A few things to keep track of

Today I hit level 70.

Here's the build I've been using almost all of the time.

Basically,
1-5 rifle 10-20% of the time. Mainly for just me vs just one other thing.
6 Elixer H - I just prefer the simple self heal. I can also throw it with my toolbelt skill for a little help to others.
7 - Elixer Gun - probably 30-40% of the time. Good to help others out - if there are 2 or more players near me, this is my default - I have 3 buff options and some good damage over time. I also get a nice self heal.
8 - Flamethrower - over 50% of the time. Great for area of effect, a bit of support (firewall) and control with a push back and a blind (doesn't work so well on bosses though). The icing on the cake is the toolbelt skill, which lets me cause burning with my next three attacks - combine that with the number 1 skill on the E-Gun (tranquilizer dart) and I throw 3 conditions out at once. I'm also running some traits that help out when I'm using the FT, but I'll talk about that some other time maybe.
9 - Elixer B, i love you... it makes me faster, mightier and altogether more awesome. And I can spread the awesome around too...
10 - Supply Crate - It's just a big bundle of BAM! I've only found a couple of situations where other elites are better. Also have the traits set to make this even bigger!

Oh and here's my look. I change the colour of my shirt regularly. Will probably be losing this look soon as I level out of it. I'm standing in the swamp in Mount Maelstrom for this pic.

triple necro vanquishing build

i figure i better write this down somewhere - like here
I've found this triple necro build to be very effective
it's me, 3 necro heroes, earth magic henchie, fire magic henchie, monk henchie and warrior henchie.
Found you guys that play warriors, i'd consider using something different as your extra member - maybe a mesmer, or ranger... up to you to figure that one out

in each case they are somewhat unusual builds, but seem to work - i normally use a minion master with flesh golem and healing prayers - both of these are missing in this build, and olias is basically a ritualist - but that necro sgnet makes a big difference...

here's the builds (and who i use for them) in each case the elite is listed first.

Master of Whispers
N/Rt Curses 12+3+1, Soul Reaping 12+1, Restoration Magic 3
Spiteful Spirit, Reckless Haste, Enfeebling Blood, Barbs, Rip Enchantment, Mark of Pain, Signet of Lost Souls, Death Pact Signet

Olias
N/Rt Soul Reaping 8+1+1, Restoration Magic 12, Channeling Magic 10
Weapon of Remedy, Splinter Weapon, Mend Body and Soul, Spirit Light, Protective Was Kaolai, Life, Signet of Lost Souls, Death Pact Signet

Livia
N/Mo Death Magic 12+3+1, Soul Reaping 8+1, Protection Prayers 9
Jagged Bones, Animate Bone Minions, Death Nova, Blood of the Master, Extinguish, Protective Spirit, Aegis, Signet of Lost Souls

Spiteful Spirit Necromancer: Option 2 - now with mesmery goodness

A basic SS build, with added interupts and empathy create another useful damage dealing utility

Curses 12 + 3 + 1
Soul Reaping 8 + 1
Domination Magic 10

1 Spiteful Spirit
2 Barbs
3 Mark of Pain
4 Signet of Lost Souls
5 Empathy
every time they attack something they take 40 damage
6 Power Leak
interrupt a spell and they lose 12 energy
7 Power Spike
interrupt a spell and they take 90 damage
8 Cry of Frustration
interrupt any skill and cause 33 AoE damage

I dig this build because it draws from the usefulness of heroes at interrupting. They do it with ease.

Spiteful Spirit Necromancer: Option 1 - True Necro

Here's a classic SS build. I will post up another one that I like when I get a chance.

Curses 12 + 3 + 1
Soul Reaping 12+ 1

1 Spiteful Spirit
The ducks nuts! A ripper of a curse basically
2 Barbs
Add extra damage to anything that's hit with physical damage
3 Mark of Pain
Like Barbs, but only adds to nearby foes not target - copland and I took out about 25 Etin one day with this bad boy!!
4 Defile Defenses
Great for a hero to use, they see someone has a blocking stance, and then BANG! 126 damage. Block this!
5 Rip Enchantment
I'll have that enchantment thankyou very much... oh and here's some bleeding for your effort
6 Foul Feast
Help out with condition removal
7 Signet of Lost Souls
Energy management
8 Rez

just a ripper of a build basically

Smite as well have the best

In the grand trinity of monks i have dunkora set up as a healer, tallyorka set up as a protector and ogden stonehealer set up as a smiter. I have 2 builds saved for him, but am about to list one that is listed as "good" on pvx. Its listed as being good for party support as well as damage.
here goes...

