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Nice informative post
My experience with the Witch Elf
*****Disclaimer, this was all off the top of my head*****
First of all, the Witch Elf is one of the most fun classes I've ever played in an MMO. Originally, she was my alt, but she really grew on me! (They're that fun).
For all intents and purposes, you could draw a parallel between a Witch Elf and a combat rogue from that other game (I know I'm gonna catch heat for this) Witch Elves build combo points, and the visual indicator are these jagged looking blades above your hotbar. These combo points are referred to as Blood Lust, and you build 1-5 blood lust and execute a finisher move, called a Frenzy. The potency of the Frenzy is decided by how many points of Blood Lust you have built. The Frenzies are powerful finishers, and have extreme damage and/or status affects or special abilities associated with them.
There is yet another mechanic (WE is a pretty complex class for a hack n slash DPS!) and they're in the form of "Kisses". Don't worry you don't actually kiss anyone! It's a blade buff, and it requires you to stab an opponent to activate it (this can be somewhat annoying, but you do build a blood lust which is compensation IMO). The first Kiss you get is Kiss of Agony, and it's arguably the best one. The buff lasts 2 minutes and gives you a 20% chance to poison someone every time you attack. The poison does X damage over time and snares the victim by 40% (or it slows them to 40% cant remember). This ability is important in PVP since people will most likely try to get away from you!
I know a lot of people are wondering about stealth. I feel that it is very balanced in WAR. It drains AP, which is vital to really slaughtering in PVP, it only lasts 30 seconds (not tied to how much AP you have) and has a 1 minute cooldown. Higher level players and those with high initiative will see you, but it's not that big of a deal since stealth is just one of the many useful tools we have. I mainly use it to: get to my prey in the back lines in scenarios, for ambushing stragglers in RVR, or to run up to the lord room when the doors are down in a keep siege. Think "Spy" from Team Fortress 2.
There are 'amushes' you can use when you're 'prowling' (stealthed) but they are far from a huge backstab or PA. The one I currently use adds 70 damage for every attack I do (at level 18 ), and builds 2 Blood Lust. Considering the WE attacks really fast it *is* nice damage, however my opponent or their team can react to me.
The 3 mastery paths are all very intriguing: Carnage, which is the scrapper path. Suffering, which is a DoT path, and Treachery which is a positional path. Each of these sexy mastery paths offer nice core abilities as well as mastery abilities. I myself plan on going Carnage 16 and Suffering 6. I'm taking 1 mastery ability from Carnage which is basically a Sinister Strike that ignores armor, and 1 mastery from suffering that is a buff that gives me 25% attack haste and 25% faster cooldowns.
Regarding morale abilities: they are incredible, and really add a lot of flavor to PVP *and* PVE. The 2 I use so far are a Rank 1 Morale that hits for 500+ damage at 18 which is basically a melee nuke and a rank 2 ability that steals 200 AP (which comes in handy when there is a lot of meat to chop up). Morale abilities are your ace in the hole, and they can make you look really good to your peers when they don't know much about your class
--------Soloing, PQs, and RVR--------------------------------------------------------
Witch Elves are good soloers b/c you can kill very fast with little downtime. Also, you have a good amount of hitpoints, I was only 1K under a black orc at level 18... however, you have the armor of a caster, no joke! This means that physical based attacks will be your bane, but you can handle a bit of a spell onslaught from your resists and HP (in my humble opinion) Anyway, Witch Elves make good solo questers.
In Public Quests I usually do pretty well. The way I understand it, PQ participation is based on the amount of threat you accrued (along with clicking clickies if you had to do that). Inherently tanks will have an advantage b/c they can spam taunts, whereas you must rely on ridiculous DPS (which the WE excels at). Anyway, considering I'm at some 'disadvantage' I can place 1st or second fairly easily if I put my mind to it. Against a really good tank though, it can be hard to get 1st, but 2nd is always great in a PQ since you have to factor the random roll too.
Scenarios you are a BEAST! Your dps is alarming to your opponents, and you can easily chop any ranged class to bits (provided they don't use some escape ability). Obviously you want to go for the squishies first, b/c you get way more bang for your buck. You'll want to assault your targets like a mad-ma... er woman, and keep the pressure on at all times (unless you need to run ) I've placed 1st in DPS in numerous scenarios, but sometimes I get too preoccupied with objectives to able to top the charts. Even so, I'm typically in the top 5 at least.
RVR you do so-so. Yes, you are a scary foe in PVP, but if you're familiar with RVR you know there are oftentimes a lot of standoffs which is where ranged excels. Usually, I like to try to flank using prowl and try to get that guy that was being a 'little too brave'. In siege situations I tend to use siege weapons, but if the enemy gets the door down I can take advantage of the chaos and slaughter their squishies.
In my very humble opinion, Witch Elves are very strong 1v1. They have great utility in the form of a 4 second disarm (that hits hard) and a 3 second silence (that does good damage from behind). They may not seem like very long debuffs, but it's just enough to surprise them with a burst of dps they cannot react to in time. Obviously I have the most trouble against tanks, but even then I can get them down low if they kill me. Ironbreakers are extremely sturdy, and really mitigate my damage. I feel that once I get my carnage mastery ability it will help against them tremendously.
In conclusion, the Witch Elf is very fun and very effective. I just hope they don't become the next female night elf rogue Here's hopin!!!
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