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Worst Combat Art for shadow warrior, GO!


Extes

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In your experience, post what combat art for Shadow Warrior you have used that was simply the WORST one.

 

Augmenting Guidon.

Even modded this CA has way to long of a CD time vs duration and genuine effectiveness. There are way to many better Combat Arts to use. This one reminds me of a tease... it grants so many sweet buffs for so little time, and you cant even use it constantly, your looking at almost a minute before you can pop it again. As such, Augmenting guidon is imo, the worst CA fior shadow warrior.

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Hi Extes, have seen a few of your posts hit the forum, and wanted to welcome you to DarkMatters ^^

 

Nice topic btw, I will be curious to see how some of the other builders respond to this.

 

Regarding Augmenting Guidon..I have an interesting story.... a while back, a bunch of us were running horse builds...so of course... no CA use while on horse meant the builds had to be specced out completely different from normal sacred 2 mainstream builds.

 

Challenge was against bosses...bosses have these huge hp pools and nasty defenses...it could sometimes be tough to make out against them.

 

Augmenting Guidon changed all that for me... In battle, while on my horse, no Combat Arts needed...but against a boss, I would cast a combo.. Guidon being the first of three.

 

Insta boss melt ^^

 

I came to love that CA for it's use in my own distinct build... I'm thinking that a lot of the Combat Arts can have their own purpose, if we can find a way to fit it in.

 

:)

 

gogo

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See that... is awesome. I am glad that you found a use for it, and shared. Im still new to the game and it will be a while before I can provide any help to anyone that does play already. I knew AG doesnt work for me on my build but now I know if I ever roll a SW mount build, that I will probably have to give it a second look. In your experience though gogo, is there any particular CA that was simply the worst for you?

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Augment Guidon rocks combined with items/smith arts that add % defense... My defense rating multiplies x5 with Guidon from 4k to 20k. That makes it less dangerous to go toe to toe against heavy hitters and critters particularly in niob. Also offensively combo it with rousing command and killing spree both modded for % attack. This would be against a boss. That will save you a lot of sockets devoted to chance to hit.

 

For me the only bad SW combat art is Ruinous onslaught which has as its only purpose to break root when modded.

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Augment Guidon rocks combined with items/smith arts that add % defense... My defense rating multiplies x5 with Guidon from 4k to 20k. That makes it less dangerous to go toe to toe against heavy hitters and critters particularly in niob. Also offensively combo it with rousing command and killing spree both modded for % attack. This would be against a boss. That will save you a lot of sockets devoted to chance to hit.

 

Thanks for that SW info'. I've not tried AG yet. I feel another build coming on.

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I will never agree that AG sucks...

I've played with many different SW's.In every build I used AG,cooldown is 20-21 sec and duration is approx 18 sec on higher level's.

So you can always cast it,I just love that spell !

The only thing I hate is that bugged tutor mod.It doesn't stack with experience mods on your equipment and even if you don't have no +experience mods on armors it doesn't stack with mentors (tested) so it's pretty much useless.

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AG is quite good indeed. You can become really slippery, the hp reg bonus is cool, and its good for the team as well.

 

The CA I hate most is Ruinous Onslaught. Haven't seen any tactic benefits of it and it doesnt work on combos (next CA wont come). Very disappointing for me.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Ruinous Onslaught

 

When I tried it, the CA often failed to hit its intended target. The splash damage (mod?) was unreliable even when enemies were tightly grouped. Between the two I landed maybe 1/3 the expected hits. Did I mention the damage was poor?

 

This may just be me, but...I have very little luck with the mouse movement. When I click somewhere by mistake (e.g. missing a monster with a CA click), the game will disregard the next click, and this makes movement type combat arts very difficult to use. By the time I've identified a target and click-spammed it to activate a move-attack CA, the opportunity has slipped away.

 

Overall too much work, and it ruins my DPS.

 

A few changes and fixes here and there might have made it fun. It gives defense and some offense, plus mobility. With chance to fear/knockback and some area CAs, Ruinous Onslaught might have been part of some good crowd control. But fear/knockback are fickle, too, and often cause more trouble than they're worth.

 

Has anyone found a use for Ruinous Onslaught?

 

 

Augmenting Guidon

 

Excellent temporary buff for minions (both kinds). Also add Rousing Command and Reflective Emanation to the list of minion-friendly buffs. IIRC, minions only get half-benefit from buffs, but when you have 15+ minions fighting for you... Boost your minions' attack, attack speed, regen, reflect, etc. all at once and watch the boss's health meter drop like crazy.

