User:Black Ark/Builds/R/D Scythe Matters

The Scythe Matters-build employs the use of a scythe in melee while protecting the user with Expertise-stances, meanwhile keeping the relatively high costs of the scythe-attacks down. Enchantments may be cycled in, but this build focuses more on spreading and benefitting from conditions.

Equipment
A 15^50 Scythe will do for the most. Consider a "Poisonous" prefix to increase the poison-duration by two seconds, or a "Vampiric" prefix to increase DPS and heal while attacking multiple targets. Consider also a suffix "of Defense" or "of Fortitude". As this is a Ranger-build, you will not have armor to spare.

It might be advisable to bring a longbow or a flatbow if you wish to use this build in PVE in order to lure enemies, as this build will not fare well if you are the focus of a large group of enemies.

The ability to keep your enemy poisoned is very important, as you are required to take your healing from Reap Impurities. It is therefore recommended that you use Scout's Armor while keeping Apply Poison activated at all times. If you find yourself running out of energy for whatever reason, Druid's Armor may make a good substitude, while not giving the armor-bonus that you would get from Scout's Armor.

Usage

 * You can choose to rush towards the battle with Escape or wait for the action to come to you, then activate Lightning Reflexes instead to start off with a solid offense. Whirling Defense is generally a good idea to hold on reserve until your initial stance wears off, or if you find yourself under heavy fire from archers/bone minions. Escape also makes for a good way to retreat if you find yourself spiked.
 * Keep a constant eye on your stances. The goal is to activate one stance the moment your previous stance ends, in order to keep yourself covered from your enemy's melee-damage and other physical attacks.
 * Keep Apply Poison up at all times. Even though at 4 Wilderness Survival the poison-duration itself is not significant, the fact that you can constantly re-apply it over the course of 24 seconds and deliver it on multiple targets at once will in fact cause quite some damage over time. And if you are wearing Scout's Armor as suggested above, Apply Poison will give you +10 armor for as long as you keep it up. This build has no healing apart from Reap Impurities, and Reap Impurities demands that you keep your enemies poisoned or otherwise influenced by negative conditions.
 * Use Reap Impurities liberally, after your enemies are poisoned. You will continue to take damage even with your stances up, it's the health-gain from Reap Impurities that will allow you to continue your vile work.
 * Eremite's Attack and Chilling Victory will deliver significant damage and should be used whenever they're available, but as noted above, are not as important as Reap Impurities is for your health-flow. Given the fact that you're attacking multiple poisoned targets at once, Chilling Victory will generally cause its extra damage quite frequently for some impressive spikes.

Counters

 * Wild Blow, Wild Strike and Wild Throw will end your stances, leaving you open for punishment.
 * Blindness, Weakness and Knockdown will prevent you from dealing your damage.
 * A dedicated condition-removal strategy will deny you your damage over time and your means to heal yourself.
 * This build features no condition-removal. You may be able to spike-heal yourself if you get hit by degenerative conditions/hexes, but you will not be able to use Escape to flee if you get Crippled.

Variants

 * This build does not need Eremite's Attack or Chilling Victory per se, these are the spike-damage dealers. If you want to play it a little safer you can cycle one of them out for Antidote Signet, Troll Unguent, Mirage Cloak et cetera - these are skills that are useful without changing your attributes. Mirage Cloak has the added benefit that it is an enchantment, and stacks with the evasion/blocking from your stances.
 * In Alliance Battles where resurrection is useless and where you might be facing Minion Master-builds or Spirit-clustering Ritualists, consider cycling out the Resurrection Signet for Banishing Strike or one of the other options listed above.
 * Against non-fleshy targets, Apply Poison is all but useless. Use Throw Dirt instead and continue to use Reap Impurities, but make sure to use Escape when your enemies' Blindness wears off. Note that this will cost you your one and only Preparation, in which case you may have to re-evaluate your armor-choice.

Note

 * This build was made during the Nightfall PVP-event, and as such the Dervish-skills listed are still up for review. A final version will be available after Nightfall hits retail.
 * Because of the fact that it was only tested during a PVP-event, this build was made for PVP. It is possible that this build may work in PVE, but as of yet there is no way to test this.
 * Regarding armor, instead of Scout's Armor you might also like to take a look at the Sentry's Armor-set for its stance-bonus, although you will find that it's easier to reapply Apply Poison for the same defense-bonus.
 * All Ranger-skills listed are Core-skills. Barring any spectacular changes, this build can be fully replicated using just the Nightfall-expansion.