Reconsidering Death Sweep/Swing

It's no secret that the Death Sweep/Swing skill is probably the first thing rangers throw off their skill bar when room runs out. I have been experimenting with the skill pretty heavily lately and found some useful utility that is worth mentioning.

First, the reason it is tossed off the bar is the skill has minimal value as a damage skill against single targets. The 35% of base is quickly surpassed by the Deadly Blow skill and becomes even more useless when the Directed Blow talent is taken to enhance Deadly Blow's damage by 60%. The poison tick does not stack so max damage using repeated swipes is 70% when it ticks poison. So the only value as a damage skill is facing masses/multiple targets that offset the higher single target damage potential of Deadly Blow.

So when is it useful?

The value I find in it is the 20% attack slow and it is minimally intrusive in the attack rotation. Tactic - I put the skill in the attack slot you can tab to, hit tab to get to it, hit something once to get the slow effect and switch back to normal skill. For me, my normal routine is to mark, precision till bingo concentration, adrenaline, precision till bingo concentration, close the gap, tab-death sweep-tab, Deadly Blow till dead or concentration gets high enough for a precision shot.

PVP-I have this crazy fascination with going toe to toe with DK's, exchanging blows till someone dies. Call me crazy. A skill that slows their attacks by 20% is awesome. This is also cool when I get mobbed sitting on top of our flag.

Mini bosses. Some of the mini-bosses in POS hit like trucks. Reducing their attacks from 4 to 5 seconds (or whatever) is helpful for those high damage guys. That's 5k or 10k damage I don't take. Regardless of damage potential it works against all the mini bosses I tested.

Main bosses: I know it works against all the level 40 bosses; Gorga, Sigri, etc, and some of the main bosses. I don't want to say it works on the main bosses for a fact because with multiple attacks and spells its just too hard to tell. I do know it slows down destructors machine gun though.

Non speed uses: Blackborg- The witches summon little mobs that count against the kill quest when killed. Get 5 or 6 witches together, find a place to hide from witches direct attack while they stay at range( like behind the barrel in the top of the map). Put on Death sweep and kill the little summoned buggers as they round the barrel. Take a nap or eat your sandwich with your finger on mouse button 2 and wake up to a Kara summon quest completion.

 

I would like to see the poison ticking more than 3 seconds.

 

Darn, guess I have to be more careful now when I'm trying to mob you while you're flag guarding. XD

 

Nope, this skill is not useful when you have this second deadly swing/hit which return to you concentration after kill of mob.
This skill is slow and has effects like a web or trap that no need on 45 lvl.

 

You wouldn't have to use it for slow effect if you selected your bow to mark the monsters which causes them to slow as well, i have through and through too so my arrow pierces through a few monsters at a time, very useful if you get swamped all around you, i've rarely used this skill it's terrible, so i think we should be given another skill to replace it, maybe poisen ivy on our traps? i mean the damage traps give you is okie but i think the traps could use something more... so id love there to b poisen damage from them too.

 

I like your thinking on this Papa. I like the fact you take a little used skill and experiment with it, not just a little, but enough to see if it is a viable skill at your current lvl. It seems for you, you have found value in it. I like this skill myself, this is one of 3 different skills that I rotate thru depending on where I happen to be playing. Although I would never think to use it against high end bosses... as my ranger lacks the gear and I lack the skills as a ranger to profit from it.
Much food for thought, thanks )

Thanks, Doc.

 

Not suggesting you replace deadly blow with death sweep, but instead use it to augment deadly blow.

That is a movement speed reduction. Death sweep is an attack speed reduction. Not the same thing.

 

Oh... i stiill don't find it terribly useful though but i always use my traps for tight spots and it kills several of them at once, id love the deadly spores in the traps to be poisenous too, perhaps that can be a new skill in future? like a 8 seconds poisen effect from the spores along with the slow effect. I always feel the slow movement effect is adequate enough.

 

Crazy The ranger can also shoot from range, which would make him stronger if he could also compete in melee. However I like the idea of being at least somewhat useful in melee: The idea of a hybrid that just uses some melee while he is slowed or waits for cooldowns, that is very fascinating and good gameplay to me.

 

I wish we could have a poisen arrow skill too, i mean the mage has an added 5 second fire effect on the fire spell, why can't rangers have a poisen arrow?