Build:Team - Barrage/Pet

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The PvXwiki community finds this to be an excellent build. Through the PvX vetting system, it has reached an overall rating in the range from 4.5 to 5.0 and thus qualifies for the highest category of working builds: Great. This build has been designed for the following use: PvE farming PvE team

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Barrage/Pet is the general appellation of a class of "speed" builds for the ruins of the Tomb of the Primeval Kings. Despite this, it is entirely possible to use this team in other areas. This article will, however, only consider builds used at the tombs.

As always, a decent build in the hands of a strong player is much more powerful than a perfect build in the hands of a player who doesn't know what he's doing; minor variations (runes, attribute points, non-essential skills, and choice of weapon in particular) are not harmful. Indeed, they are generally helpful, as they tend to suit a particular player's playing style and can be used to synchronize the party's abilities even more.

[edit] Team Composition

[edit] Overview

This build utilizes the synergy between Barrage, Favorable Winds, and Winnowing to inflict high damage on multiple foes, with a wall of pets and minions to defend the party. This build requires only loose coordination between players, and a large spectrum of variants are viable. Barrage/pet builds are resilient to dropped players, as only two roles, the Monk and the Minion Master, can be said to be essential.

There are a total of four general roles in the team - the Barrager, the Minion Master, the Supporter, and the healing Monk. A "full team" consists of five barragers, one Minion Master, one Supporter, and one Monk. A "half team" may consist of two barragers, one Minion Master, one Supporter, and one Monk, or three barragers, one Minion Master, and one Monk.

[edit] Barragers

The barragers have nearly endless variations (even more so than the other three characters) due to the fact that many skills work extremely well with Barrage. In general, barragers should stay behind the wall of pets and minions to avoid damage. Shown below are a few example builds.

The primary profession for a barrager is the Ranger due to the extra four attribute points they can obtain in Marksmanship; however, other primary professions can sometimes do well in this position.

All barragers should use a Recurve Bow, due to its excellent timing between its firing rate and the recharge of Barrage (they are exactly equal, so the character will always be attacking with Barrage). Also, a Longbow or Flatbow is useful for pulling groups of monsters.

A Vampiric bowstring is useful to increase the damage; Sundering bowstrings can be used to a lesser extent, but without any health degeneration. The bow grip is essentially a matter of preference; a bow grip of Fortitude helps in case the barrager is attacked, while a bow grip of Marksmanship increases the damage the character deals. Other bow grips are not as commonly seen. Because there are few times when the barragers take damage, a Strength and Honor inscription adds consistent damage.

Because of this, Elswyth's Recurve Bow is a common choice (both in popularity and in availability).

Barrage/Pet group in action.

[edit] R/Mo Rebirth Barrager

Ranger / Monk 12 + 1 + 1 Marksmanship 8 + 1 Beast Mastery 8 + 1 Expertise 7 + 1 Wilderness Survival Barrage Core Ranger. Marksmanship 14 Barrage Elite Bow Attack All your Preparations are removed. Shoot arrows at target foe and up to 6 foes adjacent to your target. These arrows strike for +19 damage if they hit. 1 3 Savage Shot Core Ranger. Marksmanship 14 Savage Shot Bow Attack If Savage Shot hits, your target's action is interrupted. If that action was a Spell, you strike for +27 damage. 5 ½ 6 Optional Core No Profession. Unlinked Optional Optional Optional. Troll Unguent Core Ranger. Wilderness Survival 8 Troll Unguent Skill For 13 seconds, you gain +7 Health regeneration. 10 3 3 Throw Dirt Core Ranger. Expertise 9 Throw Dirt Skill Target touched foe and foes adjacent to your target become Blinded for 10 seconds. 30 1 3 Charm Animal Core Ranger. Beast Mastery 9 Charm Animal Skill Charm target animal. Once charmed, your animal companion will travel with you whenever you have Charm Animal equipped. 10 6 Comfort Animal Core Ranger. Beast Mastery 9 Comfort Animal Skill You heal your animal companion for 70 Health. If your companion is dead, it is resurrected with 39% Health. 1 1 6 Rebirth Core Monk. Protection Prayers Rebirth Spell Resurrect target party member. Target party member is returned to life with 25% Health and zero Energy, and is teleported to your current location. All of target's skills are disabled for 10..4..3 seconds. This Spell consumes all of your remaining Energy. 5 10 Template code

The sole advantage of this build is the presence of Rebirth. Should the group wipe, this character has the ability to resurrect all fallen teammates without aggroing monsters. It also brings an interrupt for interrupting Wurm Siege from Chaos Wurms. However, it deals much less damage than any other barrager presented here. The optional slot should be a spirit (see below).

