Forum Link Code:[url=]Team - Stygian Veil Symbiosis[/url]
The Stygian Veil Symbiosis team build is a build designed
to conquer all of the Stygian Veil in the Domain of
Anguish. It is a balanced build that relies on the tried and
true formula of a warrior tank,
elementalists
nuking and monks keeping the team alive. The
catalyst to this build is a ranger spirit-spammer
who keeps two vital spirits up: Symbiosis to sustain the tank and Edge of
Extinction (EoE) to complement the nuking.
This build can complete the quest Breaching the Stygian Veil, the
quest Brood Wars
and kill the Dreadspawn Maw. Incidentally, this same build
can actually be used to conquer any of the 3 other areas in the
Domain of Anguish with less emphasis on the spirits.
Build Concept
While there are different tactics for different situations
(explained below, in the tactics section), the general outline of
how this team works is as follows:
- The ranger spirit-spammer lays down Symbiosis and EoE in range
of where the tank will will be holding aggro.
- An Obsidian Flesh tank draws aggro and tries to hold it.
- Three Searing Flames nukers take out the targets,
using snares to keep them
in nuking range and relying on EoE and Crippling Shot
from the ranger to finish off stragglers.
- One of the Searing Flames nukers brings Deep Freeze to ensure
foes remain in the area of effect of Searing Flames till EoE kicks
in. All foes should die after one usage of Meteor Showers by each
elementalist along with Searing Flames.
- Two healer monks keep the tank alive and catch any damage that
strays towards the elementalists.
- One bonder maintains
all bonds on the tank and some bonds on the nukers to prevent
massive spikes.
- Using Symbiosis and the various bonds from the bonder as well
as the Earth
Magic enchantments, the tank can bring his/her health
up to 3,000 health. This
makes the tank very resilient to the attacks of the Stygian Hungers
which are touchers who
steal health (i.e. ignore all armor buffs and protective
enchantments).
Build Details
The Obsidian Flesh Tank
Usage:
- The tank will be heavily bonded. As such he/she will only be
receiving partial damage at all times.
- The tank will have Balthazar's Spirit on which will allow for
constant casting of all Earth Magic spells.
- In the early going, all foes will be melee attackers and rangers, as such, you will
not need Obsidian Flesh's protection. You should only use it if in
danger of losing enchantments. The main culprits will be Soul Tormentors
who use Gaze of Contempt and Water
Tormentors who can slow you down significantly.
- When pulling a group of foes, it is actually useful to invoke
Obsidian flesh or Armor of Earth as moving slower than computer
controlled foes will make them follow you as far as they could as
opposed to running at normal speed.
- Use Stoneflesh Aura as often as possible. It will
make you take zero damage from nearly all attacks and spells.
- Lay down Ward Against Foes when foes around you are
near half-health. This will snare them around longer for the elementalists to
finish them off.
- The optional slot can be:
- Glyph of Concentration: To avoid
having any of your spells interrupted.
- Dolyak
Signet: As a massive armor boost. This is not needed, but is
useful in situations where, for example, monks go down and you need
to stay alive till they are revived.
- Lightbringer's Gaze: To add some
offensive punch to this very defensive build.
Equipment:
- A sword/axe with +5 Energy and a 20% "of Enchanting" grip. This will give you extra
energy and make all the Earth spells last longer on you. Rajazan's
Fervor or the Totem
Axe make great weapons for this build.
- A Shield with either
+30 Health or +45 while
Enchanted is optimal. Also, having a secondary set of Earth Magic
based wand and Focus item is optimal for
energy. It can also be a 15/-1 set to provide an extra energy boost
in times of trouble.
- A longbow for pulling.
- Gladiator's Armor or an armor set fully
equipped with Radiant Insignia (for the extra energy) is
ideal for this build.
The Searing Flames Nukers
Usage:
- Wait until all enemy aggro has settled on the tank.
- Maintain Fire Attunement during a fight.
- Once aggro is settled on the tank, go in and use Meteor Shower. Try
not to use Glyph of Sacrifice if you have it, so as
not to increase the cool down between fights.
- Continue to spam Searing Flames, Glowing Gaze and
Lightbringer's Gaze till foes are dead.
- If your Lightbringer title is less than rank 3, replace
Lightbringer's Gaze with Liquid Flame.
Equipment:
- As elementalists have a large pool of energy, the only real
upgrade this build really needs is 20% HSR preferably on both the wand and the focus item. This
is to speed up the readiness of Meteor Shower.
- A variety of armor choices make sense:
- An armor set with Radiant Insignia will provide extra
energy.
- An armor set with Stalwart Insignia will provide extra protection
against any melee aggro that comes your way.
- Tempest
Armor would provide extra protection as the elementalist will
always have at least 2 enchantments on.
The Searing Flames Freezer
Nearly identical to the others elementalists, this elementalist
simply freezes enemies after a nuke so that they do not disperse
before they are killed.
Usage:
- Wait until all enemy aggro has settled on the tank.
- Maintain Fire Attunement during a fight.
