User:Raine Valen/Musings/Axe Wars

The Axe Warrior Template

Knock Stuff Over. A Lot.

Knocking people over is the fuel for big pressure. When people are knocked down, they're largely helpless, and that means that you can do more damage. One skill on every axe warrior's bar is going to be dedicated to knocking stuff down. A lot. Until there's a better way to shut down a target and compress damage that knockdown, this is always, always, always going to be the standard.

• 

  I hit you, you hit the ground.
  Currently, there are two ways warriors go about this: they either use Bull's Strike or "Coward!". Bull's is amazing because it also does huge damage, turning a three-second knockdown into a very real "you may or may not get back up" scenario. "Coward!" doesn't do any damage, but it also takes 0 seconds to use and costs 0 Energy, so it allows you to fit in another attack in Bull's Strike's time slot. On top of that, it's ranged.

• If a warrior can't get damage and shutdown at least as good as Bull's Strike or "Coward!" in a skill, they will not ever run it in this slot.

Turn Red Bars Grey.

Deep wound knocks off 20% of the target's health and keeps it off until it's removed, no questions asked. On top of the regular damage. So we're talking upwards of 140 Health lopped off in one stroke.

• Currently, this skill is always Eviscerate or Dismember (and it's usually Dismember). Eviscerate is cool because it also adds a respectable amount of damage to the blow; Dismember gives that up in exchange for being able to be used every other attack or something silly.

• If a warrior can't get a Deep Wound better than Dismember, they will run Dismember in this slot.

Use Attack Skills For Stuff.

I'm going to divide this up into what I'll call "Attack Types"; which types of attacks a warrior chooses determine how they play the game and the kind of damage they put out.
Warriors will take attack skills in the following combinations only: 1+3 (i.e. Executioner's Strike and Disrupting Chop), 1+4 (i.e. Body Blow and Magehunter Strike), 2+3 (i.e. Whirling Axe and Disrupting Chop), 2+4 (i.e. Keen Chop and Protector's Strike), 3+3 (Agonizing Chop+Disrupting Chop). Warriors running Eviscerate will always take a type-1 attack. Outside of very, very rare circumstances, that is ALL.

Type 1: Attacks that Explode People in a Glorious Display of Force.

• Warriors apply Deep Wound to make things die, and this is one possible next step down that path. Even in the old days, warriors would follow their Deep Wound with another spike skill, knocking off halves of red bars in one strike. Today, the same still works: Do Big Damage Make People Die.
  • For this, warriors will take one of the following skills, in the following order of preference: Thrill of Victory (if and only if they can afford the energy and spec; more on that later), Power Attack (if they are running fully-specced Strength and can afford it), Body Blow (if they are running fully-specced Strength), and Executioner's Strike otherwise. More often than not, this means Body Blow.
  • If a spike skill cannot blow up spike targets like Body Blow, it is not viable.

Type 2: Attacks that Just Fucking Pump Damage.

• When it's not all about the big spike, a warrior may instead choose to spread that damage out, eating away at Health and Energy bars like a tractor through corn (or whatever the fuck tractors go through).
  • For this, warriors will run one of the following skills: Keen Chop (only with full investment in Strength), Penetrating Blow (or its duplicate; especially at lower Strength specs), Agonizing Chop, or Whirling Axe.
  • If a skill can't pump this hard, an axe warrior will use one of these instead.

Type 3: Attacks that Eat the Opposition's Breakfast.

• Axe warriors aren't just valued for their damage; they're also valued for their ability to say "fuck you" to the other team.
  • For this, warriors will run one (or, rarely, both) of the following skills (in order of priority): Disrupting Chop and Agonizing Chop. A dchop on a key skill can make a team crumble on its own, and an Agonizing on a heal or prot can drop a target without giving them the chance to react.
  • If a skill is not a better interrupt than Disrupting Chop or Agonizing Chop, an axe warrior will not use it.

Type 4: Attacks that Kill People Before Anyone Knows What Happened.

• Sometimes, a target is just one hit away from death, and the WoH or RC or infuse or Patient trigger saves them. Warriors don't like that; they see that shit and say, "FUCK no". Fortunately, there are a few faster-activating skills that allow warriors to beat support to the punch.
  • For this, warriors will run one of the following skills: Agonizing Chop, Magehunter Strike (if they can afford the Energy), or Protector's Strike (again, if they can afford it).
  • If a skill is not a better spike finisher than these, an axe warrior will finish spikes with these skills instead.

Skills like Lacerating Chop? Axe Twist? They don't fucking belong anywhere. They are not viable.

Play That Trump Card.

Since forever, axe warriors have always carried a little something extra so they could win guild wars. Originally, it was Shock and only Shock.
But times have changed, and now there are a few other solid choices that warriors can blow their optional slot on.