[edit] R/Rt Splinter Barrager

Ranger / Ritualist 11 + 1 + 1 Marksmanship 7 + 1 Beast Mastery 7 + 1 Expertise 10 Channeling Magic Barrage Core Ranger. Marksmanship 13 Barrage Elite Bow Attack All your Preparations are removed. Shoot arrows at target foe and up to 6 foes adjacent to your target. These arrows strike for +18 damage if they hit. 1 3 Distracting Shot Core Ranger. Expertise 8 Distracting Shot Bow Attack If Distracting Shot hits, it interrupts target foe's action but deals only 9 damage. If the interrupted action was a skill, that skill is disabled for an additional 20 seconds. 10 ½ 3 Call of Protection Prophecies Ranger. Beast Mastery 8 Call of Protection Shout For 120 seconds, your animal companion has a 13 base damage reduction. 90 3 Splinter Weapon Factions Ritualist. Channeling Magic 10 Splinter Weapon Weapon Spell For 20 seconds, target ally has a Splinter Weapon. Target ally's next 4 attacks deal 35 damage to up to 3 adjacent foes. 5 1 5 Optional Core No Profession. Unlinked Optional Optional Optional. Charm Animal Core Ranger. Beast Mastery 8 Charm Animal Skill Charm target animal. Once charmed, your animal companion will travel with you whenever you have Charm Animal equipped. 10 7 Comfort Animal Core Ranger. Beast Mastery 8 Comfort Animal Skill You heal your animal companion for 65 Health. If your companion is dead, it is resurrected with 36% Health. 1 1 7 Flesh of My Flesh Factions Ritualist. Restoration Magic Flesh of My Flesh Spell Lose half your Health. Resurrect target party member with your current Health and 5..17..21% Energy. 4 5 Template code

Although this variant's pet is weaker than that of a normal barrager and his arrows deal slightly less damage, his overall DPS is significantly higher. Casting Splinter Weapon on himself deals a significant amount of damage with Barrage; casting it on allies before battles increases the party's DPS by an extreme amount.

The final skill slot could be Throw Dirt, a spirit,Nightmare Weapon or vengeful weapon for healing. (Note that Splinter Weapon should be used far more than Nightmare Weapon!)

[edit] R/P Barrage Shouter

Ranger / Paragon 12 + 1 + 1 Marksmanship 8 + 1 Expertise 9 + 1 Beast Mastery 5 Command Barrage Core Ranger. Marksmanship 14 Barrage Elite Bow Attack All your Preparations are removed. Shoot arrows at target foe and up to 6 foes adjacent to your target. These arrows strike for +19 damage if they hit. 1 3 Distracting Shot Core Ranger. Expertise 9 Distracting Shot Bow Attack If Distracting Shot hits, it interrupts target foe's action but deals only 10 damage. If the interrupted action was a skill, that skill is disabled for an additional 20 seconds. 10 ½ 3 Savage Shot Core Ranger. Marksmanship 14 Savage Shot Bow Attack If Savage Shot hits, your target's action is interrupted. If that action was a Spell, you strike for +27 damage. 5 ½ 6 Anthem of Envy Nightfall Paragon. Command 5 Anthem of Envy Chant For 10 seconds, the next attack Skill used by each ally within earshot deals +15 damage against foes with more than 50% Health. 1 6 "Go for the Eyes!" Nightfall Paragon. Command 5 "Go for the Eyes!" Shout For 10 seconds, the next time each ally within earshot makes an attack, that attack has an additional 45% chance to critical. 4 4 Charm Animal Core Ranger. Beast Mastery 10 Charm Animal Skill Charm target animal. Once charmed, your animal companion will travel with you whenever you have Charm Animal equipped. 10 6 Comfort Animal Core Ranger. Beast Mastery 10 Comfort Animal Skill You heal your animal companion for 76 Health. If your companion is dead, it is resurrected with 42% Health. 1 1 6 Sunspear Rebirth Signet Nightfall No Profession. Sunspear rank Sunspear Rebirth Signet Signet Resurrect target dead party member at your location with full health and 10% energy for each Sunspear rank you have attained. This signet can only be used once per mission unless recharged by a morale boost. 3 Template code

