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13k Tactician Guardian Fighter- "Missionary" Build for PVE
odd111out
Member Posts: 173 Arc User
13k Tactician Guardian Fighter- "Missionary" Build for PVE
.... or yes, how to tank like a GIRL!!
Hi all, my GF is Aristide of the Hour and I started out on the Beholder server during beta. I leveled my GF after running a CW and DC, and based my build off a wish list of things I decided I wanted out of a tank... usually as I was lying dead on the ground with a Blade Spider drooling on my corpse.
When I rolled Aristide, I fell in love with the capstone of the Tactician's path. Figuring out how to get the rest of the build together took a bit of time. The last time I won a DPS race was Cragmire at level 23. That's not counting the on level SP I soloed after the rest of the team wiped with the boss at 90%. Gotta love those disappearing segments. I did win an no-Cleric GG Fardelver DPS race once against 2 GWF and a Conq-GF, largely due to a 100% uptime on Fighter's Recovery.
This Tactician build is very different from the playstyle of either Conqueror or Protector. Instead of providing DPS or Shield-blocking as much as you can, a Tactician focuses on group synergies, extreme mobility and a rotating bag of tricks. I can tank adds as if I were a CW, tank the boss, and run solo content with ease and minimal pots.
Warning: You will get kicked from pre-mades enough that you will need to learn to make them yourself. There's a lot of prejudice against non-Conqueror spec GFs, and the general GS requirements for premades are about 3,000 more than when I cleared most content for the first time in Beta. I used to speed run SP and ToS on Aristide with a GS of 8700. Now most premades list GS requirements between 11-12,000. Until you have endgame gear and higher level enchantments, you will need a cat or a stone to even get your foot in the door. You have to keep your chin up a bit... I have even gotten kicked from FH speed-runs where you spend the whole boss fight dealing zero damage. On the other hand, you can CN ring farm in a CW slot where even high DPS GWFs are considered a burden.
:rolleyes:
Race Selection:
You're going to be staring at your own behind quite a bit. Pick what you want to stare at. I chose Human for RP purposes and a Foundry series I am working on. If you don't chose Human, reduce the Heroic Feat Weapon Mastery and slot more Azure to compensate. If you choose a race that gives a Dexterity stat bonus, you will have to readjust gear a bit to make sure you don't end up with more Armor Penetration than you need (Dexterity adds to that stat). Refer to freehugs9's thread to figure out how much Armor Penetration you need based on your Dexterity.
Attribute Rolls:
You don't need a certain number in any one stat for this build, so it doesn't really matter if you have already rolled your character. If you have already started leveling and placed points in Dexterity, you will get a free respect at 60 and you can move them out at that point. You will want to place your points in Constitution for the AP gain and Strength for the Damage bonus & Guard meter increase. You can gear for Armor Penetration with greater ease than what you loose from choosing Dexterity over Strength.
My initial roll was: Strength = 14, Constitution = 17, Dexterity = 13, Intelligence = 10, Wisdom = 12, and Charisma = 10. So my final stats were Strength = 20, Constitution = 23, Dexterity = 15, Intelligence = 12, Wisdom = 14, and Charisma = 12.
FEATS:
Heroic Feats:
5/5 Action Surge: Gain 10% more Action Points from Guarding Attacks. Sometimes you must Guard, especially in mob pulls or in a boss fight where your Cleric is busy. This helps you get to a bacon saving Daily faster.
3/3 Strength Focus: Increase the effectiveness of Strength by 15%. Useful to increase your damage output given you are maxing Constitution for the AP gain.
3/3 Armor Specialization: Increase the effectiveness of Armor Class and Defense by 15%. You will have a lot of Defense because of your Tactician Cap which gives you AP based on a % of DR when you take damage you do not block.
5/5 Powerful Attack: Increase the damage of your Encounter and At-will Abilities by 10%. More damage = more AP.
3/3 Weapon Mastery: Increase the chance to Critical by 3%.
4/5 Ubiquitous Shield: Decrease the damage effects of Combat Advantage against you by 20%. There will be arguments for and against this particular feat. It will make a difference for you when Astral Shield is down or if your CW effs a Daily. It will mildly lower your AP gain based on your Tactician cap feat. So there is a trade off here, but one I've found useful to make in T2s. If you only run in a Guild with a very good DC, and you aren't Human, you might reduce this one and keep Weapon Mastery.
Tactician Paragon Feats
5/5 Fight On: Reduce cooldowns on Encounters by 10%. Useful because you aren't stacking Recovery beyond what you get from your gear.
5/5 Battle Trample: When Trample the Fallen would cause you to deal more Damage, gain 25% of your Weapon Damage in Threat and deal 25% of your Weapon Damage as Physical Damage. This is the main point at which you hold agro. You don't take the Heroic Feat and you don't run Enhanced Mark except for FH's final boss when you aren't doing any damage at all. I have had no difficulty holding agro while doing 6-7 million in damage in MC or a T2 while GWF and CWs do 20-30 million.
5/5 Inspiring Leader: Into the Fray increases your party damage by 5%. This really should be more given your sacrifice in damage, and to help make non-Conq specs more appealing. But one can only dream.
5/5 Powerful Strike: Lunging Strike provides 20% more threat and a 100% chance to Interrupt. This one is so great. And it also helps with agro holds in high level boss fights when your CWs aren't using so much control, and the threat production of Battle Trample drops.
1/1 Martial Mastery: Taking damage while not blocking now generates AP. You gain a bonus based on your Damage Resistance.
Protector Feats
5/5 Plate Agility: You gain 5% chance to Deflect. Overall, the build will give you a 20% chance to Deflect if you slot 3 Level 9 Silvery enchants in your Defense slots. You could gain a smattering more of health, which in testing didn't make much of a difference towards my survivability. Or.. you could turn a 26,000 hit into 6,500 in damage received. In boss fights and against elite mobs, I've found it more useful to gain the chance to deflect high levels of damage.
5/5 Shield Defense: +5 to Armor Class. This did provide a noticeable increase to the AP gain, when I took it after having taken the Tactician end cap.
