Build:Team - The Deep Spiteful Spike

The PvXwiki community finds this to be an excellent build. If you disagree with this rating, please discuss it on the build's talk page. This build has been designed for the following use: PvE SC PvE team

This build requires Consumables to operate properly.

This is an up-to-date 12 member deep group focused on completing the elite mission The Deep quickly, in Hard Mode. It requires an Essence of Celerity.

Overview

This party consists of:

• 2-3 / Shadow Meld Warriors
• 4-5 / SS Necromancers
• 1 / Porogon
• 2 / UA Monks
• 1 / HB Monk
• 1 / BiP Necromancer

Shadow Meld Tanks

<pvxbig> [build name="Deep Cryway Warrior" prof=warri/assas streng=11+1 tactic=11+1+1 sha=8][deaths charge][Soldier's Defense][Shield Stance][i am unstoppable][dark escape][you move like a dwarf][signet of stamina][shadow meld][/build] </pvxbig>

Variants

• Other stances such as Deflect Arrows or Shield Stance

Equipment

• Weapon: an icy weapon to trigger Spinal Shivers on Kanaxai. Tactics shield with -2/stanced
• Armor: Knights insignia. Sentinel's insignia armor is helpful for any area with Outcast. Rune of Superior Vigor. Strength +3+1 headpiece to switch to to use Signet of Stamina.

Usage

• Maintain Signet of Stamina - do not attack foes.
• Use "I Am Unstoppable! to power Soldier's Defense
• Soldier's Defense will cause enough adrenaline gain for you to use Defensive Stance
• Use "You Move Like a Dwarf!" to knockdown Kanaxai and Aspects. Can also be used as an interrupt against Outcast Deathhands.

SS Necromancers

<pvxbig> [build prof=N/any cur=12+1+3 soul=12+1][by ural's hammer][spiteful spirit][defile enchantments][desecrate enchantments][necrosis]["You Move Like a Dwarf!"][optional][signet of sorrow][/build] </pvxbig>

Variants

• Each necromancer should replace the optional skill with one of the following: Spinal Shivers, Insidious Parasite, Arcane Mimicry or Edge of Extinction (setting Beast Mastery to 10 and Soul Reaping to 8+1).
• Experienced teams may want to bring two EoE SS, less experience teams can omit this skill entirely (since Outcast are also human and therefore inflict damage on the party when they are killed with EoE up)

Equipment

• Weapon: 20/20 Curses wand and offhand. Martial weapon with shield to switch to at Nightmares
• Armor: Survivor Insignia, Rune of Superior Vigor.

Usage

• Select a random target in the mob you are about to spike (do not press c-space or t-space).
• To spike cast Spiteful Spirit -> Defile Enchantments -> Desecrate Enchantments
• Use "By Ural's Hammer!" to increase damage dealt by your skills.
• Use "You Move Like a Dwarf!" then Necrosis on leftover foes.
• Use "You Move Like a Dwarf!" to knockdown Kanaxai and Aspects. Can also be used as an interrupt against Outcast Deathhands.

Paragon

<pvxbig> [build prof=P/Rt res=3 comma=12+1+3 lea=12+1]["Incoming!"]["Fall Back!"]["There's Nothing to Fear!"]["You Move Like A Dwarf!"][Enduring Harmony]["Make Haste!"][Vocal Was Sogolon][we shall return][/build] </pvxbig>

Variants

• Can take "Never Surrender!" instead of Vocal Was Sogolon to help tank the first rooms.

Equipment

• Weapon: High energy set. Command shield with +5 armor spear to tank first rooms and catch leaked aggro.
• Armor: Survivor Insignia, Rune of Superior Vigor.

Usage

• Use Enduring Harmony and "There's Nothing to Fear!" on tanks before they do large pulls (do NOT cast speed boost on them as Oni will lose aggro).
• Use "Incoming!" and "Fall Back!" when running through areas with tricky Aspects.
• Maintain Vocal Was Sogolon to increase shout duration.
• Use "You Move Like a Dwarf!" to knockdown Kanaxai and Aspects. Can also be used as an interrupt against Outcast Deathhands.

UA Monk

<pvxbig> [build prof=Mo/N name="Mo/N UA Monk" hea=12+1+1 pro=6 div=11+1][patient spirit][dwayna's kiss][Heal Party][Protective Spirit][Seed of Life][Healing Seed][Necrosis][Unyielding Aura][/build] </pvxbig>

Variants

• Other Healing Spells such as Ethereal Light

Equipment

• Weapon: 20/20 Healing Wand and Offhand. Shield and martial weapon to swap to at Nightmares
• Armor: Survivor Insignia, Rune of Superior Vigor.

