KD/AS Build - Input Please

rangersaurus

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: May 2005

I know there are lots of build like this (yes I looked in the build directory) but I wanted to get some input and just to see if anyone had some tips and such so here is the build. I want to use this mainly for pvp but possible pve.

Warrior/Elementalist
Level: 20

Strength: 12 (9+3)
Hammer Mastery: 15 (12+3)
Earth Magic: 9

- Flurry (Warrior other)
- Devastating Hammer [Elite] (Hammer Mastery)
- Heavy Blow (Hammer Mastery)
- Aftershock (Earth Magic)
- Bull's Strike (Strength)
- Irresistible Blow (Hammer Mastery)
- Crushing Blow (Hammer Mastery)
- Healing Signet (Tactics)

The main combo is to do devastating, so they have weakness (and the obvious interrupt), followed by heavy (will knock down since they have weakness), then aftershock. Flurry is for building up adrenl, bull for runners, crushing as an alternative to the "big" combo if andrenl is low, healing for well healing. I am not sure if I should include distracting blow, or perhaps counter blow since it offers a knockdown for a lower amount of adreneline.

Any suggestions? I just wonder whether this is going to be to adreneline dependent and if I am going to have trouble getting the attacks off. Thanks in advance.

sedgewick

sedgewick

Academy Page

Join Date: Feb 2006

Sage of Judgement [SoJ]

W/

The build I made that seems to work very well (sometimes) is:

12 Earth Magic (maximum damage for AS)
16 Hammer Mastery (12+1+3+ stonefist gauntlets)
4 Strength (not needed for my build)

Earth Shaker {E} (These 3 following skills are my trinity for this build.)
Aftershock ........ (They are what you will be focusing on)
Flurry ............... (the most to dish out havok.)

Staggering Blow (These 2 can be switched out but)
Heavy Blow ...... (useful for inflicting conditions and interrupting.)
Counter Blow ..... (Your main interrupter)

Mighty Blow (Some people think it's unorthadox blasphemy.)
Rez Siggy ... (Never leave home without it.)

I classify myself as a KD/AS warrior with high interrupt potential.

I use a 15^stance collector's hammer (Furious of Defense) since I hit Flurry as long as I have 5 energy to spare, and the occasional 2x adrenaline gain is always nice to keep the hammer skills in spam mode.

Also, Soothing Images is my ultimate weakness since I rely on adrenaline to work properly.

DarkZeal

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jul 2005

N/Me

Need Sprint for PVP.

blocparty

blocparty

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Sep 2005

W/

aye you need to run rush or sprint.. take out heavy blow for res sig... and i like to use earthshaker or backbreaker above devastating. Plus, if this is pvp you should be using frenzy... unless of course you are satisfied with random arenas.

NatalieD

NatalieD

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Aug 2005

Frenzy is much better than Flurry. It gives you a hefty DPS boost when you're building up adrenaline, and you can use it while you're spending adrenaline to get in more hits while the target is knocked down.

Hammer Bash is better than Heavy Blow. The extra damage isn't worth sometimes losing your knockdown.

Aftershock isn't good at all. Too much energy, too many attribute points, and you can do as much damage with an Irresistible Blow. Replace AS with Sprint.

You have Crushing Blow in your build, which is good, but you seem to really underestimate it. That's by far your biggest-damage attack right there, because of the deep wound. It should always be a part of your combo.

You'll probably want to fit Res Signet in there somewhere for PVP.

rangersaurus

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: May 2005

I am scratching my head at this flurry vs frenzy thing. Frenzy makes you take more damage, faster attack, and lasts longer than flurry, but flurry makes you do less damage, but increase attack rate. I would think that while the damage will be smaller the increased attack rate will make up for it and thus get you adrenaline faster than normal, and I don't see how taking double damage is better that dealing less damage, so while you may get adrenaline faster with frenzy I can't see it being significantly better and in some case I can see it as being worse. Again, I am new at warriors so please humor me here.

And while I still like the idea for my old build. Here is one taking into account some of your advice:

Warrior/Elementalist
Level: 20

Strength: 15 (12+3)
Hammer Mastery: 15 (12+3)

- Flurry (Warrior other)
- Backbreaker [Elite] (Hammer Mastery)
- Crushing Blow (Hammer Mastery)
- Irresistible Blow (Hammer Mastery)
- Bull's Strike (Strength)
- Counter Blow (Hammer Mastery)
- Sprint (Strength)
- Resurrection Signet ()

I am not sure if having bulls, irresistible, and counter is too much, and if perhaps a heal sig or some other stance should be thrown in there (dolyak?). I still want to use AS but I will try this first. Any more suggestions?

blocparty

blocparty

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Sep 2005

W/

Quote:
Originally Posted by rangersaurus
I am scratching my head at this flurry vs frenzy thing. Frenzy makes you take more damage, faster attack, and lasts longer than flurry, but flurry makes you do less damage, but increase attack rate. I would think that while the damage will be smaller the increased attack rate will make up for it and thus get you adrenaline faster than normal, and I don't see how taking double damage is better that dealing less damage, so while you may get adrenaline faster with frenzy I can't see it being significantly better and in some case I can see it as being worse. Again, I am new at warriors so please humor me here.

And while I still like the idea for my old build. Here is one taking into account some of your advice:

Warrior/Elementalist
Level: 20

Strength: 15 (12+3)
Hammer Mastery: 15 (12+3)

- Flurry (Warrior other)
- Backbreaker [Elite] (Hammer Mastery)
- Crushing Blow (Hammer Mastery)
- Irresistible Blow (Hammer Mastery)
- Bull's Strike (Strength)
- Counter Blow (Hammer Mastery)
- Sprint (Strength)
- Resurrection Signet ()

I am not sure if having bulls, irresistible, and counter is too much, and if perhaps a heal sig or some other stance should be thrown in there (dolyak?). I still want to use AS but I will try this first. Any more suggestions?
1. In gvg/hoh, warriors are generally the last targeted, so frenzy is generally the ias stance of choice. Keep in mind you will not always have frenzy up. I usually hit frenzy as I start an adrenal spike, but not when building up adrenaline. The damage lost from flurry really hinders warriors' spiking abilities. You should always use your cover stance (sprint/rush) when you are under fire. In addition, you should be calling your frenzy and monks will prot spirit you, making sure you don't take too much damage.

2. The build you posted is what I would normally run, except I would swap in Frenzy for flurry, for reasons noted above, and rush for sprint, because hammer warrior is so energy intensive. Also, there is no reason for 2 superior runes. You should be running a dwarven helm of superior hammer mastery which is +4 to your base hammer mastery, leaving hammer mastery at 16. Minor runes in strength and tactics should suffice. Take out counter blow for healing sig. You should also have enough points into tactics (9ish) to make healing sig worth using.

If you really want to use AS, then take out bull's strike for AS. Siphon points from strength and maybe some from hammer mastery. If indeed you go the AS route, you might have to just take out healing sig and use those points.
The combo would be:
Hit Frenzy>Backbreaker>crushing blow>AS>
you may want to consider a zealous hammer mod, because after one of these combo's youll be out of energy

on a soft target, this should be enough to kill them, but in teh end you should just try out builds and see what you like the most and are the most comfortable with.