Ray of Judgement Nuker + Ice Spike Snare

Template Code
OwYTsYHDHCZYawnxVEvSu0mUmAA

The Concept
  • Snare, nuke, and burninate till dead.
  • No e-problems.

Skills
Glyph of Lesser Energy
Ice Spikes
Ray of Judgement [Elite]
Snow Storm [Optional]
Reversal of Damage
Pain Inverter
You Move Like a Dwarf!
[Optional Slot]

Stats
Water Magic [12]
Smiting Prayers [12 + 1 + 3]

Gear

  • Survivor's or Radiant Insignia, according to your preference.
  • Any smiting staff or wand/offhand.
  • Superior Smiting Rune.
  • Minor Divine Favour (Optional).
  • Vitae / Vigor runes (optional). 

Campaigns Needed
Eye of the North
Factions
Nightfall

How To Use

  • Target a mob, preferably in the centre of a nice big pack.
  • Cast Glyph of Lesser Energy (GoLE), Ice Spikes, Ray of Judgement, Snow Storm. They should all be dead or dying by now. If not, your team can pick off the stragglers.
  • Cast Reversal of Damage on party members taking damage, when there are no clumps of mobs to burninate. This is your main damage when not aoe-nuking.
  • Pain Inverter for numbergasms on bosses and elementalists.
  • You Move Like a Dwarf! for single target snare (this is what I use on bosses, rather than Ice Spikes), then Pain Inverter, GoLE, RoJ, Snow Storm. Also use it in place of Snow Storm as a finisher, where appropriate.
  • In HM, Snow Storm causes mobs to scatter very fast. Use this to your advantage, as 'scatter-on-demand' if someone is being mobbed.Snow Storm can be replaced with something else, but it's the optional spell that I found worked best for me.

Optional Slots

  • Smite Hex - Remove pesky hexes. Blow things up! BOOM!
  • Smite Condition [Requires Eye of the North] - Remove pesky conditions. Blow moar things up! BOOM!!
  • Castigation Signet [Requires Eye of the North] - If you're feeling tight on E, despite GoLE, take this instead of Snow Storm or Rebirth
  • Holy Wrath [Requires Prophecies] - Use together with Reversal of Damage for lots of fun. If you do not have Nightfall, use this instead of Reversal of Damage.
  • Judge's Insight - Toss this on physical damage dealers to make them wuv you. <3 <3 <3
  • Great Dwarf Weapon [Requires Eye of the North, replaces Snow Storm] - Again, Physical Damage dealers will love you. Give particular love to AoE types (Scythes, Barragers, Hammer Warriors, Moebius Sins)
  • Maelstrom - Use in place of Snow Storm in caster heavy areas. You're not looking for the damage (which is a bonus), you're looking for the caster shutdown.
  • Technobabble [Requires Eye of the North, replaces Snow Storm] - Use in place of Snow Storm in caster heavy areas. The daze is short, and the shutdown isn't as effective as Maelstrom - but it doesn't cause exhaustion. If you are having trouble managing your E when using Maelstrom, try Technobabble instead. If you target a mob beside a boss, the boss will be dazed.
  • Summon Ice Imp [Requires Eye of the North, replaces Snow Storm] - Extra set of snares via the Imp's Ice Spikes. Asuran caster summons are also very useful for pulling, should you be using H/H. They tend to stop halfway and fight the pack you just pulled, leaving you free to run back to your group, and your group to run up unmolested while the mobs focus on the summons.
  • Ebon vanguard Assassin Support [Requires Eye of the North, replaces Snow Storm] - Good for spiking down squishy targets, as well as pulling.
  • Breath of the Great Dwarf [Requires Eye of the North, replaces Snow Storm] - Good for areas with lots of burning - help your poor healers.
  • Selfless Spirit [Requires Factions] - Use this during the time you're spamming Reversal of Damage or Holy Wrath
  • Rebirth - Always good to have.

Optional slots that DID NOT work for me

  • Zealot's Fire - This looked so good on paper... but left me short on energy all the time. Not only that, the scatter it caused was unpredictable / not controllable, and much of the time, the effect itself went to waste.

Counters

  • General caster hate.
  • Not using GoLE before Ice Spikes/RoJ/Snow Storm chain.

Additional notes

Hahahaha NUB! Monk/Mesmer with Arcane Echo works SO MUCH BETTER THAN THIS! HAHAHAHAHA.
Since RoJ now scatters things as well, I find that Arcane Echoing RoJ is not only very energy intensive, it also doesn't get the full duration of burninating love from my RoJs. If you have a Blood Is Power/Blood Ritual in the group constantly pumping you with E, then Mo/Me RoJ Arcane Echo is indeed superior. If not - this bar leaves you with no energy problems - and very decent nukage.

This is so heavy on PvE skills, it's hardly even a monk bar!
=/ Yes, I'm afraid that's so. No arguments there.

Why not use Deep Freeze instead of Ice Spikes? Better damage, and the snare is longer.
Deep Freeze is expensive, and RoJ only lasts for 5 seconds anyway. If your timing is good, you hold the mobs in the beam for 3 seconds, then they start being able to move away, at least 1s is spent moving away even after the snare wears off, leaving only 1s of RoJ 'wasted'.

Using Deep Freeze means GoLE > Deep Freeze > RoJ > Snow Storm = 5e + 15e + 0e + 10e = 30e. Using Ice Spikes means GoLE > Ice Spikes > RoJ > Snow Storm = 5e + 5e + 0e + 10e = 20e. Ice Spikes is much, much kinder to your energy.

Can Heroes use this?
Even if you replace the PvE skills with normal skills - not very well. Heroes are better off with another kind of RoJ bar. They don't tend to use GoLE at the right time, and aren't always consistent with using Ice Spikes to snare for the RoJ. They are godly at using Smite Hex, Reversal of Damage, and Smite Condition though.

Where have you tested this?
Since this build is a 'self-sufficient' nuker, as in I don't expect to be propped up with a BiP or any other form out outside e-management, I tested this using full hench teams in each of the following areas. All were successful. (Though some had more deaths than bringing heroes... which is to be expected. None of them resulted in a DP higher than 30%. No consets/cupcakes/whatever. Would kind of kill the point of testing!)

Tested in:
Raisu Palace Vanquish
Zen Daijun Vanquish
Haiju Lagoon Vanquish
Sunqua Vale Vanquish
Arborstone Vanquish

6 and 4 man areas change group dynamics - so I'm pleased to say the build works in those too. =) Especially in Haiju Lagoon, I spent so much time moving my henches madly away from spirit rifts...  if you bring this build with humans, hopefully they're smarter than the henchies.