Curse

Bloodied Blade · Jan 15, 2006, 05:20 PM // 17:20

I just converted my W/Mo from an Axe farmer to a Sword warrior...woah!

Just a few things I picked up while soloing the Ice Caves Minotaurs (this should work with the level 20 ones, since the skills they share are identical):

Sever Artery + Gash will cause the minotaur to use Endure Pain, THIS IS A GOOD THING. Continue smacking the Minotaur, and when it's at ~45-50% hp, ENDURE PAIN WEARS OFF! At this time, if you have been keeping bleed on it, it will instantly die. I think it will work simply with -20% max hp from deep wound after they use endure pain, since their hp will drop to normal again, but the deep wound will be figured in from the endure pain'ed hp.
This was VERY helpful for me, since I found that knowing this, I farm/solo minotaurs at ~5-10x the speed that I used to.

For lower level warriors-bring healing prayers to 8, get a good dmging sword (I think mine is currently a 13-18 with req 6 swords). Ignore Strength unless you have extra points, since it won't really make a difference because you're counting mostly on the Sever Artery + Gash. Make sure that you have a decent sword though, otherwise it may be difficult to bring the Minotaur to 50% hp or less (which is ~the % that endure pain is on their bar).

For the lvl 20 minotaurs-
8 healing prayers
10 +3 +1 swordsmanship
rest into Strength (I think this brings Strength to ~8)
all you need in Strength is 8, feel free to bring it to 7 and minor rune it so that you can get 12+3+1 swords.

Skills:
Sever Artery
Gash
Galrath Slash
Final Thrust
Healing Hands {E}
Healing Breeze
Endure Pain
Mending

Immediately cast Mending when entering the zone for the +3 health regen.
Try to work on the lvl 20 minotaurs 1 mob at a time (generally ~4-5 minotaurs, I don't remember how large the 20 minotaur mobs spawn, so you may need 2-3 mobs).
Build enough Adrenaline up for Gash (don't use sever artery yet, you'll see why)
Use Sever Artery-this will generate enough adrenaline to keep Gash up for use immediately, and the minotaurs tend to use Endure Pain within seconds of being hit by a bleed.
Proceed to wail on the minotaur, alternating Sever Artery/Gash every ~15 seconds or so.
In the 15 seconds between sever/gash combos, use Galrath Slash once or twice, depending on your adrenaline...I reccomend once.
The Minotaur's Endure Pain should've dropped ~at the time of the Galrath Slash, meaning he has either no hp (dead), or very little (~20%-40%).
If the minotaur has that small ~20%-40%, use Final Thrust to kill it.

If the minotaurs begin to do a lot more damage than you can handle with mending, you have a few choices-
1.) Use Healing Breeze, and hope that (I think it's) 9 health regen negates most incoming damage.
2.) Use Healing Hands to negate most incoming damage and have a small heal (generally ~10 of the 18 will go towards damage negation)
3.) Stack both Hands and Breeze
4.) Stack Hands, Breeze, and Endure Pain (no way are you going to be killed with more max health, damage negation, and regen all at the same time).

I reccomend staggering Healing Hands/Healing Breeze throughout the fight, as it will keep you from having to worry about it later.

Armor Suggested:
Droks Gladiator Armor, everything but the headpiece.
Helm-anything you can afford at droks with recieved damage -X.

Weapon Suggested:
Any Max sword, I'll be using a Flamberge with a +13% while enchanted mod on it (not hilt or pommel, just got lucky), along with a +15% damage while enchanted pommel (now at +28% damage while enchanted), and a +20% longer enchantment duration pommel (I THINK it's a pommel), if it's not a pommel, then I'll use a max fortitude pommel.
Because of what you need on the sword, I do not reccomend using your show-off set of weaponry (your FDS/IDS and Eternal Shield would be considered your 'show-off' weaponry).

Oh, one last thing: I use a Thorgall's Shield with req (i think it's 8, ill check on it later) 8 strength, 16 armor, -2 recieved damage while enchanted, Quick Recovery from Weakness.

Runes:
Superior Swordsmanship
Minor Strength
Superior Absorbtion
Superior Vigor

Put the Absorbtion on the Chest Piece, the others can go anywhere...I always like to put the swords on the gloves, the strength on the boots, and the vigor on helm...THE ABSORBTION MUST GO ON THE CHEST.

Why does the absorbtion need to go on the chest- haven't tested it, but rumor has it that depending on where you put the absorb rune, it will tend to kick in stronger (i.e. most hits are logically to the chest, so you absorb the most often attacked location). I haven't tested this, and if it matters, good...I'm set. If it doesn't matter, then I'm still fine. Better to have it there and not need it there, than to need it there, and not have it there.

Ado · Jan 21, 2006, 12:24 AM // 00:24

I would swap endure pain for vigorous spirit, it's more effective in healing. And maybe riposte in favor of gash. U would need to reallocate attribs as well then. Malinons shield would be a good alternative as well when using riposte since its a tactics skill.