Guide:Manly Spike

General Team Composition

Manly Spike uses Hundred Blades with Whirlwind Attack or Vow of Strength with Eremite's Attack to trigger Mark of Pain multiple times within a short space of time. A perma is used to group foes together which will trigger more Mark of Pain from Whirlwind Attack/Eremite's Attack. It build is very adaptable and can even be used in areas with blind or anti-melee hexes like Spiteful Spirit and Empathy. This is due to the rapid speed which it is able to do damage.

Basic Build

Skill Explanations

Shadow Form : Makes the tank invulnerable to spells and provides damage reduction. This allows the tank to ball mobs safely.

Death's Charge : Used by the Warriors and/or Dervishes to jump immediately to the target preventing the mobs from leaving the tank to rush at the players who would otherwise have to walk to the enemies and risk aggroing them.

Hundred Blades / Vow of Strength : Provides AoE, physical damage on every attack.

Whirlwind Attack / Eremite's Attack : When used in combination with HB/VoS, the buff is triggered for every opponent hit resulting in each enemy being hit by HB/VoS's damage equal to the number of opponents in the group.

Mark of Pain : Since HB/VoS deals physical damage, this skill will trigger them and deal AoE, armor-ignoring, shadow damage. With the large amount of physical damage packets from the HB+WWA/VoS+EA combos, this skill creates a huge armor-ignoring AoE spike. Combined with the damage from the melee, this will wipe out most, if not all of the enemies.

General Usage

An assassin maintains Shadow Form and pulls all enemies into a tight ball. The assassin must ensure all enemies are within adjacent range. Otherwise they will not be hit by Mark of Pain.
Choose a target approximately at the center of the group (do not pick the nearest target). Cast Mark of Pain and call with the Ctrl key, so the rest of the party know to attack.
Warriors should precast "For Great Justice!" and Hundred Blades. Then use Death's Charge on the called target (use t-space to select this target). Next use your adrenaline-gain skill which should charge up Whirlwind Attack, followed by Whirlwind Attack itself. It does not matter if you have anti-melee hexes on you. It also does not particularly matter if enemies have block skills or you have become blinded.

Bug Whirlwind attack will only trigger skills like Spiteful Spirit and Empathy once.

Hundred Blades and Vow of Strength hit on attack, creating damage even if the attack is blocked or misses.
All foes should die, but sometimes the original Mark of Pain target does not because it is not hit by Mark of Pain.

General Equipment

Perma Assassin

Superior Shadow Arts rune and Shadow Arts headpiece.
A +20% enchantment weapon
Blessed or Radiant insignia, depending on damage through Shadow Form.
A +10 armor vs. <damage type> shield, suitable for the area.

Hundred Blade Warrior

Minor Swordsmanship rune and a Swordsmanship Headpiece.
Minor Strength rune
Vampiric or Zealous Sword of <enemy type>slaying.
A +10 armor vs. <damage type> Strength shield, suitable for the area.

Notable Skills

Methods for Gaining Adrenaline Instantly

"For Great Justice!": doubles adrenaline gain, allowing adrenaline to be instantly filled in combination with other adrenaline buffs.
Enraging Charge combined with For Great Justice! gives a 6 adrenaline return. Useful in areas where a large amount of running is involved.
To the Limit! generally better adrenaline gain then Enraging. Good for areas with blind as you are not required to hit once before building up adrenaline for Whirlwind Attack.
Lightbringer Signet good for DoA because it is also an effective way of managing energy.
Inspirational Speech requires another player to cast on the Warrior, usually not taken although it was part of the 11 minute FoW run.

Methods for Increasing Damage

Ebon Battle Standard of Honor should always be taken by the perma, significantly increases damage.
Splinter Weapon provides additional AoE damage and also triggers MoP additional times.
Order of Pain and Order of the Vampire are not often taken although present in the DoA build. It is an effective way of increasing damage from warrior attacks.
Staggering Force: inflicts Cracked Armor when stripped. increases the physical damage of the spike.
Heart of Holy Flame: provides a Holy damage conversion for fighting undead. inflicts burning when stripped.
Sand Shards: Although its damage is Earth type, it still provides additional AoE for the spike and is boosted by EBSoH.
Edge of Extinction: Deals damage every time a foe dies, which results in finishing off any surviving enemies for a cleaner spike.

Methods for Decreasing Skill Recharge

Assassin's Promise usually taken on the MoP to ensure MoP is always recharged when needed.
Air of Superiority can be taken on the warriors and MoP. When using two warriors or more this is an easy way of ensuring at least one warrior is always recharged for a spike.
Consumables such as Essence of Celerity can reduce recharge times. Taking Candy can increase warrior attack rate and thus spike and deal with leftovers much quicker.

Specific Team Composition

FoW Manly Spike

See full FoW Manly Spike page

UW Manly Spike

See full UW VoS Spike page

Guide:Manly Spike

Contents