33 replies to this topic

[xROLLxTIDEx]

This is how I play the Katari.  I hope this helps at least one person.  You do not have to play him this way.  If you do something else, that is ok.

 

 

Active Skills

Charging Bull

Mighty Blow

Earthshaking Strike

Pommel Strike

 

My unlock order:

2 - Clear a Path - Str+3, hitting multiple targets = 10% stamina per hit

3 - Mighty Blow - Active Skill

4 - Pommel Strike - Active Skill

5 - Gore and Trample - Charging Bull upgrade

6 - Warrior's Resolve - Const+3, 10% stamina restored for every 10% health lost

7 - Flow of Battle - Str+3, criticals reduce cooldowns by 1 sec

8 - Opportunist - Cunning+3, 10% critical chance when attacking from behind

9 - Earthshaking Strike - Active Skill

10 - Easy Target - Mighty Blow upgrade

11 - Shattered Ground - Earthshaking Strike upgrade

12 - Fervor - Cunning+3, 30% damage bonus when enemy dies within 10m

13 - Adamant - Const+3, Armor bonus +20%

14 - It'll Cost You - Str+3, 15% damage returned to melee attackers

15 - Bear Mauls the Wolves - Const+3, immune to flanking (mandatory)

16 - Lighting Jab - Pommel Strike upgrade

17 - Coup de Grace - Str+3, 30% damage bonus to knocked down/stunned enemies

18 - Relentless - Cunning +4, Str+3, Const+2

19 - Scenting Blood - Const+3, 50% movement speed/10% crit chance >enemies 35% health

20 - Blood Frenzy - Str+3, 5% damage bonus for every 10% health missing

 

Playstyle

First understand what you are.  I am an offensive weapon with a practically unlimited stamina pool that I am going to use to charge in and spam 1-3 offensive action skill strikes. I do not have a shield and do not ever intend to let any enemy hit me.  Any enemy within melee range should be knocked down, stunned or dead.  All of my skills have low cool downs.  Successfully charging gives me a 6 second window where I can use an offensive attack without costing myself stamina.  This allows me to ignore stamina and spam my attacks as fast as possible.

 

Every attack begins:

 

Charge > Mighty Blow > Earthshaking Strike

 

which I then have to decide whether I want to Pommel Strike > Charge or Charge > Pommel Strike.  This all happens in the first 4 seconds of each encounter.  After the initial attack, I then continue to charge and rotate my offensive attacks depending on which one is on cool down.

[Shadohz]

*If anyone can help me on inserting a clickable link into a post, please message me.

Highlight the URL of the link, select Copy (Ctrl+C). Edit your post and select Link (smack dead center in Edit options, bottom row). It looks like a chain. Paste the URL in the text box and apply the change.

[Centaurion]

That's exactly how I play the Katari as well. I also roll with a superb CD reduction amulet, so all my CDs are up almost constantly. I love it.

[xROLLxTIDEx]

I use the 15% cooldown amulet, 10% attack ring, 10% critical chance ring. I really want RNG to bless me with life drain +10%.

[Robbiesan]

Thanks for sharing. Will try this build.

[SLooPPy JOE]

The much anticipated RollTide Katari guide!

Not sure if I'm convinced about Earthshaking Strike compared to what I'm using: To The Death. Love Pommel Strike though.

Which maul were you using?

[Silvershroud]

The much anticipated RollTide Katari guide!

Not sure if I'm convinced about Earthshaking Strike compared to what I'm using: To The Death. Love Pommel Strike though.

Which maul were you using?

Not sure about the OP, but personally, I prefer Earthshaking Strike over To the Death in order to give me a bit of ranged capability, mostly to hit bosses when I don't want to get close to them (say, whirlwinding TC, or DC while using it's AOE stun).  With a strong enough weapon, the fire wall it creates can kill the ghosts instantly as well (at least on Threatening, not sure about Perilous), so setting it through a doorway can drop them as fast as they can come through.

[SLooPPy JOE]

Not sure about the OP, but personally, I prefer Earthshaking Strike over To the Death in order to give me a bit of ranged capability, mostly to hit bosses when I don't want to get close to them (say, whirlwinding TC, or DC while using it's AOE stun). With a strong enough weapon, the fire wall it creates can kill the ghosts instantly as well (at least on Threatening, not sure about Perilous), so setting it through a doorway can drop them as fast as they can come through.

