New player - How is SW?

dillpickle

Hi all. I have a 42 OP and enjoy the solo play style. He's fairly sturdy and can AOE pretty effectively. I was wanted to start up a DPS class, but wanted to ask about the SW.

Is the SW more single-target or AOE; or are they not even dps and more towards the support side of things? Also, towards end-game, are SW's wanted/needed? Thanks!

xs13red

It can be single and AOE. Pretty strong on dps can be support also. Wanted/needed is normally looking for healer or guardian fighter.

candinho2

if you are looking for dps, go to anything other than sw, gwf is the dps king, tr/hr/cw are awesome too, sw is the dps striker without dps, but can be a good supporter with good dps

tutelo

candinho2 wrote:

if you are looking for dps, go to anything other than sw, gwf is the dps king, tr/hr/cw are awesome too, sw is the dps striker without dps, but can be a good supporter with good dps
__________________________________________

I think fernuu pretty much proved that this statement is not exactly true. But if you still want to believe that, to each his/her own.

Its true though that GWF is dps king, but thats a whole 'nother can of worms so to speak.

schietindebux

I would say, SW is good dps, hellbringer is also support on top.
The strongest classes in my eyes are the supporter classes like rightous DC, renemof CW, GF anyway
If you look for high dps, warlock is one of them, like GWF is, but a dps focussed GF may be the better in the end if you count tankyness dps and support together.
Look up for the maxbuff groups thefab runs CW-DC-GF-OP-last spot for any striker.
Try to run FBI with a dps CW, warlock and GWF and an OP + DC...it´s a pain.

fernuu

There is no such think as DPS GF. There's just DPS-stealer GF

darkan

hi im not noob whit dps class but need some advices for one build have doing i like too much damnation perhaps not do damage than fury but now do decent damage the question is it heroic feats its good idea put 5/5 heroic feats blood pact of cania? wich increase amount damage give for CON for maxim damage soul puppet. The soul puppet damage incerease whit power base give for CON ??? now have 2 in blood of pact and 3 in devastation critical

schietindebux

fernuu said:

There is no such think as DPS GF. There's just DPS-stealer GF

Not every GF uses CS to steal dps, some obviously can do good as a striker too but are pretty rare (one is in your guild at least). ITF, Knight's challenge, and one dps encounter is sufficient.
GF-IV can up to triple mark target (no clue how much that effects group dps).
Tactition capstone combined with DC running gift of haste + hastening light with offhand feat makes that combo spam dailies endlessly.
Knight´s valor combined with feats like daunting challenge and united protects your group from 65% incoming damage , hard to beat.

thefabricant

fernuu said:

There is no such think as DPS GF. There's just DPS-stealer GF

Tell that to Freya, Fernu

diogene0

SWs are the top damage dealer class but are currently in a state you don't want any of your chars to be in. To deal damage SWs rely on significantly broken unintended mechanics. So they're at the mercy of a fix that would put them a bit under CW for overall damage. However that does mean they're extremely sought after. For now.

fernuu

@schietindebux @thefabricant - indeed. Exactly same way like with SW

fernuu

But most of them... (WoD dragons):
https://gyazo.com/c3711821af59a31420c849a6b82530ef
https://gyazo.com/62b9beb5bab4ec06d32a81151179bdb9
https://gyazo.com/6e3e057ac16749415c5cb804b4347f29

darkan

Fury everywhere fury fury fury.. i like be damnation need advice enhance damage

fernuu

Best advice for Damnation:
Change to Fury

flowcyto

fernuu said:

Best advice for Damnation:
Change to Fury

Have you actually tested Damnation now tho? I'd be interested to see how it parses in groups at the high-end.

fernuu

I have not actually. I never liked it, I never did more DPS with it than Fury. Don't see a point of testing it now, sorry

stpensive

fernuu said:

Don't see a point of testing it now, sorry

That surprises me....

thefabricant

I have tested damnation and I can say it does less dps for me than fury, but I only theorycraft SW stuff, my SW on live in in no way playable, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

fernuu

stpensive said:

fernuu said:

Don't see a point of testing it now, sorry

That surprises me....

Well it shouldn't. I never liked damnation path and never recommended it even for lower geared SWs - if you want to make good SW you can't rely on 3rd party (puppet) damage. You need to learn mechanics and this is rewarding.

flowcyto

thefabricant said:

I have tested damnation and I can say it does less dps for me than fury, but I only theorycraft SW stuff, my SW on live in in no way playable, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

Fair enough. Damnation to me still is pretty formidable, even if its still behind Fury in optimal dps. It seems that Damnation builds have to place more emphasis on spreading Lesser Cruse, and Wraith's Shadow can get the puppet upto 5x Soul Investiture faster and more frequently. Its a bit more potentially active/interesting than it was before.

