User:Foo/GoM/Theory

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The Theory

XP

The Titan's Chaos Rift in Gate of Madness spawns 8 level 28 Titans every 30 seconds, which also happen to be the length of Scrolls of Berserker's Insight.

When a player shares this XP with only 1 hero, they get just over 1 million XP every 3 hours.

Killing

Any reasonable damage dealer hero that will not attract agro from the player and not scatter the enemies could probably kill the Titans, but maintaining the scroll and the max rate of spawning requires killing them in a quick and stable rate, which is simple with a Keystone Signet Mesmer, especially at high LB ranks.

Tanking

Protective Bond (Prot Bond) reduces damage to 5%, and the Lightbringer title reduces 1 additional point for each rank.

By adjusting the tank's health, the amount of damage taken could be set to 0, or even better, to 1. (Damage taken is floor(MaxHealth / 20 - LB), so health between LB * 20 + 20 and LB * 20 + 39 results in exactly 1 damage).

That small amount of damage and the degen caused by periodical Burning and Bleeding can be negated with Mending, Watchful Spirit, and Succor, while Purifying Veil reduces the timespans of these conditions.

Energy Management

Basic energy sources for maintaining Prot Bond and the other enchantments are Blessed Signet, Succor, Balthazar's Spirit, and Essence Bond which (unlike Balthazar's Spirit) requires non-zero damage packets, therefore 1 damage is better than 0.

Additional energy sources can be used for making the farm safer or for pushing its limits.

The Practice

Killing

The Keystone Mesmer:

Lightbringer raises damage by 5% per rank.

Edge of Extinction can deal damage from spirit range (and make Soul Reaping a bit more effective by grouping deaths together).

Tanking

Base armor rating of the player should be not higher than that of the Keystone, so non-casters should craft a starter armor set for this.

Health could be adjusted according to the player's LB rank so that each damage packet would be of exactly 1 damage, but 180 health (190 with 2% morale from closing a rift) is a healthy one-size-fits-all amount that enables every LB rank to take damage (at a reasonable amount), and requires only 4 superior runes.

Protective Bond reduces damage to 5% of max health, which can be adjusted to calibrate the amount of damage taken.

Lightbringer reduces 1 point of damage per each LB rank. Should be reapplied after Protective Bond for full effect.

Purifying Veil reduces the duration of Bleeding and Burning. The Protection breakpoints for those specific durations are ...12, 14, 17, so 12 or 14 Protection is advised.

Mending provides 4 pips of health regeneration.

Watchful Spirit provides 2 pips of health regeneration.

Succor provides 1 pip of health regeneration.

Energy Management

Natural energy regeneration: 2 pips for Paragon and Warriors, 3 for Rangers, and 4 for all other professions.

Balthazar's Spirit pays the tank 1e each time it takes damage (even 0).

Essence Bond pays the caster 1e each time the tank takes (at least 1 point of) physical or elemental damage, which account for about 2/3 of all damage packets.

Blessed Signet provides 0.75 pips per maintained enchantment with suitable DF.

Succor provides 1 pip.

Additionally, Soul Reaping provide Necromancers with way more energy than any other profession can generate, and other options are:

Offering of Blood provides 3.3 pips at 12 Blood, but requires the maintainer to have low enough health so that the health lost to sacrifice be naturally regenerated between casts.

Mantra of Recall provides 1.2 pips at 12 Inspiration.

Quickening Zephyr improves Blessed Signet's gain from 0.75 pips per maintained enchantment, to 1.285, and Mantra of Recall's from 1.2 to 1.7.

Life Bond allows a hero to use Balthazar's Spirit on itself and gain 1e for each attack, which account for about half of damage packets.

Positioning

The player should stand as close to the Portal Wraiths as possible (to shorten the travel time of new Titans) and the tank should be flagged on the edge of the player's agro bubble in the opposite direction.

All other heroes should be out of agro but in their right ranges: bonders in bonding range and spirit maintainers in spirit range.

Builds

All builds require the same Keystone Mesmer hero:

Profession-agnostic Builds

Safest with QZ and Mantra of Recall

Very safe, even at a low LB, and does not require the tank taking damage (No Essence Bond), but takes 6 heroes, requires the bonders to be Mesmers and use their elite slot, and uses QZ which is annoying to fight with and inconvenient to disable/enable.

It is, however, possible to drop either QZ or MoR, and still have a working build.

Simplest with Essence Bond

Setting the player's health correctly enables using Essence Bond for energy management, freeing the bonders to have whatever secondary and elite, and reducing the number of heroes to 4:

Least heroes with Essence Bond and player bonding

By having the player maintain one copy of Protective Bond, and one of the bonders maintain EoE, the number of heroes can be reduced to 3:

Player

This is the build currently presented in the guide. It was developed to work for every profession with at least LB4, to require only cheap traders and crafters armor, and to be as easy as possible to set up.

(However:)

Profession-specific Builds

With specific professions, higher LB ranks, cons, and/or complex skill usages, setups with a single hero bonder are possible.

