PVE A/W Builds?

Fragile Feeling

Fragile Feeling

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jan 2008

Mo/

Hey, I am just experimenting with my assassin, I have tried the MS/DB, Crit Barrage, and am currently trying Crit Scythe, which is pretty fun. My question is are there any A/W builds that use either a sword or an axe? I just think that a sin would look really great with a sword or axe.

FoxBat

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Apr 2006

Amazon Basin [AB]

Mo/Me

Any generic axe build is OK-ish with Way of the Master. Throw on cyclone and triple chop for good times.

MrGuildBoi

MrGuildBoi

Desert Nomad

Join Date: May 2006

A/

http://www.pvxwiki.com/wiki/Build:A/W_PvE_Critical_Axe

Not really fun though

Fragile Feeling

Fragile Feeling

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jan 2008

Mo/

Yea, that is the main thing I was thinking of; would it be fun? The scythe is fun because you can deal massive damage. I just would love to see my sin with a gothic dual axe and darkwing defender :P

Oh, and I just realized that I accidentally posted this thread twice. Sorry about that, my browser decided to screw up.

Axel Zinfandel

Axel Zinfandel

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Sep 2007

Northeastern Ohio

LaZy

P/W

perhaps something based on a hammer for something new? offhand I can think of, perhaps, a crit hammer build based around Whirlwind attack, Crude Swing (if you feel up to it) and something like Enraged Smash or any of the other elites

Fragile Feeling

Fragile Feeling

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jan 2008

Mo/

Yea maybe, I think the damage would be good, but it probably wouldn't be at a good enough speed. I might explore a little more into different sin builds once I get it through some campaigns.

Nathaniel (Was 'ere)

Nathaniel (Was 'ere)

Academy Page

Join Date: Jan 2009

A/

I once tried a crit hammer with Earthshaker before I realised it didn't do damage to the other enemies it hit.. Though it might work with lots of energy AoE hammer attacks and Earthshaker for smexeh KD.
What about a crit axe with Decapitate?

Unreal Havoc

Guest

Join Date: Dec 2007

[Way of the Master][Critical Agility][For Great Justice][Hundred Blades][Whirlwind Attack][Wild Blow][Optional][Resurrection Signet]

Well.. it works.

Fragile Feeling

Fragile Feeling

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jan 2008

Mo/

Yea, It would work, but I'm not sure if it would be very practical. You would have to wait for your adrenaline skills just to deal damage. I guess what I like about my current Crit Scythe build is that wounding strike recharges fast, and so do most of my other attacks.

Silversword22

Silversword22

Academy Page

Join Date: May 2007

AZ

Brotherhood of Feklaar

P/W

Yay!!

[earth shaker][crushing blow][crude swing][whirlwind attack][critical agility][critical defense][way of the master][for great justice]

[asuran scan][sun and moon slash][whirlwind attack][hundred blades][critical agility][critical defense][way of the master][for great justice]

[asuran scan][cleave][dismember][executioner's strike][whirlwind attack][critical agility][way of the master][for great justice]

faraaz

Banned

Join Date: Feb 2008

India

Hey Mallyx [icU]

A/

An A/W build without [Save Yourselves!] is a fail build IMO.

zling

zling

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Apr 2006

why would you want to play your assassin with all possible weapons? if you want a Sword/Axe wielder why not play a Warrior? no other profession is as good with these weapons as a Warrior Imho.
well, Crit Barrager, Crit Scyther, Crit Spear Thrower, WE Scyther, Thumper(Hammer Ranger), Spear Ranger, Dagger Ranger, etc are all *good* builds that include an off profession weapon. they have their advantages and disadvantages over using the weapon's primary profession instead. note how most of these weapons(all but Hammers to be exact) are Factions/Nightfall weapons? the Warrior class is just too established with its own weapons and is the most efficient with them. hence you dont see any serious Sword/Axe wielding non Warrior.
P.S caster weapons(+5/20% or +5/+30) excluded for obvious reasons...

