GigaCycle's Oath of Devotion Build on Life Support

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Giga-Healadin Build (Oath of Devotion)
By
GigaCycle

I was going to try and make a real pretty thread to show people the build I have enjoyed playing this past year. but i'm not sure if it is as viable for new players as it once was. Specifically, the nerf to the duration to Sheild of Faith, for which this build was based around has had it's durtation reduced to a harsh 12 seconds with 4 points in the skill. This is a Copy and Paste Job, and I will work to improve it. Does anyone have any success with higher AP gains? is the Burning Set really good? This tread is a summary of my build, and a conclusion based on the recent nerfs.

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Words from my Character’s Biography (I wrote this at 2.4k til):

My build keeps up Shield of Faith up the whole time during combat (50% damage Reduction, 20% increased healing). This requires an Action Point Gain Addiction. ** (Now 30% Dam Reduction, 30% increased healing and a shorter time duration --- effing Cryptic nerfing).

The Yellow Circle means I'm bonding everyone. It is in your best interest to be inside that circle. (35% increased healing, and 30% of every heal goes to every person in the circle)

My Feats include Echoing Healing, which means heals jump from person to person that happens to be standing near each other. EVERYONE NEAR ME GETS 25% of my power!!!!!! Depending on circumstances, you will get varying amounts of cool down time reduction and movement speed increases.

Boons Include Burning Guidance: All those jumping heals are causing damage to nearby enemies (**every 3 sec cryptic nerf)

Preferred tank is a Guardian Fighter (Now has to run Knight’s Valor).

The worse your gear is, the more fun it is for me. I have pulled 2.2-2.4k til groups though eToS. The action point gain is so high, with massive healing; I can almost keep both dailies up all the time (Healing Font and Sheild of Faith). With gear progression, this might become a certainty.

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The Ideal race is Human, with Dragon Born Second, and maybe Drow as a Third:

When Rolling abilities, go for high CON and CHA. If you have already rolled your character, it isn’t worth re-rolling because you went with WIS instead. However, if your CON isn’t high, it is going to take a higher total item level to overcome this. Low CON is a path I have ‘never’ taken with a paladin and it will probably require some different artifacts/gear to overcome this. Health Points and Damage Resistance are important so CON really needs to be your top Ability. For purposes of an example, I’m 26 CON, 16 WIS, 25 CHA, with a rare (blue) Tiamat belt.

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General Powers (Level 70 Human default points):
• Radiant Strike: 3
• Valorous Strike: 2
• Burning Light: 3
• Divine Judgment: 3
• Aura of Courage: 3
• Sacred Weapon: 1
• Smite: 3
• Heroism: 1
• Lay on Hands: 2
• Bane: 3
• Aura of Truth: 3
• Aura of Vengeance: 3
• Oath Strike: 3
• Templar’s Wrath: 3
• Aura of Wisdom: 3
• Bond of Virtue 3
• Cleansing Touch: 1
• Aura of Restoration: 3
• Cure Wounds: 3
• Banishment: 1
• Shield of Faith: 4
• Aura of Divinity: 2
• Divine Touch: 3
• Vow of Enmity: 3
• Absolution: 1
• Healing Font: 3
• Aura of Life: 3
• Relentless Avenger: 1
• Aura of Valor: 0
• Circle of Power: 1
• Aura of Solitude: 0
Note: The next points you obtain should go to Bond of Virtue and Aura of Wisdom. After that, you are on your own. Maybe read some more, or play the build some more before you choose.

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Feats (Human level 70):
** denotes the extra 3 points for human race at level 70

Heroic:
• 5/5 Divine Action
• 3/3 Toughness
• 3/3 Exemplar’s Haste
• ** 4/5 Light’s Shield (or Dominating Presence)
• 3/3 Impassioned Pleas
• 5/5 Steadfast
Note: ** If your race isn’t human then go for Dominating Presence.

Justice:
• Swift Flash 5/5
• Flash of Light 5/5
• Radiant Champion 5/5

Light:
• Gifts of Light: 5/5
• Light Touched: 5/5
• Restorative Haste: 5/5
• Aura Gifts: 5/5
• Echoing Healing 5/5
• Redemption: 1/1

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Boons (Bold means important):

• Sharandar – Dark Fey Hunter, Fey Precision, Eleven Haste, Eleven Ferocity, Eleven Resolve
• Dread Ring – Reliquary Keeper’s Strength, Illusory Regeneration, Forbidden Piercing, Shadowtouch, Burning Guidance