ghoulz66

Damnation isn't HDPS, but it still competes with CWs and such. Works good for getting in there and melting away rounded up trash mobs. Shadow slip change makes SW decent for leading a push. Drop down a pillar and lock down the mobs and make the other DPS's life easy. It's a support DPS.

neverwinterdevil

i wouldn't advise starting a sw these days as they have been nerfed into nothingness. besides the fact that if we want to be top dps sw we had to go out of our way and learn to play in a melee way instead of casting and keeping our distance like our class is supposed to be, then there have been some other major changes regarding our survivability on hb path which is pretty non existent with 7-8k lifesteal and not able to take aoe at all and also the slow encounters are driving me crazy... in dungeons i have often problems when trying to perform a combo and put down the pillar then slam them with arms of hadar, i get hit with the aoe from mobs and sometimes die before i get to do anything...

i think sw needs a new nerf to be brought back to being top dps casters not medium/low dps melee class. it's been utterly destroyed in my opinnion,

jeffcostarica

Let me check it out, I´m also new, and still learning:

http://nwcalc.com/index.html#/sw?b=2xhg:xp3t3m:9mbt:5ykqp,1r0iu2i:150u000:1u0uuz1:1000000&h=0&p=slb&o=0

At will: Essence Deflier & Dark Spiral Aura
Enconters: Soul Scorch & Hadars Grasp/Warlocks Bargain & Dreadtheft
Class Features: Shadow Walk & Dust to Dust

Question is: Will this guide work on Mod 10?

rotters

Jeff a few things to change.

2nd at will i would change to Hand of blight.

SS, DT, KF as killing flames is the ultimate finisher.

if your tanky enough I would swap dust to dust with all consuming curse for more dps.

for dailies: TC and IS. IS is very strong right now (especially in pvp).

Ive remained a HB but there is more self healing in SB right now. I like the party buff from PoP.


Tab

whyrat

If you have VIP level... 6? You can hot-swap powers without the 8 sec cooldown. Start boss fights with a power other than KF, swap KF in when boss is around 50%. You'll see a good increase in early fight DPS. Arms of Hadar is actually a good one for this, since it has up-front low reacast, so you can hit with it a few times early while sparks are building, by the time sparks are full and SS is on regular rotation you can let it cool and put in KF.

stpensive

fernuu said:

stpensive said:

fernuu said:

Don't see a point of testing it now, sorry

That surprises me....

Well it shouldn't. I never liked damnation path and never recommended it even for lower geared SWs - if you want to make good SW you can't rely on 3rd party (puppet) damage. You need to learn mechanics and this is rewarding.

Still, it does surprise me. You dismiss it but have never tried it. Myopic, IMHO, for someone that is often looked at as an authority on the class.

fernuu

Well I tested damnation at start of module 6. Played it for few weeks and changed to SB Fury. I did a lot of tests with fellow Damnation warlocks (vide doing runs together or testing on dummies) and never saw they can outdps me. Back then it was mostly due to MF and sick buff combinations moved SS to sky. Now it's due to puppet fix and Fury buff.

xrawcarnage

Yup damnation locks did put up huge damage but at the end of the day, i would always out dps them (SB fury). Hellbringer for dps is the only true dps path now. I crippled a maxed out day 1 lock running Sb fury by 100mil in CN. He was very good in mod 9 but needs to move to the dark side.

schietindebux

I beat a lot of better geared HB fury significantly running SB myself, except fernuu and one HB from Black Lotus at maxed out gear, having 3.4 IL atm. myself, wich also proves nothing.
I don´t run maxed insignia, nor maxed companions, nor owlbear or demon lords set or maxed T dread. If you want to get a clue about the performance, try a test with near equal conditions, and I would suggest to not count a mulitproccing companion into that , because it does look like a typical cryptic bug imo..they 100% allways forget to fix stuff, test stuff or implement internal cooldows. No matter if they intend things to work like this, wich I doubt, but a companion dealing my maindamage..huh? Not far away from puppet for my taste.
In mod 5 everyone run HB fury, stating it´s the best damage spec, despite some few near unknown forum member wrote about SB-fury doing better.
HB fury was the reference in most builds and guides you could read, but in the end not true, 100% swapped to SB fury or damnation in short time after the "call out" for SB to be the new meta was official month after SB paragon was implemented.

russ4ua17

What companion?

schietindebux

Companions like: 3 epic archons (fire, air, earth) and a cambion mage plus Erinnye for +20% crityeverity.
Or fire + air archon+ siege master at epic, plus those two above.
These threads are nothing more than oppinions and that´s the only objective statement you can find in the forum anyway. I would not take everything for 100%.
If a top warlock deals heavy number with his gear, a low level warlock may suck with that build, I always would suggest to make up your own oppinion, that´s the best advice from my side.
HB is fun, more fun than SB atm, true, maybe due to the fact that lot´s of player are fed up spamming SS all time
In about 6 month you may be bored spamming Hellishrebuke 24/7, who knows