Ineptitude+Spiteful Spirit

Wouldn't it make sense to bring a necro and a mesmer and sticking Ineptitude+SS on both of them cause for massive AoE damage? *Shrugs* I was just playing with some builds last night and found this to be an interesting combo.

Of course, I would bring other destructive/nasty curses hexes/spell.

Weaken Armor is good if you have a lot of non-armor-ignoring damage (eles and/or rangers mainly. Minions as well). Otherwise, it will probably not be worth using.

Quote: Originally Posted by Wenspire

Weaken Armor is good if you have a lot of non-armor-ignoring damage (eles and/or rangers mainly. Minions as well). Otherwise, it will probably not be worth using. Not talking about Weaken Armor.

Both elites deal damage, and don't counteract each other, but there isn't any synergy either. They're just good skills and you can run them together.

Ineptitude is alright, but SS with VoR will probably do more damage without the blind

But wondering eye/clumsiness will work against SS.

Quote: Originally Posted by bling ling

Ineptitude is alright, but SS with VoR will probably do more damage without the blind Ineptitude mesmer, VoR mesmer, and SS necro=massive AoE damage.

Thank you for pointing out VoR to me *doh*

@Premium: Who said anything about those two skills?
If anything you would want to replace those two with Guilt and Mistrust ;-)

Talking about inept implies illusion skills, which in turn implies we/clumsiness. Guilt is also terrible on heroes as they use it on anyone regardless of whether or not they have a spell to use.

If you're illiterate, you'll take wandering eye and clumsiness.

However, those two skills I thought would be eliminated right off the bat. I see however that people need to be baby fed common knowledge.

Guilt was a simple suggestion. If you don't like it, I'll point you to Shame.
If you don't like that, replace it with anything else.

And if you did any meaningful testing, you'd realise SS and VoR are mediocre at best. Funny how you say I lack 'common knowledge' when you don't even know that much yourself.

Spiteful Spirit is a lot better on paper than it is in actual use.

Heroes rarely use it properly, and cast it only suboptimal or already dead targets, so its not always used as efficiently as it could be.

Also, 33 damage per hit isn't too great as most enemies will barely get off a hit or two before blowing up if your team composition is right.

Besides, mobs rarely ball up close enough for Spiteful Spirit to be truly effective, and when they do, they scatter quickly.

If you really want a curses elite, I would recommend PoD as the Area of Effect is larger and in one burst so it won't cause scatter. It can also get rid of any nasty enchants that stop your melee from killing stuff.

my .02

SS does not cause enemy scatter.

PoD is nice only if your enemies are enchanted (otherwise it does nothing). According to wiki, it's damage area is "adjacent" so similar to SS.

@Gladiator Steven - Your original post mentioned Weaken Armor, hence my earlier response regarding it.

Quote: Originally Posted by Pugs Not Drugs

Spiteful Spirit is a lot better on paper than it is in actual use.

Heroes rarely use it properly, and cast it only suboptimal or already dead targets, so its not always used as efficiently as it could be.

Also, 33 damage per hit isn't too great as most enemies will barely get off a hit or two before blowing up if your team composition is right.

Besides, mobs rarely ball up close enough for Spiteful Spirit to be truly effective, and when they do, they scatter quickly.

If you really want a curses elite, I would recommend PoD as the Area of Effect is larger and in one burst so it won't cause scatter. It can also get rid of any nasty enchants that stop your melee from killing stuff.

my .02 +this.

might wanna switch PoD for FoC depending on area. I'd use an extra mesmer over SS anytime.

Necros are worthwhile for Minion Master and Melee buffs (MoP/Barbs/Orders). Other builds are just subpar these days. The only place I see where SS is still in common use is UWSC where its outperformed by all other spiker options, and the deep where theres simply millions of attackers that get mobbed up making it worth it.

I like SS, and it's the main bar for my necromancer. I enjoy playing it, but to get the most of it, it requires you to choose the right targets, which heroes probably fail at. I never bring ss on a hero. I think PoD is good, but because I am too lazy to change one skill on my curses hero when there won't be a lot of enchantments around, I just take FoC.
Never tried Icy Veins, but some say it's decent enough to put on a curses necro with support skills.

Quote: Originally Posted by Wenspire

SS does not cause enemy scatter. Spiteful Spirit will cause scatter in hard mode almost immediately for melee foes. The scatter is variable for other types of AI, but many foes in hard mode will attempt to scatter from its effects.

Quote: Originally Posted by Gladiator Steven

If you're illiterate, you'll take wandering eye and clumsiness.

However, those two skills I thought would be eliminated right off the bat. I see however that people need to be baby fed common knowledge.

Guilt was a simple suggestion. If you don't like it, I'll point you to Shame.
If you don't like that, replace it with anything else. I must be illiterate, because I don't see why you would not have those 2 skills on an Ineptitude bar. Do you spec high in Illusion for one skill only? What's in the rest of your bar?

Please baby feed me the reason why you're using subpar Domination e-management when you have access to Arcane Conundrum and the AI-friendly Inspiration options.

Also, as everyone said, SS is crap on AI and crappier in HM unless you take serious steps to snare 'em.

SS isn't bad in HM at all. The AI uses it just fine and its far better than any of the other curses elite skills. There are so many useful curses skills for 7 hero teams, I find it hard not to bring a curser, and i usually end up placing SS on this hero.

Quote: Originally Posted by MisterB

Spiteful Spirit will cause scatter in hard mode almost immediately for melee foes. The scatter is variable for other types of AI, but many foes in hard mode will attempt to scatter from its effects.
I just tested SS in the Raptor Cave and did not notice any enemy scatter. And if sins in HM don't trigger it fast enough, I don't think anything else will.

The real problem with Inpetitude+SS was danced around a bit, but not really hit on.

The "meta" for hero builds these days includes 2+ Mesmers. Sometimes Ineptitude is one such Mesmer.

The problem is, even with two Mesmers, you're almost ALWAYS going to have multiple interrupts from Domination and Illusion, and given that the AI isn't great at target switching (i.e. they unload all skills on target A, then move on), your Necro's SS will likely be useless due to the variety of said Mesmer interrupts.

You could of course take Mesmers without interrupts, but then you're ignoring the best part of Mesmer Heroes and that's their godly ability to catch almost any skill in an interrupt. And for the AI, there's serious lacking options in the Mesmer skills anyways, try an Echo Chain E-Surge lol.

I switch between two different melee (Dervish and Sin) and two caster (Mesmer and Rit) characters when I play, and no matter what build I take, called targets are usually spiked down within 5 seconds or less, which given the attack speed and casting speed of mobs in HM meaning SS will at most trigger 3 or 4 times, then factor in the amount of movement HM melee does on kiting heroes, and SS just loses its lustre.

SS isn't bad for a human in specific conditions as mentioned, but I wouldn't stick it on a Hero in just about any situation.