test content
Logo
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc
Forums > Home› Class Forums›
Priorities? (Newly 70)
maatmons
Member Posts: 58 Arc User
So, I hit level 70 a few days ago. It looks like my characters still got a lot of improving to do. But where to start?
Here's where I'm at right now. (Edit: Forgot to mention that I'm interested in the style of tank from the Bowser guide.)
Here's my progress on boons so far.
After I picked the catalog, I read that it's apparently not a good choice. Even so, I don't regret picking it. Partly because of its sheer convenience and partly because I'm told I can buy the other ones if I really want to. I might not equip it for battle once I get another artifact, but I'll probably still keep it in my inventory.
So, which of those should I be funneling refinement points into? And what other artifacts should I try to get?
My main stumbling block for refining is proving to be Marks. It looks like you need to run group content to get them? But I'm not up to a lot of group content yet?
I bought the cloak and belt of Valhalla off the auction house, because they didn't seem to cost that much. (I also bought the Horn of Valhalla, but this section's for artifact equipment.)
I've got an Elemental Fire Shield that I got from… somewhere? Is it worthwhile to upgrade it, considering I just plan to replaced it?
Someday, I'll hit that cap of 80%, and them I'll only be taking 1/3rd of the damage I take now. I look forward to that. But right now, I just don't stand up very well to hits from level 73 guys without my shield. And I can't keep my shield up as much as I'd like.
How much should I worry about upgrading these right now?
I've got a retraining token that I acquired from Sybella. Is there any reason to wait on this? Do I want to finish off the campaigns before I ditch my solo-oriented stuff?
The guide makes several recommendations for companions, but they're all hundreds of thousands of astral diamonds. Should I start saving up, or are there other expenses I should focus of first?
If I delay acquiring the good companions, are there any I should get for the interim?
I don't have any runestones or gear on any of my companions. What should I look for?
Here's where I'm at right now. (Edit: Forgot to mention that I'm interested in the style of tank from the Bowser guide.)
Boons
So far, I've mostly been focusing on trying to work through the campaigns. I never actually looked at Tyranny of Dragons until after I hit 70, so I'm not even very far in that one.Here's my progress on boons so far.
- Tyranny of Dragons: 1
- The Maze Engine: 1
- Elemental Evil: 2
- Sharindar: 2
- Underdark: 0
- Dread Ring: 1
Artifacts
Right now, I've got the Horn of Valhalla, Brunor's Battlehelm, a Sigil of the Guardian, and Aurora's Whole Realms Catalog.After I picked the catalog, I read that it's apparently not a good choice. Even so, I don't regret picking it. Partly because of its sheer convenience and partly because I'm told I can buy the other ones if I really want to. I might not equip it for battle once I get another artifact, but I'll probably still keep it in my inventory.
So, which of those should I be funneling refinement points into? And what other artifacts should I try to get?
My main stumbling block for refining is proving to be Marks. It looks like you need to run group content to get them? But I'm not up to a lot of group content yet?
Artifact Equipment
I started working on the Drowned set a little but… it felt really grindy. Is it worth it? Or can I make do with something else until I can manage to get a Twisted set?I bought the cloak and belt of Valhalla off the auction house, because they didn't seem to cost that much. (I also bought the Horn of Valhalla, but this section's for artifact equipment.)
I've got an Elemental Fire Shield that I got from… somewhere? Is it worthwhile to upgrade it, considering I just plan to replaced it?
Other Equipment
The rest of my gear is stuff I acquired incidentally, and some blue stuff I got off the auction house. For the stuff I bought, I went with Defense and Deflection. I don't have any of the stuff that triggers off of Deflection yet though.Enchantments
My enchantments are geared towards Defense, Armor Penetration, and Movement Speed. I know the guide said to take HP over Defense (for the number of hit points I have), but I just have so little DR. I haven't even cracked 40%.Someday, I'll hit that cap of 80%, and them I'll only be taking 1/3rd of the damage I take now. I look forward to that. But right now, I just don't stand up very well to hits from level 73 guys without my shield. And I can't keep my shield up as much as I'd like.
