Build:N/W Sufferer Soul Taker

This build uses the Anniversary Scythe "Sufferer" with warrior attack skills in a very large amounts of armour ignoring area damage to be dealt within a second. As a result, this build features one of the largest damage outputs against small and medium sized groups of foes in the game, outclassed only by Soul Taker Daggers against single targets and hundred blades/vow of silence builds against massive group sizes. This power in offense is paid in health sacrifices that make team setups with two healers mandatory.

Attributes and Skills
[build prof=N/W SoulReaping=12+1+3 Tactics=12][Soul Taker][Soldier's Strike]["Watch Yourself!"][Protector's Strike@0][Distracting Blow][Distracting Strike][Drunken Master]["I Am Unstoppable!"][/build]
 * Variants
 * – death penalty removal and a way to keep dealing your attack damage on top of dark aura against all odds.
 * – death penalty removal and a way to keep dealing your attack damage on top of dark aura against all odds.


 * – [[blood is power] recommended.
 * – blood is power recommended.
 * – blood is power recommended.


 * – only use during [["I am unstoppable!"] uptimes.
 * – only use during "I am unstoppable!" uptimes.
 * – requires replacing [[drunken master] with a non-PvE-only alternative.
 * – requires replacing drunken master with a non-PvE-only alternative.
 * – if you dropped drunken master but wish to keep a movement speed boost.
 * – cancel stance for [[frenzy] build variants.
 * – cancel stance for frenzy if also using [["save yourselves!"].
 * – cancel stance for [[frenzy] build variants.
 * – cancel stance for frenzy if also using [["save yourselves!"].

Equipment
Weaponry
 * Vampiric Anniversary Scythe "Sufferer" of fortitude or defense with the inscription "Guided by Faith".
 * 40/20/20 soul reaping for [[soul taker@16] and wanding.
 * A long or flatbow for luring.
 * Shield set. To be used when you're idle or about to die.

Runes and insignias
 * 5 Tormentor's insignias.
 * Rune of superior vigor.
 * 3 runes of vitae.

Usage

 * Maintain [[drunken master].
 * Maintain [[soul taker@16] during combat.
 * Micro your hero to use Notes: Dark Aura.
 * Counter knock downs and crippled condition with [["I am unstoppable!"].
 * Use [[soldier's strike@12] casually for bonus damage and unblockable attacks.
 * Spend your adrenaline on [["watch yourself!"@12] whenever available.
 * Use [[protector's strike@0] whenever an attack of yours has hit to cancel the attack recovery phase and artificially increase your attack speed.
 * Prefer attacking balling targets for maximum damage.
 * Place yourself inbetween as many foes as possible: You are the damage center.
 * Chain [[protector's strike@0], [[distracting blow] and [[distracting strike] for a quick series of attacks that produces great spike damage.
 * See Notes: Damage for an overview of how much damage you can expect to deal.
 * If you can't reach targets with your melee attacks, switch to your staff. Wanding allows to deal soul taker on top of wanding damage.

Counters

 * Frequent enchantment removal.
 * General anti-physical.
 * General anti-melee.
 * Lack of healing.

Dark Aura

 * On top of the standard support like [[strength of honor] and [[splinter weapon] this build can be supported by [[dark aura].
 * Heroes use dark aura themselves during and outside of combat on all party members with a health sacrifice skill, excluding [[soul taker] and [[masochism].
 * Therefore, if you want your hero to use the skill on you automatically, you need to bring a health sacrifice skill like [[blood renewal] with you.
 * It will be used on all party members with health sacrifice skills, including healers with [[spirit light] or [[blood is power]. This may cause downtimes during combat or the hero lagging behind outside of combat.
 * You can assign a hotkey for Dark Aura on your hero for best results.
 * Set a custom hotkey for Action: Order Hero # to use Skill # in the controls options to force heroes to use certain skills. I.e. if you put Dark Aura on skill slot 2 of hero 1, you need Action: Order Hero 1 to use Skill 2.
 * Invite the hero to your party.
 * Click on the number next to the hero in the party window. This opens the hero control panel.
 * Hold down left shift and left click once on Dark Aura. A red crossed circle shows that it is disabled.
 * Target yourself (standard hotkey: F).
 * Use your custom hotkey.
 * Once you've installed the custom hotkey only steps 5 and 6 will be needed.


 * [[Dark aura] Mechanics:
 * The caster loses health points. If the skill is provided by a different character in the party you don't suffer from both soul taker's and dark aura's health loss/sacrifice.
 * The enchanted character is the center of the damage, not the target of the weapon attacks.
 * Causes scattering.
 * Ends if the caster dies.

Damage

 * Distracting blow and distracting strike reduce attack damage in different ways.
 * removes the damage from your attack.
 * Vampiric weapon mods still trigger.
 * Adrenaline is still collected.
 * The scythe's inherent AoE remains intact; three foes are targetted.
 * [[Soul taker@16]'s health sacrifice is triggered.
 * All bonus damage to attacks, such as from soul taker and [[strength of honor], is forfeit.
 * reduces the attack's damage to 0.
 * It mostly shares its traits with distracting blow, however:
 * All bonus damage to attacks, such as from soul taker and strength of honor, is applied.


 * The following table assumes that the player is under the effect of [[soul taker@16], [[strength of honor@8] and [[dark aura@18].
 * The vampiric prefix is treated like "armour ignoring bonus damage".
 * The health gain from the vampiric prefix is removed from the player's health loss.
 * Other support skills such as [[splinter weapon@16] are ignored.
 * "Quick Chain" refers to chaining [[protector's strike@0], [[distracting blow] and [[distracting strike] for a quick series of attacks. They're so fast that foes don't have a chance to start scattering until the chain's damage has been dealt.
 * The "armour ignoring bonus damage" against the scythe targets already includes the dark aura damage. Do not add the "armour ignoring damage to targets adjacent to the player" on top of it!