Talk: Ravenous Gaze

Original discussion

I tried out this skill a bunch of times, and I think it works. It is not horrible for an elite, and if complimented it in a team it can be very powerful. I tried it with some friends in TA. We used a combination of 2 RG necro with sac skills such as demonic flesh, blood renewal, defile flesh, and dark pact along with awaken blood. Then we bought one SV necro (hoho, u heard me, this is where SV is at its greatest). While both necros are sac'ing their life like hell, w/e targets them loose health due to SV. Very interesting. Madcrazy2ks

WHY is this elite? -Thomas 13:29, 22 September 2006 (CDT)

It can potentally do about 120 life steal with Blood at 16. Think of it like a conditonal Grenth's Balance. It's going to make Blood Necromancers that much harder to kill and that much more deadly. Think about it. Wait till you're inches from death and lash out with it. Alt F Four 16:00, 22 September 2006 (CDT)

Even so... It's only about twice as good as Vampiric Gaze, with conditional aspects tied to it. For regular use, I think this is crap. However, for spiking, it's potentially VERY lethal. A 1 second, armour + prot spirit ignoring spike that is strong enough to kill with just 4 people on most targets? THAT is scary. And while you have to be a little below 50% of your max health, Blood Magic DOES house Demonic Flesh to make that amount of health not as risky to be at. Perhaps this will make a replacement for Feast of Corruption in Blood Spike. Merengue 23:27, 22 September 2006 (CDT)

Can't forget Blood Renewal. Yeah, it's good. --Crazytreeboy 23:52, 22 September 2006 (CDT)

It's not good in my books. If you try to wait till you're lower than 50%, you'd be spikebait long time before. ~LightningHell

I sitll support it, considering it's the only non-hex Life Steal Blood Elite. We've been looooong over-due for one. Alt F Four 03:12, 24 September 2006 (CDT)

So, is there a reliable way to sac 75% of your life in a sec or 2? --Midnight08 08:54, 25 September 2006 (CDT)

No, but is there a quick and reliable way for a Necromancer to get back a large chunk of his health at 25% life in Blood Magic? Here's a hint, it's not Blood Renewal. Alt F Four 01:19, 28 September 2006 (CDT)

Illusion of weakness at high levels SHOULD work (I use that for my grenth balance spiker).-Onlyashadow 08:56, 25 September 2006 (CDT)

also being blood this can actually get upto 20 with Awaken, Altar, and +1/20. at the current progression rate thats 35 + 115 for a possible 144 (w/o the +1/20%) - 150 life steal. --Midnight08 08:58, 25 September 2006 (CDT)

Ummm Yea...I can't see this being useful in any aspect of guildwars, it's just too crappy.-Onlyashadow 10:32, 25 September 2006 (CDT)

I second that, it is too cumbersome to use and does not offer that much. --Long 07:13, 29 September 2006 (CDT)

Too cumbersome to ue? At 16 blood and 1 curses, Awaken the Blood followed by Rip Enchantment gets you to low enough health from 455 that Ravenous will steal the max at 18. After this you can either follow up with more life steal to get your health full before recasting this, or a 21% or more sacrifice (before AtB) will get you to the right level to have Ravenous trigger again. --Khoross 12:35, 29 September 2006 (CDT)

Here's the rough kind of skill set I'm envisioning to use with this: Awaken the Blood, Demonic Flesh, Protective Was Kaolai, and then some token sacrifice to keep you down at the desired health level, which is about 300. Kaolai can't be stripped, and doesn't require being dropped like Tsungrai, which give you about a 469 health buffer while hanging out at half. (480 -75 for superior blood, +50 for superior vigor, +35 for health armour, +224 for Demonic Flesh = 714, half of which is 357. The initial life steal of Ravenous Gaze is 33 at 18 blood, so you want to be less than 324, so for safety, you want to be in the range of 285-315. Protective was Kaolei will heal 169 at 10 Restoration, thereby giving you effectively 454-484 health to keep you alive in case the enemy tries a spike of their own.) The rest of the skill slots would be utility, healing, or extra damaging spells for a secondary spike in a pinch. Only need 4 of these guys to blood spike out anyone with less than 552 health, so that leaves a lot of leeway with the rest of the build. Perhaps it's too unwieldy or lackluster to catch on, or the skill slots dedicated to creating a safety buffer so you don't get spiked out yourself are too many. Only time will tell. Merengue 17:24, 30 September 2006 (CDT)

Its necros WoH --FirstBornSon 07:51, 26 September 2006 (CDT)

It's another, easier way to kill 55's Assassinman 22:41, 27 September 2006 (CDT)