Yeah my build does lack the ranged damage. But when I get to a boss/elite enemy I can use ttD and fill my guard while tanking them. Guess I'd have to promote and try out Earthshaking Strike. Filling guard constantly + recovering bits of lost hp with a lifesteal ring seems like the only way I could bring the katari to perilous.

[xROLLxTIDEx]

I am using the level 22 rare maul, Sundering.

I like Earthshaking Strike. It gives me a ranged aoe attack. It also gives me a secondary attack for my charge. In long fights, i'll

charge - mighty blow - earthshaking strike

Charge - mighty blow (ES on cool down)

Charge - earthshaking strike (MB on cool down).

I like having ES to follow charge when MB is on cooldown. I'm not the biggest fan of guard. It'll save you 1 or 2 shots but won't keep the katari alive with guard alone. Plus i can regularly build full guard with just charge so extra guard doesn't seem very important to me.

[Galaxy_Siege]

looks like a lot of fun. I want to get all the classes to 20 and just promote the ones i liked most. i was dreading the katari, but this makes me look forward to it. ty

[gay_wardens]

i dont think i could live without block and slash. charging bull is just not enough to keep his guard up

 

although i've been a bit afraid to try to the death, doesn't it give you full guard?

[fivep1ece]

Yeah my build does lack the ranged damage. But when I get to a boss/elite enemy I can use ttD and fill my guard while tanking them. Guess I'd have to promote and try out Earthshaking Strike. Filling guard constantly + recovering bits of lost hp with a lifesteal ring seems like the only way I could bring the katari to perilous.

it is the only way to bring the katari. ES is fun and all in threatening but in all seriousness it's a waste of ability space in perilous. You want range on your melee class? Ok cool pick up ES. It's just not an efficient way to play.

[xROLLxTIDEx]

it is the only way to bring the katari. ES is fun and all in threatening but in all seriousness it's a waste of ability space in perilous. You want range on your melee class? Ok cool pick up ES. It's just not an efficient way to play.

 

I disagree with you. I wouldn't change anything that I do for Perilous.  I would like better teammates and a heal on kill ring but I have no control over that. 

 

EarthShaking Strike hits twice, each hit at 150% weapon damage on an enemy up close for a total of 300% weapon damage.  It will hit once at range for 150% weapon damage.  It will apply a DoT as well.  It will hit multiple targets as well.  You don't have to like it or use it.    Earthshaking Strike does more damage to a standing enemy than Mighty Blow does.  Mighty Blow only does 200% damage (500% bonus damage to knocked down enemies) compared to the total 300% damage that Earthshaking Strike can do.  Both can hit multiple targets.  300% weapon damage while your main attack (mighty blow) is on cool down is not, "not efficient".  If I didn't take Earthshaking strike I would be gimping myself.

 

Also to note on Perilous, enemies have higher hp pools and do more damage.  It is on this difficulty where you need to put out as much damage as possible to overcome the higher hp pools of the enemies.  These same enemies do more damage per hit on your character as well.  Guard is based off your armor rating and hp pool.  Since your armor does not scale with difficulty, guard is less effective on the higher difficulties.  Perilous is where you need to do more damage to kill the enemies as fast as possible to stay alive and not waste time trying to build a guard that will be gone in 1 to 2 hits anyways.  With this in mind, why would I sacrifice the ability to do more damage and lower my DPS/damage output in order to rely on guard that provides a negligible defensive boost?  I would rather maximize my damage output and rely on knockdowns and stuns to keep me alive.  If I wanted to "tank"  I would take a different character.

 

The key to surviving in Perilous comes down to damage resistance and not guard.  You need to build up your damage resistances (melee, ranged) + hit points to take the hits you will take.  You can build your resistances by the upgrades to your armor pieces, accessories, stats on weapons, and promotions.

[Cirvante]

How about you actually play your build on Perilous before telling people that To The Death is worse than ES?

[J. Peterman]

I'll give this a shot.

 

Also, looooooooooooooooooooooooooooool @ the rambo AW getting killed twice.

[Trickshaw]

Perilous video please.

[stysiaq]

I am currently using this build, but I need to respec and change the Earthshaking Strike to To The Death.

I use Mighty Blow and Pommel Strike 90% of the time anyway. Now I dropped Slayer (rare axe with relatively good DPS), so I'll try to run some Perilous.

 

I love doing Charge -> MB -> Pommel Strike, or even Charge -> Pommel Strike for quick high damage to a single target. It's really good against enemy rouges or the ice grandma demons, because you deny them possibility to put up their ridiculous barrier.

