Feel free to tear it apart. I've been taking on groups of four with this. Anything more gets a bit rough. Haven't managed to beat five but have only tried a few times. They mostly got me with aftershock while I was charging healing signet. I'm sure this isn't a major achievement, but I enjoy it. XD
If anyone has any tips on improving it that would be lovely.
Gladiator's Defense [Elite] (Tactics)
For 10 seconds, you have a 75% chance to block incoming attacks. Whenever you block a melee attack this way, the attacker suffers 29 damage.
Energy:5 Cast:0 Recharge:30
Bonetti's Defense (Tactics)
For 10 seconds, you have a 75% chance to "block" incoming melee attacks and arrows. You gain 5 Energy for each successful melee attack blocked. Bonetti's Defense ends if you use a skill.
Adrenaline:8
Shield Stance (Tactics)
For 18 seconds, while wielding a shield, you have a 75% chance to "block" incoming attacks, but you move 33% slower.
Energy:5 Cast:0 Recharge:45
Seeking Blade (Swordsmanship)
If this attack hits you strike for +16 damage. If Seeking Blade is "evaded," your target begins Bleeding and takes 16 damage. Seeking Blade cannot be "blocked."
Energy:5 Cast:0 Recharge:4
Pure Strike (Swordsmanship)
If Pure Strike hits, you strike for +24 damage. If you are not using a Stance, Pure Strike cannot be "blocked" or "evaded."
Energy:5 Cast:0 Recharge:8
Deadly Riposte (Tactics)
For 8 seconds, while you have a sword equipped, you "block" the next attack against you, and your attacker takes 63 damage and begins Bleeding for 21 seconds.
Energy:5 Cast:0 Recharge:10
Mending (Healing Prayers)
While you maintain this Enchantment, target ally gains +2 Health regeneration.
Energy:10 Cast:2 Recharge:0
Healing Signet (Tactics)
You gain 130 Health. You have -40 armor while using this skill.
Energy:0 Cast:2 Recharge:4
I have 3 in healing prayers for the +2 mending. +3 takes 8 or something and it's not worth it.
So I put mending on as soon as I enter Diviner's. There are two drakes that always spawn at the entrance as you probably know, so they are my example. I run straight in, and start attacking, with nothing on but mending yet. They take a moment to cast Earth Attunement and Ward against Melee, neither of which matter to me, as I'll be killing them pretty quick. Once the wards are up they start attacking properly, at which point I throw up Gladiator's Defense, and let it do it's work until it wears off. Just before it ends I throw up Shield Stance, then hit the one I'm attacking with Deadly Riposte then Seeking Blade, then Pure Strike in quick succession. This takes a hell of a lot of health off. I wait a few seconds to let Gladiators Recharge a bit, then I hit Bonetti's Defense, and start regaining energy. Once it's built up again (very quickly), Gladiators will be recharged. I switch targets, trigger Gladiators again, and run through the strike sequence again. Deadly, Seeking, Pure. At this point they are dead. If they are not, just recycle until they are. With more targets you need to use the defenses and shield stance in a slightly different rhythm, but it's not hard to figure out.
Healing Signet is there just in case. The best time to use it is while in Gladiators or Bonettis is up, when your only real worry is their Aftershock hitting you while you're charging it. This generally does nothing more than cancel out the effect though.
Other points: Avoid the three Rockshot Devourers that spawn near the first two Drakes. You don't need to kill them and they will prove tricky with this build. Blind messes up your life. Any other solo Rockshots that spawn around the place, you can take them out easily. Even with blind on just keep recycling through the stances and defenses, getting energy back with Bonetti's, and damaging with Gladiator's, which will probably be your only source of damage being blind most of the time.
Lastly, if any scarabs spawn, run away... like your life depends on it... because it does. They will trash you. At least they always trash me.
Here's a lovely pic of me beating the crap out of the boss that generally spawns in the middle of the first large section. Just after this four scarabs spawned near a chest I opened and murdered me when I tried to kill them instead of run! XD
Use watchful spirit instead of mending if you must have an enchant. Healing Signet is enough healing even against 3 drakes. Don't use it against multiple devourers, you can fake out one easily enough.
I find myself wanting energy no matter which weapon I run, but zealous isn't really a must if you're cautious with your energy. Elemental weapons do a lot more damage to the drakes than non-elemental.
Also, I don't see any Strength skills on your bar, so you can drop that to 0 (and get healing to 8 if you want a +3 mending) and save yourself some health.. alternatively, pump your weapon to 16 and kill faster. I'd run a 12/12/12 build as 11+1, 10+2, 10+1+1 so you don't have to use a superior either.
Also, why pure strike if you're going to be in stances? Gryphon's sweep will at least knock down and you've got 12 in strength already.
Just one suggestion: if you've got 12 tactics, I'd say take riposte instead of pure strike. 60-70 dmg or whatever its. Gorgeous. Plus, it is less drain on your energy. Seeing as you've only got one other adrenal skill (bonetti's) I don't think you'll need to worry about not having enough adren to throw up bonetti's when you need it.
Just my 2 cents.
P.S. if you drop mending for dolyak and drop pure strike for riposte, you've got one of the popular drok's troll farming builds. Just throw up both riposte's before the healing sig to block their disrupting chops. FYI!
