Mod 10 questions and the path of the GF

zman81420

A place to discuss theories and ideas on the GF for mod 10. Wether you are a tactician, protector or conquer let's have a discussion on how you have gotten where you are and how you feel your strong points shine and where you need improvement. Your perspectives for going a certain path and what makes you shine. Let's be civil and constructive I was really enjoying the last thread too.
Thanks

boromir

Not going to talk about theories or ideas so much as my experiences with mod 10. I'm a SM/Conquerer.

Powers: Well they killed a few skills and made others pretty much mandatory.

Fray is alive and well. LS is dead. The damage is weak, weaker than BC, and the cooldown has been lengthened. I always loved that encounter. It served 2 functions imo....locomotion and decent damage on a fast cool down. The 2/3 damage in a 60 degree cone is short or something. Enemies behind your intended target rarely take damage unless your aim is true and they are very close behind the primary target. It's so situational that I can't justify slotting LS anymore.

Enforced Threat has become amazing. I never have a reason to turn it off besides dragon fights.

I've replaced the anvil with Flourish. It is fantastic as a single target damage dealer. The stun is handy too.

Combat Superiority never comes off my passive choice list. Combined with Tactical Superiority from the conquerer tree, it is amazing.

HP boon definitely feels like the best option. I keep Fighter's Recovery slotted in epic Edemo, but no where else. Mount insignia heals keep me in a sea of green and I'm sticking with the wheel as my main artifact for those sketchy moments.

Steel Grace is my new favorite passive. I've switched to vorpal and the added crit is always nice. But the run speed, on top of fray, on top of darks in utility slots.....wow. Not being rooted when popping fray is very nice. That said, shield warriors wrath is still the damage go to combined with Combat Superiority.

WMS!!!!! The speed of the animation makes my GF look like a GWF after popping determination. Fantastic!!! Never unslotting this or crushing surge. Tide of Iron is dead, even in boss fights.....and that's sad. Cleave is still garbage...nothing new there.

Luckily you can save your power points with KC and knee breaker. One per is good enough, adding time to these skills, but not more damage seems kinda useless. And with KC, it might even be a 'bad' idea to elongate the buff. So if you're at about 90 power points you can have 4 points in all useful skills. And that's always a good thing.

Mod 10 content has me thinking that all I want is to not have to fish again. And I'm only going for the boons. They can keep their black ice style gear. I'm not going to farm just so I can farm....and then farm some more.

dukesirashi

Thanks for starting this thread zman.

I played a GF as my main on xbox for over a year and then quit right before Mod 10 was released.

I picked the game up again this week and my 3.2K SM Protector feels pretty weak and useless, especially for end game content. He is all Def with 9/10 azures, a portal hound, mythic def artifacts/gear, etc.

I want to play again but as I don't spend money on games I am kinda stuck with what I've got. I grinded/farmed for everything I have and I don't want to spend another year grinding to make another character. I only play PVE.

Based on what I have read here and on other forums, it seems like I will need to swap to conquerer and change all of my enchantments, armour, artifacts and companions over to make a dps specced GF in order to have something reasonable to play with. I am not sure if I want to go through all of that as it will probably take millions of AD and months of grinding to get outfitted well for a conqueror.

I have only seen conquerer builds posted around since mod 10 and no end game prot/tact builds. So, to be a viable end game GF, do I have to switch to conquerer and grind to get my toon back to where it was or is there another option for GF?

boromir

I wouldn't say that it's mandatory to go conquerer. It's all I've ever been for a year and a half save for some testing. Some people swear by protector and others tactician. I think that with our ability to use a super fray being all but history......a new route to get damage is needed. It's a squishiness vs damage output balancing game. That's what makes the conquerer so fun yet nerve racking from time to time. To me, fighters recovery/steel defense cures all woes. That and mount insignia bonuses for all kinds of heals.

The easiest change you can make is to get in a high level guild, if you aren't already. And then use the HP boon instead of the defense boon. Or lifesteal, but I'd still suggest the HP. Then I'd say swap your azures for radiants in defensive slots. That can be basically a free trade with trustworthy guild mates. Or, sell one in the AH, and then buy the other after it sells. If you have all defense mythic artifacts, then just keep them. Hopefully you've got some deflection, recovery and power on them too. Or maybe even HP with the pally sigil. The radiants for azures should offset you pretty well regardless.

If you've grinded for rings then I'd suggest the Con Artist as your summoned companion. 2 offensive and 1 defensive slot. More importantly, he has 3 ring slots. Go with brutality, sudden crit and deflect or lifesteal. Sudden and rising defense rings are not as useful anymore. I dumped and refined mine. The Con Artist is 2 gold in the Enclave. Very cheap, but you'll need to upgrade him to at least blue/rank 30. At rare he debuffs attackers damage resistance by 10% on the third sword swing. Plus, as a striker, he'll stay alive a little longer.

Artifact equipment....if you have a neck with AC, no big deal, keep it. If you're belt is a greater con, no big deal, keep it. Con/DEX also cool.

Honestly I don't think you'll have many 'pricey' changes to make. The HP guild boon does most of your work for you. So I'd say it's a companion/rings swap that will give you some fun damage producing stats. That and a conqueror spec doesn't hurt.

zman81420

@boromir#3940 that is my exact companion set up. I hit like a mother and replenish life like no other.I did however slot maxed life steal boon and I get around 21-22k LS it's ridiculous. I have a few artifacts I'm replacing next 2x rp and will then hit more so like a semi than a truck

zman81420

Replacing the Lathanders set with lostmauth and sliding a wheel into where my symbol of fire is. I'll have them at mythic since it's just feeding it into a green. I still have a mythic symbol of Guardian, cleric and OP that I will play around with butilities for now I'll primary the wheel when I get it up to speed.

zman81420

Tactician is still very much alive but it was time for me to continue my way as what I originally was, a conquer.

boromir

Good stuff zman. 25k crit is just plain fun. I backed myself into a corner with my mythic artifacts too. But not in the direction of most. Most people went for the super fray. Obviously a pally sigil in pve and then a dc sigil as main for pvp, plus the usual suspects. Or artifacts with max HP....pally sigil included there too, which is good. My artifacts are the wheel, lantern, lost horn and symbol of fire. I have a tia orb that's 2 bars away from mythic that I'll swap with symbol of fire next refine.