[stysiaq]

I also use the following gear:

 

10% stun on hit belt (I may switch to 10% magic resistance)

Pommel Strike ring (+30% damage, making it hit really hard at times)

20% armor reduction ring, but mostly because it's the only unique ring I have

10% CD reduction amulet (I don't have the 15% one)

 

Now to all the people that would pick ttD over Earthshattering Strike... I reject it for 2 main reasons:

 

1) Guard is weak anyway, so even filling it with ttD isn't gonna be a gamechanger

2) To pick ttD you need to pick 4 passives from the second tree, namely:

 

- 20% more armor (this one I pick)

- 15% reflected damage (I usually pick it on level 20)

- quicker stamina regen - redundant after Charge upgrade, you'll never run out of stamina

- 100% more damage against guard - this one is abysmal

 

If you go for Earthshattering Strike you get some range, some AoE (which is better for the team) and you don't need to drop 2 passives from the first tree which are a lot better, like the fear passive or the increased damage when a wounded enemy is nearby passive.

[xX PAN1K Xx]

How about you actually play your build on Perilous before telling people that To The Death is worse than ES?

Cirvante, I don't believe he ever said that TTD is worse than ES. I believe he stated "he prefers" ES followed by his reasoning as to why. His original post also stated he is trying to play the character in a full offensive style and not tank things. If you are not wanting to tank things you probably don't want to use a move that taunts an enemy to you. I play with xROLLxTIDEx all the time and it's usually my lack of interest in playing perilous with randoms that keeps us from running it all the time. However, when we do run it, ROLL is usually stuck tanking to ensure our clears. I'm sure he'll get around to getting you a perilous video.

[stysiaq]

Also, OP, I never used the "immune to flanking" passive. Is it really this good? I'd take it this time over 15% reflected damage.

 

I also noticed you don't use the '20% for fear on kill' one, and I strongly recommend it... with Katari you have some serious single target damage. every time you charge a group you are sure to kill at least 1 or 2 enemy mobs, and if the fear hits, you get to live another day. I'd take it over "5% damage for 10% health" anytime.

 

Try charge -> PS on enemy rouges. It really makes you feel like a YOLO assassin kind of guy.

[xROLLxTIDEx]

How about you actually play your build on Perilous before telling people that To The Death is worse than ES?

 

Where did I state that To the Death is worse than Earthshaking Strike?

 

Where is your video showing your build running through Perilous utilizing To the Death?  How about you post video of you in Perilous using To The Death and then I'll post my build in Perilous.  Or am I being held to much higher standards?  It's ok, I have always been held to higher standards than those of my peers.  I'll get you Perilous video.  I will not hold my breath for you to post video of you playing a Katari on Perilous.

[Cirvante]

I also noticed you don't use the '20% for fear on kill' one, and I strongly recommend it... with Katari you have some serious single target damage. every time you charge a group you are sure to kill at least 1 or 2 enemy mobs, and if the fear hits, you get to live another day. I'd take it over "5% damage for 10% health" anytime.

 

I think it's called Grizzly Mutilation and it's hilariously bugged. It will sometimes apply the panic effect to you and your party. This made for some really good Katari jokes.

[xROLLxTIDEx]

Also, OP, I never used the "immune to flanking" passive. Is it really this good? I'd take it this time over 15% reflected damage.

 

I also noticed you don't use the '20% for fear on kill' one, and I strongly recommend it... with Katari you have some serious single target damage. every time you charge a group you are sure to kill at least 1 or 2 enemy mobs, and if the fear hits, you get to live another day. I'd take it over "5% damage for 10% health" anytime.

 

Try charge -> PS on enemy rouges. It really makes you feel like a YOLO assassin kind of guy.

 

Bear Mauls the Wolves is one of the best passives in the game, IMO.  I take it on all warriors.  The quickest way to get dropped is to get hit with a flank attack arrow that could critical on you.  Ouch.

 

Grisly Mutation is good, but since I do not have a life drain ring, I often times have less than full health and get the damage bonus from the passive.  If i can ever get a life drain ring, I'll look at other passives in its place.

 

I like to Pommel Strike > Charge.  

[stysiaq]

I think it's called Grizzly Mutilation and it's hilariously bugged. It will sometimes apply the panic effect to you and your party. This made for some really good Katari jokes.

 

Well, I used it on every Katari build I ever did and experienced this bug once (really, just once) after slaying an Arcane Horror, so I wouldn't say it's 'hilariously bugged'. I mean, it never caused my team to wipe, but I get it is really funny, just like PotA pulling teammates (I had this one). For me it's one of the best passives that makes War Horn obsolete.