Battle For Lion's Arch Necro/Rit Spiritual Heal n Prot Bot

I frequently pug BLA for fun, and today looking through my Google analytics stuff (which I only do very, very irregularly), I find a very large number of searches for builds for BLA. >.>

No Zmobie Left Behind works well in BLA. I would recommend taking Blood Ritual over Go for the Eyes! though, since non-necro healers are very, very energy-hungry in this fight.

However, since there were ever so many searches, I'll share a healer build I run very often as well. No, it's not a monk healer build. I *have* a monk healer build I use for BLA, but to tell the total truth, the necro build is so much less stressful because of the infinite energy from Soul Reaping - especially in this fight. That being said, I would strongly advise against using this build anywhere else. The only reason it works well is that things are dying so fast, in such a small area, in BLA. It has absolutely no e-management (other than Soul Reaping), and very energy-heavy spells.

So, here it is:

BLA Necro/Rit Spiritual Heal n Prot Bot

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Skills
Soothing Memories
Mend Body & Soul
Spirit Light Weapon {Elite}
Protective Was Kaolai
Shelter
Rejuvenation
Life
Union

Stats
Soul Reaping [8] + [4]
Restoration [12]
Communing [10]

Gear

  • Superior Soul Reaping rune
  • Mix of Survivor and Radiant Insignia
  • Major or Superior vigor rune
  • 2 Attunement and 1 Vitae rune to finish off
  • Sword/Spear and Shield (hsr/hct and hp are good. Do not go for energy, or you may have e problems when you recast Protective Was Kaolai)

Campaigns Needed
Factions, Nightfall (only if using Xinrae's Weapon or Weapon of Remedy in place of Spirit Light Weapon).

How to Use

  • Put all your spirits up, preferably a little behind the two pillars in front of the gates of Lion's Arch (near the first stairs)
  • Carry Protective Was Kaolai at all times
  • Drop Protective Was Kaolai to counter group damage (dropping it twice should give you a 180hp party heal)
  • Use Soothing Memories as your main heal (energy efficient when clutching Protective Was Kaolai - what, a necro/rit talking about energy efficiency? Shhhhh.)
  • Mend Body & Soul to remove conditions
  • Spirit Light Weapon to top up / counter degen, Mursaat, general stupidity, etc. You should almost always have at least one spirit in range, so Spirit Light Weapon should be healing for 24hp/s
  • Renew spirits as fast as they die / your binding rituals recharge

Variants

  • Xinrae's Weapon instead of Spirit Light Weapon [Requires Nightfall] If you don't like how people keep running out of range of spirits to chase things out the gates of Lion's Arch, thereby making Spirit Light Weapon heal for a measly 12hp/s, use Xinrae's Weapon instead. At least it even comes with a mini prot! XD
  • Weapon of Remedy instead of Spirit Light Weapon [Requires Nightfall] So many conditions! AaaAa! And as mentioned, people keep running out of spirit range? (Where they don't usually live too long anyway...) Weapon of Remedy is the remedy for your woes! Off go those conditions. Wootz! Consider replacing Mend Body & Soul with Spirit Transfer, but be aware that the latter is a 10e spell
  • Recuperation instead of Rejuvenation +3 Health regen for all your allies! And in BLA, you have a LOT of allies. And minions, should you have a MM, count as allies too. Of course, it doesn't top off party members quite as well as Recuperation, so it's purely a matter of personal preference. It's also appreciably more expensive to cast.

Counters

  • General Caster Hate
  • People running out of spirit range - no moar protz on them makez squisheh! With emphasis on HEH. -_-

Additional notes
Don't you have e management problems? You don't have any e management.
Nope.EVERYTHING dying to the left and right. If your enemies aren't dying, your allies certainly are! What's there to manage? And besides. Necros? Emanagement? AHAHAHAHAHAHA. Ahem.

This build is so expensive! :(
There are worse builds. However, you can skimp and use a Major Vigor instead of Superior Vigor, if your sword/spear and shield have Fortitude mods.

Can heroes use this?
I haven't tried this on a hero, but they should use it pretty well. There's nothing in that bar that heroes use badly, iirc.

And that's that!

P.S.: To the guy who was looking for, "How the fuck do I get to Nahpui Quarter," sorry to disappoint you with screenshots. XD

No Zmobie Left Behind: Aura of the Lich Minion Master

Face it. Zmobies are smelly. The poor things can't help the pungent odour of decay that clings to them. Plus, they're kinda clumsy and slow, and they tromp on toes without meaning to.

All of which means, given a group of Generically Normal Humans, the Minion Master tends to get left behind. Oh, they give excuses. They claim that they forget that it takes time to raise zmobies. That they didn't realise they'd left you, and your zmobie army behind, that they didn't see you casting Death Nova. Whatever.

