skyvalker64Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 55Arc User
edited October 2014
Hi again
I have a couple of questions (again).
So, I have now acquired the core of the build and all that remains is to upgrade the various components (Erinyes to epic, artifact weapon to legendary, belt to legendary, etc.) Just wanted your opinion on which of these has the highest impact and should be priority? Since you have already done the tests, I thought I could just ask you what your results were. I am thinking of the following sequence:
1. Artifact weapon
2. Artifact belt
3. Companion upgrades to epic (Erinyes and Dancing Blade)
4. Kessel's
5. Lantern
6. Sigil of the devoted
7. All enchantments to rank 10
I would love to know your opinion on this. Currently, I have arti weapon and arti belt at approx 40, all the three artifacts are around 60 and using rank 7-8 enchantments (radiants and azures).
The second question is more of a suggestion. I think that if you could upload some gameplay videos of yourself playing this build in a dungeon/skirmish and add to the guide it would help a lot in understanding the little things associated with gameplay that us young GWFs can learn from your experience and play style.
Apologies for a long post.
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lazaroth666Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,332Arc User
So, I have now acquired the core of the build and all that remains is to upgrade the various components (Erinyes to epic, artifact weapon to legendary, belt to legendary, etc.) Just wanted your opinion on which of these has the highest impact and should be priority? Since you have already done the tests, I thought I could just ask you what your results were. I am thinking of the following sequence:
1. Artifact weapon
2. Artifact belt
3. Companion upgrades to epic (Erinyes and Dancing Blade)
4. Kessel's
5. Lantern
6. Sigil of the devoted
7. All enchantments to rank 10
I would love to know your opinion on this. Currently, I have arti weapon and arti belt at approx 40, all the three artifacts are around 60 and using rank 7-8 enchantments (radiants and azures).
The second question is more of a suggestion. I think that if you could upload some gameplay videos of yourself playing this build in a dungeon/skirmish and add to the guide it would help a lot in understanding the little things associated with gameplay that us young GWFs can learn from your experience and play style.
Apologies for a long post.
Hi
I would say: Weapon is priority, then if crit is high enough I would go for both companions because it will affect my DPS directly, artifacts can be lv 60-99 for a while and the sigil of the devoted works fine with 80% AP, belt is ok at epic lvl which gets better at legendary due to the defensive slot but isn't game changing, enchantments to rank 10 can be the last one, there's no really difference comparing r9 to r10 i.e.
Thank you very much for your suggestion, my internet is so slow that it might take a week to upload a short video lol but I will see what I can do about it.
What are your thoughts about the Wild Hunt Rider companion vs. the combat advantage bonus from blink dog, etc?
Thank you for passing by and your kind comment.
WHR companion active bonus doesn't proc too often even being epic, I tested it for like 6 minutes against dummies including Punishing Charge and it procced like 2 or 3 times during all that time, it was very disappointing, seems to be good only for CW/SW. Blink Dog is a lot better for us because we can keep CA almost 100% thanks to the Mark either using Daring Shout or TR so the effect is much more noticeable.
You mention using Daring Shout or Threatening Rush, but i don't see those listed in your trash or boss setups and not part of the mechanic you walk through? Did I just miss something as i only see marks coming from IBS in your setup?
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lazaroth666Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,332Arc User
You mention using Daring Shout or Threatening Rush, but i don't see those listed in your trash or boss setups and not part of the mechanic you walk through? Did I just miss something as i only see marks coming from IBS in your setup?
Daring shout was included in the PvE setup along with IBS and Mightly Leap, I didn't mention it in the single target one because I thought that talking about it in the "SM vs IV" part was enough but I have updated it and should be more clear now, Daring Shout is very important in 1v1 situations and shouldn't leave our encounter bar. I have included it too in the mechanic and thank you very much for the note, it's easy to forget one or two things when there's so much to write about.
I appreciate that crit is very important but it's going to take quite a while for me to afford a perfect. Across all my chars, I have a Lesser vorpal but I also have a Greater PF, Greater Lightning, Greater Lifedrinker and a Perfect Terror; which would you recommend as 2nd best to a P Vorpal?
