- by Lucento, Kidneysticker, and Relunter, purveyors of WH awesomeness
- additional note about keepers armor at the end by Dwooid
This is Lucento from Badlands, I'll be handling Path of Confession. Kidney
will be talking about his spec which involves single target burst DPS. Then
Relunter will talk a bit about his spec.
Path of Confession: A Witch Hunters guide to AOE
First and foremost you need to have some good gear or at least be RR65+
to be able to pull this spec off really well. Here's an example mastery mix
that works for my playstyle. 17 points in Confession and every skill and
tactic in the tree except the first one, and 11 into Judgement to get pistol
whip and fanatical cleansing.
Example Path of Confession mastery set-up. Click to see close-up.
Now that you have your skills chosen you need to get your tactics and
reknown rank abilities. An example mix I run with is toughness 5, weapon
skill/initiative 3, resolute defense, crit chance, and I chose 3% armor
increase. You may decide on a different balance of defense and offense
works better for your playstyle for you over all.
For talisman and gear I use 2 top armor talismans in my weapons, melee
crit on my shoulders, odjira (or similar) on your feet), and the rest strength
talismans. For jewelry I use a PVE resist set, warlord brooch, as well as
the LoTD jewel and cape melee power combo. You may find a different
balance among talismans and accessories works best for your playstyle.
Remember it's not all about killing power, you need to balance it with
survivability for when you get focus fired.
Some other tools of the trade to consider:
- Heal over time potions
- Toughness and reduced chance to be crit liniment
- 660 armor pot or better
- Blessed Bullets of Purity
Suggestions for the Witch Hunter:
1. Stealth to the back lines and pick a juicy target
2. Jump juicy target with Sudden Accusations
3. Torment them mercilessly as they run to their group
4. Choose a target in the middle of their group where the
most people are and fire-off your dragon gun
5. Choose the next closest squishy and start Razorstriking them
(Always try to choose a target with 2 or more enemies around him/her)
6. Fire off your Morale 2 AOE disable in the middle of their back line,
detaunt jump away and repeat
Path of Judgement: Single-Target Burst Burn Down
Kidneysticker from Badlands here to to tell you the art of burning down healers
quickly and efficiently. At level 40/RR 50 you have access to 4 skills: Burn Away
Lies, Fanatical Cleansing, Pistol Whip, and Punish the False. These are invaluable
tools you'll need to kill those healers that are well geared.
For this spec you need a ton of strength. 900+ for starters, but preferrably closer
to 1000+. Couple that with melee power, as much as you can get (see LotD gear).
Now, to round out the spec, try and add some weapon skill, 400+, as you won't
always be fighting healers and will need to parry attacks from melee dps in order
to survive against them. Parrying is important as it allows you to use Confess!,
your disarm ability. You'll also need some melee crit. Try to get up to 15% or more,
but your goal is as much melee crit as you can get your hands on.
At RR60 you can pick up Van Horsttman's Speculum that will help with MDPS
targets as well. Of all the possible choices you can make at RR60 I feel this is
the best one that you'll have access to. You will typically only have about 200-250
toughness in this spec so burst damage is your answer. Anything that does more
damage is good. Using Confusing Movements as your Morale 1 over Sever Nerve
can definitely help survivability as well and you'll have attacks that can crit more
than Sever Nerve can give you.
For tactics I use Brute Force, Flanking, Fanatical Cleansing and Inquisitors Fury.
Sometimes, if I know I'll be fighting some MDPS, then I'll switch in Riposte over
Inquisitors Fury and switch in Righteous Steel for Flanking. Have fun playing
around with the options, this is what seems to work best for my play style.
I typically like to kill zealots first, and them shamans, and saving DoK's for last as
they are harder to burst down usually. But either way, you know they are going to
run. So start with Sudden Accusations, hit them with Pistol Whip and Torment until
they get back up from being stunned. By that time you should have a 4 or 5 point
Burn Away Lies that will finish them off as they get up and try to run. Don't forget to
snare them with your pistol if they aren't quite dead yet just in case.
The other Morale abilities I rarely use so feel free to play with them and try them out.
