[PvE] Epidemic Warrior (W/Me) - a non gear/keg furnace warrior

Profession: W/Me
Name: Epidemic Warrior
Type: PvE
Category: General Warrior
Attributes:
swords - 9 + 1
tactics - 9 + 1 + 1
strength - 3 + 1
domination - 9
inspiration - 9

Skills Set:
sever artery
gash
epidemic
"victory is mine!" {elite}
hex breaker
shatter hex
inspired hex
res signet

Summary:
i originally came up with this build when sorrow's furnace was new, and everyone wanted to explore and clear it. this was before the gear/keg craze, back when teams wanted real warriors with them. now, all pugs want in war camp are gear/keg stance warriors. since most of the people in my friends list are mia, i haven't touched this build or set foot in the furnace in the longest time. i figured i should just share it to let people know that being a glorified busboy isn't the only way to get through the furnace.

the offense consists simply of sever artery and gash, which might seem weak. however, combined with epidemic, you can spread bleeding and deep wound over an area, which can be devastating if your team takes advantage of it. "victory is mine!" is the self-fuel for the build and really shines with the spread conditions. at each cycle of sever + gash + epidemic + vim, you're being healed for 100+ hp and 10 energy per foe near you. this happens every 15 sec in battle. this creates amazing durability for the build. if your allies are packing other conditions, try to coordinate and you could be looking at more healing and energy than you will know what to do with.

the second half of the build deals with the heavy hexing in the area. always keep hex breaker on as your stance. re-apply hex breaker as soon as you see it go off. always stay in stance. shatter hex does great aoe damage and drops a hex from you or any of your teammates. inspired hex does the same thing, and nets you 5 energy. one thing to keep in mind is the wells of suffering. if you see an ally's hp bar as pink and notice them standing in a well, don't bother wasting either shatter or inspired.

Notes & Concerns:
overall, the 4 attribute spread might seem thin. however, the build does amazingly well in the area. it can dish out great aoe damage, deal with the constant hexing, and is self-fueling in both the hp and energy pools.

Credit: Strider Kaaru

Obviously, it works or else you wouldn't have posted it. However, how far does Epidemic reach? I would imagine it would be hard sometimes to spread the conditions around to enough targets to spring Victory Is Mine! to recharge. Given that the number of melee enemies you fight in SF are minimal, and with the AI boost to AoEs the spellcasters will spread out.

one thing to keep in mind is that epidemic spreads adjacent to your target, while vim considers foes adjacent to you. more often than not, these two overlap. usually, i can pick off two enemies next to each other, and the combo is worth using even in that situation. 4 conditions means about 200hp healed and all of the energy you used for the combo regained. on a single target, it's worth using vim by itself.

a good visual indication of how many targets are affected by epidemic is the pink glittery fairy dust that sprinkles over them when you cast it. it takes a while to get a feel for the range of epidemic so that you can decide whether to use it or not. obviously, picking your target is important because you should pick the one who is adjacent to more foes.

overall, the aoe update hasn't really affected it. if anything, you may just have to be more mindful of when to use epidemic or just vim by itself and be more careful when picking your targets. the update that did affect the build was when they changed epidemic from a 2 to 1/4 sec cast time. that was a considerable buff to the skill, and i almost cried with joy.

I have a guildmate that runs a W/Me farming build and he does it everywhere. FoW Spiders, Griffins, trolls, you name it. in groups he never has to worry about low hp. One handy way to cause conditions is desparation blow (used with doylak signet to avoid the knockdown), then you can spread that condition to everyone else.