Curse

Carson · Nov 27, 2008, 04:04 AM // 04:04

Hello,
I was wondering what the difference in playstyle and DPS were for the title stated. I am planning on PVE w/ heroes.

**Marty Silverblade** · Nov 27, 2008, 04:11 AM // 04:11

Scythe does massive damage, ES puts mobs on their butts therefore doing nothing.

I find scythe to be more fast paced due to the attack skills with 3/4 second activation times and more/bigger damage numbers. I don't find ES as fun; it seems slower to me.

Tyla · Nov 27, 2008, 04:14 AM // 04:14

ES knocks everything down. Scythe Warrior pumps out a shit ton of damage with spammable IAS energy attacks and Power Attack.

wind fire and ice · Nov 27, 2008, 04:24 AM // 04:24

scythe imo....not counting areas that have very heavy damage,then es is better to reduce dmg.

Daft Shifty · Nov 27, 2008, 04:50 AM // 04:50

Scythe w/ heroes. but ur PuG will love you if u go erfshakur

[Morkai] · Nov 27, 2008, 09:37 AM // 09:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daft Shifty

Scythe w/ heroes. but ur PuG will love you if u go erfshakur

In my experience, most, or at least half of the PuG population wouldn't know how valuable an Earthshaker is.

As for your question OP: As said, big damage Scythe Warrior is nice with heroes, as it can pump out SY! Faster than an Earthshaker can. Consider bringing a Physical heavy team.

Also, if you do run Scythes, [Aura Of Holy Might] is your friend.

fenix · Nov 27, 2008, 09:43 AM // 09:43

Warriors use Warrior skills, Dervishes use Dervish skills.

Rhamia Darigaz · Nov 27, 2008, 04:29 PM // 16:29

erf shakur makes me feel more brave/strong than scythe warriors.
also they can has aoe just liek scythes!

deluxe · Nov 27, 2008, 04:56 PM // 16:56

Keep in mind: [earth shaker][crude swing][whirlwind attack] hit all adjacent foes, while a scythe hits only 3 at max.
AoE knockdowns make you take much less damage, and make killing monks easy.

Banane-O-Man · Nov 27, 2008, 06:27 PM // 18:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by deluxe

Keep in mind: [earth shaker][crude swing][whirlwind attack] hit all adjacent foes, while a scythe hits only 3 at max.
AoE knockdowns make you take much less damage, and make killing monks easy.

Make a hero bring splinter weapon

faraaz · Nov 27, 2008, 06:32 PM // 18:32

<-- Votes for Erf Shakur!!1!11!

Not only is running Jora with a Wing Crest Maul dyed black + Brotherhood armor epic pwnage, I use her in vanquishes where she tanks everything..but virtue of keeping shit on its butt all the time. A order of pain/fury (the party wide enchant one, not the hex) necro who brings discord, another discord necro and devona + zho are all that's needed to complete the set.

Go MoP bomber and watch the pwnage! O.O

Molock · Nov 27, 2008, 08:11 PM // 20:11

Earth Shaker is better imo because you carry dmg prevention by causing AoE KD and you can also carry AoE dmg skill like those deluxe mentioned.

Super Igor · Nov 27, 2008, 11:17 PM // 23:17

Erf Shakur tbh, I like keeping mobs on their butts. :>

Carson · Nov 29, 2008, 01:28 AM // 01:28

Thanks all for your input! It seems that there is a variation of opinions (which I wanted and expected). Can you all give more specifics in terms of play style differences?? (ie: looking from defensive position, checking groups and aggroing grps? more combos necessary to deal damage vs variety of potential attacks on the fly?, etc....) I realize the only TRUE way to know is PLAY them. But I want to have a "flavor" of what I am getting into before sinking lots of time into farming rep and going thru factions (finishing up prophecies....just got ascended

). If I have an idea of what to expect it makes the journey that much more anticipated!!

Again, thanks to all who have posted.

Arkantos · Nov 29, 2008, 02:33 AM // 02:33

Scythe warrior is pure offense, where earth shaker can be seen as quite defensive. Enemies can't do anything when they're on the ground, and that's exactly what Earth Shaker does.

If you're playing general PvE in normal mode, where the enemies aren't going to be a problem, go scythe warrior. You will make mobs explode. If you're playing something somewhat challenging (elite missions, hard mode) where enemies are going to be annoying your party, go earth shaker.

Chthon · Nov 29, 2008, 06:33 PM // 18:33

Having recently taken up scythe warrior after decided that spamming power attack with max strength on the recharge sounded pretty cool, I've got to admit that I find it rather "meh.'

Offense-wise, it really feels like a dragon slasher that occasionally scores some collateral damage. While the naked damage on a scythe warrior is pretty good, after taking into account what you get from a buff-bitch and curser (and very rarely would I not have both in my party when playing as a warrior), I find that triple/cyclone/whirlwind axe builds seem to out-DPS scythe builds.