We know the truth. They're just trying to avoid our smellies. :(

But now, my fellow Minion Masters, with this build, you can foil those selfish GNHs, and keep you and your loving zmobie army in the middle (or in front) of the group, where you're supposed to be!

Introducing my new masterpiece...

No Zmobie Left Behind!

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The Concept
Minions galore. Fall Back! to make sure you can always keep up (or run in front if you so desire). Go for the Eyes! for gobs of allied happiness all round. Death Nova for Zbombies. Blood Bond to keep your army and allies alive longer. Dark Bond + vampiric horrors = near no-maintenance survivability while you have minions (see initial point).

Skills
Aura of the Lich {Elite}
Animate Vampiric Horror
Animate Shambling Horror
Blood Bond
Go for the Eyes!
Death Nova
Dark Bond
Fall Back

Stats
Command [5]
Blood Magic [8]
Soul Reaping [9] + [1]
Death Magic [12] + [4]

Gear

  • Superior Death Magic rune
  • Minor Soul Reaping rune
  • Survivor insignia
  • Superior vigor rune
  • Bloodstained insignia (just one will do)
  • Vitae runes to finish off
  • Death magic weapon of your choice. (I use a staff that's 20hsr, 20hct Death magic, 10hct general, 20% Death magic - but really, anything death magicky will work. Don't discount wand/shield if you're broke from spending the money on runes. ~_o)

Campaigns Needed
Prophecies, Factions, Nightfall,

How to Use

  • Use AotL when you're just starting out, if you aren't presented with a fight the moment you step out the door
  • Keep Dark Bond up
  • Animate Shambling Horror and Animate Vampiric Horror when AotL is on cooldown
  • Maximise on AotL by casting it when there are lots of corpses around - use Animate Shambling Horror and Animate Vampiric Horror as fillers
  • If you're running with another MM (hero or otherwise), don't be greedy once you have 10 zmobies; you can run this build with another mm hero with you, if you stay in control of your zmobielust
  • Pull/Initiate zmobie-charge with Blood Bond, then add Fall Back! (if not on CD) and autottattack till you can yell Go for the Eyes! Even if Go for the Eyes doesn't hit all your zmobies, it'll hit your party members, and *they* won't mind
  • Spam death nova on zmobies, particularly bone horrors, to turn them into Zbombies
  • Recast Blood Bond on recharge - then back to Zbombies
  • Fall Back! if those pesky GNHs attempt to leave you and your fragrant zmobies behind
  • Fall Back! (and make sure you have Dark Bond up) if you want to lead the pull with your zmobie army - the 75% damage reduction from Dark Bond lets you pull more or less with impunity (but beware of enchantment stripping)

Variants

  • Blood Ritual instead of Go for the Eyes! If you have human healers, bring Blood Ritual over Go for the Eyes! And then molest them a lot with it. They'll love you for it. If doing so, then make it Command [3] and Soul Reaping [10] + [1]
  • Well of Blood instead of Go for the Eyes! Find that you can't fit auto-attacking in enough to make Go for the Eyes! worth it? Use Well of Blood for extra allied regen instead. Yes, it's a well-spell. It needs a corpse. But it works great if you use it judiciously. And it usually catches much of your zmobie army in the well area as...well. As above, make stats Command [3] and Soul Reaping [10] + [1]
  • Well of the Profane instead of Go for the Eyes! Find that you can't fit auto-attacking in enough to make Go for the Eyes! worth it? Blood Bond is good enough for allied heals? Annoy your enemies by sploding their enchants with Well of the Profane! Yes, it's a well-spell. It needs a corpse. But it works great if you use it judiciously. As above, make stats Command [3] and Soul Reaping [10] + [1]
  • Well of Suffering instead of Go for the Eyes! Find that you can't fit auto-attacking in enough to make Go for the Eyes! worth it? Blood Bond is good enough for allied heals? Annoy your enemies with health degen from Well of Suffering! Yes, it's a well-spell. It needs a corpse. But it works great if you use it judiciously. As above, make stats Command [3] and Soul Reaping [10] + [1]

Counters

  • Corpse denial (AotL can only do so much...)
  • Standing in the fire when you have no zmobies
  • General caster hate

Additional notes
Don't you have e management problems? You don't have any e management.
Nope. Zmobies dying to the left and right. What's there to manage? And besides. Necros? Emanagement? AHAHAHAHAHAHA. Ahem.

This build is so expensive! :(
Yes, I'm afraid minion masters are expensive by nature. :( They need the Superior Death Magic rune, and the Bloodstained Insignia, and then they need everything else to offset the HP loss from that rune.

Can heroes use this?
I haven't tried this on a hero. My suspicion is that they don't have enough of the contextual sensitivity to know when to do what, that it needs to run at greatest efficiency. On the bright side, heroes are great at Death Nova. If you try it out on a hero, I'd love to know how it does. =)