arredondo
24-07-2006, 08:22
If people want to complain about Elementalist Blinding Flash spammers, they will REALLY hate this setup.
My Diversionator (http://forums.gwonline.net/showpost.php?p=4085523&postcount=90) is the favorite support utility build I've made using Mesmer skills, but this Midnight Blindbot comes in a strong second. I ran it almost exclusively for the entire 2x Faction weekend, something I don't do too often considering all the builds I like to try, lol. There are a couple of versions that can use either a Mesmer or Necro secondary (depends on support skills), but I went Ne/Me for the last three days with great success. Here it is:
=================================
Midnight Blindbot (Ne/Me)
Blood: 15
Inspiration: 12
Soul Reaping: 7
(5 remaining)
Mantra of Inscriptions: For 78s, all Signets recharge 45% faster
Signet of Midnight: Blind yourself and touched foe for 15s
Plague Touch: Transfer one Condition to touched foe
Signet of Humility: Enemy's elite is disabled for 13s
Barbed Signet: Sacrifice 8% max HP to steal 60 HP
Vampiric Gaze: Steal 60 HP
Blood Drinker: Steal 65 HP, you start Bleeding for 10s if health >50%
Rez -or- Hex Eater Signet: Remove one Hex from yourself and up to 4 adjacent allies, +6E for each one removed
I wear full Scar armor for max energy, and I brought fast Blood recharge weapons with max energy (+52E staff with 5AL armor and a +69E -1E pip/+30 HP wand and focus)
=================================
I'm not kidding when I tell you that this build is pretty awesome because of the first three skills. More than once I used it in a fight where I kept three or four targets Blinded for 15s each almost the entire match (Warriors, Rangers, Assassins and pets). If you think about that for a second you can appreciate how much of an incredible advantage you give your team. They can ignore all physical enemies and simply heal you and your teammates or concentrate fire on the soft targets and Monks. That's exactly what one of my teams did when we got a good streak going (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v369/larshaun/Game%20Stuff/gw127.jpg). We actually won around 16 I think before we were taken down. The Blindbot sequence is straight forward:
- Keep Mantra of Inscriptions on you at all times so Sig of Midnight recharges in 8 seconds.
- After you Blind target #1, chase down and Plague Touch target #2
- If need be, wait a few seconds more then Blind target #3
- If there's another one in need of Blinding, simply chase down and Plague Touch target #4
Once MoI is up, it costs merely 10E to keep four Blinds going. It's amazing how simple it is to severely gimp a team that has physical attackers on it for its offense (however one team of mine was destroyed in TA by four Ne/Me SB+RI spammers, lol).
Four Blinds in 15s is just as fast as a Ele Blinding Flash spammer except it costs you only 10E for two PTs vs. 60E for him, SoM lasts 15s instead of BF's 8-10s on average, and the Ele can be at spell range with a 1s cast when you have to be in touch range with a 3/4 touch. Remember no Backfire, Power Spike, etc, can hurt SoM unlike BF.
If I have only one or two targets to keep Blinded (often the case), I usually don't Blind again until they are nearly recovered 15s later. But what about when that WaNe starts Plague Touching you? That's when you play big bank/little bank... as in bank of energy. Everytime he sends his to you, Plague Touch it right back to him. At 5E a touch, he will run out of energy way before you do.
If he is sending your Blind to your nearby teammate he's pounding on, simply keep sending him four Blinds every 15s, again he will run out of energy if he keeps it up. I find even when his Monk is curing him, along with all the other healing he has to do you can usually keep Blind up on your target.
My first Blind target is usually an Assassin who looks to AoD shadow step in on either your Monk or you. Whether he shadow steps in or runs it, I find that Sig of Midnight and his Shock attempt usually trade hits on you both. You fall down, but he can't hit you. Same is true for Shock Warriors.
There are three other common builds I should mention that this setup owns for free. My group faced a TA team of two interrupt Rangers, a Nature's Renewal interrupt Ranger and a Rit spirit spammer. I had all three interrupt Rangers on total lockdown all match, not letting any of them get a flow going. I matched up against two Hammer Thumper builds, each with an attacking pet. That's four Blinds spread out among them all, totally gimped for as long as I stayed on them. Lastly there's IWAY, which I haven't played against yet but I'll test it in HA soon. If I can Blind four targets on my own, I'll bet two Midnight Blindbots would be pretty crazy vs. an IWAY group.
