Instigator - Can you make it work?

tantivetyrell

Flanking manouvres caught my eye when the new module hit, and I let me GWF go all the way up the Instigator Capstone. Even with currently, destroyer being so damn good.

I'm talking lategame, what can we feat/power up to make the Instigator path shine? Overal Swordmaster might be the best choice for Instigator, because Weaponmaster Strike's second hit, hits from behind. So with high crit levels you can reliably have flanking manouvres proc with your at-will.
The tough part is that Instigator requires you to be hit for the bonus damage to build up, and hit to build up detirmination.

I also eyed Wrathful Detirmination as a feat, and postulated it might only be worthwhile on Instigator because it does not get any bonuses when using Unstoppable, whilst Destroyer and Sentinel do. Perhaps Instigator also requires one to build for high deflect.

Anyone with ideas about this path?

blackyluke

It sucks. Nearly all featpaths across all classes have the strong feats restricted to the last points in the tree (15 points +), but Instigator feats suck after 11 points (you only need 1 point in Flanking since enemies in PvE have control resist).
So if your a GWF its better to go Destroyer and take Student of the Sword (5), Vicious Advantage (5) and Flanking Maneuvers (1) since these are actually strong feats. However if your really lategame you will drop all Instigator feats since you will have 100% crit without Vicious Advantage and then you pick up Powerful Challenge in Sentinel for max. damage. Swordmaster is obvious as its the strongest PvE path overall. Weaponmaster's Strike is simply the best AoE at-will GWF has and Crescendo is the highest damage daily.
Wrathful Determination is not viable yet. As you will use Destroyer and Weaponmaster for now. Once we have gear that grants us 100% Crit without Weaponmaster we might want to use Wrathful Determination, but even then probably Steel Blitz is still stronger.
Deflect is too unreliable even if you go full deflect for PvE. You need to go HP to take hits.
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tantivetyrell

So it's buggered on all fronts? Has nobody made it work in on a higher level?
Now I'm thinking about Trample the fallen for Iron Vanguard, using the slows to increase damage and allied opportunity for the combat advantage. You lose the benefit if you don't use Weapon master Strike with Flanking Manouvres, knocking enemies down from the front.
Then stuck with wicked strike and threatening rush to make full use of damage boost. Yea...this featpath is looking worse delving deeper into it.


It's funny that Linebreaker Assault is so much better compared to Punishing charge. If it had some synergy with Flanking Maneuveres, and proc if you bursted through enemies MAYBE.

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So I've been thinking about the entire featline, and experimenting.
Theres something else I just found out with some testing. I used a gwf companion, and let em fight a group of mobs whilst I went behind a mob and hit em.

Flanking Maneuvers knockdown has a 12 second cooldown before procing again on the first or priority target. You can see the icon on an enemy. (If the stun in PVP would proc only once in 12 seconds, in a 1 vs 1 situation...this would be disasterous). When fighting more people, it doesn't seem to have that cooldown debuff in any 'side' targets. Plus I've had lots of trouble trying to activate Flanking Maneuvres using an Encounter.
Not So Fast I've never had work from behind, I've somehow had lucky shots with it from the side...which is weird. Mighty Leap doesn't seem to work with Flanking Maneuvers. Punishing charge I had incredible difficulty getting it to work with Flanking Maneuvers, I remember it worked once or twice by blind luck...again weirdness.

Instigator seems to be intended to mess up the group dynamic and response time of enemies, swooping around the fights deflecting attacks but it's just not doing it's job properly. Instigator also needs to get hit allot for its bonuses and detirmination to build up...which just sucks in this module's lategame. Conqueror GF at least can build up it's damage stacks on a raised shield. Instigator is also the only capstone which doesn't get somekind of bonus when in Unstoppable.

I'm sad. I found GWF boring to play before and deleted the character before I even went out of the tutorial, but the two new middle feat points introduced in this module; opened up a dynamic of play which completely changed my feelings on this class.
Right, so I'll keep improving this character I have for the time being...but might have to mothbal this character until a later update provides better conditions, if there will be any at all.

blackyluke

Idk why you dont stop trying Instigator is garbage atm as i explained if I even read Wicked Strike I shake my head. Trample the Fallen is useless in PvE.
GWF is not a utility class. Repeated Nerfs and changes has pushed it to a melee Damage Dealer. He does damage and if you don't go for max damage your straight up a liability for your group.​​