• Icewind Dale – Weathering the Storm, Refreshing Chill, Rapid Thaw, Cool Resolve, Rousing Warmth
• Underdark – Primordial Might, Primordial Focus, Drow Meditation, Dwarven Stamina, Demon Slayer.
• Tyranny of the Dragons – Dragon’s Claws, Dragon’s Gaze, Dragonscale Defense, Dragon’s Blood, Dragon’s Revival 3/3
• Stronghold – you are on your own for this one
• The Maze Engine – Abyssal Regeneration, Demonic Resilience, Demonic Swiftness, Engine Inspiration ** once this one gets fixed.
• Elemental Evil – Wave of Force, Earth’s Renewal, Blazing Resilience, Wall of Wind

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Companions:

First I want to explain that a Bonding Companion doesn’t work with the Feat based buffs. So, an IOUN stone is really the only way to go for a main active companion. I use the Ioun Stone of Might because of the 3 offensive slots. This particular Ioun also allows you to use two rings and one waist. The rings used are the Rings of the Loyal Commander, and the belt is a Personalized Aberrant Belt of Recovery (2-slot).
After this any companions that give AP gain and recovery are preferred. Sprites (epic) are my preferred choice, I actually like using the Barbarian Shaman once in a while (active), and have a Wandering Scarecrow. There are many more interesting choices that could be used, but for the purposes of being less costly, I used those companions. The only expensive ones were the Ioun Stone and the leveling of the sprites (sometimes there is an event where you can buy a sprite that is epic with a Zen DISCOUNT, bounding stones, and epic companion gear).

Mounts:
You are on your own for this one.

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Gearing and Rating Goals:
First you have to determine if this Paladin will be an Alt or a Main. I will tell you that, in the one year I have played this character, it has had no more than one piece of artifact gear (neck) until recently. You don’t have to grind artifact weapons. I use the Ensorcelled Mulhorand main weapon and offhand. It wasn’t until I got the IOUN stone of might that I stopped using the Personalized Aberrant Belt of Recovery (2-slot) in my waist slot. That belt is worn by the Ioun stone. And, I now use an artifact belt. ***** (Pre-Shield of Faith nerf)

But, if you want useful artifact gear here is the list:

Artifact Weapons:
• Twisted Rapallo/Hoplon -- Usefulness is unknown by me. It has the potential to be very good if Burning Guidance or the damage over time from a weapon enchantment procs the stacks of bloodlust, and (most importantly) if that power can be transferred to allies though your feats (not all stat boosts to power can be transferred to allies). Until this is known, I’m not sure if this is good.
• Earthen Broadsword/Shield -- Don’t bother.
• Howling Broadsword/Shield -- Don’t bother.
• Buringing Mace/Shield -- Has the ‘best’ 2-set bonus.
• Drowned Broadsword/Shield – Don’t bother.
• Stronghold Mace/Shield – Don’t bother unless they un-nerf the duration of Shield of Faith
• Mace/Shield of Elemental Fire -- Don’t bother unless they un-nerf the duration of Shield of Faith

Artifact gear (only two choices for sets):
• Tiamat’s -- I will make the comment that the stats are OK. The Neck is why you really want this. And, when I bought this set, it was the cheapest in the game. The Artifact is good no matter if you complete this set or not. So, it’s not a waste if you try it. Set bonus is only OK. This one is my personal preference.
• Lathander’s -- This has the best neck and waist stats. You can use the AC gain in the neck to put more HP in your character (I’ll explain this later). But the artifact is HAMSTER. Set bonus is useful. The point I would like to make, is don’t get rid of this set if you already have it. But, Don’t bother unless they un-nerf the duration of Shield of Faith.

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Enchantments: The point I would like to get across is, you can’t stick to one type of enchant and level it. You will have to trade as it is needed and as your total item level increase. Cause stats have to go up in plateaus if you want to do dungeons. The stats you don’t need are Deflect, Life Steal, Critical Strike,

• Armor Enchantments:
o SoulForge – just get this one and don’t bother with any others (PvE). The paladin doesn’t have any way to dodge or evade high damage. You are going to die.

• Weapon Enchantments (take your pick):
o Bilethorn – only useful for rising power/recovery rings
o Bronzewood – NO
o Dread – NO
o Feytouch – YES
o Flaming – only useful for rising power/recovery rings
o Frost – NO
o Holy Avenger – YES
o Lifedrinker – NO
o Lighting – NO
o Plague Fire – YES, the better option for rising power/recovery rings
o Terror – YES
o Vorpal – NO

• Defensive enchants (Azure, Radiant, Brutal) :
o First: go for about a 55% or more damage reduction
o Second: for as much HP as you can get, the more Health = better aura of courage

• Offensive Enchants (Silvery, Radiant, Dark, Cruel, Vicious, and Draconic): This is the most important so pay attention.
o First: Your goal in life is to keep Shield of Faith up all the time, so your first enchantments are going to be Silvery. The more Action Point Gain attained means that you can be more selective about how often you use Relentless Avenger. I would say that you should get it to > 50% Action Point Gain, and you do what feels comfortable. (****now needs >75% Action Point Gain and build is still HAMSTER)
o Second: you need about a 25-40% armor penetration; you are not a DPS class.
o Third: whatever is left is put into POWER, the more of this you have = the more for everyone else.
• Utility slots (Dark):
o You can’t afford to not have movement speed, just go Dark and don’t go back.
• Reinforcement Kits:
o I leave you to figure this out; so much depends on play style.

