Carving Sword

CARVING SWORD

FIEND COWL - MISTWALKER JACKET - ANY PLATE BOOTS - UNDEAD CAPE

A Tier

Awakening trats:

S tier: CDR

A tier:
HP, DEF, Life steal,

B tier:

Ability Damage, IP

C tier:

Attack damage, Attack speed

Having CDR trait increases both your ability to escape and to chase, which is an area that the carving sword does not excel at. Not saying carving has bad mobility, just that there are way more mobile weapons, and having CDR helps keeping up with them and also helps with when you have to escape rats.

As a more brawly build, the defensive awakening stats all offer great value. Ability damage and IP are good too, but I would prioritize the defensive stats. If no other options are available, attack damage and attack speed can offer SOME value, but is definitely not preferred.

Default Abilities and Passives:
Carving Sword:

Q1, W3, passive1

Fiend Cowl:
Purge, passive 1

Mistwalker Jacket:
Mist Cloud, passive 1
Any Plate Boots:
Rejuvenating Sprint, passive 2

Explanation:

Carving Sword is a very flexible weapon. You can kite very well with it by hitting Ws and spacing with E. When you take this approach, it is best to actually hit your enemy with your E while dashing away from them, then root them with W for more spacing. Use Mistwalker Jacket to timeout big enemy cooldowns such as Mercenary Jacket and Infernal Shield as much as you can so you could save Purge for their boots.

Strengths and weaknesses:

Good at Dismounting, no hard counters in 1v1.

Limited ability to chase down high mobility targets and escape rats.

Variations:

Tenacity Jacket is often used in place of Mistwalker. This trades the iframe for a lot more burst damage. Infernal shield is also strong especially if the enemy has no purge.

Main Food:

Eel stew

If you catch me live, feel free to join chat and ask any questions.