User:Gelbrekt/Avatar of Lyssa

Avatar of Lyssa

• I never looked at Avatar of Lyssa's recharge effect. I always assumed that the only thing this skill is good for was stealing energy. I realize now that this skill is much more powerful than I first thought, and it doesnt even have a (PvP) version!

	Elite

Optionals

• Aura of Thorns (PvP) (Not much damage, but a snare is needed for the build in order to use Pious Assault (PvP).)
• Staggering Force (While the cracked armor might not be a big deal, remember that the skill only has got a 3s cooldown due to AoL, which makes the damage dealing from this skill quite potent.)
• Veil of Thorns (Not a feeder enchantment, but has a low energy cost, deals damage, and protects vs spells.)
• Mirage Cloak (Awesome skill. If the build lacks a block-skill, hammer warriors will render it useless [can't get up from the ground]!)
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Bar 1

	Elite

Strengths

• Mirage Cloak blocks attacks constantly and deals 34 damage to nearby foes every 5 seconds. Due to Avatar of Lyssa and the build's energy management, it can be maintained (...i think). Note that a scythe of enchanting should NOT be used to prolong the duration of this skill. Instead, it should be allowed to expire before being recast, in order to trigger AoL!
• ZR, EZ, and AoT can be spammed constantly and removed with Pious Assault and Sighet of Pious Light. This results in:
  • Nearby foes are constantly crippled and bleeding, take around 25 holy damage every 5s, and adjacent foes take 20 earth damage every 4s.
  • One ally is healed for 120 every 5(+1) seconds.
  • 1 energy per removed enchantment from Avatar of Lyssa might not seem like much at first sight, but this really adds up. Also, this affects ALL NEARBY FOES, and the energy is not removed, it is STOLEN!

Weaknesses

• Only nearby foes are affected. Enemies that kite and bring lots of snares counters this build, especially because the build has no oppurtunities to remove hexes or conditions.
• Signet of Pious Light can be interrupted (and then i am pretty sure that the cooldown will be 20 seconds, not 5). However, it IS protected by Mirage Cloak from rangers. and since it is a signet it is hard to rupt with spells. If it IS iinterrupted/disabled though, it ruins the builds effectiveness.
• Attacks can be blocked. However, Pious Assault (PvP) is effective even if blocked.

Bar 2

	Elite

Strengths

• Do not forget that a skill can sometimes be very useful even if you have 0 in the skill's attribute; even if this results in that the skill becomes useless on its own. Whirling Charge can trigger Avatar of Lyssa's energy drain once every 3 seconds, which becomes equivalent to 1 pip of energy regen stolen from all nearby foes.

Bar for PvE

	Elite

• Staggering Force (if more feeder enchantments are needed)
• Zealous Renewal (While it doesn't provide as much energy as Eremite's Zeal, it deals damage and can be teardown more frequently. This stacks with Avatar of Lyssa, Aura of Holy Might, and Ebon Battle Standard.)
• Mirage Cloak (great defense, but without this skill the build is extremely easy to use)
• Aura of Holy Might (great synergy with the build, but without this skill the build is extremely easy to use)
• Ebon Battle Standard of Honor (great synergy with the build, as it has a huge amount of damage packets, especially when using Staggering Force and Aura of Holy Might)
• Eremite's Zeal (Avatar of lyssa should be able to provide enough energy. Also remember that a Zealous Scythe is used.)
  • Air of Superiority (Easily superior over Eremite's Zeal since there is space for PvE-skills in this build.)
• Pain Inverter (good solid skill that is easy to use. Also synergizes with discord teams as they spam minions.)
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Easy-to-use version

	Elite

• The skills can be spammed without any consideration.

Aura of Holy Might version

	Elite

• Only 2 PvE-skills. Little space for another one, as all skills are vital; 2 teardowns are needed, 2 feeder enchantments are needed, and Mirage Cloak is a very solid skill.
• Mirage Cloak must be allowed to expire before reapplying (has a huge effect on energy management).
• Aura of Holy Might must not be removed by Pious Assault or Eremite's Attack.

