Blighter

Battlerage - Shadowplay - Defense

Introduction

A complete Strength based class, with no real problems with anyone in melee, Blighter is one of the most common specialization for many reasons. High damage, high tankyness and many gap closers, you can't really ask more from a melee class. Adding a nice set of CC for your combos makes the Blighter a serious problem for anyone in PvP.

Pros & Cons

Pros:


High damage per second and burst

Many many MANY gap closers and CCs

High Physical Defense



Contro:


Only one self buff and no self heals

Vulnerable to two specific CCs (Sleep & Fear)

Vulnerable to Magic Damage

Equip & Build

For weapons, I recommend sword and shield (quest items for starting, Hasla weaps for your first upgrade) because shield is awesome for blocking and getting the most of the defense tree. I haven't seen any Blighter with 2h or dual wield and I think it's kinda worthless even trying them out.
I recently begun testing Leather as a set after wearing exclusively plate in arena and I have to say, leather is really good against mages. My suggestion for equipment would be getting the plate set from quests and a cheapish (20-30g total) leather set from the auction house. The Hadir Farm 4 pieces + crafted gloves/bracers/waist are a good addition to keep in inventory when facing mages.
I'm still testing, basically Leather gives us much more damage to deal with spellcasters and other melee skirmishers, if you want to play a more offensive kind of Blighter. Against other shield users having Plate is just better because the damage boost will be gimped by blocks and evasion that every tank has. Against archer is just personal preference I guess, if you're good at not getting kited sure Leather helps against tanky archers (Stone Arrows) but in my opinion Plate is better as it gives you a bit more health and defense against the heavy kiting.
If you don't want to drop big moneys on crafting, the plate and leather sets from Greater Howling Abyss are an awesome upgrade to your quest gear.



Build is pretty much a cookie-cutter and doesn't allow many variations. The only skill that I'd take out is Stealth because it's pure utility but not liked by some, to get Freerunner or Revitalizing Cheer. I can't say much about those because I haven't really tried them and I feel confident with Stealth

Combo

I'll briefly explain only some of the combos that you can do with this class:


Classic combo to open up a fight, trips unaware target and might set up a combo that can take away 3/4 of their HP if followed up with damage and CC. Be careful though, you can be frozen while jumping (Overwhelm has a pretty short range) and then you'll be vulnerable to spells from those pesky mages. An anti-noob combo which is perfect to start a fight against someone unaware.


Another nice combo even for PvE to engage a mob, a bit more difficult in PvP for the short range of Charge. With this you can unleash your full array of CC on the target, Stun, Trip and Silence for a massive amount of damage and disruption, especially on mages. The Shield Slam > Bull Rush combo is awesome even middle fight, with the only drawback of the high CD of Bull Rush.

Note that you can replace Shield Slam with Overwhelm to have the same combo effects.


A slightly difficult combo, if you add the fact that you MUST and I repeat, MUST cast Shadowsmite from BEHIND the target. Shadowsmite is a skill based on a stacking buff from Shadowplay that we aren't stacking at all, so to get damage from this spell you have to hit your target from behind. Never ever cast Shadowsmite from front because you'll just waste it. Anyway, you should always get behind your target while comboing CCs, so you'll eventually learn how to do it by playing.
Always note that Shield Slam can be replaced with Overhwelm.


A nice quick combo with our only spammable ability and limited only by Charge's CD: it's basically a quick Trip on a low CD when you need it. Remember that you can move around your target while casting Triple Slash, so do it to set up your next move from behind.


Your disengage combo, perfect to take a break and refresh cooldowns, buy some time or even interrupt a kite from a ranged user. If an archer is bugging you, you can Drop Back and force him to walk towards you, so you can surprise him with a quick dash forward and charge to close the gap. Remember that ranged attacks that have already been casted before you can hide will hit you and break your Stealth.

Main Skills

Adding this section to give you a quick guide to some skills that aren't used in combos.


Your primary damage skills. Don't make the mistake to spam Triple Slash because the cooldown on this is pretty low and it will be refreshed everytime you Parry thanks to your Deflect and Retaliate passive. Gets bonus crit rate if casted from behind and should be always casted when it's available to fill spaces between combos. You'll be surprised how much the 21 sec cooldown is irrelevant.


