Introduction
Slayers have 2 very unique playstyle based on their engravings with a playstyle that builds up gauge steadily with the ability to dish out an absurd amount of burst damage with Punisher. On the other hand, Predator grants a tons of Attack Speed, Movement Speed , Crit Chance , Crit Damage and Max Mana Gauge over a long period of time. Master her rage, and take control of the battle.
Predator Slayers mechanics is about managing Burst Mode uptime when you activate it but you do not have the ability to use Bloodlust. Burst Mode grants 20% Attack speed and Movement Speed along with 30% Crit Chance increase, but when paired with Predator you get 40% Crit Damage as well at Level 3 along with hitting a target will grant you 10% Max Fury Meter and 3% Max Mana gain, this is their mechanic where you will try to manage Burst Mode uptime with constantly dealing direct hits towards a target. All upsides come with a downside and that's with the Fatigue System. The longer you're in the mode, the harder it'll be to keep it up. This will require some mastery with uptime to constantly keep the flow.
Does your soul burn from the excitement of Speed and Power? Be the apex Predator with the Slayer's Swiftness build.
This build guide assumes you have a Character at Level 50 before transitioning to it. Check out the Slayer Leveling and 1-50 Leveling guides to reach Level 50.
Check out the Punisher Slayer for an alternative Slayer playstyle. Check out the Guardian Raids and Abyssal Dungeons guides for an introduction to their content.
Raid Skill Build
- Wild Rush is your mobility skill that helps you with positioning yourself to the back of the boss and getting back into range as soon as possible, since you'll be chasing the back of bosses for this Slayer's gameplay style. Its multiple is also a good option to use it for Conviction and Judgment combo proc-ing. Depending on your preference you can choose Burning Rage which helps to do direct damage to targets close to you to keep proc-ing Predator Fury Meter gain effect. Use Excellent Mobility instead, if you need the additional distance for better positioning.
- Wild Stomp is your Counter skill and also a party synergy with it's tripood Damage Amplification. The synergy is permanently up as the skill has very low cooldown due to the cooldowns provided from stacking high Swiftness stats. Earth Impact is a very convenient Tripod/Skill Tree Node to take as the pulsing earthquake does direct hit towards any targets on it ,thus proc-ing Predator Fury Meter gain to help sustaining Burst Mode uptime.
- As for your 2 highest burst skills in this build are Brutal Impact and Volcanic Eruption, Brutal Impact does have Level 2 Destruction check and decent stagger burst but it is best to not sacrifice your burst skills for Staggers or Destruction check unless it is needed.
- Rest of your filler damage skills are Furious Claw, Guillotine, Final Blow and Mountain Cleave. Guillotine has Level 1 Destruction Check if needed. Meanwhile Furious Claw and Final Blow high hit-counts are good candidate for proc-ing Conviction and Judgment combo for cooldown reduction buffs and mana regen. It is useful, since this build does suffer from mana issues if you have great DPS uptime with it especially with high level cooldown gems.
- Your Awakening Skill is Ragna Break as it has faster animation than Execute which locks you down in a very long animation which can be uncomfortable in raids. But Execute can be use for Fury Meter gain at the beginning of the raid and if the raid does not last long enough for you to cast your Awakening Skill multiple times.
Alternatives
- Final Blow can be replaced with Punishing Draw for a second Counter skill and if high Destruction check is needed , Weak Point Enhancement can be used as well, making this skill a decent utility tool.
- Mountain Cleave can be replaced with Fatal Sword as this skill provides Level 2 Destruction check and also the highest Stagger check without sacrificing your highest damage skills, Both of the 2 replacement skills combine will give her a very strong utility kit, if ever faced the situations to do the mechanic checks alone.