Stealth Bomberman

Stealth Bomberman

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Oct 2008

[keen chop] needs to be in there i think.

trankle

trankle

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Oct 2005

BloodBath & Beyond

Rt/

Quote:
Originally Posted by zling View Post
why would you want to play your assassin with all possible weapons? if you want a Sword/Axe wielder why not play a Warrior? no other profession is as good with these weapons as a Warrior Imho.
well, Crit Barrager, Crit Scyther, Crit Spear Thrower, WE Scyther, Thumper(Hammer Ranger), Spear Ranger, Dagger Ranger, etc are all *good* builds that include an off profession weapon. they have their advantages and disadvantages over using the weapon's primary profession instead. note how most of these weapons(all but Hammers to be exact) are Factions/Nightfall weapons? the Warrior class is just too established with its own weapons and is the most efficient with them. hence you dont see any serious Sword/Axe wielding non Warrior.
P.S caster weapons(+5/20% or +5/+30) excluded for obvious reasons... Pssst. This is for PvE. In PvE, you can't change your primary profession.

If a player has an Assassin as his main, and is working on a Vanquisher or Guardian title, it makes very little sense to suggest to him that if he wants to play with an axe, he roll a Warrior.

I just got done vanquishing Prophecies with my Sin, and I used a variety of builds. For Eastern Frontier, with all of the Grawl healers, I found that the most effective thing for me to do was to run an Earthshaker Sin. It worked beautifully. And never once did I hear a Grawl yell with its dying breath "Yeah but it would have been slightly more effective on a Warrior!".

I also ran a MoP Nuker Sin through much of hex-heavy HM Kryta. Would a Necro have run it slightly more effectively? You bet. But what matters is that a MoP Sin can run at least well enough to Vanquish the area. And in practice, it sliced through areas like Twin Serpent Lakes and Stingray Strand.

I agree that with axes and swords, their lower max damages make them less attractive when compared to a good dagger build. But hammers, with their high max (and crit) damage and KD potential, are very well utilized on an Assassin. That said, there's really no problem running an axe/sword Sin, as long as it's getting the job done, and squeezing out all the damage potential it can.

Shadowmere

Shadowmere

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jan 2007

The Grim Squeakers [REAP]

N/

I play around with differen't weapon builds for my sin in pve all the time and the only weapon I've yet to find that is truley hard to make effective for a sin is the sword.

In the case of axes triple chop/whirlwind/cyclone is quite good actually, and I daresay sins run it with more effeciency than a war due to no energy issues from spamming the energy req attacks. As far as damage rating vs scythe it won't deal that kind of damage...in fact I don't know of any martial weapon builds that can reach that kind of damage honestly.

But one thing a cyclone axe sin does have over the scythe sin is AoE, while the scythe has some minor inherent AoE this will allow you to hit everything around you, it also synergizes with things like splinter weapon a bit better than MS/DB spam due to the fact that you're actually striking the foes around you with attacks instead of just damage (correct me if I'm wrong on that one but I believe DB AoE damage isn't counted as attacks)

and yeah [keen chop] is amazing for any sin axe build, but particular it works rather well alonside [wild blow] with [dark apostasy] for areas where you need non-traditional enchant removal and need a lot of it (rare I know but still)

Anwyn

Banned

Join Date: Feb 2009

YaRR Bear Pirates

P/W

Granted, I'm just saying, there's no need to be cookie cutting if you don't want to... My point was also that not haveing SY in the build does not mean you've failed at build making... What if he was running A/E, would you say he failed at build making cos he chose /E and not /W to spam SY???

Anwyn

Banned

Join Date: Feb 2009

YaRR Bear Pirates

P/W

Lus, my main is Paragon, I fully understand party support and the benefits of SY, I run imbagon in most high end areas and a command or motivation build with SY in lower areas... I'm just sayingthat peopl have this conception that if you're W/ or /W you HAVE to fun SY else your build sucks and you're a noob...That's what I dissagree with...

faraaz

Banned

Join Date: Feb 2008

India

Hey Mallyx [icU]

A/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anwyn View Post
Very narrow minded! Just cos you got /w don't mean you have to now become an SY bot... How does extracting all the synergy I possibly can from a profession combination make me narrowminded? You dont see P/E imbagons do you? I could argue that using [There's Nothing To Fear] with [They're on Fire] and [Searing Flames] as an elite powered by the ub3r brok3n leadership energy management people keep on waffling about in the Paragon subforum is JUST as good as [Save Yourselves!] and I'm being narrowminded by wanting to run /W.

