Swarmer & Swarmway

[CHIPS]

Swarmer (1 player)

So while playing around with Asura Summons I came up with another idea: Simply overwhelming the enemy with mass number of high level troops. The name comes from the military tactic called Swarming, or Massing.



Ideally, the units that you control will consist of:

Level 29 Flesh Golem (superstar!)
Level 20 Pet (main tank)
Level 20 Ebon Vanguard Assassin (damage dealer)
Level 20 Asura Summon (ranged support)

So counting yourself, you became a 5 men army, all at least level 20.

Those 3 animal mastery skills can be switched out for other skills. Currently I prefer the pet to tank, hence the choices.

This build will not give you the highest damage, nor will it give you the best tanking. There is also no utility and support except tanking. However this is a very easy build to use. And from my tests, very usable in HM.

Due to the simple-to-use nature of this build, it is a good compare ground for other necromancer builds. Take into account all the utilities and support your build offers for your team, and see how much that is worth. And then compare your damage to this build.

Can you kill 3 60AL dummies, 1 80AL and 1 100AL dummies in 55 seconds? In your consideration, keep in mind that this build didn't deal any AoE damage for the kills. If you deal less damage than this build, your utilities and support better be worth it. Else you are better off running this build.

Swarmway (6 players)

Swarmway is basically 6 swarmers playing together, along side 2 monks. Thanks to the nature of Flesh Golem, only 6 corpses are needed for every swarmer to get one. So 6 swarmers can turn into an army of 30 men.

30 men and 2 monks. I like those odds.

So, anyone want to test swarmway with me?

Currently for the Asura Summons, I feel that 2 Mursaats and 4 Nigas would work the best.

[Necrotic Doomsday]

Sounds interesting, unfortunately I only have the asura summon skills on my ele not my necro. My only concern is that I was under the impression that only 1 Asura Summon can be active a time. I thought that meant in whole party but I could be wrong and maybe they mean per player.

[Gorani]

There is strength in numbers (that's why Zoo crew builds always take pets), but I don't like the fact, that your AI allies are hard to focus, especially when you have to change a target. A Curse Necro with Barbs & Mark of Pain is pretty effective when you have large numbers of allies (pets, minions and to a minor extend Summons).
If you want to swap to Blood, Blood Bond shines with many allies

[CHIPS]

Sounds interesting, unfortunately I only have the asura summon skills on my ele not my necro. My only concern is that I was under the impression that only 1 Asura Summon can be active a time. I thought that meant in whole party but I could be wrong and maybe they mean per player.

Its one Asura Summon per player, so everyone on the team can have one.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Summon_Naga_Shaman

The description is mildly misleading, and should read: Only one Summon can be active per player at a time.

There is strength in numbers (that's why Zoo crew builds always take pets), but I don't like the fact, that your AI allies are hard to focus, especially when you have to change a target. A Curse Necro with Barbs & Mark of Pain is pretty effective when you have large numbers of allies (pets, minions and to a minor extend Summons).
If you want to swap to Blood, Blood Bond shines with many allies

Yeah the AI allies are hard to focus. But when you have 24 of them out there they should deal enough damage to overwhelm any mob and their healing.

Can't swap to Blood, since Death Magic and Beast Mastery need to be maxed.

[Alaris]

No double-posting, Chips. You can edit your previous post if you have more to say.

I think it's an interesting idea, but I would include in the swarm (1) some spirits, and (2) some skills that become more powerful the more attackers you have on your side. At least for team play, some can bring pets, others spirits.

What is your attribute point distribution like?

[CHIPS]

No double-posting, Chips. You can edit your previous post if you have more to say.

I think it's an interesting idea, but I would include in the swarm (1) some spirits, and (2) some skills that become more powerful the more attackers you have on your side. At least for team play, some can bring pets, others spirits.

What is your attribute point distribution like?

1) Yeah the Swarmway could very well include one spirit spammer. The problem with spirits is the same spirits are non-stackable. However bring one SoS along for damage support would work great.

2) Yes, skills like Weaken Armor would work great here. However skill choices might be limited as the current setup requires maxed Death Magic and Beast Mastery.

Current attribute setup is

12+4 Death Magic
12 Beast Mastery
3+1 Soul Reaping

[Gorani]

Why not take one more Animate skill for more allies?

I would recommend other BM skills
Take Comfort and either Cry or Call, but not both (Cry for the by pass of blocks, Call is better most of the time)
Since you can concentrate on your pet skills after your minions are up, use different attack skills on each team member + Predator's Pounce (damage + slef heal for the pet:
1: Feral Lunge (bleed)
2. Poisonous Bite (poison)
3. Brutal Strike (damage spike)
4. Melandru's Assault (AoE damage)
5: Feral Lunge (bleed)
6. Poisonous Bite (poison)

Of course you can replace 5+6 with skills to time on special foes, like casters (Disrupting Lunge, Bestial Pounce)

[CHIPS]

Why not take one more Animate skill for more allies?

I would recommend other BM skills
Take Comfort and either Cry or Call, but not both (Cry for the by pass of blocks, Call is better most of the time)
Since you can concentrate on your pet skills after your minions are up, use different attack skills on each team member + Predator's Pounce (damage + slef heal for the pet:
1: Feral Lunge (bleed)
2. Poisonous Bite (poison)
3. Brutal Strike (damage spike)
4. Melandru's Assault (AoE damage)
5: Feral Lunge (bleed)
6. Poisonous Bite (poison)

Of course you can replace 5+6 with skills to time on special foes, like casters (Disrupting Lunge, Bestial Pounce)

Those are good alternatives. Also Withering Aura works wonders with the Naga summon for KD. Put in on your pet and Flesh Golem. Also the assassin if you can. Since it is weakness every hit the AI won't be able to remove them.