I lag a little in very busy areas (e.g. full Whispering dragon instance sometimes) and living in Europe there is more latency, so any tips on a slighter safer build are welcome. My thought:
I was thinking of using Darks instead of Azures.
I went the more "tanky" route with 3/3 Toughness and 3/3 Armor Specialization instead of 5/5 Unstoppable Action
Thinking of doing this too. Reading your response to this one, 5 in Unstoppable Action isn't critical to this build.
If you already have 3.8k crit, 125+ is only 0.25% and after 12k power, each 100 points is around 0.30% so there's not really difference between both at this level but the only way how power can be more beneficial is if it allows you to get to the next % i.e if you have 12948 Power that's 78% damage bonus, you will need 166 more if you want to reach the next lvl 79% 13114, if adding these 125+ you can't get to the next level then it doesn't make any difference and more crit is going to be better.
Are there any actual breakpoints or is for example a 78.5% damage bonus quite possible?
2 more days until I get the DC artifact, then I am good to try out this build
Thanks for posting your build and with all your answers in this thread I have learned a lot more about playing my fav class
Cheers,
Aran
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schweifer1982Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,662Arc User
I appreciate that crit is very important but it's going to take quite a while for me to afford a perfect. Across all my chars, I have a Lesser vorpal but I also have a Greater PF, Greater Lightning, Greater Lifedrinker and a Perfect Terror; which would you recommend as 2nd best to a P Vorpal?
I lag a little in very busy areas (e.g. full Whispering dragon instance sometimes) and living in Europe there is more latency, so any tips on a slighter safer build are welcome. My thought:
I was thinking of using Darks instead of Azures.
Thinking of doing this too. Reading your response to this one, 5 in Unstoppable Action isn't critical to this build.
Are there any actual breakpoints or is for example a 78.5% damage bonus quite possible?
2 more days until I get the DC artifact, then I am good to try out this build
Thanks for posting your build and with all your answers in this thread I have learned a lot more about playing my fav class
Cheers,
Aran
Well if you want tankiness why dont y use Draconinc set just slot 2 G.White dragon.g VS AoW ist only 400 power less =you will lose only 2.4% dps .
I appreciate that crit is very important but it's going to take quite a while for me to afford a perfect. Across all my chars, I have a Lesser vorpal but I also have a Greater PF, Greater Lightning, Greater Lifedrinker and a Perfect Terror; which would you recommend as 2nd best to a P Vorpal?
I lag a little in very busy areas (e.g. full Whispering dragon instance sometimes) and living in Europe there is more latency, so any tips on a slighter safer build are welcome. My thought:
I was thinking of using Darks instead of Azures.
Thinking of doing this too. Reading your response to this one, 5 in Unstoppable Action isn't critical to this build.
Are there any actual breakpoints or is for example a 78.5% damage bonus quite possible?
2 more days until I get the DC artifact, then I am good to try out this build
Thanks for posting your build and with all your answers in this thread I have learned a lot more about playing my fav class
Cheers,
Aran
Hi!
The 2nd best enchantment to a Pvorpal would be a Gvorpal, it's a build about crit % and crit severity so we have to get as much as possible of these stats, if I have to choose among the enchants that you have mentioned I would go for the GPF because it does give an interesting boost in damage to you and the whole party, lifedrinker/terror/lightning, aren't really useful, unfortunately.
If you are lagging, using dark enchantments isn't a good idea, you have to attack in order to regain health via life steal so if you have lag means you can't attack as you would normally do it, I would keep the azure enchantments for more defense and more power which is very important, if you prefer to use another enchantment, use silvery for more deflection but don't go above 1.2k due to the diminishing return or go for more HP instead using radiants.
Each 166 points in power is 1%, we can't have decimals so it's either 78% or 79% in that case.
I'm very glad knowing that you have found this information very useful, thank you for passing by.
...Each 166 points in power is 1%, we can't have decimals so it's either 78% or 79% in that case...
You mention this a couple of times and im not sure I understand it right.
Atm I have 8473 power which is 8473/166=51.0421. Are you saying that I wont see an increase in dmg until I reach 8632 power (52*166)?
You mention this a couple of times and im not sure I understand it right.
Atm I have 8473 power which is 8473/166=51.0421. Are you saying that I wont see an increase in dmg until I reach 8632 power (52*166)?
ofc you will see a deep increase in damage...
