Racthoh's Paragon Team Build

[build name="Imbagon" prof=P/W Leadership=11+1 Command=8+1 SpearMastery=11+1+1][Vicious Attack][Swift Javelin]["Save Yourselves!" (Kurzick)]["There's Nothing to Fear!"][Ebon Battle Standard of Honor]["For Great Justice!"][Focused Anger][Aggressive Refrain][/build]
[build name="Arcane Orders" prof=D/N Mysticism=10+1+1 WindPrayers=11+1 BloodMagic=10][Arcane Zeal][Dark Fury][Order of Pain][Mystic Healing][Vow of Piety][Watchful Intervention][Faithful Intervention][Dwayna's Touch][/build]
[build name="Command" prof=P/W Leadership=10+2 Command=8+1 SpearMastery=12+1+1][Blazing Spear][Vicious Attack][Stunning Strike][Anthem of Envy][Anthem of Flame][Hexbreaker Aria][Aggressive Refrain][Signet of Return][/build]
[build name="Motivation" prof=P/W Leadership=11+1 Motivation=10+1+1 SpearMastery=10+1][Wild Throw][Spear of Redemption][Merciless Spear][Aria of Zeal][Song of Purification][Mending Refrain][Aggressive Refrain][Signet of Return][/build]

Original Thread - Guild Wars Guru
Community Build - PvXwiki

Racway is a team build named after the author, Racthoh from the Guild Wars Guru forums.

Racway uses a paragon human and three heroes to blow through most of PvE without a scratch. The player uses the popular Imbagon build to give constant damage reduction. A dervish hero increases the physical damage done, and adrenaline gained by the party, while providing minor healing. The last two heroes are both paragons to take advantage of the adrenaline/damage boost, and supply the condition and hex removal.

The Imbagon

First, what is an Imbagon? It's a combination of "imbalanced" and "paragon". Well, what is this build that is supposedly so imbalanced as to warrant a name for itself?

The key skill to look at is [["Save Yourselves!"]. An additional 100 armor reduces the damage all other party members take by 87.5% (they take 1/8th normal damage). This is nigh game-breaking damage mitigation. When combined with [["There's Nothing To Fear!"] your party takes hardly any damage at all except from abilities that ignore armor and degen. Normally, the 8 adrenaline cost would take a long time to fill. However, by maintaining [[Aggressive Refrain] and alternating between [[Focused Anger] and [["For Great Justice!"] (don't use both at the same time; they don't stack) and by having at least rank 3 Luxon, you can usually keep SY! up all the time. Your party will be practically invincible as a result.

Notice that SY! is the only adrenal skill on your bar, mainly to help keep it filling quickly. Normally, this would be bad because you'd quickly run out of energy. However, because of how Leadership works, every time you press SY! you'll gain 6 energy and you're pressing SY! roughly every 3-4 seconds. Getting the energy to spam all your skills will not be a problem.

Arcane Orders Dervish

Because of how mysticism works, the constant stream of enchantments ending will provide a lot of energy for the dervish. Dark Fury makes the Imbagon gain ridiculous amounts of adrenaline and [[Order of Pain] makes all physical damage dealers in the party do considerably more damage. [[Dwayna's Touch] is there mainly to self-heal the sacrifice costs.

Paragon Heroes

Honestly, one properly-played Imbagon is usually sufficient to maintain SY! at all times so having two or more Imbagons in the same party is unnecessary. However, two other paragon builds, when used together, can boost the party damage and effectiveness significantly. These can both be run effectively by heroes.

An Imbagon with the Orders Dervish and these two Paragons as heroes is a very effective group. Grab a monk henchmen and fill the rest with physical damage dealers such as fighters and archers.

Build Evaluation

I honestly haven't had the opportunity to play this build yet, only read about it. Because of this, any analysis is purely speculative.

As far as strengths go, the Imbagon (and his team) will have incredible defenses vs most damage in the game. When combined with an Orders Dervish, physical damage in the group will be supercharged. Energy is hardly a concern, which means the party can keep mowing through stuff as long as they stay alive.

In theory, there are only a few weaknesses. First, the Imbagon doesn't buff his own armor, which means enemies may tend to focus on him/her. If he dies, the party loses their major damage reduction. Thus, keeping the Imbagon alive is very important. Second, if the Imbagon isn't gaining adrenaline, things go downhill. Thus, keeping conditions, hexes, and stances that prevent adrenaline gain via missing, blocking, etc controlled is important. Lastly, some abilities such as life stealing and degen aren't reduced by high armor and still pose a threat to the group.

Conclusion

My paragon is still advancing through the game, but I'll eventually try this build out. It'd be kinda fun, I think, to make a party of physical characters and steamroll through a dungeon sometime.

I hope the guide has been an interesting read. Feel free to post any comments, questions, or suggestions.

-Jonathan

Hmm, give me, like, a week to read through tthe whole thing Jon!


I love my little lvl 7 Paragon, and I am really excited to read this. Steam rolling through a dungeon really, really works for me!!!

Nicolette
(Game Nurse)

Solid.

Scion

Finally got Morgahn last night and have him and Hayda all set up. I decided to give the team a test run on some Ebon Vanguard quests.



I gotta say, it's quite fun to be an unstoppable artillery battery of spears and arrows, all while safely standing in Herta's wards for even more protection. :p

-Jonathan