chantress
Member
Another build / rotation for 2.9 found on the net. - DARKRUNNER PVP build
I dont PvP, so if you know better, or things have changed, please contribute.
Darkrunner is a class that bases itself on high burst damage and insane mobility. It's an easy class to get into, but the skill ceiling is way higher than most people anticipate. The cool part about darkrunning is that there is no one set way to play it, you can go plate darkrunner, leather darkrunner, you can use pretty much any weapon and still be viable. As a darkrunner you want to adjust depending on the situation, in mass pvp, you're the assassin that stalks enemy healers nightmares.
You want to abuse the high mobility this class offers you with skills like Teleportation, Mirror Warp, Drop Back, Shadow Step, Charge, Tiger Strike and Behind Enemy Lines. Having the passive Reckless Charge will also give you a nice 40% boost after any of your battlerage engage tools, which is really helpfull for relocating to the back of your target or doing a hit-and-run.
IMPORTANT! LEARN OTHER CLASSES TOO AND HOW THEIR COMBOS WORK! If you don't put time into learning your matchups, you won't know what might happen and you won't be able to fight at full potential.
Weapons:
Dualweild
Mainhand
Obsidian shortspear (T5/T6/T7)
Ayanad Shortspear (Preferably Earth)
Off-hand:
Searing oath
Earth dagger
Earth sword
Two Hand:
Obsidian Nodachi (T5+, hungering version)
Berserk Red Dragon Wing-Reaper
Obsidian Greatsword (T5+)
Weapon Passives:
In case you don't know about weapon hidden passives, now you will. Every weapon type has an extra hidden passive that isn't listed in the tooltip ingame. Reason why shortspear is pretty much the goto one-hander mainhand is because of the puncture passive it has, negating ALL defensive buffs when it procs. This is great versus the tanky meta going on right now.
In Alpha I experimented to great success with dual swords as well, back when archers were not nerfed into the ground. Swords have a parry passive, hence why dual swords combined with Dual-Wield Proficiency really fucked over archers. Now however I heavily suggest against that. Dagger is a great off-hand because it provides you with an attack speed buff when it procs. Axes have a bleed effect, but are by far the worst weapon in the game because of it's damage scattering.
Gear:
Cap: Obsidian Cap(T5+)
Gloves: Obsidian gloves (T5+)
Boots: Obsidian boots (T5+)
For the other pieces you have the choice, either Delphinad/Ayanad Desert/flame or obsidian gear. If you are really dedicated, you can get the dark warrior's guards, which requires you to get 7 set leather from serp and 500 proven warrior tokens. I personally use 4 piece flame atm but will be switching to full obsidian to gain more HP and resistances.
Accessories and cape:
Necklace: Proven warrior necklace rank 11+ (until you can get a divine epherium lightning necklace or higher, the defense pen from the lightning necklace will help you way more than the bonus effects from halcy neck. Yes, it will most likely make you lose gearscore but numbers don't always equal better gear)
Earrings: Wave or Flame. While you don't gain anything from intellect besides bigger mana pool, the damage reduction is huge. As for flame, the str is nice, but the evasion is the biggest reason I prefer this earring over any other.
Rings: Gale ring for defense pen and Dream ring.
Cape: Either attack speed or block guild cape. With changes to Deflect and Retaliate, I'm leaning more towards Attack speed though.
Instrument, bow and glider:
Anthem of battlerage, the 300 warrior tokens battlerage instrument. Rank 3 Battle Focus is just too good
Flame bow
Sloth glider, the backward roll skill built in is a MUST HAVE for world pvp. It's a fast disengage that will save your life many times when you are overextended.
Main Rotation:
Depending on which class/player you play against, you'll have to adjust your rotation, but this is your main rotation: (Don't buff if you are too far from your target, doing so will allow stealth classes to just stealth and wait out your buffs)
Freerunner-> Battle Focus ->Liberation ->Behind Enemy Lines ->Triple Slash->Overwhelm->Shadowsmite->Precision Strike->Charge->Triple Slash->Throw Dagger -> Whirlwind Slash ->Tiger Strike
Keep in mind this is a bestcase scenario rotation. Adjust depending on matchup and cooldowns, or anticipate what your enem(ies/y) is/are planning on doing. Learn all possible combos and be able to use them at any time needed.
The reason I open with Behind Enemy Lines is because of it's high base damage, mobility and the really fast landing animation allowing for a really fast Triple Slash followup. Charge has too much landing lag and Tiger Strike disjoints too easily making you fly all over the place.
Talking about disjointing, don't open with Overwhelm, it's one of the easiest to miss spells in the game, if an enemy uses any form of teleport or dash it will dislocate the skill making it impossible to combo off.
People tend to underestimate Throw Dagger, while the damage isn't THAT amazing, itecreases Move and Attack speeds -60% and increases Cast Time +60%, which is insanely good.
Matchup:
As a darkrunner you want to use your mobility to your advantage, spells like Teleportation, Mirror Warp, Drop Back, Shadow Step, Charge, Tiger Strike and Behind Enemy Lines will allow you to both engage and disengage.
