Curse

Ser Jaremy Ryker · Feb 15, 2007, 03:17 PM // 15:17

Last night I played around with trying a new warrior build that includes Blackout. I’ve tried this before without major success and did some research on the internet and that seems to be the general consensus. The build I tried last night though does seem to be relatively effective so I thought I’d share it (I only tested in RA and got a glad point and a few good runs when on decent teams – I’ll probably test some more against the master’s on the Isle of the Nameless). This build may be considered inferior to other standard builds but is still effective, fun, and a nice deviation from the norm.

First off, I’ll discuss the skill Blackout. It is a 10 energy cost, 1s cast, 12s recharge skill. To be effective it requires at least 10 in Domination to get a 5s lockout on your opponent (must have been changed from what I remember). There are many pros and cons associated with this skill:

-Target’s skillbar is locked-out for 5 seconds. Your skillbar is also locked-out for 5 seconds. For this situation you must be under some sort of tactical advantage to make this useful. As a warrior primary you are already at an advantage in that just swinging your weapon provides a decent damage output compared to other classes and you have higher armour. To make full use of this you will additionally 1) want to somehow inhibit your target before the blackout (e.g. cripple, deepwound, major health loss, etc) and 2) want to be under some sort of competitive advantage (e.g. IAS stance or other buff that will last through the duration).

- Blackout is also a decent interrupt. The cast time is longer than a typical interrupt (but only 1s which is perfectly acceptable for a warrior) but can still often catch skills. One interesting thing I noticed when I blacked-out an ele casting meteor shower is that they will still go through the full animation (i.e. for about 4 seconds the ele waved his hands in the air before his spell fizzled – that’s 4 seconds during which he couldn’t kite and stood taking a beating). The recharge time is also fairly decent.

- The energy cost is relatively high for a warrior primary. It’s ratio is 10 energy every 13 seconds, while a warrior will only regenerate only about 8 points in 13 seconds.

- Blackout wipes out all adrenalin. This is good when you are using it on a target (such as another warrior) as it will massively disrupt their skill combos. This is bad for you for the same reason.

- This is a great skill for party support in that it can be used offensively (blackout the target or enemy monk before/during a spike) or defensively (blackout the opponent that is causing your own monk grief). Make sure you call the blackout to let your team-mates know where to focus.

- This skill is still useful when under the blind condition that shuts-down warrior classes.

- This is a touch-skill. You have to be very close to the target to use it. As a consequence, as a Mesmer primary with low armour you would be taking a risk using it.

So now here is the build that I was using:

Class: W/Me
Attributes:
Domination 10
Strength 8+1
Tactics 6+1
Weapon-mastery 11+2
Equipment:
Sword with stance damage bonus, + to health, lengthen cripple duration
Offhand focus item/chakram to get the +12 energy
Armour mods to get the additions to the attributes, one for reduced hex duration, superior vigor, and the plusses to health

Skills:
1) Beserker Stance: (5e, 30s) for 9 seconds your attack 33% faster and gain 50% more adrenalin
2) Warrior’s Endurance: (5e, 30s) for 19 seconds you gain 3 energy with each hit
3) Hamstring: (10e, 15s) for 13 seconds (+33% from weapon mod) your target is crippled
4) Sever artery: (4a) Inflict bleeding… only useful to activate Gash
5) Gash: (7a) to get the almighty deep-wound
6) Blackout: (10e, 1s, 12s) to shutdown your opponent
7) Heal-sig: Minor self-heal
8) Res-sig: as always

-For an axe-theme I would maybe suggest swap out 3, 4, and 5 with dismember, rake, and a utility skill (other attack or enchantment removal)
-For a hammer-theme maybe use the Irresistable+Hammer-Bash+Crushing Blow combo.
-I was never a big fan of swords but used it here for a change so I’m eager to try the axe and hammer variations.

How this build works:

This build uses the two stances to overcome the disadvantages of blackout. Beserker quickly charges up your adrenal skills after coming out of blackout and W-End provides excellent energy regeneration. Effectively, you will always be in one of these stances.

The hamstring is to cripple your target before going into blackout. The first reaction of every enemy that gets blacked-out is to run and you’ve eliminated this possibility (also in terms of mobility a cripple can be just as effective as a speed boost). The sever/gash are to get the deep-wound on your target before blacking them out. So the typical attack chain will look something like Beserker Stance (don’t use skills during this or it will deactivate –it’s only to build adrenalin), then attacks 3, 4, 5 (if you suspect your target will run immediately) or 4, 5, 3 (to have the cripple cover the deep-wound), and then enter War-End and Blackout (make sure you call to your team). You will pretty much be able to continually cycle through this chain. Remember though, you are a surgical unit that must assess the battle conditions and think tactically.

Beserker stance does not normally look like a great skill choice but it does work well in that it will easily charge up the adrenalin within the 7 seconds between blackouts while providing high DPS due to IAS. Additionally, the recharge doesn’t seem so bad when you consider that for 1/3 of the recharge time you are using the skill and 1/3 of the recharge time you couldn’t use it anyway (4 second attack chain, 1s cast, 5s blackout) so it seems like you’re only waiting about 10 seconds for it to recharge. Additionally, for the 2/3 it is down, you will be in the War-End stance.