Skill Rotations and Gameplay
The key point of Predator Slayers is maintaining Burst Mode uptime by directly hitting something to constantly proc the 10% max Fury Meter gain and 3% max Mana gain from the engraving and to do that,
you can use Burning Rage from Wild Rush to help consistently apply direct hit to any enemies around you to proc Predator's Fury meter gain. Earth Impact from Wild Stomp leaves a pulsing earthquake that also procs Fury Meter Gain from the engraving every second. This helps to keep your Fury Meter gauge high, even when you're busy positioning or have to dodge out of enemy attacks. Damage Over Time effects like Bleed and Burns does not proc the engraving's effect. Try your best get at least 20 stacks Fatigue stacks to reduce Exhaustion debuff to only 10 seconds as each stacks reduces the exhaustion debuff by 1second.(Exhaustion Default duration is 30 seconds)
Opening Rotation
These Openings are for Adrenaline max stacks and starting out the main DPS rotation with Judgment buff on to reduce all the skills cooldowns for the starting DPS rotation and that also includes your Awakening skill(Ragna Break).
If you are using Conviction(C) and Judgment(J) on Furious Claw and Wild Rush.
- Wild Rush > Wild Stomp > Activate Burst Mode > Furious Claw(C) > Wild Rush(J) > Guillotine > DPS Rotation
If you are using Final Blow(C) and Furious Claw(J).
- Wild Rush > Wild Stomp > Activate Burst Mode > Wild Rush > Final Blow(C) > Furious Claw(J) > DPS Rotation
DPS Rotation
There isn't a fixed rotation as you pretty much just use whatever skill that isn't on cooldown but some skills have cooldowns syncs closely to another which can be use as a pseudo-rotation when you have max cooldown reduction Tripods/Skill Tree Node levels and sync cooldown gems level.
- Guillotine > Mountain Cleave > Final Blow > Furious Claw
For short burst like after a counter or a specific stagger break on certain bosses that only gives short moment of window to DPS, you should prioritize bursting with these 2 skills if they are up:
- Brutal Impact(*) > Volcanic Eruption
(*) If you are using Charge Enhancement on Brutal Impact , you can cancel the end recovery animation with Spacebar as soon as you see the damage numbers appear and immediately perform the next attack that saves you noticeable amount of milliseconds. But be careful because you can accidentally cancel early before the skill even does damage, Summary Execution does not need to do such steps as it has faster animation recovery built-in.
Stats Priority
Predator Slayers aim for Crit and Swiftness. with 22-23% Crit Rate from just Necklace and Bracelet it is enough to get 80% Crit Rate when accounting Entropy Set , Burst Mode and Back Attacking. Swiftness helps cap Raid Captain criteria and provides a massive amount of cooldown reduction to use your skills more frequently. Additionally, it also frees up Mass Increase as an option with technically no penalty in Burst Mode and when pairing with a support that has Yearning Set.
- Standard Build: Get Swiftness on every piece of accessories and only Crit from necklace, at 1630-1747 Swiftness you are technically max movement speed for Raid Captain with 28-30% from Swiftness alone and 10%(12% with Level 3 effect) from support's Yearning Set and max attack speed when you're in Burst Mode, further more Swiftness will contribute in having more cooldown reduction to spam your skills even more often.
Bracelet
Bracelets provide beneficial effects to yourself or to your party members depending on the rolls.
Note: Bracelets should not be your top priority to optimize since it'll be much more efficient to optimize your other gear first. Bracelets are costly! So slowly build towards a Main Stat and a Sub Stat. Anything else is extra!
Check out the Bracelet Guide for more details.
Possible Special Effects to Roll:
Optimal
Combat Stats(Swiftness + Crit)
Circulate
Hammer
Wedge
Fervor
Ambush
Alternatives
Basic Effect(Strength)
Precise
Assail
Superiority
Sawtooth Blade
Weapon Power
Harvest
Expose Weakness
Dagger
Engravings
Class Engravings provide powerful stat boosts that dictate the playstyle of a class. Battle Engravings are generally used to increase damage. Below are the recommended Engravings for this build.
