Some light RA fun build W/N Executioner

Just ran this after being away from GW for so long. No need to rip it apart as this is RA we're talking about but I've gotten more win streaks with this build for 2 hours than any of my previous builds [this includes having no monk for all my RA teams]

Streak as in 4wins +, not 10 wins like you crazy leet pros. I do have a day job, night school, and several reports and projects to do, but for one who's just casually playing, it turned out quite good.

Someone accused me of being a wiki noob. Ah well, I think anyone who loses and then shouts 'noob' needs to re-evaluate their IQ as well as their vocabulary.

16 Axe Mastery
13 Tactics [omg]
3 Curses
(all bonus runes inclusive)

Disrupting Chop, Eviscerate {E}, Axe Rake, Swift Chop, Healing Signet, Flail, Rend Enchantments, Res Signet (can use Plague Touch for AB for more madness)

Methodology:

We're missing some 'staples' that makes things a little bit more challenging but I'll explain the rationale. NO SPRINT/RUSH, YOU NOOOB! Well, first off, I hate frenzy's drawback as much as the next person and a warrior does have a choice between a snare and a speed skill. (even moreso in RA since you're not guarunteed a condition removal monk). So, in favor of more damage, I've chosen Axe Rake to be part of my Spike. And since cripped foes move slower than a Flailing warrior, it's win win.

"BUT FLAIL TELEGRAPHS YOUR SPIKE AND THEY'LL JUST RUN AWAY". Yes that's true, it does. If you execute flail in mid swing, you can do Evis., Axe Rake before the foe might notice it. [they have to be targetting you to know what you're doing as far as a stance is concerned and have less than 3 seconds to start running, since wars aren't that big of a priority, I rarely run into that issue]

Cripple Covers Deep Wound. That's a little thing that means a lot to my style of play ^_^

"FLAIL IS BARELY 5 SECONDS" I spike, I don't do DPS. I only need a few seconds of IAS to do my thing. I can use flail on hard targets to build adrenaline then change targets. Nothing like hitting a warrior who thinks he's the bomb only to charge his caster teammate and rip him in two.

"NO EXECUTIONER'S STRIKE MEANS YOU SUCK". True, I do 21 less damage with Swift Chop than Executioner's strike, but I do 121 more damage with Swift Chop than an Exe. Strike that's blocked. It's one of 2 5e. skills on the bar and is useful blocked OR not blocked. A great skill for this purpose.

"REND SHOULD BE ON A CASTER YOU WANNABE NECRO!!". This is PvP RA. You're not guarunteed a teammate who'll rape the Prot monk randomly thrown on the bad guy's team. Rend doesn't need 12 in curses as well to be effective but I do like the damage reduction some curses lends. [prot monks are VERY heavy enchant users if you didn't get the memo] I've also found it rapes assassins who think they're invincible using Critical Defenses. Then they say I'm a weirdo who brings rend AFTER I rape them so hard they're dead in 2 seconds... The updated rend with 5e. 1s. casting time is HOT for demolishing defenses and your melee / phys attacking teammates will love you for it.

Total damage on 60 AL when spiked? 300+ assuming Evis. and another axe attack skill crits. Can this build kill a poorly prepared caster? You bet your ass. Can it destroy a well prepared caster, you can bet limbs on that too.

It does fall to the dreaded Anti-Warrior Conditions and hexes, but that's the tradeoff you're going to take.

Build Failsafes:

I was running it with Lion's Comfort but since it gimps my res sig when I need it most 110% of the time, I chucked it. Under heavy degen, running from the fight and then heal sigging has allowed my team to get Flawless victories. [when you have <40 hp and are being left alone while poisoned, bleeding, and diseased, heal sig = savior]

Swift Chop works in any scenario. Furious Axe doesn't give much help when blocked and allows you to change targets with extra adrenaline. Ok... spamming SC every four seconds on a blocker may not accomplish much, but it's what you got if they're stancing [stances don't last long thank goodness and your Deep Wound is very very dangerous stanced or not]

Rend should pretty much be used on anything with a yellow arrow. Monks are priority of course, followed by other casters, sins [who thrive on this usually, funny watching a sin either tele out or drop dead after being rended], Paragons, rangers, then mending warriors [lol]

Possible substitutes?

If you switch Axe Rake for Sprint/rush, you'll be losing out on a cover condition and a tiny bit of extra damage. I don't like that trade off with my play style. I'll take any tiny bit of damage for a spike over running faster. [again, assuming RA where condition removal isn't guarunteed] however, even with low strength, there's more than enough run time in there to ensure a swift death.

Healing Sig > all, don't switch it.

Plague Touch for Rend. VERY nifty for you wars who want to run 4 curses and rest to strength. I thought it was cool till they started getting knee deep in prot and regen enchants. Those sucked. But if you want to raise your own survivability [which isn't on my list of to do's] then PT should work for your style. I think Healing Sig is fine and even if you get DW'ed, your survivability is greater than any other class with a DW anyway.

Rigor Mortis. Whoa nelly. This allows you to ditch that piddly Swift Chop for the manly man (or womanly woman) skill, EXECUTIONER'S STRIKE. With this on your bar, unless you're hexed / conditioned, no enemy in this game can avoid your spike (barring hex removal), which is now stronger since you've brought Exe. muahaha! But why would I still bring Rend you ask? Enchants prove more of a threat to me than blocking since they can actually increase their damage output [bad for your team], decrease your damage output [bad for you], and lessen degen [bad for bleed, hexes] Rend has more advantages than Rigor mortis in my eyes and can run VERY well at 0 curses if you wish.

Your achilles heel will ultimately be hexes and conditions like any other warrior so you shouldn't attack when under Empathy, XX - of Failure hexes, etc. One fight had me pretty much shut down for 45 seconds. I chose the safer route, hid behind a wall and healing sigged my hp back from the hexes I was buried under.

What are your thoughts and if you're campaign exclusive [say, you ONLY have factions or only Prophesies], what would you sub in?

Sounds great, [skill=text]rend enchantments[/skill] would be nice when playing in an area where you can't count on a team mate to bring an enchant removal. What do you think about [skill=text]strip enchantment[/skill]? I know it removes just one enchantment and cost 5 more energy, but it gives you a health return and has only a 10 second recast time.

W/D with Rending touch > rend enchants, bulls strike if played properly would be better than axe rake, and you honestly need some form of speed boost to cancel out of flail, especially in PvP.

10 win streaks arnt hard, and dont take long.
we set my best friends little brother up with a BA ranger and he got 8 wins lol

u should scrap half this build

Quote: