Credits to saabi
| PART I |
Core skill priority
CHAIN SKILLS:
STARTER SKILLS:
CHAIN SKILL PRIORITY: [ > ] > > > > ()
[ ] : Only use these skills before IF AND ONLY IF you can REVERSE CHAIN (explained in PART III) them and/or immediately SS after them to finish your chain.
VERY IMPORTANT, INTERNALIZE THIS BIT OF INFORMATION. This is where most people struggle.
() = This is a special skill and has no definitive spot in your skill priority. Has multipurpose, one of which is allowing you to smoothly finish your combo with the proper priority without using another STARTER SKILL.
STARTER SKILLS PRIORITY: >= > > > [ and ]
[ ] : These are special chain starters. ignores unit collision and can be used to phase through bosses and other players as well as repositioning mid combo; this is a very valuable skill for maintaining dps uptime.
— Is used for gap closing and also for large distance repositioning.
VS :
is your main chain starter and is your go to skill but there are times where you to use over
WHEN TO USE WW:
1. Use when is on cooldown always.
2. If you have the chain skills ALL AVAILABLE; You are free to start this chain with and it is optimal to do so
WHEN TO USE HT:
1. Use when is on cooldown
2. When is available for use and you do not have and off cd.
The reasoning behind this is because it takes at least 1 , 1 and + 1 additional CHAIN SKILL to fill time to reset after use. Therefore, if you have both of those up you can use without having to worry about it’s propulsion effect “reduce cool down for 1.5sec per crit” going to waste.
In hindsight, if you do NOT have both of those up, you need to use to fill the time so you do not waste ‘s passive.
This is why I am able to get high hpm with “low” hpm. It’s all about the timing
During battle, what should be going through your mind before you press or is:
Following my upcoming chain, will reset? If not press . If so? Press
| PART II |
Fillers and their use
FILLERS:
– when people hear the words filler skill, they assume that these skills are not important. I disagree. For slayer fillers are very important. In fact if you think about it, is basically a filler so with that said I will explain how our fillers play a role and how to use them.
FILLER SKILLS IN ORDER OF IMPACT FOR SLAYER:
the king, our best skill > > > > > >
So I’ve basically broken down in PART III of the guide below but I’ll add a bit more information to attest to the power of this skill as an introduction to .
1. Completely “unclunks” Slayer. It allows us to finish our chains that we would otherwise have to stop because of boss attacks or unlucky cooldowns
—-For boss attacks, You can cancel your roll into and instantly go into a chain skill. I do this technique a TON. This is an amazing way to jump right back into dishing out damage and basically taking next to none of a DPS loss during dodging
Ex. -boss attack- () etc..
() = if available
2. You can use this skill to fill time for when you’re waiting for or to come off of cooldown.
– Explained above and further explained in VS section of the guide.
1. Gives +56 crit factor for 4 seconds after use.
2. Increases damage by 20% once per cast.
3. Gives 50% damage reduction for the duration of the skill.
4. Gives 25% skill damage to .
5. Very good base damage and takes advantage of the passive.
Seems pretty stacked and is probably our best skill, right? WRONG. The crit chance on this skill is abysmal and is explained more in the PART IV: VS section of the guide.
– Very underrated skill
1. Used to ignore collision
2. Used to reposition when off center for backhits, when dodging boss attacks, or trying to avoid desync
3. Very fast chain starter framewise.
– Can be used to speed by 25% although i do not take this glyph.
1. Fast chain starter
2. Very valuable during ICB bug
3. Fantastic short distance gap close [if you’re playing Human (F), Elin, or Castanic (M/F)]
4. Can be used as a short distance dodge
1. Slow chain starter, DO NOT USE THIS IN NORMAL ROTATION
2. Fantastic long distance gap close
3. Can be used to dodge and as repositioning purposes
– This skill is not used very often. If you cast very very quickly when you get EXTREMELY comfortable with slayer you will find the odd times that you use this skill. It’s mostly only used by me when i make a minor mistake in my rotation
Can be omitted
ABNORMAL SKILLS:
– Our always on toggled passive.