They all have their uses, I just go with what works best for me and keeps me alive
longer and able to keep bursting down those healers (see Force of Will Morale 2
ability). Confusing Movements works great with Riposte.
Another school of thought with this spec is getting Repel Blasphemy from the
Path of Confession line to help you parry the MDPS as well. I do not recommend this
spec until you can burst down healers without Punish the False. This will vary from
player to player, of course. Keep in mind that Punish the False can be used on any
enemy for the same effect on healers and it also has large damage potential.
A third school of thought is using Exit Wounds instead of Burn Away Lies. If you do
not have decent melee crit, 15% or better, Exit Wounds is not a bad option at all and
I actually preferred it until I was able to use this spec instead.
Couple last tips... If you are going after a target that is not dying quickly they are
probably being guarded and healed. Switch targets!! Save up your Accusations and
move to someone else. It's such a simple concept but it will help you out and cause
confusion when destro has to switch their guard and heal targets. Sometimes that
couple of seconds is all it takes for you to get your job done, get out, and repeat.
Also, never leave home without an armor pot on and some kind of strength, melee
power, wounds, melee crit combo of liniment as well. This makes a world of difference
as well as having high resists. Look for some PVE resist jewelry to help you get up to
the 500 plus range on your resists as you'll get focus fire from all sorts of casters when
trying to kill healers in the back line. Happy Hunting WH's!!
Path of Inquisition: Heavy Hitter+Debuffer
Relunter from Badlands here to talk about Path of Inquisition. In general, inquisition
specced witch hunters are better at killing back-line healers and casters than
other specs since most abilities under the inquisition tree are instant damage which
cannot be removed like Burn Away Lies by healer. The healing debuff under the
inquisition tree also helps your teammates killing DoKs and heavy armor tanks.
To achieve maximum amount of damage you need:
- 60+ reknown for the mastery points
- Full invader armor set or higher to get 1050+ strength
- Talismans, potions, and liniments that provide crit,
wounds, and speed bonuses
For weapons, if you are not a big fan of pve instances like myself, the dwarf influence
pistol and elf influence sword rewards are a good combination till you can get the
new rvr scenario weapons.
Example setup:
Here is the example of my spec, 17 points spent on Inquisition tree gives:
- Exit Wounds
- Punish the False
- Seal of Destruction
- Prologned Confession (Tactic)
Exit Wounds (EW):
Instant damage, 10 sec cool down, 30ft range, 5 accusation can provide 1100 damage
and reduce 225 str, toughness, and weapon skill.
EW is a great finishing move when you set to kill healers. After you stealth to their back,
spam torment and get them down to 15%-20% HP. They may notice you and pounce
on you right away, but you can still hit target when you dancing in the air.
Punish the False (PTF):
Debuff, 10 sec cool down, can reduce healing effectiveness by 50% for 10 secs.
Great debuff, especially in scenarios. Go behind front line and kill enemy healer by PTF
or stay with order healers at back line and when enemy tanks or mdps comes over, 50%
reduced healing will make them easier to kill for you and teammates. Btw, PTF cannot
stack with Blessed Bullets of Confession.
Seal of Destruction (SoD):
Buff, 1 min cool down, ignore target's armor by 50% for the next 7 secs.
I usually save this for enemy tanks when I couldn't get behind them or have to face them
by myself.
Prolonged Confession (tactic):
All attacks that build accusations have a 50% chance to build an additional accusation.
I strongly recommend every witch hunter who wants to go inquisition spec
spend point on this tatic. It works great in scs especially when you're facing
WEs, WH vs. WE fight mostly doesn't take more than 10 secs,the first one tp
get 5 accusation and pull off the finishing move usually will be the winnner.
Keepers armor set from Altdorf Sewers
- by Dwooid
I have heard now from several very senior WH's that the keeper armor set from sewers is
a great alternative set for pure damage (there's some trade-offs) due to an auto-attack
speed boost. It has been noted to me that some WH's continue by choice to use it in
their lvl40's, obviously at the expense of other stats. Have fun testing it!
Dwooid Note: If there are more WH subjects you'd like them
to cover, or comments you'd like me to pass on, obviously feel
free to contact them directly or send it to me through the "Contact
Dwooid" address on the sidebar and I'll send it on to them :).