I tried to stay away from lifesteal because of all the heals I've been getting. Most notably from mount insignia bonuses, boons and feats like Grit. More green is better though, but fighter's recovery is still an option.

tankmaister

I have enjoyed conqueror, it's more fun for me to play as tactician was. Note that I'm purely pve player.

As tactician my role as tank started to roll solely around fray buff and playing solocontent wasn't that much fun (slow and boring). I did some research beforehand and few weeks before mod 10 I started prepping myself for the change as I was full defence. It turned out great even though I still have lots of stuff on my "shopping list" but now I can really hold my ground as a dps and I can also tank everything, including orcus! My ilvl dropped from around 3.3k to just barely 3k after swapping some gears around.

indylol

Tactician - Teambuffing feels underwhelming now when playing with undergeared players. With overgeared players I really don't feel much difference after the nerfs. I run about 180k HP on PS4 and i can pretty easily handle all the incoming spikes of damage in dungeons and edemo, but personally I don't see myself unlocking FBI anytime soon, so it will be a while until i know how the build really works.

Conqueror - i only played it the first day of mod 10 but it was stil really strong as swordmaster, though i know the iron vanguard is often superior.

Protector - just tried it out on PS4 for PvP. Its still hilariously bad at dealing damage, but great for unlimited stamina and node trolling. I've been running ITF, LS, and Bulls for mobility and removing people from nodes to defend caps. I feel like this is the one tree that went unchanged with the last update.

zman81420

I've never been protector but from what I've read it's great for self preservation. Will be interested or see where all our ideals lie when we step foot on console into FBI. I'm kind of excited for the challenge.

indylol

Welp i took my first death after an accidental solo Q and a HR chasing me down for an entire match while getting 3 earth buffs in a row lol. Quite a few bad plays on my part but i love how irritated players get fighting into my endless stamina.

The PvE runs are also alot "safer" feeling. The protector capstone makes a big difference on Orcus but the trade off is that sweet AP gain I don't provide anymore.

speedokillz

As a Tactition, I feel like I breeze through dailies... Still trying to update my ring choices because made a bad mistake with Personalized rings of regeneration. Any suggestions here; Underdark still go-to?

I just walk around Hard Marking everything to get foes surround me, Into the Fray, Enforced Threat, swing Weapon Master's Strike a bunch, prob have full AP so pop Villain's Menace, and finally hit the biggest/baddest thing left with Commander's Strike. I save up a couple days of Dreadring or Sharandar dailies and done in no time. Pure Lightning Enchant is really nice with WMS

Again, made some changes for Mod10 and more needed before I head back into Castle Never.

zman81420

Underdark rings or Master Craft rose golds are both great options @speedokillz . Although I believe rose gold rings can be quite expensive

zman81420

I heard from a a few friends protector is quite tanky and shield up is near endless lol. I am patiently waiting for 2x RP to finally shift to a my new equipment and artifacts. I've been able to drop steel defense with orcus finally with so much LS that's pretty nice. Now his timing is easy but I always left the crutch on just in case.

greyhawk

I've never tanked Orcus using Steel Defense. I always forget to slot it and just got used to timing around his attacks.

I don't see myself using the much shorter version either...

I REALLY want that HP boon, though, dagnabbit!

zman81420

If you can get around 11k recovery you should be right there for 100% ITF time. I've been slotting steel grace over guarded assult and I'm really impressed with how nice this passive is. I just made an investment to a transcendent vorpal and wow I'm glad I did. WMS is insane.

greyhawk

One of my favorite things about Vorpal is the different sound your swings make. More 'swish' instead of 'swoosh', if that makes any sense lol

lirithiel

I'm finally getting my GF where I want him to be. I dumped just about all my Regen from gear for Power (thank goodness for TB store discount ) and nabbed a CON belt which I will be switching to from Lathander one when next double refinement hits on Nov 24. Been running with Lathander set for a few Mods now but artifact sets are so last year. I'm still playing SM Tact (tried IV for about 2 weeks into Mod 10 and didn't like it) and I prefer the buff tank role as opposed to dps tank so no Conq for me either. I have no issues with dailies, partly due to ITF which makes me zip around so it makes up for the slight lack of dps. MY DR is 65% out of combat so I haven't quite reached the magical 80% mark. I run with a Dread Warrior as summoned with only 3 regular Bonding Runestones (Loyal Commander gear) so I don't get much Defense there while I also use Ring of Rising Defense +4. It's baby steps at this stage with his progression but I'll be focusing more on upgrading his enchants during the next DRP event. Really wish I'd gone after the Siege event artifact, don't know when we'll see that event again

greyhawk

We have siege on Xbox soon. There's a good artifact?

lirithiel

greyhawk#1973 said:

We have siege on Xbox soon. There's a good artifact?

For me there was, Banner of the Fallen I think it's called: HP, Defense and Guard Gain.

zman81420

If you are investing into high rank silverys right now the prices on Xbox are very high. Some r12 just below 2 million or above. For those who planned ahead Bravo. This will stabilize but for the time being save your ad.