1. Gives 33% damage boost to , , and after awakening patch.
Very important buffing skill. Gives 60% attack speed to the next skill used.
– Only use this skill for 2 purposes
1. Speedcast your
2. To gap close
UNSHEATHE:
– Our ultimate ability granted during our awakening. Highest damage single hit burst skill in our arsenal
– Used during ICB in normal speed fights; can potentially be used off CD in extremely long fights but this needs a bit more testing from me. I currently only use it with ICB
1. Always use this skill with 10% damage buff up and other party buffs like Adrenaline Rush from the Lancer and other Healer buffs.
2. Try to make sure dragon proc is up but don’t wait too long. If dragon doesn’t appear within 10 seconds of your burn just use it; unless you are waiting for it on your LAST BURN.
3. Until Awakening 2.0 patch do not charge this skill. Simply tap the button.
the oops i forgot about you filler
– Used for extremely short gap close
– Also used as a 0.5~1.5second buffer
Not extremely useful, can more or less be omitted. I still have it bound for the very rare times where it is useful.
| PART III |
Savage Strike and it’s use
-Can be used to reduce by 1 sec per strike (works on multiple targets), this is entry level usage
-Allows instant animation cancelling of any skill, aka super cancel
-Is a large distance travel skill that has guaranteed crit and can chain into any CHAIN SKILL.
-Gives Special properties that allows “REVERSE CHAINING” and guaranteed back crit for 5 seconds per strike.
THIS ABILITY IS NOT AN IFRAME
USAGE:
‘s foremost and most obvious use is reducing the cooldown of , but there’s a lot more to this skill that gives it high value to Slayer and it’s gameplay. In my opinion this is the best thing we got out of Apex patch and here’s some of the things I personally noticed while practicing the new Slayer.
1. This skill can be used to guaranteed backcrit during burns. Nothing kills your DPS more than having to constantly chase the back of the boss if it spins due to aggro loss or during some sort of mechanic that causes the boss to move. This is extremely important for guaranteeing that is backcrit.
2. can also be used to save your chains that you have to break or couldn’t complete, For example: You may encounter situations where you would do . but then you notice that either your or is on cooldown. Assuming that those skills are on a 1~2 seconds cooldown by the time you get to them, you can use as a buffer to buy time so that by time you finish casting your you can chain into either of those skills. This buffering is similar to my usage of .
3. FOR . is extremely crucial in because it allows us to use more often (our strongest ability during ). You can have fun with this to be honest, I personally always space out my casts during . An example would be -(cancel)- x1(to the side of the boss) (to the back of the boss) ..etc. Also try to place each cast of between your during for high hits per minute on Ultimate .
4. I use this to dodge and continue my chains a lot; you can have fun with this and something you will get more creative with as you continue to grind out Slayer.
5. Reverse chaining:
REVERSE CHAINING:
– This can only be done after casting due to the hidden/unlisted properties added to the skill
What does this do?
Reverse chaining allows you to use CHAIN SKILLS in its reverse order.
Ex.
1.
2.
3. [icb only, requires lots of attack speed]
Why is this useful?
– This allows you to put high priority skills on cooldown first, without having to wait for a full chain. This also allows you to get all back damage on bosses that constantly move like the bosses in Ruinous Manor and Shandra Manaya in Dreadspire Floor 10; whom would otherwise force you to break your rotation and potentially lose your chain. This skill essentially allows slayer to not suffer a DPS loss against bosses who spin.
Tips about SS:
* You can use double tap if you know you’re only travelling in 1 direction, this is useful because you can reduce the cooldown of by 2 seconds and already be at the back of the boss while only travelling the distance of 1 .
*Recognizing when to space out and weave other skills in between or instantly cast it for the CDR depends on you and your boss knowledge, every situation is different so me explaining each one is not practical. Generally though, you want to space out when you know the boss will turn, when you know your chain will not complete and SS is needed to an extra second or so of time, and when you’re in .