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Armor and Artifacts: Ok the basic idea here is that if the epic gear says “Restoration, Medic, Executioner, Raid, or Assault” in the title then it’s probably for you. But remember what I said before about stats that are worthless to you (Deflect, Critical Strike, and Life Steal).

Try to make two different two-set bonuses with the combination of either dusk, elemental drow, and/or dragon flight. I’m not going to do this for you, so develop a plan.

There are a wide variety of rings that can be useful. The personal preference is to use the Jewel Crafted 2-slot rings (requires rank 25 Jewel Crafting profession) and the Warrior’s Gemmed Exquisite Elemental Shirt and Trousers. The Drow Shirt and Trousers aren’t good enough to ignore the other options.

There are some artifacts that you need to try to acquire, I have used many, but I encourage others to try different ones. I will share with you what I have used/observed.

• Sigil of the Devoted -- this is a great artifact for getting both dailies up and running during a boss fight, I would suggest leveling up an Devoted Cleric just get this
• Tiamat’s Orb of Majesty -- I like this artifact. It was my first epic artifact on this Paladin. There are some mobs that hit really hard. If you can chain this with your Relentless Avenger you can keep a hard hitting mob in a T2 down long enough for the DPS to thin them out a bit.
• Symbol of Air – Ever in a party with hard charging GWFs? Because of this and eDemo, this is my most used Artifact.
• Waters of Elah’zad – it is cheap and it has great stats. I know what you are thinking. Regeneration? Yes, you will find that self healing isn’t as easy as healing others, it’s not completely useless.
• Symbol of Fire -- Again, great stats but it is expensive.
• Heart of the Black Dragon -- I haven’t used this but have seen other OP healadins with it.
• Sigil of the Oath bound Paladin -- OK, don’t take it past epic, you need to replace this eventually.
• Sigil of the Great Weapon -- is ok for the stats but not worth taking past epic (opinion)
• Sigil of the Hunter – I see this on so many classes in this game, but never on mine. It has great stats and is possibly worth keeping.
• Tactician’s Banner -- I’m working to get one of these. I suspect that this one will be fun and I WANT IT. It’s the only reason I PvP.
• Chromatic Storm – VERY GOOD, but stupid expensive. For that reason, I don’t recommend it.
• Wheel of Element – God who isn’t using this? That’s why you don’t need it. Let the guys that charge ahead of the group equip this. You just run over what they don’t use.
• Siege Master’s War Horn and Bruenor’s Helm are situational, so treat them as such. I wouldn’t invest too much Refinement in them, but some people have a lot of leadership alts.

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How the build works: I will not play it for you . But try this build out first.

Dungeon Build:
• Class Features: Aura of Courage, Aura of Wisdom (All the time unless they un-nerf the duration of Shield of Faith)
• Dailies: Shield of Faith, and Healing Font or Divine Judgment
• Encounters: Vow of Enmity, Relentless Avenger, Bond of Virture
• At-wills: Oath Strike and Cure Wounds
As your till increases you want to replace Vow of Enmity with Bane

(END)


I was in process of writing this and stopped here (wasn't finished). The next goal was to make a video to help new Oath of Devotion Paladin's when I noticed the change and tried to adjust my build. I haven't found a build that works anymore. If you look at the "Powers" for this build, I have at least one point in everything except two items and those two are for threat generation. I have tried everything. Stared at my feats and I have got nothing. The problem is Damage Mitigation!

Skills:

Aura of Truth (weak),
Bane (Targeting is junk and duration is insufficient)
Shield of Faith (OVER NERFED) --- The old skill worked just fine!
Banishment (AoE size is too small, and cool down isn't short enough). Furthermore it's a HAMSTER crowd control, and you might as well play a Devoted Cleric if you want to use a skill like this. And if they did shorten the Cool down, it would have to be to where you could cast it twice before buff wears off, because parties don't get into a tight grouping so you can cast this when you need too, and that is why I never used it.


It is my earnest opinion that Oath of Devotion is so broken now, that you should just give up on this until a fix comes out. That is what I will be doing. And, if someone is Oath of Devotion trying to get into your party ....... eDemo only? ...... maybe if 3K?

If anyone needs me, I'll be on my Guardian Fighter for the next 28 days.