Hey!
I've been fooling around with the "new" anniversary skills and have found two really fun and fast paced builds for general PvE.
For the axe lovers out there, I present you the following:
EDIT: Realized that the anniversary skills aren't in the database at the moment. The question marks are supposed to be the Assassin anniversary skill "Shadow Theft".
Critical Axe [build=OwFjIxVzITk1KF7gRFhZ1g6PLiA]
+12 (+ 1 + 3) Critial Strikes
+12 Axe mastery
+3 Tactics
And for the heavy hitters, I came up with this:
Critical Hammer [build=OwFiMxjMRWHWsUI+sDWDq/sICA]
+12 (+ 1 + 3) Critial Strikes
+12 Hammer Mastery
+3 Tactics
You can always switch out whirlwind for SY! for harder areas where party wide protection is a bit more important. If you're popping consets/pcons, the added attack speed from critical agility can be redundant so feel free to switch it out instead.
I always bring a support SOS with splinter weapon + Strength of Honor for even more lulz, looks something like this:
SoS Support Hero [build=OAOk4ghqITKz1Ej5NXmSzJ3wceA]
I've tried a few builds with swords as well but couldn't make it perform as good as these two. Scythes are too dependent on other attributes, and spear/bow isn't melee so the shadowstep feels awkward. (I don't have the anniversay bow on my sin, could maybe do something fun with it).
The hammer one is really fun against single targets where you can knock them down and hit them with a double renewing smash, pounding them into oblivion.
With the axe build I always feel like the Jade Brotherhood warriors, splintering whole groups of mobs down in a few hits.
Refreshing Way of The Master and Critical Eye with +20 critical strikes gives you 43% + 19% critical chance, and coupled with the initial 1% crit per critical strikes attribute, you end up with a whopping 82% crit chance. This + 33% IAS from critical agility = madness.
My favourite is the axe one, where the CD's are low, you basically never run out of energy, it has a lot of AOE and quite decent single target damage as well.
The best part is, with 3 points in tactics, and +5 attributes from the elite skill, having a Q8 shield will give you full benefit of it.
Don't have a q8 shield? No worries.
If you can manage to chain step with the elite (it lasts 21 seconds with 16 critical strikes, with a 20 second cooldown), the added points to critical strikes from the initial jump will put you up to +20 critical strikes, making the next jump give +6 attributes and last 25 seconds, totalling in +20 critical strikes, +18 axe mastery, and +9 tactics - allowing you to use any ordinary q9 tactics shield and gain the full armor benefit.
Now if you wanna go full crazy, or if you're just lazy, popping a grail + corn will allow you to run around with +20 critical strikes, +20 axe mastery, and +10 tactics indefinitely.
Give these a try and let me know how they feel!
I highly recommend playing with an ST rit hero since you basically have 0 defensive skills on the bar.
Equipment is very simple:
3+1 critical strikes headpiece.
blessed insignias.
Furious/sundering axe of enchanting, +15% w/e (don't forget to customize it).
q8 or q9 tactics shield.
Have fun!
Bonus! a screenshot of my sin