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lazaroth666Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,332Arc User
You mention this a couple of times and im not sure I understand it right.
Atm I have 8473 power which is 8473/166=51.0421. Are you saying that I wont see an increase in dmg until I reach 8632 power (52*166)?
Hi, sorry for the late reply!
No, you will still get an increase in the damage but it won't be shown in the sheet in decimals, if it's 39,96% it would be 40% and if its 40.09% that's still 40%, only after each 166 points you will see an increasement.
I've read a bunch of this but honestly I don't have the energy to read through all 14 pages of replies to see if this has been asked before so I apologize if I'm repeating something already answered.
My simple question is this... Is it worth following this build and guide if I can't afford to have everything maxed out (legendary artifacts, rank 10 stones, crazy epic upgraded companions) like you do? Will the build and guide still work well with lower tier enchants/pets/artifacts? I really like the time and effort you put into this build and I'm looking forward to rolling a GWF next but it's very obvious that it takes an enormous amount of wealth and time to achieve this final product.
If not, is there someone else's build/guide you can recommend me following instead?
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lazaroth666Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,332Arc User
I've read a bunch of this but honestly I don't have the energy to read through all 14 pages of replies to see if this has been asked before so I apologize if I'm repeating something already answered.
My simple question is this... Is it worth following this build and guide if I can't afford to have everything maxed out (legendary artifacts, rank 10 stones, crazy epic upgraded companions) like you do? Will the build and guide still work well with lower tier enchants/pets/artifacts? I really like the time and effort you put into this build and I'm looking forward to rolling a GWF next but it's very obvious that it takes an enormous amount of wealth and time to achieve this final product.
If not, is there someone else's build/guide you can recommend me following instead?
Hi! yes, it does work without everything maxed, it has been already discussed here in the page 9 which I kindly recommend you to check because there's very nice information. Please, feel free to ask whatever you need.
skyvalker64Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 55Arc User
edited October 2014
Hi,
Just wanted to know your opinion on the new belt and weapon. Do you think it will be more beneficial to use those instead of the current ones for our build? I understand that actual testing might be required to know the definite answer but what is your first impression?
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lazaroth666Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,332Arc User
Just wanted to know your opinion on the new belt and weapon. Do you think it will be more beneficial to use those instead of the current ones for our build? I understand that actual testing might be required to know the definite answer but what is your first impression?
Hi, well regarding to the new weapons, we are receiving a boost in damage to Weapon Master's Strike which is very important for this mechanic due to the buff that it gives to Sure Strike but it's this At-Will is the core so we can keep Ferocity, there's no need to change weapon, at least. This build is centered in Single Target damage and SS is the top 1 in DPS.
Belts: This one needs testing, first we will have a new set which is the Draconic Templar which set bonus is "You gain an aura that decreases the defense and damage of nearby enemies by 10% each" if the defense debuff is good and we are finally able to change the AoW set, we might need more Recovery, the new belt have +3 STR +2 DEX Pow/Crit/Rec and if we want to activate the Artifact Set bonus we will need Rod of Imperial Restraint Artifact Rec/Life Steal/Control Bonus (meh), we are losing offensive stats but gaining a new bonus which can be better after all, however, if it's not game-changing or there's not really difference, we won't need to change anything and the build will remain the same.
If we just talk about belts, according to my tests crit % beats dmg bonus %, +2 crit % should beat 3% damage bonus but I will be glad to test this again.
There's something else I want to talk about, the new artifact class features, one of them (the best for us IMO)
Weapon Master: Now increases your critical chance by an additional 1% for each stack of its effect.
This means we will be able to have above 60% Critical Chance during combat and also helps those who doesn't have the min 51% crit chance for this build yet.
Just wanted to know your opinion on the new belt and weapon. Do you think it will be more beneficial to use those instead of the current ones for our build? I understand that actual testing might be required to know the definite answer but what is your first impression?
Hi, well regarding to the new weapons, we are receiving a boost in damage to Weapon Master's Strike which is very important for this mechanic due to the buff that it gives to Sure Strike but it's this At-Will is the core so we can keep Ferocity, there's no need to change weapon, at least. This build is centered in Single Target damage and SS is the top 1 in DPS.
