Showing posts with label Witch Hunter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Witch Hunter. Show all posts

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Warhammer Online build - Witch Hunter Template



This will be a "Anti healer/tank" build. Because you put out enough DPS, there is really no reason to worry about ranged DPS. Healers and tanks are what dictate who wins a battle. As such, your three most important stats will be:

Strength = adds to melee damage
Wounds = adds to hit points
Initiative = Increases your chance to dodge ranged attacks, detect stealthed opponents and makes it more difficult for enemies to critically hit you.

The 25 points will be placed as follows: (There will be a few extra points due to RvR rewards, however we will not use them here)

15 in "Inquisition"
Buy the following skills in the Inquisition tree for one point each:
Full Confession
Seal of Destruction
Punish the False
Encourage Confession
Exit Wound
Excommunication

Skills in the tree you do not buy: "Prolonged Confession".

The last 4 points will be put in the "Confession" tree. Any additional points should also be placed in "Confession", there is no reason to buy the bottom skill in the tree.

80 RvR points to be placed in:

Might level 1 = 1 point
Might level 2 = 3 points
Might level 3 = 6 points
Might level 4 = 10 points
Might level 5 = 14 points

Impetus level 1 = 1 point
impetus level 2 = 3 points

Assault level 1 = 2 points
Assault level 2 = 4 points
Assault level 3 = 6 points

Reflexes level 1 = 5 points
Reflexes level 2 = 10 points
Reflexes level 3 = 15 points

The purpose of this build is to take out the two most important classes in a PvP battle.

Here are the planned active morale skills:

Level 1 = Sever Nerve
Level 2 = Force of Will
Level 3 = Broad Swings
Level 4 = Excommunicate

Slotted Tactics can be changed "on the fly", as long as you are not in combat. Since there are 5 quick slots available, I would use each one in a different situation. One for PvP fight, one for PvE Group, and one for PvE solo. Here is my choice for "PvP fight":

Full Confession
Flowing Accusation
Encourage Confession
Brute Force

Build Strength:

Flexible between against a healer or tank.

Build Weakness:

Not as hardcore in outright DPS. I feel the trade off is easily worth it.


You can see this build here

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Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Empire Witch Hunter review



Overview:
Service to the Empire is honor, privilege, and the singular purpose of a Witch Hunter. Showing unrelenting dedication to the purge of Chaos, they follow the teachings of Sigmar which make up the very core of their soul. Masters of the blade and one of the few classes utilizing firearms, they bring forth judgment against their enemies with no mercy. Using stealth and combination attacks, the Witch Hunter inflicts incredible amounts of damage with exacting precision and is a formidable foe on the battlefield.

Strengths:
  • The ability to inflict a high amount of damage quickly or over time.

  • The ability to move in stealth and utilize special surprise attacks.

  • Can build up points to use execution finishing moves which do high levels of damage


Weaknesses:
  • Is not a tank class and is susceptible to damage

  • Stealth abilities reduce movement speed

  • Ranged attack is relatively weak and short range


PvE Overview
The Witch Hunter's main role as DPS provides players the ability to deal heavy amounts of damage at the price of survivability. They can dispatch a single target extremely quickly but any additional encounters could kill them in short order.

Working much like the Rogue classes in other MMOG's the Witch Hunter builds up points in order to do finishing moves which can provide a variety of effects from normal damage, to an armor debuff. They also have skills which can only be used from stealth giving the Witch Hunter a great balance in PvE combat.

RvR Overview
The Witch Hunter almost has a support role in RvR combat, meaning they can't rush into a one on one battle no matter how badly they want to. However, their versatility provide a number of combat options which can make them invaluable. If two well matched tanks are beating on each other, the Witch Hunter can turn the tide. Perhaps there is a particularly pesky healer or caster harassing people at long range. A Witch Hunter can move in, make short work of them and escape long before anyone figures out what happened. The only downside to the Witch Hunter is their inherent squishyness. When targeted by tanks or a pair of casters, they can be chewed up and spit out pretty quickly.

Witch Hunter Mastery Paths
Path of Confession: The Path of Confession is direct and uncompromising, and focused primarily on direct and immediate opposition to heresy. A specialist in Confession will eschew subtlety and lengthy investigations in favor of simply approaching their enemy and beating the truth out of them. While not necessarily the most powerful approach, it is effective in its straightforward brutality, and provides a small measure of increased protection when the Witch Hunter finds themselves under direct attack.