Defense, however, is where the scythe warrior's biggest weak point lies. Without the shield that sword and axe have, and without the protective effect of the AoE knockdown that hammer has, scythe warriors take a lot of abuse. I found that Mhenlo + Lina had a hard time keeping me alive... in normal mode! (And despite the fact that the rest of the team was covered with SY! and didn't require healing.) Sure, Mhenlo + Lina suck pretty badly and a human or hero could probably keep me alive just fine. But still, there's something just wrong when a warrior build has survivability issues with the hench monks, and I don't want to **have** to dedicate a human or hero slot to a monk just to run a build.

On the topic of earthshaker, it's fabulous. Crude Swing and Whirlwind provide a good platform for leveraging buff-bitch damage and the AoE knockdown is essentially a form of party-wide damage prevention -- a very good one.

Beyond earthshaker, I come back to dragon slash builds. Dragon slash allows SY! with the most reliable uptime of any warrior build. Using dragon slash to power whirlwind attack (and vice versa) could potentially kick out AoE -- and leverage the buff-bitch's damage -- at least as fast as axe can. If you've got a human buff-bitch to maintain GDW on you, that whirlwind spam essentially turns into earthshaker.

Golganneth · Nov 30, 2008, 01:02 AM // 01:02

Both above posts are quite true.

Earthshaker: It's a mix of both offensive and defensive. You have your offensive portion from applying Deep Wound and Weakness to a single mob, and along with Whirlwind Attack & Crude Swing, you're hitting every adjacent foe. I also run Brawling Headbutt, which can also be deemed offensive for the damage and knock down. Then you have your defensive portion which Earth Shaker really takes to the next level. Earth Shaker, will effectively keep ALL adjacent foes knocked down (along with stonefist) for 3 seconds. As you continuously use Whirlwind and Crude, you continuously fuel this and keep them down also applying deep wound and weakness to one target if chosen. If mobs are knocked down, they are not attacking or casting spells - therefore not doing any damage to your party. If you keep Earth Shaker going - mobs basically aren't attacking your party to their full effect, if at all.

Do you have an annoying Dervish boss killing your party with a few skills? If you stay on the boss, you can effectively make that boss ineffective by simply spamming Earth Shaker, and Brawling Headbutt. You also get your choice to throw Weakness and Deep Wound onto the boss. Do you have a large number of mobs attacking your party or giving one member very heavy pressure? Go over to a mob that is in the majority of the other enemies, and hit Whirlwind Attack, and Crude Swing fueling Earth Shaker. You will soon enough have ALL of those enemies on their asses, unable to do anything to that party member. You are also giving them some good damage with Whirlwind and Crude.

Earth Shaker is a great defensive and offensive tool mixed into one bar. For Normal Mode, it may be a tad bit slower than the Scythe Warrior because of the enemies difficulty. In NM you don't get as much pressure as you do in HM. As Arkantos mentioned, if you'll mainly be playing NM, go scythe warrior to output as much damage as possible, as defense is easily filled with your heroes and H/H. If you're playing HM for instance where there is formidable pressure, you'll also need to provide a good defense for your team, which is where Earth Shaker will easily say, "Hi".

Scythe Warrior: Scythe warrior is all about offensive, but lacks in defense. I believe the Scythe warrior is much more fit for NM - and HM is much more fit for Earth Shaker. If you're playing Hard Mode, this build has a few portions that can kill it - and you may also be out DPS by Triple Cyclone Axe builds.

Don't be fooled - Scythe is a good build to run, however, Earth Shaker generally outshines it in effectiveness

Bobby2 · Nov 30, 2008, 01:52 AM // 01:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by Golganneth

Scythe Warrior: Scythe warrior is all about offensive, but lacks in defense. I believe the Scythe warrior is much more fit for NM - and HM is much more fit for Earth Shaker. If you're playing Hard Mode, this build has a few portions that can kill it - and you may also be out DPS by Triple Cyclone Axe builds.

When hell freezes over.

Saraneth · Nov 30, 2008, 06:24 AM // 06:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by deluxe

Keep in mind: [earth shaker][crude swing][whirlwind attack] hit all adjacent foes, while a scythe hits only 3 at max.
AoE knockdowns make you take much less damage, and make killing monks easy.

Whirlwind Attack can be used on a scythewar as well. If another player is buffing you with gdw, then aoe kd isn't out of the question either.

-Lotus- · Nov 30, 2008, 07:35 AM // 07:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bobby2

When hell freezes over.

not that hard to do really...
most of the time scythe warrior will probably do more damage, but triple chop/cyclone has so much more potential.

infinity > three