Now that you get an idea of how well the core combo works, let's look at the last "necessary" skill. Signet of Humility is a must have. It will disable an elite for 13s, and under Mantra of Inscriptions it recharges in just under 11s. That means if you are determined, you can permanately keep an elite from your target (it's a 2s cast). For me, I always targeted the Monk, and let me tell you he does eventually go down when he can't Mantra of Recall for energy anymore. While doing all the other stuff this build does, I always went back to the Monk when my SoH was almost recharged. Waiting too late means he gets his elite back.
Of course, with no Monk on the other side, I took out key skills like IW from a Me/Wa, or Star Burst from a Fir Ele; I even kept Virulence permanately removed from a Frag Mesmer, which completely killed his offense. Sig of Humility is too important in this setup to leave off, so I consider it part of the core skillset if you go NeMe or MeNe. Since I don't take an elite from more than one foe at a time, I don't need more than L12 Inspiration for this skill. 13s is plenty. This skill is free to use like SoM, so have fun abusing it.
+++++++++++++++
The other skills on the bar are actually optional. For this build you need at least L12 Inspiration, and the rest of your points can be spent on the last three skills (besides SoM, SoI, PT, SoH, and Rez). This gives you a lot of flexibility. I went with Blood skills, because once I've kept the Monk's elite away, I can now use pure blood steals to hurt him (or any other target). Blood steals are the toughest to prevent or reduce, so my three choices really get the job done with support damage:
Barbed Signet: This skill recharges in 11s instead of 20s because of SoI, making this setup a Signet spam build of sorts. After the 8% sacrifice (-36 on my 455 HP build), you steal 60 HP for a net +24 HP. Another skill that costs 0E.
Vampiric Gaze: This one is the fastest blood steal and recharges quickly, but also costs the most at 10E. You have plenty of energy because of all the 0E signets, but if you ever run low it's from this skill. You are still effective using only signets and PT, so if your energy is low spam VG with the other attacks if a foe is near death.
Blood Drinker: This skill is cheap, but like Barbed Signet it takes 2s to cast. It also makes you Bleed, but PT will put it on your foe. Even if you are not near anyone, I would suggest using this skill with the other Blood steals. Your HP stays up because of all the steals to negate the Bleeding effect.
So from spell distance, you can still be effective. SoH to take away elites, and casting all the Blood skills to do -185 damage to your foe (plus Bleeding for 10s for another -60 if you PT them). You receive about +150 HP everytime you use all three, and Vamp Gaze is recharged very fast for extra health as needed.
Other than the Blood steals to heal you, your defense comes from the Blind spam of course. That and any kiting you need to do. If you don't need the Rez, Hex Eater Signet is a nice one to have. It'll recharge in 23s under MoI, but you can remove a Hex from you and teammates next to you for no mana cost. Taking two away means a net +12E, which is great when you are spamming Vamp Gaze. I also have some SR points here to stay mana charged as well.
+++++++++++++++
Besides Blood there are other lines you can build into as a Ne/Me or Me/Ne. You can go for enchant stripping for more Monk harassment (i.e. Strip Enchant, Drain Enchant, Lyssa's Balance) - that's the one I'll try next. Or you can go Illusion for degen spamming. Perhaps Domination for some interrupts, or Diversion and Back Fire chains with a little WW pressure. I know some of you love using Arcane Thievery/Larceny, so along with SoH this is a great build to use those skills... I may try it myself with Black Out. You can even go Death to spam minions or wells from corpses.
Whatever you choose, nothing is more important than keeping the elite permanately removed from a key enemy, followed by Blinding every physical enemy on the field. Leave the primary offense to your team since you are doing them a huge favor by taking away all physical damage/interrupt threats. Also, Plague Touch energy costs can add up if you are hit with Virulence or an Assassin's chain combo before you Blind him (send them all back to him). Make sure you have energy to continue to use this important skill for at least Sig of Midnight transfers, even though it is only 5E. Overloading on expensive spells can cause issues if you are not careful.