Check out the Engraving Guide for more details.
Starter Engravings
- Predator is the core part of build gameplay, as you can possibly have 1 minute 30 seconds of Burst Mode uptime if you can manage it well with very little Exhaustion debuff downtime, hence giving you a tremendous amount of boost of 30% Crit Rate and 20% Attack speed and Movement speed for a significant amount of time.
- Ambush Master provides the highest damage increase with no negative effects attached to it compare to any of the engravings the game if you can manage good back attack uptime.
Add-On Endgame Engravings
- Raid Captain is essentially max out potential most of the time , if you have more than 1747 Swiftness since it grants 30% Attack Speed and Movement Speed which then gets cap out with having a support in the party with their Yearning Set effect, being in Burst Mode also caps out your Attack Speed and Movement Speed as well.
- Grudge* is another common DPS engraving for most classes as it has no positional requirement.
- Mass Increase* increases Attack Power with a penalty of 10% reduced Attack Speed. Which is unnoticeable for Predator Slayer as you are most of the close to max speed with your high Swiftness stacking and being over-cap while being in Burst Mode.
- Adrenaline is a great engraving as a luxury Level 1 or 2 6th engraving as Predator Slayer spams their skills often enough to easily maintain it's stacks and the bonus Crit Rate helps compensate the low Crit Rate when outside of Burst Mode.
(*)These Engravings should only be used at Engravings Level 3.
Optimal Setups
Engravings are listed in order of priority from left to right.
Standard
Gear Sets
Check out the Gear Set Guide for more details.
Early Game
250-1100 gearscore
Providence Set
1250-1340 gearscore
Dimensional Set
Early Tier 3
1340 -1414 gearscore
Erupting Waves Set
Piercing Gaze Set
Craft any combination of the legendary gear sets listed above and try to push to 1415 as soon as possible.
Tier 3 Legion Raid Set
1415-1490-1580+ gearscore
Entropy Set
The name of your set will change with every higher tier gearset you acquire, but the set effect will remain the same. Look for the keyword of your set when recrafting it so you don't easily get lost.(e.g Entropy, Hallucination etc)
Sidereal Weapon
Recommended Sidereal Unity Effects for your Seraphic Transcendence Highlands are Thirain and Balthorr.
Check out the Sidereal Weapon Guide for more details.
Runes
Runes enhance skills by providing bonuses such as Attack Speed or Cooldown Reduction. Runes have limited availability and you cannot acquire them from the same source twice. For some runes there are 2 sources and as such, you can acquire two of the same rune. Therefore, it's important to place your Runes on skills wisely.
Check the Rune Guide for more details.
| Skills | Runes |
| Furious Claw | Judgment Conviction |
| Wild Rush | Quick Recharge Judgment |
| Final Blow** | Conviction Galewind Focus |
| Wild Stomp | Bleed Quick Recharge Purify |
| Mountain Cleave* | Galewind |
| Volcanic Eruption | Galewind(use a lower grade version if you are using Fatal Sword) |
| Guillotine | Focus |
| Brutal Impact | Galewind |
| Punishing Draw** | Galewind Quick Recharge Purify |
| Fatal Sword* | Galewind |
- Bleed can be paired with Wild Stomp to keep it permanently up for some extra tiny bits of damage through the course of the encounter.
- Galewind should be applied on almost all your damage skills to speed up their animations faster.
- Quick Recharge helps you with a chance of reducing the overall cooldown of skills.
- Purify can be slotted on Wild Rush or Wild Stomp as they're spam-able enough for high chances of removing a debuff.
- Conviction and Judgment combo can be use on Furious Claw, Final Blow and Wild Rush as they have good hit counts to proc the combo easily to obtain the buff for reducing skills cooldowns and solve mana issues if you have good DPS uptime.
- Focus is paired with Guillotine as the skill is near instant animation, thus it doesn't need to be paired with Galewind and you're able to reduce it's mana cost with Focus to solve the mana issues.
