PvP

[theGrimm]

After receiving a few invitations from guildies to join them for some PvP, I began the journey to unlock TA and HA. I'm still not entirely sure how all the PvP stuff fits together, but I believe I now need to complete 5 wins (in a row?) in Random Arenas to unlock TA.

This morning was my first serious attempt to do so. Basically, I got thrashed.

I have no problem with dying...I realise I'm not just to walk into RA and reign supreme. What's annoying, though, is that I mostly don't even know what killed me!

Sadly, I only have one char, a necro, as far as Droknars, don't have an awful lot of "stuff" (skills or equipment), or know the game well enough to recognise what's dangerous, and what to cast on what.

Although my primary interest is PvE, I'm sure I'll enjoy a bit of PvP, if you guys can can point me in the direction of the necessary unlocks without a huge investment of time...

I just don't want those who have extended PvP invites to feel I'm brushing them off.

[FoxBat]

A safe, easy bet for RA with a necro is to go with hex overload. Life siphon is annoying and greatly contributes to your survivablitiy, maintain it on 3 or 4 enemies and you will have a lot of regen for yourself. Parasitic bond is everyone's favorite "cover hex", that is, its a cheap fast-casting hex you cast after the nastier hexes. This puts the hex "on top" of the hex stack, so when someone uses a hex removal skill like holy veil, they will (hopefully) remove parasitic bond instead of your more dangerous skills like life siphon. I think when bond is removed you even gain life, so that's a win-win situation. Spoil Victor or Reaper's Mark are great skills, but SS can be annoying enough if you haven't capped the last two yet. Suffering is a cheap way to hit several targets and add more degen. You can then dip into the mesmer line for conjure phantasm or backfire/empathy.

Another option if you want more survivability is to just go with blood. Shadow/lifebane strike, vampiric gaze, maybe offering of blood. Maintain siphon/parasitic on everyone and then pound a target from afar with your blood skills. You can sneak in some health sacrifice ones with all the life you will be gaining.

Jagged bones is a nice and abusive build, but that cap doesn't come until the end of nightfall.

[Lurker Wyrm]

If you created your account after the release of Nightfall (or somewhere around then) when they got rid of the templates, you should get free unlocks for your account, enough to make a build using a PvP character. Using a PvP char is usually a lot better of a choice to a PvE char since they have better flexibility in runes and insignias.

A few tips I can offer right off the bat are: don't use Superior attribute runes, the -75 health isn't worth it in the current meta where you want to have as much health as possible. Also, as you start earning faction (and you will, just be patient), it would be best to work your way up to Superior Vigor first, then unlock the Vitae rune. A PvP character with no sup attribute runes, a sup vigor, a couple vitaes and some survivor insignias will usually have over 600 health.

Most breakpoints for skills come at a 14 attribute, so it's best to take your main attribute (note: not always the primary for your class) to 12 and use a headpiece + minor rune to get it up to 14. If you're going Blood magic it's not really neccessary to take it up that high.

Anyways, for skills, I would recommend what Fox said. Go hex overload. Price of Failure (curses) and Spirit of Failure (mesmer, inspiration) will pretty much nullify a physical attacker and give you some energy in the process. If you've got Nightfall there are some good normal skills and elites to make use of, but a Prophecies only account is still viable.

[FoxBat]

Slight thread hijack... but still PvP related!

I've been talking with the folks over at the Amazon Basin (from D2 days), and Ceolstan (guild leader? higher-up at least) welcomes RBers to their PvP outings, which they usually poll around their IRC channel to find more players. I think they "officially" want you to register on their forums thereby becoming a Community Member before getting into their TS server. I played in their "Monday Night Heroes" group and had some fun winning a whopping 2 fame .

Much like us the Basin is mostly PvE, but they do have some folks that PvP and between our guilds, we might actually have enough to get a team going now and then.

[Lurker Wyrm]

Ceolstan (guild leader? higher-up at least)

Last I knew she was the one in charge over at AB.

Much like us the Basin is mostly PvE, but they do have some folks that PvP and between our guilds, we might actually have enough to get a team going now and then.

In theory, anyways. HA doesn't really interest me all that much, but if there aren't enough for a GvG I won't complain.

Going off the original topic even more... I think the HA build we tried (aka the smaller version of our GvG build) would work better if we used a mesmer instead of the ele. The smite damage isn't really all that worthwhile and a Blinding Surge mes is pretty potent. The change to BSurge during the weekend was that it cost 10 energy instead of just 5, but I don't think that's going to cause much of an issue. If it does, we can sub in another e-management skill.

[FoxBat]

HA doesn't really interest me all that much, but if there aren't enough for a GvG I won't complain.

They hold their "official" GvGs the same night and time as ours, and it seems like they have more people interested on these nights than can fit into one main guild (although they have four). I'm not sure yet if/how we can interface on that front. Although people do seem to start GvGs at other times from reading their IRC channel (which exists largely for PvP pick-ups), I haven't gotten to tag along yet, though have spotted some non-AB guests in their guild battle report screenies from time to time.