** Note: I didn't take the Conqueror feat Improved Vigor because I am so rarely below 50% HP, and whenever I am my Regen and Life Steal correct things pretty fast. If you take that feat instead of going up the Protector tree, you can increase the Prone of Frontline Surge by 1 sec. This may or may not be really useful outside of hardcore PvP... since in PvE, the use of Frontline Surge is to gain threat and interrupt while your CW is on cooldown.
Combat Powers
At-Wills
Cleave: Bread and Butter.
Threatening Rush: Dash towards your target and Mark it, and also Mark nearby targets. Mark stays on until you take damage. No cooldown and helps you get out of CC red zones. If you use it to Mark a boss while soloing it, be careful you aren't Marking other add.
I did not slot more than the one required point into Tide of Iron and I never use it.
Class Features:
The first two are almost always, the second two are situational, usually in end boss fights when you are required to point boss damage towards one stable point.
Combat Superiority: For 5 seconds, deal 20% additional damage to foes after they hit you. Don't forget to let the add actually damage you and remember that each mob has to damage you for this to go into effect.
Trample the Fallen: When a foe is affected by Control powers, deal 15% additional damage. When both are in effect, Cleave can do about 30% more damage to mobs being Controlled (Steal Time, Icy Terrain, etc.)
Shield Talent: Increase Shield by 15%.
Enhanced Mark: Marked targets now build Threat while Marked, and you generate 33% more Threat while doing damage to them.
Encounters:
Lunging Strike: Very good for boss fights, or dealing with elite mobs. Once it's feated for interrupts, you can use a LS, Frontline, Bull Charge and Terrifying Impact rotation to pin things down 100% while your party DPSes them. Like Thoons in Dread Vault. You can also Interrupt Elite Mobs outside of Malaborg's boss fights, and the Shaman that spawns in the first fight of MC, though the Totemist is immune. However, in the mob clearing section I rarely slot it in the rotation.
Enforced Threat: AOE Taunt and helps recover Guard Meter. Almost never leaves my rotation during PvE mob clearing.
Griffon's Wrath: 3 charges and an annoyingly long animation cycle. I dropped this pretty early and slot it in for Skirmishes if I'm bored. Some GFs love it though, so it's worth playing around with.
Knee Breaker: Single target DoT than also Slows. And I love the sound it makes. When I was leveling, I found it useful in holding boss agro when you had one whose AOEs you must avoid (Pirate King).
Knight's Challenge: You and your victim do double damage to each other and half damage to anyone else. If you've Clericed before, this is the thin red line that sometimes stretches between the GF and the boss. I slot it in for soloing targets. You'll first get this for the Skirmish Garanduar the Vile, the one with the big green dragon. So useful. Use this in a rotation with LS and Kbreaker, and keep the dragon turned away from the group. Be careful using it in boss fights with huge AOE attacks latter, like Karandax. Use it only *after* you get knocked back by the wings.
Anvil of Doom: Nice damage and 50% damage once your target is less than 25% of HP. Practice learning to slot it in. Running dungeons on level is good for learning when it's safe to do this. In MC's second boss fight, do this during one of his lightening pillar periods.
Frontline Surge: Knock back the add and leave them Prone. Once you have it, it never leaves your Encounter rotation for mob clearing. With practice, you will learn how close you have to be to use it for ledge pushing. It is useful in Frontline-BC moves for some add that can resist the CC effect of BC if you use that first.
Into the Fray: The more they nerf AP generation, the more useful this one is. 15% AP generation, 5% more damage, temporary HP for all, and recovers your Guard meter. Kills your DPS, but the AP generation also applies to you. And all for 8 seconds out of every 12 during combat.
Bull Charge: Huge Knockback and Prone, very good damage. Extremely useful in dungeons where most mob is pushed, such as SP. When I slot out ITF, it's usually to slot this one to push. I also use it a lot in solo content because it's just hilarious to watch things fly around. Be careful using it for missions requiring that you kill certain mobs. In Sharandar, for instance, you will not get credit if you BC some mobs off ledges.
Dailies:
Terrifying Impact: Knock things down and leave them prone. What's great about Tactician Builds is that you essentially turn this into another Encounter. So instead of Frontline Surge on a 16 second cooldown, FS is on an 8 second cooldown, since you use TI as another "charge" of Frontline.
Fighter's Recovery: Insane Life Steal. Go from 5% HP to full with one Frontline.
Villain's Menance: 15% increased damage and immunity to CC. Use for Solo boss or solo elite mob fights where the elite is immune to CC.
Supremacy of Steel: This one is used a lot by other GFs, and if you are having trouble with your Terrifying Impacts being eaten by CW Dailies, you can play around with this one. I rarely slot it.
Indomitable Strength: High damage, single target, Prone. I use it in Gauntylgrym or to solo some elite mobs in Sharandar.
If I did not list something here, I did not spend points in that Power.
PVE Rotation:
At-wills: Cleave, Threatening Rush
Class Features: Trample the Fallen, Combat Superiority
Encounters-Push: Bull Charge, Frontline Surge, Enforced Threat
Encounters-Burn: Into the Fray, Frontline Surge, Enforced Threat
Dailies: Terrifying Impact, Fighter's Recovery
Optional: You can slot Villain's Menace to deal with Elites.
Optional: Full Prone Rotation: LS, Frontline, BC, Terrifying Impact.
PvP-Gauntylgyrm Rotation:
At-wills: Cleave, Threatening Rush
Class Features: Trample the Fallen, Combat Superiority
Encounters: Lunging Strike, Frontline, BC
Dailies: Indomitable Strength or Terrifying Impact, Fighter's Recovery
I average about 15-20 kills per session with 2-3 deaths. If you are solo on a point, most people ride on by. Holding points when Golems have spawned is fun, but if the Golems aren't on your team you need to let the CWs and DCs flush the enemy out. Don't waste your rotation on a Golem, wait till you have a clean shot. Read over Envy's DPS Build and also Scrotobagins' DPS Build for good advice and pointers in dealing with different classes.
Sharandar Boons:
Dark Fey Hunter: 250 Power
Fey Precision: 250 Critical
Elven Haste: 3% AP Gain. Added to Constitution that's 15%, with ITF 30% AP Gain.
Elven Ferocity: some damage?
Elven Resolve: Guard Meter recovers 10% faster in Combat.