Usage

• Spam Heal Party when the tanks pull, do not pre-prot or pre-seed them before pulling.
• Use Protective Spirit on the BiP in health loss Aspects.
• Use Seed of Life and Healing Seed to heal warrior walls.
• Use Necrosis on leftover foes with hexes or conditions and on Kanaxai

Healer's Boon Monk

<pvxbig> [build name="Mo/Me HB Monk" prof=monk/me healin=12+1+1 divine=12+1 insp=3][ethereal light][heal party][seed of life][healing seed][dwayna's kiss][inspired enchantment][Arcane Mimicry][healer's boon][/build] </pvxbig>

Variants

• Inspired Enchantment duplicate skill, Revealed Enchantment

Equipment

• Weapon: 20/20 Healing Wand and Offhand. Shield and martial weapon to swap to at Nightmares
• Armor: Survivor Insignia, Rune of Superior Vigor.

Usage

• Spam Heal Party when the tanks pull, do not pre-prot or pre-seed them before pulling.
• Use Seed of Life and Healing Seed to heal warrior walls.
• Mimicry UA for res and more potent Healing Prayers.

BiP Necromancer

<pvxbig> [build prof=N/A blo=12+1+3 death=3+3 sou=12+1][Blood is Power][Blood Renewal][Well of Blood][Verata's Gaze][signet of sorrow][optional][optional][recall][/build] </pvxbig>

Variants

• Take "You Move Like a Dwarf!" or "Finish Him!"
• Take Shadow Sanctuary or Shadow Refuge for extra health regeneration and armor.
• Take Arcane Mimicry instead of Recall, this is needed to get past the 5-switch gate.

Equipment

• Weapon: One handed +20% enchantment weapon with normal Blood offhand and -50hp Grim Cesta.
• Armor: Radiant insignia with many superior runes (to drop your health to ~100) and normal survivor/radiant set. You will need to switch between these for different rooms. It is recommended to have at least 150hp.

Usage

• Use Blood is Power on the three monks and the Paragon.
• Use Blood Renewal to help counter the health sacrifice from BiP.
• Use Well of Blood to heal tanks and others.
• Use Verata's Gaze to capture Flesh Golems from Outcast Deathhands.
• Use Signet of Sorrow against end Kanaxai.

General Usage

Division of labor, the first 5 rooms

This section describes the division and methodology for the first two rooms.

Room and Aspect	Membership Assigned
Room 1 Aspect of Soothing	Warrior SS Necromancer HB Monk
Room 2 Aspect of Death	Warrior SS Necromancer UA Monk
Room 3 Aspect of Surrender	Warrior SS Necromancer UA Monk
Room 4 Aspect of Exposure	Paragon SS Necromancer BIP Necromancer

General Advice

The Darkened Irukandji and the Spirit of Restoration they cast are particularly troublesome in these rooms. Interrupt Restoration with "You Move like a Dwarf!" if possible. Note that All Aspects need a knockdown at 75%, 50% and 25% health. At these breakpoints, they are invulnerable until knocked down.

Room 1, Aspect of Soothing

The warrior Death's Charges towards the Darkened Irukandji, making sure everything (including Kanaxai's Aspect) is aggroed. The SS Necromancer should cast SS on the Aspect, if hexes are used on any other foe then it will be stripped by the Scourge Manta.

All first 4 rooms should be balled so that the Aspect is next to all foes so SS hits them all

Room 2, Aspect of Death

Same as room 1.

Room 3, Aspect of Surrender

Same as room 1. The SS and monk should wait until the warrior has balled the foes before entering the room. This will prevent them from stealing aggro upon entering due to close spawn.

Room 4, Aspect of Exposure

The Paragon should aggro the Ripper Carps. The SS should be able to kill these, using "ymlad!" as an interrupt for Shadow Refuge. The room will open once the Carps are dead, the team can run out the room without killing the Aspect (just knock down with "ymlad!" and run past).

Room 5, Aspect of Pain

Once clear, one group should pull all out this room to the front of room 2 - team mates from other rooms can run into the room also, once the foes have been balled. To kill the mob quickly, SS necromancers should cast SS on the Aspect. Try to interrupt Restoration with "ymlad!".

Try not to aggro too many Blessed Mantas at once as they can collectively out heal your damage (but not alone).

Room 6, Aspect of Lethargy

One warrior should line up at the gate to the next room and block the entrance. Casters should stand to the left, clear of the warrior wall.