Avatar of Lyssa (No Earth Magic/Wind Prayers)

• 14 Mysticism (The breakpoint is at rank 14 and rank 17, so additional points in Mysticism will only increase the skills effectiveness, not the mana cost.)
• 13 Scythe Mastery
• 2 Earth Prayers (This will not cause Fleeting Stability or Shield of Force to overlap; i.e they can still be spammed the need to wait for them to expire.)
• 2 Wind Prayers (This will increase the Whirling Charge duration to 2 seconds, which prevents kiting.)

	Elite

Optionals

• Heart of Holy Flame (Feeds PA and maintains burning on nearby foes.)
• Mirage Cloak (lasts only 1s, triggering Avatar of Lyssa nerly instantly.)
  • Fleeting Stability (likely superior to Mirage Cloak due to better effect and lower energy cost.)
  • Shield of Force (also much better than Mirage Cloak)
• Resurrection Signet (Due to the strong energy management and massive energy draining done by AoL, it might be worth considering not brining a res if the energy management is strong enough to support the spamming of another short-duration flash enchantment, i.e Res signet is optional.)
• Heart of Fury (PvP) (Might be worth considering due to the high mysticism and Scythe mastery; The auto attacks are stronger than normal, and this stance lasts longer than normal.)

Bar 1

	Elite

Strengths

• Due to the lack of a third attribute, both the Mysticism and Scythe Mastery attributes are higher than normal, which provides greater melee damage and greater energy management, which allows the enchantments to be spammed even though they have very short cooldowns due to AoL.
  • This triggers Avatar of Lyssa very frequently which is the core focus of the build, as this will (if everything goes as intended) cause massive energy denial on nearby foes. The purpose of this is to take down enemy healers.
• Heart of Holy Flame (almost) allows burning to be maintained on all nearby foes.
• Good self-defense with Shield of Force and Fleeting Stability, as these skills protect both against attacks and against knockdowns.
• Despite the low Wind and Earth Prayers, Whirling Charge and Fleeting Stability makes it much harder for enemies to kite, due to the cooldown reduction by AoL.
• The energy denial cannot be prevented by blinding or blocking.

Weaknesses

• Lacks self-heal.
• Lacks Resurrection Signet.
• No outstanding damage.
• As always, the build is vulnerable snares, as it cannot remove these on its own.

Bar 2

• If this build is as effective as i think it is, it isn't just a RA build; it should more than qualify for Heroes' Ascent and Guild versus Guild as well.
• 14 Mysticism (Note that 14 mysticism is only required in the previous build, due to the energy management it provides by reducing the enchantment costs. Meditation still gives 4 energy per enchantment even at 13 mysticism, and perhaps even 12 mysticism could work. This allows for higher scythe mastery.)
• 12 Scythe Mastery
• 5 (or 4+1) Wind Prayers (5 wind prayers is required for Lyssa's Haste (PvP). While Lyssa's Haste (PvP) has a long cooldown, it is preferred due to the massive interrupt capability (4 interrupts every 25 seconds, in addition to triggering AoL twice. )
• No more than 5 Earth Prayers (Shield of Force lasts too long if EP exceeds 5.)
• Sundering/Vampiric Scythe of Warding (Warding is needed as the build lacks defense against casters. It is much better suited against melee.) Inscription: "Guided by Fate".
• 5 Windwalker Insignias are likely the best way to go.

