Ackter's PvP/PvE Hybrid tank.

cactusjackter

So basically, I've got bored of the PvE content as it's not fun being basically invincible. If you're at the point where you can run KV during Epic Demogorgon without even coming close to dying then you know there's nowhere else to go. Except to PvP. At the same time, I also still want to be useful in PvE for my guild so I came up with a hybrid build which seems to work ok. I'm not convinced I'll ever be at the level of PvP GFs like Indy or Khopij, but I get an absolute shedloads of assists and a decent number of kills.

So here's a basic guide to my PvP/PvE hybrid. Please bear in mind that I'm new to this so there's potentially a lot I could do to improve. Feel free to point anything you notice out to me. Cheers.



Race: Human, +2 in Strength
Starting Rolls:

STR 18
CON 16
DEX 12
INT 10
WIS 10
CHA 10

As you level up, put all points into Strength and Dex. We shall be using the Constitution band to fill out the Con roll. At level 70, with a legendary belt, you should have:

STR: 25
CON: 22
DEX: 19
INT: 12
WIS: 12
CHA: 12

Paragon Path: Iron Vanguard

Heroic Feats:
Strength Focus 3/3 (for +15% strength effectiveness)
Toughness 3/3 (for +9% max HP - which we need because of our relatively low Con)
Shield Resurgence 1/3 (because the point needed to go somewhere)
Armor Specialisation 3/3 (for +15% AC and defence effectiveness)
Powerful Attack 5/5 (for +10% damage from all attacks)
Grit 1/3 (for some Temp HP to trigger a Paragon feat - due to the tiny effect and long cooldown, even 1/3 may not be worth it though)
Weapon Mastery 3/3 (for +3% Crit chance)
Ubiquitous Shield 4/5 (reduce incoming damage from Combat Advantage by 20%)

If you find the one point in Grit doesn't really do much, which is what I'm leaning towards, but that extra point into Ubiquitous Shield to hit 25% instead of 20%.

Conquerer Pargan Feats:
Improved Vigour 5/5 (increase AP generation when low on health)
Take Measure 5/5 (gain Temp HP when you are crit, which works in combination with the next feat)
Wrathful Warrior 5/5 (+15% damage output when you have Temp HP)
Jagged Blades 5/5 (Critting an enemy deals 750% weapon damage over 15 seconds)
Tactical Superiority 5/5 (5% more damage from Combat Advantage)
Reckless Attacker 1/1 (When you are hit your Crit chance raises by 2% and damage by 5% for 10 seconds, which can stack 5 times)

Protector Paragon Feats:
Plate Agility 5/5 (+5% Deflect chance)
Shield Defence 5/5 (+5 AC)

Tactician Paragon Feats:
Fight On 5/5 (+10% cooldown on encounters)

Combat Powers

Here I shall only be listing the powers that I actually use:

Cleave 4/4 (PvE for hitting multiple enemies at once)
Tide of Iron 4/4 (PvE for Stamina management)
Lunging Strike 4/4 (PvE to close distances quickly)
Villain's Menace 4/4 (Both PvE and PvP. PvE for extra damage, PvP when facing control opponents)
Shield Talent 4/4 (Both PvE and PvP for Stamina management)
Enforced Threat 4/4 (PvE for Threat and Stamina management)
Fighter's Recovery 4/4 (PvE to get out of trouble if you need it)
Enhanced Mark 4/4 (PvE for Threat management)
Crushing Surge 4/4 (PvP as its our hardest hitting At-Will, also has minor healing)
Anvil of Doom 4/4 (Our PvP big-hitter. Does double damage to low-HP enemies)
Threatening Rush 4/4 (Our second PvP At-Will, great for chasing enemies around as they try to escape you)
Into the Fray 4/4 (The first 70+ point should always go here. Significant damage boost to you and your team)
Knight's Valor 4/4 (PvE to keep your people alive)
Bull Charge 4/4 (a very dangerous attack in PvP)
Indomitable Strength (A big hitter for PvP, leaves the opponent prone as well)
Desperate Survival 4/4 (Huge increase to Deflection chance and Stamina regeneration)

You can put any other points anywhere you like.

For solo PvE:
Cleave
Tide of Iron
Lunging Strike
Into the Fray
Enforced Threat
Villain's Menace
Fighter's Recovery
Shield Talent
Enhanced Mark


For group PvE, swap out Lunging Strike for Knight's Valor.