Active Companion Bonuses:
1. Ioun Stone of Allure (Purple): 10% to Slow Target on Encounter Use
2. Panther (Purple): Increases Damage Against Prone Targets by 10%
3. Helmite Paladin Ghost (Green): +55 Recovery and +55 Regen
4. Skeletal Dog (Blue): +195 Life Steal
5. Vicious Dire Wolf: 5% Chance to Interrupt Target (works on At-wills & Encounters)
Some money saving was involved here. I had the Panther and the Vicious Dire Wolf, and the Paladin in the bank from the event. But the Paladin and the Skeletal Dogs are not too expensive on the AH right now, and I chose to boost two of my survivability stats with them. I also have found the two procs from the Wolf and the Stone to be often and useful, making my choice not to get a cat a pretty good one at this point.
To follow: Gear and Enchantments in next post...
.... or yes, how to tank like a GIRL!!
Hi all, my GF is Aristide of the Hour and I started out on the Beholder server during beta. I leveled my GF after running a CW and DC, and based my build off a wish list of things I decided I wanted out of a tank... usually as I was lying dead on the ground with a Blade Spider drooling on my corpse.
When I rolled Aristide, I fell in love with the capstone of the Tactician's path. Figuring out how to get the rest of the build together took a bit of time. The last time I won a DPS race was Cragmire at level 23. That's not counting the on level SP I soloed after the rest of the team wiped with the boss at 90%. Gotta love those disappearing segments. I did win an no-Cleric GG Fardelver DPS race once against 2 GWF and a Conq-GF, largely due to a 100% uptime on Fighter's Recovery.
This Tactician build is very different from the playstyle of either Conqueror or Protector. Instead of providing DPS or Shield-blocking as much as you can, a Tactician focuses on group synergies, extreme mobility and a rotating bag of tricks. I can tank adds as if I were a CW, tank the boss, and run solo content with ease and minimal pots.
Warning: You will get kicked from pre-mades enough that you will need to learn to make them yourself. There's a lot of prejudice against non-Conqueror spec GFs, and the general GS requirements for premades are about 3,000 more than when I cleared most content for the first time in Beta. I used to speed run SP and ToS on Aristide with a GS of 8700. Now most premades list GS requirements between 11-12,000. Until you have endgame gear and higher level enchantments, you will need a cat or a stone to even get your foot in the door. You have to keep your chin up a bit... I have even gotten kicked from FH speed-runs where you spend the whole boss fight dealing zero damage. On the other hand, you can CN ring farm in a CW slot where even high DPS GWFs are considered a burden.
:rolleyes:
Race Selection:
You're going to be staring at your own behind quite a bit. Pick what you want to stare at. I chose Human for RP purposes and a Foundry series I am working on. If you don't chose Human, reduce the Heroic Feat Weapon Mastery and slot more Azure to compensate. If you choose a race that gives a Dexterity stat bonus, you will have to readjust gear a bit to make sure you don't end up with more Armor Penetration than you need (Dexterity adds to that stat). Refer to freehugs9's thread to figure out how much Armor Penetration you need based on your Dexterity.
Attribute Rolls:
You don't need a certain number in any one stat for this build, so it doesn't really matter if you have already rolled your character. If you have already started leveling and placed points in Dexterity, you will get a free respect at 60 and you can move them out at that point. You will want to place your points in Constitution for the AP gain and Strength for the Damage bonus & Guard meter increase. You can gear for Armor Penetration with greater ease than what you loose from choosing Dexterity over Strength.
My initial roll was: Strength = 14, Constitution = 17, Dexterity = 13, Intelligence = 10, Wisdom = 12, and Charisma = 10. So my final stats were Strength = 20, Constitution = 23, Dexterity = 15, Intelligence = 12, Wisdom = 14, and Charisma = 12.
FEATS:
Heroic Feats:
5/5 Action Surge: Gain 10% more Action Points from Guarding Attacks. Sometimes you must Guard, especially in mob pulls or in a boss fight where your Cleric is busy. This helps you get to a bacon saving Daily faster.
3/3 Strength Focus: Increase the effectiveness of Strength by 15%. Useful to increase your damage output given you are maxing Constitution for the AP gain.
3/3 Armor Specialization: Increase the effectiveness of Armor Class and Defense by 15%. You will have a lot of Defense because of your Tactician Cap which gives you AP based on a % of DR when you take damage you do not block.
5/5 Powerful Attack: Increase the damage of your Encounter and At-will Abilities by 10%. More damage = more AP.
3/3 Weapon Mastery: Increase the chance to Critical by 3%.
4/5 Ubiquitous Shield: Decrease the damage effects of Combat Advantage against you by 20%. There will be arguments for and against this particular feat. It will make a difference for you when Astral Shield is down or if your CW effs a Daily. It will mildly lower your AP gain based on your Tactician cap feat. So there is a trade off here, but one I've found useful to make in T2s. If you only run in a Guild with a very good DC, and you aren't Human, you might reduce this one and keep Weapon Mastery.
Tactician Paragon Feats
5/5 Fight On: Reduce cooldowns on Encounters by 10%. Useful because you aren't stacking Recovery beyond what you get from your gear.
5/5 Battle Trample: When Trample the Fallen would cause you to deal more Damage, gain 25% of your Weapon Damage in Threat and deal 25% of your Weapon Damage as Physical Damage. This is the main point at which you hold agro. You don't take the Heroic Feat and you don't run Enhanced Mark except for FH's final boss when you aren't doing any damage at all. I have had no difficulty holding agro while doing 6-7 million in damage in MC or a T2 while GWF and CWs do 20-30 million.
5/5 Inspiring Leader: Into the Fray increases your party damage by 5%. This really should be more given your sacrifice in damage, and to help make non-Conq specs more appealing. But one can only dream.
5/5 Powerful Strike: Lunging Strike provides 20% more threat and a 100% chance to Interrupt. This one is so great. And it also helps with agro holds in high level boss fights when your CWs aren't using so much control, and the threat production of Battle Trample drops.
1/1 Martial Mastery: Taking damage while not blocking now generates AP. You gain a bonus based on your Damage Resistance.
Protector Feats
5/5 Plate Agility: You gain 5% chance to Deflect. Overall, the build will give you a 20% chance to Deflect if you slot 3 Level 9 Silvery enchants in your Defense slots. You could gain a smattering more of health, which in testing didn't make much of a difference towards my survivability. Or.. you could turn a 26,000 hit into 6,500 in damage received. In boss fights and against elite mobs, I've found it more useful to gain the chance to deflect high levels of damage.
