User:Entropy/AB

So I've been playing AB with Felix and Co. Euros anyone I can find, and I've run a variety of builds, some good and some bad.

A/W Exhausting Moebius

Exhausting Assault is a wonderful skill. It's a hard rupt, it activates fast, if you're lucky you can interrupt two skills (usually on NPCs), it causes Exhaustion to classes that don't know how to deal with it, it can catch 1/4 second casts...and it lets you skip straight to Moebius without relying on something messy like Golden Phoenix Strike (which I've never been fond of). Unsuspecting Strike hits for huge damage, and if you're lucky enough to hit a Prage warrior with it, -250 is just major lolz. Twisting Fangs is deadly in any situation, and often you can kill off people without support just with Fangs and then letting them bleed out. Which is very satisfying.

A/Any LOLOLOLOL SCORPION WIRE XD

This is a joke build which is absolutely hilarious to run. I really prefer Twisting Fangs over Impale, because of cast time/aftercast/etc. , but Impale does let you cause deep wound from range when they least expect it. The main problem with this build is that it's awkward to use - you want to hit them with Black Mantis Thrust (at the least), then run away to trigger Scorpion Wire. It's best to do it after Jungle Strike so you can chain KDs with Trampling Ox.

W/E Shockslas

I'm overly fond of Shock and Bull's Strike. The thing with Swords is that you just don't run them for damages. This is mostly used to harass opponents and put Deep Wound/Bleeding/Cripple on them. Probably there are better skills for it, though.

W/E BROOKLYN RAGE

Primal Rage owns. OK?

W/E BROOKLYN RAGE v2

Using a Sword has one *BIG* advantage over an axe. Hint: Jitte. Free -10AL on the target is free. Now if only Jittes were a PvP reward skin, or they weren't so damn expensive...

W/E Shock Axe

A staple bar since forever. (I don't actually know the standard build, this is what I *think* it is...naturally Agonizing Chop didn't exist back then, so I am missing one skill. Dunno what it is though.)

W/E Devhammer

Another perennially popular bar, for knocklocks. Counter Blow is iffy, but it's a free knockdown on any non-caster and many of the NPCs. Shock isn't usually used, or so I heard, but I'm fairly good at chaining Shock after Bull's so I like it. It's not like there are much better skills to take, either. Mokele Smash is okay but has a very blah recharge. Enraging Charge is nice, but recharge again...

Backbreaker can be substituted for Devhammer, although I personally prefer Devhammer because Weakness screws with martials, it costs 3 less strikes, and the bonus damage from Backbreaker is pretty small.

R/Mo Cripshot

Standard cripshot bar. Cripshot is sometimes thought to be outdated, but one should never underestimate the power of an unblockable attack with zero recharge. Barbed Arrows + Poison Tip basically gives Burning on one target for like 12 seconds, which is rather painful. It also cuts down on your energy use a bit, which is helpful if you're gonna spam Crippling Shot on the entire enemy team.

R/Mo Burning Arrow

Pew pew for more domages. Burning Arrow does a ton of damage, and with Apply it maxes out degen for huge pain. Technically one could use Barbed Arrows and still max out degen, but, meh. Pin Down and Apply on the same bar is rather expensive, but it actually gives a decent cripple length now, and cripple is good any time.

E/Me Heats Nuker

A single cast of Savannah Heat will usually wipe any shrine in one go, but I like having AEcho just in case, especially for those battles at the res shrine where tons of enemies clump up. Glyph sac is an old gimmick but it's still useful to pull Meteor Shower out of nowhere almost instantly. I don't like Flame Djinn's Haste, especially after they nerfed it, but speedbuffs are always useful to have. Enchanting mods take off some of the pain.

E/Rt Freezing Raine / Searing Mist (pick your reference)

This is a very nice Water bar that a friend showed me. It seems to work well. 8 Restoration Magic is the ideal breakpoint for WoWarding. Armor of Mist is a solid armor buff and also an IMS; enchanting mods help mitigate the downtime. GoI + Steam is a broken and overpowered combo; long-lasting, nearly maintainable, cheap Blind is just too good. And it even causes good damage. Freezing Gust is useful as a short-term snare, and it can also be used to spike with Shatterstone.

Mo/W Monking - Hybrid Redbar

Somewhat typical Monk bar. I run 9 Tactics to get the full armor boost of a shield. Disciplined Stance screws really badly with martials. Dismiss and Veil aren't usually enough anti-hex/anti-condition in today's spam-happy climate, but they are still about the best you can get. Mtouch + Draw is also good but takes an additional skill slot; and I really like having Shield Bash.

Mo/W Monking - Hybrid Protting (don't run this without a second monk for WoH, not enough heals / too much energy strain by itself)

I haven't actually played this yet, as it's unusual to get two Monks for AB, but I know SoD is a very strong prot that screws with everyone. Not that many people take enchantment removal, anyway.

D/W Random Derv Which Sucks If I Don't Pull Lichway Opponents

I hate Lichway MMs. They can sit and tank you all day with Dark Bond, even if they don't have support from a Monk or whatever (which they often do); and even then, they can take self-healing skills too. Killing the Minions is a waste of time. Sometimes they take Animate Flesh Golem instead of AotL, and sometimes I'll kill those because it's a big blow to them; but still. Banishing Strike plus Heart of Holy Flame cuts through minions like butter. Other than that, Wild Blow is always useful for ending stances, and Bull's Strike remains painful due to the huge damage of scythe crits. Reaper's Sweep further helps to kill off the MMs by removing Dark Bond and such.

D/W Semi-Serious Derv

Symbolic Strike is a strong skill, because +30 damage for 4 adrenaline is wtf strong with scythes. But, usually I have res sig as the third signet... To make the signets a bit more useful, I'm using Pious Renewal, but that sucks. And I can't spec too high into Wind or Earth Prayers, so one of the signets will always be useless. I dunno. This is a work in progress. Wounding Strike is ideal, of course...

D/A Mystic Ninja

This bar is enormously fun and completely unexpected - I am pretty sure no one has ever used it before, either. The only D/A bar I am familiar with is Avatar of Lyssa + daggers, which is so-so but not spectacular. The idea here is to teleport in, spike down a target before they know what happened, and then teleport back out. It probably works much better in places like RA, where a kill makes a much bigger difference, but I dunno. One issue is that you can't trigger the Deep Wound yourself, and Deep Wounds can never kill by themselves. But, it's an ideal Deep Wound because it finishes the chain and teleports you out. Wearying Strike couldn't work without Assassin's Remedy, and that is pretty bad on a non-primary sin. Finally, this bar has considerable downtime, high energy demands, and is very vulnerable to anti-melee such as blocking. So it relies heavily on the element of surprise.

More to come? I don't have any other solid AB builds for the other professions yet...