The other warrior should cast Shadow Meld on a nearby ally and proceed into the room and disable the Fire Flower (ensuring the middle spawn are as far back towards the gate as possible when they set off). Once the flower has been disabled, the warrior should aggro as much of the room as possible and run back through the wall to the casters, pulling all the Leviathan Minds to the wall. Release Shadow Meld if your health drops below 25%, or the room is aggroed early. Monks should cast Heal Party as much as possible to heal the warrior while he/she is gathering aggro. The BiP Necromancer should constantly cast Blood is Power on all monks in turn to counter the cost of Heal Party.

Once the Leviathans have been pulled against the warrior wall, warriors should body block and casters should use Defile Enchantments and Desecrate Enchantments (Spiteful Spirit will just be stripped) Once the leviathans are dead, proceed into the room and clear the Leviathan Heads to the left, then use the same tactic from the early rooms to eliminate the Aspect.

All Shadow Meld warriors should cast Shadow Meld while standing near the gate, the two players with Arcane Mimicry (HB and an SS necro) should cast this on the warriors and also use Shadow Meld near the gate then run to one of the 5 pressure pad switches. The BiP should cast Recall on the Porogon and run to one of the front switches (the farther ones end recall). The remaining party should proceed through the now open gate. One player inside the gate should countdown and the 5 players outside the gate all release Shadow Meld/Recall at once and run through the gate before it closes. Experienced teams can skip the Leviathan heads.

Room 7, Aspect of Depletion

Everyone who hasn't used Shadow meld should have started killing the closest group of Outcast (they can be reached through the gate) while the melders get in place. Once everyone is in the room, one warrior should Death's Charge to the next group of outcast. The paragon should cast Enduring Harmony and "There's Nothing to Fear!" on the other warrior to make "iau!" last longer. That warrior should then aggro the Aspect and all outcasts and pull them along the left wall. The second tank should position itself at the end of the wall to bodyblock while the aggroing tank pulls through. Once the foes have been balled up, SS necromancers can attack.

Room 8, Aspect of Failure

One warrior should stand on the inside left of the gate while the rest of the team is in the left corner of the previous room. The paragon should use Enduring on the other warrior who will aggro all three groups of Outcast and pull them back to the warrior wall. Once these groups have been killed, everyone should run to the next room ("Fall Back!" and "Incoming!" can counter any damage done by the Rangers). Experienced teams can skip all of these foes by using a warrior to aggro everything and Death's Charge to the far corner while everyone else runs past. This warrior should not be healed but can be ressed by UA without aggroing the outcast.

Room 9, Aspect of Shadows

One tank runs to the left, popping all Onis and tanking them in a corner. Once this group has been spiked, get the next oni spawn and the Aspect of Shadows. Remember to hug the left wall since the Leviathan's long range hits generally instantly kills casters. There are two more spawns once the Aspect is dead, these are both near the top of the stairs to Scorpion Aspect, the warrior should ball these and the team spike again.

Experienced teams can send their second tank to Scorpion Aspect early. The tank gets to Scorpion Aspect quickly by Death's Charging to the leviathan and then running down. Here the tank will need to follow the instructions below.

Room 10, Scorpion Aspect

One warrior should run down the stairs and go around the huge Jadeite block to the right without aggroing any outcast. The tank should walk forward a bit between the right wall of this section and the next large jadeite block until the Aspect's Speech is triggers (this triggers more oni spawns). The tank should then wait near that block - the oni will eventually come to him/her. Monks should only heal using Heal Party and once all oni have been aggroed, the rest of the team should spike. The team can then work through killing all the Outcast spawns on the left hand side of the room. If any team member dies in an awkward place, then others can run to the end of the room and kill the Aspect, this will end the teleporting and knockdown in the room, making it easier to res.

Experienced teams may wish to run through straight through this Aspect, although it does require a lot of coordination.

Room 11, Aspect of Fear

In this room spawns are triggered once a team member steps on the first bridge. Slow and very inexperienced teams can wait for all the spawns to clear, killing them one by one. Here teams should all stand in the first corner after the stairs, guarded by the warrior wall. Once they have done this, there is a group of oni that spawn after each bridge. Remember to disable the Flowers as they cause Cripple. In more experienced teams, the paragon should use Enduring and Make Haste on the tank in front. That tank should run across the first bridge and ignore the onis that spawn, the other warrior will tank these near the bridge. Once they have been spiked, the group will run down to where the warrior that had ran ahead has balled the next group (which should be somewhere on the stairs). As the team are spiking, the warrior who did the first pull should Death's Charge towards the Oni and run over the final bridge, aggroing the Aspect and all the Oni that spawn. As this spawn settles the other warrior should run ahead to aggro the next room. It is possible to skip all the spawns completely and just run using "incoming!" and "Fall back!", team members should spam "ymlad!" on all the oni that spawn. This is not recommended in an inexperienced group or a team plighted by lag.

