Birth of a Bonder
Originally Published by Inde
by Makkert
Servants of Fortuna [SoF]
========================================
BIRTH OF A BONDER
A story of build development
§ 1 Introduction
For a lot of players, build development is a logical thing. They may not find much shocking findings on the bonder build in this story, but it’s the way of how the build progressed that is more interesting. I started farming Sorrow’s Furnace for green items pre-AI patch to experience what it was like. The money is also nice so that was another reason to try it in slow gaming-hours. I first played a healer in a farm team, and the team got quickly wiped. The damage was way to high; this PUG was in no way prepared. This process repeated one or two more times, when I decided I would take the role of the bonder that previously was played by someone else.
§ 2 Builddevelopment
It wasn’t that the bonder was bad. He did bond the tank fine. It is that the general level in PUGs can be at scary low points. The casters got aggro on them because they got to close. The warrior isn’t always a real tank in skills, or more importantly, in behaviour. Having one or two of such players in a 5 or 6 man team does way heavy on a team. Leading a PUG is a good way to dish out players that could endanger a group with their behaviour if done properly. But sometimes one just doesn’t feel like leading, and wants to join a group without having to worry about anything. This made me think for a moment: could one play a build that made this possible? There is no way one could protect himself against a griever or a player that apparantly likes to aggro everything on the map. But the idea was still interesting enough that I wanted to give it a try. Clearly, this meant that one should play very protective, to increase the room in which players are allowed to make mistakes.
Quote:
Originally Posted by On Her Majesty’s Secret Service |
And playing a standard bonder was the best way I thought. Since every build should have a cool name, here goes:
James Bonder 1.0
Prot 15 (12+1+2); Divine Favor 13 (12+1)
Life Barrier
Life Bond
Watchful Spirit
Blessed Signet
Reversal of Fortune
Mend Condition
Holy Veil
Rebirth
Quote:
"The name is Bond. James Bond. " |
A standard farm team at this time (pre AI patch) had 2 nukers, 2 monks and a tank. Taking a different path, instead of bonding only the tank as it seemed to happen in PUGs, I bonded the 2 elementalists also with Life Barrier – Bond. The build is a pretty basic bonder, nothing spectacular. As you can see, a cheap major rune was used, which works just fine in PvE. Not optimal, but sufficient. The last 4 skills were added mostly as a ‘could be useful’ afterthought. The Watchful Spirit was added to counter the effect of degenerations such as the frequent bleeding and Conjure Phantasm a bit. After playing it a bit, I had the feeling the succesrate of the pugs I was in went up. The ‘tanking ele’ was protected firmly in a way the healer was able to keep up. The margin to make errors was made a little bigger.
While playing I quickly discovered some nice things on the build that I liked: Holy Veil worked fine with Blessed Signet, and acted along side Watchful Spirit as a nice cover enchantment against the enchantment stripping mesmers on the tank.
However the energy needed to keep 7-8 bonds up (3 life barrier, 3 bond, 1 w.s., 1 Holy Veil) meant that having Mend Condition and Reversal of Fortune together was too big of a drain on the energy available for casting for me. Also the heals from RoF were low because usually the bonds already minimized the damage. So after 1 or 2 runs:
James Bonder 1.1
Out: Reversal of Fortune
In: Signet of Devotion
This proved a real improvement, it was useable whenever it was recharged while not endangering my bonds from falling because of energy reaching zero. While playing, I remembered the weapon-swapping trick, and switched to a secondary weapon with 15 energy/ -1 regen when I thought my energy was going to reach zero, and switched back when my Blessed Signet put my energy back up to keep my bonds up. Also I kept myself completely at the back. The warrior-tank usually just out of my reach, I made sure I stayed as much out of aggro as possible, because as a non-bonded player, you are a vulnerable target. And if the bonder goes down, then the other players usually follow. So I healed the casters usually that were closer to me, and left the tank as much as possible to the primarary healer. As mentioned: when the bonder dies, or the tank or healer for that matter, the whole team is dead pretty soon. Rebirth wasn’t doing much for me; I wanted to find a better skill. Better to keep them alive with another skill supporting it. So after a run or 3-4 more:
James Bonder 1.2
Out: Rebirth
In: Essence Bond
The idea was nice. More energy is always nice. It turned out to be not up my taste. While it did gave quite nice energy in some fights, during times we were not fighting it proved a burden, the extra – 1regen didn’t feel good on me. More importantly, it bothered me that I find the energy to 'conditional', and not controlled the way I like it. With -3/-4 energy degen it didn't feel comfortable on me to count on the tank to do his job and the eles to not trigger aggro, when playing with PUGs. I wanted reliable energy that I could take into most PUG's. But even if they do know to keep aggro on the tank, I probably wouldn’t have kept the Essence Bond. If the nukers kill the melee attackers, then the energy gained from Essence Bond may suddenly drop as my energy resource while I don't expect it. That could possibly endanger the bonds I am keeping up. That thought made me keep using Blessed Signet and Signet of Devotion whenever possible. The energy gained with Essence Bond didn’t inspire me to use Mend Condition or Holy Veil more actively then before.
