Need some skill advise (another "all purpose build" thread)

[Energizeric]

Last season I had a PvP build most of the season, which meant I wasn't very good at PvE, particularly elite farming. I had Fire, Lightning, Shield, Heal as my skills. So in order to level up to 36 and to do some PvE elite farming, I did a respec to Fire, Lightning, Time, Heal.

Yes, I've tried Frost before, but I just find Time Shift to work better with mob control. Frost inflicts more damage, Time slows the mobs better and seems to have a wider AoE range.

So today while waiting for the update, I decided to do some PvP with my new PvE build. I did not expect to do very well considering I did not have shield, but surprisingly I had very good success against warriors with Time Shift. Against rogues I did not stand a chance and got one-shot. So this got me thinking...

Maybe instead of changing back to Shield (instead of Time) in order to do PvP later on, perhaps I should add Shield as a 5th skill and run with 5 skills. This would allow tons of flexibility in the following ways:

If going up against warriors in PvP, I could use Fire, Lightning, Time, Shield. Against a rogue (or a team with many rogues) I could use Fire, Lightning, Shield, Heal. For Tombs/Mobs I could use Fire, Lightning, Time, Heal. For elite mobs I could use Fire, Time, Shield, Heal. And for elite bosses Fire, Lightning, Time, Shield. It certainly allows for a ton of flexibility for different situations without having to pay plat for a respec.

The downside is I would be losing 4 skill points that would otherwise be going into passives. The ones I would be missing are 1 for damage (would be +4% instead of +5%) and 3 for critical (would be 0% instead of +3%).

As we level up to higher levels, the importance of each skill point becomes less and less, since we have more total skill points. So while losing 4 skill points would have been a big problem in previous campaigns, I think maybe we are reaching a point where it will not make a big difference now.

Opinions??

[Deadroth]

I would go for ice instead of lightnin bro. P.S. Heal is useless on elites.. Pots r better, and You can do more dmg to monsters wid 3 o 1 d (shield)

[cindersx]

Take out lightning and put in frost. Frost might help with pvp too..

[Drearivev]

Like Dead and Cinder said, I'd say Frost over Lightning. I believe Frost and Light do the same damage, it's just that Light has upgrades that can make it do more damage. I also believe Krearaw uses Fire and Frost in PvP. He does well with it imo.

[Energizeric]

I understand about frost, but for PvP I prefer lightning. I wasn't really asking about that though. I was asking what you thought about running with 5 skills instead of 4, and losing 4 points of passives, all in order to have more flexibility for different situations.

I guess I'm wondering, how many of you spec 5 skills instead of 4, even though you know it hurts your stats by losing skill points that you could otherwise put in passives??

If so, does it work well for you?

[zwapper]

i think losing crit% will not affect much on your build, so there's no prob if you use 5 skills.

tip: try to shift skills in a mid fight. ex. when you are in elite you can use 5 skills. fire, time, light, shield and heal. after you cast your shield change it to heal you have 2 sec to do this.

in my experience as a twink changing skills in pvp is very effective. (ice, light, curse, shield and heal) everytime i cast shield(charge/uncharge) i immediately change it to heal in a matter of 2 sec. since most of them are waiting for 2 secs after i cast shield this is my time to change my skills.

[Alhuntrazeck]

I run with 6 skills, with only 1 passive. My gear makes me not so squishy.

My build is fire, curse, light, frost, shield, heal (go ahead and lol at that -.-)

I do it so...in 5v5s without a curse mage on my team I use fire-vurse-shield-heal.

In 5v5s with a curse mage...fire-light-shield-heal.

In elite fire-ice-shield-heal.

That's my build, with so many skills its hard n confusing to keep switching but beneficial.

[Shalanzar]

I've been using that kind of hybrid build since Nordr expasnion was released. I have Fb, Light, Time, Shield and Heal with 4 passive (atfer new level cap) Im gonna switch Light to Ice for better crowd control on elite maps - then i can use my heal for mana thursty rouges :D

Its quite annoying to change skills all the time: build for PvE elite (different for mobs and bosses), PvE tombs and PvP but really worth doing it.

Hope I helped you a little :-)

[Deadroth]

Bleh i will change to: Fire, Ice, Time, Shield, Heal?

Cause... Because i don't play much pvp but howeva... XD Sometimes i have to XD So 2 points into heal isn't such pain to me. As i said i found PERFECT BUILD FOR P V E Elite, normal, boss.

Only: Fire, Ice Clock, Shield <- NOTE TO ROGUES: Buy pots ffs and don't beg us for mana... I prefer beggin me for gold XD

When mobs r near i cast c-fire, then c-clock then c- shield, then c-ice, then c-fire, then c-ice and death of mobs. Easy like i don't know what. I love to kill... And i am Dead so i can't be killed once more XD

[Energizeric]

Thanks guys! That was helpful.