Curse

Milkman Dan · Jan 30, 2006, 09:01 PM // 21:01

Profession: Warrior Necromancer

Name: McKilligan's Curseweaver

Type: PvP/Alternate PVE config

Category: Tank/Damage output

Attributes:
Curses: 12
Strength: 5
Swordsmanship: 11 + 1 (Helm) + 2 (Rune), 14 total

Skills Set:
Sever Artery
Gash
Galrath Slash
Final Thrust
Spiteful Spirit {Elite}
Insidious Parasite - alternate PvE skill, Mark of Pain
Barbs -alternate skill, weaken armour
Parasitic Bond

Summary:
This build works best against other melee classes, but also performs well against casters. They key advantage of this build is that is puts ungodly amounts of pain on your opponents, whereas most warrior sub builds are geared towards keeping themselves alive. This build can take away far more health than a W/MO can maintain, so it's an excellent paladin killer. Another advantage of this class is that it lets the enemy hurt themselves, freeing you from needing to strike to do most of your damage.

The backbone of this build is Spiteful Spirit. For 18 seconds, whenever they attack or use a skill, they take 29 shadow damage. Stack Insidious Parasite on top of it, and they take 46 damage every time they attack, 17 of which you leech off as health, so you're taking a little less damage. As far as casters are concerned, Spiteful Spirit also makes a great spell. It doesn't take effect as often as when cast on a melee class, but they still take damage whenever they casta spell or use a skill. Casters are weak against direct melee attacks anway, and the combination of the 4 swords moves should be enough to kill almost any mage. If you need that extra bit of damage, cast barbs for +8 damage with every melee attack. This applies to everyone attacking that target, so it's great to focus damage with another warrior, or even a ranger.
While they're being pummelled by your curses, you're also inflicting more damage with your sword skills. Sever Artery gives them -3 health degen for 24 seconds, Gash reduces their maximum HP, and Galrath Slash does 37 damage. At this point, the enemy is almost definitely below 50% health, so it's time to bust out Final Thrust, which does a whopping extra 74 damage if it strikes while they're below 50%, It usually deals anywhere from 85-100 damage for me.

Finally, you have Parasitic Bond, to make the monk on your team's job a little bit easier. Essentially, it's a 1 second cast 5 energy spell that gives an enemy -1 health degen, and rewards you after 20 seconds with 102 health. It's a good idea to cast this on one or two enemies at the beginning of a battle if you can spare the energy, and it's definitely worth it to snag an extra lump of health when you're in the middle of a brawl.
Also, you automatically get the 102 health if the enemy dies while it is cast, so you can cast it on enemies that are near death to get some extra health quickly. Remember to cast this on an opponent just before you or someone else kills them.

Notes & Concerns: This build is fantastic at melee combat when an enemy rushes in, and even more so if there's two warriors concentrating on the same target, but it does have several weaknesses. Aside from Insidious Parasite and Parasitic Bond, you'll be taking alot of damage. The main idea of this build is to outdamage your opponent, and it excels at this. There are few, if any, warriors builds that can manage to hurt the enemy as fast as this one, but you'll be vulnerable without a monk on your team. Make ample use of parasitic bond on your enemies.

Also, since you rely heavily on Spiteful Spirit, you're at a disadvantage if an enemy monk strips it. Luckily, Spirit only has a 10 second recharge, so by the time it's gone, you'll probably be able to put it right back.
You'll also get low on energy fairly quickly, but as long as you don't have to recast SS too much, you should have more than enough to cast what you need. Some of your more intelligent competitors in PvP will know not to attack when SS is cast on them, but they're few and far between, as most warriors just love to get in there and hit as much as possible, thus dooming themselves.

Another weakness is the inability to catch a running enemy. If your target decides to bolt, it's a better idea to pick someone new and start hacking away at them than to chase. If you really wanted, you could replace galrath slash with hamstring, but I prefer the extra damage since other warriors rarely run.

A final note as far as gear is concerned, I use a curse Focus (Idol) which gives me +12 energy and has a 20% chance to reduce the casting time and recharge of curses, as well as the gladiator Hauberk, so I have a total of 35 energy, which is enough to cast all of my opening moves right off the bat.

So in summary, open with spiteful spirit and insidious parasite on an enemy warrior, maybe throw out a few parasitic bonds on him and another enemy for insurance. It doesn't matter WHO the enemy attack, SS and IS will still be in effect, so it's also great for protecting your monk. Then, just get in close and work with barbs and your sword skills to finish him off. You'll quickly knock an enemy below 50% health, so you can seal the deal with Final Thrust. Few classes have real advantages against this build, and it's an effective attacker right across the board, so it's useful in almost all PVP situations.

P.S. Just in case you were wondering about the 5 points in strength, it's a useful 5% armour penetration against an enemy, so it's a good way to spend a few extra points.
Also, if you want a PvE build, Spiteful Spirit and Mark of pain work wonders on enemy mobs.

Credit: Me

Amsterdam · Jan 30, 2006, 09:59 PM // 21:59

Nice, I love parasitic bond, in UW, if fighting one last aatxe, smite, or dryder, I drop soul barbs on and echo parasitic, bouncing back and fourth doing 33 damage per cast is awesome along with SS because that is doing 41 damage everytime they land a blow, which is definitely a fast way of taking things down. Good thread.

Xiaxhou of Trinity · Jan 31, 2006, 05:56 AM // 05:56

Now taking on a lot of dmg.........you could use demonic flesh, blood renewal, and then a healing sig. But I don't know how to integrate this into your build. Just offering a thought.......

Milkman Dan · Feb 03, 2006, 12:11 AM // 00:11

Not really, I'm specced in curses so I can't use any blood skills.