Path of Inquisition: The Path of Inquisition is focused on longer and detailed investigations, weakening and progressively working over an enemy until the victim's guilt is all but assured. A player with heavy Inquisition Mastery may appear less powerful at first glance, but the devastating effects of their attacks are felt more and more as the fight progresses.

Path of Judgement: The Path of Judgment is taken by Witch Hunters who are assured that their targets are guilty and no questioning is needed. They tend to take their suspects by surprise, and are at their best when the enemy's attention is elsewhere. A Master of Judgment will seek to avoid face-to-face confrontations, and will be at their most powerful when they have allies nearby that can distract their enemies, allowing the Witch Hunter to lay down very potent attacks.

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Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Performance Example Videos



This is only some short clips to show that there is no such thing as animation latency anymore. Since it works exactly like WoW, the argument "omg teh combatz suxxorz" is no longer valid.

Animation starts before the server recognition. You can see this when you target non-targetable NPCs and try to heal them. You will start the healing spell, but half way through (or fully completed if it is an instant spell) and you get a message saying something along the lines of "you cannot perform that action on that NPC, you moron."

Warrior Priest (soloing a Champion + Add)

Warrior Priest (soloing a Champion + Add) - Funny bloopers are a click away

Witch Hunter in PQ Taking on Mobs Higher Lvl

Witch Hunter in PQ Taking on Mobs Higher Lvl - The best video clips are here

Performance Example Video - Runepriest

Performance Example Video - Watch more amazing videos here

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Sunday, August 10, 2008

What class to choose as Order - An analysis of class population.



I have seen a lot of questions recently about what classes are over populated, under represented etc., so I thought I would post a quick break down.

I am going to start with Order side.

Under represented:

1. Tanks of either kind. Ironbreakers and Sword Masters seem to be very scarce. There actually seem to be more Ironbreakers in my experience but its very close.

2. Archmages. This class is an incredible healer but you see very few of them. Its really too bad because they are as good and versatile as the Shaman, which is over represented on the Destruction side.

3. Shadow Warrior. I see very few of these running around. They recieved a buff in 3.3 so maybe that will change.

Medium Population:

1. White Lions. I hesitated to put them here. I see quite a few of them but I still think Order could use a few more.

2. Engineers. I see a number of them around, would like to see more because they are a unique class and really good at Keep/flag defense.

3. Rune Priests. Perhaps the best Pure healers in the game (followed by Zealots). Can almost never have too many of 'em!

Overpopulated

Bright Wizards, Warrior Priests and Witch Hunters. I will lump these all together because there are entirely too many of them. They seem to be a dime a dozen.

Everytime I see Order get destroyed in Scenarios its because of the lack of Class Diversity. Destruction does not seem to have this problem. They normally field a good amount of tanks, melee DPS, ranged DPS and healers.

Order is just the opposite, I will log into a Scenario and look around, only to see 6 Bright Wizards, 4 Witch Hunters and 2 Warrior Priests. Order can NOT win that way. To succeed in WAR you need tanks, you NEED more than one healer class, Ranged DPS class or melee class.

If you plan to play Order please pick a needed class. If class trends continue like this into release Order is going to get dominated and its not from being outnumbered. Instead they will get dominated because they have no tanks to hold the front line, no Archmages to help heal and only Bright Wizards providing ranged DPS.


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Saturday, August 9, 2008

3.3 Witch Hunter Class Review



Ok, Here is the first installment of Class Reviews from 3.3. The Witch Hunter, I may do some more, however with the NDA Dropping soon next week (hopefully) and about 60k+ people joining. They may not be as needed.

Quests / Public Quests in all zones
Scenarios in all zones
Open RvR in all zones

Intro: Witch Hunter
I have done a couple of these for Destro classes, and this is my first for Order. I played several Order classes, and I felt this one would be the best suited for the first review. If I do another one, it will most likely be an order class. Any ways. Once again, I am keeping to the format I have been in the past. Leveling the way I feel Mythic inteded us to level. A little PvE Questing, a little bit of Public Quests, a little bit of Scenarios, and a little bit of Open RvR.

