Build:Bladesworn - Alacrity Support Power DPS

This is a test build. You may comment and rate it.

Focused on: Strike damage and Support

Designed for: Raids and Fractals

Difficulty:

TBD

This build was last updated on August 08, 2022.

Overview

Once a meta-defining DPS-support, Bannerslave has returned as a Quickness provider. Banners provide a large amount of Quickness up front and then pulse supplementary boons for a while afterwards. This makes warrior excellent for handling mechanics as it can spend long times off stack, and can provide its boons up to 960 units away. As banners cannot be moved once placed, it does struggle to maintain uptime on encounters with lots of movement.

This build provides permanent uptimes of Quickness and Fury, along with around 70% Resistance and 7 stacks of Might. It can also provide a permanent 25 stacks of Might by swapping to the Tactics traitline.

Note: Currently the inherent boons from Banners (not the Quickness from Doubled Standards) do not respect subgroup priority. This means that this build is an unreliable provider of boons other than Quickness.

Skill Bar

Axe/Pistol

Utility

Template Code

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Specializations

Phalanx Strength Variant

In the event you are required to provide Might to your subgroup, replace Strength with Tactics:

Equipment

Head
Berserker

Shoulders
Berserker

Chest
Berserker

Hands
Berserker

Legs
Berserker

Feet
Berserker

Backpiece
Berserker

Accessory
Berserker

Accessory
Berserker

Amulet
Berserker

Ring
Berserker

Ring
Berserker

Axe
Berserker

Pistol
Berserker

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

• As you overcap crit with this setup, it is a small DPS increase to swap in Diviner stats gear up to ~10% boon duration whilst remaining crit-capped.
• On encounters where bosses can be stunned (e.g. Keep Construct and most Strikes and Fractals) you would benefit more from a Sigil of Superior Sigil of Impact instead of the Sigil of Superior Sigil of Accuracy.
  • In this case, it would be optimal to have the weapon with Sigil of Superior Sigil of Impact use Assassin stats, and also use (or ascended versions) as your food.

Consumables

Food:

• or ascended versions

Utility:

Usage

Banner Usage

In general you want to use your banners off cooldown, though you can afford to delay them by a second or so if it means not delaying your berserk rotation. If you anticipate needing to delay your banners to deal with mechanics, or just find that you need higher boon duration to maintain Quickness, then swapping in Diviner stats gear is very efficient.

Rotation

Opener

If possible, you can pre-cast Blooming Fire, Artillery Slash and Break Step to build up stacks of Fierce as Fire.

Start on your Gunsaber.

1. "To the Limit!" to start generating flow
2. Sheathe Gunsaber to trigger Unseen Sword
3. Dragon's Roar
4. Cyclone Axe
5. Gunstinger
6. Chop → Double Chop → Triple Chop
7. Throw Axe
8. Dragon Trigger
9. Dragon Slash - Force
10. Cyclone Trigger
11. Sheathe Gunsaber

Loop

Bladesworn's rotation follows a basic structure, but the exact skills used each loop can vary. The complete loop looks as follows:

1. Gunstinger, if available
2. Dragon's Roar
3. Tactical Reload, if available and you did not use Gunstinger this loop
4. Cyclone Axe
5. Throw Axe
6. Chop → Double Chop → Triple Chop
7. Throw Axe, if you did not use either Gunstinger or Tactical Reload
8. Dragon Trigger
9. Dragon Slash - Force
10. Cyclone Trigger, or Artillery Slash if Cyclone Trigger is not available
11. Sheathe Gunsaber

It would be slightly more optimal to move Dragon's Roar to after step 5 in the rotation, but as it is a priority skill it will interrupt the cast time of the previous skill if used too early so you would need very good timing for it to be reliable.

Video example

Loop Explanation

Most of the above loop is the same each time, but you use one extra skill depending on what is available. Gunstinger will be available every other loop and the non-gunstinger loops will alternate between using Tactical Reload and an extra Throw Axe. i.e. the pattern of extra skills is:

1. Throw Axe
2. Gunstinger
3. Tactical Reload
4. Gunstinger

The pattern then repeats from the start. Although Tactical Reload is available in the first loop, Throw Axe is used instead because it is more efficient to use Tactical Reload when you have zero charges of Cyclone Trigger rather than one. You only need consider this in the very first loop of the rotation though.

Outside of the opener, the exact order of skills actually isn't that important, though the rotation above was chosen for the following reasons:

• We want to use Gunstinger before Dragon's Roar both to front-load damage, but also to prevent Dragon's Roar sitting at maximum charges.
• Dragon's Roar will interrupt the cast time of skills other than Gunstinger if used too early. So it is safer to use it as early as possible to avoid this.
• As you sometimes want to use Throw Axe twice in one loop, the first use should come before the auto chain so that it is off cooldown again.

General Tips

• While charging Dragon Trigger, you can use Triggerguard and/or Flicker Step to generate extra charges of Fierce as Fire, to ensure you are at 10 stacks for Dragon Slash - Force.
  • If there is any danger of you getting interrupted while in Dragon Trigger, you can forgo this step so they are available for defence.
• Dragon Slash - Force alone is over half your total damage, so it is essential not to delay Dragon Trigger. If necessary, you can skip skills in your rotation if it is already available.