I was going to ask exactly the same question.
But isn't +10% to WMS much better than +2.5% to Sure strike (i.e. +5% to third and fourth hits only), especially as even any single-target rotation will be WMS, ST x times, WMS, ST x times, etc?
Of course the sure strike weapon artifact is still useful if we later change to IV if that gets buffed...
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lazaroth666Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,332Arc User
But isn't +10% to WMS much better than +2.5% to Sure strike (i.e. +5% to third and fourth hits only), especially as even any single-target rotation will be WMS, ST x times, WMS, ST x times, etc?
Of course the sure strike weapon artifact is still useful if we later change to IV if that gets buffed...
Ferocity boost our SS for 7.5%, WMS damage isn't very important for a single target setup, it's used only because it buffs SS so increasing the damage of WMS with the new weapon won't have a good impact in the perfomance. If we think about WMS as AoE At-Will, it would be a lot better to use Wicked Strike instead, it would work with both IV and SM and if we buff WS with WMS the damage is going to be a lot higher.
Ferocity boost our SS for 7.5%, WMS damage isn't very important for a single target setup, it's used only because it buffs SS so increasing the damage of WMS with the new weapon won't have a good impact in the perfomance. If we think about WMS as AoE At-Will, it would be a lot better to use Wicked Strike instead, it would work with both IV and SM and if we buff WS with WMS the damage is going to be a lot higher.
EDITED:
Thanks for the quick reply - I have a question though.
Even in the single-target rotation, say WMS, 4*SS then the +10% to WMS would give a 10%* 1/5 ~ 2% boost (less really as the ST damage for WMS is lower than SS) while the SS weapon would give 7.5% * 4/5 ~ 6% boost.
So even in a ST setup the new WMS weapon artifact would appear to me to give not that much less damage than the Sure Strike one, 2% vrs 6%, while it will be a 10% boost to at-will damage when you fight more than 2 (or maybe 3) mobs Wouldn't that make it pretty clearly superior?
the GWF's strength and playstyle- that is, to facetank the annoying, hard hitting, red placing brutes and keeping the red off the rest of the party.
Errr. SoT? Facetanking in the red? Even the red of the dragonlings, or the red of any semi-elite foe during the walk-through will OS you. And as they say, a dead DPS delivers zero DPS.
English is not my first language.
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lazaroth666Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,332Arc User
Thanks for the quick reply - I have a question though.
Even in the single-target rotation, say WMS, 4*SS then the +10% to WMS would give a 10%* 1/5 ~ 2% boost (less really as the ST damage for WMS is lower than SS) while the SS weapon would give 7.5% * 4/5 ~ 6% boost.
So even in a ST setup the new WMS weapon artifact would appear to me to give not that much less damage than the Sure Strike one, 2% vrs 6%, while it will be a 10% boost to at-will damage when you fight more than 2 (or maybe 3) mobs Wouldn't that make it pretty clearly superior?
Or am I missing something?
ATM, we can't beat SW/CW in AoE/weak trash clearing due to their cheesy mechanics so we have to focus in single target, that's where we really have some advantage. Fighting 2 mobs, including elite, you would still use the ST mechanic which is more rewarding in DPS than spamming WMS.
ATM, we can't beat SW/CW in AoE/weak trash clearing due to their cheesy mechanics so we have to focus in single target, that's where we really have some advantage. Fighting 2 mobs, including elite, you would still use the ST mechanic which is more rewarding in DPS than spamming WMS.
Thank you for this - it really helped explain your choices.
However not being AD-rich, I might put refining my SS weapon on hold as it is already Blue, and see how the MoD 5 dungeon/skirmish and GWF changes work out. If those dungeons/skirmishes are primarily single target fights then I will strongly consider continuing to refine my GWF weapon artifact.
One last question - suppose IV becomes superior to SM in a future patch. Do they still use Sure Strike also?
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lazaroth666Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,332Arc User
One last question - suppose IV becomes superior to SM in a future patch. Do they still use Sure Strike also?