- Once aggro is settled on the tank, go in and use Meteor Shower. Try
not to use Glyph of Sacrifice if you have it, so as
not to increase the cool down between fights.
- After Meteor Shower, cast Deep Freeze. This will greatly hamper
enemy movement until they are taken down.
- If your Lightbringer title is less than rank 3, replace
Lightbringer's Gaze with Liquid Flame.
Equipment:
- As elementalists have a large pool of energy, the only real
upgrade this build really needs is 20% HSR preferably on both the wand and the focus item. This
is to speed up the readiness of Meteor Shower.
- A variety of armor choices make sense:
- An armor set with Radiant Insignia will provide extra
energy.
- An armor set with Stalwart Insignia will provide extra
protection against any melee aggro that comes your way.
- Tempest
Armor would provide extra protection as the elementalist will
always have at least 2 enchantments on.
The Healer's Boon Monk
Usage:
Equipment:
The Spell Breaker Monk
Usage:
- Maintain Essence Bond on the tank.
- Dwayna's
Kiss is the primary healing skill.
- Healing
Touch is for self-healing.
- Use Protective Spirit on any party memeber
other than the tank who begins to draw the attention of foes.
- Cascade Healing Seed on the tank with the other
monk.
- Use Spell
Breaker on the tank against groups of Sygian Hungers when
Meteor Shower starts dropping. This is to prevent them from using
Grenth's Balance on him. Their AI is such that they will use it on the
target with the highest health (always the tank) when they fall to
1/3 health or so. So, if you SB the tank, you deny them that self
healing and prevent a huge spike (if they get GB off, they
will steal upward of 1500 health from the tank).
Equipment:
The Bonder
Usage:
- Maintain all the bonds above on the tank in order from right
(Life Barrier
cast first) to left (Vital Blessing cast last).
- Maintain Balthazar's Spirit on yourself as
well.
- Maintian Life Barrier on the elementalists and (depending on
your skill and how comfortable you are with bonding) everyone
else.
Equipment:
The Necromancer Spirit
Spammer
This utility necromancer added nuking with Curses spells, maintianing useful
spirits up during fights and providing other casters with
energy.
Usage:
Equipment:
- A Necromancer staff or
wand and focus item that provide
extra energy as well as halving the spell recharge on Feast of
Corruption are ideal.
- Cabalist's Armor or an armor set fully
equipped with Radiant Insignia (for the extra energy) is ideal for
this build.
Variant:
- Replace Feast of Corruption and Suffering with Spiteful Spirit
(SS) and Reckless Haste. SS has less synergy with
groups that are being pummeled by Meteor Shower, but if the fight
drags on, SS will produce more damage per second.
Tactics
Conquering the Stygian Veil involves three stages:
- Clearing the initial mobs of monsters at the start of the Breaching the Stygian Veil
quest.
- Clearing the two hills north and south to defeat the two Stygian
Underlords and complete the Breaching quest.
- Killing the four Stygian Lords to complete Brood Wars and cause the
Dreadspawn
Maw to appear.
- Destroying the Dreadspawn Maw.
The Initial Assault
For the first part of Breaching the Stygian Veil, the party
should all go north of the Acolyte who gives the quest. The tank
should take the quest and back up till all mobs reachs the Acolyte.
Spirits should be laid and then the tank should pull using the
longbow (always hit "C" and shoot the neartest creature). There
will be three mobs jumbles up together, whenever you clear a mob,
another will come from the same hill that the first mob came from,
till you see a mixed group of foes. That will signal that there
will be no more mobs coming from that hill.
Depending on the type of mobs, the party should react
accordingly:
- Groups of Stygian Hungers should be pulled to tank, they
wil pile themselves around him nicely. Nuke a middle target, freeze
them and then finish them off with Searing Flames. Use Spell
breaker when they are below half health.
- Groups of Stygian Brutes or Stygian Horrors
do not require Spell Breaker. However, the tank should buff himself
up with the Earth Magic spells as their Physical damage can trickle
to the bonder.
- Groups of Stygian Golems actually benefit from Symbiosis,
but not as much as the tank. They are handled like the Horrors and
Brutes.
- Groups of Stygian Fiends are very dangerous. The tank
should pull them back using a zig-zag motion till they form a tight
ball for the nukers to nuke them. Also, if the tank goes to them in
melee range and attacks, they will say on him.
- Mixed groups will usually have one Fiend and then the rest will
be melee. The melee foes should be nuked first and should the Fiend
go for the party , containing it should not be a problem.
The Two Hills
Starting with the southern hill, the technique should be the
same. Spirits get laid down, the tank goes in and gathers several
enemies, then brings them back within spirit ranger and tanks them.
The only thing to watch out for is that the Stygian Fiends can
cripple the tank and the Brutes can knock him/her down with Bull's
Strike. The Healer's Boon monk should use Heal Party to aid the
tank at a distance. When pulling a group with Water
Tormentors, the tank should have Spell Breaker coverage.
The northern hill has pop-ups through out the first half of it.