	Elite

Optionals

• Featherfoot Grace (Is not a Flash Enchantment skill, which increases the spammability [Flash Enchantments disable themselves normally].)
• Resurrection Signet (I feel like some skills just bring good luck with them.)
• Holy Veil (Due to the great energy management from Meditation + Avatar of Lyssa = 5 energy per lost enchantment, Holy Veil can easily be maintained and spammed, which is extremely helpful for this build since Hexes normally is a strong counter to it. Also, it can support allies and even be maintained on allies due to the good energy management. If Holy Veil is used, drop Harrier's Haste. )
• Mirage Cloak (It might be worth dropping Fleeting Stability for this skill, since it deals some damage in addition to causing extra blocking.)
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Holy Veil + Mirage Cloak version (no Shield of Force/Harrier's Haste)

• Advantages: Mirage Cloak provides better self-survivability against rangers, since it becomes much more difficult for them to snare [cripple] you, it has a shorter cooldown which triggers AoL more frequently, and it does some damage. Holy Veil provides excellent protection against Hex-Snares [Imagined Burden / Mind Freeze / etc.], as well as other hexes [Empathy, Insidious Parasite, etc.]. Also, 3·1/5+1/3+1/13=1,01.
• Disadvantages: Well, I dont actually know. You could possibly say that this build triggers Flash Enchantments less frequently, but according to the calculation above, they should not be able to trigger any faster. This is because the average amount of Flash Enchantments you can use per second [restricted by the skills cooldowns, as calculated above], is larger than 1. In other words, the Flash Enchantments in this build can be used once every second because it is only resitricted by the fact that using a Flash Enchantment disables all your other FE:s for 1 second, which means that the previous build cannot use FE:s more frequently than this build. Finally, if 14 Mysticism is used, there is more than enough energy left to support allies with Holy Veil ... so ... I must say that i think this build is actually far superior to the build above.
  • Harrier's Haste slightly increases the damage to moving foes, and Shield of Force could potentially be used offensively due to the Knockdown ability, but those are the only advantages with the previous build, and they are pretty minor.

	Elite

Strengths

• Exceptional energy denial (1 energy every second in this build, which is equivalent to a constant 3 pips of energy degeneration) on all nearby foes.
  • Since the energy denial is constant rather than occasional and predictable (like Esurge builds), energy-hiding is a less efficient counter to this build compared to most other energy-denial builds.
• *Blocking will have only minor effect against the build, since the energy denial is in no way dependant on successfully hitting with attack skills.
• While the build is extremely dependent on using enchantments and constantly keeping Meditation active, it is not vulnerable to enchantment removals, since Meditation has a very quick casting time and only a 10 sec cooldown when using Avatar of Lyssa. Additionally, Meditation becomes difficult to remove simply because of the mass of cover enchantments available.
• Great self-defense with Lyssa's Haste (PvP), Attacker's Insight, Mirage Cloak and +20 armor from Windwalker Insignia (also, the lack of an Enchanting scythe gives +7 armor vs elemental damage).
  • Having 5 Wind Prayers fits perfectly with Attacker's Insight, since it lasts for just 5 seconds and has a 5 second cooldown. It therefore triggers AoL without needing a teardown, and due to the fact that it applies weakness for 6 seconds, weaknesses is maintained on adjacent foes as long as they do not move out of the adjacent range.
• The constant spamming of Fleeting Stability gives an excellent, nearly unstoppable, resistance to Knock Downs.
• Enemies will find it hard to kite from the build due to multiple speed boosts.
• Benefits greatly from the common monk skill Vigorous Spirit due to the extreme use of spells, constant auto-attacking and lack of an own self-heal (counting that a FE is used every second, and the attack speed of a scythe is 1,33, this is equivalent to 17,5 pips of health regeneration at 15 Healing Prayers, which is pretty defent for being 5-energy skill that lasts 30 sec).
• Exceptional energy management, which allows for party-support with Holy Veil (if used) and a very good resistance to energy denial.
  • Meditation gives 4 energy, which is the the amount of energy it costs to cast a 10-energy Flash Enchantment. As such:
    • All enchantments are free to use while Meditation is active, except for Fleeting Stability, which grants you 3 energy every 5 seconds instead of costing energy.
    • 1 energy is stolen from all nearby foes every second by Avatar of Lyssa, i.e effectively +3 Energy Regeneration for each nearby foe.
    • As such, Holy Veil can maintained on 4 allies, plus (theoretically) 3 allies for each nearby foe.
• Frequently interrupts all adjacent foes with Lyssa's Haste (once every 6-7 seconds) due to the reduced recharge time from Avatar of Lyssa.

