Curse

Rico Carridan · Oct 27, 2005, 07:31 AM // 07:31

I just recently captured the skill Skull Crack with my swordsman as one of may last remaining warrior captures, and have heard mostly very poor reviews of this skill, but thought I'd give it a try in the comp arenas to see what it was like. And what I can say is, I understand why this spell is elite, and I understand why it is a really bad elite. It really faces two problems, first is that the adrenaline cost on it is ridiculously high, second is that skull crack, like other warrior interrupts, is very hard to actually hit with, because most spells will cast faster than you will be able to interrupt with it, so you generally have to use the ability before the spell is cast, and hope that you manage to get lucky and hit something. On the other hand, when this skill hits, daze is usually damaging enough (or comp players suck enough) that very few targets live long enough through the 15 second duration of the daze.

So, I've been wracking my brain to try to come up with a build that might actually be able to make use of this skill. Here's what I've come up with so far:

W/Me

Sword 12+1+3
Strength 9+1
Illusion 9

Skull Crack {E}
Hamstring
Thrill of Victory
Galrath Slash
Final Thrust
Flurry
For Great Justice!
Arcane Conundrum

Basically, it runs like this: I put on Flurry/FGJ and engage a caster, then hit them with arcane conundrum. My adrenaline now recharges very quickly, so I can spam galrath slash/skull crack as necessary. The increased duration of skull trap, combined with the decreased duration of my attacks due to flurry, seems to make skull crack reasonably effective. For damage, I have my slash/final/thrill spike, which seems pretty effective so far. I use hamstring to keep opponents from running away, and if I can, if I daze an opponent, I try to hit them with hamstring again afterward, to act as a cover for the daze (I'm actually considering dropping something for sever artery as another cover condition, since even with a zealous hilt, I can't always count on having 10 energy when I need it)

I'm open to any suggestions/flames regarding what people think of the build.

Rico

smurfhunter · Oct 27, 2005, 09:16 AM // 09:16

skull crack is terrible. there are alot of better things to put your elite into.

if you really really really care enough to wonder why search for it

Rico Carridan · Oct 27, 2005, 03:03 PM // 15:03

I'm not interested in why it's terrible; I've used it before, I'm aware of its disadvantages. What I'm interested in is whether or not you get a viable build out of it.

Rico

striderkaaru · Oct 27, 2005, 03:17 PM // 15:17

you should probably cover arcane conundrum with another hex to make sure it's not removed. mind wrack is a low cost relatively fast casting hex with a fixed duration, even with 0 in domination. if you're adding sever artery and stacking conditions, you might as well add fragility too.

you can drop your damage spike skills since the point of the build would be to keep a caster constantly interrupted with daze.

JYX · Oct 27, 2005, 04:38 PM // 16:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rico Carridan

I'm not interested in why it's terrible; I've used it before, I'm aware of its disadvantages. What I'm interested in is whether or not you get a viable build out of it.

Rico

Yes you can. It'll just be crap. Whats your point?

Nawn Centz · Oct 27, 2005, 05:19 PM // 17:19

I find skull crack very great, not only does it daze them - they are now easily intterupted, so even if you get to intterupt one of his skills, seeing as how every skill in the world doesnt have a 1/2 sec. cast time then you can do well. (Wow that was a long sentence, lol.) Just put a hex on, and when he uses remove hex then you can stop that cuz it has quite a bit long cast time. If he's a monk sure it'll be hard but not too many things (but maybe mesmers) can constantly intterupt a monk. As far as eles, necros, and mesmers alot of their skills have long cast times in which you can skull crack them. Then after that unless they remove daze, all the other skills will be screwed with easy intterupt.

Eonwe · Oct 27, 2005, 06:24 PM // 18:24

You mean until someone else just uses mend condition on him...? Skull Crack may possibly be the worst warrior elite there is.

Dumb Quixote · Oct 27, 2005, 06:34 PM // 18:34

Dazed is a great condition. Especially if you can spread it (it's like an IKEA showroom with all the light bulbs). But Concussion shot is an better way to get there... and in the end, there is always a better choice.

entropy · Oct 27, 2005, 07:18 PM // 19:18

9 adrenaline for a dazed that is removed in 2 secs/probably much less? I mean you might as spend your 10 energy and blackout them

rii · Oct 27, 2005, 07:38 PM // 19:38

If you want to daze i prefer the ranger concussion shot. As for its usefulness, yes, in 8v8 unless you hit their solo condition remover, its useless. Ca though, where there is only the one of them (in most cases) dazed spells death in general, as long as your team can master the art of focusing to overload on attacks to interrupt them

byoo511 · Oct 28, 2005, 07:23 PM // 19:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rico Carridan

I just recently captured the skill Skull Crack with my swordsman as one of may last remaining warrior captures, and have heard mostly very poor reviews of this skill, but thought I'd give it a try in the comp arenas to see what it was like. And what I can say is, I understand why this spell is elite, and I understand why it is a really bad elite. It really faces two problems, first is that the adrenaline cost on it is ridiculously high, second is that skull crack, like other warrior interrupts, is very hard to actually hit with, because most spells will cast faster than you will be able to interrupt with it, so you generally have to use the ability before the spell is cast, and hope that you manage to get lucky and hit something. On the other hand, when this skill hits, daze is usually damaging enough (or comp players suck enough) that very few targets live long enough through the 15 second duration of the daze.

So, I've been wracking my brain to try to come up with a build that might actually be able to make use of this skill. Here's what I've come up with so far:

W/Me

Sword 12+1+3
Strength 9+1
Illusion 9

Skull Crack {E}
Hamstring
Thrill of Victory
Galrath Slash
Final Thrust
Flurry
For Great Justice!
Arcane Conundrum

Basically, it runs like this: I put on Flurry/FGJ and engage a caster, then hit them with arcane conundrum. My adrenaline now recharges very quickly, so I can spam galrath slash/skull crack as necessary. The increased duration of skull trap, combined with the decreased duration of my attacks due to flurry, seems to make skull crack reasonably effective. For damage, I have my slash/final/thrill spike, which seems pretty effective so far. I use hamstring to keep opponents from running away, and if I can, if I daze an opponent, I try to hit them with hamstring again afterward, to act as a cover for the daze (I'm actually considering dropping something for sever artery as another cover condition, since even with a zealous hilt, I can't always count on having 10 energy when I need it)

I'm open to any suggestions/flames regarding what people think of the build.

Rico

how does thrill of victory do any damage with 0 in tactics?

Rico Carridan · Oct 29, 2005, 01:19 AM // 01:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by byoo511

how does thrill of victory do any damage with 0 in tactics?

My bad, pulled that off of my more defensive build that has a couple points in tactics so I can use healing sig since I never get monk on my team in comp arena.

Rico