Curse

Navaros · Jun 05, 2005, 06:39 PM // 18:39

i am level 20 warrior monk with a decent sword. just started trying him out in the tombs.

my problem is damage output. i can not seem to damage the enemy players nearly enough

my specs were 11 Strength, 10 Swordsmanship, 10 Healing Prayers. although i've also tried re-speccing to 8 healing and 12 Swordsmanship but that didn't help at all. in fact my sword skills still only did only 32 max damage after i re-specced

i tried entering Tombs with a setup like this:

1. Sprint
2. Endure Pain
3. Sever Artery
4. Galrath Slash
5. Savage Slash
6. Final Thrust
7. Mending
8. Res Signet

now with this setup, i can chase an enemy monk around for 3 minutes, pounding him constantly with my sword. i get him to about halfway dead, then he heals himself to full health again

i've tried swapping out some of the skills above for things like Hundred Blades and Gash, but they did not help me kill enemies any faster.

i want to know a setup that will let me kill enemy players really fast with my sword

please help me

seeker monk · Jun 05, 2005, 06:51 PM // 18:51

don't chase monks...

kill spirits, pets, necros because they are soft pudding
kill mesmers if they are not targeting you
then rangers if you can get to them
get a partner to kill the hero because no one is usually paying attention to him in the beginning

kill the monk after about 2 minutes.. by this time he should run outta mana
attacking monks out the gate is bad idea because they REACT TO WHO ATTACK
attack someone for a great amount of dmg
then attack the monk faking him out.. while he pours his mana into healing that ALLY

DO NOT CHASE ANYTHING...
fake chase and then break off to attack whatever comes your way...

IF YOU REALLY WANNA KILL MONKS, casters of spells...
bring hammer instead of sword
and perform numerous knockdowns with ground punishing blows SUCH AS HOLY STRIKE, a monk spell

SWORD is best to defeat WARRIOR or NECRO with bleeding,
something they cannot heal

Virtuoso · Jun 05, 2005, 07:07 PM // 19:07

Try bringing frenzy instead of mending, as mending is complete garbage in the Tombs. Just be sure not to get hit while using Frenzy. Also, why bring a signet instead of a normal ress? Usually if I am going to bring a W/Mo to the Tombs its so that he can ress because if you have the Mo's ressing you're going to die. Another soluton may be to spec smiting instead of healing. To be honest there is no real reason for a W/Mo to spec healing in the Tombs unless he is using it for Restore Life or something as your heals will be insignificant compaired to the heals from the primary Mo's.

-Virt

Minwanabi · Jun 05, 2005, 07:13 PM // 19:13

you should have 16 swords, not 12, and at least 10 str, and dont put any points into healing, that's seriously garbage. The healing will be done by your monks, and you should, in fact, kill monks right away, have your wars split up, and take different monks at first to build adren, they'll use their enchantments like breeze, seed, maybe hands, prot spirit, aegis, whatever. Let those dissapate before everyone switches target to one monk. He's rended, you all use your adren moves as fast as you can on that monk, if he ever enchants again, you have another rend waiting, and he'll drop in 3-4 seconds. You, alone, will never be able to do anything against a monk, you need an entire team to kill someone.

Navaros · Jun 05, 2005, 07:21 PM // 19:21

i have been having a hard time finding decent healing spells to bring with me. seems that all my healing spells suck because of no Divine Favor...and the ones that do not quite suck only work on other people and can't be cast on myself...what a jip!

but why does everyone think W/Mo are so good if they have crappy healing in Tombs?

am i missing something?