How much should I worry about upgrading these right now?
Respecing
My choices when leveling up tended to favor more damage. But having tried my hand at an epic dungeon (and failed), I think I'm really lacking in survivability and threat generation.I've got a retraining token that I acquired from Sybella. Is there any reason to wait on this? Do I want to finish off the campaigns before I ditch my solo-oriented stuff?
Companions
All I have right now are the ones I've acquired incidentally. An apprentice healer, a dwarven battlerager, a Helmite paladin ghost, a renegade illusionist, and a minstrel.The guide makes several recommendations for companions, but they're all hundreds of thousands of astral diamonds. Should I start saving up, or are there other expenses I should focus of first?
If I delay acquiring the good companions, are there any I should get for the interim?
I don't have any runestones or gear on any of my companions. What should I look for?
Bottom Line
What should I be focusing on, in term of time, astral diamonds, or whatever other resources?0
Comments
Your second order of business is to get some Bondings and find a comp right for your build. Not judging you for what your build wants, but seriously, get some Lesser Bondings, buy some +3 comp gear from the AH, get yourself a foothold.
Your third order of business should be to get some basic (EDIT, because DERP) armor pieces. Things like Alliance Armor, Elven, Guild Armor, Dusk if you got tradebars. Also, check out the Underdark shirt/pants, which are cheap and can last through endgame. Just establish a foothold in gear until you find you have a "solid" set of gear. Then, upgrade yourself as you see fit.
Your fourth order of business is to get 60% Resistance Ignored. Even if you need to use the guild ArmPen boon and over-ArmorPen, you need the 60% resistance Ignored for campaigns and dungeons.
Your fifth order of business should be to find some decent starter enchants. R8s Azures and Darks should be suitable for your build up through CN. Just get these and hold onto them until you have more stats and know where you need to funnel your RP efforts.
Your sixth order of business is to finish up your campaigns. In order of "need to do" to "meh, take your time", I would do Elemental Evil (it's close to completion anyways), Dread Ring (good boons + Lairs are your source of purple marks), Sharanderp, Underdark, Icewind Dale (gotta get dat Avalanche boon), Tedium of the Dragons (seriously, you can just go up to Boon 4/5 and do fine), and then River District/Storm King (I wouldn't consider either one until you've gotten a lot of other boons and have your gear sorted out. I would consider River District first, as the Nostura boon will make a bigger impact to your build than getting Frozen Reflection).
(Optionally, you can take the time to swap into a Conqueror build so your solo/boon grind times aren't horrendous, but you won't be able to play the Protector build you want because you lack respec tokens. Whether you'll grind it out on Protector or get used to a Conq build is up to you.)
Afterwards, where you go to upgrade is up to you.
I think your current artifact setup is pretty solid: the Horn, Helm, Sigil are decent picks even through endgame. I'd personally pick up a Champion's Banner from the Siege event, a Heart of the Black Dragon (for its debuff), or perhaps a Bloodcrystal for the active bonus (btw: stats on Bloocrystal suck, but active bonus can be a lifesaver). Don't destroy the Catalogue, just keep it in your pocket and swap it in when you have need of selling things.
Speaking of the shield/damage mechanics, the shield blocks 80% of incoming damage, which is multiplicative with other sources of damage reduction. This includes DR, damage debuffs, or Deflect.
Let's say you take a hit that has a base damage of 100,000. If you shield the hit:
100,000 * (1-0.8)
100,000 * (0.2)
20,000
If you have 80% DR, assuming you've countered enemy ArmorPen...
20,000 * (1-0.8)
20,000 * (0.2)
4,000
If you have only 40% DR, assuming enemy armorpen is countered...
20,000 * (1-0.4)
20,000 * (0.6)
12,000
As you can see, the DR difference is not that big unless you are ensuring that you want to take as little damage as possible. Just use your shield correctly and focus on the enemies in front of you. I didn't even throw in any damage debuffs, like Distracting Shield or Daunting Challenge, or Deflect into the mix.
