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Shava's MI-Exec MOD 8 Guide to PVE
twitchdigit1
Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 62 Arc User
Hello,
First of all, I’d like to point out I’m not an expert. I’ve found what works for me, and people have been asking about my build so I figured I’d share. I'm sure there are better builds out there and better players who understand all the numbers, but this is a decent build in my opinion that works for PVE. Please also note I DO NOT PVP. I know, a TR that doesn’t PVP? What is this world coming to? I don’t like it, so I don’t know how this build will work in it. But if someone tries it in PVP, let me know how it goes! I’ve also never made a guide before, so if it’s a little messy, I apologize. So without further ado…
Stats:
Basically, get your armor pen to 60% or thereabouts, then stack that crit and power. A lot. A little in recovery and defense never hurt anyone. I use my guild’s boons and gear, but whatever you feel you need, go ahead and stack that in there too.
As far as gear, I use half dusk, then fill stats as I need them. As you can see, I went with the drow craft and dragonflight mix. I personally feel the twisted weapons set offers the best stats right now as far as power, so I use those. Slot radiant enchantments and azure enchantments to fill your missing power and crit. The higher rank the enchantment, the better but whatever you can afford/craft will work too.
Artifact wise, I would definitely recommend the Lantern. It’s just super helpful. Lostmauth set is a must for DPS right now. The book of the dead helped with some arm pen I was missing and the CW sigil helped stack a lot of crit and power (both needed!).
As far as race? Pick what you want in my opinion. Yeah, half-orc and dragonborn offer the best racial stats (half-orc adds crit severity and dragonborn the power), but honestly? They’re ugly. I like my chars pretty. No matter what you choose, just be happy with your choice. Or do a race re-roll if you really wanna min/max.
For Ability Scores, stack strength and dexterity, with a little bit less charisma. Strength means you hit harder (always good), dexterity means you crit more (definitely good) and charisma has beautiful additions for combat advantage (which we’ll cover later in rotations).
Feats:
For feats and path, it’s MI-Exec of course. Why? I’ve tried whisperknife and I didn’t really feel it. I like being on top of the charts, or as near as I could get, and I just couldn’t get into the playstyle. This is just personal preference however, I’ve met some great whiperknives and they're awesome. As far as the executioner path, I felt that with the way I play, it worked best for me. I deal more damage in my opinion and I like the capstone.
With the exception of Weapon Mastery and Cunning Ambusher (which are both maxed), I just added a few points here and there to round myself out. Weapon Mastery adds Critical Chance (which is awesome) and Cunning Ambusher adds damage as you leave stealth (also super handy).
Basically what I’ve done here is as I run out of stamina, I charge Stealth faster (dodging is a super handy thing by the way, since TR’s are squishy). So why not use it to my advantage? Since my stealth only lasts a little longer than normal, but I can recharge faster, I can pop in and out multiple times in a fight, yet deal quite a bit of damage.
As far as the path, I felt a rounded 4 in each was best. I get the best of everything!
Companions:
I got lucky, I’ll admit it. The cambion mage was on AH and I saved up for FOREVER and got it relatively cheap compared to now. I love it.
However, its rare. Alternatively, I would suggest an earth archon to go with the water. I love my black dragon stone, so I keep that one up all the time (adds to stats) and would recommend it to any char.
Basically, go with anything that will increase your power/crit and crit severity. The archons are a good alternative, as well as the yeti and cat. Jagged dancing blade (available in the wonderous bazaar) is also good.
Rotation:
***Always enter stealth before a fight. Use dailies only while stealth is up, as well as Lashing Blade.***
For trash mobs:
Whirwind of Blades (if daily is up) as needed (don’t use on only 2 or 3 mobs, it’s a waste.)
Smoke bomb
Dazing Strike
Flurry as needed or cloud of steel
For single target:
Shocking Execution (if dailies are up)
Lashing Blade
Wicked Reminder (switch with smoke bomb for bosses)
Dazing Strike via stealth if there are adds
Make sure to use combat advantage as much as you can. You'll crit more and hit harder. For those of you who don't know what combat advantage is, just stand behind a mob and attack it while the tank is in front.
Tada! There you have it. Shava’s MI-Exec guide.
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Comments
I just need more power ^^;; Maybe I'll delve back into MI Exe. I find that my time is spent chasing down SoD and my newb self gets distracted since I'm not very experienced playing a rogue.
--
I'll never retrace my steps.
Some of my best friends are Imaginary.
Just letting you know that all the images, excluding the first, are quite small when your reader clicks to expand. It makes the feats and companion page hard to read.
So you've made it clear that this isn't an optimized build, but rather a build catered to your playstyle. I'm going to assume that closes the door on critiquing for possible improvements since this isn't a "use this build" guide so much as a "this is what I PERSONALLY use" rundown. With that in mind, I'll just ask other questions.
1) Which passives do you use?
2) I'm curious about your companions. First, you mentioned that the Ioun Stone Augment is up all the time. That being said, is there a reason why all five of your active companions are Legendary? As long as one active companion is orange, the player benefits from 15% of the summoned companion's stats, even if the summoned companion itself is not orange. So, for example, if I had a Legendary Black Dragon Ioun stone and a Rare (blue) Erinyes of Belial, and I summoned the Erinyes, I'd get 15% of its stats since I have an active Legendary companion.