Solo PvE Leveling via Quests:
Hmm. What to say. How about OMG easy. This class kills mobs of equal level almost as fast as a Sorc or Bright Wiz. I dont know if there is really anything else I Can put in here. I actually found solo PvE on this toon easier than the BW/Sorc because of the increased armor/HPs. Sorcs/BWs are glass cannons in every single aspect of them. The Witch Hunter can take a few hits before they need to /release

Public Quests:
Not so easy to come in first/second on a WH. As a WH, you DPS and when you are done DPSing you DPS some more. The problem is on public quests, is that you really dont have the AoE capabilities of the BW to MASS dps. So BWs pass you on the list. Aside from the fact that I SERIOUSLY belive that healing and tanking get WAY more contribution points than DPS, and you have a scenario where getting top of the contribution is quite difficult. I am not saying it cant be done, because it can. However it is not as easy as some of the other classes. I will say this. It is much easier than on a Witch Elf who has doesnt have the nifty gun to start fights and at least have a little aggro generation counting twords contribution.

PvP Scenarios:
The Holy Grail (IMHO) for the Witch Hunter. Small Controlled environments where Tanks are WAY easy to distract, and squishies are ALWAYS unprotected in the back of the pack. To all those people who say that the Stealth mechanic that Mythic has implemented is "Worthless". They obviously dont use it in scenarios. IF your Morale is up. YOU WILL ABSOLUTLY DESTROY whatever clothie you decide to stealth up to, and I mean DESTROY. Oh and there are two wonderfully beutiful mechanics that this class has. One, when people run from you, your gun does great damage. And Two, when people sprint from you, you can snare them with your gun. OMG useful for those squishies that run like chickens as soon as you pop on them. Oh and when you are running from someone. Hit them with a snare. Sprint away, and then you kyte them like whoa.


Open RvR:
This is where things get a little more difficult. Again, you have it better than the Witch Elf who is pure melee. But your gun just cant pump out the DPS of a ranged DPS so to do some real damage you really have to get into melee yourself. So were are the problems you ask? Well in open RvR, Tanks dont really have a lot to do especially at keeps and whatnot. So what do they do? They hang out by the squishies. Any tank worth his weight will immediatly put his guard on whatever squishy you are attacking. Fortunatly for the Witch Hunter, the Destruction players in the beta seem to be the more tunnel vision people who cant seem to realize there is a need to switch guard around, or switch targets, or assist for that matter. It is a real good thing for the WH, but a bad thing for Destruction in general. (remember I played both sides a TON).

In general I dont mind "suicide" missions, so I will often find a squishy outside a keep healing or casting thier little dark magic, and I will stealth to them and kill them before the tanks/healers can realize what is happening. Quite worth it IMO.

Your greatest asset though, is your ability to snare people with your gun. Nothing like causing those fleeing weaklings to be snared and sumarily obliterated by the little zerg that could. A good WH with a good Warrior Priest will make a GREAT team. Even better if they have one of those OMG anoying Ironbreakers with them. Man those little buggers are hard to kill. I am so glad that the class seems so unapealing to people, because they are absolutly the hardest class in the game to kill. The best way to kill one of them (not a problem for the WH cause they are the same side) is to just ignore them and whoop up on everyone else, then OMGZERG the IB that is left. (sorry for getting off topic there, I just hope the class doesnt get popular since I will be going Destro with my guild)


PvP WEAKNESS:
TANKS.Tanks.tanks. Without a shadow of a doubt, tanks are the ying to the WH yang. They are the one factor that all WH's must consider before attacking a target. For 2 simple reasons. 1: Guard. Man that is a WH' WORST enemy, hands down. 2. Melee MITIGATION. I dont think of myself as the best PvPer, but I think Im ok, since that is what I loved to do in DAOC and WoW. But, man Tanks are difficult to deal with. If they are guarding the squishy you are trying to kill, you wont do enough damage to kill it before you die. For one reason. TAUNT. Good tanks will drop guard on the squish, taunt you (so they do extra damage on you until you hit them 3 times) and then they will commence to whoop your backside like you stole something. So you basically have to switch targets and hit them 3 times, or you have to run away.

Again, the beuty of this is the fact that right now, destruction players for the most part get tunnel vision. So they dont switch thier guard, taunt or snare. So normally I can destroy a sorc or a shaman before I die. Oh another great thing about them (destruction players), they seem to run at the first sign of resistance. IT is so funny. Run from a WH and you will die. Your best bet is to try and dook it out until your help comes.