General rules of thumb are DONT STAY NEAR WITCHCRAFT CLASSES AFTER YOUR ROTATION. Keep distance so you can't get feared into an endless CC combo.
Vs defense you want to avoid fighting while their Redoubtis active. If you run into that situation, use Leech or your movement skills to get away from them.
If you get put to sleep yourself, there is not much you can do then either spam Teleportation or Shrug It Off + Bondbreaker depending on what class you're against and what skill they first attack you with after using a sleep ability. What you also can try to do is spam Leech and turn your mouse towards your target as they set up to attack you and are melee, to counterleech as soon as you get hit out of sleep or the sleep duration ends.
Other usefull tricks/possible skill choices:
Animation cancelling with Frenzy, allows you to break an animation which you are locked in (for example Triple Slash and stack another skill on top of it, while the damage from the first skill still goes trough.
Other skills that you could consider are Whirlwind Slash, Lasso to interrupt boss attempts by pulling the main tank out of healer range, Stalker's Mark to combo with Overwhelm for the trip instead of stun and for the reduced healing effect (very usefull vs healing hybrids) and Pin Down (for the bleed effect incase you don't run Attack Speed Training for whatever reason). I'd recommend not to take the last one tho.
A specific choice I want to talk about is why I take Dual-Wield Proficiency, even if I'm using a two-hander, and not, let's say, Piercing. The problem with Piercing is that you have to hit a crit first before the passive activates, and it only has a 2% increase over Dual-Wield Proficiency, which is a constant 8% crit flat bonus.
I already pointed this out in the gear section, but I'll repeat it here, if you use the +0.7 seconds inspired gems you can drop the Hearten talent, and put the freed point in a skill like Whirlwind Slash for an extra AoE skill that meshes well with the rest of your build.
UI Setup:
NOTE I USE AN AZERTY KEYBOARD, A = Q and Z = W
(Thwart is on the button above TAB), apostrophe on my keyboard)
Drop Back is on my Mouse4 button, on the side of my mouse, and my glider is on Mouse5.
Some quick tips here, putting your mount on Shift+G keybind will allow you to spawn your mount with Shift+G and instantly mounting it with G. This allows for really fast mounting into a Dash with a snowlion which makes you invulnerable, really good in world pvp situations after using sloth glider escape.
Don't use S to walk backwards, it's slower than running sideways and it allows to use a free slot for a more important keybinds like Stalker's Mark(incase you run it) or in my case, Wallop and Tiger Strike
Author Myucel's
Link: http://earlygame.net/archeage/builds/72758-Myucel_s_Darkrunner_world_pvp_build#1.8.4/tzhj3PT1kAG1)
I dont PvP, so if you know better, or things have changed, please contribute.
Darkrunner is a class that bases itself on high burst damage and insane mobility. It's an easy class to get into, but the skill ceiling is way higher than most people anticipate. The cool part about darkrunning is that there is no one set way to play it, you can go plate darkrunner, leather darkrunner, you can use pretty much any weapon and still be viable. As a darkrunner you want to adjust depending on the situation, in mass pvp, you're the assassin that stalks enemy healers nightmares.
You want to abuse the high mobility this class offers you with skills like Teleportation, Mirror Warp, Drop Back, Shadow Step, Charge, Tiger Strike and Behind Enemy Lines. Having the passive Reckless Charge will also give you a nice 40% boost after any of your battlerage engage tools, which is really helpfull for relocating to the back of your target or doing a hit-and-run.
IMPORTANT! LEARN OTHER CLASSES TOO AND HOW THEIR COMBOS WORK! If you don't put time into learning your matchups, you won't know what might happen and you won't be able to fight at full potential.
Weapons:
Dualweild
Mainhand
Obsidian shortspear (T5/T6/T7)
Ayanad Shortspear (Preferably Earth)
Off-hand:
Searing oath
Earth dagger
Earth sword
Two Hand:
Obsidian Nodachi (T5+, hungering version)
Berserk Red Dragon Wing-Reaper
Obsidian Greatsword (T5+)
Weapon Passives:
In case you don't know about weapon hidden passives, now you will. Every weapon type has an extra hidden passive that isn't listed in the tooltip ingame. Reason why shortspear is pretty much the goto one-hander mainhand is because of the puncture passive it has, negating ALL defensive buffs when it procs. This is great versus the tanky meta going on right now.
In Alpha I experimented to great success with dual swords as well, back when archers were not nerfed into the ground. Swords have a parry passive, hence why dual swords combined with Dual-Wield Proficiency really fucked over archers. Now however I heavily suggest against that. Dagger is a great off-hand because it provides you with an attack speed buff when it procs. Axes have a bleed effect, but are by far the worst weapon in the game because of it's damage scattering.
Gear:
Cap: Obsidian Cap(T5+)
Gloves: Obsidian gloves (T5+)
Boots: Obsidian boots (T5+)
For the other pieces you have the choice, either Delphinad/Ayanad Desert/flame or obsidian gear. If you are really dedicated, you can get the dark warrior's guards, which requires you to get 7 set leather from serp and 500 proven warrior tokens. I personally use 4 piece flame atm but will be switching to full obsidian to gain more HP and resistances.