Smiting 12 + 3 +1
Divine Favor 12 + 1
Protection prayers 3 (could plus one if you can be bothered)
1 - ELITE Defender's Zeal
for great energy management - really energy deprival is a monks worst enemy
2 - Smiter's Boon
Get a bonus from divine favour
3 - Smite Hex
Hex removal with damage to nearby foes... and... the divine favor bonus is helpful!
4 - Smite Condition
As above but for conditions, adding to the supporty goodness
5 - Reversal of Damage
the smiting monks bread and butter... kinda like a protection spell, but gives the damage back to where it came from.
6 - Castigation Signet
Bit of damage, bit more energy management.
7 - Divine Boon
This is a great enchantment, can be a bit energy draining though... but 1 and 6 counter that.
8 - Rebirth
A hard rez... and the only reason i have points in protection

I reckon we should try using 2 of these guys and one healer. Could be an interesting change...
Or... try a normal healer, a smiter and a ritualist? (or even a paragon)
or scrap the normal healer all together and go rt, p and smiter???

the other variant i have loaded is the same build with a Ritualist secondary. Dropping 6 and 7 and replacing them with ancestor's rage and splinter weapon (so its a little more aggressive).

my standard minion master build

N/Mo
Death Magic 12 + 3 + 1
Soul Reaping 8 + 1
Healing Prayers 10

1 - Animate Flesh Golem
The big boy of the minion world - only alowed one at a time though (per MM)
2 - Animate Shambling Horror
A minion that creates another minion when it dies - the second causing bleeding
3 - Animate Bone Fiend
A lower recharge time than shambling as well as the added benefit of a ranged attack.
4 - Deathly Swarm
Basically... helps a MM to not be totally useless without minions. There will be times when you die or whatever that you dont have any, so I think this is a must (now... its only after a few times round of useless necro that i added it)
5 - Vereta's Gaze
When you die, get rezed use this to get lost minions back
6 - Blood of the Master
A heal specifically for minions
7 - Heal Area
Another heal, not to be used when badies are around. I've never had problems with the AI on this one though.
8 - Rez

The only other skills I'd add would be Vereta's Sacrifice - another very power heal, some say 3 is overkill... But... if you have problems dieing lots, add Taste of Death - a good heal for yourself, i'd bump out vereta's gaze (actually, i think i might do that now...)

team builds

lately i've been experimenting a little with team builds.
i do like the triple necro vanquishing build, but its got limitations, and its boring.

tonight, i tried this and liked it...
3 eles, a MM, 2 monks, a Warrior and me

me - this with cry of pain and mindbender
acolyte sousuke -water ele - with wardd against harm, and a few staple water skills
vekk - sandstorm warder - close to this
livia - minion master similar build to this one
Cynn (Fire)
Devona (Fighter)
Lina (Protection)
Mhenlo (Healer)

some thoughts on mesmer hero builds

sometimes you find a great build, but don't have the skills for it. so... if you don't have all these skills either dont both with it, or try hero skills trainers, see what you can come up with etc...
who knows...

the thing with mesmers is that they can do a bunch of things well - including sucking the energy out of a team, shutting down casters with interupts, shutting down melee among other things.
Heres a few links to builds i found that would be worth trying on norgu and/or gwen.

this first one is a power block interrupter build. its meant to shut down casters and well - it'll do a fantastic job at that. If you're doing the standard Ctrl + space to target whatever your hitting, you'll have problems against warriors, dervishes, assasins, rangers and even some ritualists. Most of these interrupts work on chants, so they will shut down paragons. If you're in a team with others of us (or PUGS) and want to ignore targets and chase the casters, this will work - or - if you're trying to shut down a caster boss this will work. Other than that I'd steer clear of this one.

this one is one of many MoR (or Mantra of Recovery) builds - MoR helps your skills recharge quicker - so you can spam them (basically) . This one has an interrupt focus, but its not all it does - i quite like the mix here really. 2 spell interrupts, 1 general interrupt (will interrupt anything) then empathy which is a good skills to use on warriors etc, remove hex, drain enchantment and a res. What I like about this build on a hero is that it can do many different things at once - which would generally be too much for a human player (or me) to wrap their head around - i can handle melee shutdown and interrupts, but not anti-hex, anti-enchantment too. So, give this one a burl methinx.

here's another MoR build. This one focuses more on melee with 2 handy interrupts. I'd give it a monk secondary, replace res sig with a hard res and put remove hex in the optional slot.

here's the ineptitude spammer i've been using lately. great for just messing with warriors etc. I'd think about adding another interupt or enchantment removal or hex removal.

one last one is here - a little more balanced - i know i couldn't use this, but i think its a decent balanced option for a hero. its interesting, thats for sure.

if you have the skills, i'd try number 2 or 3. 5 could be interesting. 1 and 4 are more specific (1 - caster. 4 - melee). If you want to tell your heroes what to attack, try them

hope this has been helpful.

a sparky recipe for destruction

take one of these
add a good pinch of this
and a liberal dollop of some of this stuff
then serve with this

I'll give you the sword some time big fella...