5/5 Shield Defense: +5 to Armor Class. This did provide a noticeable increase to the AP gain, when I took it after having taken the Tactician end cap.
** Note: I didn't take the Conqueror feat Improved Vigor because I am so rarely below 50% HP, and whenever I am my Regen and Life Steal correct things pretty fast. If you take that feat instead of going up the Protector tree, you can increase the Prone of Frontline Surge by 1 sec. This may or may not be really useful outside of hardcore PvP... since in PvE, the use of Frontline Surge is to gain threat and interrupt while your CW is on cooldown.
Combat Powers
At-Wills
Cleave: Bread and Butter.
Threatening Rush: Dash towards your target and Mark it, and also Mark nearby targets. Mark stays on until you take damage. No cooldown and helps you get out of CC red zones. If you use it to Mark a boss while soloing it, be careful you aren't Marking other add.
I did not slot more than the one required point into Tide of Iron and I never use it.
Class Features:
The first two are almost always, the second two are situational, usually in end boss fights when you are required to point boss damage towards one stable point.
Combat Superiority: For 5 seconds, deal 20% additional damage to foes after they hit you. Don't forget to let the add actually damage you and remember that each mob has to damage you for this to go into effect.
Trample the Fallen: When a foe is affected by Control powers, deal 15% additional damage. When both are in effect, Cleave can do about 30% more damage to mobs being Controlled (Steal Time, Icy Terrain, etc.)
Shield Talent: Increase Shield by 15%.
Enhanced Mark: Marked targets now build Threat while Marked, and you generate 33% more Threat while doing damage to them.
Encounters:
Lunging Strike: Very good for boss fights, or dealing with elite mobs. Once it's feated for interrupts, you can use a LS, Frontline, Bull Charge and Terrifying Impact rotation to pin things down 100% while your party DPSes them. Like Thoons in Dread Vault. You can also Interrupt Elite Mobs outside of Malaborg's boss fights, and the Shaman that spawns in the first fight of MC, though the Totemist is immune. However, in the mob clearing section I rarely slot it in the rotation.
Enforced Threat: AOE Taunt and helps recover Guard Meter. Almost never leaves my rotation during PvE mob clearing.
Griffon's Wrath: 3 charges and an annoyingly long animation cycle. I dropped this pretty early and slot it in for Skirmishes if I'm bored. Some GFs love it though, so it's worth playing around with.
Knee Breaker: Single target DoT than also Slows. And I love the sound it makes. When I was leveling, I found it useful in holding boss agro when you had one whose AOEs you must avoid (Pirate King).
Knight's Challenge: You and your victim do double damage to each other and half damage to anyone else. If you've Clericed before, this is the thin red line that sometimes stretches between the GF and the boss. I slot it in for soloing targets. You'll first get this for the Skirmish Garanduar the Vile, the one with the big green dragon. So useful. Use this in a rotation with LS and Kbreaker, and keep the dragon turned away from the group. Be careful using it in boss fights with huge AOE attacks latter, like Karandax. Use it only *after* you get knocked back by the wings.
Anvil of Doom: Nice damage and 50% damage once your target is less than 25% of HP. Practice learning to slot it in. Running dungeons on level is good for learning when it's safe to do this. In MC's second boss fight, do this during one of his lightening pillar periods.
Frontline Surge: Knock back the add and leave them Prone. Once you have it, it never leaves your Encounter rotation for mob clearing. With practice, you will learn how close you have to be to use it for ledge pushing. It is useful in Frontline-BC moves for some add that can resist the CC effect of BC if you use that first.
Into the Fray: The more they nerf AP generation, the more useful this one is. 15% AP generation, 5% more damage, temporary HP for all, and recovers your Guard meter. Kills your DPS, but the AP generation also applies to you. And all for 8 seconds out of every 12 during combat.
Bull Charge: Huge Knockback and Prone, very good damage. Extremely useful in dungeons where most mob is pushed, such as SP. When I slot out ITF, it's usually to slot this one to push. I also use it a lot in solo content because it's just hilarious to watch things fly around. Be careful using it for missions requiring that you kill certain mobs. In Sharandar, for instance, you will not get credit if you BC some mobs off ledges.
Dailies:
Terrifying Impact: Knock things down and leave them prone. What's great about Tactician Builds is that you essentially turn this into another Encounter. So instead of Frontline Surge on a 16 second cooldown, FS is on an 8 second cooldown, since you use TI as another "charge" of Frontline.
Fighter's Recovery: Insane Life Steal. Go from 5% HP to full with one Frontline.
Villain's Menance: 15% increased damage and immunity to CC. Use for Solo boss or solo elite mob fights where the elite is immune to CC.
Supremacy of Steel: This one is used a lot by other GFs, and if you are having trouble with your Terrifying Impacts being eaten by CW Dailies, you can play around with this one. I rarely slot it.
Indomitable Strength: High damage, single target, Prone. I use it in Gauntylgrym or to solo some elite mobs in Sharandar.
If I did not list something here, I did not spend points in that Power.
PVE Rotation:
At-wills: Cleave, Threatening Rush
Class Features: Trample the Fallen, Combat Superiority
Encounters-Push: Bull Charge, Frontline Surge, Enforced Threat
Encounters-Burn: Into the Fray, Frontline Surge, Enforced Threat
Dailies: Terrifying Impact, Fighter's Recovery
Optional: You can slot Villain's Menace to deal with Elites.
Optional: Full Prone Rotation: LS, Frontline, BC, Terrifying Impact.
PvP-Gauntylgyrm Rotation:
At-wills: Cleave, Threatening Rush
Class Features: Trample the Fallen, Combat Superiority
Encounters: Lunging Strike, Frontline, BC
Dailies: Indomitable Strength or Terrifying Impact, Fighter's Recovery
I average about 15-20 kills per session with 2-3 deaths. If you are solo on a point, most people ride on by. Holding points when Golems have spawned is fun, but if the Golems aren't on your team you need to let the CWs and DCs flush the enemy out. Don't waste your rotation on a Golem, wait till you have a clean shot. Read over Envy's DPS Build and also Scrotobagins' DPS Build for good advice and pointers in dealing with different classes.
