Beginning Hero Questions

I just got both Factions and Nightfall -- I'm an old-time Prophecies player -- and I picked up the initial four heroes (two monks, warrior, and dervish) in Nightfall today.

Two questions:

1) Will I get along fine using the two monks + warrior, or should I go pick up the elementalist or ranger hero before going back to Factions? (I want to play through Factions first, to get Dragon Slash and Flail for my warrior.)

2) Is this an okay monk bar?

[dwayna's kiss][heal other][healing breeze][mend ailment][purge conditions][remove hex][ward against melee][rebirth]

I switched both heroes to Healing because I have the feeling the AI will suck at Protection. I left out Heal Party for the same reason. Should I add some Protection spells? Maybe switch out Ward Against Melee for Glyph of Lesser Energy?

Res on Monks is kinda bad, they need an active bar to combat any situation.

Healing Breeze is quite bad. It requires heavy attribution and consumes energy faster than anything.

You shouldn't need two condition removals, one is enough.

Ward Against Melee should really be on an Ele bar.

It also lacks an elite.

I suggest:

[word of healing][dwaynas kiss][signet of rejuvenation][aegis][shield of absorption][dismiss condition][remove hex][energy management skill]

Aegis and SoA are both skills that can't be screwed up in the hands of the AI.
Word of Healing is your power heal, Dwayna's and Signet are both secondary heals. They should remove conditions fine.

If you don't have Word of Healing, I would consider a different heal over it. Yes, even Orison of Healing...

And if you're runing up; 12+1+1 Healing, 10+1 Prot, 8+1 Divine.
Either that or 11+1+1 Healing, 11+1 Prot, 8+1 Divine.

I don't have Word of Healing, but I can go capture it in Prophecies.

But I definitely don't have [shield of absorption] or [dismiss condition] and can't get those easily right now. What would be the best Core/Prophecies substitutes?

for 1K balth faction you can unlock a skill and your hero can then use that skill.

[[shield of absorption] for [[shielding hands] and [[dismiss] for [[mend ailment] in my opinion.

What class do you play yourself?
For normal mode I find taking 2 hench monks is generally more than sufficient, with perhaps some utility stuff on your heroes. Leaves you to play around with 3 damage heroes and speed through quicker.

I would get the ele hero. Good old fashioned fire nuking works fine in nm.

Monk bar needs a little work. AI use prot reasonably well, although they don't pre-prot. Mend Ailment would be a good subst for Dismiss Condition.

Healing - If you have faction to unlock stuff;
[Patient Spirit][Dwayna's kiss][Heal Party][remove hex][Healer's Boon][Power Drain][Leech Signet][rebirth]

Healing - Pure proph;
[Word of healing][dwayna's kiss][orison of healing][ x ][remove hex][Power Drain][Leech Signet][rebirth]
Where x is [Healing Seed], [Heal Party], or [Mend Condition] (with only left over points in prot)

The N/Rt healer (see link below) does a better job of "make red bars go up". Healer's boon churning out heal parties is a good contender though.

Prot;
[Rof][Spirit Bond][Restore Condition][Shield of Absorption][Shielding Hands][Remove Hex][Power Drain][Leech Signet]
Subout shielding hands if you want a res on him. 6 inspiration.


Ideally you want be running some sort of tripple necro build, as it pretty much stomps all of pve.
http://www.pvxwiki.com/wiki/Build:Te...Necro_Vanquish is one such example. Drop the N/Rt for a Monk as you won't have any of the skills. Skills on the other bars you can tweak, probably with [Aura of the Lich] as the minion master's elite.

Edit: Yikes, replies.
"Signet of Agony" should be "Shield of Absorption" in post above. The forum software has messed up despite Tyla typing it correctly. Wierd.

^
Monks suck with RoF and Spirit Bond, and res on Monks is bad in general.

Quote: Originally Posted by Samra

Thanks for the help, everyone.

Quote: What class do you play yourself? I'm playing my Warrior right now. Does that mean using Koss is okay, since his For Great Justice helps me? Or am I better off getting that Elementalist? I figure two monks + elementalist should be okay for getting through Factions, etc.

