Curse

Samra · Jun 23, 2008, 10:26 PM // 22:26

I'm returning to the game after an over two year absence, and trying to get my established characters up to speed while I work on a new one. Two questions relating to my warrior:

1) My warrior has the old Knight's Armor, which the game has translated into the new Templar armor with Knight's inscriptions in each slot. I assume I should get rid of all but one of these inscriptions and get something else. Should I keep one Knight's inscription (-3 damage), or replace them all? Does Knights stack with a rune of absorption? Does it only kick in if you're hit in that slot?

2) I bought a Shiro's Sword in Lion's Arch. It seems like a great weapon, and based on what I've read on this forum, it has all of the right bonuses. But now that I've been using a vampiric bow on my Ranger, I'm worried about a Vampiric sword hilt. Are you guys constantly swapping out the sword when you're out of combat? Or do most of you use an elemental hilt or sundering hilt instead, so you don't have to deal with the annoyance? Is furious a better choice? (This is PVE only.)

Thanks for your help.

Crom The Pale · Jun 23, 2008, 10:40 PM // 22:40

1) replace all, the knights inscription is pretty worthless for a war these days. Replace with either Survivor or Sentinals depending on your play style and builds.

2) Vamp is good, bring a second sword to swap(elemental or Zealous)

Stormlord Alex · Jun 23, 2008, 10:42 PM // 22:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samra

1) *snip*

Essentially, knight's and absorption runes/insigs are now rather bad. One piece of knights is no longer global - you only take less damage on the location hit. And while absorption and knight's stack, they got thrown down the shitter by only affecting physical damage (which, as you know, is no threat anyways to a warr), and by the availability of better runes/insignia - Survivor's, Brawler's and Sentry's are much better at adding survivability than Knight's; and Vitae/Clarity runes own the crap out of absorption.

times have changed and absorption is bad.

Quote:

2) *snip* (This is PVE only.)

Vamp is good, period. Sundering's additional damage is total and utter shit in PvE where mobs have insane armour levels (on a side note, armour penetration adds less damage to high armour targets).

If you're worried about the pathetic degen (IIRC, it takes around ~5 minutes afk with a vamp weapon to die), then hero or henchman healers will take care of you. Laziness and 2 health loss a second are no excuse for bringing bad mods.

As for furious - also rather bad. Not only is 10% proc rate is far too low, but with DSlashes/Whirlwind Attacks/FGJ!/Enraging Charges out of the wazzoo on most warr bars, that extra adrenaline never really amounts to much.

DSlash under FGJ! gives you 10 adrenaline. Why do you need more?

Tyla · Jun 23, 2008, 10:47 PM // 22:47

Alex, I wouldn't call Furious mods bad.

Furious spears FTW!!

Stormlord Alex · Jun 23, 2008, 10:50 PM // 22:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tyla

Alex, I wouldn't call Furious mods bad.

Furious spears FTW!!

While true, not really pertaining to PvE. Furious makes for a bad sword, and I'm not sure why I'd want to use my spear in PvE

Samra · Jun 23, 2008, 10:52 PM // 22:52

Thanks for the responses. It sounds like I should get an elemental sword to swap out with Shiro's. Unfortunately there aren't a lot of green elemental swords.

Am I making a mistake sticking with swords? Is axe usually/always better for PvE?

Stormlord Alex · Jun 23, 2008, 10:58 PM // 22:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samra

Thanks for the responses. It sounds like I should get an elemental sword to swap out with Shiro's. Unfortunately there aren't a lot of green elemental swords.

You're stuck with this or this... Luckily, both rather nice skins imo.

Quote:

Am I making a mistake sticking with swords? Is axe usually/always better for PvE?

[dragon [email protected]] + [save yourselves! (luxon)]
[dragon [email protected]] + [brawling headbutt] + [steelfang [email protected]]
[dragon [email protected]] + [for great justice] + [dragon [email protected]] + [dragon [email protected]] + [dragon [email protected]] + [dragon [email protected]] + [dragon [email protected]]...

Swords are actually incredibly strong, due in part to the aforementioned adrenaline-fuelled PvE skills.

Samra · Jun 23, 2008, 11:05 PM // 23:05

Thanks a lot. I ordered Nightfall and Factions so I can get some of the new skills ... Dragon Slash looks great.

My sense is that Destructive Blade and Blade of the Hierophant will be tough to buy ... so I can just use Shiro's and the Deldrimor reward sword until I earn them for myself.

Tyla · Jun 23, 2008, 11:08 PM // 23:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stormlord Alex

While true, not really pertaining to PvE. Furious makes for a bad sword, and I'm not sure why I'd want to use my spear in PvE

Bah who cares, it's very good in conjunction with Enraged Charge and that's all that matters!