Sharandar Boons:
Dark Fey Hunter: 250 Power
Fey Precision: 250 Critical
Elven Haste: 3% AP Gain. Added to Constitution that's 15%, with ITF 30% AP Gain.
Elven Ferocity: some damage?
Elven Resolve: Guard Meter recovers 10% faster in Combat.
Active Companion Bonuses:
1. Ioun Stone of Allure (Purple): 10% to Slow Target on Encounter Use
2. Panther (Purple): Increases Damage Against Prone Targets by 10%
3. Helmite Paladin Ghost (Green): +55 Recovery and +55 Regen
4. Skeletal Dog (Blue): +195 Life Steal
5. Vicious Dire Wolf: 5% Chance to Interrupt Target (works on At-wills & Encounters)
Some money saving was involved here. I had the Panther and the Vicious Dire Wolf, and the Paladin in the bank from the event. But the Paladin and the Skeletal Dogs are not too expensive on the AH right now, and I chose to boost two of my survivability stats with them. I also have found the two procs from the Wolf and the Stone to be often and useful, making my choice not to get a cat a pretty good one at this point.
To follow: Gear and Enchantments in next post...
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
As you level your GF, remember that the in-game suggestions are not always and sometimes rarely good advice. Focus on Defense, Power and a good weapon. You will need at least 1000 in Critical, Life Steal or Regen for any of those three to make a real difference in a dungeon. There is some really good green gear out there, and nothing beats an enchantment slot. Go ahead and slot at least level 2s and level 3s in your gear. Don't forget your shirt and pants, and also that you have to manually open your character screen to change your left ring slot. Keep up with your gear. At least every three levels go to the AH and make sure your items are comparable in stats to what is out there for your level. If you spend any AD while leveling, I recommend spending it on your weapon.
When you hit 60, if you haven't already acquired your gear via the AH or farming on an alt, focus on getting a 2 piece bonus and then a 4 piece KC. End game gear for this Tactician build is PvE mob clear with Knight's Captain, and a Solo-Boss Fight +850 Armor Pen (2+Knight Captain and 2+High General). You'll find it hard to get into T2s with a KC set because your GS will be so low. Take the 2+KC bonus and choose really good blue pieces with regen stats, and you will have a GS high enough for T2s with only Rank 5s.
I built this set first and cleared most content with it before working on my KC set:
Head: Helm of the High General
Chest: High General's Armor
Arms: Antiquated Knight Captain's Gauntlets
Feet: Antiquated Knight Captain's Greaves
On the test server, I had a real difficult time keeping the Timeless set bonus in effect. A lot of the Encounters that I use have high cooldowns, I don't stack Recovery, and sometimes you can't spend that particular encounter because a CW Daily has been used. As far as I could tell, I wasn't getting the Timeless stack if Singularity ate my Frontline.
You should take set bonuses with a grain of salt. As we've seen, they can be nerfed. And during beta, GFs using Timeless were openly scorned and pestered for their useless gear in T2 farming. Anyone with the current "BiS" T1 Knight Captain set would be flat out kicked. I only use Knight Captain if either I know the group, or I'm asked, or it's a boss fight that I am essentially tanking rather than DPSing. And since the Knight Captain has a lower GS than the +850 Armor Pen set, I join zone groups in that and do my solos & skirmishes. The other benefit is that you don't have to farm a whole T2 set ontop of a T1 set, and you save on 2 Dark Enchantments, as you are only switching out 2 pieces to change set bonuses. With the +850 set bonus, you will have a 22% Armor Penetration rating and 24% once you get the Armor Pen boon from the upcoming Shadowmantle release.
Head: Antiquated Helm of the Knight Captain
Chest: Antiquated Knight Captain's Armor
Arms: Antiquated Knight Captain's Gauntlets
Feet: Antiquated Knight Captain's Greaves
The biggest change between the sets is going from 22% Armor Penetration to 17%.
Neck: Ancient Exorcist's Necklace of Blessings
Right Ring: Ancient Berserker's Ring of Cleaving
Left Ring: Ancient Berserker's Ring of Cleaving
Belt: Nefarious Belt of Youth
Optional: You can slot any blue belt with Regen to increase that stat or another to focus on something else. The important part is that your belt have an Offensive Slot.
Shirt: Gemmed Exquisite Shirt
Trousers: Gemmed Exquisite Pants
Main Hand: Ancient Grand Knight's Longsword
Shield: Ancient Grand Knight's Shield
** Grants +450 Defense 2+Piece Bonus
Enchantments
Weapon Enchantment: Bilethorn. (Currently a Greater, would love a Perfect.)
** I tested this build out with Lesser Plaguefire, Delozoun Energy, and Bronzewood. I went with Bilethorn because I had a noticeably easier time with agro management than I did with either of the two weapon enchants that didn't hit a second time. Plaguefire was a close second, but it is so common, and the agro hold was better with Bilethorn.
Armor Enchantment: Elven Battle. (Greater)
** I tested this build out with Soulforged, Negation and Briartwine. The benefits in PvE to this build from 150% more immune to Slows and immobilizes, plus a reduction in the time you are CC'd is hands down the best benefit. So much of what you do is setting up lines for Frontline and Terrifying Impact, as well as maneuvering mobs to where you want them on the battlefield. Elven Battle will greatly reduce the times you miss the best shot for those encounters, and helps you will you tank a lot of Elites.
General Gear Enchantments:
Defensive: Silvery for Deflect.
Offensive: Azure-Radiant.
I have hit 21.5% Critical Chance in my boss gear, but adding more Azures to this stat goes quite a bit to waste due to Diminishing Returns. If I slotted all the rest of my Offense slots in Azure I would reach 23.5%. So, the rest I slotted Radiant for Power. I determined that in order to drop .5 seconds off my Encounters, I would have to slot 1000 more in Recovery, and I decided that Power was a better choice. This build only spams Into the Fray, and uses Frontline and Enforced Threat to manage how a mob encounter unfolds. I only very rarely am left wishing Frontline was up a tiny bit faster. As far as boss fights go, the build's gear gives the Armor Pen you need, and Knight's Challenge takes care of the rest of your DPS. You can slot according to your income, but if you spend anything I would save it for the Defense Silvery slots. I have reached 20% Deflection in my Build with 3 Rank 9s, up from the 15% from the gear and Feats, which is a noticeable jump.