Totally Unimportant:
I personally think that besides the Chaos Champion, this is the coolest looking class in the game. Very "Van Helsing" which I personally like. And this class is HANDS DOWN better than the Witch Elf. The only reason I could see playing a WE instead of a WH, is because you are some wierdo dude that wants to stair at pixilated boobies all day while you play the game. The mechincs of the WH are better, and your ability to snare with your gun makes you 100x more useful. Besides, what other class gets the sweet pimp hats.

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Friday, May 9, 2008

Patch notes for european beta



For anyone who cares to read patch notes here take some :

General
Setbacks now have diminishing returns on them; after the fifth setback during the same cast, further attacks will not be able to setback that cast any longer.
Individual ticks of DoTs will no longer setback an ability (the first tick, or 'landing', of a DoT will cause a setback chance). Channeled abilities should generally cause a setback chance each tick of damage.
Melee range has been increased to 5 feet. This removes the dead zone between when a melee attack can be used vs when a ranged attack can be used.
The four healer careers, Warrior Priest, Zealot, Disciple and Archmage, have seen significant changes for this round of Beta. An overview of what these entail can be found on the forums.

Renown Abilities
The Bane series of tactics now requires a single tactic slot.
Opportunist, Sure Shot, Focused Power and Natural fighter rewards will no longer display a buff icon after they have been purchased.

Bright Wizard
Explosive Shielding Tactic – Flame shield will now activate against all attack types instead of just melee.
Flame Shield will now base its damage on the caster's rank and mastery, but will be credited to the effect holder.
Flames of Rhuin will now base its damage on the caster's rank and mastery, but will be credited to the effect holder.
Choking Smoke has been rebalanced.
Burning Iron has had its cast time increased and cool down increased.

Chosen
Fixed many tooltip errors on Chosen abilities.
Trembling Weakness will now properly upgrade its effect as the Chosen increases in rank.
Warping Embrace will no longer be affected by stats or critical hits.
Gushing Wound (Tactic) now does: Seeping Wound gains a 25% chance to snare targets by 40% for 3s.

Marauder
Fixed tool tip description on Corrupted Edge. It now correctly states that it increase Strength instead of Weapon Skill.
Fixed tool tip description on Hulking Brute; this tactic actually modifies Toughness, not Weapon Skill and Initiative.
Feeding on Fear now displays a tactic Buff icon after it procs. In addition, crits made during the buff will no longer reset the timer back to 5 seconds.

Shadow Warrior
Spiral Fletched Arrow will now deal the same damage from any distance.
Removed the stance requirement text from the main body of the ability descriptions.
Opportunistic Strike damage and cooldown have been increased.
The cost of Throat Shot has been reduced, but the cooldown has increased.
Glass Arrow and Acid Arrow have been redesigned.
General damage and AP cost adjustments have been made on many of the Shadow Warrior abilities.

Sorcerer
If the initial target of Shadow Knives breaks Line of Sight to the caster or goes out of range, Shadow Knives will be interrupted.
Shadow Knives now pulses its damage slower, but does more damage per tick to make the total damage done by the ability stay the same.
Stricken Limbs has been rebalanced.
Stricken Voices has had its reuse time increased.
Hand of Ruin has a shorter maximum duration and will always be setback by attacks.
Word of Pain can only be stacked a maximum of 3 times, and the damage per counter has been increased.

Swordmaster
Redirecting force now requires a block before being used. This ability has been changed to an opener.
Gryphon's Lash has been moved from mastery to core at rank 8.
Sapping Strike has been moved from core to mastery at 5 points in Path Of Khaine.
Crashing Wave has been moved to level 18
Dazzling Strike has been moved to level 35
Wall of Darting Steel has been moved to level 40
Graceful Precision applies its effect to Gryphon’s Lash instead of Graceful Strike.
Graceful Precision has been renamed Gryphon’s Precision.

