Curse

jktstance · Feb 18, 2007, 04:10 AM // 04:10

In the main battle, as a warrior, assassin, or whatever, when is it appropriate to "spike" a target yourself while the rest of your team goes after the called target? I ask this because when I'm building adrenaline and generally applying pressure, I sometimes get a target to around 50-60% health when a spike is ordered on a different target. Is it generally a good idea to follow the called target, or try to spike your target at the same time? It weakens the spike on the primary target, but you may be able to divert some prot/healing to your target, or kill him if the primary target is going down hard.

MaaKotka · Feb 18, 2007, 09:18 AM // 09:18

I would say not often. Well I rarely play melee classes in gvg, but as from monks point of view there is or at least should be coming some slower heal towards your target like gift of health or signet of devotion depending on how hard you have pressured that target. Therefore that your own spike will probably not be lethal and your main spike is weaker because you aren't there. Also if you are playing spike that heal is probably coming from monk without infuse so it has very small effect on getting that real spike target down. There is lots of assumptions, but still I would say it is better to spike real target. Waiting forward to hear better warriors opinions about this.

Wasteland Squidget · Feb 18, 2007, 09:23 AM // 09:23

It's not something you want to do often, but suprise-spiking the infuser can force a kill on one target or the other. However, don't bother spiking an off target if you can't create a KD and a significant damage threat. One of the reason SP/BoA sins are so great for off-target spiking is that they'll KD their target (usually a monk) and force some immediate healing to keep the off-target alive.

Basically, your goal is to force the enemy monks to make a split-second decision between two targets, and/or shut one of their monks down through the KD

Xasew · Feb 18, 2007, 04:13 PM // 16:13

Depends on many things.
If you are in a position, where running to the called target would make the spike way too obvious, I'd say it would do more harm than good. Also if you can't reach the target at all due to bodyblocks(often happens when fighting teams with spirits) or if you're too far away(this shouldn't happen too often if you know how to position yourself), I'd say spike an off-target 0,5-1 seconds before the actual spike. It can mess with the enemy Monks quite well.
Don't do it too often, or they'll get used to it.
Look at your build. If you have Devastating-Crushing-Fierce on your bar, it can work really well on Monks, because it KDs them and does huge damage. With Backbreaker it's even better, because 4 seconds is an eternity for a Monk. If you have Dismember-Executioner's, it's not really scary enough tbh.
How strong is your main spike? If your teambuild has a spike of 1000 damage, they can kill a target even without 1 Warrior, but if you can barely kill the spiked target even with everything you have, there's not much point in off-target spiking.

This is from a person who played Warrior 1.5 years ago, so if there's something completely idiotic there, don't be afraid to correct me.

jktstance · Feb 18, 2007, 04:27 PM // 16:27

I have a love affair with knockdowns, in particular hammers (hammer warriors, parathumpers, whatever), so my spikes always have a knockdown in them. My guild commonly has 1-2 assassins for the main battle in addition to ranged damagers (we don't gank much ATM), so it seems our main spike is pretty strong. This makes me feel better for not following orders all the time :P

Patrograd · Feb 19, 2007, 10:51 AM // 10:51

my opinion would be that if you are certain you can get a kill then you get the kill, whether its the target or not. But if you miss both your kill and the called target, then you have screwed up. so be careful.

Kabale · Feb 19, 2007, 11:19 AM // 11:19

Quote:

But if you miss both your kill and the called target, then you have screwed up. so be careful.

Not necessarily, as doing something like this creates pressure which you may be able to take advantage of, depending on what kind of build you run.

moriz · Feb 19, 2007, 09:20 PM // 21:20

it's usually best to off-target spike with the assassin, especially the black lotus-->twisting-->black spider--BoS combo. on the rare chances i get to play this char in pugs, i find that jumping the infuser while my team spike another target was every effective. it will usually result in a kill regardless (either the infuser or the spike target) or two kills simutaneously.