I would consider an Elementalist using the following:

[savannah heat][searing heat][teinai's heat][rodgort's invocation][ward against melee][gole][no skill][death pact signet]

Or for a more offensive version:

[savannah heat][searing heat][teinai's heat][rodgort's invocation][splinter weapon][ancestor's rage][gole][death pact signet]

Splinter Weapon deals the highest AoE damage in the game at a spammable rate. The reason I would go with an Ele is because the AI of melee sucks.

As for your build, I suggest:
[dragon slash][sever artery][gash][flail]["for great justice!"]["save yourselves!"][no skill][no skill]

You'll need rank 1 Kurzick or Luxon. Just thought I'd like to add this bit.

Also, skills like [[enraging charge], [[enduring harmony] are good additions to the build. Maybe add a conjure on for more damage.

Thanks.

I won't be able to make an Ele build quite that good yet, because I don't have Savannah Heat -- I just got Nightfall. But I can give the Ele [Elemental Attunement] instead. Do they use that and [Fire Attunement] well? I figure they idiot proof.

I'm definitely working to get a build similar to what you suggested for my Warrior. That's why my focus is Factions, to get Dragon Slash and Flail ASAP.

One other question for you -- why no rez for the monks? I'm either going to be using Henchmen or PUGs for the other group slots, so there will be deaths. Maybe give them Rebirth but just disable it, so they don't waste time during combat?

Quote: Originally Posted by Samra

It's not idiot proof, but it should work.

As for no res on Monks, they should have an active bar. Your midliners or frontliners should be doing the ressing, as if you're dying and need to fall back and res, you're better off just wiping.

I highly recommend you go to prophecies and get olias. Set him up as a MM and Factions is easy town all the way to shiro. Beyond that I would recommend getting the Ele hero and running either something along the 2nd build Tyla posted or an SF build. From the rest of the heroes available to you a monk would probably be best, as the monks in Factions suck hard (no energy 10 seconds into the fight lolol, though the rits are good). In Prophecies and Nightfall though you can take another offensively minded hero, as the monks in the other campaigns are far closer to being as good as your heroes could be then the other classes are to what you can make with your respective heroes.

You don't have to capture a skill to get it on your heroes, heroes automatically get any skill unlocked on your account. Go PvP for 20 mins, get 3k faction and unlock a skill at a priest of balthazar and your heroes can use any elite you want.

Where in Prophecies is Olias? Based on the Wiki, I thought I had to get to the "Consulate Docks" in Factions to get him.

Also, what should I use for the MM build? Something like the one from Sabway?

And how the heck do you get 3,000 PvP points so fast? (It's been a long time since I've played, so if this is an obvious question, I'm sorry.)

Quote: Originally Posted by Samra

Quote: Originally Posted by Samra

Yeah, my bad, I always forget about how olias was changed, its used to be his quest was straight out of LA. It isn't too far to get to consulate from a foreign character though, the hoops you have to jump through are far fewer and you can get an ele or ranger hero on the way.

As far as getting balthazar faction, RA is very fast if you can play certain builds well (monks especially), but otherwise Zaishen is quite fast. You would probably like Alliance Battles more though. AB isn't as good as RA or Zaishen, but its fairly consistent whether you are a great player or a decent player. You will also be gaining kurzick/luxon faction which will remove a roadblock in Factions PvE, along with giving you progress to the respective title that powers imba PvE skills (Save Yourselves! for warriors). AB is also probably going to be by far the most fun if you enjoy PvE more then PvP. So AB is probably the best deal, even if you might not be able to make 3k in 20 mins (though you might still be able to).

For the MM build, just look in the necromancer section of campfire. Honestly 2/3rds of the threads there are people asking for the same necromancer MM builds, and everyone replies with basically the same stuff. I personally have probably posted the same 2 or 3 builds 10x in the last few months, so please find it yourself.

Quote: Originally Posted by The Meth

The difference between hero MM's and human MM's is that hero MM's can manage [[death nova] better. It causes armour-ignoring AoE damage when the minion, or meat sack explodes.