Well, that certainly sounds better than running those same heroic encounters over and over. I didn't even realize they were bind on equip, instead of bind on pickup.
Okay, so, should I be looking into healer companions, DPS companions, or what?
I was kind of interested in an Accolyte of Kelemvor. Would she be a decent choice?
???
Is that why it takes me so long to kill things?
Okay, I'm at 17% now. If I can manage to find a guild that offers the +8,000 boon, that's another 20%, right?
What do I do for the last 23%?
Okay, will any of the content I run drop rank 8s directly? Or will I be upgrading from rank 5? Or buying on the auction house?
I'm actually mostly conqueror right now. Here are my current feats.
Heroic:
- Strength Focus 3/3
- Toughness 2/3
- Shielded Resurgence 2/3
- Armor Specialization 3/3
- Powerful Attack 5/5
- Weapon Mastery 3/3
- Ubiquitous Shield 5/5
Conqueror:- Take Measure 5/5
- Wrathful Warrior 5/5
- Jagged Blades 5/5
- Cruel Cut Style 5/5
- Tactical Superiority 5/5
- Reckless Attacker 1/1
Tactician:- Crushing Pin 5/5 (will this apply to the Guarded Assault offhand effect?)
- Daunting Challenge 5/5
- Battle Trample (this turned out to be much worse than I anticipated)
- United 4/5
So, should I just stick with that until I get through the campaigns?I meant to say "basic Armor pieces". You have a Valhalla set, which is good enough for sets. For armor, consider going after basic stuff like Guild Armor, Alliance Armor, Dusk Armor, basic +4/Jewelcrafting rings, Underdark Shirt/Pants, etc. Once you've established a decent foothold, you can choose to upgrade your armor as you see fit.
Acolyte of Kelemvor is a decent pick. I tried her for a spell, she's rather useful for a new tank. She has decent comp slots, decent abilities, and is fairly cheap on the AH.Her weaknesses include the icon slot (seriously, icons, why) and the fact that she only activates Bondings when you get hit. Other than that, she's a solid and respectable companion by your side.
For other comps, there's not much choices. I personally chose the Rust Monster, Chicken (both for their debuffs), and the Sylph. You can choose to pursue the +threat comps if you want. Energon is also a decent choice for its active bonus alone, although it's only a marginal HP boost.
ArmorPen (aka: Resistance Ignored) is important. There's a list of Resistance Ignored needed to do full damage in the guides section (I think), as well as on a post on an UNWelcome website (to borrow Harrier Took's joke ^_^).
As for over-armorpening, I wouldn't worry about overarmorpenning, don't worry about it. You'd much rather have the 60% & extra to retain aggro, than ~20%, but not be able to kill things in soloing nor be able to hold aggro on bosses.
For the guild defense boon, I would actually pick up the Lifesteal boon instead of the Defense boon. I know this seems like an odd choice, but as I illustrated above, as long as you use your shield correctly, you probably won't need the extra DR. The extra lifesteal, even if only 4000, can give you some sustainability so you spend less time panicking about your HP bar and more time learning how to manage your cooldowns, stamina, and watching the bosses (watch the bosses, learn which animations go with which attacks. As soon as they hit your shield, you have the opporunity to make one move).
I also forgot to mention R7 enchants. You can get them off the AH for cheap (do not do not spend Traderbars for them, those tradebars can be used for more valuable stuff).
If you run CN often, you can win some R8 Radiants, Azures, or Darks out of the Demonic chest. R8s should be good enough for most content, with the exception of FBI/Svardborg/eSP (and if you're chasing that content, you probably already know what gear you're pursuing anyways).
Your Conq build is decent enough to get through campaigns. For tanking duties, it should also be fine, as most of the GF's basic tanking kit is universal to all GFs (By basic tanking kit, I mean ITF, ET, FR, holding shield. marking targets, optionally using Tide of Iron). The advantage of playing a Conq tank is that you shouldn't have much issues in keeping aggro. Just remember you play Conq for the aggro and soloing, and not for DPS output.
