WMS help

aaramis75 · November 2015

Hey folks, semi-new player here still. Been around for ~ 2 months now, and having alt-itis I've managed to spend my time between various characters so far, levelling up OP and TR to 60 and 62 respectively, CW to 53, and most recently GWF to 58. Still not sure which one I'm taking to 70 yet, but it would most likely be GWF if only I could solve one thing: I eat way too many red AoEs, and take a lot of damage as a result.

On most other classes, it hasn't been too much of an issue avoiding them. In truth, it's not hard on GWF either, except for the fact I always seem to time my WMS hits with when the mobs decide to drop down various red circles. If I'm lucky, WMS's animation freeze only keeps me semi-locked for a second or so. But often, that's all it takes to get nailed before I can sprint (or even walk) out of it.
And while I'm still low enough level that I can often "hulk" through it by going unstoppable and using up my free hit points to absorb the AoEs, I realize that at later levels this isn't going to fly.

Any help with this? Do you all find you use WMS only sparingly to avoid this? Or perhaps even only save it for when you're unstoppable?
I realize it's quite an important skill to help build stacks, but the animation is rather clunky, and it's getting me nearly killed.

Thanks!

scathias · November 2015

If you think WMS is bad then don't ever try wicked strike

However, I think you will find that as you increase your level things might actually get easier for you. GWF is a very stat and gear dependent class. They do sort of ok at lower gear levels but as you raise them up you start to get amazing. So you are at lv 58 right now. at lv 61+ you start getting free HP on your head/arms/chest/feet (the free HP totals to 40k+ in blue ilv125 gear at lv 70 (the entry gear). This extra HP you get will help you tank more hits, IMO as you level through 61-70 you won't find it that hard, especially on a GWF.

Next, the temp HP a GWF gets when they go unstoppable in boosted by the damage bonuses you have when you activate unstoppable. So if you have max stacks of destroyer (36% damage) full destroyer's purpose stacks (50%) your temp HP you gain is increased by 86%. Your power stat also increases this as do any buffs you have on you.

*side note, stats start scaling differently between lv 60 and lv 61 so don't worry if you see all of a sudden that at lv 59 your power gave you 50% damage boost and at lv 61 it is only giving you a 20% damage boost, they changed the stats past lv 60 to scale at 400 points = 1%, the exceptions to this are armor pen 100=1% (until about 5k armpen then it starts dropping off) and recharge speed increase (from recovery) which is 200=1%.

Basically what i am saying is that by the time you hit lv 70 and are running dungeons in a group you will be in a place where you can actually eat nearly all the red that is coming (some hits will still be too hard so you'll have to learn those and avoid them) because you have so many damage buffs on you that you get tons of temp HP, what will also help is that (with the correct build) you will be in stoppable nearly all the time and so you will find dodging red much easier. Sprint tends to break a lot of animation locks so I'm actually semi confused as to how you are finding yourself locked into WMS's animation, personally i don't ever notice it but perhaps i've just gotten used to it.

Here is an excellent guide for your GWF to use Lazalia's Destroyer GWF guide
As you choose gear take pieces that focus on critical strike and armor pen (you want to aim for a total of 60% resistance ignored on your char sheet. Armor pen is far more important then power. You can read this guide here to find out why (and i really encourage you to read it. the stat curves are out of date with the introduction of mod 6 but the basics behind the knowledge of buffs and debuffs and how it all interacts has remained the same).

Hope this helps

aaramis75 · November 2015

Cheers, thanks. I've read several guides already, including Lia Knowles' destroyer build, so the Lazalia one is similar but explains some of the mechanics a bit better in order to optimize the damage output. I had actually wondered about the unstoppable bonus hit points mechanic, as I had noticed different levels of hit points granted, so that's a good thing to know, thanks.

I also have a pretty good shopping list already for when I get a character to 70, so that's sorted. All I need is a boatload of ADs

Other than that, I guess I'll just have to get a bit more used to WMS and learn to time my unstoppables better, using them defensively as well as offensively in order to minimize damage taken.

WMS help

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