Curse

Picuso · Sep 10, 2007, 07:18 PM // 19:18

I don't know if this was posted before. If it was, sorry >_<

Let's start

Skills
[skill]Jagged Strike[/skill]
[skill]Wild Strike[/skill]
[skill]Critical Strike[/skill]
[skill]Way of Perfection[/skill]
[skill]Critical Eye[/skill]
-Critical Agility
[skill]Critical Defenses[/skill]
[skill]Dark Apostasy[/skill]

Atrributes
-Dagger Mastery 12 +x (You can choose to use any kind of rune or not)
-Critical Strikes 12 +2 (IMPORTANT!: You must have 14 in CS. Use a minor rune if your Mask has +1 CS, or Major rune in other piece of the armor if not).
-Shadow Arts 3

Equipment
-Any Max AL armor, with any insignia works. You only need the energy to cast all the enchants. If you haven't enough, attack Acolyte to gain energy because of critical hits and then cast Dark Apostasy.
-Max Dmg. ZEALOUS daggers is required (i don't know if you can do it with another kind of daggers, but I think energy will be a problem without Zealous mod)

Use
Easy. Kill any foe where Acolyte Of Dwayna is, but him. Then, flag far far away your Heroes/Henches. Cast Critical Eye and Way Of Perfection before aggro Acolyte. Then, cast Critical Agility, Critical Defenses and Dark Apostasy. Spam your combo as soon as it recharges, and recast Critical Eye and Dark Apostasy when needed. Enjoy!

Screenshot:
http://img161.imageshack.us/img161/2418/gw203kl1.jpg

PD: Sorry about my english. I do my best >_<

EDIT: I don't know if was necessary, but here is the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKcQKjxKRjY

mystra · Sep 11, 2007, 07:30 AM // 07:30

Hi,

How fast is it ? (for example compared with the Rt or R solo farm method)
What about the energy managment ?

banditjin · Sep 11, 2007, 08:36 AM // 08:36

not as fast as rt

SotiCoto · Sep 11, 2007, 10:01 AM // 10:01

... Y'know, I could be wrong.... but couldn't you use [skill]Shattering Assault[/skill] to get rid of Enchants without the energy problems related to Dark Apostasy?

In theory that way you could just stick that on the end of the combo instead of Critical Strike and go secondary warrior with [skill]Wild Blow[/skill] to maintain Critical Defenses and Critical Agility if necessary.

Has the added bonus that aside from the first strike (very spammable), it is totally unblockable.

Picuso · Sep 11, 2007, 10:41 AM // 10:41

With Shattering Assault, you "destroy" 2 enchants every 4s. With Dark Apostasy, you are destroying 1 enchant with every critical hit. And, with Critical Strike, Zealous daggers and Critical eye, you are always gaining energy, not losing it.

Critical Strike is for gain a lot energy. Normal attacks are Critical with high %. So Energy isn't a problem.

Well, you can use Wild Blow to force a critical hit, but only 1 enchant will be lost with that. With CS, 2.

I know isn't as fast as Rt, but I did that post to people who hasn't Rit o R, or they have 1 but not far enough to try.

EDIT: Video added

I'm going to record a video of the battle. You will see that energy is not any kind of problem.

PD: WTB Good english xDDD

SotiCoto · Sep 12, 2007, 11:04 AM // 11:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by Picuso

With Shattering Assault, you "destroy" 2 enchants every 4s. With Dark Apostasy, you are destroying 1 enchant with every critical hit. And, with Critical Strike, Zealous daggers and Critical eye, you are always gaining energy, not losing it.

I can't view the video at present.... but I intend to check the maths here.

IF... for whatever reason... Critical Strike was your only reliable source of criticals.... then you'd be getting 2 Enchants down every 6 seconds... as opposed to Shattering's 2 every 4 seconds...
I am however aware that isn't the case...

The energy costs though.
For a critical hit, you'll get 3 energy from the Criticals attribute, 1 energy from Critical Eye and 1 from Zealous Daggers. 5 total.
Dark Apostasy will cost you 5 energy.... which cancels out the other. It effectively neutralises your normal critical energy-gain.
Critical Strike costs 5 energy and gives you back an extra 6... so factoring in the previous matter with critical hits you will have a net gain of 1 energy.

As such.... you're managing your other two attack skills on your regen (and non-critical zealous strikes) alone. I suppose it could work... though I'll have to see it myself.

If my variant works though I'd probably be more confident with it.... I'm a bit fussy about energy management.

Incidentally.... would the Ebon Vanguard skill Sneak Attack to blind the acolyte make a better or worse Lead-in than Jagged Strike (assuming fair EV rank)?

Senrath · Sep 12, 2007, 11:12 AM // 11:12

No clue on Sneak Attack, but considering you're not going to be CONSTANTLY breaking enchantments, you'll gain energy. Not to mention, you'll be gaining energy from zealous on every hit, not just crits. Oh, and if you follow his suggestion and have 14 Critical Strikes, you'll only be losing 4 energy every broken enchantment.