I kindly ask you to check the first post, I wrote a note about "Paragon: What should I choose Swordmaster or Iron Vanguard?"In summary I mention that SM offers more damage than IV due to the WMS, mark is not a problem because we can use Daring Shout and it works a lot better than using another offensive encounter while using TR as mark tool decreases our DPS. If IV becomes superior than SM in a future patch, we would need to see why it became better.
I kindly ask you to check the first post, I wrote a note about "Paragon: What should I choose Swordmaster or Iron Vanguard?"In summary I mention that SM offers more damage than IV due to the WMS, mark is not a problem because we can use Daring Shout and it works a lot better than using another offensive encounter while using TR as mark tool decreases our DPS. If IV becomes superior than SM in a future patch, we would need to see why it became better.
Thanks again for info!
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lazaroth666Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,332Arc User
edited October 2014
There are many people complaining about how weak are the GWF At-Wills, I disagree, Sure Strike is the core of this build and a GWF played correctly can make a very good use of it, please, take a look to this picture, the damage is irrelevant considering that there were a lot of buffs but it is necessary to keep in mind that even with buffs/debuffs SS is going to bring higher DPS than other encounters which can hit a lot harder, by the time when IBS has done a huge crit, SS has already done much more damage. That's why it is necessary to follow the mechanic as I mentioned TAB - WMS - Spam SS, if you do it in the wrong order, you will lose DPS.
skyvalker64Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 55Arc User
edited October 2014
Hi,
I am thoroughly enjoying your build and trying to get good at this play style. What I do is, aim for the most elite mob and go after it with all I have, taking its aggro off the rest of the party and trying to kill it asap, rinse and repeat. During boss fights, I keep at the boss and aim towards staying alive on my own with restoring strike and deal as much damage as possible.
However, sometimes I find myself in a situation where there is no DC/GF in the party and we are doing eLOL/eSOT. In such situations, I switch from Flourish to DS and use that to get some extra tankiness and buff party DPS and try to kite and stay alive and deal damage second. I find eLOL to be relatively easier and don't have any problems there. But in eSOT, the boss and some mobs requires me to be constantly on my toes, stopping only every once in a while otherwise I get one shot.
So my question to you is, how do you suggest we handle the role of a tank/initiator in these scenarios, also wanted your feedback on how I am playing your build, would you like to add any pointers/point out any mistakes?
Also, I would like to thank you again for this fun build (orange numbers ftw) and hope that you would update it whenever mod 5 releases
I am thoroughly enjoying your build and trying to get good at this play style. What I do is, aim for the most elite mob and go after it with all I have, taking its aggro off the rest of the party and trying to kill it asap, rinse and repeat. During boss fights, I keep at the boss and aim towards staying alive on my own with restoring strike and deal as much damage as possible.
However, sometimes I find myself in a situation where there is no DC/GF in the party and we are doing eLOL/eSOT. In such situations, I switch from Flourish to DS and use that to get some extra tankiness and buff party DPS and try to kite and stay alive and deal damage second. I find eLOL to be relatively easier and don't have any problems there. But in eSOT, the boss and some mobs requires me to be constantly on my toes, stopping only every once in a while otherwise I get one shot.
So my question to you is, how do you suggest we handle the role of a tank/initiator in these scenarios, also wanted your feedback on how I am playing your build, would you like to add any pointers/point out any mistakes?
Also, I would like to thank you again for this fun build (orange numbers ftw) and hope that you would update it whenever mod 5 releases
Thanks.
Hi!
Looks like you are playing the build in the proper way, I would recommend to use Daring Shout in every situation and use Restoring Strike only if you really need it, with our damage output we are able to heal ourselves for a good amount thanks to Life Steal and Endless Consumption, we deal more dmg using DS than using another offensive encounter like RS.
In the situation that you've mentioned, it is very important to know each attack and each red area done by the enemies, the AI isn't very smart so as soon as you approach your enemies, they will start with their most powerful attack i.e the Drake always jump towards you and then a red area centered on him which deals heavy damage so just start the combat and let him do that while you are focusing another one, by the time this add has finished his attack, the party have already killed the other, also focus the archer asap. In summary when you initiate a combat doesn't mean that you have to stay there and deal/receive damage, just go toward the mob, sprint a couple of seconds trying avoid the first wave of attacks, holding aggro with DS, while they start to show the red areas and then attack them. eSOT is fun, it requires your attention during the whole skirmish and it's very good for practice this build.