With Knight's Valor always on, first apply a Mark to an enemy, use Into The Fray as often as you can to boost your team mates (and also regenerate Stamina), Enforced Threat to mark as many enemies as you can (which also regenerates Stamina) then Tide of Iron to debuff and emergency Stamina if needed. Make sure to refresh your Marks and Into the Fray as often as you can.

For PvP:
Crushing Surge
Threatening Rush
Bull Charge
Into The Fray
Anvil of Doom
Villain's Menace
Indomitable Strength
Shield Talent
Desperate Survival

The main PvP rotation, which I believe was pioneered by Indy on the Xbox, is Into the Fray > Bull Charge > Anvil of Doom. If Bull Charge connects, quickly rush in and fire off Anvil of Doom. If you time this right you'll find you're able outright kill an enemy in this one rotation. It obviously becomes harder based on the build of the enemy or their team makeup. You can also throw an Indomitable Strength after the Bull Charge for even higher damage if you have it. Then you keep your shield up until they recharge.

If there are a lot of control enemies on the other team, keep your Villain's Menace to rip through their control.

Boons - Sharandar
+400 Power
+400 Deflect
+3% AP Gain
Elven Tranquility
Fey Thistle (to make use of our high deflect chance)

Boons - Dread Ring
+250 Power and Movement
+400 Life Steal
+3% Resistance Ignored
Enraged Regrowth
Augmented Thayan Bastion

Boons - Icewind Dale
+400 Combat Advantage
+400 Stamina Gain
+400 Recovery
Cool Resolve
Avalanche

Boons - Underdark
+400 Power and 1600 HP
+400 Crit and 1600 HP
+10% Combat Advantage
Dwarven Footing
Abyssal Tenacity

Boons - Tyranny of Dragons
+400 Power
+400 Deflect
+400 Armour Pen
+400 Life Steal
Dragon's Thirst 1/3
Dragon's Revival 1/3
Dragon's Fury 1/3

(Splitting them gives the most bonus overall, but you can put all 3 in one if you prefer)

Boons - PvP
+250 Power and Crit or +250 Defence and Deflect, both are great
Vanguard's Resolve
Versatile Warrior or Unbroken Line, again both are great

Boons - Stronghold
Armour Penetration for PvP, Power for PvE
Defense
Mount Speed
Enhance Overload: Stamina Drain Ward

Boons - Maze Engine
Abyssal Syphoning
Demonic Resilience
Demonic Swiftness
Displace Fate

cactusjackter

Gear
This is straight forward enough. For your armour set, you want the best Executioner set you can get. I went for Elemental Burning Executioner as I can't be bothered running Siege enough to get the Lionsmane set. Reinforce each item of the Set with 200 Armour Penetration when you can.

For the weapons, pick either the Drowned Set or the Twisted Set. Twisted set will increase your damage output, but the Drowned Set will keep you alive a little longer. I went with the Twisted Set.

For the Rings, you want a Ring of Vision +5 and a Ring of Cowardice +5 for PvP, or the Ring of Rising Defence +5 and Ring of Rising Deflect +5 for PvE. The Ring of Vision partially counteracts all the people using the stealth rings in PvP, while the Ring of Cowardice slightly increases your survivability if someone attacks you from behind. Rings should be reinforced with AP Gain.

As long as you use the best available Shirt and Trousers, it doesn't make too much difference which ones you choose.

I'm not running an artifact set at the moment, so my damage output obviously isn't affected by the Lostmouth/Black Ice/Whatever the new one is called Set bonuses. I'll revisit this at a later date to see what can best be done, but currently I use the Greater Lathander's Cloak and Greater Plated Band of Constitution. Both of which are reinforced with AP Gain.

Artifacts
For PvP I use:

Waters of Elah'zad (Recovery, Defence) as the main for health regen
Symbol of Fire (Power, Defence, some Recovery)
Ogmha's Token of Free Movement (Defence, Deflection, Control Resist)
Sigil of the Guardian (Defence, Deflection, AoE Resist)

For PvE I swap out the Waters and Fire for:
Bruenor's Helm (Defence, Life Steal) as the main to increase team defence and Into The Fray bonus
Eye of Lathander (Defence, Life Steal)

Enchantments
All Defence should be Azures
All Offence and Utility should be Darks

(Note: I've sacrificed one Dark for a Dragon Hoard in order to get refinement drops)

My armour holds an Elven Battle to somewhat mitigate the ridiculous amount of control effects in PvP.
My weapon holds a Fey Touched to increase outgoing damage.