As for tanking, timing is everything. If you want to tank Orcus I highly recommend running shores and learn the mechanics of Barkas as his attacks are very similar to Orcus.
I know the Combat Superiority offhand bonus is great for generating aggro, but unless he gets it within the first try, he could potentially be spending ~1mil AD if the RNG Goddess hates him. Assuming he has ~ 1mil AD, he would best spend it on a decent weapon enchant (Lightning, Frost, etc.), some Coalwards, some higher ranking Bondings, or even VIP (if he doesn't already have it). All all of those will improve his build better in more meaningful ways than the Superiority offhand bonus.
I personally wouldn't worry about the offhand bonus of the artifact weapon until you have your basic gear sorted out. Once you have some basic gear and understand how to tank, then you can worry about the little things to improve your build.
If buying a weapon set from the AH you should be able to pick the OH bonus you want as it is randomized at creation and then fixed until someone pays to change it.
- Get 5 purple companions. You can get cheap ones from auction house due to the winter festival and such. Just for the extra stats as upgrading them is very pricey. Good cheap one to go for is energon. If you are going for bondings, I'd suggest something with defensive slots to begin with and switch later on. Dancing shield is arguably the best one to go for (because of the debuff) Priestess of Sehanine Moonbow is also good, but expensive.
- Try and get mount bonuses. https://two30.github.io/neverwinter-insignia/ these are good sources of extra healing. This table is old i think and i believe there are cheaper mounts you can get from the winter festival. And grab cheapo mount insignias, the purple crescent courage ones are quite cheap right now
- Work on Valhalla set for refinement, rather than weapons. Eventually you will want to try and get the relic weapons which overall are MUCH cheaper in the long run. Get drowned set to blue and leave it until you can afford the relic ones (from storms thunder) The valhalla stats aren't too shabby and the cloak/belt and you can feed them into another set if you want to change during RP refinement weekend.
- Do Throne of Dwarven gods... as often as you can make lesser demonic keys, the chestpiece from there is really nice, especially for starting out. Drop rate is fairly low so you might have to wait a while till it drops, so try make lesser demonic keys as often as you can. It will help you get to 160-170k HP which is a healthy start.
- Aim for 4 artifacts that have 3 beneficial stats on each one. good ones to go for are gwf sigil, paladin one, vanguard banner (fairly impossible to get now) etc. best to go look at the gamepedia.
- ArP is a tricky one, because you will eventually get it from boons and there is a cap for it so plan accordingly. I get mine mostly from my pet proccing bonding stones and it's equipment.
- You don't need 80% 50-60% i sufficient with the guild boon, you get another 15% from your heroic feat that doesn't display on your character sheet. clerics will be keeping you alive too and giving you some DR if you need it. getting your HP up would be more beneficial to begin with.
- Get enchantments with split stats, as they have more overall stats. HP/DEFENSE is the safest bet. I'm using rank 12 draconics in defensive slots because it has 3 stats which I want fairly equally and are cheap compared to others or brutals.
and also the featured satirical comedic adventure "A Call for Heroes".
Anyway, I bought the Drowned Shield. I went with the one that adds a slow effect to Guarded Assault, since the Bowser guide gives it a high recommendation.
I was a little nervous because the guide doesn't explicitly say it triggers Crushing Pin, and I think I remember reading something about certain effects not triggering it. But, anyway, it does! Or, at least, the enemy gets an icon on him that looks like the icon for Crushing Pin.
I'm saving up for the Drowned Longsword next. Since it took 2 days to get enough for the shield, I'm estimating 3 more till I have enough for the sword. I'm not sure which ability I want to get for it though. The Bowser guide suggests the one that gives extra damage to Threatening Rush, but says it outright says they don't think it adds very much value.
Now, I have found myself using Threatening Rush quite a bit. I wouldn't mind a little more damage with it, but I actually like it for the mobility. If the power added range to it, I'd be chomping at the bit to get it.