I've already gathered everything that I will need for my GWF in MOD 5 related to upgrading the new artifacts, offhand and necklaces are a must, however, the artifact set bonuses doesn't seem to be very beneficial to us due to the requirements, Imperial was like the only viable choice and they have considered to change 3 STR/2 DEX for 2 STR/2 WIS and changing one of our artifact for a Rod of Imperial Restraint (Recovery/Life Steal/Control Bonus) isn't good... The dev already mentioned that these bonuses aren't supposed to be earth shattering so if we can keep the DEX belt, that would be awesome, according to my maths, in this new mod the build should hit: 170% Crit Severity + 67% Critical during combat.
Comments
I have a couple of questions (again).
So, I have now acquired the core of the build and all that remains is to upgrade the various components (Erinyes to epic, artifact weapon to legendary, belt to legendary, etc.) Just wanted your opinion on which of these has the highest impact and should be priority? Since you have already done the tests, I thought I could just ask you what your results were. I am thinking of the following sequence:
1. Artifact weapon
2. Artifact belt
3. Companion upgrades to epic (Erinyes and Dancing Blade)
4. Kessel's
5. Lantern
6. Sigil of the devoted
7. All enchantments to rank 10
I would love to know your opinion on this. Currently, I have arti weapon and arti belt at approx 40, all the three artifacts are around 60 and using rank 7-8 enchantments (radiants and azures).
The second question is more of a suggestion. I think that if you could upload some gameplay videos of yourself playing this build in a dungeon/skirmish and add to the guide it would help a lot in understanding the little things associated with gameplay that us young GWFs can learn from your experience and play style.
Apologies for a long post.
Hi
I would say: Weapon is priority, then if crit is high enough I would go for both companions because it will affect my DPS directly, artifacts can be lv 60-99 for a while and the sigil of the devoted works fine with 80% AP, belt is ok at epic lvl which gets better at legendary due to the defensive slot but isn't game changing, enchantments to rank 10 can be the last one, there's no really difference comparing r9 to r10 i.e.
Thank you very much for your suggestion, my internet is so slow that it might take a week to upload a short video lol but I will see what I can do about it.
What are your thoughts about the Wild Hunt Rider companion vs. the combat advantage bonus from blink dog, etc?
Thank you for passing by and your kind comment.
WHR companion active bonus doesn't proc too often even being epic, I tested it for like 6 minutes against dummies including Punishing Charge and it procced like 2 or 3 times during all that time, it was very disappointing, seems to be good only for CW/SW. Blink Dog is a lot better for us because we can keep CA almost 100% thanks to the Mark either using Daring Shout or TR so the effect is much more noticeable.
You mention using Daring Shout or Threatening Rush, but i don't see those listed in your trash or boss setups and not part of the mechanic you walk through? Did I just miss something as i only see marks coming from IBS in your setup?
Daring shout was included in the PvE setup along with IBS and Mightly Leap, I didn't mention it in the single target one because I thought that talking about it in the "SM vs IV" part was enough but I have updated it and should be more clear now, Daring Shout is very important in 1v1 situations and shouldn't leave our encounter bar. I have included it too in the mechanic and thank you very much for the note, it's easy to forget one or two things when there's so much to write about.
I lag a little in very busy areas (e.g. full Whispering dragon instance sometimes) and living in Europe there is more latency, so any tips on a slighter safer build are welcome. My thought:
I was thinking of using Darks instead of Azures. Thinking of doing this too. Reading your response to this one, 5 in Unstoppable Action isn't critical to this build.
Are there any actual breakpoints or is for example a 78.5% damage bonus quite possible?
2 more days until I get the DC artifact, then I am good to try out this build
Thanks for posting your build and with all your answers in this thread I have learned a lot more about playing my fav class
Cheers,
Aran
Well if you want tankiness why dont y use Draconinc set just slot 2 G.White dragon.g VS AoW ist only 400 power less =you will lose only 2.4% dps .
Hi!
The 2nd best enchantment to a Pvorpal would be a Gvorpal, it's a build about crit % and crit severity so we have to get as much as possible of these stats, if I have to choose among the enchants that you have mentioned I would go for the GPF because it does give an interesting boost in damage to you and the whole party, lifedrinker/terror/lightning, aren't really useful, unfortunately.