Witch Elf
Treacherous Assault no longer provides a damage buff.
Shadow Prowler now has a brief build time, and will be interrupted by any hit.
Shadow Prowler's effectiveness has been slightly reduced.
Shadow Prowler now costs slightly more APs per second , has an increased cooldown and the maximum duration of Stealth has been lowered to 30s.
Kiss of Death will no longer stack multiple copies from the same caster on the target.
The damage from Kiss of Death will now be distributed in a shorter amount of time (the damage is unchanged).
Kiss of Betrayal has had its toughness debuff reduced slightly, but duration extended.
Envenomed Blade will now only raise the chance to proc a poison to a maximum of 50%, instead of a flat 50% add on whatever else is already there.
Enthrall has been removed.
A new ability, Feinted Positioning, has been added to the Witch Elf in place of Enthrall.
Agonizing Wound has had its cost changed to 45 AP, its damage increased and it will now ignore armor from the rear position.
Throat Slitter has had its positional requirement removed, and will now only deal damage from the rear position.
Ruthless Assault now costs 25 AP/second. Its damage will now increase based upon the number of combo points.
Elixir of the Cauldron’s increased critical chance will now only work from behind the target.
Heart Seeker’s damage has been increased and now requires rear position.
Sacrificial Stab’s damage has been increased and now requires rear position.

Witch Hunter
Fervor is now part of the Path of Cleansing, and deals less damage over more time.
Sudden Accusation no longer provides an AP regeneration buff.
Incognito now has a brief build time, and will be interrupted by any hit.
Slightly reduced Incognito's effectiveness has been reduced slightly.
Incognito now costs slightly more AP/s, has an increased cooldown and the maximum duration of Stealth has been lowered to 30s.
A bug has been fixed in which Burn Away Lies was incorrectly labeled as a ranged attack.
The ability Powder Shot has been removed and replaced by a new ability: Feinted Positioning.
Torment has had its positional requirement removed, its damage increased and will now ignore armor from the rear.
Pistol Whip has had its damage increased, and now has a rear-positional requirement.
Silence the Heretic has been changed. It now requires a rear-positional rather than a front positional.
Burn Away Lies now deals increased damage and has a rear positional requirement.


Gamewide Content Changes
In response to analysis of our most recent phase of Beta, we have adjusted the level of difficulty for our standard PQs to be easier to complete. Now, two of the three public quests in each chapter have been revised to require only six to nine players to complete. The third public quest in each chapter is harder and requires two or three groups (at least twelve players) to complete.
We have adjusted the item and influence rewards of harder PQs to be greater than the rewards for standard difficulty PQs. We will continue to adjust loot, influence, and experience as needed in the future, and we are also planning on adding a UI element in a future Beta version to identify PQs that are hard difficulty. For this particular release, the following PQs are Hard: Chaos Ruins, Lake of the Damned, Bitterschaum Swamp, Unterbaum Cemetary, Mud Flats, Serpent's Fang, Bitterspring, Village Vermin, Tempest Horn, and Tower of the Elves. All other PQs you will encounter should be the easier Standard level of difficulty.
The overall requirements for basic, advanced, and elite influence rewards have been reduced for each chapter of the game. This reduction was not applied to the starting chapters as the numbers there are already in alignment with this newest change. We expect this reduction to provide greater opportunities for you to access each chapter’s influence rewards.
Tier Three Empire and Chaos Content: The zones of High Pass and Talabecland are ready for questing and exploration when a break is needed from the intense action of RvR battle.
Tier Four Empire and Chaos Content: The RvR Campaign rages all the way from the heart of the Empire in Reikland, through the war ravaged city of Praag, to the forbidding Chaos Wastes, and these zones will be opened in order to allow you to fight the RvR campaign there. When venturing into these zones, please keep in mind that the non-RvR quests and content there has only been roughed in, and is not fully ready for play. There’s a war raging in the RvR areas, and your realm needs you there!
We have resolved an issue where monsters would continue to bring friends, even when group members were not within visual range (yes, even lowly snotlings have friends). Monsters should now only BAF when group members are nearby.
To better support the war, Warcamp trainers and Renown merchants have relocated their shops to the RvR Keeps. You will find 3 merchants and one trainer on the third floor of each keep when it is captured. Please make them feel welcomed, especially if you are of an opposing realm.
In response to community feedback, Special con enemies have been renamed to the more IP appropriate Champions. This category name change does not affect their abilities or anything else about these dangerous foes.

Renown Items
Renown items have had their Renown requirements lowered by three levels. For example, if a Renown item has a level requirement of level 15, its Renown-rank requirement is now level 12.
Renown stores have been moved to the keeps (they’re on the third floor). Your realm must control the keep in order for you to have access to the Renown merchants.