SotiCoto · Sep 12, 2007, 11:33 AM // 11:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by Senrath

No clue on Sneak Attack, but considering you're not going to be CONSTANTLY breaking enchantments, you'll gain energy. Not to mention, you'll be gaining energy from zealous on every hit, not just crits. Oh, and if you follow his suggestion and have 14 Critical Strikes, you'll only be losing 4 energy every broken enchantment.

You sure?
Has Dark Apostasy's penalty been changed since the icons were installed here? It claims 6 energy for rank 12 and 5 energy for rank 16 on the icon.

I do get your point though about enchants not constantly being up. Dwayna-Acolyte only has a handful anyway... and she can't use them constantly. For what it is worth though.... DPS-wise... which is best? Does Critical Strike with the enforced critical hit involve doing more damage with bonus than Shattering Assault?

Anyhow.... this has to be easier than the N/Me Signet build (Midnight & Humility, with Price of Failure and whatnot) I was using before....

Picuso · Sep 12, 2007, 11:52 AM // 11:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by SotiCoto

I can't view the video at present.... but I intend to check IF... for whatever reason... Critical Strike was your only reliable source of criticals.... then you'd be getting 2 Enchants down every 6 seconds... as opposed to Shattering's 2 every 4 seconds...
I am however aware that isn't the case...

The energy costs though.
For a critical hit, you'll get 3 energy from the Criticals attribute, 1 energy from Critical Eye and 1 from Zealous Daggers. 5 total.
Dark Apostasy will cost you 5 energy.... which cancels out the other. It effectively neutralises your normal critical energy-gain.
Critical Strike costs 5 energy and gives you back an extra 6... so factoring in the previous matter with critical hits you will have a net gain of 1 energy.

Let's see if I can explain it correctly:
-Normal Hit: +1 Zeaolus = +1 Energy
-Critical Hit WITHOUT Enchant removal (Dark Apostasy only consumes energy if it removes enchant when critical): 3 energy CS + 1 Critical Eye + 1 Zealous = 5 energy
-Critical Hit WITH Enchant Removal: 3 Energy CS + 1 Critical Eye + 1 Zealous - 4 ENERGY Dark Apostasy = +1 Energy (Dark Apostasy, with 14 in Critical Strikes, only consumes 4 energy/removed Enchant)
-Critical hit WITH Critical Strike WITHOUT Enchant Removal: 3 Energy CS + 1 Critical Eye + 1 Zealous + 3 Critical Strike= 8 Energy (but, Critical Strike is a Double Critical Hit, so 8 Energy x2 = 16 Energy)
-Critical hit WITH Critical Strike WITH Enchant Removal: 3 Energy CS + 1 Critical Eye + 1 Zealous + 3 Critical Strike - 4 energy Dark Apostasy= 4 Energy (but, Critical Strike is a Double Critical Hit, so 4 Energy x2 = 8 Energy).

If Dark Apostasy removes 2 enchants when you use Critical Strike, you gain 0 energy.

As you can see, you will always gain energy. I said that is important to have 14 in Critical Strikes because Dark Apostasy only drains 4 energy/removed enchant...

I don't know if DA was changed, but: http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Dark_Apostasy

Try to watch the video... There you can see how energy is always near 100%

EDIT:

Quote:

Originally Posted by SotiCoto

I do get your point though about enchants not constantly being up. Dwayna-Acolyte only has a handful anyway... and she can't use them constantly. For what it is worth though.... DPS-wise... which is best? Does Critical Strike with the enforced critical hit involve doing more damage with bonus than Shattering Assault?

But, if he uses Dwayna's Touch when he has more than 1 enchant up, he heals too much... And battle will be longer >_<

I chose Critical Strike to a fast Enchant Removal if needed. And as a very fast Energy Gain.

mystra · Sep 12, 2007, 11:58 AM // 11:58

In my mind, the safest way to farm Acolyte Dwayna is the Me/M 55 hp build using IW.
Just start with high armor 60 and high health (I use a scythe in the beginning, good dmg with IW for packed mobs

).
When arrived to Dwayna place, kill everybody but let 2 mobs alive with Dwayna (D or W class).
Flag your heroes / henchies away, die once (because you just killed 2 boss before and you have to cancel your extra HP in order to get 55 HP).
Tell your M hero / hench to resurrect you and then flag him away.
Switch your armor pieces to carry the 55 HP one.
When done, just kick the Dwayna acolyte, the 2 other mobs remaining are there to grant you enough energy (with Balthazar spirit and Essence Bond equiped). Drain Dwayna's energy with both Visage skills and kill him using IW with your totem axe.

Simple, quick and safe ...

Got already 5 scythes using this method ...

PS : sorry for my poor english but it is not my native langage