Keep all of this in mind, and you can have a band of melee players hate you too. :tongue:
My Diversionator (http://forums.gwonline.net/showpost.php?p=4085523&postcount=90) is the favorite support utility build I've made using Mesmer skills, but this Midnight Blindbot comes in a strong second. I ran it almost exclusively for the entire 2x Faction weekend, something I don't do too often considering all the builds I like to try, lol. There are a couple of versions that can use either a Mesmer or Necro secondary (depends on support skills), but I went Ne/Me for the last three days with great success. Here it is:
=================================
Midnight Blindbot (Ne/Me)
Blood: 15
Inspiration: 12
Soul Reaping: 7
(5 remaining)
Mantra of Inscriptions: For 78s, all Signets recharge 45% faster
Signet of Midnight: Blind yourself and touched foe for 15s
Plague Touch: Transfer one Condition to touched foe
Signet of Humility: Enemy's elite is disabled for 13s
Barbed Signet: Sacrifice 8% max HP to steal 60 HP
Vampiric Gaze: Steal 60 HP
Blood Drinker: Steal 65 HP, you start Bleeding for 10s if health >50%
Rez -or- Hex Eater Signet: Remove one Hex from yourself and up to 4 adjacent allies, +6E for each one removed
I wear full Scar armor for max energy, and I brought fast Blood recharge weapons with max energy (+52E staff with 5AL armor and a +69E -1E pip/+30 HP wand and focus)
=================================
I'm not kidding when I tell you that this build is pretty awesome because of the first three skills. More than once I used it in a fight where I kept three or four targets Blinded for 15s each almost the entire match (Warriors, Rangers, Assassins and pets). If you think about that for a second you can appreciate how much of an incredible advantage you give your team. They can ignore all physical enemies and simply heal you and your teammates or concentrate fire on the soft targets and Monks. That's exactly what one of my teams did when we got a good streak going (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v369/larshaun/Game%20Stuff/gw127.jpg). We actually won around 16 I think before we were taken down. The Blindbot sequence is straight forward:
- Keep Mantra of Inscriptions on you at all times so Sig of Midnight recharges in 8 seconds.
- After you Blind target #1, chase down and Plague Touch target #2
- If need be, wait a few seconds more then Blind target #3
- If there's another one in need of Blinding, simply chase down and Plague Touch target #4
Once MoI is up, it costs merely 10E to keep four Blinds going. It's amazing how simple it is to severely gimp a team that has physical attackers on it for its offense (however one team of mine was destroyed in TA by four Ne/Me SB+RI spammers, lol).
Four Blinds in 15s is just as fast as a Ele Blinding Flash spammer except it costs you only 10E for two PTs vs. 60E for him, SoM lasts 15s instead of BF's 8-10s on average, and the Ele can be at spell range with a 1s cast when you have to be in touch range with a 3/4 touch. Remember no Backfire, Power Spike, etc, can hurt SoM unlike BF.
If I have only one or two targets to keep Blinded (often the case), I usually don't Blind again until they are nearly recovered 15s later. But what about when that WaNe starts Plague Touching you? That's when you play big bank/little bank... as in bank of energy. Everytime he sends his to you, Plague Touch it right back to him. At 5E a touch, he will run out of energy way before you do.
If he is sending your Blind to your nearby teammate he's pounding on, simply keep sending him four Blinds every 15s, again he will run out of energy if he keeps it up. I find even when his Monk is curing him, along with all the other healing he has to do you can usually keep Blind up on your target.
My first Blind target is usually an Assassin who looks to AoD shadow step in on either your Monk or you. Whether he shadow steps in or runs it, I find that Sig of Midnight and his Shock attempt usually trade hits on you both. You fall down, but he can't hit you. Same is true for Shock Warriors.
There are three other common builds I should mention that this setup owns for free. My group faced a TA team of two interrupt Rangers, a Nature's Renewal interrupt Ranger and a Rit spirit spammer. I had all three interrupt Rangers on total lockdown all match, not letting any of them get a flow going. I matched up against two Hammer Thumper builds, each with an attacking pet. That's four Blinds spread out among them all, totally gimped for as long as I stayed on them. Lastly there's IWAY, which I haven't played against yet but I'll test it in HA soon. If I can Blind four targets on my own, I'll bet two Midnight Blindbots would be pretty crazy vs. an IWAY group.
