Myucel's Darkrunner world pvp build auramancy
battlerage
darkrunner
pvp
shadowplay
world
Guide by
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CHAPTERS
- 1. Introduction
- 2. How to play
- 3. Gearchoices
- 4. Lunagems/Lunastones
- 5. Skill choices/rotations
- 6. UI setup
- 7. Videos/Livestream
Introduction
WORKING ON REWRITING THE GUIDE OVER THE NEXT DAYS
Hi everyone, my name is Myucel/Sass. I present to you my DR build for patch 3.5. While I don't consider this build to be the one and only possible way to play DR, I will try and show you why I pick every skill point, why I build my character the way I do and what your playstyle should be with this.
Before that, a little bit about my experience. I've been playing since alpha, back then first as an easterner in the guild Dark Order of Caine, then as a pirate for the guild Shots Fired and afterwards with Forest Crow. In beta I played solo to find fastest leveling paths to get ahead on launch. On release I played on EU kyprosa (as shadowblade for a while, screenshot is from 16 days after release, so bear with my low gear :P), was highest gearscore on the server for several weeks till I quit there to go back to NA to play with my alpha friends on Ollo. On Ollo I joined Freshly squeezed, a guild with nothing but alpha players. When Morpheus got released, most of us moved there. Another darkrunner who makes guides and most DR's are familiar with his guide, kanyo, was the one who asked me to join them in the move. We formed Very Danger (dem Kooncoon references), and dominated the server and got first kraken, red dragon etc. I quit the game for RL reasons, and Very Danger ended up merging with Pantsu.Then I played for Bloodlust, then swapped to Flawless. I joined Fresh start after that and reached top 10 gearscore and rank 1 arena during the first month. Then I quit archeage for almost 8 months. Recently came back to thunderwing, and joined EAST SIDE.
How to play
Darkrunner is a class that bases itself on high burst damage and insane mobility. It's an easy class to get into, but the skill ceiling is way higher than most people anticipate. The cool part about darkrunning is that there is no one set way to play it, you can go plate darkrunner, leather darkrunner, you can use pretty much any weapon and still be viable. As a darkrunner you want to adjust depending on the situation, in mass pvp, you're the assassin that stalks enemy healers nightmares. You want to abuse the high mobility this class offers you with skills like , , , , , and . Having the passive will also give you a nice 40% boost after any of your battlerage engage tools, which is really helpfull for relocating to the back of your target or doing a hit-and-run.
IMPORTANT! LEARN OTHER CLASSES TOO AND HOW THEIR COMBOS WORK! If you don't put time into learning your matchups, you won't know what might happen and you won't be able to fight at full potential.
Gearchoices
Weapons:
Dualwield
Two-hander
Weapon passives
In case you don't know about weapon hidden passives, now you will. Every weapon type has an extra hidden passive that isn't listed in the tooltip ingame. Reason why shortspear is pretty much the goto one-hander mainhand is because of the puncture passive it has, negating ALL defensive buffs when it procs. This is great versus the tanky meta going on right now. In Alpha I experimented to great success with dual swords as well, back when archers were not nerfed into the ground. Swords have a parry passive, hence why dual swords combined with really fucked over archers. Now however I heavily suggest against that. Dagger is a great off-hand because it provides you with an attack speed buff when it procs. Axes have a bleed effect, but are by far the worst weapon in the game because of it's damage scattering.
Gear
Cap: Obsidian Cap(T5+)
Gloves: Obsidian gloves (T5+)
Boots: Obsidian boots (T5+)
For the other pieces you have the choice, either Delphinad/Ayanad Desert/flame or obsidian gear. If you are really dedicated, you can get the dark warrior's guards, which requires you to get 7 set leather from serp and 500 proven warrior tokens. I personally use 4 piece flame atm but will be switching to full obsidian to gain more HP and resistances.
Gloves: Obsidian gloves (T5+)
Boots: Obsidian boots (T5+)
For the other pieces you have the choice, either Delphinad/Ayanad Desert/flame or obsidian gear. If you are really dedicated, you can get the dark warrior's guards, which requires you to get 7 set leather from serp and 500 proven warrior tokens. I personally use 4 piece flame atm but will be switching to full obsidian to gain more HP and resistances.