Minwanabi · Jun 05, 2005, 07:28 PM // 19:28

For the love of God, why do you want healing spells in Tombs? It seems everywhere I go I have to explain this to someone. Let me demonstrate. You are in a team, as a wamo, the other team's wamos and elemenalists are focusing your monks, your elementalists, and your mesmers. You are doing the same to their mages. Therefore, you're not taking any damage. Suddenly -uhoh!- your monks die, soon the rest of the casters follow. The wamos and such turn to you, you cast healing breeze! Whoa! You've prolonged your life maybe 1-2 seconds, at the expense of wasting a skill slot! By the time you're taking damage, the match is over, and you have lost. Wamos are good because warriors can do sustained DPS, and there are various monk enchantments they can run (life bond, balth spirit) that make it worth having a monk secondary. Never bring a rez, and never bring a heal or prot spell. Sometimes, rarely, but sometimes, you can spec a little in smiting and bring SoH, maybe, but JI is too expensive for a war to maintain, and SoH is a little janky.

Virtuoso · Jun 05, 2005, 07:30 PM // 19:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Navaros

but why does everyone think W/Mo are so good if they have crappy healing in Tombs?

am i missing something?

Because a W/Mo with healing is an easy character for a newbie to play in the random arena. That's it.

Quote:

Wamos are good because warriors can do sustained DPS, and there are various monk enchantments they can run (life bond, balth spirit) that make it worth having a monk secondary. Never bring a rez, and never bring a heal or prot spell.

First off, you contradicted yourself. Secondly, why wouldn't you bring a ress as a W/Mo? It's not like they don't have space on their bar. In my opinion, W/Mo's make the perfect ressers as they can take a break from chasing their monks for 8 seconds and ress someone who dies. Not to mention the fact that no one is probably targetting the W/Mo's so they have a decent chance of getting a ress off before anyone notices and interupts them.

-Virt

Navaros · Jun 05, 2005, 07:49 PM // 19:49

so is the general consensus that i should re-specc Swordsmanship to 15 and then put the rest in Protection Prayers?

Virtuoso · Jun 05, 2005, 08:10 PM // 20:10

Either that or smiting. Really the only reason for protection prayers is for life bond, life barrier, rebirth, maybe aegis...

-Virt

Red Locust · Jun 05, 2005, 08:56 PM // 20:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Virtuoso

Either that or smiting. Really the only reason for protection prayers is for life bond, life barrier, rebirth, maybe aegis...

-Virt

..and mark of protection, mend condition, protective spirit, reversal of fortune, shielding hands. More than enough reason to go protection.

Although for a wa/mo, smiting is most likely a better choice. strength + judge's insight + penetrating blow? for some sick damage.

Navaros · Jun 05, 2005, 09:29 PM // 21:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Red Locust

Although for a wa/mo, smiting is most likely a better choice. strength + judge's insight + penetrating blow? for some sick damage.

that is exactly what i want. sick damage. i want anyone who gets hit by my sword to be dead. i don't want them to be able to run away or escape. i want it so that if i get near them, they are dead, period

so...what are all the exact skills i should take in my bar in Tombs in order to make that happen? and how much speccs into Smiting Prayers and how much into Swordsmanship?

Aranador · Jun 05, 2005, 10:11 PM // 22:11

Get a power that does knockdown or snare. Runners stopped

And no - only a spike damage elementalist can reasonably hope to kill somone on their own - unless the opposing team has no ability to heal.

Red Locust · Jun 05, 2005, 10:51 PM // 22:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by Navaros

that is exactly what i want. sick damage. i want anyone who gets hit by my sword to be dead. i don't want them to be able to run away or escape. i want it so that if i get near them, they are dead, period

so...what are all the exact skills i should take in my bar in Tombs in order to make that happen? and how much speccs into Smiting Prayers and how much into Swordsmanship?

Well, you're not gonna be able to outright kill monks, using hammer knockdown skills on monks is the best way of disabling them. However, if you're looking for the best damage output, I'd go with axes.

16 in axes, around 10 in smiting, all the rest in strength. You don't need smiting high, enough to keep your J.I. on a longer duration than its recharge timer.

Cleave {e}:
If this attack hits, you strike for 10-22 more damage (4 adrenaline).

Penetrating blow:
If this attack hits, you strike for +5-17 damage. This attack has 20% armor penetration (5 adrenaline).

