Curse

ak347 · Mar 13, 2006, 07:57 PM // 19:57

With the new update comes the wonder of the rapid-adren buildup hammer war.
Enter: the Magical Hammer of Spamminess.

Skills:
Disrupting Blow (the 5en 1/2 second swing attack that interrupts in a small area)
Protector's Strike
Rush
Devastating Hammer (elite)
Crushing Blow
Hammer Attack (the one that knocks down if the enemy has weakness on them)
Purge Conditions (monk skill)
Res Sig

As you can tell, pvp build - ive tried in both RA and TA.
Attribute Distribution - 14 str, 14 hammer mastery, strength helm, major hammer rune, major vigor, major absorption.
Key Weapon: ZEALOUS hammer of SOMETHING (your build is energy heavy, zealous is so helpful). (I use a 13% always, -10 armor while attacking zealous hammer of enchanting - dont ask about the latter mod, and it has the awesome spiky war hammer skin, which looks absolutely brutal - excuse my rant)
What's so special - devastating hammer is your key knocklock startup, and it takes 7 adren (I usually go for 8 cuz i trigger rush first since all the squishies are always kiting). So, 8 adren, thats a long time. But, with the advent of protectors strike, you can reduce the time to build adren to roughly 5 swing normal time. Key: utilize the quickly recharging protectors strike that has been recently buffed with a 1/2 time swing. That's right, you swing your hammer about 4 times every 5 seconds (maybe its 6, havent timed it down exactly). That's pretty frickin fast, no? Well, add in a disrupting blow to counter the nasty long-cast hex for another free pip of adren.

Tactics: In random arena, the norm is pretty much that the caster you first target always decides to kite. And usually another squishy stands still knowing that you're focused on the monk. Good - attack the stand-still squishy (Or ranger or war if that one is closer, but try for stand-still squishies). The monk stops running, spends energy to heal the squishy you're wailing on. Swing until rush is ready, then rush and go for the monk. Monk starts kiting, heres where the wonder of protectors strike comes in - 110 dmg (for me at least) while they're running. They panic, stop, heal. Chain normal attack, disrupting blow, and protectors strike, and your devastating blow chain should be ready. Bam, the monk is dead. Has worked against boon prot, power healers, works especially well vs bonders, and Ive killed monks in teams of 3 monk healers/prot.

What I would sub in if i could: deep freeze, serpents quickness (faster recharge on protectors strike = insane energy regen, perhaps a bunny-hopper-ranger quick adren build can be made, though sacrificing dmg on protectors strike running bonus), irresistible blow, wild blow, another condition management.

Problems: Excessive trapping teams, anti-war hexers (empathy and spiteful and insidious). One ranger can be usually dealt with since they dont think you have purge conditions. Even kiting rangers dont have the running power of rush - you outlast them, pop them with protectors strike, interrupt their troll unguent.

Thinking back, i think i will replace crushing blow with irresistible blow (though crushing blow is quite useful for the deep wound).