To answer a few points. I use Pure Strike only becaus I have very few other sword skills as yet. I will quickly be getting Gryphon's Sweep though, on your advice. This is my first warrior character, having two other level 20's, and I ascended her in a day, from beginning, so I kind of skipped out on skill quests a little, which I am going back to do now. Also spent all the money I have on her armor and runes. XD
The reason I set strength so high, was for the armor penetration. Is this worthwhile at all? It seemed to me that it would make my attacks far more powerful, but in hindsight it doesn't seem to have a great deal of extra effect.
To be honest the build would probably work without an enchant, but I like the security of that +2 mending for some reason. The problem with Healing Signet against the Drakes, is that they like to use Aftershock while you're charging it, which hits you for decent damage with the -40 armor, and almost makes it a complete waste of time when this happens. It's perfect when this doesn't happen, but if you are fighting four of them, it's pretty likely.
I will definitely try out Watchful Spirit, and replace Pure Strike with Gryphon's Sweep, which I assume is a Strength skill, and therefore would justify those AP. I will use my FDS also, for elemental damage, and see how it works out.
I soloed almost the whole map of Silverwood with this build also, only stopping because I got very bored, and had a full inventory. Again probably not a massive achievement, but at one point I was taking on at 8/9 Maguuma Centaurs at once, and watching the numbers fly up from Gladiators was a lot of fun. Not a single death on that run, and a surprisingly good return in cash and drops.
Honestly I have never wanted for energy with this build, even against four of the Drakes. The rhythm of it works out great, with Bonetti's recharging all the energy you need for the next offensive. A Zealous hilt wouldn't hurt though. Can you Zealous an FDS?
Would love an opinion on whether strength is worthwhile solely for armor penetration. If not, will probably drop it altogether and boost my weapon.
The reason I set strength so high, was for the armor penetration. Is this worthwhile at all? It seemed to me that it would make my attacks far more powerful, but in hindsight it doesn't seem to have a great deal of extra effect.
Honestly I have never wanted for energy with this build, even against four of the Drakes. The rhythm of it works out great, with Bonetti's recharging all the energy you need for the next offensive. A Zealous hilt wouldn't hurt though. Can you Zealous an FDS?
Would love an opinion on whether strength is worthwhile solely for armor penetration. If not, will probably drop it altogether and boost my weapon.
Well, this thread: http://forums.gwonline.net/showthread.php?t=393466
says that armor penetration only works with attack skills and does not stack. oy. If that's true, strength is a lot less useful! But I don't know for sure. Still, I usually drop my strength unless I'm using strength skills.
Didn't think about bonetti's recharging your energy. Good point. But riposte might still do more dmg. :)
Strength doesn't affect normal attacks, so it's basically a repository for unused points after you're done with the important stuff (unless you run Rush, Battle Rage, or Dolyak Signet).
Dolyak Signet's an option, but moving around like a slug isn't really for me except on the high-risk FoW spider run. I take on 3 drakes max at a time (4 pushes it quite a bit because I'm dodging wards enough with 3) which is fine, since they come in groups of one or two. Cheers on making a build that works - that's better than half of the people who come in here and go "lolz make build 4 me".
There we go, Ele resistance to deal with the Aftershocks, Dolyak to reduce the damage further and stop knock downs. You can use you Healing Signet without taking silly damage, should still be getting adrenaline from the hits with Seeking if the Wards mess you up and you're ripostes for damage. I've even neglected to use an elite and given you a spare slot for whatever you want.
Admittedly it might need some energy management, but I won't know that till I've tried.
Attributes, um...10-ish in Str, 15-16 in Tactics, 11-12 Sword and remainder in Inspiration.
Just be sure your stance and Dolyak are up when you use Healing Signet and you should be ultra safe!
Devourers could be a pain and that's why Sprint may be a good choice for the spare.
I can't promise this'll work but it's roughly how I'd go about it, I'll try it and let you guys know tonight after work.
Able to easily take on 6-7, aggroing any more than that is problematic as they don't follow you that far and the groups are spread out.
Takes about 2 mins to take 6 down and my health was never in any real danger. Both Ele boss and Warrior boss went down, in fact the warrior boss I took with 4-5 other drakes sniffing about and still proved surprisingly easy.
With Ele resistance up you could prolly branch out to Hydras that are in Diviners Ascent.
I finally came a cropper trying to aggro 7 Drakes and a wurm popped up. Lasted about a minute and killed one drake before I was eating sand :p The wurm on it's own you could take with ripostes, but with all those drakes it was too much.
Damage output is ok, not stellar. I don't think i got my money's worth with Gash, so you could sub that out as it only really provided an occassional finisher.
Attributes: Str 10, Sword 9 (without rune, I was lazy), Tactics 15, Inspiration 4
Obligatory screenies:
I am not using any stance to take advantage of Pure Strike. I was using Seeking Blade instead of Deadly Riposte at first, to make better use of Flourish, but Deadly Riposte does so much more damage...
I dont bother to kite the drakes out of their wards with this build, I just go up to them, Dolyak Signet, use Deadly Riposte, Pure Strike, Griffon Sweep and Flourish, Riposte when it is available, Healing Signet if needed while Flourish is in its first half of recharge. Repeat.
Energy management is better when Seeking Blade replaces Deadly Riposte, but the damage is better with Deadly Riposte and the energy management is still not too bad with the latter. It makes for a nice change of pace.
Linear Mode
