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xmarik69x
Member Posts: 37 Arc User
just returned to game after close to a year hiatus, so was wondering with mod 15 what was changed for the SW? I tried to find any mod 15 builds (i play a dps build), but couldn't find anything
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Besides that, SW still excels in one thing, HB temp. No subtlety here.
It's totally unbalanced.
What about DPS in M15? Is this still one of the worst in the game?
Is the temptation path is the only profit path?
Can SW succeed in dps relatively to other classes(GWF, GF etc) ?
> May be offtop here but.....
> What about DPS in M15? Is this still one of the worst in the game?
> Is the temptation path is the only profit path?
> Can SW succeed in dps relatively to other classes(GWF, GF etc) ?
SW DPS is completely viable. GWF and especially GF maintain an overall advantage, but that’s not new, and we’ll see how things sit after further balancing and bug fixes.
Contagion - Cleric
Testament - Wizard
Pestilence - Ranger
Dominion - Paladin
NIGHTSWATCH
Actually the top dps is GF being bugged, dealing +100% damage from a classfeat. So hard to tell what things will look like after the fix.
GWF, Hunter, TR and CW deal pretty good dps (focus).
In a Soulbinder loadout with a Dread enchant I did not meat one player (GF excludet), that dealt more focus damage even though my AOE is bad that way.
But I only had few occasions to run that setup and there were only few player with an adaequat performance, the average performance in NWO feels pretty low in >90% of cases, making it hard to compare classes.
CW is better than before, but IMO there are too many conditions on its optimal DPS with no middle ground (either you are maintaining every possible buff and are doing well or your damage is very bad), and the overall effect is somewhat disappointing considering all of the micromanagement that goes into pushing its DPS. SW is less punished by CC and phase change interruptions and currently deals more damage except possibly in a boss one-phase setup.
Contagion - Cleric
Testament - Wizard
Pestilence - Ranger
Dominion - Paladin
NIGHTSWATCH
http://nwcalc.com/index.html#/sw?b=1oa5:k6rwk5:8dep:5tb7d,1liii2i:150zzzv:1000000:1000000&h=0&p=slb&o=0
Dreadenchant is the go for Soulbinder.
AoE: is Cursed Bites, Firy Ball, Arms of Hadar
Singel: Hadar Grasp, SoulScorch, KF/Warlocks Bargain (at the start),
Daily: Spirits (singel), Accursed Souls or TT (Aoe)
Classfeats: Dust to Dust, ACC
Gear like all caster.
Stats: RI 100% CR, 85% CODG/Tong, 10k+recovery
That's basically my setup except that I'm currently not taking Helltouched and am using Parting Blasphemy instead since some bosses don't regularly (or ever) damage the player in a party. Parting Blasphemy isn't a lot, but it always works. Have you noticed more of an impact from Helltouched in your testing? I'm open to ideas.
Also, I'm always running Brood of Hadar over Immolation Spirits since it builds my Soul Sparks instantly and does high damage upfront. Spirits also has that bug of failing if you build AP too quickly and recast it while it's already active. Are you finding enough of a benefit to Spirits to use it despite that issue? (And, if nothing has changed since last I tested, Spirits is not benefiting from Soul Sight Crystal)
Contagion - Cleric
Testament - Wizard
Pestilence - Ranger
Dominion - Paladin
NIGHTSWATCH
next try
You can sacrifice 3/3 toughnees towards anything else, but I prefer the extra HP.
If your critchance is >100% you can go for this (5/5 Bloodpact as Human), wich is my actual setup on my fury build, I did not transfer it on my Soulbinder actually:
http://nwcalc.com/index.html#/sw?b=1oa5:k6rwk5:8dep:5tb7d,1uiio5i:150zzzv:1000000:1000000&h=1&p=slb&o=0
AP gain is very nice and 3% critchance in times of stat-inflation is no big sacrifice.
I honestly can´t tell if Helltouched is actually working as intended. It did work in the last mods from what I know.
It´s a debuff on your target. I will take a look at the debuff in my next runs. Parting Blasphemy is pretty much a dead feat to me, compared to others.