Companion: Ioun Stone of Allure:
Offense: Profane Runestone, Rank 9
Offense: Profane Runestone, Rank 9
Defense: Eldritch Runestone, Rank 9
Ring: Ancient Berserker's Ring of Cleaving
Neck: Bloodied Frostwolf Pelt
Icon:Ancient Royal Priest's Icon
Pet Bonuses:
Armor Penetration = 292
Critical Strike = 844
Life Steal = 292
Power = 1290
Recovery = 356
Regeneration = 100
** Note, when I go into GG, I trade out my Bloodied Frostwolf Pelt and wear that on my Character.
General Thanks and Reference Threads:
I'd like to extend a thanks to Leeroy Jenkins, who first introduced me to this forum and the concept of builds. (This is my first MMO.) Also to my favorite in game GF Zexxx, who showed me how to be a GF and clear CN, which I thought would never happen for me.
I'd also like to thank the writers of the other Guides I will list below, and for everyone whose done math on the GF, and to everyone I've done runs with as long as you didn't ninja any loot.
Guardian Fighter Scrotobagins Regen Tank and DPSBuilds
Rokuthy's Hybrid Tanking Build (GF) for End Game PvE (and PvP) content
Envy's DPS Guardian Fighter compendium
GF Statistical Data (Avoiding Diminishing Returns)
Con (GWF) and Dex (GF) are now addative to Armor Penetration
Thanks all.
If anyone has any questions about running as a Tactician, ask away and I'll try to answer you.
It's good to see someone promoting elven battle. From my experience, it's a pretty good enchant for Gf's, but isn't promoted as much as it could be. As for a weapon enchant, I think lifedrinker produces more agro than bilethorn, but I don't know for sure. Lifedrinker would help with the attempt to get more lifesteal (not much of a difference in lifesteal, but it's something) while bilethorn would do more damage. The problem with both of these is that they scale off of weapon damage, which the GF has the lowest base weapon damage. That's why I personally use bronzewood, though I don't claim that it's better than the other two. The other two are good for holding agro, which brings up another question.
I support your use of elven battle. I've always wanted to try the Thunderhead enchant, as it apparently has strong agro holding capabilities. While it won't help you as much as the player, it (apparently, don't quote me) can generate a lot of agro when it activates, which, as a Tact GF, shouldn't be too hard to do.
Your build is pretty much what I was hoping to achieve with the Tactician, but I didn't know if such stats would be possible. Thanks for putting in the effort to make the guide (which is very well written)! Anyway, it'd be nice to see this in action. Perhaps we can meet up in game sometime.
@pingconchere
By the way, have you considered how Module 2 will affect the build? There are artifacts, boons, and more sets coming out, and the "new" paragon path has the passive that makes us immune for 5 seconds after using a daily, which synergizes with the Tactician path really well.
Happy Thanksgiving! (Says the now-obviously American)
EDIT: :cool: I like the honesty.
I realy liked your guide so i want to ask you if you allow me to share in the mmominds.com ?
Linkingirl
I think that agro generation with Weapon Enchantments might be different for builds that use Trample the Fallen-Battle Trample, and builds that don't or that use an unfeated Trample. To give a general idea of what happens when you slot in Trample-Battle Trample and when you don't with a Bilethorn, and just reading off in-game combat logs:
Trample-Battle Trample w. Knee Breaker v. 1 Target Dummy & Knight Captain Set
Knee Breaker = 17 Hits x 262 Damage = 4,454
Bilethorn = 3 Triggers (35, 11, 71) = 117 Damage
Trample-Battle Trample w. Knee Breaker v. 1 Target Dummy & Knight Captain Set & 3 Cleaves
Knee Breaker = 17 Hits x 323 Damage = 5,491
Bilethorn = 12 Triggers (38,35,33,37,11,64,11,65,11,67,11,72) = 455 Damage
Cleave = 3 Hits (1173, 1184, 1400) = 3757 Damage
Battle Trample = 3 Triggers (135, 142, 158) = 435 Damage for the 3 Cleaves
No Class Features w. Knee Breaker v. 1 Target Dummy & Knight Captain Set
Knee Breaker = 17 Hits x 245 Damage = 4165 Damage
Bilethorn = 3 Triggers (32, 63, 11) = 106 Damage
No Class Features w. Knee Breaker v. 1 Target Dummy & Knight Captain Set & 3 Cleaves
Knee Breaker = 17 x 239 = 4063 Damage
Bilethorn = 12 Triggers (37,33,39,36,73,11,11,72,11,70,11,62) = 466 Damage
Cleave = 3 Hits (733, 787, 943) = 2463 Damage
All were non-Critical for both Knee Breaker and Cleave. Not meant to be statistical, just at a glance.
The thing I think to remember is that Battle Trample applies 25% of weapon damage as Threat each time it triggers and you can get 9-12 Cleaves off per-use of Knee Breaker. Which means that Battle Trample produces Threat on an un-Marked Target 9-12 times while a CC effect is on the target. Elsewhere, I have read that DoT Poison Effects cannot be blocked, so I've always figured mobs can't defend against them either. And the consistency of Bilethorn Triggers seems to bear that out (not on dummies, but on mobs in the Arcane Reservoir).
For a Tactician spec, you combine this effect (Battle Trample & Poison DoT) to generate threat in the absence of DPS. And you get this threat in addition to using Marks. I know several Conq-spec GFs who run Bronzewood and didn't face the agro problems that I did. I have always gathered that their sheer DPS usually generated whatever threat they needed, as Bronzewood "marks" seem just to be debuffs and not the same Marks that double threat generation. I honestly don't know about Lifedrinker's agro, but I have 5% Life Steal and 7.5% Regen in my Knight Captain set, and have been satisfied enough that a little more Life Steal isn't enough of a reason to at least half the amount of weapon damage that I do with Bilethorn.
Edit: What I forgot to point out is that I think Bilethorn's triggers on Marked targets (from something like Threatening Rush and Enforced Threat) do generate double Threat, even though they don't trigger Battle Trample. It's pretty much the only thing that I think accounts for what I see when I use Cleave w. Bronzewood or Cleave w. Bilethorn on a CC target and then back away to watch how long I keep agro without additional damage.
