Steal Life to the Fullest: Shabok’s PvE HB Temptation Guide (Mod 10 Xbox)

mrshabok

Overview

Hey everyone! Thanks for checking out my guide. What I write here is from my personal experience. It reflects my opinion and what I believe to be the best build. Copy it, take it and make it your own, ignore it, criticize it, whatever. That’s part of the fun. As a general Neverwinter rule, I urge you not to worry so much about topping leaderboards or else you’ll drive yourself insane given how much things can change in this game. Do the best with what you have and have fun with it. I'm currently sitting at 3525IL.
Before I start I want to get some things out of the way:

Pros:
- Tankyness that can rival actual tanks. Given the right circumstances I can face tank a couple hits from Orcus but um…don’t count on it.
- Above average DPS. Expect sometimes 1st but mostly 2nd or 3rd in good groups, but this really isn’t the focus anyway
- Heals that rival or beat DC and OP
- Excellent support and good buffs/debuffs
- Ability to solo epic dungeons pretty easily at 3.5k and good guild boons

Cons:
- Pretty gear dependent, although that’s arguably the case with any SW now that the Puppet from Krypton is a thing of the past
- Jack of all trades, master of none except healing. How well you do on a given leaderboard will depend on many factors. Sometimes I’m number 1 in literally every category but deaths, sometimes not. But again, who cares. It simply shows that you’re still adding tons of value to the team that is unique to this path

If you want to be max DPS, go spec a Fury. This path is not for you. You’ll still do really good damage and are able to heal/buff/debuff for your party along the way.

Race
The best races are Dragonborn, Tiefling, and Human in no particular order. Human nets you those handy feat points while the other two will offer more damage. But play whatever you want since this choice will not make or break you one way or the other. I’m still Tiefling.
You’ll want to go full constitution, full charisma across the board. Int is a secondary stat so roll accordingly, but don’t bother investing any points into anything other than Con and Cha.

Feats
Heroic:
Toughness 3/3
Weapon Mastery 3/3
Energizing Curse 1/5
Empowered Rituals 3/3
Determined Casting 4/5
Soul Reaping 3/3
Devastating Critical 3/3

Paragon:
Temptation
Hope Stealer 5/5
Hellish Condemnation 5/5
Dark Revelry 5/5
Aura of Cruelty 5/5
Aura of Despair 5/5
Darkness 5/5
Soul Bonding 1/1

Damnation
Relentless Curse 5/5
Power of the Nine Hells 5/5

If you’re Human, dump one into Determined Casting and 2 into Blood Pact of Cania. I chose Power of The Nine Hells over Gatekeeper because I don’t use GoH and I find the mobility and extra team support provided by PotNH to be more valuable.

Boons

I don’t have all my boons because I hate dailies and don’t have time to be on for hours on end lately. I also don’t have FBI unlocked…sorry  Here’s what I do have:
Storm King:
None yet but I would choose Cold Hearted, Survival Instincts, Chill Determination (Icy Wrath is also fine), Glacial Strength, Healing Warmth
PvP:
What’s PvP?
Sharandar:
Dark Fey Hunter, Fey Elusiveness, Feywilds Fortitude, Elven Tranquility, Elvish Fury
Dread Ring:
Reliquary Keeper’s Strength, Evoker’s Thirst, Illusion Shimmer, Enraged Growth, Endless Consumption
Icewind Dale:
Encroching Tactics, Appreciation of Warmth, Sleet Skills, Cool Resolve, Winter’s Bounty
Underdark:
Primordial Might, Primordial Regenesis, Drow Ambush Tactics, Dwarven Footing, Abyssal Strikes or Abyssal Tenacity both are fine
Tyranny of Dragons:
Dragon’s Claws, Dragon’s Shadow, Draconic Armorbreaker, Dragon’s Greed, Dragon’s Thirst or Dragon’s Fury
Guild:
Power and Defense
Maze Engine:
Abyssal Siphoning, Demonic Resilience, Demonic Swiftness, Displace Fate or Engine Inspiration or Baphomet’s Might they’re all fine it’s just a matter of preference
Elemental Evil:
Wave of Force, Heart of Stone, Searing Aggression, Furious Whirlwind

A lot of these are really preference even though that’s not what some of you want to hear. This class is pretty flexible and it simply depends what you want to focus more on. I chose the Defense boon over the Lifesteal boon from the Guild because the extra lifesteal is overkill. I hit 40-45% in combat with only 3k/28% base LS, which turns out to be plenty. Defense will grant you mandatory survivability and, when paired with Negation and other DR boosting powers, offers a really nice balance between DR and LS.

mrshabok

Mounts

Flail Snail (active bonus and Magistrate’s Patience), Hell Hound (Vampire’s Craving), Polar Bear (Barbarian’s Revelry), Trained Grizzly (Protector’s Camaraderie), Griffon (Wanderer’s Fortune). Aggression, Leeching, and Courage Insignias are the best for this in my opinion.
I’m no expert on mount bonuses. It’s probably not optimal but it was what I had plus a Grizzly. Flail Snail active power (AP gain after daily use) is a godsend but that’s been the case since it came out. Magistrate’s patience is also pretty nice. Wanderer’s Fortune is the best mount bonus in the game. DPS mount bonuses really won’t make or break you but the Insignias are very helpful little boosters (I’ll be changing my greens to blue soon). Those are the only two I would really push for. Outside of that just do some research and go from there.