Your best and longest range gap closer. This will open up most of your 1v1 arena fights because of the range and like Precision Strike gets its cooldown reset with a Parry. Add some damage to it and the fact that it can't be Evaded, Blocked or Parried and you have a really A-W-E-S-O-M-E skill. Useful even to charge people on Clippers!


Another high range gap closer, when you have nothing left to reach those nasty opponents that run like scared bunnies. The move speed bonus is also nice but remember you'll appear behind your target, so you'll have to turn around to hit them.


Bubble Trap? No thanks! This is your mobility CC breaker, very useful to chase down archers that kite you with snares or to quickly evade from the Bubble Trap. Breaking Lassitude is also awesome and adds that bit of satisfaction to see the face of the enemy that doesn't expect it. Oh, did I mention that you get half Physical Damage for 4 seconds? Yeah, that makes this skill pretty darn sweet.


Very useful skill in PvE for its sheer damage at low levels (3000 damage nuke at lvl 20? Srsly?) and taunt. Nice to have in dungeons and just a basic low range nuke in PvP, nothing really special.


One of your two precast buff before battle, gets you some utility and doesn't trigger global cooldown. You should hit this just before hitting your opponent to maximize damage and get some more Parry chances to reset your main skills. You should cast this as soon as it gets out of CD to optimize it.


The other precast before charging an opponent, enemy melees will hate this for the pushing and tripping immunity which will interrupt their combos. 20 seconds uptime is awesome and you should be unstoppable while fighting other melees with this. Use with caution against ranged enemies because it slows you down.


Holy f**king sh*tballs. Are you kidding me? 12 seconds of complete immunity to damage AND CC (although it does not break those already on you) on instant cast? Sign me up. This doesn't let you move but seriously, you can nullify a Meteor Strike with this and turn the tides of any fight that appears lost. If you're caught in a Sleep or Freeze and about to get hit by a flaming ball of fiery doom you can try to mash the hotkey for this and if the mage wasn't quick enough you might get out alive and unharmed. Can be used also as a "pause" button to interrupt a fight and get some CDs back to finish the opponent.

Leveling & PvE

Leveling with the Blighter is easy. You can aggro packs of 2-3 higher level mobs and get out alive with no real problems, focusing on one and CCing it. If you do mobs one by one, you might even get out unharmed. If you're leveling I might advise to invest some points in Revitalizing Cheer and Toughen and respec them at level 50. Boastful Roar is amazing at lower levels and you should get it as soon as you can. You can tank instances but you're not really good at keeping aggro unless you get passives from defense. You can do a nice amount of DPS instead, being able to hit enemies from behind, but you won't stack Mettle and won't get procs from Deflect and Retaliate. Your hybridness is a plus though, since roles aren't really clear at this early stage of the game, the only downside is the high mana consumption in instance or during long mob grinds.

Mass PvP

Sadly I haven't much wars and mass PvP, my main focus is the 1v1 Gladiator Arena so this section might be incomplete and I might add things later as I test them.

In mass PvP, Stealth is very important. Don't charge the enemies like Leeroy because even a tough guy like you will be shred to pieces. The front line isn't really good for you as well, although you can tank the ranged hits from archers better than many others if you find yourself there. Your place is near your glass cannon guys or healers, those that will be charged recklessly by some melees that you will intercept, CC and knockdown before they can harm your mates. You can also be an assassin by flanking the enemy team, taking down high priority targets and CC-kill them before their team can react. Like every good assassin, you have the tools to get out of trouble, Drop Back and Stealth.

Matchups 1v1

Here I'll add some matchups found in the Gladiator Arena and my opinions to give you a general overview of every kind of enemy you can face. I'll add only the ones which I have fought for some times and you can relate similar builds to the ones described here (archers with archers, mages with mages etc.)

DISCLAIMER: 1v1 is very much depending on the player's skill, so these ratings may vary if your opponent is more (or less) skilled with his class.