This variant utilizes Paragon Shouts and Chants to increase the effectiveness of the entire party at the cost of his pet. "Go for the Eyes!" is an effective buff for any attacking ally, no matter what their build; Anthem of Envy is a strong chant to use at the beginning of a battle; "Brace Yourself!" is useful when combating mobs guarding Chaos Wurms (as the Wurm will attempt to knock down your allies before engaging in combat). Using "Find Their Weakness!" before "Go for the Eyes!" makes it very likely that many enemies will suddenly find a portion of their health bar turning gray.

Sunspear Rebirth Signet can be swapped for Signet of Return if a "hard" resurrection skill is desired.

[edit] General ranger variations

At least one ranger must bring Favorable Winds (often abbreviated as FW) and one ranger must bring Winnowing (often abbreviated as WW or Winn). Troll Unguent is a good skill to swap out for either spirit, as the monk (below) should be taking care of all the healing. If you decide to bring FW instead of Troll Unguent, reduce your Wilderness Survival to 0 and move the remaining points to Expertise. If you instead choose to bring Winnowing, you may want to move a few points from Beast Mastery to Wilderness Survival to create a heartier spirit. (Note that the Wilderness Orders support character can bring Winnowing if necessary.)

Perhaps the most important skill choice for an optional slot is a skill that interrupts to stop the party being devastated by Wurm Siege. Savage Shot and Distracting Shot are common choices; Concussion Shot has a much higher energy cost, but can be much more effective.

The purpose of the pets is to tank for the group (at least until the Minion Master produces an army to do so) and to provide corpses for the Minion Master. A dead pet with an exploited corpse serves no purpose, so it is important for the rangers to raise their pets at every opportunity.

Beast Mastery skills are generally useful; Otyugh's Cry and Call of Protection in particular can help the pets out, Revive Animal can be helpful in the right situations, and pet attacks increase the general DPS of the party. Spirits, however, should not be brought without the consent of the party, as many work against the humans.

All rangers should try to keep their Expertise level at or above 8 (including runes), as this will make 5-energy skills (most importantly, Barrage) cost three energy. Optionally, having 9 Expertise will make 10-energy skills cost only 6 energy.

[edit] Minion Masters

The Minion Master must be able to do two things: He must be able to raise a large undead army, and he must maintain said army. It is nigh-useless to bring a "primer" (a skill to kill the first enemy, which can then be made into a minion), as your allies should be able to kill at least one foe for you.

Unlike many other minion mastery builds, the minions here are not intended for pure damage, but rather to body block the Grasps of Insanity from reaching the ranger line.

The most restrictive variable on a minion master is time. The recharge time on many minion skills is quite long, as are the casting times. Therefore, a weapon that reduces both these times is desirable, as is one that increases the level of the minions. Since recharge time is longer than casting time (and therefore more important to reduce), an ideal staff would be an Adept 20/20 Staff of Death Magic.

For additional information, please see the general minion mastery guide on GuildWiki.

[edit] N/Mo Basic MM

Necromancer / Monk 12 + 3 + 1 Death Magic 11 Soul Reaping 6 Healing Prayers Animate Flesh Golem Factions Necromancer. Death Magic 16 Animate Flesh Golem Elite Spell Exploit nearest corpse to animate a level 26 Flesh Golem. The Flesh Golem leaves an exploitable corpse. You can have only one Flesh Golem at a time. 30 3 10 Animate Shambling Horror Nightfall Necromancer. Death Magic 16 Animate Shambling Horror Spell Exploit nearest corpse to create a level 18 shambling horror. When the shambling horror dies, it is replaced by a level 16 jagged horror that causes Bleeding with each of its attacks. 25 3 15 Animate Vampiric Horror Factions Necromancer. Death Magic 16 Animate Vampiric Horror Spell Exploit nearest corpse to animate a level 18 Vampiric Horror. Whenever a Vampiric Horror you control deals damage, you gain the same amount of Health. 15 3 15 Animate Bone Horror Prophecies Necromancer. Death Magic 16 Animate Bone Horror Spell Exploit nearest corpse to animate a level 18 bone horror. 5 3 10 Dark Bond Core Necromancer. Blood Magic Dark Bond Enchantment Spell For the next 30..54..62 seconds, whenever you receive damage, your closest minion suffers 75% of that damage for you. 20 2 5 Blood of the Master Core Necromancer. Death Magic 16 Blood of the Master Spell All of your undead allies are healed for 122 Health. You sacrifice an additional 2% maximum Health per minion healed in this way. 2 1 5 Heal Area Prophecies Monk. Healing Prayers 6 Heal Area Spell Heal yourself and all adjacent creatures for 90 points. 5 1 10 Rebirth Core Monk. Protection Prayers Rebirth Spell Resurrect target party member. Target party member is returned to life with 25% Health and zero Energy, and is teleported to your current location. All of target's skills are disabled for 10..4..3 seconds. This Spell consumes all of your remaining Energy. 5 10 Template code

