W/E pvp help

Being an old Diablo II dueler, I'm pretty psyked with this game. (had a killer throw barb). Anyways my first attemp at making a GW's char was a little lame wasn't sure what attributes to put into my W/E plus I got to the post burn part of the game to quick....So I started over......Im just puting points into strenght and swordship right now. Was going to go for fire on the elemental side.....not sure what the best skills are to load up on...I'm only interested in duels or arena battles and some team play but mainly pvp. Any sugestions for a W/E pvp buil would be kool....maby later I'll try something more creative like a W/M but right now I want to make a W/E. pvp..Thanx

So many choices....

Fiery Dragon Sword + conjure flames is a classic, and combined with spells like Pheonix is as damaging as any class combo in the game.

Hammer + Earth magic is popular, working around knocking people down and hurting them for being there. Earth Magic also has some great defensive spells, making you very hard to kill.

Water magic can be used for Armour of Mist (defence and speed), the ever useful water trident (to knockdown fleeing foes), and some nice spells to slow the enemy so you can close for the kill easily.

As a general note, think carefully about whether you will use a shield or a focus object in your off hand (with a sword or axe). Chances are that extra energy will be more useful to you than more armour. If you do use a focus, then Tactics becomes a less important attribute, allowing you to concentrate on Strength, a weapon skill and an element.

As a lvl 12 W/e

I personally use a focus item +6 energy and other little add ons.

I do have a sheild which i will swap out depending on grp.

The best way i find is to put some points into fire and some into water.

But as in all the game the choice is entierly flexible.

Water is the freeze type end of spells and give some nice initial dmg followed by a hex which is usually some form of restricted movement.

Fire is the dmg dealing one. out and out bump it up as much as possbile.

Some bits in Air but more whats left over

Rest i have in Axe and strength. Tatics is 2 or something so not really bothering too much with it

Fireball gets very tasty and the more points u put in the more dmg you do with all spells that use fire.

My tatic -
whirlwind - air one knockdown
ice shards or similar - slows and small dmg AOE and quick casting
Fireball or erption or lava storm - fireball straight single dmg, other 2 DOTs.
then smack with axe till dead

Doesnt always work but at very least annoys them, it all depends on team your in and so on as always. But thats me if helps in anyway.

lvl 20 W/E here and I use Conjue Flame to buff my Dragon Sword and Immolation to deal damage. Im happy with that combo, its purely offensive and relies on a good monk or two but im having a great time dishing out huge damage. Against casters I deal over 100 damage with Final Thrust. The Sever, Gash, Galrath and Final Thrust combo is so deadly with the added fire damage. Immolation is great to use on fleeing targets or just general spam. I actually found that i can win vs Wa/Mo despite their healing just because my damage output is higher.

Im very happy with this character but it really just depends on what you want to play and what task you want to fullfill most for your team. For me its huge melee damage kind of assassin style.

W/E is the most Damaging class in the Game Mathmatically so you chose good if thats your style

I'm playing a W/E 20 right now though the after Ascension material and I have a few things...

Once you get to Lion's Arch your character starts to really get defined, before LA you don't have the one thing that Defines a W/E(fire) ...

Conjure flame.. provided you have a fire weapon equiped, every single hit you make gets free bonus damage... usually around 8-10 by the time you finish your build...

Now for Fire weapons, you don't need to buy one of those massively expensive dragonswords, buy a 15-22 with +15% while enchanted, and get a fire hilt, you'll save about 3-10 grand =P

Anyway Now since the bonus is per-hit you'll want to add something to your bar that makes you swing faster. you have 3 options, one you already have.

Frenzy +33% attack speed, but take double damage (this is the undisputed king of damage, but it comes at a risk, use it only when your enemey doesn't care about you.) Like in most PvP

Flurry +33% attack Speed but deal less damage , it seems to be about -20% damage as far as I can calculate- this one is usually best for a W/E using conjure in PvE as you usually end up tanking

Berserk Stance +33% Attack speed, extra Adrenaline on hit, but it has 2 downsides, one, if you use any skill, poof, it goes away (not a big deal) and 2, its recast time unlike frenzy and flurry, is 30 seconds... its pretty long.

ok now you have a Way of attacking faster, but what to do with all that adrenaline.
Being sword you can use the "holy trinity" of adrenaline skills..
Sever Artery, Gash, and Final Thrust.

You get Final Thrust somewhere around Druids overlook (I don't remember exactly) I think it was Maguuma or somethin.. anyway it deals quite a large bit of damage, but if your enemy is under 50% health, it deals double damage! the downside, it drains all your energy , which kinda sucks.

So that gives you
Sever Artery - Gash - Conjure Flame - Final Thrust - Flurry - [ ] [ ]
so you have 3 empty spots, and no elite yet.

I personally (as I've not gotten the elite I wanted yet) use Inferno and Immolate [ plus signet of res for PuG's in PvE]

Inferno is an instant cast high damage AoE spell, but you need to be standing in the middle of what you want to blow up, (since you're a warrior no big deal there) it has a pretty long cooldown time, but since its instant cast, I forgive it.

Immolate deals damage, and set people on fire, at 12 fire magic (which I'm still trying to reach =/) it sets them on fire for 3 seconds, so. "on fire" is 14damage a second, times 3 seconds = 42, plus the inital damage, oh and its instant cast.

So thats what I have for weapons and in my bar, as for armor

Chest = Plate
Head = Duelest Helm (+1 sword)
Hands, feet, Legs = Gladiator
Focus = +10 fire (still lookin for a +12)
and I carry a str shield

my Build as it stands right now is 12sword / 10 fire / 10 str but I'm working on upping it some more.

Perfect thread. I'm level 16 and just got to LA and I noticed things are much more difficult now. I'm getting my butt kicked so much easier. I've gotten this far just being strictly a warrior and throw an occasional flare or a fire storm.

I guess I need to actually start to improve my skill. Just when you think you have things fairly figured out you realize that you are completely lost and that I have so much to learn. I guess I'm really getting my money's worth with this game.

Thanx for the info guys..........so many choices. This game is good with all the options. My character is still lvl 5, trying to make sure I dont skip anything before I move on. CYA in the arena........

Thanks a lot for all the excellent info, I'm at lvl 7 right now and not decided where I want to go with my build, and this is my first play through.