3) Another companion question. Why the Water Archon and not, say, the Fire or Air Archon? The Water Archon gives you bonus damage against targets at full health, which means the Water Archon bonus ends as soon as an enemy is damaged. The Fire has an Executioner-like effect (more damage below 50% I believe) and the Air gives you more damage against enemies NOT at full health (so you active the bonus for every attack after the first hit, essentially).
4) You mentioned that you like being at or near the top of the charts for damage. How often does this happen, especially in well-geared groups with properly built CWs and GWFs? As a follow-up, do you often run with groups who use a summoned companion that take advantage of Companion's Gift? How do you perform compared to these individuals, especially if they have Rank 11 or Rank 12 Bonding stones?
5) If the goal is to stack Power and Crit, would Brutal Enchantments not be the best option? Unless I'm missing a balance you should be attempting to strike with Power and Crit ratios, Brutal Enchants give +820 total stats as opposed to +700 at maxed rank.
6) What role would you say this build attempts to play in a party? Mob-clearing, Boss-killing, or attempts both?
7) When mob/trash-clearing, do you bother trying to proc Shadow of Demise? Some open with a Stealthed Smoke Bomb, which doesn't proc SoD, but enemies die quickly before SoD can affect them anyway so it's all well and good. I guess I want to know how often you prioritize the activation of SoD on weaker enemies.
There's a lot more I can ask about in terms of optimization, but again, this doesn't seem to be about optimizing the class so much as optimizing a build for your specific playstyle. Pretty interesting! Most builds I see go for 5/5 and skip some feats, so seeing 4/5 across all Executioner feats was quite unique!
1) For passives, I use tactics (AP gain) and skillful infiltrator (can't pass up that extra crit chance, even if it's a little).
2) My companions are only legendary because up until the last month or so, this was my only character since Neverwinter launched. So when I had the AD or companion tokens, my stuff got upgraded. The stats are great, but blue or purple will service you just as well. This was just too much time spent on one char basically
3) I think any of the archons would serve well, it all depends on what you do with them. I got the Water one for free from a lockbox (well, free-ish because of keys), and on my first hit on a mob, it increases damage for me. Overall, in boss fights, its not that handy, but for trash and I pop SB? It's not too bad. I agree Air or Fire would also be excellent choices, especially if you pair two or more, but this just happened to be what I got, so I went with it
4) As far as top damage on the charts, I do pretty decently. Everyone is a little hard pressed to beat decently geared GWF's right now, but I place pretty decently again the newer ones (and sometimes even against veteran players depending on where I am), normally 2nd by a few mil. I'll try and get a screenshot of a dungeon next time I run one. CWs, if they're DPS build, are in the same boat as GWFs but CW's who spec CC and DPS (mixed) I almost always top. I've never asked how others use they're companion gift (or even what bonding stone rank they're using!) but that's something I'll have to look into.
5) Brutals would be definitely be better. However, this was my attempt at being cost effective. You get rank 5's like no tomorrow in game, so I refined those on my own. You either have to wait for Call to Arms events or scan the AH too much for my tastes to get brutals. They're something I'm working towards myself, but for the all around build this is, I feel that Radiants and Azures will fit just as fine too.
6) Role-wise, this build has a lot of flexibility. If there's no CW in group, I play up CC by using dazing strike and SB. If there's no single-target DPS, I switch Sb with wicked reminder and go to town on bosses. It's very versatile. Honestly, it all depends on the group set up.
7) Depends on what I'm doing. If I'm soloing (like SH HE's for example), I don't really bother. In dungeons, it depends on how well my group performs and how geared they are. If we're flying through, I just kill as fast as possible. Otherwise, I'll try and max rotation and SoD as much as I can, in order to ensure group survivability.
First, your companion. It needs to be active and it needs to proc companion gifts.
Second, your daily. It should be lurkers assualt and then more lurkers assault.. and then lurkers assault again.
Active artifact should either be the the devoted sigil or wheel of elements. Both are op.
Your passives should at the very least include the one that refills stealth on daily use. It adds damage as well as refills stealth.
I personally don't use lurker's. While I agree that being in stealth longer will allow me to crit more, I feel that the path you described above is more of a perma-stealth path...which I don't think is fun honestly. This isn't a min-max build or even the most perfect one out there for TRs. Just something for fun, and to share if anyone wants. Perma-stealth isn't to me, and half of the mobs can see through it now anyways.
As far as the DC sigil, anyone who runs any sort of dungeon with a half-decent DC won't need it. If they're doing their job correctly, the slot the DC sigil takes up can be used to fill stats as needed. I tend to stick with my guildies in runs if I can, and our DCs are awesome. I spam dailies constantly with them in group. If others don't have that advantage, DC sigil would be an awesome choice however. I haven't tried the wheel yet, but I will definitely look into that
Same as lurker's with the passives. I just don't do perma-stealth. I regain stealth fairly quickly dodgeing with some of the feats, and it helps my survivability.
It is, by far, our most powerful daily.
If you're curious, google Sunny's Exe guide - it is explained very thoroughly there. In fact, the whole guide is a must read IMO.