Expertise - and why I invest so many points into it

I guess the main point of this post is to share some thoughts on my ranger builds, and what it is I'm working towards.
That... and to say Mick... try this...

Firstly, something I have noticed with my Ranger, is that I have very little energy management problems. Given that I have a bow that makes me lose 5 energy, cutting my base energy down to just 20, that seems mental. But, expertise, with its bonuses for energy helps like nobodies business. With Ex at 10, i save 40% on all my skills, cutting a 10 down to just 6, which is very managable. I even use some 15s from time to time - at the moment I use broad head arrow a bit.

Now sure... there are some pretty bizarre builds out there, that cleverly play up the positives of experise. Like Ritualist secondaries for cheap sprits, Necro secondaries for the classic "touch ranger/necro" and also some other variations including dervishes and warriors.

What I'm most interested in personally, is to keep the rangerness (how platonic) and just make use of some clever heals (obviously with a monk secondary) that will be significantly cheaper due to expertise. It might be worthwhile trying these out too guys (I know you all have lvl 20 rangers). The skills I'm working towards at this point in time are a straight heal (healing touch) and a condition remover (mending touch) - both of these reducing from 5, down to 3 with expertise at 10. The thing about a skill like healing breeze, is that you dont get any points off from expertise.

For a list of all touch skills look here. I even noticed you could make a nice Ranger/Warrior with some stances and a cheap headbutt!

one last note... upon checking out the article on expertise, i notice that the the reduction is rounded up not down... so a 5 energy skill only costs 3 when expertise is at 8. Its all on the article.

pet army: on its way

so... for a bit of fun, i wanted to try and get pets for myself and all my heroes. Just to have the option of rocking around with a pet if i felt like it. In general some heroes probably shouldnt have pets, but who gives a "rats rectum" if its fun, its fun!
So... I figure, each hero shall have a different pet... hopefully...
At the moment its just underway...
Margrid the Sly: Jahai Rat Lvl 19
General Morghan: Moa Bird Lvl 15
Zenmai: Hyena Lvl 6
Xyla: Black Bear Lvl 6

It'd be cool if we all had a couple of pets so we could have a huge army to go round with... just a thought, if you're bored and feel like trying something different

When you're trying to control everything it gets a little hectic out there... Here we are doing a pretty standard Lightbringer Point run in the Mirror of Lyss

my favourite skill

been doing a little research tonight on builds involving me and 3 heroes, for a kickin use of fragility.
i will have to get some of the skills specifically for this excercise... but hey, its all part of the game.
my other option is to work out some creative way to equip 8 elites in the one skill bar. hmmm...
actually... there are some areas (like perdition rock), if you get blessed with good spawning you can actually cap 3 skills for each of your professions. So, you go in with 2 elites equipped, and 6 signets of capture, and bob's your uncle. Mind you... it only works if you dont have any of the skills already. sob sob
and yes, i've had a lapse in my recovery from nerdiness

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a winner!!!

Dunno about you guys, but I've been a little lost with looking for a decent build site.
So... yay... looks like GuildWiki has given us something!
Its a whole seperate site PvXwiki
I will whack a link up on the main page for this one too... i think its worth it!
finally - a reliable, easy to use build site!

building a mystery: the mystery of finding a good builds site!

this one looks to have the potential to be good.
its still a baby though.

and it seems to be loved by rangers and monks
ele, mes, sin, and rit all only have 2 builds each, and dervs and paras... no love at all
it is promoted on the gw official list of fan sites to chack out this week... so it might go off
it might not

Hero Builds: some overly generic and longwinded thoughts from ian

The Big Question!
What are heroes for?
I guess my answer here dectates everything else that I will write
Basically to help the team
By
Helping kill things faster
stopping you from dying
Although this seems obvious, there are much more than one answer to these suggestions. If you read them too literally, we’d stick with warriors, eles and monks. The easiest to fulfil these things with simple AI. Let me run through the things that go thru my head with each class. But first expand on the 2 premises.