RVR

Keeps
The Keep Lord Guards will now defend the Keep Lord when he or she is attacked.
Broadcasts will be sent to the RvR area by the victor when a Keep changes hands.
Renown Merchants and Trainers have taken up residence in keeps. These NPCs can be attacked and slain.
Keep Lords and Keep Guards now have appropriate abilities and tethers.
Keep and Gatehouse Doors have had their hitpoints increased based on Tier.
Players now properly receive Renown when taking over a Keep



AND HERE some clarifications about the cancelled i beta phase

Altdorf RvR (Contested Altdorf)
When the City goes into a contested state, it will become an instance. Players inside the City when this occurs will be given a message asking them to either stay and fight, or go to safe ground.

Players choosing to stay and fight will be placed in the Warquarters of Altdorf. Players choosing to go to safety will be placed at a blackmarket in Reikwald (the Fortress Zone).
Any players not in the City will gain entry into the contested version of Altdorf by going through the main gate or alternate gates.

Once inside the City, players will be in a safe spawn location behind three gates. Simply right click the gate to be teleported to the other side, and begin your assault or defense of the City’s Warquarters.

Control over the City is determined by battling over seven objectives in the WarQuarters of Altdorf. Gaining control over these objectives will work via population disparity mechanics. The more players you have in the area of a capture location, the faster you will capture it (similar to the Nordenwatch Scenario).

Each Capture location will contribute points over time to a “Meta Pool” of points which is tallied across all instances of the City. Population ratios have been put in place to ensure that instances with possibly imbalanced numbers will contribute differently than instances with even numbers.

Please note that simply getting control over the seven objectives in your instance will not result in winning. Players must maintain control and continue feeding the “Meta Pool” until the predetermined amount of points which result in winning control over the City is met.

The Zone Control Bar will display how well your Realm is doing as a race toward the center of the Control Bar.

If the forces of Order defend the City, the City will remain in its contested state for two hours before resetting back to the standard Altdorf. Once this occurs, the Campaign will reset. Players wanting to leave the contested city may simply click on the portal gate within their safe spawn location.

If the forces of Destruction take the City, a message will indicate such and the City will then be open for pillaging!

Items of Interest
What can I do in a city that is under attack?
Players will battle against each other in the War Quarters, one side trying to gain access to the city while the other side attempts to defend. Should the invader win, the city gates will fall and the pillaging begins.
Players may destroy objects, burn objects, smash open interior doors and kill citizens!
Players may participate in “invader quests” that will present rewards to the player along with increasing their capital city rating value
The enemy may participate in any available content that is in the city. For further clarification, if a certain dungeon is only available during city rating 4 and the enemy so happens to invade the city when it is at a city rating of 4, the dungeon is open to the enemy to explore!
Players may attack and capture the enemy’s King!
By gaining ownership of a city, the enemy will have forced players to use outside resources to perform their banking, auctioneering and other utilities, but at a higher price
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Friday, April 25, 2008

Witch Hunter Review - Thoughts on class.



Rank 27 RR 8, Inquisition Spec

Skill Feedback:

• Builders
Razor Strike - Useless. Totally eclipsed by every other builder. It's not even on my bar.
Fervor - I'm currently a little on the fence for this one, which is a shame since I'm Inquisition specced and used to use it regularly. I'm uncertain whether the DoT adds up to being as effective as just using Torment. Sure I could do the math, but I haven't yet. Perhaps later. I still throw it into my combos usually.
Torment - My main builder. I don't have to worry about filling up my stacks like Fervor and it does good damage. Particularly if you can nab the enemy in the back. Does run you out of AP faster if you use it exclusively.
Punish The False - Love it. Helps me put away those healers somewhat. Great damage, low AP. Just gotta wait for it to cooldown.
Confess! - Love it. Decent damage, disarm, and low AP. It's a shame the hot bar icon is bugged right now, but I've gotten to where I can catch those parries popping up pretty consistently.

Pistol Whip - Great skill. I can do some good damage to a caster during a 3 second stun. I usually don't have too much trouble getting behind my target, since typically they turn around and try to flee.
Seeker's Blade - I'm also on the fence with this one and only because of it's AP cost. I'm just not certain how much blocks, dodges, and parries affect my damage. Does a 5% decrease in these have any meaningful impact? It's nice that I have an ammo option that cripples my opponents when I execute, so using it is fairly simple.

