User:The Gates Assassin/Lack of Build Focus

If you have been directed to this page, you made a build that tries to do too much at once and failed.

The Purpose of A build
A good build focuses on one job. If you are focused enough on doing that specific thing, there should be no other build that can do it as well. If you lose that focus, and try to do too many things at once, your build becomes worse. If you try to give a spiker a heal for an RA build, then you are losing focus slightly. That means another spiker bar is probably going to be stronger, since it has an extra skill slot. Here is an example of a perfect RA spiker bar:

A build that has focus
[build prof=assas/dervi dagger=11+1+1 critic=12+1 windpr=6 deadly=2+1][golden phoenix strike][trampling ox][falling spider][Blades of Steel][Impale][whirling charge][grenths grasp][resurrection signet][/build]

The entire build is focused on spiking down targets, and it does it really well. It has a spike recharge time of 8, a KD, snare built into the combo, IAS and IMS. The whole build is devoted to spiking, and none of the skills (Besides res sig, however all builds need that) do anything but that. This build is in great, and has stayed in the great catagory since it came out for that reason.

The reason again that build is good is because the designer focused on good strong spiking, which is one of the major jobs needed in many good teams. These are the jobs needed in a team:


 * Spiking
 * Healing
 * Protection
 * Support
 * Buffing
 * Interrupting
 * Shutdown
 * Pressure
 * Snare
 * Flagging/Relic Running
 * Self Defense

If your build doesn't fit into that category, you have a bad build, or you aren't thinking about it. For instance a KD lock build or a Daze lock build is a category of pressure and shutdown. Now if you design a build to focus on that, they will be great. The shadow prison sins are some of the best at spiking. Then there are some builds that are great and have the ability to be even better than great. The Word of healing monk has the ability to heal and protect. Sticking Grasping earth on it gives it the ability to snare and shutdown melee since they can't get to you. That's 4 categories in one build! That right there is a great build. Why is that great? Because it does it well. However: If that monk had taken Glyph of lesser energy, they could take more 10 energy spells, making them a more effective protector, thus meaning it is not the best monk build possible. That right there is making a build lose focus, but only slightly. It still has lots of power in it, but not as much as it could if it focused.

Now, one build can't do all of that. And they shouldn't. A spiker should focus on spiking and leave the healing and protecting to the healers and protectors. A shutdown mesmer shouldn't take Dash and run the flag. So, that is why almost all balanced builds will be very focused. They rely on each other. The mesmer has all the shutdown tools, the ranger is the teams utility box, the warriors kill things and the monks protect.

This isn't to say that build that does multiple things is automatically bad. The Cripshot ranger interrupts, snares, pressures with degen, and has good survivability which is used to gank with. The difference between Cripshot and your build is that Cripshot does all that an WELL. The interrupts and spammable and one disables for 20 seconds. The Snares are unblockable and spammable. The degen spread is faster than any other build can do. The survivability is unmatched for a build this good. Also, nothing can solo it, it just can't be done. I once did a 1 v 1 tournament against a sin (yes it shows no skill but that's not the point), neither of us died until VoD. He didn't hit me once. All of his attacks got interrupted by me.

A build that lacks focus
[build prof=Assassin/Dervish Cri=12+1+1 Scy=12 win=2 ShadowArts=2][Grenth's Grasp][Wearying Strike][Mystic Sweep][Eremite's Attack][Death's Charge][Assassin's Remedy][Way Of The Master][Resurrection Signet][/build]

This is a perfect example of a build that lacks focus just a little. This you can find in the other section. Why? It has a strong spike. Can't be blinded. Seems focused, but it isn't. The Dark Apostasy version is much stronger, and much more focused. It not only has an IMS for the spike, but also it removed enchantments. DA is a dedicated Spike elite. GG is not in this. You only need to shadow step to them to get the spike off. This wastes the elite for pressure, thus making it not focused on spiking.

Why a defensive attacker build is bad
You need to rely on people for a team to be effective. If you can't rely on others, the team build and your own build is going to suffer. If you take protection in your build, yes it is harder to kill you and yes some idiots might try to wack away at you to no avail, but you will start being less effective too. If you take that out and focus your build to ONLY attacking, you kill more. Sure you are an easier target to kill, but that is where other teammates come into play. If other people can keep you alive, you are going to get many more kills and not die. That is why defense is kind of like training wheels. Teams that can't rely on each other bring extra defense or extra skills that are not needed to make up for it, but in the end, the better players win because they work together doing jobs for each other that others can't do.

Also: You wouldn't take barrage on a monk would you? ...Would you? Course not. A monk's job is to keep their party alive, not kill. The melee takes that job over for them, so why should melee take over the job of a monk?

Exceptions
Split characters are the only reason you should take a heal (HB and GvG). Alone they can kill off most of the base or cap shrines so a heal is very important for that type of build. Examples are the AoD shock ganker or just giving healing signet to a warrior.

Staple Skills
Certain skills are so good in this game, while still being balanced, that they are pretty much required or can easily fit into most builds. Some examples are:



If you have an MM build, even though your purpose is to be an MM, throwing in Foul feast gives your build the ability to not only manage energy, but keep your health up and keep your party condition free. That is all in one skill, and doesn't ruin the build at all, instead makes it more powerful. The Turret Rangers usually take Distracting Shot. Why? Because a somewhat spamable 20 second disable of guardian and the like is extremely powerful and gives the turret ranger a lot more utility. Draw conditions can be thrown on any blind bot and instantly they have the ability to keep melee blind free. That is why casters normally don't do damage: they are utility characters. So in many cases, certain skills, while not fitting with the main purpose of the build, are so good that they give the build extra abilities and has them done well.

Things that are made to multiple things
Ritualists and Paragons are designed to take on multiple jobs, which is why they are so effective in a team. If a rit takes channeling spells and some heals from restoration magic, that isn't losing focus. Add more later to this.

Random Arenas and healing
Fuck RA. No really, fuck it. RA is a playground compared to the rest of the game. You can take the worst build you could possibly think of, with nearly no synergy at all and all at 0 attribute and get a glad point (I've done it). Your teammates carry you through battles so often it's not even funny. Also the fact that everyone can go there means a lot of people suck at it, so the people on the other team can be just as bad.

This means that no matter what your build is, you can lose any battle, especially if you don't have a monk. So for RA, you STILL shouldn't bring healing unless you are playing a support heal or main healer. If you don't have a monk, you probably are not going to get far. After RAing for nearly 2 years, I think maybe 5 of my teams have gotten to TA with no type of healing. It isn't worth it, wait out for the monk and then your build will be at it's maximum potential.

Recap

 * The more focused your build is, the better chance of it being great there is.
 * If you try to do too many things at once, you are hurting your build.
 * If one of your skills doesn't fit your main purpose, you hurt your build.
 * Self heals make your build more survivable, but less focused and thus less effective at it's job.