Necros

A Necro can use SR to be the first Prot Bond caster while maintaining 3 enchantments in a 2e/1e split:

Player casting Prot Bond first with 8 Protection and some SR.

Hero casting Prot Bond second with 13 Protection, 13 healing, 11 DF, 9 Blood, and low health.

Monks (and 4-pips professions with pcons)

A a-pips profession with 13+ Protection can be the second Prot Bond caster in a 2e/1e split:

Hero casting Prot Bond first with 8 Protection, 16 SR, 13 Blood and low health.

Player casting Prot Bond second with 14 Protection and 13 Healing.

(This should probably run with EoE at BM12+)

Paragons

A Paragon with HR can be the second Prot Bond caster in a 1e/1e split:

Hero casting Prot Bond first with 18 Protection*, 13 healing*, 11 DF, and 11 Blood.

Player casting Prot Bond second with 13 Protection*, and 20 Leadership* (*aided by HR).

(Any profession can replace HR with a Grail and +1/20% items, but that would be awfully annoying due to the recasting required to hit the 20% and the effect the temp health change of the Grail has on damage).

Monks, Mesmers or Assassins with 18 Protection

A 4-pips profession with 18 Protection can move Watchful Spirit to the hero and be a single Prot Bond caster paying 2e:

Player casting Prot Bond alone with 18 Protection.

Hero, 13 Healing, 12 Protection, and 5 DF. (Optional: EoE and 12 BM).

Monks need pcons (Candy Corn and Golden Egg), Mesmers need pcons and Signet of Illusions, and Assassins need pcons and Shadow Theft or just two consecutive casts of Shadow Theft.

4-pips professions with max LB

A 4-pips profession with max LB can drop Watchful Spirit and be the first Prot Bond caster in a 2e/1e split:

Player casting Prot Bond first with 8 Protection and LB8.

Hero casting Prot Bond second with 13 Protection, 13 healing, 11 DF, 9 Blood, and low health.

Anyone

Any profession with pcons can apply Life Bond after LB and a second Balthazar's Spirit on the hero and be the second Prot Bond caster in a 2e/1e split:

Hero casting Prot Bond first with 8 Protection, 12 Blood, 13 DF or 13 SR, and low health.

Player casting Prot Bond second with 13 Protection, 13 Healing.

Experiments and PoCs

Dual Vamp remote-healer hero

Mo/R with 0 DF, 10 healing, 16 protection, 10 BM, and a Dual-Vamp weapon.

A Hero with this bar and a Dual Vamp weapon will automatically remotely heal the equivalent of about 4 pips of health regeneration.

It should be out of spirit range of the player (due to Predatory Season), out of range of any hero which might heal it, have no other self healing abilities, and have low health.

This enables running the normal setup on LB2, and it might also be useful for other types of mostly-solo farms.

Least bonders and least bonds (Under testing)

Still not stable, but an attempt to get a singer bonder build working:

Hero casting Prot Bond alone with 13 Protection, 13 healing, 4 DF, 12 Blood, and low health.

Ranger with 16 BM and 15 WS.

Ranger with 16 WS

Ranger with 0 DF, 9 healing, 16 protection, 10 BM, and a Dual-Vamp weapon.

This is tested with a player with LB8 and no skills at all.

No Lightbringer setup

Stationary Torment Claw abuse

This is presented mostly as an experiment and proof of concept. This is really not a good idea:

Hero tank, caster, casting Prot Bond on self with 8 prot, and flagged right on the Claw.

Maintains spirits and supplies energy and healing.

Maintains spirits and supplies energy and healing.

Ranger with max BM.

(With any of the 2-heroes builds).

Set heroes to avoid combat, flag the hero tank in melee range of the Torment Claw that is south of the Titan's Rift, and the rest in casting range of it and in spirit range of the player tank.

This gets the heroes to be "in combat", and use Recuperation and Recovery which add health regeneration and reduce condition durations. QZ and EoE improve damage output.

This enables running the normal build with no Lightbringer at all.

To test - rank 20 bonds

X/Me hero

N/Mo or Mo/N hero

Me/P player

Skill Analysis

Protective Bond's Cost Payment

Protective Bond (Prot Bond) requires some amount of energy per each reduction (See calculations below), which can be paid for by multiple bonders. The most useful setups include:

• 3 bonders with 13/8/3 Protection paying 1e/1e/1e.
• 2 bonders with 8/13 Protection paying 2e/1e.
• A single bonder with 18 Protection paying 2e.

Break points of Protection can be reached with:

• Attribute points (up to 12)
• Runes (Monks only, +4)
• Candy Corn and Golden Eggs (Players only, +2)
• +1/20% Protection item (Requires recasting until randomly succeeding).
• Grail of Might (+1, but raises health for 30 minutes which could mess up the incoming damage amounts).
• Signet of Illusions, Shadow Theft, and Heroic Refrain (Various limitations).

