W/R Build

I really have doubts that this build is any new but seeing as Im not one with the Guild Wars Community I decided to post it anway and see what the public thinks. One two better not sue:
Swordsmanship: 10+1+1
Wilderness Survival: 11
Strength:10+1

Skills:
Apply Poison
Severe Artery
Gash
Final Thrust
Power Attack
Distracting blow
Troll Ungent
Ressurection Signet

Well as I said before I have doubts this is new but the point is to give 7 degen with poison and bleeding along with deep wound and hopefully distracting any healing spells for a long enough period until they are below 50% health to use Final Thrust effectively. And really Im thinking of switching Strength for tactics so my elite skill could become Gladiators Defence. Seriousley though I'd appreciate any suggestions.

Sincerely,
Poison

that build is lacking in any real damage, people can easily dispatch conditions, and regen heals like troll unguent and healing breeze loose their effectiveness late game when you start having alot of health

and if you are using this build for arenas, you need at least a lvl 14 minimum for a weapon attribute, and glad stance for an elite is a waste of an elite slot in arenas, people will just stop attacking you and go after someone else so you are left with your weak damage doing nothing.

Quote: Originally Posted by Poison Sword In Joo

Interesting... you've got enough degen going I don't think your lack of weapon damage will be an issue. Just a few thoughts I had. Maybe use a vamp sword for a bit extra push. Maybe Hamstring to keep stacking conditions. I'm not sure about Troll Unguent either... IWAY, Defy Pain, or Endure Pain would probably be better. Perhaps Beserker Stance to build for Final Thrust (especial if you do use a vamp sword).

Edit:Why not a bigger Swordsmanship Rune? Superior gets you to 14 and if you have a Swordsmanship pomel 15 0n occasion.

I like the concept of poison AND bleeding, and you should be able to continually apply both of these to your target faster than he or his monk can remove them. The problem is that these are gradual killers, so you'd have to win a war of attrition before you are targeted.

If you have it, I really like the idea of using apply poison and hundred blades (E)...you can poison an entire area of foes and work on making them bleed in succession.

Quote: Originally Posted by BBoy_Manchild

... Here's what I think. Drop the sword, apply poison, and the elite. Get an axe with eviscerate and put 16 in it. Then maybe you can do something. As it is, you're wasting two slots to mimic a conjure phantasm or something.

I still stand with my opinion that degen is over rated, unless you can give it the entire enemy team, and keep it there. Anyone carrying plague touch will make you hurt just as much, but without wasting skill slots. Not that 7 degen is anything worth talking about in the first place.. it's easy enough to self heal through it.

If you insist on keeping a w/r, at least take antidote signet.

Quote: Originally Posted by jesh

The thing is... this is 7 degen from you. If you team with a mesmer... you can make everyone suffer tons of degen. Like I said... you can cover your conditions with Hamstring... or even better Throw Dirt. In no time your Final Thust becomes a factor.

As for the health loss on maj and sup runes... I find that the additional gains on my skills out way the health especially on a weapon attribute. One sup rune is not going to break you.

Degen builds require a team based on certain factors; unfortunately for your build, the current flavour (because it is easier) in the arenas and tombs etc. is spike damage and healing; this mentality doesn't mix as well with degeneration/attrition styles of play. For a conditions/attrition build to win over a spiking build you need to play with a very anti-spike mentality and use a lot of suprresiion, either through energy denial or similar methods. If you can picture it, a team using energy denial and spells like pacifism/amity could in theory win by simply instilling conditions on people, and spreading them around like mad, but to actually make this work a.) requires a lot of planning; b.) would be horrendously difficult in most cases and c.) takes a lot longer. Degeneration through conditions is one of the cheapest damage sources in the game.

In terms of energy/damage, a skill like virulence does a ton of damage - for 5 energy you can deal 14 damage a second for 13 seconds, 36.4 damage per energy. Obviously in energy poor environments and with damage prevention in place degeneration could be game deciding; spike type damage however gets around needing to shut down the opposing healers by simply out damaging in a short time, and thus is simpler, easier to assemble a team for and more reliable.

Sorry to break it to you, but while degen builds are nice on paper, and can theoretically do a great deal to the opponents they are complex and unwieldy in most hands, and thus see little use.

I dont play arenas much, so i wont bother comment on that. Poison is a hell of a lot of fun, but i prefer using tactics over str. You can spam power attack often, but I found myself doing more damage with low str, and high tactics for
1. desperation blow (7 sec)
2. thrill of victory (8 sec)
both giving me 30+ damage on attack, which helps make up for the lack of armor penetration from str, and can also help make up for lower weapon attributes.
desperation blow is amazing. and you dont have to fall down if you're using a skill like doloyak or stance like balanced. The nice thing about it is it adds random conditions. If you're attacking multiple enemies and causing a ton of conditions, then skills like "victory is mine" become a lot more powerful. I've been playing the elona reach mission alone for miniataurs. knight armor, my shield is a collector shield outside the frontier gate giving me low armor, (6) but 5 energy. once I prep, i can run into a bunch of miniataurs, andif i'm low on health and energy, (i use cyclone, so i know everything is poisoned) i push the panic shout (vic. is mine) and i'm back to full health and energy. When fighting, even without poison, you can get 2 conditions from using desperation blow on your target usually and vic is mine would net you about 100 life and 10 energy from that alone.

As you're using a sword, you get to use other skills such as ripost which can cause loooong bleeding, and a ton of damage (try 60...) It's sometimes fun to stack both riposts on and then finish off with a heavy hitter. you can easily be talking about 200 damage there - though that's to another MEELE attacker, which is limiting.

IF as you said decide to take tactics and lower str, i'd also say lower the wilderness survival as well. Poison application on your weapon is 24 seconds, fixed. and you refresh every time you hit someone. with high tactics, you can take healing signet, which really is nicer than most people give credit, especially when you couple that with vic is mine. on doing that, you can use the tactics heavy damage attacks - since vic is mine is also good for gaining back energy, and use heavy attacks more often as they're not high adrenalin limited.

while it seems that the build is wasting the second prof - just using it for poison, the use of poison makes the build that the possible change i outlined work since it's dependant on conditions to get back life and energy to help spam attacks.