Accessories and cape
Necklace: Proven warrior necklace rank 11+ (until you can get a divine epherium lightning necklace or higher, the defense pen from the lightning necklace will help you way more than the bonus effects from halcy neck. Yes, it will most likely make you lose gearscore but numbers don't always equal better gear)
Earrings: Wave or Flame. While you don't gain anything from intellect besides bigger mana pool, the damage reduction is huge. As for flame, the str is nice, but the evasion is the biggest reason I prefer this earring over any other.
Rings: Gale ring for defense pen and Dream ring.
Cape: Either attack speed or block guild cape. With changes to , I'm leaning more towards Attack speed tho.
Instrument, bow and glider
Anthem of battlerage, the 300 warrior tokens battlerage instrument. Rank 3 is just too good
Flame bow
Sloth glider, the backward roll skill built in is a MUST HAVE for world pvp. It's a fast disengage that will save your life many times when you are overextended
Lunagems/Lunastones
Disclaimer: Depending on the gear you go with, some gems might change. If you ignore my gear suggestions and go plate, switch all physical defense gems in the next session for magic defense.
Cap
Lunagem: With the cap you got a couple of choices, which is always nice. If you are a two-handed darkrunner, you might want to consider taking the attack speed guild lunagems. They aren't cheap tho and you need a rank 7 guild.
Another option is the Physical defense gems. While the 100 defense ones are rather expensive to make (They require 10 fine wave lunarite, they make a HUGE difference if you can get a full cap of them. 600 extra physical defense is not to be taken lightly. If you're worried about breaking, you can also use the unbreakable 50/100 ones, but those are 3 times more expensive atleast than the regular version. Only use those if you atleast got 1/2 regular ones in.
Some people like to put one focus gem in their Cap after getting 5 focus ones in their two-handed weapon. It allows you to reach 2400 focus cap without having to worry about getting a 6th one in your weapon and maybe busting almost 2300 focus.
Lunastone: Strength
Another option is the Physical defense gems. While the 100 defense ones are rather expensive to make (They require 10 fine wave lunarite, they make a HUGE difference if you can get a full cap of them. 600 extra physical defense is not to be taken lightly. If you're worried about breaking, you can also use the unbreakable 50/100 ones, but those are 3 times more expensive atleast than the regular version. Only use those if you atleast got 1/2 regular ones in.
Some people like to put one focus gem in their Cap after getting 5 focus ones in their two-handed weapon. It allows you to reach 2400 focus cap without having to worry about getting a 6th one in your weapon and maybe busting almost 2300 focus.
Lunastone: Strength
Chest
Lunagem: Here you only have one option really, the honor resilience gem. You could put MDef or PDef as well but resilience is a must have stat for PVP.
Lunastone: Received damage decrease (Honor)
Lunastone: Received damage decrease (Honor)
Waist
Wrists
Lunagem: Several posibilities here. You could go for the +0.7 seconds inspired gem, which, if you get 4 of them would allow you to get rid of the passive and open up a skillpoint for another skill. It would require more dedicated use of tho.
Another option is the Triple-slash gem.
Both of these can be crafted under Handicrafting.
Lunastone: Strength
Another option is the Triple-slash gem.
Both of these can be crafted under Handicrafting.
Lunastone: Strength
Gloves
Boots
Lunagem: Movement speed or the Physical defense gems.
Lunastone: Either Toughness or Movement speed.
Lunastone: Either Toughness or Movement speed.
Weapon
Instrument/Bow
Lunagem: Defense penetration gems.
Lunastone: Ranged skill damage (not really necessary but why not? For the extra juicy BM arrow shots :^) )
Lunastone: Ranged skill damage (not really necessary but why not? For the extra juicy BM arrow shots :^) )
Ring/Earring/necklace
Lunastone: Melee attack. (Loyalty shop)
Cape
Lunastone: Perfect Fire (Str stack(Alchemy))
Skill choices/rotations
Main rotation
Depending on which class/player you play against, you'll have to adjust your rotation, but this is your main rotation:
(Don't buff if you are too far from your target, doing so will allow stealth classes to just stealth and wait out your buffs)
-> -> -> ->->->->->->-> -> ->
Keep in mind this is a bestcase scenario rotation. Adjust depending on matchup and cooldowns, or anticipate what your enem(ies/y) is/are planning on doing. Learn all possible combos and be able to use them at any time needed.