I honestly can't see the beef against this skill. Its LIFESTEAL. 126 of it (and thats only at 16 blood)!!! Any prot monk or communal ritaulist will tell you how much he hates life steal. 126 armor igore and, for the most part, everything ignore, not to mention it heals you, is simply incredibly. At one second cast it is a bit of a danger at <50%, but then so is grenths balance's 1/4 cast at <10% lol. (Not a fifty five 21:41, 2 October 2006 (CDT))

I totally agree. And then you just calculate the fact that this with Blood Renewal gives Necromancers powerful heals at both ends of the health bar, with enough attribute points left to pimp out Signet of Lost Souls like crazy. Alt F Four 05:22, 18 October 2006 (CDT)

If b-spike is still around this may see some use, one can just cast infuse then this — Skuld 11:19, 5 October 2006 (CDT)

Don't you have to still be under 50% health after it gives you the small lifesteal in the first part? Since infuse only puts you at 50% that small ~30 lifesteal is enough to make you not get the conditional damage. Correct me if I'm wrong. - Former Ruling 00:53, 17 November 2006 (CST)

Smells like a sac build elite to me. Unlike Grenth's Balance this doesn't require your enemy to have higher health than you to steal health. Rhia Aryx 13:06, 25 October 2006 (CDT)

I think I misread the elite page, this is the only nigthfall only blood elite?! why?! Do they do skills in reverse alphabet and couldn't be botherd to think up a couple more skills for blood...~Quaz

6 attributes have only one elite nightfall skill. M s4 22:51, 9 June 2007 (CDT)

suggested build....im too lazy to test

this ,awaken the blood,veretas aura and A echo. use awaken the blood, echo aura, use ravenous, use the echoed aura, ravenous again

Spam Dark Pact and Blood of the Aggressor until under 50% health, then Ravenous. Repeat! Shido 18:17, 16 December 2006 (CST)

Or use infuse health. Hrm. 72.152.31.26

Using infuse is not always possible... LegendaryWalter 01:21, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

awaken the blood + rip enchantment = bloodmagic 18, curses 2 -> I sacrifice ~40% health instead of 54%, why ?

Awaken gives you +2 curses and your math is wrong? Dunno. --Fyren 21:01, 5 February 2007 (CST)

It's 50% more not 100% so that gives 27+13.5=40.5%. Titine 11:55, 6 February 2007 (CST)

PvE?

This skill can be rather viable in farming builds... Just cast Awaken the Blood, Blood Renewal, something like Wallow's Bite and Ravenous Gaze. Or just wait until damage gets your hp down to 40%. This'll work, unless you're dead long before you're able to cast it, of course...--Rickyvantof 10:19, 26 March 2007 (CDT)

If you mean group farming, AoE and heavily-triggerable stuff like Spiteful Spirit, minions etc are best, if you mean solo, then Spoil Victor does about the same amount of damage for every hit. Blood isn't that good for PvE due to the lack of AoE. Ravenous is a poor skill, seeing as how shadow strike does the same thing, but better. — Skuld 10:21, 26 March 2007 (CDT)

Cast glitch

After the update a little while ago where they added pet controls, the casting animation appears to be the "affect self" animation instead of the "target enemy" one, anyone else confirm? --Gimmethegepgun 17:06, 5 April 2007 (CDT)

Interesting combination with Blood Bond

I've seen some interesting results combining this skill with Blood Bond.

Blood Bond gives you a nice outlet for the health you're gaining from Ravenous Gaze, with the health degeneration it places on you being a useful means of keeping your health low.

It lets you cheaply spread high levels of long-lasting health regeneration across your entire party, which can be nice for helping out the healers in your party.

On the other hand, using this combination makes you quite vulnerable, and ravenous gaze isn't worth much at all if you're getting healed.

Shouldn't this be used to keep you alive instead of Saccing away until ur under 50%?

...crap what i said above 68.116.164.132 14:19, 9 June 2007 (CDT)

Note the recharge. By sacrificing health, you're going to be able to use the conditional effect a lot more often. --Kale Ironfist 22:56, 9 June 2007 (CDT)

sweet spike

3 monks standard cahnneling 5 n/mo infuse till your below half health then bam hit them with this.Mr Prash 20:42, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

Usualy costs 30 energy though, and is a hassle to coordinate, but yeah Zulu Inuoe 04:29, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

And im sure the other team will kindly sit there doing nothing while you all infuse your health dangerously low and then prepare to spike them ;/--Cobalt | Talk 14:16, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

He's right, having to lower your health in order to perform a spike is just asking for trouble. There are numerous spikes available that work well without having to intentionally kill yourself. Also, I think time has shown that GvG spiker teams don't work out too well because they are all confined to one area. I guess maybe in HA it could work..