Companions

Earth Archon, Erinyes of Belial, Siege Master, Owlbear Cub, Air Archon (summoned)

Ring of Rising Power + 4, Ring of Rising Lifesteal + 4, Adamant Necklace of Recovery. I like the Rising rings on my active because I feel it gives a good tradeoff between momentary huge stat boosts of sudden and the steady-as-she-goes value that flat items have. I chose recovery because I prefer that over boosting my ArmPen higher than it needs to be and Recovery is always nice. My RI easily reaches 60% without the help of a necklace. Brutals in offense, darks in defense. Technically Vicious in Def would be better but I don’t have any yet. I chose the Earth Archon over Fire since I have full HP almost all the time. 2 R11 Bonding, one R12.

Owlbear Cub…sigh…extremely helpful yet controversial little critter. Bugged? Maybe. Convenient synergy? Definitely. But it doesn’t matter what I think. They haven’t done anything to it on Xbox yet. They might at some point, so buyer beware. They have for other classes on PC, but from what I hear the SW is not affected. What I do know is that it’s not absolutely necessary. It’s also very expensive. Still the best bang for your buck by far despite the associated risk.

Gear

Right now I have Dusk Assault chest and feet, D-Flight head and arms for power and crit. Twisted Set. Sudden precision 4, Brutality 4. R11 Azures on offense, R11 Darks on defense. Radiant or Brutal in offense are just as viable for this guy on paper, but I’m a critaholic. I don’t have the AD to swap and test them so all I can do is tell you what I know works. Vicious for the LS/Deflect would theoretically be preferable to Dark. Perfect Dread. Greater Negation. Dragon Hoards. Orcus set. Crit kits. AP gain jewels. Hellish Rebuke rolled on mainhand for extra damage. Prince of Hell for extra DR and CA Bonus on offhand but Control Resist or AP gain are also ok. The only two necessary artifacts are the Sigil of the Devoted and Orcus Wand. Lantern offers great stats and is free. Thayan Book is fantastic but that can be replaced by a DPS artifact of your choosing, such as Heart of the Blue Dragon, Kessel’s Spheres, etc. I like Black Dragon in overlo…whatever. Just throw something in there you got from eLoL

Base Stats without potions, etc

23k power, 12k crit strike (53%), 4.8k arp (56.5% RI), 1.5k recovery, 13.1k defense (36.8% DR), 3.1k lifesteal (28.7%), 1.8k Deflect (13.7%), 26 CON, 25 CHA, 14 INT, 102k HP

Rotation/Playstyle
Your priority for maxing powers should be Pillar of Power, Blades, Arms, Tyrannical, Prince, Shadow Walk, Hellish, Accursed, Hand of Blight.
I go for Pillar of Power, Arms of Hadar, and Blades of Vanquished Armies. Tyrannical and Accursed Souls for dailies. This could easily change once 10.5 hits Xbox, at which point I will test and update. Shadow Walk and Prince of Hell for passives. Hellish Rebuke and Hand of Blight for at-wills. My rotation doesn’t change whether it’s a boss or mobs. The exception is if you don’t have a tank with you that can hold boss aggro or you don’t have the stats to tank any hits yet. In that case, Dreadtheft , Warlock’s Bargain, and Vampiric Embrace (I personally hate this encounter but people like it so there it is) are good ranged choices. PoP should always be slotted. Wait for tank to draw aggro. Swing around the back and use Pillar, TC, BoVA, spam AoH, then use HR when other things are on cooldown. I’ll use Accursed Souls as a sort of panic button since it offers great burst heals and decent AoE. I also use it when casting TC would be a waste in situations where the mobs will be dead before the damage can rack up. Some might wonder why I don’t use Vampiric Embrace. I don’t like the cooldown and I’ve found my heals are still great without having to rely on it. It also doesn’t do as much damage as spamming Arms, which also grants awesome healing and can be used more often while also making use of your Dread enchant. However, if you like it then go for it.

Typical rules that you would follow as a Fury apply here, since your goal is to essentially deal as much damage as you can while staying alive, throwing down pillar, and staying close to melee DPS. This is a big change from the otherwise ranged playstyle that other SW’s are forced to adopt.

Tips
- Try not to go into a fight without BoVA available since the damage mitigation it offers is invaluable
- Keep your PoP under the biggest/most threatening enemy to maintain its buff/debuff qualities as long as possible and stack up Owlbear damage if you have one.
- Try and keep PoP in a good spot for your melee teammates while also keeping Combat Advantage
- Don’t be afraid to dodge out of the pillar to avoid a red area or a big melee hit. You’re very mobile and will keep the buff for 5sec
- You’re going to draw a lot of aggro, especially if the tank isn’t as geared as you. Be prepared for it.

Closing Thoughts
HB Temp is a really fun tree and a great pick for a few reasons. I recommend it for those who are looking to change up their playstyle and keep the game fresh while still being a very valuable member of the team. This build is extremely tanky, so it’s also good for those who aren’t maxed and are looking for new challenges in soloing epics, etc. I’ll update this with 10.5 if there are any changes worth mentioning. Until then...

brb89

I read too many guides and discussion about templock, i tried so many combination for find a build that have a gameplay nice for me, and your is quite fun and gave me some satisfaction (for just a 2,6k IT). I just copy and paste your build, have done a few changes, first of all for artifact and stat that they include. I like it so much! But i have a question, u use dread enchant on weapon slot, i want to buy one when i can offord it; but i want to try lighting enchantment too, it give a lot of dot damage (what u need for healing: more dot dmg with wvery strike of bova) and also cooldown reduction: so more dot and frequently cast of bova thats means more heal and maybe better tanky work. What do you think about it?

mrshabok

Sure, Lightning could work too. I don't really know a whole lot about it just because no one I know uses it and I never have used it either. Vorpal is also a possibility. You should give it a try, though, and see what happens. On paper it seems to be a decent choice. I'm glad you've enjoyed my guide and that I could help you out some! Let me know how it goes.