Note that Balthasar’s Spirit works the same way as Essence Bond does in this setting. Therefore I didn’t try it. Thus one run later reversed the change:
Out: Essence Bond
In: Rebirth
By now I learned when to expect enchantment stripping. I used the cover-enchantments at specific points in Sorrow’s Furnace to protect the bonds. At one point in SF enchantment stripping can be quite aggressively, and leaving some party members without bonds because enchantments were stripped faster when multiple mesmers were aggroed then I could apply. Thinking of my dead skillslot again, I made another change after a few runs:
James Bonder 1.3
Out: Rebirth
In: Reversal of Fortune
Quote:
Originally Posted by Diamonds are forever |
The idea behind it was that if a target was stripped, the damage would not be minimized anymore and RoF would have a use. The reality turned out that I found myself trying to reapply the bonds again on my party members with the energy I had instead of using RoF.
After some runs, I found it was a better play to let the bonds on casters just be stripped then to fuel Shatter Enchantment spikes if it was apparant that they were only being targeted by the mesmers. One could see this on the healthbar, because only degeneration damage from Conjure Phantasm would be taken then. Instead of reapplying bonds, I then applied Watchful Spirit. This countered the degeneration a bit. And whenever W.S. ends it heals, countering the Shatter Enchantment spike mostly while keeping the mesmers busy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Goldeneye [Bond draws his gun] |
But once more, I reversed a change:
Out: Reversal of Fortune
In: Rebirth
I learned to use Watchful Spirit better when I had a party where our healer dropped. Being forced to heal more actively, I cancelled Watchful Spirit myself and reapplying it over and over, combined with Signet of Devotion. The Watchful Spirit turned out to be a nice tool against spikes, because it could be cancelled for a heal at any time needed. By now the AI patch had been implemented, and 5(/6) man teams were used: a minion master, a nuker, 2 monks, tank (and a caster edisruptor). I switched my bonding to bond every caster (also the monk) with Life Barrier in response. Still the dead skillslot left me with a feeling the build could be improved, and made one more change:
James Bonder 1.4
Inspiration Magic 3
Out Rebirth
In: Mantra of Inscriptions
This shortened the recharge time on Blessed Signet with 3 seconds, and on Signet of Devotion with one second. It enabled me to use energy pre-combat or when I had energy over for something useful, and having more energy / time in the process. Also it used up some dead attribute points, which is always nice. I found the build I was happy with.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Octopussy |
§ 3 Playing the bonder in Sorrow’s Furnace
A build is one thing. To know how to play it is a different matter. Therefore a small overview a bonder should know when he’s playing in Sorrow’s Furnace. Part of these tips you already should have read in the article, this part provides an overview.
* Most important is to use Blessed Signet often to keep your energy up.
* Watchful Spirit, Holy Veil can be used as cover enchantments (especially on the tanking warrior!) because there are enchantment strippers in Sorrow’s Furnace.
* Stay away from harm. You are the one player that isn’t bonded, so you should be all the way in the back behind other casters and support healing on the casters.
* Make sure your bonds/barriers are reapplied if they do get stripped. Placing Life Barrier, Life Bond, Watchful Spirit on warrior, followed by a Life Barrier on the healing monk gives a slight advantage. The advantage of this is that if your bonds are being dropped because you don’t have the energy, those four bonds on key players will stay on if they weren’t stripped in the first place.