*My preferred direction of travel during is sideways. This is because the first strike is guaranteed to hit the boss and it doesn’t put me in any danger (generally speaking). Travelling forward runs the risk of getting clipped by a boss attack and travelling backward runs the risk of the strike not hitting the boss. However, on thinner bosses it’s better to forwards.
| PART IV |
HT vs KDS
VS
According to moongourd comparing crit chance vs I see the following:
– Taken from my Antaroth’s Abyss Hard Mode stats
What do we see?
1. has almost a 30% higher crit chance than
– Although not shown in the images above, they have similar damage with doing slightly more damage per hit assuming they both will crit
So we can conclude that is a better skill to use when is on cooldown.
WHAT ABOUT ‘s CRIT FACTOR GLYPH?
Ok then let’s get to that. So assuming you rotate like I do… the bulk of your skills will be preceded by .
Which means.. the only time you would use or would be to start “short” chains which only comprises of and sometimes and .
3 of the 4 skills listed have 100% crit chance so the crit glyph essentially means nothing.
But the glyph lasts 4 seconds Saabi!!
Ok sure. If you do you’ll have maybe around 2 seconds left. In those 2 seconds you can only get a cast of off assuming that it’s up, and an . You can probably get off an if you’re in ICB as well, but if you’ve played Slayer enough you know that has a funky crit chance and that chances are… both of the hits are not gonna crit anyways. So in the end, that glyph is not very reliable.
WHAT ABOUT ‘s POWERLINK GLYPH?
1. only pumps one by 20%… yes.. ONE.
2. pumps by 25% and this is great however…
– has a low crit chance of around 60%, with the glyph maybe 63%?
– is split into 2 parts, with unequal damage distribution. You’ll see something like ~1m on the first hit and ~3m on the second, both of which significantly weaker than an crit.
The only time it’s comparable is if you use and it all crits… with those low crit chances.. you tell me how likely that is…
Actually, fellow Slayer player Walter will do the honors (pulled from his AAHM runs).
“ 77% Crit average – 4,187,155 – Average 3235502.866 damage per cast
47% Crit average – 3,986,562 – Average 2142154 damage per cast
60% Crit average – 1,942,333 +25% = 2427916.25 damage per powerlinked cast assuming 100% crit
58% Crit average – 2,509,930 + 20% = 3011916 damage per powerlinked cast assuming 100% crit
In theory, if and are ALWAYS 100% crit, you get an extra 500k~ on each skill cast for a total of 1m~ extra damage per cast. This means that a cast would be on par with a cast with all powerlinks factored in. But and are far from 100% crit, so just always comes out on top.”
–WALTER
Thanks Walter.
Continuing on…
If you use [in addition to the reset glyph] and you cast and for some reason your MS didn’t reset you can just use again, assuming it resets, to start a new chain and you don’t lose much damage because has high base damage, high crit chance, and works with passive.
is your best fall back when doesn’t reset. You’ll notice how strong is when burning in
Whenever you have to fall back on , there’s a high chance (50%) you come out on a big loss because is not gonna crit.
Thus only uses are:
1. To cancel animation lock to lead into the starting combo.
2. When both and are on cooldown.
3. As a medium distance gap close when is on cooldown.
4. To mitigate large damage, such as the black and white orb mechanic in Antaroth’s Abyss
| My ICB Opener |
[ only at beginning of fight] [ if 2.0 dragon is active ] more chains into [ if 2.0 activates this late into my burn] Then I follow my guide.
I ignore the initial powerlink from for for the additional hit. Every afterwards will be pumped.
| Best Races to play for PVE Slayer |
Human Male and Female, Castanic Male and Female, Elin.
-tbh this isn’t very important and the overall differences are negligible but people keep asking me so I figured I’d plug it here. As long as you’re not playing popori with it’s extremely slow Evasive Roll, you are fine.
– I currently play Human Female, and have been for the most part since awakening patch.
Endnote: Many portions of this guide was written more up to date than what is currently uploaded on my youtube, which means that everything written here may or may not be reflected in my videos. Eventually I will post a vod showcasing everything I’ve written here because it’s all natural to me now.
If you have any questions about this guide you can message me on DISCORD: Cory#2983.
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