Well I've been running things similar to these builds in RA to tweak them a little, here's the lowdown on how it works. (Or at least, as much as we've gotten to work.)
Nature's renewal is the "core" of this build, because it makes life more difficult for the ubiquitous prot monks with shield/guardian/aegis on their bar, and it totally ruins common hex pressure when combined with interrupts. What enchants we do run are kept to 1/4th second cast to minimize the impact on ourselves. Some teams are aware of this and will try to wait outside it's area of influence, although the ranger can try to harass and "pull" them in, or you can wait to set up NR discreetly after the battle has started.
The moebius assassin is fairly straightforward, high-pressure attacker and is the majority of damage in the build. Typically you spam death blossom->moebius endlessly, and use horns for a knockdown. Once the target gets below 50% you can just spam horns so they don't move until they die. Targets that try to stand next to an ally or spirit to prevent knockdown should be punished with the AoE from death blossom. We are trying unseen fury since we have blind spam from the paragon, and added swift javelin to the build so we can get blind on a blocking target. This seems a little janky but is worth testing out more. One current issue is that the assassin can be spiked out about as easily as the monk, so trying to get some more defense on him is something to work on, though choices like critical defenses aren't as stellar under nature's renewal. This role could concievably be replaced by another high-damage character like a hammer warrior/thumper, melandru dervish (although no harrier's grasp), possibly a spear rampager as well, though I'd like to try the ebon dust/dark fury synergy a bit.
The ranger plants nature's renwal, spreads poison around the enemy team, and harrasses the spellcasters with interrupts and daze (which is buried by poison). Often we had the assassin harassing the second spellcaster on their team (mesmer or ele) while the ranger sat on the monk to keep him from healing as well and splitting his attention. When you see a necro or backfire mez, it's typically the other way around with the ranger interrupts shutting down the slow-cast hexes. Once an enemy goes down, watch for the swirly animations over the rest of the team's heads for rezes to interrupt. Mending touch effortlessly cleans blind off yourself and is needed to clean it from the paragon, as well as removing daze or spike conditions from the monk. Natural stride may really be the better choice over SQ because aside from the defense, you also need to run around to remove conditions and get close to your target before firing Broadhead. Mending touch isn't a great counter to blind on the assassin though as the ranger needs to mostly hang in the midline, in such a case priority should be placed on shutting down the blindbot. (Attunements are 4-second interrupt fodder under NR.)
The paragon is a little strange and difficult to play, as it has many responsibilities. As we found out, agressive refrain is expensive, unless you cast it at the beginning of battle and keep it up with anthem of flame, then its not such an issue. At the start of battle, you put up ebon dust aura, and start building adrenaline. Remember that the blind only triggers on attack *skills*, not attacks. You primarily spam barbed spear to trigger the blind, which also buries the blind under bleeding. You can use vicious and swift to apply more blind if it's getting taken off quickly, or in an emergency situation such as a shadow prison assassin jumping in or hammer warriors knocking down the monk. You spam "Go for the Eyes" to add a bit of damage, as well as energy management for the assassin and more importantly yourself, so you can keep using those attack skills. Dont forget to cast anthem of flame as this adds a bit of pressure to the team and ensures agressive is renewed if you are having trouble building adrenaline. As mentioned earlier you can blind a blocking target with swift javelin to enable unseen fury. The paragaon can also spike a low-health target by putting up GftE, then throwing vicious and then swift: it's important for us to coordinate this better as it's the only source of deep wound on the team right now. In the case of an all-spellcaster team (which we ran into several of), you instead try to spread bleeding to everyone and then pressure/blind the assassin or ranger's target.
Not much to say about the monk because it's fairly standard, though we use smite hex because nature's renewal totally destroys veil, and with typical hexes taking at least 2 seconds under NR it's fast enough to remove something nasty before it can be covered. One thing I did notice on my successful gladiator point runs with the assassin was that the monk would put protective spirit on me as I was charging into battle. Concievably the monk doesn't need that extra 10 energy at the start and the squishy assassin benefits from the protection. This trick works better with prot spirit's long duration (and we can try swapping that in) but it applies to spirit bond as well. Keep in mind that if you are crippled or snared with shadow prison, trying to kite is actually a bad idea as you'll just give a melee free critical hits for moving.
