Zealot Spike?

[Aries De Lyle]

I dunno, it just popped up in my head, it probably won't work but maybe you can share your smartness and look at the problems and other stuff.

A/P Help Me I'm Charging In!

14 Deadly Arts
12 Command

"Help Me!"
Deadly Paradox
Shadow Prison
Iron Palm
Disrupting Dagger
"Stand Your Ground!"
"Brace Yourself!"
Resurrection Signet

2 Mo/E Balthazar's Smiters

16 Smite
You choose whatever you want for Protection Divine and Air (Divert Hexes should at least use 12 Protection)

Zealot's Fire
Glyph of Lesser Energy
Balthazar's Aura
Reversal of Fortune
Guardian
Windborne Speed (other Mo/E brings Draw Conditions)
Restore Condition (other Mo/E brings Divert Hexes)
Resurrection Signet

Mo/E Smiting Air

16 Smite
14 Protection (or 13 but you'll lose an extra second in Aegis and Air of Enchantment)

Zealot's Fire
Glyph of Lesser Energy
Aegis
Air of Enchantment
Reversal of Fortune
Guardian
Extinguish
Resurrection Signet

2 Healers of your choice

Since you got Conditions and Hexes down may I suggest ZB monks?

Yeah so basically, your Assassin is your caller. He/she will 3 2 1 and then use Deadly Paradox - "Help Me!" - Shadow Prison - Iron Palm. The Monk with Air of Enchantment uses it on the assassin before it shadow steps and one of the smiters with Balthazar's Aura casts it on the assassin. All three monks will spam their Guardian and Reversal of Fortune (the Balthazar Smiters should also spam Windborne Speed/Draw Conditions if Guardian and Reversal are still charging but don't overspam it though!) triggering Zealot's Fire in rapid succession. Each spell will deal 37 damage at max Smiting Prayers and with 3 monks doing it at the same time that's 111 damage with only one spell and it's AoE!

With Deadly Paradox, your Shadow Prison will recharge in 10 seconds and with 2 Balthazar Smiters, you can spike every 12.5 seconds. The assassin should be responsible for interrupting during the cooldown of the spike he/she will also be responsible for interrupting the capping Ghostly Heroes. The Windborne Speed monk should use the spell on whoever is capping the relic. "Stand Your Ground" for extra defense and "Stand Your Ground" when the ghostly is capping to prevent a Gale or some other type of knockdown from the enemies.

The monks shouldn't be spamming like crazy because this smite build isn't a pressure build, it's for spikes. If you spam like you normally would in the old Dual Smite builds, you'd run out of energy real fast.

Hnn pros about the spike:

- AoE
- Not easily anticipated like other spikes since the spikers aren't targetting the prey thus not facing the target
- Really fast spike
- Has decent defense

Cons:

- You can see the target getting spiked once you see the hex icon
- Kill the assassin and you mess up the whole spike
- Diversion or anything that messes up casters
- NR/Tranquility

Ok that's that, I'm ready for the "N00b j00r build suxx0rz l0l!!11!" comments. :listen: Also there can be many variations as to what the monks use for the extra elites and stuff so...feel free to do whatever. Mutilate it, use it, whatever :o

[Aries De Lyle]

Ughhh can't edit but on the description on the bottom when I said "Stand Your Ground" again I obviously mean "Brace Yourself!".

[Abrupt]

Your 'spike' won't do enough damage to kill anyone.

[GuildWarsGirlAmy]

What the above poster said, how are you doing a spike? Not to mention that hexes before spikes make it very predictable. With 2 prot monks, and 6 softies, I am guessing your team will go down fast against most teams.

[Advalorem]

Normally, shadow prison spikes are incredibly easy to spot. That's why most teams that use such spikes tend to work it in with some pressure to 'hide' the spike from opposing monks. As you said, the hex icon is a dead giveaway.

As for it being a 'really fast spike', it's still gonna take like 2-3 seconds to bring a target down. Ideally you want the target to die in under half a second.

However, maximum credit to you for coming up with something so original! I like the idea; if only there was a better way of casting on allies to deal damage than smiting.

[Aries De Lyle]

Hnn well I knew it wouldn't work :o How about Ancestor's Rage on the sin? XD Yeah still too weak :x

[Advalorem]

There's nothing wrong with using 5 rits, and spiking conventionally with, spirit boon strike, for example, and then using ancestor's rage as a really powerful after-spike. It's a pretty cool idea, would take some practice, but would be worth it to see. Still, I don't think you'd get very far, but it'd be fun, for sure.

[Almas Darksoul]

For a (very) short while in GvG, there was a build based on similar concepts to this - one assassin would run around screaming at people with 4+ smiters going crazy on him. It worked for a few days until people prepared themselves how to deal with the build (mainly in playstyle). Was still very entertaining. Before this, it was discussed on some forums as a theorycraft "joke" - for use in HA with 1 warrior and 7 smiters dealing insane damage around him. I read reports of people running the build, although I am unsure if it worked for them truly sucessfully (people tend to lie about these things).

It's a pressure build, rather than a spike, though, and has rather simplistic counters. Teleports are nice for countering some of them but snares and good kiting still ends up on top.

Note one of the biggest issues is the aftercast of spells, not their actual cast time. Most spells have a ~.75 aftercast, making spamming hard. The changes to Zealot's Fire and addition of Shield of Absorbtion also weaken the build by a large amount.

[melandrus elite]

cough *dual smite* cough