If you are lagging, using dark enchantments isn't a good idea, you have to attack in order to regain health via life steal so if you have lag means you can't attack as you would normally do it, I would keep the azure enchantments for more defense and more power which is very important, if you prefer to use another enchantment, use silvery for more deflection but don't go above 1.2k due to the diminishing return or go for more HP instead using radiants.
Each 166 points in power is 1%, we can't have decimals so it's either 78% or 79% in that case.
I'm very glad knowing that you have found this information very useful, thank you for passing by.
You mention this a couple of times and im not sure I understand it right.
Atm I have 8473 power which is 8473/166=51.0421. Are you saying that I wont see an increase in dmg until I reach 8632 power (52*166)?
ofc you will see a deep increase in damage...
Hi, sorry for the late reply!
No, you will still get an increase in the damage but it won't be shown in the sheet in decimals, if it's 39,96% it would be 40% and if its 40.09% that's still 40%, only after each 166 points you will see an increasement.
My simple question is this... Is it worth following this build and guide if I can't afford to have everything maxed out (legendary artifacts, rank 10 stones, crazy epic upgraded companions) like you do? Will the build and guide still work well with lower tier enchants/pets/artifacts? I really like the time and effort you put into this build and I'm looking forward to rolling a GWF next but it's very obvious that it takes an enormous amount of wealth and time to achieve this final product.
If not, is there someone else's build/guide you can recommend me following instead?
Hi! yes, it does work without everything maxed, it has been already discussed here in the page 9 which I kindly recommend you to check because there's very nice information. Please, feel free to ask whatever you need.
Just wanted to know your opinion on the new belt and weapon. Do you think it will be more beneficial to use those instead of the current ones for our build? I understand that actual testing might be required to know the definite answer but what is your first impression?
Hi, well regarding to the new weapons, we are receiving a boost in damage to Weapon Master's Strike which is very important for this mechanic due to the buff that it gives to Sure Strike but it's this At-Will is the core so we can keep Ferocity, there's no need to change weapon, at least. This build is centered in Single Target damage and SS is the top 1 in DPS.
Belts: This one needs testing, first we will have a new set which is the Draconic Templar which set bonus is "You gain an aura that decreases the defense and damage of nearby enemies by 10% each" if the defense debuff is good and we are finally able to change the AoW set, we might need more Recovery, the new belt have +3 STR +2 DEX Pow/Crit/Rec and if we want to activate the Artifact Set bonus we will need Rod of Imperial Restraint Artifact Rec/Life Steal/Control Bonus (meh), we are losing offensive stats but gaining a new bonus which can be better after all, however, if it's not game-changing or there's not really difference, we won't need to change anything and the build will remain the same.
If we just talk about belts, according to my tests crit % beats dmg bonus %, +2 crit % should beat 3% damage bonus but I will be glad to test this again.
There's something else I want to talk about, the new artifact class features, one of them (the best for us IMO)
- Weapon Master: Now increases your critical chance by an additional 1% for each stack of its effect.
This means we will be able to have above 60% Critical Chance during combat and also helps those who doesn't have the min 51% crit chance for this build yet.I was going to ask exactly the same question.
But isn't +10% to WMS much better than +2.5% to Sure strike (i.e. +5% to third and fourth hits only), especially as even any single-target rotation will be WMS, ST x times, WMS, ST x times, etc?
Of course the sure strike weapon artifact is still useful if we later change to IV if that gets buffed...
Ferocity boost our SS for 7.5%, WMS damage isn't very important for a single target setup, it's used only because it buffs SS so increasing the damage of WMS with the new weapon won't have a good impact in the perfomance. If we think about WMS as AoE At-Will, it would be a lot better to use Wicked Strike instead, it would work with both IV and SM and if we buff WS with WMS the damage is going to be a lot higher.
EDITED:
Thanks for the quick reply - I have a question though.
Even in the single-target rotation, say WMS, 4*SS then the +10% to WMS would give a 10%* 1/5 ~ 2% boost (less really as the ST damage for WMS is lower than SS) while the SS weapon would give 7.5% * 4/5 ~ 6% boost.