RotteN · Jun 23, 2008, 11:59 PM // 23:59

Swords aren't bad, however, due to their low base damage, sundering is useless. (sundering only shines on high base damage weapons like hammers and specially scythes).

Any non-degen sword will serve as a swap for vampiric.
The most common setup would be elemental/zealous/vampiric

With the low price of mods and inscriptions these days, you might aswell buy a gold weapon (or mod one that you find). No need to stick to greens realy.

warriorsmiley · Jun 24, 2008, 12:44 AM // 00:44

Well as for the weapon swaps as my warrior is my main character feel in love with them the moment i made my first one. I have a vamp weapon, zealous, sundering, elemental, and furious. Now it may seem like alot but i have my reasons for it vamp+IAS= great damage output. Zealous is good when your running 3+ energy skills. Sundering because sometimes I get lazy and forget to swap weapons and sundering has 0 drawback. Elemental for warriors which have extra damage to physical. And furious well i have all the other mods why not a furious one just like sundering it has 0 drawback and when in pve I tend to run low aderaline skills and that slight chance of double aderaline helps alot when your running 5 aderaline or less skills.

Hugh Manatee · Jun 24, 2008, 04:29 PM // 16:29

On absorption runes, I still like the -3 global vs physical in PvE, and GvG. In each of these scenarios I'll have healer types or support to get rid of blind cripple and all that, and -3 will eventually save you a lot more damage then a vitae should you have to deal with the GvG npcs or pve physical attackers. Usually I take survivor's with 1 stonefists, a strength +1, a sup vig, the +1 of whatever my weapon is, a sup absorption, and then one of the grape runes(usually only if we're on the burning hall, I take the anticrip, otherwise the antiblind) or a vitae/attunement. I also have the shields that reduce condition length.

If you're going to be unsupported I can see taking out the sup absorption, for like Ra or TA or a dedicated gank or something, but -3 makes the npc attacks just bounce off you...

**Marty Silverblade** · Jun 25, 2008, 09:26 AM // 09:26

A good way to compare mods is too see how they'll go after a few hits. Lets compare furious and vampiric for example. Every 10 hits, vampiric will give you an additional 30 armor-ignoring, unreducable damage. Furious gives another point of adr. Vamp > Furious.

Grogs · Jul 01, 2008, 01:58 AM // 01:58

I'm in a similar situation to the OP, except I've been playing a bit recently, but totally neglecting my warrior. Like the OP I have Knight's armour, so I will switch to Survivor insignias for that. Also, the character is using a sword, I think it's time to switch to an axe. I'm looking at the Triple Chop Warrior build on PvX wiki as a base. It recommends a zealous axe, but vampiric ones seem to be favoured, at least in this thread? Assuming I stick to that build (please point me to a widely accepted better one if available) which axe/shield should I be looking at? Please give me specific names/options (assuming uniques) and if possible rough estimates on there current cost.

Any advise is greatly appreciated.

Savio · Jul 01, 2008, 02:11 AM // 02:11

With a Triple Chop build, you require more energy than the usual adrenaline-based warrior, so you mainly use zealous. (It's good to have multiple weapons though.) As far as greens go, you want Wing's Axe or Axe of the Kinslayer, along with Strongroot's Shelter, Destructive Shield, or Victo's Bulwark for now. Wing and Victo's should be cheap.

horseradish · Jul 01, 2008, 03:26 AM // 03:26

I find Arrahhsh's Aegis to be pretty damn awesome.

Cherng Butter · Jul 01, 2008, 06:02 AM // 06:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stormlord Alex

[dragon [email protected]] + [brawling headbutt] + [steelfang [email protected]]

I'm returning to the game after a 2 month hiatus, but...doesn't that combo not work anymore (w/o FGJ!)?

Stormlord Alex · Jul 01, 2008, 07:02 AM // 07:02

Without FGJ!, you need a few autoattacks here and there, or maybe even [[whirlwind attack] - but it's still pretty strong.

Grogs · Jul 01, 2008, 11:35 AM // 11:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by Savio

With a Triple Chop build, you require more energy than the usual adrenaline-based warrior, so you mainly use zealous. (It's good to have multiple weapons though.) As far as greens go, you want Wing's Axe or Axe of the Kinslayer, along with Strongroot's Shelter, Destructive Shield, or Victo's Bulwark for now. Wing and Victo's should be cheap.

Alright, thanks for the info. I'll get a Wing's Axe and one of those shields.

@horseradish, I think Savio listed those shields as they'd presumably be cheaper, which is something I mentioned.

**Marty Silverblade** · Jul 01, 2008, 11:12 PM // 23:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grogs

@horseradish, I think Savio listed those shields as they'd presumably be cheaper, which is something I mentioned.

I think Arrahhsh's Aegis is farmable, so you could get one for free if you wanted. It could take a while, and you might have to spend money getting the skills, but it's up to you.