This character raises a hardy group of tanks, including an extremely hearty and renewable Flesh Golem, to make the monk's job easier. Simply wait for corpses to appear and begin animating. When you are in danger, use Dark Bond.

Optionally, consider bringing any rune for Soul Reaping, and a minor rune of Blood Magic. you can also swap out one of your Animate Minion skills (Preferrably animate Bone Horror) for Signet of Lost Souls for better Energy manegement.

[edit] N/Mo Jagged Bomber

Necromancer / Monk 12 + 3 + 1 Death Magic 11 Soul Reaping 6 Healing Prayers Animate Shambling Horror Nightfall Necromancer. Death Magic 16 Animate Shambling Horror Spell Exploit nearest corpse to create a level 18 shambling horror. When the shambling horror dies, it is replaced by a level 16 jagged horror that causes Bleeding with each of its attacks. 25 3 15 Animate Bone Horror Prophecies Necromancer. Death Magic 16 Animate Bone Horror Spell Exploit nearest corpse to animate a level 18 bone horror. 5 3 10 Death Nova Core Necromancer. Death Magic 16 Death Nova Enchantment Spell For 30 seconds, if target ally dies, all adjacent foes take 105 damage and are Poisoned for 15 seconds. 2 5 Jagged Bones Nightfall Necromancer. Death Magic 16 Jagged Bones Elite Enchantment Spell For 30 seconds, whenever target undead servant dies, it is replaced by a level 16 jagged horror that causes Bleeding with each of its attacks. 15 1 5 Taste of Death Core Necromancer. Death Magic 16 Taste of Death Spell Steal up to 420 Health from target animated undead ally. ¼ 5 Blood of the Master Core Necromancer. Death Magic 16 Blood of the Master Spell All of your undead allies are healed for 122 Health. You sacrifice an additional 2% maximum Health per minion healed in this way. 2 1 5 Heal Area Prophecies Monk. Healing Prayers 6 Heal Area Spell Heal yourself and all adjacent creatures for 90 points. 5 1 10 Rebirth Core Monk. Protection Prayers Rebirth Spell Resurrect target party member. Target party member is returned to life with 25% Health and zero Energy, and is teleported to your current location. All of target's skills are disabled for 10..4..3 seconds. This Spell consumes all of your remaining Energy. 5 10 Template code

This variant is useful in dealing damage and raising a number of minions. Animate Bone Horror is the main animation skill in this build; Animate Shambling Horror should be used when available, but it is not as spammable as Animate Bone Horror is. Jagged Bones should be cast whenever it is recharged and the character controls at least one minion. (Keep in mind that the two minions produced by this spell will stack with the Jagged Horror produced by Animate Shambling Horror.) When the character controls few minions, he may target the nearest minion manually, enchant it with Jagged Bones and Death Nova, and then kill it with Taste of Death when it is near foes. This will effectively damage the enemies and create a new bodyguard for the party.

Optionally, consider bringing any rune for Soul Reaping, and a minor rune of Blood Magic.

