Help with Warrior/Monk skills please

Originally Posted by Deathbow

Re-read the counterblow description, only KD's if enemy is attacking so it has limited useage, but hammer bash uses all my adrenaline. limiteing my combat ability till Balthazars spirit replenishes it/i whack a lot of stuff. Earthshaker/Dev. Hammer are elite skills and i'd wager it'd take me a while to obtain them (n00b here) Frenzy doesnt seem like a good plan, taking double damage just doesnt seem with the extra attack speed. Dont feel that the input isnt appreciated, it is, greatly. This is my first character, i want it to be perfect, hence all the research. Thanks so far for the help, keep it coming please frenzy is a good plan because of the increased attack rate. yes you take double damage whilst frenzied but it is a stance. since you can only have 1 stance up at any single time, you can use another stance to cancel it. therefore, if you use frenzy carefully and switch stance the instant you take damage, you will begin to understand why frenzy is almost a permanent warrior skill on most of our skillbars.

sprint is a brilliant skill to use not only because it is a stance (and thus can cancel out frenzy if required) but it can be used to break off persuing mobs. if you intend on solo'ing certain pve areas of the game, you will find that in many of the high level instances, that this is impossible without sprint. sprint allows you to pick and choose the majority of your encounters. it allows you to leg it past mobs you have no chance of fighting, in order to reach mobs which you do have a chance of killing and surviving the encounter.

hammer bash does indeed kill your adrenaline level, but again. use it appropriately. most people end combos with hammer bash or use it as a last resort knockdown. it is fairly cheap in terms of adrenaline strikes and its a no nonsense straight up knockdown, unlike certain other warrior skills that either require a condition in order to knockdown or require your attack to be evaded/blocked. or for your opponent to be attacking. counterblow is actually a good skill to use in areas where creatures attack very fast. against hellhounds for instance, since they use frenzy to up their attack rate. this in turn maximises the chance of scoring a knockdown via counterblow.

hammer bash can work well in builds that have the means to accrue adrenaline very quickly. these builds would include skills like frenzy (to accrue adrenaline faster, by hitting your opponent more times over a fixed time period). for great justice - which will double the rate at which you accrue adrenaline. and too the limit, which will give you a fixed number of strikes depending on the number of enemies in the viscinity.

at 8 tactics you get 1 strike of adrenaline for every nearby foe (up to a maximum of 4 strikes). therefore, if you waste all your adrenaline on a hammer bash, you still have the means of building up strikes fast for another adrenal attack skill. running skills like this in conjunction with frenzy and/or for great justice can nullify some of the down points of 'lose all adrenaline' attack skills. the key is to get the right balance of adrenal attacks and adrenaline boosting skills in your build. this is something you will have to try out for yourself though.

alternatively you can sidestep the issue of adrenaline altogether and use flourish or warrior's endurance in conjunction with all energy attack skills. however, a focus is really a must and wont provide the extra defence of a shield on the front quadrant. it also requires good timing, since if you do not combo in the right order, you can find yourself out of energy very very quickly.

in terms of defensive skills, dolyak signet and watch yourself! have both proven to be pve lifesavers. the description doesnt sound so hot, but you can solo whole chunks of the fissure of woe and parts of underworld using these for defense.

as a last point, dont remember that your skill set is not fixed - i would encourage you to change your skill set often and adapt it to the creatures you are fighting. there is no penalty for 'respeccing' in this way. thus there is no excuse for making life harder for yourself by sticking to the same 8 skills for every area of the game.

just remember that no skill in GW is 'best' - they work like rock/paper/scissors in the sense that they all have strong and weak points which can be exploited both ways.