Anyway, since getting the Threatening Rush version of the weapon apparently isn't important to my build, is there any other version I should consider? Either for tanking, or to speed up my solo questing? The one that gives extra damage to Cleave and Aggravating Strike looks tempting. Those are mostly what I've been using to deal damage up to this point.
I don't think that gives extra ArmorPen (I think it just boosts the damage bonus from STR by 0.15, but I'd need to test it out for certain).
---
The GA offhand triggers Crushing Pin, as long as GA is slotted of course. It's a big component of my Tactician build as well as Took's Bowser build.
The mainhand bonuses only improves the damage of the Atwills (Cleave, Rush, WMS) or the healing of the power (Crushing Surge). Sadly, the Rush mainhand bonus does nothing for the range or speed of the charge.
The Tide of Iron bonus is the most unique of the lot. I would personally go for it for a pure tank build, since you can't go wrong with a bigger stamina pool via Tide, as well as the bonus to your Shield Slam can being a lifesaver in certain circumstances.
I also doubt that the small % of extra Cleave damage will make a huge difference in your solo times, so I would ignore the Cleave mainhand bonus.
And don't you just love how the automod deletes your posts if you try to edit them one too many times?
and also the featured satirical comedic adventure "A Call for Heroes".
and also the featured satirical comedic adventure "A Call for Heroes".
I guess I need to hit preview server again to test it (I generally trust your word Grimah, but sometimes, I like seeing the result in front of me).
Also, maatmons, sorry for hijacking your thread, some of this stuff is really interesting to me.
I joined a guild too, so now my Resistance Ignored is up to -48.8%. Getting closer. My Life Steal Chance jumped up to14.6% too. Which is nice, but might be bad eventually too. Eventually, I want a Greater Everfrost Chaincoat and a pair of Greater Everfrost Chausses. The trouble is, I want them for the damage reflection, which only triggers if my Deflect is higher than my Life Steal. That means I need another… actually, I guess it's just another 109 points in deflect.
Just as a point of clarification, it's looking at my Deflect and Life Steal scores, not my Deflection Chance and Life Steal Chance, right?
Oh, also, Acolyte of Kelemvor isn't going to mess with me on the Deflect > Life Steal front, is it? The ability reads like it's separate from the Life Steal stat, but I should probably make sure.
I know you said not to worry so much about Defense, but it's kind of bugging me that every piece of gear I look at upgrading to has so much less Defense than my current stuff. I hate when higher-level gear isn't a strict upgrade. On the other hand, I need some more Armor Penetration and Deflect, so as long as the gear boosts those, and it's a net gain, I'll take it.
The only Armor Pen/Defense/Deflect gear I can find is Alliance Ward Brestplate, Alliance Ward Gauntlets, the Elemental versions of both of those, and Elemental Dragonflight Ward Helm. Is that what I should aim for then? That still leaves me without a leg piece that boosts all three. Should I just go with Armor Pen/Defense for that slot then?
I see the Elemental Armors are acquired through Black Ice Shaping. Do I need to use the standard versions as a crafting component? So I'm basically upgrading them?
I believe the Acolyte just gives you a flat bonus to 10% lifesteal (or, essentially, a Lifesteal % worth about 4000 Lifesteal). I think the Everfrost Shirt/Pant actually consider your Deflect/Lifesteal chance rather than stat, but I could be wrong.
Yes, Elemental/Black Ice Upgrades require the base gear as a reagant to upgrade. I don't know if they eat up your base Armor's dye or transmutes, so be wary.
With the exception of Drowcraft gear, all the Blice Upgrades do is slightly increase your Armor's stats. For the time investment, I really wouldn't bother with Blice upgrades on armor.
Yes, I would go for ArmPen/Def, even if it lacks Deflect. Imo the extra ArmorPen for aggro/soloing is much more necessary than the extra reflect procs conferred by Deflect.