First impressions against other classes are:
- you make the enemy monk’s life (which will be short) very difficult
- you can effectively negate eles and necros
- you can effectively disrupt a melee-class attack chain and support your monk

So a quick summary of this build:
- Relatively easy to use
- Effectively shuts-down opponents and their strategy (the hammer version could excel very nicely at this)
- Is generally effective against most other classes
- Can work through the blind condition (heal-sig then blackout)
- Can support your team offensively and defensively
- Manages energy and adrenalin well
- Is flexible/adaptable to the battlefield conditions
- Provides decent burst DPS and spiking capability

If you have any comments/suggestion please send them in. Also, if you’re aware of any other effective Blackout Warrior builds please post them.

Savio · Feb 15, 2007, 03:20 PM // 15:20

Self-adrenaline denial and inability to use attack skills is worthless. Also, Warrior's Endurance sucks.

Stormlord Alex · Feb 15, 2007, 03:55 PM // 15:55

I'm with Savio - it's an interesting idea though. Personally, I'd take a better elite (Eviscerate, maybe?), and use blackout after my attack chain/spike to prevent the foe from self-healing or whatever.
Sever/Gash isn't going to do all too much by itself, you'll need some harder hitting sword skills if you wanna cause any pain with a sword. For this reason, axe would probably be a better weapon - you get DW + harder hits with fewer skills. Also, I'd recommend 16 weapon mastery as well, to max out your DPS when auto-attacking.
Energy shouldn't really be a problem, you're not gonna need to Blackout a lot - to regain energy simply switch to zealous and wail on something with Frenzy (Berserker's Stance is pretty lame tbh).
Also, by dropping the 2 Strength skills, you can move them into Tactics for a better heal sig.brb

icedwhitemocha · Feb 15, 2007, 05:16 PM // 17:16

I seriously doubt that build's ability to have any negative effect on a halfway decent monk. You can't do enough damage in between blackouts, which wont last long enough in the first place. Having adrenal skills on the same bar as blackout is bad.

I once saw a warrior in RA months ago (pre-blackout nerf) who had echo and blackout and just humped the enemy monk the whole time... that was funny, but this is just... ineffective.

Edit: ok, so my post is at least somewhat constructive, here's what I would run if you really wanted to use blackout on a warr for whatever reason.

Hamstring
Seeking Blade
Hundred Blades
Blackout
Healing Signet
Res Sig
Frenzy
Sprint

16 sword, whatever the breakpoint for blackout is, decent tactics, and really low strength. Frenzy with a zealous sword and you'll have more energy than you know what to do with. BTW, the build I posted is in no way actually good, but its the best I could come up with as far as synergizing with blackout.

Jetdoc · Feb 15, 2007, 08:43 PM // 20:43

Frenzy with a Vampiric weapon would be mandatory for a Blackout build.

Use a Zealous weapon instead of Warrior's Endurance to recover energy.

I used to run (a long time ago) a Blackout build, and although it was fun, it was definitely inferior to other builds (e.g. Shock, KD/AS, etal).

I've tweaked my old build to make it a bit better, but I still think it is inferior in the end...

Blackout
Frenzy
Sprint
Signet of Strength
Bull's Strike
Distracting Blow
Hamstring
Rez Signet

In short, you hamstring your target and apply Signet of Strength and Frenzy right before you hit your target with Blackout. That gives you 5 seconds to hit your target roughly 5-6 times under Frenzy, with enhanced +8 damage per hit from your Vamp and Signet. Once the Blackout wears off, hit them with Bull's Strike (since they will likely be trying to kite) and then with Distracting Blow once they get off the turf (since their first reaction will be to cast a spell now that they can).

That gives you a total of 8-9 attacks (with no attack skills) before they can do anything. That isn't enough to take them out, but can apply enough pressure on a target to distract them from their primary role.

Again, not a good build (since it is SOOO specialized), but it might work in the right circumstance.

Effigy · Feb 16, 2007, 02:28 AM // 02:28

Using Frenzy right before Blackout is a bad idea. Mesmers will sometimes try to black you out while frenzied because it makes you an easy kill.

{BHC}KingWarman88 · Feb 16, 2007, 03:23 AM // 03:23

Hey,

Yea, I used Frenzy alot againt certain,good, Mesmers and them, and got my self run over. Not a good idea..

Thom Bangalter · Feb 16, 2007, 08:57 AM // 08:57

putting blackout on a warrior is epic bad.

LightningHell · Feb 16, 2007, 09:21 AM // 09:21

These threads make me want to close Campfire.

Blackout on a Warrior means that while you can't fulfill your role to your fullest extent.

Ser Jaremy Ryker · Feb 16, 2007, 05:03 PM // 17:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by LightningHell

Blackout on a Warrior means that while you can't fulfill your role to your fullest extent.

Yeah, I'm thinking that way also after a bit more testing.

The axe version is better than sword (sever is just such a waste), and the hammer lacks the cripple that's needed.

I did some more testing and this build is only mediocre. Your damage output is nothing special, your shutting-down is nothing special.
Just thought I'd try something different to see if I could get something that works.
You could probably delete this thread.

Effigy · Feb 16, 2007, 06:43 PM // 18:43

Nice try, but I'm glad you were able to see the error of your ways and grow from it rather than screaming "zomg u guyz r nubs try my build b4 u talk" like most people do.

jjtrasher · Feb 19, 2007, 04:49 PM // 16:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by Savio

Self-adrenaline denial and inability to use attack skills is worthless. Also, Warrior's Endurance sucks.

/agreed

also Illusionary weaponry > Flurry > blackout is a nice combo