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This build is not favored by the
GuildWiki community.
The general consensus among users of GuildWiki is that this
build is not viable.
This build was voted unfavored for the following reasons:
- Poor defense.
- Very vulnerable to spells.
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The Blackout Blade, is about locking down a target for a
considerable length of time as you hack it to bits while holding a
certain degree of flexibility.
[edit] Attributes and Skills
[edit] Equipment
- Savant's Armor because you’re going to be in a
stance.
- Crippling Sword of Defense to lengthen
your crippling duration and to gain more defense from attacks. You
don’t have a lot of protection. Be sure to select the sword that
allows 15% damage while in a stance, as combined with Hex Breaker,
you’ll constantly be in one.
- An accompaning Mesmer off-hand equipment for Domination.
- A second equipment set, using a wand. You can use this to
bluff. Run into battle with your wand out while switching to your
sword when you get close to your target.
- Below is a list of the powers you’ll be using and how you
should use them. A brief explanation of what you’ll be doing is as
follows; You’ll be using a combo. Hamstring your target, using Wild Blow as you need to
end defensive stances, quickly followed by casting Echo and then Blackout. Proceed to cut up
your target as needed.
- Guilt: This is used to
get some energy back as you’ll be hurting for it sooner or later.
The good thing about Guilt
is that it has a 30 second recharge timer, the same recharge time
as Echo which will give you
two chances to use it, before and after. Time it well. You can try
using it just before you begin your blackout combo, with the hope
that Guilt will pay off your upcoming hamstring. And upon
suggestions on who you should cast it on, cast it on the elementalist. They
can instantly blind you or cause knockdown from spells. Your Hex Breaker will
protect you from the mesmers and the necromancers.
- Echo: Use echo in
conjunction with your other skills, notably empathy and blackout,
according to the situation at hand.
- Blackout: Use
blackout in conjunction with echo for a 6 second shutdown, five
seconds for you, followed by an automatic following 6 second
shutdown using your echo’d blackout. Since Blackout has a 12 second
recharge, you can continue to cycle these back and forth, shutting
down your target totally. Blackout is also useful in interrupting
skills, interrupting assassin combos, and resetting a warriors rage.
- Hamstring:
Hamstring is used primarily on your target so they can’t run away.
It has to be timed very carefully, as if this isn’t on your target,
your combo is going to be disrupted and trying to blackout a runner
isn’t going to work very well. If you’re using it on a monk, wait
till they’re in the process of already casting a spell, then use
it, and quickly follow up with echo and then blackout for your
recycling combo.
- Wild Blow:
Since you’re going to have your rage reset constantly due to
blackout, Wild
Blows rage resetting pitfall means nothing to you. You get to
score a critical hit and it cannot be evaded nor blocked, while
also ending your targets stance. This is useful against R/N touch
rangers who will attempt to run away or dodge your attacks, or
other defensive stances that hold a chance to block your hamstring
and screwing up your entire combo. It may also be used defensively,
ending high-damage output stances.
- Empathy: You first
begin by gauging the situation. Are there any monks on the opposing
team? Any R/N? It’ll be your call. If not, then the opposing team
might consist of up to three, even four, people who rely upon
attacking to do damage. Warriors, assassins, and rangers. You Echo Empathy
and slap them on as fast as you can, causing the opposing team to
suffer a silly amount of damage if they want to attack. If there
are monks on the team after all or some more important target, slap
on empathy on an attacker as you get relatively near the monk. If
the monk already isn’t in the middle of casting a spell, it’ll try
to remove the hex giving you a window of opportunity to use your
blackout combo. If not, great. They’ll be damaging themselves
without a monk to heal
them.
- Hex
Breaker: Hex Breaker is both used as a defensive measure and an
offensive measure to improve your overall damage while using your
15% stance sword. Note, a lot of hexes naturally are aimed at
messing with melee. They might hinder your movement, slow your
attack rate, make you miss your hamstring which starts up your
combo. Hex Breaker is pretty important, very cheap, and long
lasting. It is also a free action, so to speak, with no casting
time as it is a stance. Why is this important? Because you can
quickly throw Hex
Breaker back up between Blackout castings in case it falls.
[edit] Counters
- Being blinded or having your movement hindered in anyway, such
as crippling or a hex, will cause you problems in keeping up with
your target and or making sure the Hamstring connects or keeping the chain combo
casting. Even a well timed knockdown will possibly grant your
target, such as a monk, a moment of respite and a chance to get off
a casting to remove their cripple effect. However, most Mesmer /
Warrior builds are expected to be the classic illusionary weapon
build. This’ll give you a slight edge as the other team will
underestimate your capability at shutting down a target, and by
then, it’s possibly too late for them.
- Can you get close to your target to Hamstring and Blackout? No? Well, you have to get close. People
who start running before you Hamstring or do whatever they can to stay away from
you is going to just cause more delay and deny you your combo, as
Blackout is a touch
skill. You need to get close to them.
- You’re going to be hurting for energy. Hamstring, followed by
echo, followed by several successive blackouts will most likely
drain your energy pool to the end once the combo has exhausted and
you’ve cast your last blackout. You should be able to fire off a
handful of them taking your energy regeneration into account,
nearing at about half a minute of shutdown.
- It’s unlikely you alone slashing with your sword at a running,
even if crippled, monk is going to kill the target. You might come
close but you’ll need someone else assisting you in putting damage
down.
- You’re not the beefiest cow in the pasture. Sure, you have
relatively nice HP from only using one Major at -35 HP and your +50
HP Vigor, and 75 total armor, but even with Hex Breaker, Hamstring to slow down
chasing warriors, Wild
Blow to end high damage stances, Empathy to make people think twice before attacking,
and Blackout to deny
people dangerous powers, you still aren’t able to heal yourself nor
can you dodge attacks. Also, due to your dangerous nature against
monks be prepared to be the
Primary Target if the other team is smart.
- Plague
Touch and running away is a viable option. Plague Touch has a
reasonably fast casting time and it'll grant them a chance to run
away if crippled.
Mesmer / Warrior 