The thing about Thunderhead is that it's a chance to proc only when you are critically struck, and that it has a 60 second cooldown. What makes me wary of it in PvE is the 60 second cooldown. I would be a lot more excited about it without the cooldown. And at any rate, it doesn't provide the consistent assistance in controlling the battlefield as the resistance to CC given by Elven Battle. And it's rendered useless whenever you block. I could see myself putting this on my GWF.
I will not be respect-ing Aristide to the new Paragon Path, since that means giving up both Frontline Surge and Trample the Fallen, both of which are the core of what makes this Tactician Build work. Also, I have no interest in the new GF gear set. I never bothered getting the new Sharandar BiS weapon largely because after over 150+ MC with only one Fragment drop, it means getting out my credit card. I have looked a little bit at the boons and Companion System and will try to list what I plan to pick at some point this weekend. When life is a bit smoother.
But all in all, the GF is definitely getting the short stick this time.
Happy Thanksgiving to all as well!!
Yes, of course, and thank you!!
I would've said to stick with plaguefire, but as you said, it's far too common. More unused enchants, please.
Same here. Elven battle is better than Thunderhead, for sure. I simply want to try Thunderhead because, well, it's underrated. I like underrated because it makes me hipster. I think. Admittedly, the cooldown limits the effectiveness of the enchant, so Elven battle is obviously the better choice. Again, this is why I want to start that enchantment thread: to see just what each enchant does.
Agreed. I don't whine about it like others I know, though. The GF can still make do with what we have. I also figured you wouldn't switch paths, as the Iron Vanguard path is obviously better and synergizes with Tactician. The main reason I asked is because there are a few theorycrafted Mod2 Tactician builds out there that are based about spamming dailies to keep that 5-second invulnerability up as much as possible. It sounds a lot less versatile than this build, but it would be funny to see in action.
I just remembered something about my opinion of your feats. One reason threat generation is important for you is because you didn't take the threat-generating feat from the heroic feats and don't slot enhanced mark. You did mention that the Ubiquitous Shield feat was going to be controverisal, though I don't go against that. I did think about how it might make your job easier if you sacrificed two or so points from it and one-two points from weapon mastery to feat the threat-generation feat. I guess if you hold aggro effectively now, then there's not much of a need to change, but consider those that are currently working up to the gear level required to make this build work well. If I was a fresh 60 Tactician without bilethorn or elven battle to help me, it would be helpful to have that additional 15% threat gen until I became geared up. In my mind, taking two points from Ubiquitous Shield and one point from Weapon mastery results in 10% less combat advantage damage reduction (relatively little and would help generate more AP) and 1% less crit (that's nothing.) and gain 15% additional threat generation.
Since your build does not focus around only dps to hold threat (I like this fact very much) I can see sacrificing a little crit for additional tanking capability. In my mind, the 1 or 2% crit will not really make a difference for a tanking GF. It is nice to have some crit, but better to have more threat generation. In the end, this is all just a little optimization and won't make much of a difference. Thoughts?
Also, there is a typo under your Dailies section. Very minor, but it exists.
And doesn't stack. I have a Greater Plaguefire and I toy with the idea of having a second weapon, but once you have a CW or GWF in the party with one, your debuff part of it won't see any use. The other enchantments really need an overhaul in order for there to be more choices, given that so many of them don't stack.
I'll have to work on a segment of the Guide for people who are leveling and people doing T1s. Honestly, the first time you really tank-tank will be in T2s, maybe a little bit in Epic Idris and Epic GWD. Otherwise, as you are leveling you end up tanking the boss in dungeons because TRs don't yet have ITC and/or Smokebomb and would otherwise just die. In a T1 boss fight, using your threat-feated Lunging Strike, Knee Breaker, and Knight's Challenge for a boss solo is more than enough agro generation. Although in some fights, you will actually want far more situation threat generation, like Idris, when you spend the fight punting Hulks from the second platform to the first, and you don't want to agro Idris.
Unlike a lot of full tank builds, while you use Tab Marking to peel off things, and you use Threatening Rush to mass grab add when you do the pulls, your Marks will stay on things for a real short time. Because of your endcap Feat, where you gain AP for not blocking, you do a lot of face-tanking mobs. So on average, your Marks will stay on for less than a second. Your Marks staying on is actually a bad sign, since that means you don't have agro and the mob isn't targeting you.
You gain your agro through hitting targets someone else is controlling and almost every player uses some form of control (Slow, Prone, Daze, etc). Beyond which you can use TR to re-Mark and re-Cleave where necessary. Cleave anything being controlled and that's 25% agro. Use Enforced Threat and TR to Mark, Cleave to gain agro. And all the damage you do also gains a small amount of agro. Trample-Battle Trample is what you run instead of feating Potent Challenge and using Enhanced Mark as you likely would if you went up the Protector tree.
I recommend DoT weapon enchantments in your final gear, when you have your T2 gear set. Getting a Lesser, slotting it, clearing T2s, and unslotting it for gold after Shadowmantle would certainly be viable. I ran T2s with a Lesser and still have it on my old weapon. You really need that part of your gear once the rest of your party has their T2 gear and are doing 20-30 million in damage in a run per person. And to be clear, any DoT weapon enchantment would be fine: Plaguefire, Bilethorn, Flaming, etc. Those are the ones that I found gain more agro then a single damage buff or debuff version.
Someone doing this build will want to work their crit up just over that 20% line. It helps when you solo and it helps when you tank bosses. The difference between 17% and 21% in a MoH skirmish for me is about 300,000 in damage (the difference in slotting in my Azure Rank 9s and having my Ioun stone active). For something like MC, it slowly adds up to doing 2-2.5 million more, most of which you do when you crit your three AOEs or in the 2nd boss fight while Knight's Challenge is active. And if you have a TR who has Feated the whole group for +5% Critical Chance, you can crit quite a bit. If someone were not going to put too much effort into enchantments, which after the patch may be quite a few, I would recommend slotting azures in all your slots until you broke that 20% mark, and not to worry about Power at all.