Now that you get an idea of how well the core combo works, let's look at the last "necessary" skill. Signet of Humility is a must have. It will disable an elite for 13s, and under Mantra of Inscriptions it recharges in just under 11s. That means if you are determined, you can permanately keep an elite from your target (it's a 2s cast). For me, I always targeted the Monk, and let me tell you he does eventually go down when he can't Mantra of Recall for energy anymore. While doing all the other stuff this build does, I always went back to the Monk when my SoH was almost recharged. Waiting too late means he gets his elite back.
Of course, with no Monk on the other side, I took out key skills like IW from a Me/Wa, or Star Burst from a Fir Ele; I even kept Virulence permanately removed from a Frag Mesmer, which completely killed his offense. Sig of Humility is too important in this setup to leave off, so I consider it part of the core skillset if you go NeMe or MeNe. Since I don't take an elite from more than one foe at a time, I don't need more than L12 Inspiration for this skill. 13s is plenty. This skill is free to use like SoM, so have fun abusing it.
+++++++++++++++
The other skills on the bar are actually optional. For this build you need at least L12 Inspiration, and the rest of your points can be spent on the last three skills (besides SoM, SoI, PT, SoH, and Rez). This gives you a lot of flexibility. I went with Blood skills, because once I've kept the Monk's elite away, I can now use pure blood steals to hurt him (or any other target). Blood steals are the toughest to prevent or reduce, so my three choices really get the job done with support damage:
Barbed Signet: This skill recharges in 11s instead of 20s because of SoI, making this setup a Signet spam build of sorts. After the 8% sacrifice (-36 on my 455 HP build), you steal 60 HP for a net +24 HP. Another skill that costs 0E.
Vampiric Gaze: This one is the fastest blood steal and recharges quickly, but also costs the most at 10E. You have plenty of energy because of all the 0E signets, but if you ever run low it's from this skill. You are still effective using only signets and PT, so if your energy is low spam VG with the other attacks if a foe is near death.
Blood Drinker: This skill is cheap, but like Barbed Signet it takes 2s to cast. It also makes you Bleed, but PT will put it on your foe. Even if you are not near anyone, I would suggest using this skill with the other Blood steals. Your HP stays up because of all the steals to negate the Bleeding effect.
So from spell distance, you can still be effective. SoH to take away elites, and casting all the Blood skills to do -185 damage to your foe (plus Bleeding for 10s for another -60 if you PT them). You receive about +150 HP everytime you use all three, and Vamp Gaze is recharged very fast for extra health as needed.
Other than the Blood steals to heal you, your defense comes from the Blind spam of course. That and any kiting you need to do. If you don't need the Rez, Hex Eater Signet is a nice one to have. It'll recharge in 23s under MoI, but you can remove a Hex from you and teammates next to you for no mana cost. Taking two away means a net +12E, which is great when you are spamming Vamp Gaze. I also have some SR points here to stay mana charged as well.
+++++++++++++++
Besides Blood there are other lines you can build into as a Ne/Me or Me/Ne. You can go for enchant stripping for more Monk harassment (i.e. Strip Enchant, Drain Enchant, Lyssa's Balance) - that's the one I'll try next. Or you can go Illusion for degen spamming. Perhaps Domination for some interrupts, or Diversion and Back Fire chains with a little WW pressure. I know some of you love using Arcane Thievery/Larceny, so along with SoH this is a great build to use those skills... I may try it myself with Black Out. You can even go Death to spam minions or wells from corpses.
Whatever you choose, nothing is more important than keeping the elite permanately removed from a key enemy, followed by Blinding every physical enemy on the field. Leave the primary offense to your team since you are doing them a huge favor by taking away all physical damage/interrupt threats. Also, Plague Touch energy costs can add up if you are hit with Virulence or an Assassin's chain combo before you Blind him (send them all back to him). Make sure you have energy to continue to use this important skill for at least Sig of Midnight transfers, even though it is only 5E. Overloading on expensive spells can cause issues if you are not careful.
Keep all of this in mind, and you can have a band of melee players hate you too. :tongue: