Curse

Bloodied Blade · Jan 07, 2006, 05:18 AM // 05:18

I prefer to use sword/blood w/n, since I just like sword and 100 blades along with blood's +hp aspects. I'm not sure how this build would work (kinda thought it up over a coke and a bowl o' soup)...Would running 100 blades with a support necro be decent for farming (Demonic Flesh + Endure Pain, 2 energy gain on hit, -1 energy regen zealous max sword, maybe with a +hp pommel.)? I was thinking of mainly using 100 blades for the energy gain + adrenaline, and when you think about what a decent order necro can do to 100 blades...wow. Order of the Vampire = 32 life steal per foe attacked per 100 blades (2 hits, each for 16 hp steal), Order of pain = +32 damage in the same manner as Order of the Vampire (Like I said, decent order necro...maybe quite the GOOD order necro.). This averages out to non-scattering damage in 64s, half of it is life stealing, each foe gives you 2 strikes of adrenaline per attack you make with 100 blades on them. My friend has decided to play the order necro (N/Mo), and take a few heals, and a +energy regen buff (+1) to help compensate for the minor loss of energy recovery due to the zealous hilt. Would him also spamming Judge's Insight + Strength of Honor help me? Since an average sword hits ~30-40 damage (12-14 swordsmanship, estimated from damage friend tested with a max dmg fellblade, un-enhanced), wouldn't the Judge's Insight make every attack (when comined with SoH and the 2 orders + 100 blades) cause you to deal 100+ damage per attack with 100 blades per foe with no scatter?

I'm trying to decide on what OTHER skills to run in the combo besides this. I'm thinking of using Endure Pain + Demonic Flesh for ~+400-500 max health, and maybe using Shield Stance (so that I'm less likely to be hit)...maybe Reposte and Deadly Reposte too (more damage to whatever unfortunate thing decides it's alright to attack me). I'm also considering having my friend run Mark of Subversion and maybe Infuse Health (along with his other heals).

This look ok or should I try to toss in some more defensive stuff (i.e. Shield Bash-100% chance to block attack, disables certain skills). I was hoping that I could simply spam Shield Bash, Reposte, and Deadly Reposte, along with Shield Stance.

So far it would look like:

Hundred Blades
Shield Bash
Reposte
Deadly Reposte
Shield Stance
Demonic Flesh
Endure Pain
maybe Unholy Feast, since it steals up to 50 health from all foes IN THE AREA when it's used (this is not an elite, I checked the GW homepage blood magic list, it's there.)

So, overall my battle plan would be to immediately use Demonic Flesh, and launch Endure Pain once I get into the 'thick' of things (once I get a farm group of 1-2 mobs, maybe 3-4 depending on what they are). Immediately fire Hundred Blades (the Order Necro is an RL friend who I would have on speaker phone until we decide to get ts or vent) and get the energy + life-steal + tons of damage (assuming that Judge's Insight and SoH are also on me). Use Shield Stance until I get a little bit low on health (above 1/2, but not very far above half, like 55%-ish), use a Reposte (doesn't matter which, the attack block is what I'm using it for anyway) and fire Feast of Corruption to bring my health (hopefully) back to full, using the likely now recovered Endure Pain or Demonic Flesh. Basically cycling Shield Bash, Reposte, and Deadly Reposte until 100 Blades is ready to be fired again (I'm fairly sure the pure-damage Order has an extremely fast recharge time...I'll check up on all this tomorrow morning since it's almost midnight), then using Shield Stance and continuing to cycle in Demonic Flesh, Endure Pain, and Unholy Feast to keep my health up (staggering Demonic Flesh and EP so that I don't end up with 1 GIGANTIC health drop when it might kill me), and continuing to use my Reposte, Deadly Reposte, and Shield Bash to help negate damage.
My energy should stay high since I will have 2 energy regen and will gain 2 energy per foe when fighting, and 4 energy per foe when using 100 Blades (meaning that 2 foes gives me a total energy gain of 3, 8 for hitting 4 times * 2 energy regen per hit, -5 energy for cost of 100 Blades).
The Order necro will likely bring along a few prot spells to help me negate damage (like Aegis and Guardian-Resulting in 2 50% chances for negation). Unfortunately, it won't stack for 100%, there's a 50% chance for either one to kick in (if guardian doesn't, aegis might...but both could still fail at the same time).
The Necro will be definitely packing for blood magic, healing, prot, and maybe 7-8 soul reaping (4-5 + a sup rune, since the necro is unlikely to need much health to absorb damage).

I guess it really depends on what I'm farming with the build (preferrably things that don't interrupt, but I can always swap in balanced stance for Demonic Flesh and just ask the Order necro to bring Vital Blessing). No way to stop an actual INTERRUPT skill, but should be able to handle knockdowners with almost no problem.

I will likely just be built for front-loaded damage until the two of us get the skills that we need (specifically 100 blades, but the build would work semi-efficiently with Cyclone Axe as well). The only problem that I see with Cyclone axe is that you lose 22 damage per hit with it, since it only will hit once, which also means that you gain A LOT less health when you AoE (1 foe won't make much difference, but 5 is a difference if 80 health that you don't gain because you can only attack once with the AoE). Granted, Cyclone Axe attacks faster (I may be wrong in my opinion that 100 Blades is the best skill for this, nobody's perfect), but I would prefer a spike of health, because that small wait could kill me.

The build is definitely workable with Cyclone axe, and could be modified to skip one of the damage negation skills (Reposte, Deadly Reposte, or Shield Bash) to take the elite curse Spiteful Spirit instead. But remember, this would require you to take Blood Magic, Strength, Axe Mastery, and Curses (I think that Shield Stance is also a Tactics skill...). On the other hand, you could skip Strength (ignoring Endure Pain and risking a lower max health), since Judge's Insight gives armor penetration = 10 strength (20%) and makes all attack damage dealt while enchanted with it ignore armor (holy damage is not resisted by armor), along with the extra 10 holy damage from Strength of Honor. I will likely be running my W/N as an Axe character until I get Galrath Slash and Final Thrust (Sever Artery, Gash, Galrath Slash, Final Thrust, Vampiric Touch, makes for an AMAZING DPS combo).

Ok, questions? comments?

Cheers!
BB