W/N Possible Duelist replacements [Death Lord]

Ah, the much hated swordsman. I figured I'd give it a whirl for PvE since Axe is now wearing thin on me. [been an executioner of curses since game release]

Here are my possible PvE and PvP [fun fun] builds using a Sword coupled with Death magic [oh the horror!]

PvE:

8+1+3 Swordsmanship
9+1 Strength
9+1 Tactics
10 Death Magic

Riposte
Deadly Riposte
Sever Artery
Gash
Bonetti's Defense
Shield Stance
Plague Touch
Virulence {E}

Designed to work alongside teammates, you can ditch plague for res if you think your monks really suck... The power lies in the massive degen and since most enemies aren't human, no need to fear Disease. Good for tanking due to 2 stances and 2 autoblock skills. Need an enemy or mob to die? Virulence is your key... Not fast, but it helps...

PvP mode

12+1+3 Swordsmanship
8+1 Strength
10 Death Magic

Seeking Blade
Sever Artery
Gash
Final Thrust
Frenzy
Sprint
Plague Touch / Res Sig
Virulence {E}

The real monster point to this build is that it buries Deep Wound quite readily and generates 11 pips of degen. The idea is to get to the enemy rear lines and wreak havoc cause you don't want your teammates to suffer from Disease. Ah, the enemy has Martyr and/or Draw conditions? Assault the one who's using it with all of the conditions and Final Thrust them into the dirt.

The build is in essence a combination of Disruptor and Damage dealer. It's ability to do damage won't meet the good old blam* that is Eviscerate and Exe. Strike but to augment, it buries multiple degen on top of final Thrust. So it should balance out nicely.

Conditions really shouldn't be a problem. Dodging and Blocking becomes moot with Seeking Blade. If your % is good and you're lucky, you should be able to land at least half your hits using Seeking Blade spammed. I'm not a fan of Wild Blow due to its nature of being stance countering and most foes I fight don't use stances but use enchantments and wards instead... Dodge this? Start bleeding... [and let me land a Virulence on you for extra punishment]

The obvious weaknesses would most definitely be the anti-condition types. Things like Martyr and Draw Conditions would render your target quite healthy. [but the caster is now buried in 5 conditions, 3 of which are degen] To nullify this problem, directly assault the one using the anti-condition spell and let Final Thrust speak for itself. You could replace it with Galrath Slash to conserve Adrenaline in exchange for spike damage.

Hexes we'll leave to our friendly neighborhood monk...

Any ideas for beefing either build? Yay death knight!!

I'd even consider going on a trip down memory lane and go Bloody Duelist using Blood Magic instead, but that's tricky...

edit** I'd consider using Necrotic Traversal or Consume Corpse for pvp as well to deny enemy use of corpses...

yeah or they laugh at you while you try to kill them and then use mend ailment to heal themselves for 350 life.

No thanks for the negative info. I liek the build, and im glad someone had the courage to post a sword build.. the guy above me already flamed you lol.

My PvP Death Knight that I posted a month or so ago...


Hamstring
Virulence{E}
Sever
Gash/Savage Slash
Final Thrust
Savage Slash/Res Signet
Distracting Blow/Soul Feast/Galrath's Slash
Plague Touch


And yes the odd Mend Ailment can cancel you out, but if you can manage to hit it with savage slash the first time, all it takes is timing, once you have that its not too hard, and then Distracting Blow a couple seconds later the Monk or whatever will freak and try to either run or make some other mistake. If targeting the monk first. I use this build in Tombs mostly as a pressure build for Martyr and Boon Monks, target them and they kind of ignore the rest of their team trying to strip the conditions off themselves.

I like the build - I think in your PvE one you could probably drop some of the strength and try and get an extra attribute or two in tactics for a better bonetti's and shield stance.

Probably could say the same about the PvP version - I'm not going to work out how much extra damage that strenght will add but I don't think it will be that much - and sprint lasts for long enough with only small amount of strength, and I'm guess it will frequently be used as a safety net for frenzy. I do think in PvP the warrior should find room for Res Signet, so yeah I would drop plague touch for it

Can never go wrong taking plague touch as a warrior and Virulence is a good choice of elite

Yes mend aliment may be quite a frustration for the build - but that can be said about most Sword builds in general

Nice build

25e. to remove 5 ailments if you're using Mend Ailment

I'm only using 5 to apply the damn thing... I can reapply it every 10 seconds or worse [spam sever + gash and Virulence each time it comes up]...

That's 25e. every 10s. of curing an ailment. You do that, you can't do it to 3 people though... ^_^ [yay disease]

Then of course there's martyr, but wait a minute? What's that? My team's mesmer has blocked all of his protection skills.

Oh, what's this? I already stated that condition killers are a problem for this build. But obviously, some flamers don't know how to read...

Fact is, the disruptor spell shutdown character on the team will need to deal with your counter. With a high atk speed and 11 pips of degen [this is counted toward countering enemy regen], and the sudden spike that is Final Thrust, it's not as strong as an axe spike, but if what some people are saying is true...

LET'S JUST DELETE ALL OTHER WEAPON TYPES SINCE THE AXE IS ALWAYS THE BEST...

please...

Axe - spike
Sword - conditions
Hammer - KD

If this build teams up with a fragility build mesmer, you can kill quite fast, even with fragility's nerf.

It'd be tricky. That Frag Mesmer should realize his low duration virulence won't do much with my high duration virulence on top, but it adds a nice chunk of dmg I suppose.

Here's a possible energy based modified W/N Duelist I was thinking of out of boredom...

12+1+3 Swordsmanship
8+1 Strength
10 Blood Magic

Sever Artery
Gash
Seeking Blade
Frenzy
Sprint
Plague Touch / Res Signet
Life Siphon
Offering of Blood {E}

Definitely a possibility for a DPS based build to augment the damage capabilities of your team, the idea is to land Life Siphon on as many foes as possible using Offering of Blood {E} as a base. Since there is no global hex removal anymore, landing Life Siphon on 3 foes during a fight isn't impossible. That's 6 regen for yourself and 6 for the enemy team as a whole. What's more, you can spam Sever, Gash, Seeking Blade to keep the damage coming. Your target in front of you will suffer spammage of 5 degen + frenzy + seeking Blade spam. Plague Touch will help when you yourself get buried to your neck in conditions and can feed the Touch using Offering of Blood as well.

Another one is a take from Sauleteus Rex's W/E article. But for W/N instead.

same stats, 0 tactics

Sever Artery
Gash
Hamstring
Galrath Slash
Victory is Mine! {E}
Frenzy
Plague Touch
Life Siphon

Half the skill bar causes conditions so using Victory is Mine to feed Life Siphon and Plague Touch sounds like a feasible 'battle engine'. ViM has been a battle engine I haven't used in a while and it feels good being able to come back and use it effectively...

Where my old axe builds only managed to use it well in pve, with pcs forcing me to use Evis + exe. strike to get anywhere... ViM on my new swordsman to be sounds like fun once again...