The reason I open with is because of it's high base damage, mobility and the really fast landing animation allowing for a really fast followup. has too much landing lag and disjoints too easily making you fly all over the place. Talking about disjointing, don't open with , it's one of the easiest to miss spells in the game, if an enemy uses any form of teleport or dash it will dislocate the skill making it impossible to combo off.
People tend to underestimate , while the damage isn't THAT amazing, itecreases Move and Attack speeds -60% and increases Cast Time +60%, which is insanely good.
Matchups
As a darkrunner you want to use your mobility to your advantage, spells like , , , , , and will allow you to both engage and disengage. General rules of thumb are DONT STAY NEAR WITCHCRAFT CLASSES AFTER YOUR ROTATION. Keep distance so you can't get feared into an endless CC combo.
Vs defense you want to avoid fighting while their is active. If you run into that situation, use or your movement skills to get away from them.
If you get put to sleep yourself, there is not much you can do then either spam or + depending on what class you're against and what skill they first attack you with after using a sleep ability. What you also can try to do is spam and turn your mouse towards your target as they set up to attack you and are melee, to counterleech as soon as you get hit out of sleep or the sleep duration ends.
Other usefull tricks/possible skill choices
Animation cancelling with , allows you to break an animation which you are locked in (for example and stack another skill on top of it, while the damage from the first skill still goes trough.
Other skills that you could consider are , to interrupt boss attempts by pulling the main tank out of healer range, to combo with for the trip instead of stun and for the reduced healing effect (very usefull vs healing hybrids) and (for the bleed effect incase you don't run for whatever reason). I'd recommend not to take the last one tho.
A specific choice I want to talk about is why I take , even if I'm using a two-hander, and not, let's say, . The problem with is that you have to hit a crit first before the passive activates, and it only has a 2% increase over , which is a constant 8% crit flat bonus.
I already pointed this out in the gear section, but I'll repeat it here, if you use the +0.7 seconds inspired gems you can drop the talent, and put the freed point in a skill like for an extra AoE skill that meshes well with the rest of your build.
UI setup
NOTE I USE AN AZERTY KEYBOARD, A = Q and Z = W
( is on the button above TAB), apostrophe on my keyboard)
is on my Mouse4 button, on the side of my mouse, and my glider is on Mouse5.
Some quick tips here, putting your mount on Shift+G keybind will allow you to spawn your mount with Shift+G and instantly mounting it with G. This allows for really fast mounting into a Dash with a snowlion which makes you invulnerable, really good in world pvp situations after using sloth glider escape.
Don't use S to walk backwards, it's slower than running sideways and it allows to use a free slot for a more important keybinds like (incase you run it) or in my case, and
Videos/Livestream
Mass PVP GvG Very Danger VS Berzerk(video is 1080p but sometimes loads low res, just wait a few seconds and it will be HD)
2v3 versus top geared players on the server (5k vs 7k gs)
I'll add more videos after I record some, most of my old records got lost when I updated to Windows 10 >_>
2v3 versus top geared players on the server (5k vs 7k gs)
I'll add more videos after I record some, most of my old records got lost when I updated to Windows 10 >_>
wow nice layout for this guide, wonder where you got it from :^) Kappa
great job man, i'm starting to play with darkrunner now and this guide is everything i wanted haha. Thanks!
Ah okay. I saw a Searing Oath on the marketplace that's filled with Focus gems so I was just wondering on if I should buy that or not. Thanks :D
Hey Draiven, I did say what you should put in your off-hand, just click on the dual-wield link. Basicly fill it with 1-handed honor pvp lunagems till you reach 2400 focus. Most people take 4 focus gems in searing oath, 4 in their mainhand and then fill the rest with melee attack or the very expensive melee crit damage ones at the end.
What would you suggest we put into our off-hand Searing Oath for lunagem? I noticed you tell what the two-handed DR's should do but not the dual wielding ones.