A. Help Kill things faster
1 – attack things (durr) area of effects are good generally.
2 – make others attacks more beneficial (like weapons spells, shouts, some hexes)

B. Stop you from dying
1 – Heal / Protect – monks, but also, some shouts, paragon skills, wells
2 – Increase Armor (Shouts such as watch yourself)
3 – Increase the chance of blocking
4 – Preventing an attack – interrupts, which I need to note, are pretty much one of the things that the computer does better than real ppl. Lots of these also help kill things.
5 – Self heals – obviously, if they stop themself from dying, the monk doesn’t need to do that, and therefore adds to stopping you dying…

So…
Listed below are some thoughts on each class, maybe a recommended secondary. Please… I’m not expert in this, I’ve played a few different classes quite extensively, so have some different thoughts on this stuff.

Warrior
Attacks and some Shouts (watch yourself helps whole team), I’d go paragon secondary, cause there shouts benefit from the adrenaline you are earning with attacks. Obviously… if you need lots of adrenaline in the build go for a sword (quicker), if its not so important, go axe… I’m sure you guys know more about the intricacies of warriors than me. All I’m suggesting is… use the adrenaline to help the whole team as well as help the Warriors attacks. Paragons have a res skill, so that works fine with the overall team build. Also, disruption/knock down where available.

Ranger
2 options really
Barrage or Interrupt. I think some spirits that help the whole team would be handy with a barrage build. I reckon the monk secondary is good for these guys.
I’ve also put a little thought into a hero pet build, that maybe has interruption going on. I checked out the skills, and made this build up… The first 3 skills are all interrupts, so you could probably replace one of them with a good solid yet cheap animal attack. With this build I’d go 15 Beast Mastery (12+3), 9 marksmanship (8+1) and 11 Expertise (10+1). Unless you have a bow that requires more than 9, then just bump down you expertise.
Savage pounce
Bestial pounce
Disrupting lunge
Predatory Bond
Symbiotic Bond
Heal as One (Elite)Charm Animal
Res

Elementalist
The options start with Fire (blast em, and blast em hard) and work their way thru air (shock em round and knock em down) water (freeze them then ice yourself up to protect yourself) then finally earth (with some great attacks, armors like water and added wards – which are area of effect skills that help protect the team in various ways).
I’d pick one attribute, stack it with a superior rune (12+3) and then whack the rest in energy storage (12+1).
If you wanna mix it up, so inspiration magic spells from mesmers can really help with energy (so drop energy storage to 10+1) and give insp 8 (power drain and leech signet are the best 2 to go with for a hero, as they interrupt)

Necromancer
This is where it starts getting a little complex. Some of my fave necro skills are too dependant on working together (like the other night copland, you me, mark of pain and spiteful spirit) So… dunno a good MM works (at least from my experience it does, I’ve heard others say it doesn’t. Some simple damage spells, and things that add health like vampiric gaze or life syphon.
Also… Wells, are area of effect, and pretty good in most part. Mess around and see what you come up with. Oh… I think Spiteful Spirit would be ok, its just that the AI doesn’t always pick the best person to hit with it, so you don’t get the most bang for your buck.

Mesmer
I haven’t actually got a mes hero, but my 2 choices would be insp/dom or insp/ill. Stick with a few interrupts (3 or 4) and a couple of other classics from the attribute (like empathy and backfire for dom, conjure phantasm and clumsiness for ill). The interrupts are what make it really, so I’d probably keep fast casting reasonably high (10+1) then maybe level the other 2 out (8+3) and (12+1) if the superior rune is killing you just go 11,10,10 with 3 +1s.

Monk
I think we’ve covered this yeah?
I don’t know enough about smiting prayers to give an intelligible build

Assassin
I’m just experimenting, but sticking with cheap skills that recharge quickly, with some speed to get her out of trouble.

Ritualist
Haven’t got there yet. But I’m thinking 2 things – lots of spirits or lots of weapons spells. Help the whole team… you know.

Dervish
Ummmm, yeah
This is the one that I struggle with the most

Paragon
Although they can tank, I think for the purposes of a hero it would be best to stick with a support build that helps other kill things quicker (so focus round command). Or… if you have only one monk and/or a heap of casters so for motivation. Keep the spear high enough to help, and a fair bit of leadership Bob’s your uncle. Note there are also some extra awesome skills in leadership, that may make it round out well with motivation. I mainly go motivation/leadership with my paragon

Please add suggestions, in comments or make a whole new post slamming me if I’m simplistic or wrong, that’s fine.
With EotN having 10 new heroes I really want to be able to have 25 builds, ready to go. Mixing and matching them when I need them. Sure… Xyla only has 7 heroes right now, but that will go up, I hope.

hero builds on gwonline forum

here
definately worth looking at

Tahlkora: some secondary options with Copland's available elites

So, here are some thoughts, based around your elites, that may be useful for a Tahlkora build. All the builds I’ve listed revolve around a simple healing build, with some secondary specialisation. If you want a protection build, the first 4 skills will need to change (at least I will let you know if its more), give me a list of what you have to choose from and I can work from there up.