• Executions
Burn, Heretic! - Hereto this is the only execution I use. Drops things quick when I get it off. Very effective
Absolution - Useless. It just... doesn't do anything. 286 damage? Useless.
Trial By Pain - Bugged right now so I don't use it. I think I fired it once to check out the bug. It used to be a nice skill though.
Exit Wound - I haven't really been able to play with it yet, but I don't expect to use it at all for RvR. I need damage and I need it immediately. This does look like a good skill for taking out big PvE bosses, though.

• Utilities
Sigil Of Sigmar - Absolutely critical! I use this in practically every single RvR encounter I have. Works well too. Never needed it in PvE though.
Get Thee Behind Me! - I'm not sure this is functioning correctly. I haven't checked any combat logs but it sure doesn't seem to halve my opponent's damage. Also, it seems to be resisted fairly often. I only use this skill as a last ditch attempt to pull my tail out of the fire.

Ambush
Incognito - I don't have much problem with the AP drain or the cast time, but I'm beginning to realize that popping up in the back of an enemy group usually just results in my death. The skill works, but I'm uncertain of the effectiveness of it's role considering the speed with which I can be killed and the ease with which healers can keep someone alive. Also, it's too bad that it apparently does nothing for mobs.

Sudden Accusation - This is the opener I use in RvR. I think the snare is probably more useful than Burn Armor's toughness debuff just so I can build up some accusations to launch an execution.
Burn Armor - This would be nice to use in PvE. I think I'm going to try using this one in RvR just to see what kind of increase in damage I get. May be worth. Judgment withheld.



Ammo
Blessed Bullets of Purity - I believe this ammo is plainly inferior to Bullets of Cleansing. Less damage and no snare.
Blessed Bullets of Cleansing - It's a nice little addition to my Burn, Heretic!'s damage tick as well as having a handy dandy snare.

PvE Method: Since ambush is useless against mobs I pull with Snap Shot. Combo goes Punish The False, 4x Fervor or Torment, Burn Heretic!, repeat. I take advantage of whatever Confess!'s present themselves. Pretty simple, but engaging enough to be fun. Like I said, when things get rough I sometimes try out a Get Thee Behind Me! with mixed results. Overall, I feel the results are good. I can survive one add fighting mobs up to 2 or 3 levels higher than me. The Witch Hunter seems to work just fine in PvE.



RvR Method: Obviously things are different with every encounter but I'll try to describe my general strategy. Most important is to stay out of sight as much as possible. I use houses, trees, rocks, whatever I can find to avoid attention. The goal is to work my way around back of the main enemy group. When I've done so I stop behind some piece of cover and use Incognito. Then it's a straight line to whichever target I have chosen. My pecking order goes Zealots, Sorceresses, Disciples, everyone else. If I don't go for the healers first it's extremely difficult to drop my target. I take Sorceresses before Disciples just because I can typically kill them much faster, and I likely won't get a chance at a second target. So, I open my attack with Sudden Accusation to build 2 accusations and slow them so I can keep applying damage. My main damage combo is essentially what I use in PvE - Punish The False, 4x Torment or Fervor, Burn Heretic! The difference is I always have to interrupt the damage chain in order to manage the situation. For example, I have to use Sigil Of Sigmar in every encounter. The very first thing which will happen to me when I begin an attack is that I'll be snared or rooted. Popping out of that as quickly as possible is vitally important. I've also been getting flung rather lengthy distances lately by, I believe, Zealots. I have no counter for that one and honestly causes me quite a bit of grief. I have to pop a Snap Shot in combo with the Running Is Useless tactic, which I always have active during RvR, and run my way back into combat. Interference aside, as soon as the snare from Sudden Accusation wears off I use Pistol Whip to keep my target in range as well as to take the heat off for a couple seconds. By that point I usually have my 5 accusations and set off my Burn Heretic! All the while I do my best to catch the parries so I can whip out a Confess!

