The Sweltering Toxic Dragon (STD): Pressure, Spiking, and Degen all at once for PvE!

Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls, I present to you all a very powerful and effective build for PvE...the Sweltering Toxic Dragon (A.K.A. STD)! It involves you, a Primary Ranger, and three Warrior Heroes (hopefully, there should be three Warrior Heroes).

>>>You: Ranger/Monk<<<

Beast Mastery - 12 + 3 + 1
Expertise - 7 + 1
Wilderness Survival - 8 + 1
Marksmanship - 8 + 1

1.) Sweltering Heat (E)
2.) Toxicity
3.) Apply Poison
4.) Distracting Shot
5.) Savage Shot
6.) Troll Unguent
7.) Whirling Defense
8.) Rebirth

>>>Three Warrior/any Heroes<<<

Swordsmanship - 12 + 3 + 1
Strength - 12 + 3
Tactics - 3 + 1

1.) Dragon Slash (E)
2.) Lion's Might
3.) Flail
4.) Dolyak Signet
5.) Endure Pain
6.) Signet of Strength
7.) Warrior's Cunning
8.) Resurrection Signet

>>>The Concept<<<

So you've got a +42 damage Dragon Slash that costs 10 Adrenaline but gives you 5 if you hit. Then you've got Sweltering Heat that doubles all Adrenaline gained. So once your Warriors have reached 10 Adrenaline, they can spam Dragon Slash all day long until they miss.

Luckily, the Warriors have Warrior's Cunning so they don't miss that often, Flail for 33% IAS, Lion's Might for a nice self-heal, and Dolyak Signet and Endure Pain for survival. Of course, they'll be pretty much immobile, but this is PvE anyway.

As for you, the Ranger, you've got yourself another spirit, Toxicity, which at 16 Beast Mastery, gives a mighty fine -5 Degen to anybody who is Poisoned or Diseased. You've got Apply Poison to spread the toxic love, giving all of your enemies a nice -9 health degen. For interrupting, you have Distracting Shot and Savage Shot. To keep yourself alive, you have Troll Unguent and Whirling Defense.

So all in all, this Hero build will give your PvE enemies a nasty -9 degen (as long as you can keep up the Poison) and a clobbering from three Warriors and a very angry Dragon Slash.

Please read and review this build. Thank you very much in advance.

Are you sure Sweltering Heat doubles the 5 gained from Dragon Slash? Has anyone tried this?

dragonslash bonus does not double from sweltering

very interesting indeed

Imagine combining this with Zingeri's EYEWAY... Dragon Eye Poke!

Haven't tested it with Sweltering Heat, but it definitely doesn't work with Battle Rage's doubling. I'd imagine the same would hold true for Sweltering.

Enraged Smash, on the other hand, works fine if you don't mind the slower attack speed and loss of a shield, or the higher adrenal skill commitment.

Whirling Axe would work with Sweltering Heat as well. Also, I know Furious works with Dragon Slash's extra adrenaline, why wouldn't Sweltering Heat?

For Battle Rage: It specifically notes that it only doubles the adrenaline gotten from Attacking, no other sources.

For Sweltering Heat: It specifically notes that it only doubles "gained" adrenaline, therefore shouldnt (and doesnt from their tests...) work on adrenaline just "Given" to you from skills like Dragon Slash, or Furious Axe

(I know the game lists all adrenaline gotten as "you gain x adrenaline", but obviously the game treats adrenaline you earn through attacking/being hit and adrenaline you are just given from a skill as different sources)

Huh, that's interesting. Shows you just how much I use that <_<

Sweltering Heat only doubles adren from attacking - it works like For Great Justice and all the other effects that say 'double' but really just give you an additional strike. You can't chain Dragon Slash into itself with the skill up.

However, you can chain Dragon Slash -> Sun and Moon Slash -> Dragon Slash indefinitely. Dragon Slash charges itself to 7 strikes (5 from the ability, 2 from the hit) and Sun and Moon also gains 7 on top of the 4 it will already have from charging itself...firing that off discharges Dragon back down to 6, but it gains 4 from the hits, getting you back up to 10 to use it again.

Sun and Moon Slash is crack under Sweltering Heat, go nuts with it.

Peace,
-CxE

^ what ensign said. I use For Great Justice along with dragon slash a lot. It doesn't give me 10 strikes of adrenaline. I don't see how sweltering heat will be any different.

Why would "For Great Justice!" give you ten strikes of adrenaline? The extra 5 adrenaline from Dragon Slash would be upped to 7 (FGJ rounds down) strikes, not 10.

And FGJ DOES increase adrenaline gained from Dragon Slash and Auspicious Parry. Just checked GuildWiki.

it looks nice enough, but what happens when you get hexes (or even worse a condition that will trigger Toxicity on you)

Well obviously you'll have to bring a two-monk backline to support your Dragon Slashers. I mean, who doesn't bring hex and condition removal?