Axelord

Siam

Hello boys and girls! I wanted to know why Axelord sucksis deemed sub-par as opposed to Pureblade and Cavalier? This is mainly directed to those who understand warrior types. Thanks!

Tarkenton

No tendon.

Honestly, that's a lot of it I think.  Regen cure to legs that prones when you hit it is nice.  Gives you time to chop at the head/other bits.  Honestly, reading over the skillsets again, Cavalier is Axelord+.  They have a kill similar to execute (though I don't know how viable skewer actually is), a bunch of the AL affs, and they can tendon.

PB is PB.  Tendon, decap, collapsed nerves.  Good affs abound pretty much no matter where you're swinging at.

Zagreus

Knockdown is the main catalyst for AL wound building and hindering/slowing enemy movement and offense. Knockdown is effectively nullified by acrobatics. Even for non-acros, any delay in attacking (passive hindering of any kind) ruins the "double tap" strategy. Other leg affs are decent but not that effective and don't prone. Ringingear is decent but only 1s stun. Green softlock is harder to get. The biggest issue for me personally is that there's no reliable, meaningful hindering. You can try for execute, but unless your target has bad curing or horrible robes, you will not get it since you can't stop them from running without taking time to hit legs and losing your upper buildup.

PB on the other hand has tendons, reliable 4s of prone vs KD's 3s of balance loss. Tendon's prone effectively guarantees the next hit's success each time, and can be hit on both limbs so you can stack on each leg in 2 consecutive attacks to loop target into a perma prone state until their legs are so wounded you can get tendons/amps on command (then work in head for kill). Tendon+slit is a 2 hit green softlock that can be done with reasonable reliability (for a warrior, anyway, we aren't monks after all).

CAV's tendon is much worse/unreliable (can't sunder for it, it's jab only). However, cav has hefted swings (hefted jabs are crap, mathematically inferior to regular hits) which can hit 2 limbs at once 50% of the time. 1 lucky hefted sunder can put someone into 4+ applies to cure range. That is, with a little luck, you can really put brute force your target with wounds to an unrecoverable state even against good greatrobes/plate armor. Pincharge is pretty decent, obstruction helps with lack of mobility hindering, and tracking works well as a tert in addition to it. Gut impales are really nice. You can build wounds, rend with manta for chained hits while they are prone (i.e. no parry/stance) to prevent escape while building towards skewer potentially and get gut so wrecked they are forced to stance/parry it leaving you to go to town on head/legs.

Sorry for the info dump, but I'm just throwing a few more important points from my perspective. There's a lot more to it that you really just need to play with to see how it meshes with your style.

Ushaara

I'd agree that the lack of a heavy wounding regen cured prone aff makes building easier for other specs.

Small typo of KD being 3s stun in Ixion's reply; it's balance-loss rather than stun. Also, there is a second route to sprawling with kneecap (if the leg is already kneecap'd) but difficult to capitalize on unless you can delay applying the first regen.

Execute is very satisfying though: no swing/aff RNG once you have the required build-up and it bypasses stance/parry.

Cyndarin

I think AL is actually the most underrated of the specs. I think the bulk of that is because ALs were the best for so long due to knockdown stun, but once knockdown was reworked, the strategy never really adapted to the change so the lingering belief of the AL linchpin never changed. Kneecap is actually fantastic for perpetuating a prone, which is fairly easy to obtain with knockdown, and relies on some RNG for poison procs (but what warrior doesn't). Excluding acrobats, an AL has the ability to prone, and keep prone for enough strikes to build to critical. 

That being said, It's not as good or reliable as PB. PB is just really straightforward and the regen stacks can  get pretty bonkers. 

Cav has always struck me as fantastic in groups, terrible solo. They have a great kit to assist and build off other warriors.

Ultimately anyone can run from any spec, which is the shortfall of wounds. Given enough time, anyone can reset your entire offense. The upside is that in groups, you have some of the best afflictions in the game and with the way wounds work, it's really easy to build. Assuming the target is alive long enough to build them, of course.

PB is the clear winner, and it's between AL and Cav depending on how you like to play the game. I fight a lot in groups, but I also can't play a guild that has no solo potential, which is why I would never play Cav. 

Siam

Thanks, @Ixion and @Tarkenton! I'm waiting to see how the warrior specs turn out to be post-Overhaul. AL is the closest I can get to swinging a scythe/trident around(unless @Estarra releases new warrior specs - shield spec ftw)!

Qistrel

Cavalier used to get tridents. Then they took them away from us...

Siam

Thanks for the additional info, guys!

Delphas

I remember @Vatheal simply crushing heads over and over and over again, so maybe AL is the ``sport of the truly great''?

Zagreus

Yeah my bad on that typo @Ushaara, was thinking about my next line of thought about ringingear

@Celina Cav does indeed have solo potential, and is the best spec for warrior v warrior, but it does fall off pretty fast after that. The more hindering a class has, the more cav falls short unfortunately.

@Delphas I don't remember it like that at all. His AL was decent, but I'd say his peak was with BC.

Delphas

Ixion said:

@Delphas I don't remember it like that at all. His AL was decent, but I'd say his peak was with BC.

Yeah, now that I remember it better (and checked a few logs), yes.  He BC'd some noses clear into the back of skulls, and then caved the head a good foot into the torso (when he didn't punt it for a hole in one).  I don't actually have anything on his AL.  Sorry for the confusion, @Siam and thanks for the correction @Ixion.  May @Vatheal Rest in Peace (or find a crapload of new adventures!) just the same.