Accessories and cape:
Necklace: Proven warrior necklace rank 11+ (until you can get a divine epherium lightning necklace or higher, the defense pen from the lightning necklace will help you way more than the bonus effects from halcy neck. Yes, it will most likely make you lose gearscore but numbers don't always equal better gear)
Earrings: Wave or Flame. While you don't gain anything from intellect besides bigger mana pool, the damage reduction is huge. As for flame, the str is nice, but the evasion is the biggest reason I prefer this earring over any other.
Rings: Gale ring for defense pen and Dream ring.
Cape: Either attack speed or block guild cape. With changes to Deflect and Retaliate, I'm leaning more towards Attack speed though.
Instrument, bow and glider:
Anthem of battlerage, the 300 warrior tokens battlerage instrument. Rank 3 Battle Focus is just too good
Flame bow
Sloth glider, the backward roll skill built in is a MUST HAVE for world pvp. It's a fast disengage that will save your life many times when you are overextended.
Main Rotation:
Depending on which class/player you play against, you'll have to adjust your rotation, but this is your main rotation: (Don't buff if you are too far from your target, doing so will allow stealth classes to just stealth and wait out your buffs)
Freerunner-> Battle Focus ->Liberation ->Behind Enemy Lines ->Triple Slash->Overwhelm->Shadowsmite->Precision Strike->Charge->Triple Slash->Throw Dagger -> Whirlwind Slash ->Tiger Strike
Keep in mind this is a bestcase scenario rotation. Adjust depending on matchup and cooldowns, or anticipate what your enem(ies/y) is/are planning on doing. Learn all possible combos and be able to use them at any time needed.
The reason I open with Behind Enemy Lines is because of it's high base damage, mobility and the really fast landing animation allowing for a really fast Triple Slash followup. Charge has too much landing lag and Tiger Strike disjoints too easily making you fly all over the place.
Talking about disjointing, don't open with Overwhelm, it's one of the easiest to miss spells in the game, if an enemy uses any form of teleport or dash it will dislocate the skill making it impossible to combo off.
People tend to underestimate Throw Dagger, while the damage isn't THAT amazing, itecreases Move and Attack speeds -60% and increases Cast Time +60%, which is insanely good.
Matchup:
As a darkrunner you want to use your mobility to your advantage, spells like Teleportation, Mirror Warp, Drop Back, Shadow Step, Charge, Tiger Strike and Behind Enemy Lines will allow you to both engage and disengage.
General rules of thumb are DONT STAY NEAR WITCHCRAFT CLASSES AFTER YOUR ROTATION. Keep distance so you can't get feared into an endless CC combo.
Vs defense you want to avoid fighting while their Redoubtis active. If you run into that situation, use Leech or your movement skills to get away from them.
If you get put to sleep yourself, there is not much you can do then either spam Teleportation or Shrug It Off + Bondbreaker depending on what class you're against and what skill they first attack you with after using a sleep ability. What you also can try to do is spam Leech and turn your mouse towards your target as they set up to attack you and are melee, to counterleech as soon as you get hit out of sleep or the sleep duration ends.
Other usefull tricks/possible skill choices:
Animation cancelling with Frenzy, allows you to break an animation which you are locked in (for example Triple Slash and stack another skill on top of it, while the damage from the first skill still goes trough.
Other skills that you could consider are Whirlwind Slash, Lasso to interrupt boss attempts by pulling the main tank out of healer range, Stalker's Mark to combo with Overwhelm for the trip instead of stun and for the reduced healing effect (very usefull vs healing hybrids) and Pin Down (for the bleed effect incase you don't run Attack Speed Training for whatever reason). I'd recommend not to take the last one tho.
A specific choice I want to talk about is why I take Dual-Wield Proficiency, even if I'm using a two-hander, and not, let's say, Piercing. The problem with Piercing is that you have to hit a crit first before the passive activates, and it only has a 2% increase over Dual-Wield Proficiency, which is a constant 8% crit flat bonus.
I already pointed this out in the gear section, but I'll repeat it here, if you use the +0.7 seconds inspired gems you can drop the Hearten talent, and put the freed point in a skill like Whirlwind Slash for an extra AoE skill that meshes well with the rest of your build.
UI Setup:
NOTE I USE AN AZERTY KEYBOARD, A = Q and Z = W
(Thwart is on the button above TAB), apostrophe on my keyboard)
Drop Back is on my Mouse4 button, on the side of my mouse, and my glider is on Mouse5.
Some quick tips here, putting your mount on Shift+G keybind will allow you to spawn your mount with Shift+G and instantly mounting it with G. This allows for really fast mounting into a Dash with a snowlion which makes you invulnerable, really good in world pvp situations after using sloth glider escape.
Don't use S to walk backwards, it's slower than running sideways and it allows to use a free slot for a more important keybinds like Stalker's Mark(incase you run it) or in my case, Wallop and Tiger Strike
Author Myucel's
Link: http://earlygame.net/archeage/builds/72758-Myucel_s_Darkrunner_world_pvp_build#1.8.4/tzhj3PT1kAG1)
