W/Me Blackout War needs improvement

VGJustice

VGJustice

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jul 2005

Tyria, cappin' ur bosses

Boston Guild [BG]

R/W

THE BUILD HAS BEEN CHANGED BELOW
I've been tweaking this build for a while, and it seems to work, but I don't think I'm doing enough damage with it. Any advice at all on this?

Attributes:
Domination: 11
Inspiration: 4
Strength: 8 + 1
Axe: 9 + 3
Tactics: 7 + 1

Skills:
Healing Signet
Wild Blow
Penetrating Blow (needs to be swaped with Cleave{e})
Blackout
Endure Pain
Wastrel's Worry
Energy Tap

Notes:
Using Knight's Armor, Superior Absorption, Superior Vigor, Furious Axe Haft

I've noticed that I can run out of energy VERY quickly with this build, and that can be a problem. I try to use Wild Blow then Blackout to give me an advantage, and that works fairly well. I can't take spike damage or massive health drain too well, but anything else won't bug me too much. I can *sometimes* take on another Warrior 1 on 1, but that's not always the case. That, and certain types of Healers I can't damage enough.

Any suggestions?

Lasareth

Lasareth

Aquarius

Join Date: Jun 2005

Somewhere between Boardwalk and Park Place

I'd remove energy tap and Wastrel's worry and replace them with warrior stances or shouts which help your attacks/defenses. 3 second cast time on tap makes it crappy, especially at 4 inspiration.

Endure pain is ehh... you're going to lose that hp later no matter what, so it's just best to use a skill that recudes damage rather than delays the inevitable.

I don't know.. blackout just seems a bit counterproductive for a warrior. I suppose if you throw a stance and shout on, then use it, you can gain an advantage, but it seems kinda silly to leave yourself vulnerable for the time that your opponent is also vulnerable.

Overall your build seems hindered by blackout. You just kind of sit there for the time your opponent is weakened, so what's the point, you know? You're not helping the party by being disabled yourself. If you want shutdown, create a knockdown-based hammer warrior.

VGJustice

VGJustice

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jul 2005

Tyria, cappin' ur bosses

Boston Guild [BG]

R/W

yeah, I'm not nearly as impressed with this build vs. the high damage axe build I usually use.

Would there be much difference if I used a hammer instead of an axe? Hammer is slow anyway, and it can be nice to turn off the healing for everyone else for a moment.

damocles

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Oct 2005

The Netherlands

Guidless :(

W/

What I use if I am a blackout warrior is:

14 Axe (10+3+1)
11 Domination
8 Inspiration
Rest in Strength

Blackout
Drain Enchantment
Eviscerate
Executioner's Strike
Axe Rake
Sprint
Frenzy
Resseruction Signet

It works good for me I can give Spike damage and after the spike right away using blackout so he can't heal himself and i can finish him off... Drain Enchantment to get energy back

Rico Carridan

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Aug 2005

Eternal Comrades

E/Mo

Quote:
Originally Posted by VGJustice
I've been tweaking this build for a while, and it seems to work, but I don't think I'm doing enough damage with it. Any advice at all on this?

Attributes:
Domination: 11
Inspiration: 4
Strength: 8 + 1
Axe: 9 + 3
Tactics: 7 + 1

Skills:
Healing Signet
Wild Blow
Penetrating Blow (needs to be swaped with Cleave{e})
Blackout
Endure Pain
Wastrel's Worry
Energy Tap

Notes:
Using Knight's Armor, Superior Absorption, Superior Vigor, Furious Axe Haft

I've noticed that I can run out of energy VERY quickly with this build, and that can be a problem. I try to use Wild Blow then Blackout to give me an advantage, and that works fairly well. I can't take spike damage or massive health drain too well, but anything else won't bug me too much. I can *sometimes* take on another Warrior 1 on 1, but that's not always the case. That, and certain types of Healers I can't damage enough.

Any suggestions? I've been experimenting with a blackout warrior as well, and here's my thoughts:

When you use blackout, you mainly want to use it when you're in a situation that you can't fight very well (ie, blinded, hexed, etc), or in a situation where you can't/won't use skills for the duration of blackout (beserker stance, for example). If you use blackout while both you and the enemy are functioning properly, well, I think you're losing out on the ability to do better damage.

In your particular build, I think your skills are too spread out. Most builds use three skills, some use four. Five is just too many in my books. I mean, if you want to know why you aren't doing good damage, just look at your axe skill. Most builds run it at 16!

Personally, I feel that if you're using a blackout build, your best bet is to bring a condition spammer, since the conditions will all continue to affect your target while blackout is running, something like:

Dismember
Axe Rake
Penetrating Blow
Disrupting Chop
Healing Signet
Blackout
Victory is Mine! {E}
Fear Me!

Basic plan is to drop deep wound/cripple on the opponent (cripple is very important, because EVERYONE runs if you hit them with blackout), and keep spamming Fear Me! when you get the chance. If needed, hit them with blackout. You can recharge your health/energy with Victory! as needed. I can't remember exactly how the adrenaline works, but if it will let you drop disrupting chop right after blackout ends, you can probably get his best self-heal out of the way while you're at it.