So even in a ST setup the new WMS weapon artifact would appear to me to give not that much less damage than the Sure Strike one, 2% vrs 6%, while it will be a 10% boost to at-will damage when you fight more than 2 (or maybe 3) mobs Wouldn't that make it pretty clearly superior?
Or am I missing something?
Errr. SoT? Facetanking in the red? Even the red of the dragonlings, or the red of any semi-elite foe during the walk-through will OS you. And as they say, a dead DPS delivers zero DPS.
ATM, we can't beat SW/CW in AoE/weak trash clearing due to their cheesy mechanics so we have to focus in single target, that's where we really have some advantage. Fighting 2 mobs, including elite, you would still use the ST mechanic which is more rewarding in DPS than spamming WMS.
Thank you for this - it really helped explain your choices.
However not being AD-rich, I might put refining my SS weapon on hold as it is already Blue, and see how the MoD 5 dungeon/skirmish and GWF changes work out. If those dungeons/skirmishes are primarily single target fights then I will strongly consider continuing to refine my GWF weapon artifact.
One last question - suppose IV becomes superior to SM in a future patch. Do they still use Sure Strike also?
I kindly ask you to check the first post, I wrote a note about "Paragon: What should I choose Swordmaster or Iron Vanguard?"In summary I mention that SM offers more damage than IV due to the WMS, mark is not a problem because we can use Daring Shout and it works a lot better than using another offensive encounter while using TR as mark tool decreases our DPS. If IV becomes superior than SM in a future patch, we would need to see why it became better.
Thanks again for info!
I am thoroughly enjoying your build and trying to get good at this play style. What I do is, aim for the most elite mob and go after it with all I have, taking its aggro off the rest of the party and trying to kill it asap, rinse and repeat. During boss fights, I keep at the boss and aim towards staying alive on my own with restoring strike and deal as much damage as possible.
However, sometimes I find myself in a situation where there is no DC/GF in the party and we are doing eLOL/eSOT. In such situations, I switch from Flourish to DS and use that to get some extra tankiness and buff party DPS and try to kite and stay alive and deal damage second. I find eLOL to be relatively easier and don't have any problems there. But in eSOT, the boss and some mobs requires me to be constantly on my toes, stopping only every once in a while otherwise I get one shot.
So my question to you is, how do you suggest we handle the role of a tank/initiator in these scenarios, also wanted your feedback on how I am playing your build, would you like to add any pointers/point out any mistakes?
Also, I would like to thank you again for this fun build (orange numbers ftw) and hope that you would update it whenever mod 5 releases
Thanks.
Hi!
Looks like you are playing the build in the proper way, I would recommend to use Daring Shout in every situation and use Restoring Strike only if you really need it, with our damage output we are able to heal ourselves for a good amount thanks to Life Steal and Endless Consumption, we deal more dmg using DS than using another offensive encounter like RS.
In the situation that you've mentioned, it is very important to know each attack and each red area done by the enemies, the AI isn't very smart so as soon as you approach your enemies, they will start with their most powerful attack i.e the Drake always jump towards you and then a red area centered on him which deals heavy damage so just start the combat and let him do that while you are focusing another one, by the time this add has finished his attack, the party have already killed the other, also focus the archer asap. In summary when you initiate a combat doesn't mean that you have to stay there and deal/receive damage, just go toward the mob, sprint a couple of seconds trying avoid the first wave of attacks, holding aggro with DS, while they start to show the red areas and then attack them. eSOT is fun, it requires your attention during the whole skirmish and it's very good for practice this build.
I've already gathered everything that I will need for my GWF in MOD 5 related to upgrading the new artifacts, offhand and necklaces are a must, however, the artifact set bonuses doesn't seem to be very beneficial to us due to the requirements, Imperial was like the only viable choice and they have considered to change 3 STR/2 DEX for 2 STR/2 WIS and changing one of our artifact for a Rod of Imperial Restraint (Recovery/Life Steal/Control Bonus) isn't good... The dev already mentioned that these bonuses aren't supposed to be earth shattering so if we can keep the DEX belt, that would be awesome, according to my maths, in this new mod the build should hit: 170% Crit Severity + 67% Critical during combat.