Weaknesses

• Even less damage than the previous build.
  • The increased energy denial, survivability, movement speed, and added ability to interrupt foes should make up for this.
• Due to the extreme use of spells, the build dies very fast from skills like Backfire, Scourge Enchantment and Visions of Regret (PvP).
  • However, Holy Veil is a great counter to hexes as it can easily be maintained, due to the mass of cover enchantments and endlss mana supply, and recast every 12 seconds.
• Still lacks a Resurrection Signet.
  • However, this is not always absolutely necessary in Random Arenas. In GvG or HA, Resurrection Signet can be used instead of Mirage Cloak, Fleeting Stability or Holy Veil (If Holy Veil is dropped, Mysticism can be decreased).
• The build is nearly worthless if Avatar of Lyssa isn't active.
  • However, AoL cannot be removed, has a long duration due to high mysticism, and can be used precast before engaging in combat.
• Cripple is an effective counter due to the lack of condition-removals on self.
  • Almost all melee builds share this weakness though, and due to the strong blocking-ability as well as the potential ability to interrupt snares, this build is more resistant to cripple than average.
• I guess energy hiding is the most effective counter against the build after all.
  • However, this can be countered by changing target when they energy-hide which is easy due to the speed boost. Also, Lyssa's Haste and Attacker's Insight can be used to stay on a target that is energy-hiding to maintain weakness and frequently interrupt skills.

Usage

• Spam the shit out of all skills, but don't forget to let Mediation expire before you reapply it.
• Try to glue yourself on the enemy healers and drain all their mana.
  • Do NOT attack the healers if they use Bonetti's Defense, but stay near them and keep draining their mana, Weakening them with Attacker's Insight, and interrupting them with Lyssa's Aura, until Bonetti's Defense expires (i.e, do not change target, just stop attacking).
  • If there are no enemy healers, use Lyssa's Haste to interrupt casters and drain their mana. Dervishes and Assassins, Rangers and (possibly) Paragons can also be good targets, since they will be affected both by the energy drain and the Weakness condition from Attacker's Insight.
• The build becomes significantly harder to use if Holy Veil is used, as you must constantly keep an eye of what teammates you maintain it on, as well as when you stop maintaining the enchantment. The most important thing is maintaining Holy Veil on yourself, as you are very vulnerable to some hex spells.

Conclusion

• This build provides massive energy denial, is difficult to counter when used properly, provides good anti-hex support for the entire party (especially in Random Arenas where the teams are small) and has a great self-defense (against casters and especially Martial professions), to name the most important aspects of the build.
• The ability to spam Holy Veil makes the build very difficult to use properly, as the user always has to keep an eye on what allies HV is maintained on, what hexes they are suffering from, when to cancel HV, and on what ally to cancel it on (in addition to changing weapon sets to make HV cast/recharge faster). The need to properly change targets also makes it difficult to use. In other words, it the build has a very high skill cap.
  • However, it is possible to use this build fairly effectively even without changing targets and using HV properly. This makes the build fun an challenging to use.
• Overall, I believe this is the absolute best build I have ever made, but I also believe that i will be mercilessly disappointed when I try it out and realize it has many flaws of which I do not know.

Does this build even function at all?

• I think so, because all dervish forms are included under the list "Skills that have an effect when an enchantment is removed or ends" on the Enchantment Spell page. This should mean that both meditation and Avatar of Lyssa triggers when an enchantment on you EXPIRES, despite the two ambiguous skill descriptions.

THE END