* In Sorrow’s Furnace there is a place with a healer and mesmer boss that has some mesmers that aggressively strip enchantments. It’s best to keep the bonds up on the warrior, but try to put Watchful Spirit instead of bonds up on the casters if they are only hit by mesmers (Shows pretty quickly; only degen damage). The advantage of this is that you heal (W.S. ends) which counters the Shatter Enchantment spike, and keep the mesmers busy.
* Watchful Spirit is great as an anti-spike heal. Don’t be afraid to temporary cancel it to heal your enchanted party member if need is there.
* When entering SF, throw all 4 upkeep-enchants on the tank, because usually one is shattered pretty quickly, either first or second group.
* Having a secondary weaponslot with a 15 energy/-1 regen item is very recommended. It can keep your bonds up in tight situations by weaponswapping temporary till you get your Blessed Signet again.
* Mantra of Inscriptions can be used when you are alright on energy. The boon of having Blessed Signet recharge 3 seconds faster is quite nice, as well as the faster recharge on Signet of Devotion. Quiet moments before fights are utilized this way to provide more energy during the fight.
* Use Holy Veil on yourself immediately when hit with Rust. You don’t want casting times to increase on your Signets. This may happen at the beginning of Grenth's Footprint.
* Adjust bonding to players in your PUG. If one is a poor positioner, you can give him an extra bond, cancelling the bond of a better player.
§ 3.1 Reapplying bonds
Aside from these tips, there is a big issue every bonder has to face: How do I reapply my bonds as fast as possible on the right person?
First thing is detecting that a bond is removed. That is easy, you see your energy bar from -4 pips going to -3 pips, and your bar of upkeepicons has fewer icons on it.
Then the question remains: whose bond is removed?
One thing you don't want is your tank falling. Therefore the tank always has a distinctive enchantment on top of him. Either Watchful Spirit or Holy Veil. If you see that enchantment falling, you know it's the tank you need to re-enchanted as soon as possible.
Then there are the remaining casters. The easiest case is if you don't see a yellow arrow next to a party member. However often they use enchantments themselves, so it doesn't always work that easy.
If the situation is there, you can make another distinctive enchantment by placing Life Bond on a Life Barrier (old 5 man farming) so you can recognise another bondee. Note that the small upkeep icons stack according to placing the bonds.
So if you play: Barrier (player 1)- bond (player 1) -barrier (player 2) - bond (player 2) - barrier (player 3).
Then one is stripped and your iconbar shows: barrier-bond-barrier-barrier.
You will know it's the second person you enchanted that is stripped. A last sure way to figure out whom you must bond is hovering over the upkeepicons. If you think you have things still in control for a few seconds, you can check this way the player names that belong to the bonds you still have up.
Then there are some indications that may indicate that your bonds have fallen off your party member. When playing in 6 man teams I bonded all 4 remaining casters only with Life Barrier. Still, one can make a pretty good guess which bond is removed, because usually a Conjure Phantasm follows it. Purple bar: likely the target of a mesmer, bonding time. It doesn't always work, but usually within two attempts one can find the target of the mesmer. A last good indication is lifebars jumping up and down. Your protection is wanted there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tomorrow Never Dies |
§ 4 Conclusion
A few things to remark at this process. For one, what works for one player, doesn’t have to work for another player. Some may love Essence Bond on their bonder, I didn’t feel happy with it. It is best to let a player find their own optimum build (if at least he can sensibly argument it ;)). Also, it took me some time to find the build I felt happy with. The same will apply to playing tombs / gvg, playing one role in the teambuild will enable you to find your personal build faster off course, although there is nothing with seeing things from a different role in the build to get a better view of the build as a whole.
Another point was that from the first version to the last, there were not much changes to the build skillset. During the build development, I learned some tricks on the build, where to position myself and how to react to certain situations. Just play your build to learn how to use it more effectively. So when you get killed in PvP or PvE, stop and think for a moment. Why did you lose? It isn’t always the build that is to blame for losing. It may just be you playing the build sub-optimal. Paragraph three shows that a build is only half the story. Literary almost.
~ makkert
Credits
Credits go out to my guild, Servants of Fortuna, for their valuable feedback.
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