User:Tai/PvE Single Target Spike = Fail

 If you have been directed to this page, it is because you have attempted to make a build that spikes a single target to death in PvE.

Why is this bad?
Let's take Assassins as an example. They run up, do their thing, and boom, their target is dead. Works great in PvP. In PvE, it just doesn't have the same charm. By the time you've run up/shadowstepped/whatever, your heroes can and will have already nuked your target to oblivion, thus rendering you useless. Even if you do get your spike in, the chance is it has a recharge of at LEAST eight seconds, this meaning that after your spike is done, you are useless to your team for that next (at least) eight seconds. In fact, most monsters (especially in HM) have too much health for your spike to even kill them in one chain. This is the same as almost every spiker build.

Now take the example of Cry of Pain spike teams. Great in PvE, yes? However, they do not spike just one target. They spike most or all of the enemies at once! How innovative!

Obviously there are some exceptions, but for the most part, remember that single target spikes in PvE = bad.

What are some alternatives?
Continuing with the example of an Assassin. One of the few good PvE builds for Sins is the MS/DB spam. This build usis a fairly weak lead and off-hand, then uses Moebius Strike to spam Death Blossom, an AoE dagger attack. This is effective because it allows you to damage almost an entire mob at once, if used correctly. Another example of a good PvE sin build is the Critscythe, which uses the high chance of critical hits from sins paired with the high damage of scythes to provide amazing DPS and good pressure. This build, since it uses scythes, which can hit three adjacent foes, also uses AoE, as well as pressure, not spiking.

If you notice any damage-oriented Elementalist builds in PvE, they, with very few exceptions, use AoE attacks, rather than strong spikes. This is why elites such as Searing Flames and Savannah Heat are popular, over builds like lightning spikers.

If you see a single-target spike build designed for PvE, please use this template:.