New GvG Craze: Triple Smiting

Yesterday the Dreadful Dead got beat by a top 100 team running:
3 Ranger/Warriors with Hammers (Bunny Thumpers)
3 Monk/Mesmer Smiters using Air of Enchanting
1 Monk/Mesmer Prot Boon
1 Necro/Monk Utility with Tainted Flesh, Infuse Health, Heal Other

Basically the way the build works is that the 3 R/W with their pets line up side by side and plow through your team like a giant lawnmower.

Here is how the damage looks:
Balthzar's Aura = 26 Damage per second
Zealot's Fire = 37 Damage per second
Hammer Attacks with Tiger's Fury = 23 Damage per second
Pet Attacks = 15 Damage per second
Disease from Tainted Flesh = 8 Damage per second

Combined that equals 109 Damage per second. With 3 pairs of R/W's & Smiters you get 321 Damage per second! Balthazars can only be up 1/2 the time, but even without it the damage is incredible!

Add in Hammer skills, Pet Attack Skills, and Smite Hex and you have some big spike damage to add to the mix.

The main trouble with facing Triple Smiting is the volume of damage. There are several counters for both smiters & R/W Bunny Thumpers. The trouble is having enough of them in your build to stop triple smiting.

There is a thread here on the Team-IQ forums with counters. Here are the counters that look best to me:

1) Run Triple Smite yourself! This seems like the most logical counter to me!

2) Bring a Ritualist. Shelter, Union, Shadowsong, & Displacement work to reduce the damage and keep the R/W blinded so they don't get knockdowns.

3) Bring multiple Mesmers. Diversion is great for slowing down Smiters. The R/W's have no self heals, so Degen + interupting the Monk & Necro can work if you figure out a way to survive the damage (see #2 above). Enchantment removal might also work, but the problem is that there are too many enchantments and the key ones get covered up.

A Well of Profane could be useful, but on most maps the opposing team can go right around a well. It also requires a corpse. Perhaps a pet or a Flesh Golum could provide a moveable corpse. A Well of Profane could also help protect the Guild Lord Area. I would also bet that the Necro carries Corpse Explosion.

4) Win the movement game. Generally the only speed buff on a Triple Smite team is Charge on one of the R/W's. You can use Assassins to get to their back line or sneak into their base. You can use Traps, Crippling Shot Rangers, or Water Ele's to slow their movement (but beware of Smite Hex).

It should be noted that splitting doesnt work so well against Triple Smite. If you split 4/4 they will send all 6 damagers to your Guild Lord and their Monk & Necro back to defend their Guild Lord. If the split becomes a race to kill a Guild Lord, they will win! They can also demolish both Bodyguards before they cast their second spell!

5) Feast of Corruption build with both Defile Enchantments & Desecrate Enchantments. Both Defile & Desecrate Enchantments do extra damage for each enchantment on a target. The AOE Shadow damage should work very nicely for a wall of R/W's and their pets!

As with all builds, there will be good and bad teams running this build. Good teams will prove resistant to most counters, and bad teams will get easily snared, split up or countered.

Hopefully some of these counters will prove useful, as I expect we will see more and more teams running this build for the next few weeks. http://www.theamazonbasin.com/gw/forums/index.php?showtopic=6049