• There's "Fear Me!" (used with Soldier's Stance and occasionally "Coward!"), Shove, Shock, Conjure, and whatever else. It mostly boils down to personal preference.

• If a skill is not at least as good as Shock, it will not go here ever.

Hit Stuff Faster.

This is absolutely necessary. Hitting things faster means more damage and more adrenaline (which means more damage).
Unfortunately, there are only two real contenders for this.

• There's Frenzy and Primal Rage. Frenzy is available whenever it may be needed, unconditional, and 33%. It doesn't get better than that. I'll give Primal Rage a second place, and it can really shine in HA. Short of that, it's Frenzy and only Frenzy. Why? It's relatively light on energy (consumes 2 pips if used every 8 seconds), just about always available (meaning you can flip it on and off frequently, if necessary), and its drawback is easily mitigated by skilled players. The only exception is "I Will Avenge You!", which is used in IWAY (it's not fit for general use). In general, though:

• If an IAS isn't as good as Frenzy, it is not viable.'

Tiger Stance has no reason to exist, Soldier's Stance has no reason to exist, Burst of Aggression has no reason to exist, Flurry has no reason to exist. They aren't viable.

Run Around Faster and Possibly Also Stop Taking Double Damage.

Before anything else, let me make it clear that this slot is NOT "Cancel Stance". Auspicious Parry can cancel Frenzy, but it doesn't go here. This slot is for IMS which may also serve as a cancel stance.
Warriors need IMS to deal damage to kiting targets, period.

• The best skill for this is hands-down Rush, but Battle Rage can sometimes work. They're almost always built, don't consume Energy, and have very strong durations. However, Sprint or Dash can also work, but only for warriors who expect to be in Frenzy most of the time.

• If a skill isn't as good an IMS as Rush, it isn't viable.

The one and only exception to this is that Primal Rage Warriors don't need this skill slot if they don't intend to cancel Primal Rage, so skills that facilitate Primal Rage's upkeep (like Shield Bash) can find their way here, instead.

Make Teammates Not Dead.

This means res sig. Maybe Pact if you really, really have to.

Breaking the Mold

As you may have noticed, this is relatively close-minded. And I'll agree with that wholeheartedly. It's not closed because everyone who plays axe war is a sheep; it's closed because nothing else is as good. Why is it that out of all the skills in Axe Mastery, Tactics, and Strength, only a dozen or so are viable? Well, there are a couple of reasons.

Energy.

Axe warriors don't have a lot of it, so Energy is probably the primary limit on their skill bar.
I'll explain Energy to you the way I think of it: in terms of "energy skill slots". Normally, a warrior just has one of these with their two pips of energy regeneration; it ain't much. And, normally, this slot is occupied by Frenzy. A warrior using Frenzy can't afford to spend Energy on anything else over prolonged periods and, until another IAS is brought on par with Frenzy, this will continue to be the case.
Obviously, this just won't do. So warriors use Zealous axes to increase the number of energy slots they can use. The amount of slots a warrior can gain with a Zealous axe is directly proportional to:

• How often they plan to camp Zealous. A warrior can manage Frenzy, tactical Bull's Strikes, and the occasional Shock by going to Zealous set every so often; a warrior using Frenzy, Bull's on recharge, and Shove on recharge will need to be in Zealous 100% of the time.
• How much damage they can pump. A warrior that doesn't land much damage will net less Energy, so they'll be able to use fewer Energy skills.

In addition to Zealous, a warrior can free up Energy in two other ways:

• Running Primal Rage. A warrior with prage is free of their number-one Energy consumer, so they can run another Energy skill (like Protector's Strike) instead of an adrenal one.
• Running "Coward!". Like prage, "Coward!" frees up one of the warrior's traditional energy slots (Bull's Strike). Most wars running "Coward!" fill the slot with Thrill of Victory.

That's it. For the most part, as long as Frenzy and Bull's are pretty much NECESSARY, warriors aren't going to be spending Energy on anything else. That means that skills like Furious Axe and Triple Chop are never going to see play.

• Until there are more options for warriors to free up Energy, no other Energy skills will ever be viable.

C-C-C-C-Combos.

The other thing that largely shapes skill bars is the adrenaline mechanic. When you use an adrenal skill, all of your other skills lose a strike of adrenaline. This means that warriors can't chain attacks while using adrenal non-attack skills.
Because Dismember and Eviscerate are adrenal, that means that a warrior can't use an adrenal IAS to open a spike, nor can they use an adrenal IAS after the opening and follow with another adrenal skill. So, in order to be viable, warriors would need either (a) energy-based spike openers, (b) spike openers that stopped the target from kiting (for Flail, anyway), or (c) long-lasting adrenal IAS without a movement penalty.
Flail is cute, but axe warriors can't use it. There aren't many adrenal IAS skills (just 2, actually); take prage as an example of what one would need to be in order to be viable.