As for Ubiquitous Shield, it's there to be used in certain situations. Unlike say a Conq-GF, who dives into the ball of add, you want to be more like a dolphin with a school of mackerel. You use Frontline and TI to shape the ball of add so they stay in front of you and the Cleric stays safely behind. Also, this helps the AoEs of your party hit their maximum number. When Astral Shield is down or you want to move the add-ball, you can Mark the add and step in to Cleave. That can be up to 10-15 add in some situations, all single targeting you at once. That's when you need Ubiquitous Shield. Also, it's helpful in T2s when your CWs want to pile the add on the boss (1st-3rd boss in CN, the bosses in Pirate). Also in SP's final boss when the add is enraged and can't be pushed. You will get your Dailies on schedule when you are taking that much damage, but you don't want to tax your Cleric's heals and you don't want to go down.
I know a lot of GFs without Potent Challenge. It's far more useful, imo, to spend Power Points on Enhanced Mark for any situation where you might need that tiny agro boost (and slot out Combat Superiority). That would be things like FH's final boss when you just run around Marking things. If you are going to share a boss with a GWF, it can be useful to do it then, since you'll be behind your shield a lot and doing less damage. If you watch how much agro a GWF is pulling in a dungeon, you'll know to do that before the boss fight.
So in the end, no, I don't think it optimizes the build to spend points on Potent Challenge. And I recommend that non-Human characters keep Ubiquitous Shield and use Azures to slot in more Critical. Since, there are no enchantments out there that let you do what U-Shild allows and you can slot for Crit.
I actually have him with a Bronzewood right now, but I haven't been entirely happy with Bilethorn on my stealth TR, since the DoT can steal kills from his Gloaming Cut. I think I will trade their enchants next week, and re-optimize a few feats.
Neverwinter Census 2017
All posts pending disapproval by Cecilia
I guess I used an improper word. I didn't intend the word 'optimize' as I used it, as I did admit that what you have now is the best if it's working out (which it is, otherwise you probably wouldn't have made this guide). I only felt that it might be nice to have for inexperienced GFs. I also know some players without potent challenge, and they hold threat just fine, too. You brought up a good point about races: I would definitely recommend not grabbing Potent Challenge if not a human, as the feat points can be better spent elsewhere. The extra feat points with human cause a few options to open up, so that's where the little conflict comes up.
In the end though, I wasn't trying to make it sound like what you have now isn't optimized. If I had looked over my post better before posting, I would've replaced 'optimization'...
...with a better phrase to convey my thoughts: meticulous editing. I was trying to convey the feeling that the discussion was only over the distribution of three feat points, which really won't make a big difference in the end, since play-style is most important.
I also most likely won't switch from my bronzewood, as I hold aggro just fine with my current style. This is just a matter of personal preference, but I do admit it generates less aggro than a DoT enchant. I will consider changing to a DoT when I begin having trouble holding aggro, perhaps with future content like Valindra's Tower. We'll have to see what comes up. Here's an interesting question I just thought of: how would Lightning fare? It still wouldn't generate as much aggro as a DoT, since DoT generates aggro every tick over time, but it would chain to other mobs and do some nice damage. I'm not sure if it would be a solid compromise between the damaging bronzewood and the aggro-generating DoTs.
How did you...very nice. I agree with your methods. GF = Dolphin with a school of mackerel. Sound math.
Lightening is an interesting idea but perhaps not so useful in boss fights where you wouldn't want it to chain to the add because you are soloing.
My sole increase in HP was in maxing out Constitution for the AP gain. I didn't take the feat Toughness or slot for HP (I slotted for Deflect instead). And none of my gear grants HP. This is largely because I don't use Tenebrous enchantments.
What I mean is odd111out goes into an immense about of detail, carefully explaining every piece of gear/power/feat/etc. Kudos to you, and well done!
I know I learned a thing or two for sure...
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I'm new to the game on xbox and i'm fairly geared and using your build but where does one obtain antiquated pieces? They don't appear in any loot tables i see. Crafted items perhaps?
They're "Antiquated" which means they are no longer available. A few sets were changed substantially a long time ago, and the existing pieces in the game at that time were grandfathered and renamed as "Antiquated". You can probably substitute the current sets and do fine, but there have a lot of changes in end-game since this build was first posted.
My GF is only at level 67 at the moment, but from what I can see and what others are saying, GFs most definitely have a place in end game PVE due to the fact that survivability has gone down across the board and enemies hit so much harder.
I prefer to play protector tree. Here is my build up in mod 6: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AN0wYGElZHk (comment is in polish, but game in english, so it should be easy to understand).
If I have party mates next to me I can hold up my shield almost all the time. Problem is, that even with 80% reduction mobs can kill me in one hit.
Obviously I did elol, etuern etc in mod 6, but epic crypts without using DC bugs is impossible. Look on this movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBkU9rvZXI0 I'm holding my shield up 100% time full. And died as a poor dog. Thanks ******* for this raindbow party possibility.
.Suicide Squad.
Antiquated refers to a version of the Knight Captain's set that was available pre-60, that leveled with your character. I obtained my set during beta, two years ago. They were always named Antiquated. I haven't yet decided which end game set (level 70) will be worth the investment for my GF.
I started leveling towards 70 on Aristide (my primary is a DC) yesterday, and covered 60-63 without any real difficulty. I'm still in my KC set for now, with the only real upgrade being that I have the Fomorian weapon set from the old Malabog's Castle, and the full Lathandar's set from the last Mod. The new content isn't difficult, and the real change so far in covering old content is that it just takes more time, and your shield is up more (so far). I cleared Portal to Turein at level 63, for instance, and it took about 3x the amount of time. There are definitely ways to speed up your leveling, but so far they all require more AD then I am willing to spend.
I do plan on doing a full update for this Mod. The one really big change I think is that Guilds are finally relevant. I've been a solo-Guild, LFG and Friends List player since beta, and finally joined a Guild for this Mod. It's made a big difference in my level of happiness- adding TeamSpeak and reducing the amount of petty-BS-vote-kicking in my playtime. And the LFG channel is dead atm.
But don't you take damage from your party from Knight's Valor? I don't think shield mitigates that damage (seems to me more like your party members are indirectly killing you than you dying to boss damage through shield).
That is exactly the case. We did a guild run through VT and our Tank had to turn it off because she was dying... she had taken so much of our damage even though we were dying right next to her.