That's kind of why I'm so gung-ho on Defense. Every point is worth more than the last. You hardly ever see accelerating returns in these games.
I mean, if your point is just that I'm going to hit the cap anyway, that makes sense. But I'm really nowhere near it right now. Well then, if I'm running with the Acolyte and the set bonus, I guess I'll have to switch my guild boon from Life Steal to Defense. Okay, but I should still pick up Deflect when I can? Or are you saying I should drop the whole Deflect > Life Steal thing, and just accept the severity bonus from the Everfrost gear? Or stick with Drowcraft shirt and pants?
If I did that, how much should I invest in Deflect? I'd still use it for Fey Thistle and Frozen Reflection, but I'm not sure what the cooldowns on those are, so I don't know how frequent I really need deflections to be.
I've been doing a better (but not outstanding) job of plugging away at the campaigns. My current boons are:
- Tyranny of Dragons: 3/7
- Maze Engine: 4/4
- Elemental Evil: 4/4
- Sharindar: 5/5
- Underdark: 3/5 (actually, the gauge is at 21/35)
- Dread Ring: 5/5 (and Adamantine Gauntlets)
- Storm King's Thunder: 1/7
- Icewind Dale: 3/5
- The Cloaked Ascendancy: 0/4
Well, I finally bit the bullet and replaced my Head, Armor, Arms, and Feet gear. When they were running that 50% off Seal costs event, I actually took the trouble to look at how many seals I had, compared that to the new store prices, and realized I had enough to get a full set of Alliance armor. I went with Ward. Maybe I should have asked, but it seemed like the tankier set.The extra +1,696 Armor Penetration I got from the switch brought me all the way up to the cap. (Actually, I'm at -64.1%.) You know, I hadn't expected going from 50% to 60% was going to make such a big difference, but it really has.
Where should I prioritize getting a weapon enchantment? Was that lumped in with “get starter enchants?” I was considering a Lightning enchantment, for the extra targets hit. Is that a good choice?
Take your time on the boons, as you already have a lot of the core boons. I would personally ignore ToD boons 6-7, SKT boons 5-7, and River District's Gyrion boon (and maybe Icewind Dale boon 5, your milage may vary). The last ToD boons are just a pain to get, SKT boons 5-7 barely do anything for most characters, and the Gyrion boon just sucks. The only reason why you'd want them is for the impending epeen level boost, and even then, that's a shallow reason to get awful boons. If teams judge you by your ilvl, then let them, there's always going to be another team happy to take your GF.
For enchants, I would personally just get a simple Plaguefire and leave it there until you decide to change your GF even further. Plague is decently cheap, has a decent effect, and can be useful even through endgame.
Im going conqueror with 10 protector and 5 tactician. Is this viable as a new 70? And how exactly does the feat staggering challenge work? I put 5 points in it just to get to the next tier, but never really understood it. When I first saw it I went looking through all my powers for staggering challenge. Now I'm thinking I just hit the same target repeatedly with griffins wrath. Is it really that simple?
Build
Heroic
0 2 0 0
3 0 5 3
3 3 1 0
Conqueror
0 5 5 0 5 1
5 0 0 5 0
Protector
0 5
5 0
Tactician
0
5
I have plenty of respec tokens from the winter event so changing is not a problem
Artifacts
I have champions banner, lantern, and beacon of simril(lol). Was thinking about GWF sigil and either Breunors or GF for my other two. Thoughts?
Artifact Equipment
I have lathander belt and neck and seldarine belt in my bank. Will these work while I work towards the Valhalla set? Should I work towards Valhalla set, or lathanders or seldarine?
Weapons
Should I buy the drowned set or should I wait to get twisted? I'm running the ensorcelled set for now.
Companions
I have frozen galeb dur, cockatrice, and man at arms for now. What do you think my others should be, and which should be the active?
Mount Powers
I have gladiators guile, protectors camaraderie, shepherds devotion, and champions struggle for now. I'm thinking about getting victims preservation and either champions return or survivors blessing. Thoughts?