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I cant say anything which has not already been explained.

 

Ruinous Onslaught is my vote.

 

I have tested this CA till I am blue in the face. I cannot for the life of me find a use for it.

 

Dont waste your mod points. BV also has breaking roots. A much better use of mod allocation.

 

Welcome to FDM.

 

I remain, Etherian

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Well my two cents on the matter:

 

Ruinous Onslaught for me works great. I usually have this in a combo with Rousing Command and Killing Spree. I mod it as follows:

 

Fend - Further increases defense value. (15 + 10 per CA level increase) When the going gets tough the tough get going. Gotta love more defense

Adrenaline - The Shadow Warrior sustains less damage during the charge. (20% damping)

Adrenaline - The Shadow Warrior sustains less damage during the charge. (20% damping)

two times. Now correct me if I'm wrong but this is MITIGATION.

 

Casting the CA gives you run speed, this can be used to get away from "Rule #2" If you get that "oh Crap" feeling RUN. Plus the defense and the 40% physical mitigation help when trying to run out of the area. Or it fortifies you up during a hard faught battle, This CA can be cast an extra time during the cooldown of Rousing Command and Killing Spree.

 

Plus.... not sure if this is a visual bug or graphics hiccup but if you cast Ruinous Onslaught and keep running ahead ie: "Mad Dash" the animation of the head down and sprint doesn't stop at the end of the spell..... as long as you don't run into something, trip, fall, pick your nose, the animation continues. Now this needs to be tested, all my SW always have as close to 150% run speed socketed as possible. (I hate the animations of fighting while on the mount) so I really don't notice much difference in the head down and rolling out mode.

 

All in all this Combat Art might save your backside one day. Respect it.

 

Now for me, I have not been able to get Rallied Souls to work very well. Granted I have only done the Astral Lord "half baked" only taking the focus in order to get veil. But even so, not really sure how well these brain dead zombies are for you if your casting the CA, They seem to get in my way and I end up nullifying they're existence fairly often.

 

But in all fairness, If a build is made to take a certain Combat Art to fully maximum value, I think all of them would really shine in one way or another.

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I believe ruinous onslaught can be made to continue longer than its intended duration if mounted and in windowed made by right-clicking on the bar at the top of the screen...makes for a high defense dash mode :) Unless its been patched out...I dont remember to be honest...

Edited by Dragon Brother
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Well my two cents on the matter:

 

Ruinous Onslaught for me works great. I usually have this in a combo with Rousing Command and Killing Spree. I mod it as follows:

 

Fend - Further increases defense value. (15 + 10 per CA level increase) When the going gets tough the tough get going. Gotta love more defense

Adrenaline - The Shadow Warrior sustains less damage during the charge. (20% damping)

Adrenaline - The Shadow Warrior sustains less damage during the charge. (20% damping)

two times. Now correct me if I'm wrong but this is MITIGATION.

 

Casting the CA gives you run speed, this can be used to get away from "Rule #2" If you get that "oh Crap" feeling RUN. Plus the defense and the 40% physical mitigation help when trying to run out of the area. Or it fortifies you up during a hard faught battle, This CA can be cast an extra time during the cooldown of Rousing Command and Killing Spree.

 

Plus.... not sure if this is a visual bug or graphics hiccup but if you cast Ruinous Onslaught and keep running ahead ie: "Mad Dash" the animation of the head down and sprint doesn't stop at the end of the spell..... as long as you don't run into something, trip, fall, pick your nose, the animation continues. Now this needs to be tested, all my SW always have as close to 150% run speed socketed as possible. (I hate the animations of fighting while on the mount) so I really don't notice much difference in the head down and rolling out mode.

 

All in all this Combat Art might save your backside one day. Respect it.

 

I'll have to give that another try in my next build. I'm working on an Astral Lore build with 100% Shadow Veil plus high defense/armor/block/reflect/evade/mitigation, and a defensive movement CA with 40% damage mitigation would fit very nicely. But as for charging into the fray, I thought the buff duration was only a few seconds. Does it increase at higher levels? Is it affect by Tactics Lore or something?

 

Now for me, I have not been able to get Rallied Souls to work very well. Granted I have only done the Astral Lord "half baked" only taking the focus in order to get veil. But even so, not really sure how well these brain dead zombies are for you if your casting the CA, They seem to get in my way and I end up nullifying they're existence fairly often.