As such, the spirits should be laid outside the hill, the tank
should go in till a group starts popping up (the tank should stand
still till they all come out of the ground, there is usually 6
monsters). The group will be mixed with at least one Stygian Fiend.
There are thre more pop-up groups past the first one. A group
around each of the Torment Claws that will spawn near the middle of
the hill.
Past those Torment Claws, there should be no hidden groups and
the tank should proceed like the first hill, gathering groups and
bringing them to spirit range. The spirits should be constantly
moved as the party makes its way deeper into the hill.
The Stygian Lords
There are ways to skip over barriers and so on to get to the
Sytgian Lords. This guide will simply tackle the problem straight
on.
The party should choose one of the trenches to clear out, the
best candidates would be the second trench to the north or south.
Either of those trenches leads to a Stygian Lord, and from there on
the party can move in a circle to get to the remaining three.
Each trench will spawn two melee groups as soon as someone is
half-way through it. The two groups will rush towards each other
(and kill anyone stuck inside) and then will camp on the opposite
end of where they spawned. In addition, some Tormentor demons will
spawn up top on one or both sides of the hills sandwiching the
trench. To avoid surprises, one party member can simply run into
the trench to trigger its spawns and then die half way through. The
party can then Rebirth that member from atop one of the two hill
overlooking the trench. If dying is such a big deal, one
Elementalist can go secondary Assassin and bring Recall and use it to leave the trench before the
pop-up groups close in on him/her.
Once the trench's spawns are stationary the tank can tackle them
under spirit range and the party can destroy the closer melee group
then the furhter one as well as the spawns on top of the hills.
Once the trench is clear, the party can proceed to the Stygian
Lord, kill any patrols roaming around him, and destroy him. From
that point on, the party will simply circle around to kill the
other three lord (see the walkthrough for the quest Brood Wars for their
locations).
Note the following:
- The first Stygian Lord to the south is a necromancer, there is
a patrol that comes in front of him from the east and another from
the west. After clearing the eastern patrol, he can be pulled
without the western patrol. He is guarded by Tormentor demons.
- The next one to the east of him is a mesmer. There is a
stationary group of Tormentors around him as well as two spawns of
Torment Claws.
- The next one to the northeast is an elementalist. There are two
patrols on the way to him and then a large pop-up spawn inside the
alcove he is found in. The tank should hold then around the
entrance to the alcove so they cannot go around him to the rest of
the party. Casters should watch out for Chain Lightning
from the Stygian Lord.
- The final boss heading northwest from that spot is a smiting monk.
Again he is found in an alcove which he can be pulled out of using
a long bow. If anyone steps past the entrance of the alcove, a
spawn of Stygian Hungers will appear at the entrance. The party
should either pull carefully or trigger them on purpose and take
them out first.
The Dreadspawn Maw
After the party returns and cashes in the quest Brood Wars, the
Dreadspawn Maw will appear immediately behind them. Make sure
everyone is out of the center area and safely next to the Acolyte
before having ANY party member accept the reward. The Maw will
be comprised of six Smothering Tendrils. The objective is to
kill all six and their spawns.
For each Tendril, one elementalist will drop Meteor Shower on
it, followed by a few Searing Flames casts. this elementalist
should have Protective Spirit on them by the Spell Breaker monk.
Everyone else should move back north where the party originally
killed the monsters of the initial assault.
As soon as the Tendril is about to die, the SB monk should leave
and join the others. The elementalist should finish off the Tendril
and then pull back slowly. As soon as the Tendril dies, numerous
Torment Claws will spawn as will as several Stygian creatures. If
the Stygian creatures DID see the elementalist, he/she should just
pull back slowly and have them kill him/her midway to the party.
They should NOT bring them back to the party othwerwise the
party can wipe after doing so much work. After they kill the
elementalist, someone can rebirth him/her and then the tank can
pull them into spirit range and the party can destroy them.
The party can then proceed to kill all the Torment Claws that
spawned (great wanding fun). The same steps should be repeated for
each Smothering Tendril.
Variants
- One or two of the nuking cast can be replaced with Necromancers using Feast
of Corruption to spike. The Freezer is vital for keeping all
foes in the same AoE of spells.
If the tank brings a snare like Grasping Earth, then the entire
nuking crew can be replaced with necromancers.
- The tank does not necessarily need to be an Obsidian Flesh
tank. Other tanking builds can be used, as well as non-warrior
tanking builds like a continual Shadow Form assassin or an Obsidian Dervish. However, buffing
physical armor is important so that no damage goes through to the
bonder.
- The N/R can be switched to Spiteful Spirit or can be switched out
for any other profession than can bring the two spirits on the
side.
Notes
- The monsters in the Stygian Veil have a bad habit of following
for a very long time. As such, it is important that the bonder
remain out of the aggro range of the party and that no one drags
any aggro back to the bonder for any reason (kite around, do not run away). The
bonder will be the safety valve in case anything goes wrong.
Warrior / Elementalist 
Elementalist / Monk 
Monk / Mesmer 
Necromancer / Ranger 