Weapon Enchantment
I have a terror for now but I would definitely like to get a plague fire as you mentioned above.
Armor Enchantment
Should I be goin for negation, elven battle, or shadowclad? Lesser negation and elven battle are about 250k, lesser shadowclad is 50k.
Rings
I have a rising deflect +4 and an Elemental alliance ward ring waiting in the bank. What should I be looking for to replace the ward ring?
Armor
I'll start out with dusk, and I'll probably mix in some elven armor to help with armor pen and work my way up to dragon flight. Should I go for drow craft underwear or the the exquisite gemmed elemental chausses? Defenders over warriors I take it?
Enchantments
I'm thinking a mix of darks and silveries for offense, radiants and azures for defense. Should I be looking at double or triple stat enchants long term, and if so, which ones?
You get 3 charges of Griffons. If you use each hit in succession, the second hit gains a 20% damage bonus and the third a 40% damage bonus, but it has to be on the same target.
For solo play, I would avoid Griffons, simply because Griffon's + Staggering is only useful if you expend all 3 charges on a single target. Given that soloing will usually present multiple targets, I would use ITF, Enforced Threat, amd Anvil of Doom or Lunging Strike for your solo loadout.
Your build looks fine, but just remember that in dungeons, you shouldn't be trying to DPS. The Champion's Banner is a fantastic artifact. Lantern is okay, but only if you plan to use it in battle rather than stick it in your artifact slots. Bruenor's is also a nice artifact for a GF.
I would actually suggest picking up a Horn of Valhalla as your last artifact, for use with a Valhalla set. I have no clue what system you're on, but the Valhalla set is practically a giveaway on PC. Not sure about consoles though. It also has the most useful set bonus for a defensive minded GF, given that Lathander's requires you to die to use, and that the Seldarine Set won't heal you for very much HP.
I would pick up a Drowned Set, simply because it has a useful set bonus, has decent all around stats that can take you anywhere in building a GF, and should be somewhat cheap to get (or craft, if you have Weaponsmithing/Platesmithing). If you cannot make/craft one immediately when you hit Level 70, you can get by with the Ensorcelled/Elemental Fire until you pick up the set. Most comps on a GF aren't that good. The few that are nice are somewhat expensive, so I would only pick them up once you have a decent bit of AD to expend. Personally, at endgame, I would go for a combo of the Bonding Companion/Rust Monster/Chicken/Elemental Air Cultist/Sylph.
I would reccomend the Gladiator's Guile/Protector's Friendship/Protector's Camaraderie/ Champion's Return or Victim's Preservation/ Wanderer's Fortune Insignia bonuses.
The first makes the GF move much faster, the second and third are nice all around, the choice on the fourth insignias represent the defensive insignias which are consistent enough to use (Slayer's Redemption won't be useful in dungeons since you won't be DPSing and Barbarian's Revelry has an ICD, meaning it will not give you as much HP as you'd think), and the fifth gives better and more consistent drops than 90% of the stuff you'll get in dungeons (and no, I'm not kidding about that).
I would personally pick up the Plague, simply because it's decent enough even through endgame. Terror does have the advantage of reducing enemy damage, but that becomes a moot point once you get the hand of defense or buy a Trans Feytouched. I didn't quite run the DPS enchant comparisons on Plague versus Terror, but tbh, the only decent DPS GF enchants are Vorpal, Fey, and arguably Flaming/Bilethorn.
Hm... Armor enchant is a tricky one, since all three are nice choices for a GF. I would go with a Lesser Soulforged, since it's a nice, cheap, and reliable defensive enchant that doesn't need upgrades. The Negation is nice initially, but once you get enough defense, the extra damage resistance from negation is overkill. Shadowclad doesn't have that problem.
For the Rings, you have a variety of useful choices, which can best be summed up with "what has good stats?"
I personally liked the Sudden Defense/Sudden Deflect/Rising Defense/Rising Lifesteal rings. The first two are good to give you a defensive cushion while your comp is setting up, the third and fourth are just nice to have in general.
