Nissu had some questions about how to perform better in scenarios, so I figured I would post my ideas so others could join in with their thoughts.
I find that the most important things are staying alive and picking the right targets. Try not to get caught completely alone behind enemy lines. Try to keep aware of the situation, where your team is, how far away you are wandering. Often I will find myself surrounded by 3-4 order with no destruction in sight because I was chasing down an engineer. Giving up on a kill and running back to your team is sometimes the right thing to do, but it's not easy. Try to stay with your team, we are very good 1v1, but we are even better 2 or 3 v. 1.
Your primary target is brightwizards, they go down so easy and you prevent a ton of damage by killing them. After that, it depends on the situation. If you are alone, archemage or shadowwarrior, they die pretty easy. If the battle is fairly even, go for the runepriests and warrior priests. It usually takes too long to kill a priest if you are alone and they have help, you end up just dieing without taking anyone with you. Witch hunters are somewhere in there, but they seem kind of rare, and usually aren't near you, since you are around the casters. I guess engineers are next, but they are the hardest to kill. In tier3 they have root, land mines that stun, snare, and at least 1 knock back, plus their morale knock back. After all this is white lions and tanks, usually they are on a caster and you can backstab them, so make sure you get behind them.
There are 2 major levels for witch elves, 18 and 20. At 18 we get a root break that gives us snare/root immunity for 10 seconds (kinda buggy sometimes). It is on a one minute cool down. Without this it is hard to kill brightwizards and impossible to kill engineers. When you first get it you feel like you're cheating. At 20 you get a skill that actually is cheating, Enfeebling Stike. This spicy little number can only be used from stealth, it gives 2 blood lust and for the next 15 seconds your target takes 31 damage whenever they move. 31 doesn't sound like a lot, and it isn't. Good thing strength ups it. The first time I used this I hit a warrior priest with it, he ran off taking 104 damage every step and died without me hitting him with anything else. It's absolutely insane, you will open with this every single time, except maybe vs a tank. At some point you also get a silence, it's pretty good, but nothing compared to these two.
Hmmm, what next. My current spec is all suffering. I got Kiss of Doom and Black lotus blade. I'm not sure where I'm going now, I think carnage for better pve. Kiss of doom is crazy, make sure you always, always, always keep kiss of death up. With 9 points in suffering, kiss of death does a little more than the other kiss, so I only use it. With kiss of doom, your kiss of death (confusing) procs on half your hits. I downloaded a mod to track my damage, in pve my kiss of death did more damage than anything else, it was 37% of my damage, insane.
Coming from respawn, my attacks always start off the same. Stealth, find a brightwizard that is kind of alone, or make sure there is enough of a fight that I won't get focused completely (I don't do a very good job of this, usually I die right after killing him). I open with enfeebling strike, then kiss of death, then silence, then black lotus blade, then use ruthless assault. This kills a brightwizard with a little to spare. Sometimes you have to break root in there, and against some brightwizards I know I will use silence before kiss, since they are fast on the root. This is how most of my fights from stealth go, most classes require some more attacking after this.
Once the battle is going and you can't stealth and kiss is already up, I usually just use slice and black lotus blade. If I get behind someone, I'll us agonizing wounds. I try to watch for sever limb to pop up from a parry, but I usually miss it. I don't use sever blessing or wracking pains, I probably should but my hotkeys are a mess right now. I don't use the dot very much, only on people that have an objective they are trying to cap. I'm not sure how good it is, it gets mitigated by armor (as far as I can tell). I usually use ruthless assault as my finisher, 6 attacks means ~3 kiss procs for an extra 450 damage, insane. Sometimes I'll use puncture if they are low and getting healed. I use sever nerve (morale 1) almost every time it pops. I try to use it right before or after a finisher, to max burst damage, and on someone that is probably going to die from it or soon after. I don't like wasting it just for it to be healed. It's rare that I use the other morale abilities, that's something I might need to work on. Being able to hit 3 targets with a ruthless assault seems nuts.
Your throwing dagger, learn to love it. I have mine bound to 'q'. Anytime I'm not next to my target I am throwing that thing. It snares them from behind so you can catch up, it can also proc kiss of death. So half the time it is hitting for ~170. Did I mention that the kiss of death proc isn't mitigated by anything? Absolutely nuts.
For tactics I use Kiss of Doom and brute force. Not much to say on those, I might try frenzied mayhem and increase pain at 30. For PvE I use Kiss of Doom and Bathing in Blood. Fighting one +1 mob at a time I rarely have to stop. 300hp doesn't sound like much, but it's enough to keep you going.
For gear I've been stacking strength for pve, I don't see the use of anything else. I've started collecting wound gear for pvp, it seems to make a difference. I forgot to change once and I felt like I died faster. I gain about 1,000hp when I switch. I focus mostly on corporeal and elemental resist, that's what bright wizards do. I'm not sure how good toughness and initiative are, or things like willpower. Weapon skill might be okay, but most of our targets are low armor anyway, and we can get behind tanks most of the time to use agonizing wounds. Plus there is always feinted positioning for the head to head tank fight. If given the option, take a faster dagger. More auto attacks means more kiss procs. I don't think offhand speed matters, but I'm not sure. I heard offhand attacks proc off of main hand attacks, but I haven't looked into it much. Try to keep the main hand speed under 2.
That's all I can think of right now, if you have any questions feel free to ask. If anyone else has comments, please add your thoughts. I'd like to get other peoples opinions on witch elves. I'm sure I'm not doing things perfectly. I don't use all my skills and my keys are a disaster, but I do pretty well in scenarios. I usually lead damage, unless there is a good sorc. My damage is very focused, so I get a lot of kill shots also. The class is pretty easy to play once you understand your role and your abilities.
Last thing, use enchanting beauty. The wording is confusing, but I'm pretty sure it works on everyone except the person you hit. So if you're in the middle of it all, just pop it and reduce some of the incoming damage. Try to predict when you will start taking a lot of damage, don't wait until you are almost dead. I think it also makes pets stop attacking you, but I'm not completely sure.
Sat Sep 27, 2008 4:18 am