[edit] Rt/N Explosive Animator

Ritualist / Necromancer 12 + 3 + 1 Spawning Power 12 Death Magic Animate Bone Horror Prophecies Necromancer. Death Magic 12 Animate Bone Horror Spell Exploit nearest corpse to animate a level 14 bone horror. 5 3 10 Animate Shambling Horror Nightfall Necromancer. Death Magic 12 Animate Shambling Horror Spell Exploit nearest corpse to create a level 14 shambling horror. When the shambling horror dies, it is replaced by a level 12 jagged horror that causes Bleeding with each of its attacks. 25 3 15 Animate Flesh Golem Factions Necromancer. Death Magic 12 Animate Flesh Golem Elite Spell Exploit nearest corpse to animate a level 21 Flesh Golem. The Flesh Golem leaves an exploitable corpse. You can have only one Flesh Golem at a time. 30 3 10 Death Nova Core Necromancer. Death Magic 12 Death Nova Enchantment Spell For 30 seconds, if target ally dies, all adjacent foes take 85 damage and are Poisoned for 15 seconds. 2 5 Signet of Creation Factions Ritualist. Spawning Power 16 Signet of Creation Signet All Spirits and animated creatures within earshot gain +7 Health regeneration. After 30 seconds, those spirits and creatures are destroyed. 10 2 Boon of Creation Factions Ritualist. Spawning Power 16 Boon of Creation Enchantment Spell For 63 seconds, whenever you create a creature, you gain 53 Health and 6 Energy. 45 2 10 Explosive Growth Factions Ritualist. Spawning Power 16 Explosive Growth Enchantment Spell For 63 seconds, whenever you create a creature, up to 5 foes near that creature are struck for 68 lightning damage. 45 2 5 Blood of the Master Core Necromancer. Death Magic 12 Blood of the Master Spell All of your undead allies are healed for 99 Health. You sacrifice an additional 2% maximum Health per minion healed in this way. 2 1 5 Template code

The Ritualist primary attribute Spawning Power allows a minion master to create heartier, if weaker, minions, and allows for additional healing through Signet of Creation. Because most of the damage in this team comes from the rangers, the loss of offensive power is not a big issue, although the loss of armor can be.

Unlike other minion masters presented here, this build deals a large amount of damage from Explosive Growth and Death Nova. The idea behind this is that as the tanks die, they will damage the remaining enemies - hopefully reducing or eliminating their need now that they are dead.

[edit] Support characters

These characters greatly enhance the damage output of the barragers by various means. They should carry equipment helpful for using many skills in a short period of time and making these skills last longer, if possible.

[edit] N/Mo Orders Necromancer

Necromancer / Monk 12 + 3 + 1 Blood Magic 8 + 3 Soul Reaping 10 Healing Prayers 2 Protection Prayers Order of the Vampire Prophecies Necromancer. Blood Magic 16 Order of the Vampire Elite Enchantment Spell For 5 seconds, whenever a party member who is not under the effects of another Necromancer Enchantment hits a foe with physical damage, that party member steals up to 17 Health. 5 2 5 Order of Pain Core Necromancer. Blood Magic 16 Order of Pain Enchantment Spell For 5 seconds, whenever a party member hits a foe with physical damage, that party member does +17 damage. 2 10 Blood Renewal Prophecies Necromancer. Blood Magic 16 Blood Renewal Enchantment Spell For 10 seconds, you gain +6 Health regeneration. When Blood Renewal ends, you gain 200 Health. 10 1 1 Blood Ritual Prophecies Necromancer. Blood Magic 16 Blood Ritual Enchantment Spell For 14 seconds, target touched ally gains +3 Energy regeneration. Blood Ritual cannot be used on the caster. 2 2 5 Awaken the Blood Prophecies Necromancer. Blood Magic 16 Awaken the Blood Enchantment Spell For 46 seconds, you gain +2 Blood Magic and +2 Curses, but whenever you sacrifice Health, you sacrifice 50% more than the normal amount. 45 1 10 Heal Party Core Monk. Healing Prayers 10 Heal Party Spell Heal entire party for 60 Health. 2 2 15 Succor Prophecies Monk. Unlinked Succor Enchantment Spell While you maintain this Enchantment, target other ally gains +1 Health and +1 Energy regeneration, but you lose 1 Energy each time that ally casts a Spell. 10 1 5 -1 Rebirth Core Monk. Protection Prayers 2 Rebirth Spell Resurrect target party member. Target party member is returned to life with 25% Health and zero Energy, and is teleported to your current location. All of target's skills are disabled for 9 seconds. This Spell consumes all of your remaining Energy.