With these builds assume a 12 in healing prayers, 8 in devine favour and 10 in whatever else I suggest (blood magic or water magic). I’d get minor runes in both healing prayers and devine favour to bump them up that little bit. (+1) Here we go…

1. Escape

Escape is the sort of skills that a monk could benefit from – blocking attacks while healing is useful. It’s also low on energy, which is good, so they don’t waste all their energy on one skill. The HUGE problem with equipping a skill like this for a monk is that it relies upon the primary skill of rangers (expertise), so instead of it lasting for 15 seconds (or possibly more), you get 5. pretty weak really for a skill that takes 30 seconds to recharge. Therefore, I would scratch this off your option list.

2. Well of Power

This necro blood magic skill can be quite handy. It gives both health regen and energy regen. So is a help to the casters, and anyone being attacked. The only problem with wells, is that, at times, they only kick in towards the end of a battle, or at its completion – which is handy to speed things along and move on to the next bunch of beasties. It costs 10 energy, but for what it does, that isn’t too bad really – wells are only possible to cast when someone is dead in the area (foe or friend) so they don’t usually kick in till at least the early mid stages (generally later). The other good thing about this skill is that there are some other handy skills in the blood magic repertoire – life syphon (but its 10 energy, so I wouldn’t recommend it and WoP, and offcourse, vampiric gaze, which I would definitely equip in a build like this, which operates both as an attack and a self heal. Handy indeed.

I’d fill your skillbar with something like this for a healing build

1. Orison of healing

2. Words of Comfort

3. Healing Touch

4. Healing Seed (you can get it from the hero skill trainer in Comand Post)/ Heal Party / Purge Condition

5. Remove Hex

6. Well of Power

7. Vampiric Gaze

8. Res (pick any) Restore Life, or Resurrect are my usual choices

3. Ward Against Harm

Think of this as a elementalist version of watch yourself. A little stronger, and lasts longer, and… gives you stacks more armor if you happen to be up against a fire ele (great for ring of fire islands for example). The key downside of this one is its cost – 15 energy, which is a lot. But… remember, it will make the healers job easier, equip Koss with Watch yourself, and it basically doubles its effectiveness. Wards only work in a specific area, but if you’re a warrior they will have to be reasonably close, so its not as much of an issue, as it might be for a ranger. Sticking with my theme, of giving you 2 specialist skills from an attribute, (in this case water magic) I would recommend armor of frost – its only 5 energy and will really help keep her alive. Armor of mist is also acceptable, but not as great as it costs more. Both are available from a few skill trainers only… so go but them (with someone that has ele secondary obviously – just check wiki for the location)

Heres the suggested build

1. Orison of healing

2. Words of Comfort

3. Healing Touch

4. Healing Seed (you can get it from the hero skill trainer in Comand Post)/ Heal Party / Purge Condition

5. Remove Hex

6. Ward Against Harm

7. Armor of Frost

8. Res (pick any) Restore Life, or Resurrect are my usual choices

4. Mist Form

Basically, I’d use mist form if you’re finding Tahl is dying often. Just replace Ward Against Harm from the above build. Mist form will mean she cant attack others (but that doesn’t matter, shes a monk). This helps just her… not the whole team.

Overall opinion

I’d probably try out 3 and 2 (in that order), see what you think is working best. If shes dying a lot go for 4. I like both wards and wells. You’ll get some attack out of her with 2, but better defence with 3… so its up to you…

Hope it helps

enjoy

Tahlkora Build

OK, so I'm thinking I need to get a better build for Tahlkora (orTally-Orca as she is also known). Ian, as much as it pains me to ask, can you think about a good build for Tahlkora and get back to me.

I have some great Necro elites, as well as a few Ranger elites, and ofcourse the Warrior elites. So, whatever direction you think will be cool...or maybe just as a Monk, that's cool too.

Get back to me when you can.

brutal weapon

so... you all like my brutal weapon build?
check out other weapon spells and tell me if there are any other you think might work. most only work on the next time you use the weapon or next attack skill. brutal weapon is good cause it works over and over for a set time.
here's the pics of what you guys look like. unfortunately all weapon spells look the same.

spells?

with your main Cim characters, do you have any spells you use, regularly or otherwise. pls list (it has to do with a build I'm thinking about)