Elio wrote:Curious what you see as a red flag with the guide? It's still in its infancy, working on images for UI/Button layout, but it isn't meant to be a total fluff piece. Tone aside.
The most glaring ones were your neglicence of initiative/crit reduction, use of riposte (which is probably the least potent tactic you can run outside of solo roam, and even there its meh), the glass approach in combination with pugging, the usage of SCs numbers as metrics, the usage of RR for plain stats, neglicene of avoidance, alongside a few more things ~ but lets put that aside, as you are actively working* on the guide.
I suggest you swap out some of gear for dominator (setboni: str, wounds, armor + crit reduction [boots], ini for free on most pieces - e.g.: swapping conq chest for domi chest) and/or if you can some pieces of redeye (6% critreduction for free; 3% boots, 3% setboni - the cloak is a perfect piece to mix-and-match with for the setboni).
The crit on conq boots does nothing for you if you run a setup without crit, the WS/ini on the inf belt is hardly worth the tradeoff in setboni/melee power (whatever you choose to opt for, domi/conq).
More than 50% armor pen through WS is completly overkill, might aswell push your initiative to combat debuffs and to allow you to actively run Fierceness to buff the WS for your entire party instead.
You should always have Winds Impervious tome accessories in your bag to swap on the fly, alongside a bunch of tactic sets (e.g.: Shoutness of the Stone is pure gold against good WEs/BGs).
There is plenty of ways to min-max a Slayer ~ you don't necessarily need BiS gear either, but I'd HIGHLY suggest you plan ahead, some pieces will turn out to be a waste of currency and time.
On one hand you have unnecessary stats in your setup, on the other hand you completly neglect important ones... I can see this setup work out 'just fine' against headless chicken that don't know how to assist or CC, but meh.
Fyi, if you plan on running a haste setup, its either all in or bust...(Redeye setboni + oathstones + conq shoulders//oathstones + conq shoulders + overlord head, PFM +++++++++++ a group, as you'll want to run rather glassy), you'd just gimp yourself running bits and pieces.
(Note: If you pug/play with meh groups and/or against good opposition PFM is basically useless, as you won't stick in red to make the haste payoff properly; a halfarsed haste setup might work ... you could in theory get [close] to 50% haste just through gear, but I don't see that tradeoff pay off statwise on the long run - a full haste setup on the other hand is as pewpew-ish as you can get, especially if you can run full glass with it.)
As to what you most certainly do not want to do if you ever get to play with a fix group that runs a good KotBS/engi:
Use ID on cooldown... you'll break every single stagger (and your own detaunt), if not only because your targets know how to use it to their own advantage; to break staggers (or to get you instagibbed by nearby guards) ~ if you have momentum, keep up the pressure, if you don't save the AP and allow yourself to use detaunt, don't mindlessly hit random buttons and don't waste your AP on moral'd/guarded/detaunting targets either, especially if you aren't AP fed properly.
You'll just massively increase your downtime by hammering your abilities 24/7 ~ unless you use some of the AP tactics (which you shouldn't), AP pots, AP regen from gear (which you shouldn't rely on) or are AP fed: rather have the AP necessary to
properly burst than hitting your target every 2ish seconds (all the things worth using cost >=30AP without GW, your base regen is 25AP - you'll cockblock yourself out of the GCD cycle or race the GCD cycle of your target's healers with rather lackluster spikes/waste or miss burst opportunities if you mindlessly hammer away).
I.e: 1 attack every 2sec, versus x attacks in a row - keep in mind avoidance checks, sitting at <30 AP 24/7 severely gimps your dps and nullifies your pressure.
Mind you, if you were to run a full haste setup - which you shouldn't without a (proper) group - managing AP:Burst would be a cakewalk, but so would be everything by virtue of the group.
As a rule of thumb: Slayer as a class is meant to be weight to be carried = there is no point going to glassy in a group that has newly been formed or forms irregularly, let alone whilst pugging... a slayer is either dead weight (
too squishy for the group to handle) or a god (
exactly as squishy as the group can handle), a good balanced slayer is a proper (= your 'casual') mdps (= still almost entirely useless without guard), a deftard slayer is basicially CC on two legs and a good, albeit twisted tank (as far as pugplay is concerned) ~ you'll draw attention and work as dps sponge whilst scaring off squishies (especially glass ones, but others will just see a midget and run regardless of its actual dps, which isn't necessarily lackluster... but lacking), provided you have a good healer and pots with you.
Abbd.:
Additional rule of thumb for all things pug and in general:
1. If you notice that no one assist you, assist off of others - unless you know your targets, i.e.: you know that you can burst someone down before you draw attention to you; be ready to hardswap on the fly (get SwiftAssist or similar addons).
2. Don't use SL on <3 targets, don't use it without Onslaught/No Escape to mask it, don't tunnelvision your target from the get go ~ try to get SL off onto the backline, then get back to your target.
3. SL kills pressure (and HtL, it should atleast unless smth changed), use it defensively if you can/have to.
4. Use NC on guardbots, it'll melt them or force them and their guardee to back the **** off ~ don't waste it on mdps unless you are in a straight up 1vX... which you should never find yourself in.
5. Don't use Charge to engage.
6. Use Flurry to bridge distances, it after all has a 25ft range.
7. No Escape, Flee, Rampage are excellent ragedrops; don't use your detaunt before you dropped your rage, ragedrops are your main priority if you wanna survive a burst. Ragedrop (preferably No Escape) > Pots (> Detaunt, provided there is no ID ticking or you memorized the ticks) > Charge > else.
8. Don't ever use Relentless Strike unless you run PURE glass, max crit stack and FM whilst in a min-max'd group. Its a garbage ability on its own and a waste of AP.
9. Help your allies; use your snare if you see mdps/tanks running towards your backline; use EB to kill the burst of dps (Sorc >= SH > WE > CH > Mara, ofc depending on range) or burst heals.
One more thing:
If you really like playing with specs and such... try a wounds/crit stack (or at the very best ASW, yumyum) with FM for the luls, and maybe 2h if you fancy it ~ make sure to grind enough gold to bribe your mates to carry you with that spec (especially the healers will have a hard time with you, as they'll have to let you drop and sit at HP% that isn't quite fun to see/easy to maintain as a healer), tho.
(*Note: My biggest gripe with the guide was that it lacked a proper disclaimer 'ATTENTION: This class is horrible to play without group.' that you now more or less included. I've seen too many people burn themselves out trying to play this class lonewolfish and basing their enjoyment on the coin toss that is PUG SCs and blobvR. Now, spare me the 'it can work in soloroam and w/e', yes, but it needs BiS gear and a proper pot economy, which new players simply won't have at their disposal, its a moot point ~ and even if the stars align, its still a niche and very dependent on timezones... can't roam if every zone has a bajillion
individual blobs.)
E: Format, words ~