Its called common sense.

PS: I just read your latest post. WTF? If you claim to be "too good" for SY! I'd happily call you a list of things, least of which, would be noob.

Zamochit

Zamochit

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Jul 2006

N/A

I've always liked [skill]Rush[/skill] on my sin, with critical agility and rush its like primal rage without the double damage. Sometimes I just want to leave save yourselves at home.

Super Igor

Banned

Join Date: Mar 2008

why should you kno? Oo

A/W

That was long time ago nobody cares, no point going /W and not having SY!

[build prof=a/w box crit=14 axe=12][critical agility][way of the master][asuran scan][triple chop][cyclone axe][dismember][executioner's strike][save yourselves!][/build]
[build prof=a/w box crit=14 hammer=12][critical agility][way of the master][critical eye][enraged smash][brawling headbut][crushing blow][protector's strike][save yourselves!][/build]
-yay hammer crit pew pew!
[build prof=a/w box crit=14 sword=12][critical agility][way of the master][critical eye][hundred blades][whirlwind attack][sun and moon slash][for great justice!][save yourselves!][/build]

voila!

Super Igor

Banned

Join Date: Mar 2008

why should you kno? Oo

A/W

I'm not narrow minded, creativity fo the sake of creativity is stupidity stop being stupid.

Anwyn

Banned

Join Date: Feb 2009

YaRR Bear Pirates

P/W

OK...

So, we've shown that the only use a warrior or /w has in PVE GW is SY, if you not runing it, then you're a noob and yourbuild fails... am I right?

fireflyry

fireflyry

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Jan 2007

New Zealand

A/D

SY being the schizzle to the izzle ma nizzle is cold hard fact....not opinion.

Not running it on a class that can easily spam it almost as much as Imbagon and DSlash is gimping yourself.

Fun for some, not really for others.

fireflyry

fireflyry

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Jan 2007

New Zealand

A/D

Sure you can, it just takes way longer and you die more.

Anwyn

Banned

Join Date: Feb 2009

YaRR Bear Pirates

P/W

Not really, I don't die any more/less with either SY or none... My monks just just idle more with SY and do mor healing without it... PVE it eay in both NM and HM in 90% of the areas, SY is not essential IMO...

Anyway, going home, done plying tennis for now... have a good weekend all...

faraaz

Banned

Join Date: Feb 2008

India

Hey Mallyx [icU]

A/

You aren't challenging my opinion with yours...you are stating your opinion as fact.

There is a difference.

Nathaniel (Was 'ere)

Nathaniel (Was 'ere)

Academy Page

Join Date: Jan 2009

A/

'SY!' is very useful. And very effective in a Sin build that doesn't involve other adrenaline based skills, but in a build that you're gonna be using lots of adrenaline in then it's not as effective because of the adrenaline demand of your other skills.
I really wanna see a Decapitate Sin that works, anyway someone could make it work? I've tried and it sort of almost works, but the energy is still bad, even with me packing Crit Strikes.

Bobby2

Bobby2

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Jun 2007

Delayed in order to meet ANet's high standards

[MaSS]

W/E

That's because Decap is a terrible skill. Replace it with Eviscerate and have fun.

Nathaniel (Was 'ere)

Nathaniel (Was 'ere)

Academy Page

Join Date: Jan 2009

A/

Because that was constructive?
If I'm gonna have to cap it for a title I wan to at least get it to work in RA or something. I play for fun, so I want to play a fun, uncommon build.

Bobby2

Bobby2

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Jun 2007

Delayed in order to meet ANet's high standards

[MaSS]

W/E

If your idea of fun is screwing yourself over in the worst ways possible, then go for it.

Seriously.

Tyla

Emo Goth Italics

Join Date: Sep 2006

Decapitate is just Eviscerate with an autocrit and roughly 20 damage added on, with all of your energy and adrenaline jumping off after usage. I'd rather save my weaponslots so I have more versatility without having to pop into my inventory every two seconds.