Marauder post 40

[Alexxandur]

I've seen a lot of threads here dedicated towards specs seeing as the game is brand new and we all have questions as to what spec to use when it comes to this class.

 

I leveled up as carnage from 1-41, however at 41 I was becoming very unsatisfied with the spec. It is a nice burst spec for the most part when you get the utilization of gore down, which as we know increases your armor penetration by 100% for six seconds. However I started noticing that in between these bursts there was way too much downtime as far as damage was concerned it is my personal opinion that the global cd's on most of our most damaging attacks were just too long to sustain a respectable amount of dps when compared to other classes and specs. I then switched to annihilation the bleed dot spec and boy oh boy what a difference. Now I wouldn't personally level up as this spec because it becomes apparent that the real effective talents and skills come later post 40.

 

What I love about this spec is the sustained damage and stacked bleeds you can put on targets and the different ways to utilize these abilities. Deadly saber is just awesome a 12 second cooldown that lets any saber melee attack apply a bleed and stack it up to three times. With rupture you can stack it to four times and with 30 stacks of fury berserk makes the bleeds crit, coupling that with a force choke and or a ravage you're looking at a lot of damage. The other draw to this spec is Annihilator. The last skill/talent you can learn in the spec. The reason why this is so appealing at least from my vantage point is the fact that the maneuver can crit for up to 2.9k and with relic procs I've seen it crit up to 4k, this is insanely effective in pvp. As far as aoe is concerned with deadly saber and our low cost saber aoe attack you can essentially apply 3 stacking bleed dots to 5 enemy combatants in pvp making for alot of damage spread around.

 

Now I'm not counting out rage spec just yet as, I've yet to try it but post level 40 I'm really enjoying Annihilation, we're talking about a spec that has sustained damage through bleeds and a bursting component as well with some pretty hard hitting attacks. The only thing that is kind of lacking is the offhand saber bonus you miss from the carnage spec and also the fury build up, but this can be easily rectified by dipping into the other skill trees.

 

Adding 3 points into offhand in the carnage tree, another 2 into the defensive fury talent on the first tier on the carnage tree helps, and also opens up the 2nd tier of skills which then allows you to add points into the accuracy talent. I believe this will help endgame as any accuracy above 100% essentially lowers a mobs or enemy combatants armor meaning more dps.

 

I was originally kind of dissapointed with this class when using carnage but with the right talent combo this class is just as if not more effective than any other dps class in the game.

 

Just wanted to give my two cents thank you to everyone else who has also been theory crafting so we can tweak this class the right way.

[Drathmar]

Are you sure sweeping slash applies the bleed to each target hit? Using this tactic on PvE mobs last night it seemed to only apply to the main target

[xO_om]

^ Confirmed,Sweeping Slash does not apply the Deadly Sabres DoT.

 

I've played all three specs post-40, and all are fun. I found Carnage to be my favorite, with Annihilation a close second.