All in all, it's a suicide mission. I may take one down with me but I won't escape. This is partly because, I feel, most people don't play aggressively enough. Sure, we can all complain that when you stick your neck out it gets chopped off, but if everyone is pressing forward, there's no way the Ranged DPS classes can knock out everyone. Resultingly, I'm abandoned behind enemy lines. I might be okay (maybe) with this fairly high likelihood of demise if I could be more certain of making a kill. Right now I would say I have between a 60 and 75% chance of taking out my target. That may even be a bit generous. My success or failure seems to hinge on whether the healers in my target's party realize that I'm on to one of their squishies. I simply don't have the burst damage to take out a caster with even one healer assisting them. You may say, "But it's 2 on 1. You ought to lose.," and that may be mostly right, but the nature of a stealth class makes it so you can almost always depend on being outnumbered.

I average between 20k and 30k damage in Talabec dam. I am totally not satisfied with that. I've seen Witch Hunters rack up high 30s but compared to the 50k+ I've seen Sorceresses and Bright Wizards score, I am highly disappointed. Heck, I'm competing with Warrior Priests and Disciples for damage scores. I think a large part of that is the fact that I both spend too much time setting up a kill and then spend further time getting back to the fight after being killed. I'm just not in action enough. Beyond that though, I do believe that Ranged DPS is overpowered right now. It seems to me the utility of being able to strike from range is not being properly factored into a class. The only way a Melee DPS class will be comparable to a Ranged DPS class is if the Melee class has a significantly higher damage output. The difficulties and dangers in applying that damage require it. As it stands now Ranged DPS can do more damage with almost no risk.

Unfortunately I've missed most of the keep action so far, but I've still been able to get some open field RvR in. I think I fare better in these situations. I devote my time to mopping up stragglers and reinforcements. 1v1 I tend to do well against any opponent, and using ambush I can keep it that way. Still, when I'm forced to go after a target within a group, even if I have an equal number of allies doing their little stare down, my results are frustrating.

Tactics:

The deal with tactics is that right now only the top two mean anything. If it's not the best then it never gets used, simply because I have limited slots. This is also why I only select passives for my renown abilities. The tactics are too specific and they require I swap something else for them. The passives are 100% bonus, no trade-off, and always useful.

Currently, I use Jagged Edge and Brute Force for PvE, and Jagged Edge and Running Is Useless for RvR. Here's the whole rundown.
Brute Force - Damage is good. Damage is what I'm all about.
Flanking - Might be good for boss raids when I have more tactic slots.
Full Confession - Sounds good but not quite good enough to be used.
Inquisitor's Fury - Auto Attack just doesn't seem to be important enough to use this skill.

Running Is Useless - Love it. Makes my job possible in RvR.
Righteous Steel - This isn't damage. I need damage. I'm currently not certain whether Confess! can be used after you parry or your enemy parries or both. It's possible this parry increase could translate into damage and disarms but I kinda doubt it.
Unwavering Faith - Not Damage. I need damage.
Emperor's Ward - I tried this out for a bit and I don't think I ever saw it go off. Either it's bugged or it sucks. Don't know.
Jagged Edge - Adds some damage. Don't know how much. Maybe I should look into that to see if I should keep using it.
Trial By Fire - This might be good. Particularly for raid bosses.
Persistent - Also not damage.
A Note Regarding Dyes: I've seen some of the dyes look good on certain classes, but Witch Hunters are not one of them. All the colors are too bright and are sloppily applied to our textures. I'd go around default color if it weren't for the fact that the quests keep giving me neon green items.

Final Thoughts and Suggestions: Despite some of the difficulties this is still one of the more enjoyable classes. He has a great style and some fun skills. He needs work in two primary areas - damage and ambush. With the kinds of situations that ambush requires we put ourselves in, it's important that we be able to act fast. If a healer is going to be able to save you from a Witch Hunter it needs to be a very quick healer and not just one who's awake. We also need ways to be able to get out of those nasty situations. Addressing the first issue will naturally help the second. Also, I'm a little perplexed about the 60s Incognito cooldown. We have no other way to reach our targets alive, and yet I do not think it's intended that we only make one attack per minute. Either Incognito needs to be more usable, which I think I'd rather not have, or we need other ways to get to grips with our enemies. This is a little tricky since it was Mythic's lauded position that they would not have stealth in their game, and yet here we are testing out stealth for one class that it sort of makes sense for and one that it makes zero sense for. If they choose to make stealth and openers more important to the Witch Hunter's play then they will not only have included stealth but created a class very similar to the stealther from that game which shall not be named. I'd much rather emphasize mobility. This would allow us to both get in and get out. Hit and run. Like a proper skirmisher.


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