 

Rallied Souls is okay unmodded, but it's one of those CAs that almost requires proper modding and buffing to fit your playstyle. Its basic use is to draw massive aggro and die. By itself that's not overly useful. However, the aggro can increase the killing speed of Nether Allegiance and Skeletal Fortification, for example, by drawing enemies from far away and grouping them together.

 

Kill, raise, kill, raise...quickly becomes a nearly unstoppable pattern. In under a minute you can work up a huge army that can -- as long as you keep raising souls! -- sweep over the entire area like a tidal wave. And in a pinch Rallied Souls can make a nice distraction. But don't summon them to distract anything that casts heavy Area of Effect or Area of Effect+stun or you will get caught in it!

 

The mod that grants a chance to raise "one extra" additional soul is amazing. At high levels the regen time lowers to < 1s and it can be cast 3-4 times in the middle of a swarm to give you ~10 allies instantly. That's a nice attack/defense boost, welcome in nearly any situation. Another mod boosts their damage; I remember them consistently doing 2-3x the damage of their living counterparts, which is slow, but nice with large numbers of souls. Plus they can get party buffs, Reflective Emanation being the best in my opinion, but Rousing Command and Augmenting Guidon can also be applied to them.

 

Rallied Souls are not as strong as the skeletons from Nether Allegiance; however, the skeletons are easily overwhelmed by large forces. And the skeletons drew very little aggro last time I tried them, which slowed their killing speed noticeably. Throw in some Rallied Souls to get a large army with tons of aggro, and suddenly the battle turns in your favor. Sadly, most bosses don't provide any corpses for used with Rallied Souls. Many bosses, such as dragons, can be found in areas with many small enemies, so at least you can start fighting the boss with a large army at your command.

 

I'm pretty sure AL Lore damage and cast speed bonuses apply to AL minions' damage and attack speed. I could be wrong there, but I can tell you that something certainly boosted their killing speed. By niobium, the skeletons had become wicked fast and could easily drop a boss on their own, provided reflect and a few buffs kept them alive. It's also possible that they just gain attack speed with additional levels.

 

Astral Lord minions do suffer from one permanent disadvantage. The Nether Allegiance skeletons' damage is mostly ice, and Rallied Souls use whatever damage type they had originally, so their effectiveness varies with the area. It's better to avoid the ice damage mod for Skeletal Fortification! Throwing your ice-based army against a horde of ghosts (or the phantasm boss) is painful to say the least. But you should see them take down dragons!

 

Just remember where the items drop! With enemies dropping all around you and even off the screen, sometimes it's hard to spot good drops.

Edited by BleachFan
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A console user disagrees with you on the grounds that on the console this Combat Art's regen time is only like 20 seconds and It gives you a nice boost! Oh, but that's right, all you Computer Users had everything nerfed by patches and updates for the DLC!

Edited by Sacred Guru
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Never used RO myself so I have no comment. On the other hand, AG, especially modded, as everyone else says, is beautiful. I never had issues with the cooldown, and especially when used in conjunction with other CAs, I do notice the attack and defence stack up. Currently set with Tutor, so it's meant to be a bit of an experience booster.

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  • 4 months later...

Until I find a workaround for that stupid targeting problem my 2 cents are:

 

Scything sweep...

Every time I put it in a bleeding combo it messes up every other CA in it...And I have to use the damn skill it's frustrating :viking:

 

Rant done, moving right along...

 

Ruinous Onslaught...

It's just no good in a fight, sure it lasts forever if used when mounted but tbh...If you r mounted and running, most mobs won't even put a dent in your armor, if they gave it something like, say a trample or knockback mod then I might give it a go.

 

As far as saving your hide goes BV with brake roots mod will do it faster and safer just click at the edge of the screen with 33% distance mod...If regen on BV is under a second or so you will be jumping out of the area in no time...No mob can catch that :D

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Until I find a workaround for that stupid targeting problem my 2 cents are:

 

Scything sweep...

 

 

Is that targeting problem there for ranged energy weapons on Shadow Warrior when using Scything Sweep? I was running that kind of a build, and the multiple enemies it could take out was nice (On PC btw).

 

:)

 

gogo

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Nah, it is in melee, for some unknown reason to me targeting in combos works rly,rly bad...Every time I use a combo containing SS my char starts running off to kill things half a screen away, even when he has 5 enemies at melee range... :D It rly messes things up when fighting a large group of mobs.

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