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So is there a way....
hasted
Member, Neverwinter Beta Users Posts: 0 Arc User
....to make a support-based control wizard? You know...focus on control and not have people jump down your throat because you're not the number 1 dps in the party.
I've made a CW already and he's getting very close to level 60, and he's a Thaumaturge AoE'er. The damage is nice and it provides some decent crowd control in the way of chill effects. But, I'm not looking to play a sorcerer...
I know the oppressor tree lacks damage, but I've always been interested in support roles. In D&D pen-and-paper I had an illithid psion focused on telepathy abilities, and in Dungeons & Dragons Online I vastly enjoyed my enchantment/conjuration wizard. Is lack of damage so bad in PvE? Isn't our role to provide crowd control and debuffing first and damage second?
So, my questions are:
1. Is it possible to make an oppressor function in PvE? PvP seems a stretch, but I've never been much interested in that (so long as I get my astral diamonds for the repeatable quest, I'm happy). I was an oppressor build back around level 30 and used my free respec to change to thaumaturge, and although the damage is nice, I don't like the role as dps (and when I don't get super high damage in the 'X' menu in a dungeon I feel like I didn't pull my weight). I find I had more fun as an oppressor than as a thaumaturge; dropping down ice terrain around the GF tanking the mobs, freezing mobs absurdly fast with frost ray (uber fun in PvP, too), casting singularity followed by a CoI and a tabbed entangle, etc.
2. Since an oppressor is ice-based CC, what would an arcane CC be? There's a multitide of CC spells (like RoE, entangle, shield, repel, singularity, oppression, etc) that are all arcane damage. Would it be possible to make a support/crowd control renegade hybrid? Focus more on recovery and such more than critical hits?
I've made a CW already and he's getting very close to level 60, and he's a Thaumaturge AoE'er. The damage is nice and it provides some decent crowd control in the way of chill effects. But, I'm not looking to play a sorcerer...
I know the oppressor tree lacks damage, but I've always been interested in support roles. In D&D pen-and-paper I had an illithid psion focused on telepathy abilities, and in Dungeons & Dragons Online I vastly enjoyed my enchantment/conjuration wizard. Is lack of damage so bad in PvE? Isn't our role to provide crowd control and debuffing first and damage second?
So, my questions are:
1. Is it possible to make an oppressor function in PvE? PvP seems a stretch, but I've never been much interested in that (so long as I get my astral diamonds for the repeatable quest, I'm happy). I was an oppressor build back around level 30 and used my free respec to change to thaumaturge, and although the damage is nice, I don't like the role as dps (and when I don't get super high damage in the 'X' menu in a dungeon I feel like I didn't pull my weight). I find I had more fun as an oppressor than as a thaumaturge; dropping down ice terrain around the GF tanking the mobs, freezing mobs absurdly fast with frost ray (uber fun in PvP, too), casting singularity followed by a CoI and a tabbed entangle, etc.
2. Since an oppressor is ice-based CC, what would an arcane CC be? There's a multitide of CC spells (like RoE, entangle, shield, repel, singularity, oppression, etc) that are all arcane damage. Would it be possible to make a support/crowd control renegade hybrid? Focus more on recovery and such more than critical hits?
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enjoy
Check out my CW Oppressor Tank Guide Here
for 1. I think you underestimate the damage boost you give to your group as a thamaturge.
for 2. I think you can realize that crit is better than recovery for ap generation with Critical Power so you just get better damage using crit vs recovery. However you should test yourself a high recovery build to check wheter it suits your playstyle, but I won't suggest you this since for the same cc-level you end up doing less damage (and your party too).
Check out my CW Oppressor Tank Guide Here
How am I derailing him? And you say I am biased while you are just sponsoring your build, sorry but the bias is on you.
He asked if it was possible to build an opp support build. Supporting is done better by going OTHER trees atm, it's not hard to understand, just read what the feat do and it's basically obvious that "support" is something that buffs the group/debuffs the mobs... all things oppressor lacks currently.
Then he asked if it was possible to go for a rene support build. Sure but when have to choose between stacking rec or crit, crit grants you higher uptime on NW, as good AP generation as rec (especially after 3k mark) and more actual dps, which isn't "necessary" but is still better.
Playstyle isn't particularly affected by oppressor spec, is much more affected by your gear choices. Your tanky build is nice but it affects your playstyle mostly thanks to the stats you chose, not the spec. You wouldn't be gimped by going another spec and playing with the same powers and gear, so I don't really get where the points in oppressor makes your build viable while other specs won't.
I'll admit I'm "sponsoring" my build, but its a response to his question/s. thats more than half of what the OP stated in his post. I'd take it as he really wants to go Oppressor and full support, which is exactly what I do, exactly how I play.
Supporting is done better by going other trees? He's asking for the possibilities of an Oppressor, Not other alternatives. Let's not ruin his thread by flaming each other, if you want to talk about Oppressor's gimpness, you're more than welcome to come in my thread and do so.
Check out my CW Oppressor Tank Guide Here
I have to apologize if I seemed to flame or troll or anything offensive, it wasn't my intention.
I want to expand mostly on a concept, that is the reason I like this game, and is related to the high skill cap. You can actually play very differently, but you aren't forced into playing that way cause of your spec, you can basically choose a playstyle and gear does the rest. Tankier? Glass cannon? Whatever you choose, this game seems to address support and healing as side effects of dps gains/dmg done. So if you aren't interested in topping the charts, you just avoid to look at them:) But that doesn't mean you should intentionally avoid dps stats that favors your playstyle.
What are the feats that defines the trees? In the case of thaum and rene it's the 21st point to be a very nice utility/support addition, in the case of thaum is about damage, since the tree is more about dps, in the case of rene it is utility in the form of +pow, mitigation debuff or healing. For oppressor last point in the tree is not defining much, I think it's all about alacrity, but alacrity seems to be a finisher/dps feat since it's based on killing blows and it doesn't make much sense for a purely support build that can't deal much damage. Also I'm not sure oppressor "is about cold spells" because every tree can be about cold or arcane if you look at the talents.
So I'l reiterate about his points:
1) Is it possible to make an oppressor function in PvE? yes, butconsider this: Alacrity needs some ability to finish targets to get refreshes and it, coi and ef aren't great, nor is ray of frost. Your last spell can be st, shield, rof or repel depending on the fight, this means CS and SS (which are spells directly buffed in the oppressor tree) are basically ignored and they probably are the best finishers (rather low cast time and good damage). So you want an oppressor build for alacrity? you may consider dps stats, because they increase your chances to play a perma freeze style. (see my point?)
2) Would it be possible to make a support/crowd control renegade hybrid? Yes ofc, you provide CA and Chaos magic so you want MM and Crit. Crit with Critical Power basically mimics recovery, but since AP generation is based on power cooldown, recovery doesn't give an enormous return in therms of AP over time, while crit does, and you don't want to just rely on EoS every 30s. MM also doesn't get much from recovery so crit is still additional damage, which reduce the time it takes to down mobs.
The main problem is that oppressor does need the ability to execute targets or can't work properly. If you can't deal the killing blow the feat is worth 0 and if you want a high recovery build, you probably don't need it that much.
I think (and that's my opinion so feel free to disagree) that an alacrity build can succesfully focus on crit from ST or shield or CS to keep up a very high uptime of IT, but CS must be tabbed and that means less AS.
It's hard for me to understand the design of the tree because it doesn't seem "more about control", it seems "more about killing blows" (and to me this sounds as ideal for pvp/solo).