Nature's renewal is the "core" of this build, because it makes life more difficult for the ubiquitous prot monks with shield/guardian/aegis on their bar, and it totally ruins common hex pressure when combined with interrupts. What enchants we do run are kept to 1/4th second cast to minimize the impact on ourselves. Some teams are aware of this and will try to wait outside it's area of influence, although the ranger can try to harass and "pull" them in, or you can wait to set up NR discreetly after the battle has started.
The moebius assassin is fairly straightforward, high-pressure attacker and is the majority of damage in the build. Typically you spam death blossom->moebius endlessly, and use horns for a knockdown. Once the target gets below 50% you can just spam horns so they don't move until they die. Targets that try to stand next to an ally or spirit to prevent knockdown should be punished with the AoE from death blossom. We are trying unseen fury since we have blind spam from the paragon, and added swift javelin to the build so we can get blind on a blocking target. This seems a little janky but is worth testing out more. One current issue is that the assassin can be spiked out about as easily as the monk, so trying to get some more defense on him is something to work on, though choices like critical defenses aren't as stellar under nature's renewal. This role could concievably be replaced by another high-damage character like a hammer warrior/thumper, melandru dervish (although no harrier's grasp), possibly a spear rampager as well, though I'd like to try the ebon dust/dark fury synergy a bit.
The ranger plants nature's renwal, spreads poison around the enemy team, and harrasses the spellcasters with interrupts and daze (which is buried by poison). Often we had the assassin harassing the second spellcaster on their team (mesmer or ele) while the ranger sat on the monk to keep him from healing as well and splitting his attention. When you see a necro or backfire mez, it's typically the other way around with the ranger interrupts shutting down the slow-cast hexes. Once an enemy goes down, watch for the swirly animations over the rest of the team's heads for rezes to interrupt. Mending touch effortlessly cleans blind off yourself and is needed to clean it from the paragon, as well as removing daze or spike conditions from the monk. Natural stride may really be the better choice over SQ because aside from the defense, you also need to run around to remove conditions and get close to your target before firing Broadhead. Mending touch isn't a great counter to blind on the assassin though as the ranger needs to mostly hang in the midline, in such a case priority should be placed on shutting down the blindbot. (Attunements are 4-second interrupt fodder under NR.)
The paragon is a little strange and difficult to play, as it has many responsibilities. As we found out, agressive refrain is expensive, unless you cast it at the beginning of battle and keep it up with anthem of flame, then its not such an issue. At the start of battle, you put up ebon dust aura, and start building adrenaline. Remember that the blind only triggers on attack *skills*, not attacks. You primarily spam barbed spear to trigger the blind, which also buries the blind under bleeding. You can use vicious and swift to apply more blind if it's getting taken off quickly, or in an emergency situation such as a shadow prison assassin jumping in or hammer warriors knocking down the monk. You spam "Go for the Eyes" to add a bit of damage, as well as energy management for the assassin and more importantly yourself, so you can keep using those attack skills. Dont forget to cast anthem of flame as this adds a bit of pressure to the team and ensures agressive is renewed if you are having trouble building adrenaline. As mentioned earlier you can blind a blocking target with swift javelin to enable unseen fury. The paragaon can also spike a low-health target by putting up GftE, then throwing vicious and then swift: it's important for us to coordinate this better as it's the only source of deep wound on the team right now. In the case of an all-spellcaster team (which we ran into several of), you instead try to spread bleeding to everyone and then pressure/blind the assassin or ranger's target.
Not much to say about the monk because it's fairly standard, though we use smite hex because nature's renewal totally destroys veil, and with typical hexes taking at least 2 seconds under NR it's fast enough to remove something nasty before it can be covered. One thing I did notice on my successful gladiator point runs with the assassin was that the monk would put protective spirit on me as I was charging into battle. Concievably the monk doesn't need that extra 10 energy at the start and the squishy assassin benefits from the protection. This trick works better with prot spirit's long duration (and we can try swapping that in) but it applies to spirit bond as well. Keep in mind that if you are crippled or snared with shadow prison, trying to kite is actually a bad idea as you'll just give a melee free critical hits for moving.
) I find that it's a lot of fun so I'm definitely willing to go at it some more.
![[Image: thumbsup.gif]](http://realmsbeyond.net/forums/images/smilies/thumbsup.gif)
You can also consider it good split-team gvg practice.