* = Easy
* * = Medium
* * * = Difficult
* * * * = Very Difficult
* * * * * = Extremely Difficult

Daggerspell (Witchcraft - Sorcery - Shadowplay) - * * * *
Blighter is vulnerable to Magic Damage and Sleep/Fear, and this class uses all of these to get its main damage combo off. He will try to CC you at his first chance, so charge in VERY carefully. Be ready to hit defensive CDs and not damage skills, because you don't really want to get hit by Meteor Strike. Usually as soon as you get close, he will cast his aoe Fear (Banshee Wail) and if he's good enough, he will Silence you and put you to Sleep. Then you only have to hope he's been slow enough to let you cast Invincibility before Meteor Strike hits you. Note that if you use Bondbreaker to break Lassitude, you'll be vulnerable to Bubble Trap. He will then try to kill you with Arc Lightning and Chain Lightning. This matchup is a matter of who hits his CC combo first, because if you can do it before him, Daggerspells usually don't last much under your blows. Another VERY important tip, keep away from his Freezing Track. If he precasts it, just wait (with Stealth maybe) for it to wear off. It's a very powerful skill and you don't want to get caught there to have him set off his combo even faster.

Abolisher (Battlerage - Defense - Auramancy) - * * *
One of the few archetypes tankier than Blighter, still keeping a good damage output. Strategy here is just dodge his burst/CC combo and not wasting ours when he has defensive CDs up. Buy time and just use your skills wisely, disengage if needed to let his CDs wear off then charge right back in.

Darkrunner (Battlerage - Shadowplay - Auramancy) - * * *
A melee class capable of dishing out an insane amount of damage, he will try to use your same strategy of knocking down and hard-hitting you from behind. Here Redoubt for Block and Battle Focus for Parry are kings, don't let him bait you into them because if he sees those precast before battle he WILL try to disengage. Don't be shy to use Invincibility if you see the Puncture debuff on you and try to not get hit at all while you have it. That means (you also have it so you should know) half of your armor gone, so be VERY careful.
UPDATE: I've found that good Darkrunners are a real pain in the ass and almost on the same level as Daggerspells and Arcanists. Basically their combo involves the same CC and damage by Puncture and 2handed blows for insane amounts of damage, Leech-ing you of your defensive cooldowns if needed. Rated * * * but up to * * * * if the enemy knows what he's doing.

Stone Arrow (Archery - Shadowplay - Defense) - *
At first I thought archers were a pain in the ass, but I slowly learned that those are the easiest fight you can get. We have an insane amount of gap closers and he will struggle REALLY hard to keep us off him. Only thing to watch out for, you can't really cast Redoubt while being kited because the Block rate isn't worth your movespeed here. Bondbreaker will help against Snares and Slows but good archers will have movespeed burst and will be hard to chase down. The only wise (and easy) thing to do is just Drop Back and wait for his movespeed to fall off. If you Drop Back, you force him to move towards you and you can surprise him with a Tiger Strike or Shadow Step to get in melee. Even the toughest of archers (Stone Arrow imo) melts under your blows, so if you get in melee you should win these fights easily.

Trickster (Archery - Shadowplay - Witchcraft) - * *
A not-so-easy archer to deal with, very squishy (should one-shot him with one single combo) but filled with disengages and CC. I added this just because it's a bit harder to melee this archetype and you'll have to tank a fair amount of damage from kiting and under the Witchcraft CCs which you should be ready to break as soon as you get hit. Just be patient and this will become an easy fight too.

Arcanist (Sorcery - Auramancy - Witchcraft) - * * * *
If you want to win this fight, you HAVE to dodge the Banshee's Wail. When you charge in for the first time be VERY careful and just fake a charge before using Drop Back. He will be baited to use the Wail and fail, and then you can try to chain combo him. If he gets his combo off, you're dead. You'll have no opportunity to even cast Invincibility before Meteor Strike because he has so many sleeps in his skillset that you'll never wake up from your worst nightmare.

Defiler (Witchcraft - Defense - Occultism) - * * * * *
Wow. Like, wow. Defense means your hits can barely scratch him IF you manage to HIT him before he stunlocks you to death with magic attacks (so leather recommended). I'd say you have around zero chances of winning without the appropriate CC removal cape, and even with that, if he's at least decent at playing his class, it's gonna be VERY VERY hard to win. I've played this matchup few times and the only person I encountered was very skilled, so I might be a bit biased... But for now, I have literally no clue on how to beat that guy.