[WITCH HUNTER] Witch Hunter Impressions

[Apollyn]

WH is 26 and playin with a regular group is really paying out nicely for me (come visit Penta Thrust ingame for the FH Karak Hirn Order), I can DPS and get healed, plus engie roots up for us, really good fun.

Problem I have is why WH has so much late utility plus a cpl of oddities:

Declare Anathema is lvl 40 knockdown - this is our escape ability, why we gotta wait so late for it? Everyone else has got their KBs and roots by now.

Heal debuff - lvl 35: Yeah, I specced Inq for heal debuff and I've got it by 25 but WE gets it at lvl 9??

Debuffs - We need to execute to get our debuffs/special ability. So I need to get off an execute in order to have 50% heal debuff for 5 measly seconds?? WEs are proc abilities so they can trigger em every single time they attack. My executes get 150 spirit dmg but how much more awesome would it be to get 150 dmg on 25% of my attacks instead? (raised to 50% with tactic).

Root immunity - doesnt always work. More of a bug this but squig herders have some kind of root and snare that I cannot break with my root breaker, anyone know what this is? Sorc roots etc all break afaik.

Split stats - We have to stack str for melee, BS for executions, whereas all other classes need to stack just one stat (melee str, SW BS, Caster Int).

I like WH and I like how it plays but its frustrating to sacrifice a lot of utility for one ranged execution. Maybe if all our executes were ranged then it would balance our reduced DPS, for example 30 yard range on Burn Heretic or Hollow Rounds.

What do ppl think?

 

[Aiteal]

Great class to play so far
I'm still at T2 PvP, and struggling a little as I'm mid level for T2, but the WH is still a very enjoyable class

The skill/abilty trees certainly paint a picture of a very versatile class later on, from incognito attacks that can be selected dependant on opponent
and what looks to be nice synergy with parry-centric abilities

plus the whole longcoat, rapier and flintlock pistol thing is just sexy

 

[Ziro]

Loving my WH (rank 20 atm) but feeling very squishy. Especially against heavy tanks, which seem to be about 30-40% of Destro population on Karak Azgal. For this reason, I've given thought to making a build with more toughness and wounds, but then that would sacrifice dps. Maybe you just have to accept that you're made of glass.

Sudden Accusation is just plain evil vs. casters and healers combined with our silence style and a couple of dots. Pure comedy at times

 

[Athrun]

I've given thought to making a build with more toughness and wounds, but then that would sacrifice dps.

you can without sacrifcing dps! :d
not going to claim credit for this spec, but seeing the current state of WE i dont mind to share this lame style.

choose "sanctified bullets" and "flowing accusations" as carear tactics, sanc bullets will give you life back and flowing accu will give you a 50% chance to get 2 accusations back after an execution.
ofc load up with "blessed bullets of purity" as these are required to make your sanctified bullets carear tactic choice work.

saying for arguments sake you are starting a fight that is visual vs visual against a melle class of any kind (this is a very basic guide btw), open up with seekers blade to get an accusation (unless you can get a confess in ofc), follow up with a level one absolution (yes dont save for 5), you will do decent damage and get the life return.. now this is where "flowing accusations" carear tactic comes in, you have a chance to continually spam lvl1 absolutions giving perma life tap bonedancer style xdddd (ofc you can and should imo mix it up with such things as confess as and when is needed but like i said this is a VERY basic guide)
try to keep the seekers blade reuse time use on minimum (alot of the time you will find that its available after a run of luck with absolution spam) and ofc try to keep fevour/razor strike use etc to a minimum, use these only to get 1 accusation if you have plenty of AP and the other timered/reactive styles are down.

playing with this (lame xd) style ofc lets you drop str to pump wounds/toughness as seekers blade penetration solves.

ofc these are just basic ideas for straight up melle visual fights only.. which work well for soloing / scenario random groups (with trashy healers etc) but dont forget to choose such things as "shroud of magus" etc even for soloing.
spec wise you could aim for 7 confession (taking sanc bullets and shroud) and dump the rest in judgement (either taking speculum+pistol whip or taking the final morale4 ability expurgation alone)

for regular grouping pvp you should ofc choose heavy inqusition spec for the anti heal abilities on target.

5-10 second reuse time nerf on absolution inc mythic?

 

[Ziro]

Cheers Athrun, I've tried this out for a while now, lame or not

It works like a charm and allows me to run with a much higher toughness/wounds build.

For certain it's a very potent spec.