For the armor, just pick what has good stats, regardless of the item level. The shirt and pants listed are all good, as the difference between them is only a few minor % of stats. As long as they have an offensive and defensive slot in the shirt and pants, there's not much of a difference. I would personally pick Drowcraft, since it's cheap/you can buy it off another character who has Underdark done.
The enchants part is a bit tricky to balance, since the GF doesn't have an easy mode decision like other classes. You generally have a good idea on what to get. Just don't put Radiants or anything with HP in your Bonding comp, since HP doesn't transfer via Bondings.
I have no clue what you plan to do with your GF in the future. Again, the GF doesn't really have a "one and done BiS" solution that other classes have, such as Brutals/Azure for GWF or Radiants/Radiants for Paladins. You pick and move around your stats as your GF gears up, in addition to preferences.
If you eventually plan to try a DPS GF, then I'd look into Brutals (for offense) and whatever your preference is for defense. I will warn you that if your future involves swapping from pure tank to DPS GF, you will practically need to regard your character from scratch.
> Why is the sylph so popular among GFs? I have one but had not thought to use it.
50% control resist.
AFAIK, the largest single stat bonus in the entire game.
I am Took.
"Full plate and packing steel" in NW since 2013.
My soloing load out is usually itf, lunging strike, and bull charge/anvil. Skirmish is now itf, ef, and griffins.
Are there any powers that are extremely good/worthless i.e. supremacy of steel? I know steel blitz is terrible.
I actually looked into Valhalla set after posting and bought the artifact for cheap(12k). The neck and waist are 100k+ right now so I'll be waiting on them for awhile.
As far as enchants go I have lesser soulforged and rank 10+ bonding/radiant/azure/dark on my GWF and am about halfway to the ad for a plaguefire on my DC so I can always play musical enchants when needed. Probably end up running soulforged + steel defense to give me some extra leeway until i figure out hiw to tank dungeons. Probably pick up drow craft underwear when I hit 70. I'll probably look into joining a guild too.
Looks like I'm on the long ad grind for drowned set/mounts, and on the CN grind for some good rings. I'm goin to stick to my man at arms for now until I can get maybe dancing shield/rust monster. I'd love to get the lion but they are ever so slightly expensive.
As for overall plans I'm want to go more of a tanky dps route. I'd like to be able tank in dungeons while doing enough damage to hold aggro, and to make dailies less of a pain.
Steel Blitz isn't "terrible", as it is actually useable unlike the Desperate Survival/Ferocious Reaction tier garbage. I tried it a few weeks ago in Tiamart, it made up only 3% of my total DPS, compared to Jagged Blade's ~10-15%. For most dungeon runs, I generally dislike Crescendo, because the animation takes way too long and the GF has a better damage daily (VM).
For Steel Defense, I'll give you a small warning about it: It's a nice training wheel, but coming to rely on it too much will hurt your tanking skills overall.
About the "tanky" DPS thing...
Soloing should be pretty easy with a Conq build and the right powers, although I'm biased because I've either relied on DPSer friends to carry me (when I was Tactician only) or had a full DPS build to carry me through dailies.
You can pretty much get by on aggro by just stacking 60% Resistance ignored, although some of those high itemlevel GWFs can steal your aggro if you're not careful.
My Tactician build pretty much hit like a wet noodle, but I was able to hold aggro through using every trick in the book (mark your targets with Tab Mark, or whatever the button is on XBox, use Enforced Threat and Aggravating Strike to hold your aggro, etc).
Since you're running a Conq build, you won't need to try "as" hard, but you still need to work for you aggro at lower item levels.
I am going to say this right now about gear (especially the rings): the more you hunt for it, the more it will evade you. For some reason, I swear that Cryptic has installed some Jedi mind reading device which reads your mind for what you want, and refuses to give it to you. Also, figure out what is necessary for your build versus nice to have. I know I would love a Stalwart Lion and purple insignias, but those are so expensive that I'll live with my simple purple mount and blue insignias.