ViM build. Help?

raith

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jun 2005

My current build is a W/E.

Dismember
Axe Rake
Axe Twist
For Great Justice
Victory is Mine
Watch Yourself
Armor of Earth
Res Sig

Earth - 10
Axe - 12 (Hat, Rune)
Tactics - 12 (Rune)

Combined with a -2 while enchanted sheild, Armor of Earth negates almost all of the damage coming my way. I have a couple concerns with the build:
Catching people - With Armor of Eath on, I can't catch up to people who I haven't crippled yet. Should I invest some points in strength for sprint? Damage output. I realize that this build will never have high damage without deviating from the theme too much, but would slipping some points into strength be worth it? Degen. This is what kills me. Often I will have Armor of Earth on, get crippled, then smacked up with 10 pips of degen. Is there a viable way to help with this?
And I have some questions about skill choices.For Great Justice - I have a hard time spreading conditions enough to fuel a giant ViM without this. Even so, would this slot be better of as healing signet? Watch Yourself - This skill is great, but I'm not sure it's really needed with Armor of Earth. How does I Will Avenge You sound? It seems like it could be a good way to get some regen. By the time you're being attacked, usually a couple squishies are dead.
With E as my secondary, I am left without any hex/enchantment/condition removal. N offers the ever popular Rend Enchantments and access to poison. R could let me take barbed trap. Mo offers the best conditon and hex removal, as well as a good way to combat degen.

Should I stick with E as my secondary? If so, are there any other skills worth looking at?

Any input would be great.

Morganas

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: May 2005

If you're pve, that's a great use of earth of magic.

If it's pvp, warrior already has sufficient innate defensive ability in their armor, and you should use your secondary either to add offensive capabilities, or as you already mentioned condition and hex removal, because in the end it will be degen that kills you, rarely attacks. (btw, necro is much better for condition removal than monk).

Ele's a great secondary for warrior though, you might want to try the popular hammer aftershock build, or if you want to keep your shield, try some of the point blank aoe skills in fire or earth. Water trident is pretty good for warriors too (there's something neat about a warrior flinging a trident to knockdown a fleeing foe).

ElderAtronach

ElderAtronach

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jun 2005

Mo/Me

Try Desperation Blow. It may cause a deep wound which will not stack with dismember, but it's got a chance to cause other conditions as well, and the knockdown is an annoyance you can learn to live with. Try switching secondary to ranger and use apply poison + cyclone, and just transfer the points from earth into wilderness. With For Great Justice to fuel your adrenaline, you can chain dismember and axe rake/twist after a cyclone. Using ViM will give you back plenty of energy to keep using FGJ and apply poison once they recharge. I'd also recommend Serpent's Quickness as a stance for faster cycling of ViM, FGJ, and Desperation blow.

You just need to make sure ViM is fueled by conditions, so you can use that health/energy gain to keep spamming conditions to fuel ViM, and so on and so forth. No conditions on enemies = you dying faster. While Armor of Earth is superior defense, ranger secondary with apply poison makes sure there's plenty of conditions spread, making your ViM a lot more potent.

Suggested skill set for PvE:

Cyclone Axe
Dismember
Axe Twist
Desperation Blow
Victory Is Mine! {E}
For Great Justice!
Apply Poison
Serpent's Quickness

Wear Gladiator's for the energy boost (you'll need it to chain apply poison -> FGJ -> cyclone in the beginning). Serpent's should be up as soon as it cycles. With 3-4 enemies nearby, one ViM will fill up your health and mana bars, and you'll be virtually unkillable as long as there's enemies you can put conditions on. Enjoy

Hate

Hate

Academy Page

Join Date: Aug 2005

Lions Arch

Wvrd.

Yukito Kunisaki

Yukito Kunisaki

Forge Runner

Join Date: Mar 2005

Chicago, IL

W/N

No class secondary synergizes with Victory is Mine! {E} better than Necromancer and the ever devastating Plague Touch.

Warriors don't get nailed by straightup damage much so they're usually covered by bleeding, weakness, poison, blind, cripple, the works.

Plague Touch can send 6 conditions on yourself onto a hapless foe. At full energy, you send 3, ViM!, send 3 more.

You should use Victory is Mine! {E} to cause conditions so that it allows you to gain more energy using Victory is Mine! to cause more conditions so that it allows you to...

x9999...

If you want to really make the most of Victory is Mine! {E} as an ele half, you need to incorporate a cheap elementalist skill that isn't the same as your other condition causing skills.

With that setup, you can do deep wound, cripple, weakness, and then a fourth condition if you wish.

I'd say go with Immolate. It's the cheapest skill you can use for a fast condition that deals decent armor penetrating dmg. And with all that, you'll effectively refill your energy bar and gain a nice chunk of hp to boot. That energy can be used to re spam immolate 2 more times...

Toasty!

ElderAtronach

ElderAtronach

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jun 2005

Mo/Me

I dunno, at that level you'd have to be perfect on your timing of ViM, as the burning from Immolate lasts a whopping 2 seconds. Plus, it costs 10 energy for 1 condition on 1 guy. Not the most effecient use of a warrior's energy pool. Plague touch is nice... but it requires the enemy to actually be using conditions on you. Sometimes they use wards and hexes as warrior-counters, and those are actually more effective.

I'd say go pro-active in spreading conditions, instead of being passive-aggressive and waiting for conditions to get stacked on you. If you're worried about blind and other things, I'd swap FGJ for the often-overlooked Antidote signet in my build above.

gimpysonofgroin

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jun 2005

Boston, heart in Newcastle

Guilds are silly

N/Mo

Enervating charge. Reasonably cheap and totally gimps other warriors/monsters etc with a reasonable duration of weakness.

kalaris

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: May 2005

Warrior Nation [WN]

W/N

W/Me

Switch out armor of earth for

Epidemic => then use "Victory is mine!"

Health? Energy?... oooohhh ya

ElderAtronach

ElderAtronach

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jun 2005

Mo/Me

Epidemic would be great, especially if you're tanking melee mobs. It blows vs any ranged enemy group though. IMO, apply poison is a lot more flexible and undemanding.

Yukito Kunisaki

Yukito Kunisaki

Forge Runner

Join Date: Mar 2005

Chicago, IL

W/N

Plague Touch is quite aggressive since smart warriors let themselves get targeted first in both pvp and pve. [tanking pvp is funny, it does happen, but only to noobs]

Well, if the idea of Immolate is inefficient to you, remember, that's 4 conditions capability on this W/E. That's 20 energy every 15s. and timing Immolate isn't hard. Just do it and ViM right afterward. It's not rocket science. ViM! doesn't 'gain' anything if you wait for a condition to continue or do it RIGHT when a condition goes on. [obviously it's most efficient when a condition set is casted JUST before you shout]

If you intend to tank a huge mob and hopefully not get interrupted, with Gladiator's Armor and/or a focus, Eruption looks like a beefy skill to use in mass mobbing pve. Glimmering Mark {E} from a teammate would help.

Water doesn't use conditions much at all sadly.