This works even better with sword, since you can get bleeding, cripple, and deep wound, letting you recover 15 energy with each Victory!, plus you get the added degeneration from the bleeding, something like:

Hamstring
Sever Artery
Gash
Galrath Thrust/Final Thrust
Healing Signet
Blackout
Victory is Mine!
Savage Slash/Fear Me!

Strategy is essentially the same. When the blackout wears off, immediately use savage slash, and you will probably get a good spike & interrupt if you're lucky.

[Edit] As an aside, you only need one piece of Knight's armor to get the full benefit of the damage reduction. The other pieces you can replace if you want.
Rico

rii

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Mar 2005

UK

warriors require to use skills while they kill e.g. evis.... so blackout is going to screw you no matter what. you need to rely on stances and so forth that have long duration. The only thing that springs to mind is dbs, but if their blackout'd you dont need to interrupt them

my suggestion would be go ranger. melandrus arrows gives some good damage in between blackouts apparantly, and with serpents quickness you can run blackout constantly.

tafy69

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Sep 2005

N/Me

I love blackout so much we even run tombs with dedicated blackout ranger/trappers with QZ, warriors with blackout is a no go tho imo.. Im sure u lose all adrenaline and cant build up any under blackout?

NatalieD

NatalieD

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Aug 2005

Quote:
Originally Posted by tafy69
Im sure u lose all adrenaline and cant build up any under blackout? That's what I thought, too. Which would make Blackout useless to a warrior, except maybe as a followup to a hammer knockdown chain for a really long shutdown.

Yukito Kunisaki

Yukito Kunisaki

Forge Runner

Join Date: Mar 2005

Chicago, IL

W/N

Blackout Warriors can't do damage.

The TRICK to them is that they STILL do more damage using no skills when compared to any other touch range blackout type in the game.

If you're going to use Blackout, I'd HIGHLY recommend using a combination of Warrior's Endurance {E} and Warrior's Cunning. Both are duration style skills which can be used before Blackout and work even after all your skills get cut off.

[with WE, you can keep them out of the fight indefinitely]

smurfhunter

smurfhunter

Banned

Join Date: Aug 2005

my w/mo uses mending, orison, and healing breeze. you cant kill him.

Sand Scorpions [SS]

W/Mo

see the thing with blackout is it takes away all your adrenaline. which sucks for most warriors.

wouldnt it be awesome if you could do a blackout warrior that had all energy skills AND exertise? (like a r/me/w..)

anyway but if you want a blackout-er id probably go with a ranger using traps or something, at least thats what ive seen people do. the reasoning being you should always be as close to the guy you traps, (duh) so you just need to reach over for blackout. and it gets the expertise bonus, and gives you something to do while all your traps recharge.

might want to try that^^

VGJustice

VGJustice

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jul 2005

Tyria, cappin' ur bosses

Boston Guild [BG]

R/W

Yukito Kunisaki has the right idea. With a Warrior primary build, you can still do damage that's acceptable even when the Blackout hits.

Also, tafy69, you are correct. You lose all your adrenaline, and you can't build up any while Blackout is in effect.

The real problem I've noticed is that if you want Blackout to be effective, you need Domination at 11 (Blackout hits you for 5 seconds, but hits the target for 6 seconds). Then, to deal maximum damage with basic attacks, you want your weapon skill as high as possible. But, if you go 11 Domination then 16 Weapon, you're not going to have many points left for anything else. That was my main plan with a low Adrenal skill and the Furrious Axe haft. I could spike quickly once Blackout was done, and not effect my energy (thus, why I wanted Cleave over Eviscerate on this build).

Well, I'm going to check out Warrior's Endurance and Warrior's Cunning to see if that'll help the matter any. Thank you all very much for the help.

[EDIT] Woo, I just checked those two skills, and WC costs too much to be effective, but WE looks good.

[UPDATE]Well, I changed my skills a bit, and this works well for me.

Attributes:
Domination: 11
Inspiration: 3 (not necesary, just helpful)
Strength: 8 + 1
Axe: 11 + 3 (need a sup Axe Rune =/ )

Skills:
Ether Feast
Endure Pain
Wild Blow
Warrior's Endurance {E}
Blackout
Penetrating Blow
Energy Tap
Res Sig

Other notes:
Knight's Armor set, Furious Axe

Warrior's Endurance helps this build quite a lot. Just pay close attention if they hit you with Blind after you use that stance. You don't want to blackout something that's going to hit back then. Also, I've found that sometimes I can use Penetrating after Blackout fades and just before it recharges. Endure Pain can give you vital seconds for a healer to save your hide if you get in trouble, but I take an axe that deals +15% when below half. If I'm running the wire, that sudden attack boost can help a lot. Energy Tap if you need the energy, as this build is an energy pig.

Ok, how's that?

rii

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Mar 2005

UK

i dont see while you need the pitiful energy regen of tap when you have the godly we :S

VGJustice

VGJustice

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jul 2005

Tyria, cappin' ur bosses

Boston Guild [BG]

R/W

well, because Warrior's Endurance isn't enough sometimes -.-;;

That, and it only lasts for 16 seconds with this build, hasa recharge time of 30 seconds, WE does nothing if you get blinded or hit with Wild Blow, and the best bet I've found with this build is to spam Blackout like crazy.

Besides, Energy Tap is only there as a backup. That's why there's only a level 3 in Inspiration. Nothing to be relied upon, just a nice little pick-me-up.