If you're made of AD, you can sub those for the Bloodtheft and Terror enchantments for PvE.

For the overload slots, use the best AP and Stamina Wards you can afford for PvP. For PvE use the Black Ice and Dragon Glyph defensive ones to seriously increase your defence.

Artifact Weapon Powers
Sword:
I run with Crushing Surge on my weapon for PvP to increase the healing done with the move
Iron Tide is the best for PvE, if you can afford to keep changing the powers around

Shield:
I run with Desperate Survival for added HP gain and +400 Control Resist.
Again, if you can afford to keep changing then Enhanced Mark and +400 Companion Influence are best for PvE

Companions for PvE
Main:
Legendary Shield Maiden
3x Bonding Runestones
Personalised Aberrant Belt of Recovery with Azure (D) and Silvery (A)
Any two +5 Underdark rings that give you two defensive slots, which you fill with Azures
Until you get them, use Personalised Adamant rings of Recover with Azure (D) and Silvery (A)

This leaves your Shield Maiden with over 6,000 defence, which translates into an extra 18,000 defence for you when Companion's Gift is maxed out. You can end up with Into the Fray throwing out well over 100% damage bonus to your teammates.

For the active bonus:
Rust Monster (damage debuff on attackers)
Book Imp (recharge speed increase)
Frost Mimic (extra defence)
Phase Spider (further reduction in Combat Advantage damage)

Mounts
I haven't got any hands-on experience with the new Stable system yet, so this will probably be revised when I do. Until then, it's pretty simple:

Beetle for +4000 defence in PvE
Axe Beak for +4000 armour pen in PvP

Conclusion
I think that's everything. Please let me know if I've missed something or need to clarify something, or if you just want to chat about the build etc.

Cheers

boromir

Nice to see someone else trying to create a jack of all trades, but master of none GF.

I agree with all that you've stated, but naturally there are some differences.

1. Desperate survival just doesn't seem appealing to me considering all of the other great passives we have in a pvp environment. My guess is that without the SM Steel Defense option, you chose that. And the artifact shield ability to add HP creates a good synergy.

2. Now I'm going to catch some flak on this one, but I shall not be moved. "All Darks in all offensive slots." Can't do it. This to me suggests a pvp leaning build that negates all else for the sake of ArP. I'd rather have more power/crit/recovery for a more balanced feel. Solo content and pve work better because I've not exhausted all of my offensive slots with Darks.

Ex: full set of dragon flight + elemental is at 61.5% RI. And I am running only 1 rank 10 dark. Almost perfect considering what is necessary for all pve content. All pieces reinforced with defense, naturally. Lions mane has all ArP reinforcements instead to give that separation between sets of gear and their focus. That set has 95% RI. An axe beak and Beetle is all I'm missing for the direction I'm going.

Good build bro

cactusjackter

Axe beak = 5m, Darks = much cheaper

And yeah, once you're top end you can start swapping out the Darks for more Power or Recovery makes sense. I wouldn't bother too much with Crit as you need a hell of a lot extra to make a really noticeable difference imo.

cactusjackter

Actually just checked - there's 0 Armor Pen on any of the Burning or Lionsmane sets. Where are you getting that much RI from?

boromir

Two artifacts, the lantern and the horn. Then I'm still running piercing rings plus the guild boon and DEX. The Lostmauth set has power, crit, armor pen on the neck and belt. Reinforcement kits and of course the singular rank 10 Dark that I've equipped.

My goal is 30% for crit, and I'm at roughly 27% currently. The conquerer capstone adds another 10%. 21% recharge speed, I want 25%.

Now I still run an ioun stone with recovery rings and belt.....Put his feet to the fire!!!!!! I know that's behind the times, but I just can't settle on a fast proc/all defense companion. Plus my my bonding runestones are ranks 9,9 and 8 respectively.

And yeah, the axe beak separates people more than IL, talent, play style and all around knowledge base of how a GF works in pvp. Hence, the price and desire to attain it.

cactusjackter

Ah right, I thought you meant the ArP was on the armour itself.

mikaleus

As someone who is going to start a new character and be a guardian fighter, I found this to be great.

Thanks!

turbo5150

Personally I like to use the anvil of doom as a finishing move. it crushes people in both PVP and PVE.

indylol

>Tactical Superiority 5/5 (5% more damage from Combat Advantage)

This feat buffs the class feature "Combat Superiority" by 5% and allows you to only put 1 point in the power to gain the full 15% damage buff. I just noticed it when flip mentioned your build.