Each 1e paid per Protective Bond reduction is equivalent, when tanking the Titans at LB4, to about 3 pips of energy degen. (At higher Lightbringer, enemies die faster and therefore the cost is somewhat reduced).

Calculation for Multiple Bonders

This is the basic defined skill progression for Prot Bond:

Progression
Protection Prayers Single bonder	0 6 1 6 2 6 3 5 4 5 5 5 6 5 7 5 8 4 9 4 10 4 11 4 12 4 13 3 14 3 15 3 16 3 17 3 18 2 19 2 20 2 21 2

However, this only describes how much energy is needed for a single bonder. When multiple bonders apply Prot Bond to the same target, the cost can't be simply distributed among them, as they might have different Protection ranks.

In practice, a bonder pays as if each bonder (by order of casting) pays 1e, until its own cost is fully paid.

For instance, if Tahlkora casts first with Protection 8 (cost of 4e), and Dunkoro casts second with Protection 13 (cost of 3e), Tahlkora would think that she pays 2e and Dunkoro pays 2e, but Dunkoro would only pay 1e, because he thinks that Tahlkora pays 2e and he is only left with 1e.

If the casting order would be switched (13 prot before 8 prot), both bonders would pay 2e.

This can be seen in this progression table that shows how much each of 2 bonders would pay, based on their own individual Protection rank:

Progression
Protection Prayers 1st / 2 bonders 2nd / 2 bonders	0 3 3 1 3 3 2 3 3 3 3 2 4 3 2 5 3 2 6 3 2 7 3 2 8 2 2 9 2 2 10 2 2 11 2 2 12 2 2 13 2 1 14 2 1 15 2 1 16 2 1 17 2 1 18 1 1 19 1 1 20 1 1 21 1 1

3 bonders:

Progression
Protection Prayers 1st / 3 bonders 2nd / 3 bonders 3rd / 3 bonders	0 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 2 2 1 4 2 2 1 5 2 2 1 6 2 2 1 7 2 2 1 8 2 1 1 9 2 1 1 10 2 1 1 11 2 1 1 12 2 1 1 13 1 1 1 14 1 1 1 15 1 1 1 16 1 1 1 17 1 1 1 18 1 1 0 19 1 1 0 20 1 1 0 21 1 1 0

4 bonders:

Progression
Protection Prayers 1st / 4 bonders 2nd / 4 bonders 3rd / 4 bonders 4th / 4 bonders	0 2 2 1 1 1 2 2 1 1 2 2 2 1 1 3 2 1 1 1 4 2 1 1 1 5 2 1 1 1 6 2 1 1 1 7 2 1 1 1 8 1 1 1 1 9 1 1 1 1 10 1 1 1 1 11 1 1 1 1 12 1 1 1 1 13 1 1 1 0 14 1 1 1 0 15 1 1 1 0 16 1 1 1 0 17 1 1 1 0 18 1 1 0 0 19 1 1 0 0 20 1 1 0 0 21 1 1 0 0

These are the distributions that make the most sense for different amounts of bonders:

• A single bonder with 18 Protection would pay 2e - which makes energy management simple, but reaching 18 Prot is tricky and not possible for all professions without additional players.
• 2 bonders with 8/13 Protection would pay 2e/1e. (Notice that the reverse order would cost 2e/2e instead!)
• 3 bonders with 13/8/3 Protection would pay 1e/1e/1e - The simplest and most obvious way, requiring three total bonders.
• 4 bonders with 8/3/0/0 Protection would pay 1e/1e/1e/1e - Requires 4 bonders, but they all need very low Protection.

The actual calculation per bonder is floor((cost - i) / bonders + 1), where cost is the bonder's own cost of Protective Bond, bonders is the amount of total Protective Bond bonders, and i is the bonder's place in the casting order.

Purifying Veil Breakpoints

Tests on Purifying Veil (and Recovery) using Poisoned Heart (5-19s) and Signet of Agony (25s) show that:

• Purifying Veil of p% reduction reduces an s seconds condition to min(s-1, ceil(s * (1-p/100)))
• Recovery of p% reduction reduces an s seconds condition to rh2e(s * (1-p/100))
• When used together, Purifying Veil is calculated before Recovery, no matted the order of application.

Titans apply 5s burning and 15s bleeding, which dictates specific Protection break points for Purifying Veil:

Progression
Protection Prayers Purifying Veil on a 5s condition	0 4 1 4 2 4 3 4 4 4 5 4 6 4 7 4 8 4 9 4 10 4 11 4 12 3 13 3 14 3 15 3 16 3 17 3 18 3 19 2 20 2 21 2

Progression
Protection Prayers Purifying Veil on a 15s condition	0 14 1 14 2 14 3 13 4 13 5 12 6 12 7 12 8 11 9 11 10 10 11 10 12 9 13 9 14 8 15 8 16 8 17 7 18 7 19 6 20 6 21 5

This means that Protection 12 is the important burning breakpoint, and that there is no point in getting Protection to 15/16.