Judge's Insight:
For 8-18 seconds, target ally's attacks deal Holy damage and have +20% armor penetration (10 energy, 10s recharge).

Use penetrating blow on heavily-armored targets such as warriors and elementalists with earth enchantments. With Judge's Insight + penetrating + your strength bonus, you'd be getting 50% armor penetration, which does around 140% of the listed damage to a warrior with 85 armor (who usually takes 65% damage). On softer targets (60 armor) it might be worth it to use cleave instead.
Make sure you also bring along other skills to disable the enemy and to recharge your energy/adrenaline (balthazar's spirit might be good for this). I haven't actually tested an armor penetration-based warrior build, but it should work.

Navaros · Jun 05, 2005, 10:57 PM // 22:57

thx a lot for the advice. i'll vault all that. unfortunately i don't really have a decent axe and decent axe skills at the moment

so could you give me the same rundown, only with a sword? i want maximize my damage output using a sword and smiting prayers

Minwanabi · Jun 06, 2005, 03:28 AM // 03:28

Quote:

First off, you contradicted yourself. Secondly, why wouldn't you bring a ress as a W/Mo? It's not like they don't have space on their bar. In my opinion, W/Mo's make the perfect ressers as they can take a break from chasing their monks for 8 seconds and ress someone who dies. Not to mention the fact that no one is probably targetting the W/Mo's so they have a decent chance of getting a ress off before anyone notices and interupts them.

I meant never to bring self heal or self prot, the enchantments can make it worth it, but the rez on a wamo is usually a waste. I know this much, a good team will never let a slow rez go off. I mean, we have our wars/eles focusing a target, he drops, they move on. A wamo tries to sneak in and rez, but our monks/rangers/whatever not on the front line is always watching, we yell in vent, and use call target, the mesmer or ranger switches over, and interrupts. It's literally that simply, a slow rez will never happen, it's a waste of a skill slot and time, only a rez sig is worth it.

Navaros · Jun 06, 2005, 12:54 PM // 12:54

still looking for advice on a good Sword/Smiter build

Santanus_Perro · Jun 06, 2005, 01:28 PM // 13:28

flurry
sever artery
gash
judges insight
galraths slash
savage slash
final thrust
rez signet

you want damage you got it, sever artery w/ gash lowers their hp by 20% for x seconds, plus they keep bleeding-use judge insight to get armor penetration and then hit them with the big boys--galrath slash, savage slash (great skill because they will be trying like mad to use skills to heal, do damage, anything to get you off of them), and then final thrust if you got them down under 50%

attributes in swordsmanship (13-14 is plenty), strength & smiting--make sure you have some extra energy (23-25 should be enough)--spam flurry, it does wonders for building up adrenaline

this is a good organized team build for w/mo, lousy for random pvp arenas as you can't be assured anyone else is going to help you survive, so you get rid of judges insight, and go healing breeze, and put attribute points in to healing rather than smiting

ElevenBravo · Jun 06, 2005, 01:32 PM // 13:32

When you get your target down to below halfway health, thats when you use your final thrust.

Navaros · Jun 06, 2005, 01:58 PM // 13:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by Santanus_Perro

flurry
sever artery
gash
judges insight
galraths slash
savage slash
final thrust
rez signet

you want damage you got it, sever artery w/ gash lowers their hp by 20% for x seconds, plus they keep bleeding-use judge insight to get armor penetration and then hit them with the big boys--galrath slash, savage slash (great skill because they will be trying like mad to use skills to heal, do damage, anything to get you off of them), and then final thrust if you got them down under 50%

awesome, thx!

one question: is it worth swapping out any of the skills in this build for Hundred Blades? or am i better off keeping Hundred Blades out of it?

shawn23233 · Jun 06, 2005, 03:01 PM // 15:01

yeah WAR job is to kill squishies (mes-nec-ele- maybe ranger) and harass healers (they cant heal while running), its not really to do much damage.

Conversly your job could be to get other Tanks off these classes (on your team) as well.