gww>Infinite at 23:37, 16 October 2016

2016-10-16T23:37:45Z

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[[Bloodspike]] is a [[PvP]] [[team build]] consisting of up to 8 [[Necromancer]]s using [[Blood Magic]] spells such as [[Angorodon's Gaze]] and [[Vampiric Gaze]] to deal heavy damage to an enemy team in small windows of time. Unprepared opposing teams will have a difficult time defending against this. To compensate for the lack of dedicated healing roles, each Necromancer brings a different defensive elite, along with skills of the same attribute. For example, one Necromancer might bring Word of Healing, a second would bring Restore Condition, while a third brings Divert Hexes.

This team build was mainly used prior to the [[Game_updates/20070405|April 5th, 2007 update]] (and later the [[Game_updates/20071113|November 13th, 2007 update]]) which changed [[Soul Reaping]]'s functionality. Before the first update, Necromancers gained energy from any [[spirit]]'s death via [[Soul Reaping]], allowing bloodspike teams to use their [[energy]]-expensive skills with little drawback. A bloodspike team typically included a [[Ritualist]] that would constantly create new spirits to trigger Soul Reaping's effect with. After this update, Soul Reaping no longer triggered energy gain for the death of spirits. The lack of energy return makes current teams utilizing the bloodspike tactic much less efficient.

==Core build==
;Metagame variant
{| style="border:1px solid silver;" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="2" width="700px"
|- style="background:{{n-color}};"
! colspan="2" | {{n}} / {{a}}
|- style="background: {{n-color|lighter}}"
| {{skill bar|Ravenous Gaze|Blood of the Aggressor|Vampiric Gaze|Angorodon's Gaze|Dark Prison|Signet of Agony|Unholy Feast|Iron Palm}}
| [[Blood Magic]]: >12+1+3 [[Soul Reaping]]: >12+1 [[Deadly Arts]]: >3
|}
;Historical variant
{| style="border:1px solid silver;" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="2" width="700px"
|- style="background:{{n-color}};"
! colspan="2" | {{n}} / {{a}}
|- style="background: {{n-color|lighter}}"
| {{skill bar|Vampiric Spirit|Dark Pact|Mark of Subversion|Vampiric Gaze|Angorodon's Gaze|Signet of Agony|Unholy Feast|Augury of Death}}
| [[Blood Magic]]: >12+1+3 [[Soul Reaping]]: >8+1 [[Deadly Arts]]: >10
|}

==Advantages==
*Life stealing skills are fairly effective because traditional anti-spike skills, such as [[Protective Spirit]] and [[Spirit Bond]], don't protect against it.
*Low recharges on skills enable the spike to be repeated, should it fail or only partly succeed the first time.

==Disadvantages==
*Even with the Life-stealing healing benefit, Necromancers have a low armor and very few healing capabilities without a dedicated [[healer]]/[[prot]]er, meaning that the team is vulnerable to counter-[[spike]]s and high damage in general.
*Most players applying this tactic use the exact same builds and almost exclusively spammable Blood Magic skills; skills such as [[Complicate]], [[Power Block]] and the [[Flux]] [[Xinrae's Revenge]] will certainly cripple a bloodspike team.
*Without deaths during battle, the lack of energy return via Soul Reaping will require efficient [[energy management]].
*Most bloodspike skills have a short effective range, or even touch range, which will result in several Necromancers bunched up around a target. This leaves them vulnerable to any [[area of effect]] skills opponents may use.

==External links==
*[http://gwpvx.gamepedia.com/Build:Team_-_HA_Ravenous_Blood_Spike Build:Team - HA Ravenous Blood Spike]

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[[Category:PvP Builds]]
[[Category:Necromancer builds]]

Bloodspike - Revision history

gww>Infinite at 23:37, 16 October 2016