Some do go for "Sparkbinder", esp. if their sparkgain is low, maybe if your stats are lower and your critchance also, but you sacrifice 10 points from the dps tree thatlike and Infernal Wrath is a groupactive debuff same as all tier 4 and 5 feats are a significant dps buff.
The general stats should allways be like RI (arp) >crit (100%) >power.
Recovery I run at 10k+ actually, good for Killing flame and good for the "overall performance"
Immolation spirits do work fine in some situation from my experience. I swap between Brood and IS, depending on my actual sparks. The spark gain from Hadar grasp sometimes does not work fast enough for me to actually spam Soul Scorch constantly, and it is pretty important to have a full load asap at the start of some phases to deal "maximum-burst" coordinated with Crystal-artifact at once, so I tend to prefer IS>Brood in many situations.
still shows 0/0 points well on powers, it shows the point expenditure for feats but not how many points in the powers
That's because you will have enough points for all of your powers eventually. Prioritize the ones you will use most, then fill in the 4th points where you can. I believe Sharandar gives a lot of extra Power Points as well.
@schietindebux, thanks for your follow-up there. I can understand why you made the choices you did. I'm experimenting with Helltouched to see if various room-wide AoEs and other ambiguous sources of damage will proc it for bosses that don't appear to hit you directly.
For Soulbinder specifically, if you let your companion proc bondings before you hit Brood of Hadar, it's guaranteed to kick off the fight by filling up your Sparks and to set up the rotation that lets you use Soul Scorch in place of At-Wills. Once a player has 14-15k+ Recovery along with their 100% crit chance, I think Immolation Spirits becomes obsolete since it really isn't that good at producing Soul Sparks with its 50% chance per minion blast to produce 1. Either way, I agree that Sparkbinder feat is not worth it except arguably for lower-geared Soulbinder with low AP gain and low crit, in which case they should probably be playing Hellbringer instead for boss damage.
@xmarik69x, as for that bit you mentioned earlier about companions not being considered allies, that's actually a buff in most or all cases. For example, it used to be that Paladins' Aura of Solitude was useless because it was counting the player's companion as an ally, and that Aura requires that no friendly targets be nearby in order to function.
Contagion - Cleric
Testament - Wizard
Pestilence - Ranger
Dominion - Paladin
NIGHTSWATCH
Play damnation fairly similar to the usual templock HB. Pillar, dread, though arms of hadar works nicely for that spec now with extra CD, or hadar grasp for bosses.
IMO there is no real puppet build. I'd love to hear that I'm missing something, because I like the idea of Damnation, but it seems weak compared to Fury in actual gameplay. That being said, the powers that are good for Fury are generally good for Damnation, but Soulbinder path has an edge vs. Hellbringer when it comes to Damnation in that it ramps up Soul Investiture stacks more quickly with two good curse-consuming powers (Hadar's Grasp and Soul Scorch) in its primary rotation.
schietindebux already covered suggested powers pretty well for Soulbinder. You can reference the sidebar we're having about Dailies to decide which is best for you to run with at this stage in your build (I'm guessing Immolation Spirits).
Contagion - Cleric
Testament - Wizard
Pestilence - Ranger
Dominion - Paladin
NIGHTSWATCH
There is no difference in how you build Templock; just feat allocation and that you use a different power (Dreadtheft) at bosses. You're still playing as a DPS, just with the caveat that you happen to be healing and buffing allies as you attack. You don't even need to build Life Steal beyond what your feats and boons give you.
I don't even bother with Dreadtheft outside of boss encounters because simply killing everything with Fiery Bolt and Curse Bite is usually more efficient than trying to hit as many mobs as possible with a thin beam fixed on a single target's (corpse's) location.
Contagion - Cleric
Testament - Wizard
Pestilence - Ranger
Dominion - Paladin
NIGHTSWATCH
*scratches head in confusion*
One issue is that the key mechanic, Soul Investiture, can no longer have its duration refreshed once at maximum stacks and will fall off, having to be built back up again. Fury is also just plain stronger unless there's some trick to playing Damnation that most of us are missing.
Contagion - Cleric
Testament - Wizard
Pestilence - Ranger
Dominion - Paladin
NIGHTSWATCH
Contagion - Cleric
Testament - Wizard
Pestilence - Ranger
Dominion - Paladin
NIGHTSWATCH
Soulbinder-damn builds stacks Investiture faster but misses PoP as group relevant buff same as any debuffs.
