GWF - Useless?

yobhguod

So far on my GWF I am level 36, and I'm not very happy. with 1-33~ it was roughly easy to kill mobs single target/aoe and now....I feel like I'm hitting mobs with a paper sword...I have died 6 times since I hit 34. I have only died 8 times...Once in a dungeon and one more time when I was getting cocky in the earlier levels.

Please note: Since I hit level 30, I have went through (and I'm not joking here) almost 250 Potions of Healing (4000 Heal)...I have spent over 9 gold just on potions after 30.

Stats
(23) Strength
(17) Con
(16) Dex

Power: 1693
Critical Strike: 1027
Armor Penetration: 877
Recovery: 85
Defense: 647

Class Feature: Weapon Master Rank 3, Steady Determination Rank 3

Encounters are: Roar Rank 3, Takedown Rank 3, Flourish Rank 3
At Wills: Sure Strike Rank 3, Weapon Master Strike Rank 2
Dailys: Slam Rank 3

Feats/Paragon

Companion: Ioun Stone of Allure, Profane Runestone Rank 5(120 Crit) x2 and Eldritch Runestone Rank 6(8% Of Companions Stats). Ring/Neck both give 57 Power/57 Crit. Offensive slot for Ring/Neck: Radiant Enchantment Rank 5

I have switched between Armor Penetration and Critical Strike multiple times, each time I went crit because of the higher numbers. Armor Penetration seems like <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> in this game...The hardest I've hit mobs for was a 2.9k Flourish...yet I've heard of rogues/control wizards hitting way harder than that. I had a rogue say he was hitting for 3.5k + and a control wizard say she was hitting for 3k +. On average without keeping my Weapon Master Strike buff up, my crits go from 800 Roar, 2.1k Takedown and a 2.2k Flourish...all crits...It seems like GF and GWF are just absolute trash in this game. I dunno maybe it's because I'm not max level, but shouldn't lower levels determine how max level should feel like? If that's the case are GWFs doomed? I mean I'm using rank 5/rank 6 runestones and I'm still not seeing good numbers.

In dungeons: I'm always below trickster rogues and barely above control wizards (for the moment, I fear gwfs will drop off more). I queue'd for the Mad Dragon liar twice and each time I did it I had trouble killing adds. Took me 2 dailys and 3 determinations to kill 1 elite add by myself.....that's a very long time in a boss fight.

Conclusion: Not impressed, more sad that I spent 350,000 AD on runestones (replacing back and fourth) and getting upset that GWF's have a HUGE plateau effect. I have never seen a class this bad in a MMO, regardless of it being in the 'beta' or not. Even in GWs2 and WoW, the class balance was never THIS bad...I have a GF at level 25 and he actually hits harder than my GWF did at that level...Kind of sad if you ask me. I think I'll be leaving my GWF alone until they receive a major buff/overhaul.

judicas

Dont worry it will only get worse, GWF are in a sad state atm, the classes for playing are TR for DPS CW for control and aoe dps, DC for tanks because of **** shield.... and once you have that in your group ... get another DC for the overlap and TR for dps. GWF dont really bring anything to the table <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> for damage cant tank cant generate threat and god forbid if they do very very squishy, add in the fact you have to get hit to use tab instead of generation from attacking you will only be brought into groups for pity.

varunvs

yo did u get any reply on this....i am tired of GWF being useless both PVP and PVE, to explain he has no dmg at all , till he reaches lvl 30 he does decent but not enough dmg, i played with all characters classes on initial run and they have wonderful at will attacks dmg, let alone my at will attacks dont cross 100 dmg even with cricticals, they need to fix dat. and also no better aoe encounters.

shultzilla

You should be running your Cleric companion until your late end game.

At level 30, I was running Takedown, Flourish and Restoring Strike for Encounters.

Features: Weapon Master and Steel Blitz

I put the first 5 points in Deep Gash for the extra sustained DPS. I stacked Power>Recovery>Crit until 60, where the latter 2 change places. For my playstyle, Roar just doesn't fit in. You'll build more than enough Determination through killing mobs when soloing and Dungeoning. If you need that extra bit, face tank some hits.

Encounters should always be dropped, especially while in Unstoppable, as that's where you'll be building most of your AP from. My rotation for soloing was Flourish, TD, Restoring Strike. Slam should just about always be dropped when there's 4+ mobs. You'll grab aggro, build Determination, pop Unstoppable and drop your encounters which should get you just under 1/4th of your AP bar.

At the 20's I was rarely being out damaged, save for the few good TR's here and there. After 30, I constantly topped DPS charts, out dps'ing TR's by 300-500k. At 60, there is a drop off though. Damage is good, just not comparable to others in PvE. It's good in PvP, just lackluster in PvE. Just to give you some numbers, Flourish crits in the 10-11k range and I've had IBS break 15k with full stacks of SoTS on the target.

emilemo

Well, as wimpy as the GWF is right now, I just soloed Cloak Tower ( lvl 17 5man dungeon ) with my lvl 19 GWF. Total potions used - around 30 1000hp pots ( had a ton of them collected since I dont use much). My cleric died 3 times inside, I didnt die, it was super hard and felt rewarding when I finished it. Point is, yeah the class is broken in a bad way compared to others but if it fits your style of playing and you enjoy the 2h weapon, then just play.. If it becomes so bad its unplayable or ppl start kicking you from teams then move on to a new class or a new game

klaw10

Lifesteal+Cleric companion will help.

adhal81

I don't know how people are having it so rough playing GFW, I leveled from 1-60 last week on mine and it was an absolute breeze except mt hotenow due to a few mob mechanics. Since then in the T1 groups I've been in, armed in my crappy pvp gear with no enchants and no pet but my direwolf I've been 1 or 2 in damage. Could just be I'm lucky, or maybe it was because I took the time to learn the mechanics and top builds...

kemikemorya

My one answer to this thread:

Read this.