:

With warrior mobs it might be a little different. Fewer regen pips means they may not have regenned a full point of energy before again being drained to zero. Sort of the same concept to why Spirit Shackles + Mind Wrack on a sword warrior isn't going to kill him if he keeps swinging. He swings so fast his energy never rises above zero. Means you can't mind wrack him more than once.

As far as comparisons go, it felt like the aatxes were dying at a comparable rate to SS damage while smites died much faster.
are you 100% certain about this? i made a thread on another forum regarding Famine not doing damage since with constant hits, the aatxes' energy would never be drained since it's stuck at 0 in the first place - famine's description is - whenever enemies' energy drops to 0 they take 30 damage. The general reply based from the skill's description was yes famine won't be dealing that much damage. But from what i've observed on my run, Famine dealt damage to the aatxes each time they attacked. Try turning off VwK and you'll see their hp lowering constantly. Same went for the grasplings and smites. Basing from the speed at which the smites died, it seemed that the faster you get hit, the faster Famine will deal 30 damage regardless of whenever their energy actually drops to 0.

Bella also mentioned a thread suggesting that kills caused by Famine do not give the player experience nor drops... Which would defeat the entire purpose. :sad: But it was fun to have a 2 man team that could solo this area with no 55.
Famine's damage counts as a foreign source and based from the original SV/Famine thread (and that thread mentioned above), if Famine will be the only damage dealing skill the drops and exp won't be allocated to the player. Given that if this was done with a 55 monk using only tank skills the players might not get any drops and xp at all. Until proven that it works with a 55monk tanker, i believe this combo would only work with a Ritualist using VwK because its damage overlapswhat Famine does thus giving the drops and exp to your party.

can't wait to try this out ^_^

Mythralbeme
04-08-2006, 19:26
Props to you for this build its amazing yet somewhat difficult also. Is there anyway you can make a movie on it..