Room 12, Aspect of Depletion

Inexperienced teams may wish to take this a few groups at a time. Remember that casters should not be using Staffs or Wands because this causes Sapping Nightmares to use Chaos Storm. More experienced tanks can pull all the Sapping Nightmares at once by aggroing firstly the groups to the right and then running over to the left before running closer to the Aspect of Fear. Once all the groups have been spiked, proceed to the next room.

Room 13, Aspect of Decay

Here, a small trick can be used to pop spawns. One warrior should cast Shadow Meld, run in range of Kanaxai's Aspect and use Death's Charge which will transport the warrior towards the Aspect. The warrior should then proceed to pull the Aspect towards the rear wall of the room and then release Shadow Meld. This will spawn the three Oni groups and causes them to run to the rear of the room.

Meanwhile, the other warrior should group the six closest Oni which should be spiked. Experienced teams may skip this group.

Room 14, Aspect of Torment

To the left, Sapping and Freezing Nightmares will pop in 4 groups of 3. The tanks should try to pull 2 groups at a time. At the end of the room, one tank should pull the Aspect to the group of Outcast while the casters kill them. Experienced teams should go to the right, skipping all foes and using "Fall Back!" and "Incoming!" to counter health loss. Make sure a tank takes aggro of the final Outcast group.

Kanaxai's Chamber

Everyone should stay at the entrance of the room (preferably out of the Aspect). Two Shadow Meld Warriors should case Shadow Meld on one of the casters, they will then both run to the left of Kanaxai's chamber. The tank should use YMLAD on Kanaxai and cancel Shadow Meld. When Kanaxai is up again (and begins to cast), the other tank should use YMLAD and cancel Shadow Meld (if you are too slow then Sapping Nightmares cancel your enchantment). The rest of the team should now run along the right wall and stop near the slope where the tanks should start attacking Kanaxai with icy weapons. One of the SS Necromancers maintains Spinal Shivers while the SS Necro maintains Insidious and Spiteful Spirit. The Porogon should at this point aggro and die next to Kanaxai, allowing all necromancers to spam Signet of Sorrow. The knockdown breakpoints for Kanaxai differs from that of the Aspects; knockdown is needed at 80% health, 60% health, 40% health and 20% health. If you accidentally aggro and kill one of the spawned Sappings it will continuously spawn from Kanaxai, so it is better to focus on Kanaxai even if you do aggro something else. Once he is dead, one of the warriors should pull the Sapping Nightmares towards where the chest spawns. Kill this spawn then collect your drops.

Variants

All but one of the Shadow Meld warriors can be replaced with hybrid 100 Blades stance warriors. In this case two of the SS Necromancers should take Mark of Pain. This build has the ability to solo large groups of Sapping Nightmares in the second Aspect of Depletion.

<pvxbig> [build prof=W/A str=3 swo=12+1+1 tac=12+1][Death's Charge][Soldier's Defense][Shield Stance]["I Am Unstoppable!"][to the limit][Hundred Blades][Whirlwind Attack]["You Move Like a Dwarf!"][/build] </pvxbig>

Variants

• Replace Shield Stance or "To The Limit!" with Recall

Equipment

• Weapon: a zealous Sword with +30hp or Demonslaying mod if possible, a -5e sword for tanking Sapping Nightmares, a +5e sword to switch to when attacking Sapping Nightmares. Tactics shield with -2/stanced
• Armor: Knights insignia. Sentinel's insignia armor is helpful for any area with Outcast. Rune of Superior Vigor.

Usage

• On spikes where you are not pulling use Death's Charge -> "To the Limit!" -> Hundred Blades -> Whirlwind Attack.
• When pulling, use "I Am Unstoppable! to power Soldier's Defense
• Soldier's Defense will cause enough adrenaline gain for you to use Whirlwind Attack. Before using Whirlwind, make sure to use Hundred Blades and wait for your team to begin spiking.
• Use "You Move Like a Dwarf!" to knockdown Kanaxai and Aspects. Can also be used as an interrupt against Outcast Deathhands.

Notes

• Attacking Onis with weapons no longer triggers Viper's Defense

See Also

• Advanced warrior pulls video
• Simpler warrior pulls video

• Team - The Deep Manly Spike
• Team - The Deep Cryway (archived)