Cleave?

[Rogtime]

Everyone in the top 10 is using cleave and Rending slash. I don’t remember anyone using that before. What about the Frenzy bonus and hits much harder? Has something changed?
plus the top 10 are using the Leap build. Wouldn’t charge work better because of crit rating?

[Rogtime]

I think I figured it out. Better crowd control?

[7string]

I think I was one of the early ones to start using Cleave after the new gear came out. I got a lucky drop of a bracer that increased Cleave damage by 200%. I did not think Cleave was great, but figured why not try it out. But then it started working very effectively. I posted some results on Discord, and I think a few of the better players may have picked up on it. I was running an XP warrior with a Fury/WL combo build, and did not have any celestial gear on it, so I had relatively low vitality and life. I immediately saw that Cleave allowed me to survive longer at higher levels than rending slash or frenzy. Frenzy does a lot of damage, but only to one primary target at a time, but does have the speed and healing buffs. Rending Slash does more damage to the primary target, but significantly less to all the other targets - only 75%, however the bleed damage over a prolonged period of time is significant - particularly with shockwave. Cleave overall does more damage to the mob immediately, and more importantly it slows the enemy down and reduces the amount of damage they deal to you. I’m by no means an expert, but I do see now that some of the top WL/Fury players like Romme and Cereblon are using it, so that is a good indication. They seem to be using is as the 2nd attack, whereas I’m still using it as primary...I may be wrong on that, but it is working for me OK, and with QOL Frenzy can fire just enough to keep my attack and movement speed buffs up. I really like how the new gear has opened up new possibilities for using abilities that were overlooked before.

And YES, it is all about getting through the mobs more quickly and being able to handle larger mobs without dying. Frenzy and/or Rending Slash are both probably better for the boss, so it depends on what is taking you the most time. For me it always seems to be the mobs.

[Rogtime]

Very interesting post. Do you suppose it’s the alacrity nerf that made people try it now? Also I saw a couple of people’s top damage was cleave over even sw. How can that be possible even with 200% damage increase?