(*)Optional skill choices.
Gear Skill Tree
While Gems add benefits to skills, you can also increase the effects of Skill Tree themselves. Skill Tree levels go up to 5 and each level can increase the damage, cooldown reduction, or buff that they provide.
For more information on how to add equipment Skill Tree and how to get them, please visit our Skill Tree System Guide.
| Brutal Impact | Weak Point Detection Summary Execution or Charge Enhancement Furious Greatsword |
| Volcanic Eruption | Released Fury Bloody Eruption |
| Guillotine | Quick Prep Furious Blow Flame Slash |
| Furious Claw | Quick Prep Acrimony Driving Hit |
| Wild Stomp | Released Fury |
| Wild Rush | Excellent Mobility(Optional) |
| Mountain Cleave* | Quick Prep Weak Point Detection Flame Storm |
| Final Blow** | Quick Prep Released Fury Driving Hit |
| Fatal Sword* | Acrimony Weak Point Detection Lights Out |
| Punishing Draw** | Released Fury Chain Attack |
(*) & (**) Skill preference depending whichever you took.
- Brutal Impact and Volcanic Eruption damage tripods are high priority as these 2 skills are your highest burst damage skills.
- Quick Prep on Guillotine, Mountain Cleave, Final Blow and Furious Claw greatly helps reduce the skills massive cooldowns and sync up their cooldowns to possibly do a smooth pseudo-rotation with them.
Gems
Gems grant bonus damage and cooldown reduction to specific skills. You can only equip 11 of these Gems at a time so it is recommended that you prioritize the Gems for your most important skills.
Please visit our Gem System Guide for more information like how to create higher tier Gems.
Attack Gems
Brutal Impact
Volcanic Eruption
Guillotine
Mountain Cleave*
Final Blow**
Furious Claw
Fatal Sword*
Punishing Draw**
Cooldown Gems
Brutal Impact
Volcanic Eruption
Guillotine
Mountain Cleave*
Final Blow**
Fatal Sword*
Punishing Draw**
(*) & (**) These skills gems can be replaced with each other depending which skills you are using.
- Brutal Impact and Volcanic Eruption has the highest priority to get their Level 9 or 10 Attack Gems first as they are your highest burst damage skills in your kit then Guillotine next and the others.
- Try to sync up the Cooldown Gems level for smoother rotation spam.
Card Sets
Cards are an endgame system for maximizing your character. Below are the recommended sets for this class.
Check out the Card Guide for more details on how to obtain them.
Budget Card Set
Budget Card Set 2
This card set does not replace Light of Salvation set or Kazero's Legion Commanders set, but it can be use if you're new to the game and has set to get your Light of Salvation/Kazero's Legion Commanders set +18 or +30 yet.
Optional Card Set
Optimal Damage Card Set
Summary
- Predator Slayers loses their ability to use Bloodlust, but reward with high uptime of Burst Mode, if you are skilled enough to manage good DPS uptime to get high Fatigue stacks to reduce Exhaustion debuff duration.
- Swiftness stats is the priority stats to stack as high as possible for Predator Slayers, as it helps negate Mass Increase penalty and benefits from Raid Captain for damage increase while also providing you with a ton of cooldown reduction to get your skills spamming going.
- Wild Rush and Wild Stomp have Tripods/Skill Tree Node(Burning Rage, Earth Impact) to help sustain direct attacks to bosses for maintaining your Fury Meter gauge if you are unable to attack the boss while positioning. Damage Over Time effects such as Bleed and Burn does not proc Predator Fury Meter and Max Mana gain effect as they are not direct attacks.
- If you need more utility tools for Stagger and Destruction check, you can replace Final Blow and Mountain Cleave to Punishing Draw for extra Counter tool and Fatal Sword for a hefty Stagger check skill and also provides Level2 Destruction check.
Credits
Written by Rei
Reviewed by Starlast
