Team Quitter ~ View topic

*Last edited by axiom on Wed Aug 26, 2009 6:36 am; edited 1 time in total*

The Rundown:
Bring as much +armor as humanly possible. This includes +5armor weapons, btw. Find the body armor that will give you the highest up-time of armor bonus: enchant armor on an Ele, recharge armor on a Mesmer, shout armor on a Paragon, etc. Make at least 4 shields for various scenerios, sometimes even more (metagame-dependent). Too often, I see people just roll basic armor with as much HP as possible and think they're doing the right thing.

The Reasoning:
Midline defense is basically dead right now. Monk bars (read: pre-Prot) have been rendered almost entirely useless, thanks to an over-abundance of enchant strips, hugely diminished party healing skills, and interrupt spam, meaning unless you're playing on a team that knows how to actively pre-kite and maintain some kind of line formation, your 2 Monks are virtually all that's standing between you and death. (note that Armor has always been a vastly under-utilized resource in Guild Wars, but I especially sympathize with people who are just now getting involved in more competitive GvG and are facing an uphill battle against the current play-style).

With that being said, the single largest strain on Monk energy is red-bar assistance. Monks have to keep people above 75% or they become exponentially more susceptible to deadly (or near-deadly) spike damage. Think of +Armor as a shielding hands every time you get hit - it's nearly that impactful. You're basically arming your Monks with a 9th skill slot, all the while allowing them to spend their energy in a more active way (prot, cleans, etc.) Sitting on your 40/40 set while being hit by a Warrior is going to cost your Monks at least 10 points of energy more than if you'd been in a shield set and kiting properly - so unless your actions are resulting in MORE than that being expended by the opposing Monks, you're hurting your own team.

One of the most important differences between good teams and great teams are the little things they do to help their Monks keep them alive. Spending that little bit of extra time to improve your positioning, pack as much +Armor as possible, and study the patterns in your team's play-style that could diminish damage intake will all give you a vastly greater chance of success.

Plus if all that fails, you can just blame the Monks! Smile

Joined: 25 Nov 2006 Posts: 94

or, we can just blame axiom.

thanks for the insight. looks like i'm really out of the loop now, i still run radiant on my ranger, warrior, and mesmer Confused

Joined: 21 Feb 2007 Posts: 1010

Joined: 23 Jun 2008 Posts: 404 Location: Kansas

I run my armour insignias on my chest and legs since it isn't global, and your most likely to be hit there. Everything else is survivors unless I need the energy for a certain build. On my ranger I still run radiants though. Also, running a restoration rune on everyone is nice, and a clarity for warriors maybe rangers and paragons depending on their skills.

Joined: 06 Sep 2008 Posts: 162

Just running +armour on Chest+Legs isn't that great imo, if you are going to run the +armour you should go all out since the chance of being hit on head/feet/hands is fairly substantial (37.5%), especially over time. The +15 health compared to that really doesn't make a lot of difference.

Also, on Ranger I've never really known whether to run armour or health since with the dual stance the only time a ranger will be getting attacked usually is on spikes where a bit of extra health can help a lot, especially since with the already minimal damage I'll be taking with the +armour shield and maybe weapon against elemental, and not a lot vs physical either. Anybody care to help with that?

Joined: 28 Sep 2007 Posts: 335

Joined: 05 Feb 2008 Posts: 1300

Joined: 25 Apr 2007 Posts: 930

+Armor is possibly the most important thing you can have in any 8v8 situation, since you'll be taking so much less damage and be able to outlast the opponent.

One thing to keep in mind is that armor becomes less effective (relative to +health) as you take DP, so if you're a team like vR who essentially pulls off a victory with lord damage even though half your team is 45'ed, armor isn't the best idea.

There are a few exceptions to the rule, for example, rangers need as much energy as possible, and usually come with at least one block stance. When playing 8v8, they should be an incredibly hard target to spike because of this. Also, warriors with shock can often benefit from having a larger energy pool. But even on split, as motoko mentioned, that +armor is likely going to mean even more, vastly diminishing damage you'd be taking from archers, fire ele's, rangers, etc. And if you get your self-heal d-shot, you're dead anyway Wink

Ego, if you don't have aura of resto on you, something's wrong buddy!

Joined: 31 Dec 2007 Posts: 937 Location: Seattle area

Quality post axiom, I wish I realized this when I played along with fellow guildmates. Might of actually helped win some games which I never seemed to do apparently Surprised

Joined: 22 Oct 2006 Posts: 674

Energy all the way!

Joined: 22 Mar 2007 Posts: 1126 Location: Internet Rage

Lately I've taken to running Pyromancers and Pyrebound chest pieces on ele's and rangers respectively. With block stances and running away, physical damage is just much easier to avoid than a mind blast.

Though as to whether all of the fire spells hit the chestpiece or if it has the same spread as regular attacks, I'm really too lazy to test.

Joined: 28 Sep 2007 Posts: 335

http://www.youtube.com/user/shoes2shoes · Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Posts: 1689 Location: toronto ontario

armor and dark escape on every character Very Happy