So the setup is not viable in groups as 1. striker (weaker vs Fury) and a worse buffer.
You can build stacks of investiture pretty fast as Hellbringer too, using HG (1 stack)+POP+Wraith Shadow (2 stacks), but you are still inferior vs Fury in general.
AS it looks damnation is viable in solo content and PVP actually.
Temptation is allways a viable build to run in every content. Actually Temptation is one of the few builds that does not need to invest a lot of AD to be e full support.
All you do is PoP+Dreadtheft (at bosses+/- trash) and you can place warlocks Bargain on bosses (PoP, WB, DT), like that noone dies, btw. WB has the ability to heal teammates passively if placed on damage-immune bosses.
I got rare moments to run SB Fury as 1. striker, doing so I can dps pretty well.
Even runnnig HB Fury, my dps seems to be pretty good also vs 18k GWF in longer lasting fights, out-dps'ing most of them, maybe bad performance, can´t tell.
The most viable picks/builds for warlock in group content are:
1. Hellbringer-Temptation (full buff)
2. Hellbringer-Fury (dps/buff)
3. Soulbinder-Fury (1. striker)
I'm not good at making my own builds, but this is what I was thinking for a SB Fury DPS
Race: Tiefling Ability Scores: Charisma and Intelligence
At-Wills: Esence Defiler/Hand of Blight
Encounter: Arms of Hadar/Soul Scorch/Fiery Bolt
Passive: Snuff Out/All Consuming Curse
Heroic Feats:
Energizing Curse 4/5
Weapon Mastery 3/3
Empowered Ritual 3/3
Determined Casting 5/5
Desperate Restoration 2/3
Devastating Critical 3/3
Fury Feats:
Daughter's Promise 5/5
Critical Promise 5/5
Burning Soul 5/5
HellTouched 5/5
Executioner's Gift 5/5
Killing Curse 5/5
Creeping Death 1/1
Damnation Feats:
Relentless Curse 5/5
Temptation Feats:
Hope Stealer 5/5
At-Wills: Use Essence Defiler and whatever you want because you basically never cast either of them.
Encounters look more like Hadar's Grasp, Soul Scorch, Killing Flames (or Warlock's Bargain while boss has high HP, then swap to Killing Flames as its HP are depleted). You slot AoE powers only if you are forced to because you're caught on Soulbinder with no campfire to change to Hellbringer.
Dust to Dust, not Snuff Out for first class feature. Dust to Dust because you should be using the artifact off-hand bonus for +damage based on your Soul Sparks.
Energizing Curse is useless for Soulbinder. If you build right, you don't use an At-Will except maybe once to force your companion to enter combat and proc your bondings. Take Toughness instead.
Desperate Restoration is not useful.
You need Blood Pact of Cania. If you're human, your bonus points go here. 3/3 Devastating Critical, 2/5 for Blood Pact (5/5 if human).
Daughter's Promise is bad.
Relentless Curse is bad.
Hope Stealer is unnecessary.
Pick up Murderous Flames 5/5 and Brutal Curse 5/5.
You might want to cross reference a few guides and basic game information to help with your builds so that you know which ability scores do what, how various mechanics work, etc.
I'll link my Soulbinder guide when I've finished it.
Contagion - Cleric
Testament - Wizard
Pestilence - Ranger
Dominion - Paladin
NIGHTSWATCH
- Yes, you say you are choosing Tiefling, but I provided you information on Human for context because Blood Pact of Cania needed to be called out.
- I meant that you should reference game guides in general, not just SW-specific. Most class-specific guides do not devote a lot of space to covering basic game mechanics, but since you're recently returned to the game, you might benefit from an overall refresher.
- Soulbinder will be a little rough early on. I'd definitely suggest that you maintain your HB build as your go-to while you work towards your mid and end-game equipment and boons.
I returned to the game last year after a few years' absence, so I have some notion of where you're coming from. I was fortunate enough to run into players who helped me catch up on the state of the game and who gave me a solid starting point for tweaking my own builds.
Contagion - Cleric
Testament - Wizard
Pestilence - Ranger
Dominion - Paladin
NIGHTSWATCH