Stuck at 10k help - GWF feedback help

bigtohe

Hi, I’m pretty new to game so bear with me and forgive my ignorance.
I’m trying to make him DPS ish without being too squishy

I use restoring strike, sure strike, steadfast determination, weapon master strike (a lot), wrathful determination, hidden daggers, indomitable strike, and slam though thinking of trying grand fissure out over indomitable strike.

I’m at about item level 10k so really need to save ad to make push to 12k.. I have mostly purple gear, a couple of blue guild pieces. Enchantments are mostly 8.

I’m thinking of investing in this order:
Black Dragon Ioun stone - not sure what stones to put
Level 12 enchants (black ice and draconic)
Greater vorpal
Greater negation
Upgrade the few artifacts I have to Legendary
Lords armored polar bear for the wander effect

Any feedback would be welcome

bigtohe

I should also add that I have the wootz set and am swordmaster paragon

bigtohe

And how does everyone move SO fast in a dungeon?! Lol

chemjeff

If I were in your shoes:

I would prioritize getting a Wanderer's Fortune mount higher up on your list. A very large amount of progression in this game is determined by refining so you will need a lot of refining stones. If you plan on playing multiple characters, then you should think about getting a Zen mount, as they can be used on all characters on an account. If not, then I would consider getting a Gilded Giant Spider, it is the cheapest mount that has WF bonus (you can find it cheaper on the Auction House than from Wondrous Bazaar), or if you are willing to wait for the Siege event to come around again, you can get a free one with the Siegebreaker Griffon.

I would only refine artifacts that I knew I was going to keep for a while. The CW Sigil and the Lantern of Revelation are both very good for GWF and will carry you a long way. But if you have a free/cheap artifact that you happened to pick up, then think carefully if you want to keep it or not. You will want artifacts that grant Armor Penetration, since you only need a fixed amount of it for any content.

I would get the 3-piece artifact set (neck, waist, arti) that you plan on using for a while. The Lostmauth set is good for starting out, because it has a lot of Armor Penetration, but you will hopefully replace it soon enough, so if you do that, then don't refine it too high. The Orcus set is currently the best one for GWF, but that may change in Mod 13.

I would not invest in a Black Dragon Ioun Stone. If I did get an augment companion, I would get the cheapest one I could find, since hopefully I would transition quickly to a bonding companion. The cheapest augment companions are the animals, like goats and cats.

I would place getting the correct companions higher up on the priority list. You will want to get the Air Archon for sure. It can also serve as a bonding companion. But a better bonding companion, in the end, is a debuff companion, like Sellsword or Con Artist. I would get companions that give damage bonuses, and not just stats. Common choices are the Air Archon, Fire Archon, and Siegemaster.

For weapon enchant, Vorpal is good to start out with. For armor enchant, if I was still somewhat squishy, I would not go for Negation enchant right away. I would get a Lesser Soulforged enchant. Then, once strong enough that the Soulforged didn't really proc much anymore, swap it out for a Negation.

Lastly I would first get enchantments that granted Armor Penetration (Darks) until I was up to 60+% Resistance Ignored, then focus on raising critical chance as high as you can get, with Azures. Once you get stronger and your gear got more refined, you can start swapping out Darks for Azures, and then finally swapping out Azures for Brutals. Once you are ready for Chult, you will want to have Resistance Ignored up to 85%, so you may have to rebalance your stats then, but it sounds like that won't be for a little while yet.

Hope this helps.

chemjeff

Lastly:

The competition for DPS characters for Level 70 content is much fiercer than the competition for support class characters. If you are just starting out, then I would strongly recommend using another one of your character slots for a support character, such as a DC or OP or GF. They will have a much easier time finding groups and it won't be so frustrating.

Also, find a good guild if you don't already have one. They can really help you out.

bigtohe

What a great, well thought out answer. Thanks Jeff! The griffon in the current siege has the wander proc? How exactly does that work? Air archon looks pricey, but that will be my new goal. Any idea on cost?

Thanks again

bigtohe

Ok so get 6k armor pen, then azure enchants for the offensive and draconic for defensive slots?
Get air archon and wander mounts asap...
Do the mounts insignia abilities stack if I have 2 of same? Do I have to be riding that mount for it to work?

Then get armor pen to 8500 for chult? .. ouch

chemjeff

Well, what a lot of people do, is that they stack Armor Penetration and Critical Strike on their bonding companion. That way those investments can go farther, since the stats on your bonding companion are multiplied by the rank and number of Bonding Runestones that you have. For instance, if you have 3xRank 10 Bonding Runestones, then you get 3x45% = 135% of your companion's stats transferred to you. So if you have 1,000 Armor Penetration on your companion, you would get 1,350 Armor Penetration transferred to you when the bonding runestones procced. If you have an augment companion, then you would want to put Eldritch Runestones on it (at least one) so that you could benefit from extra stats transferred to you. This also means that your best gear and enchantments should go on your companion.

I would not worry too much about getting the Armor Penetration that you need, once you add up all of the different possible ways to get it, it actually becomes easy to get too much. You just can't completely neglect it, that's all. What you don't want to do is over-invest in it, with sources of Armor Penetration that are semi-permanent, because having too much is a complete waste.

Also, don't forget Mount Insignia as a possible source of Armor Penetration, also if your guild has the Armor Penetration boon, also mounts that have Armor Penetration as the mount equip bonus. There are also several campaign boons that grant either Armor Penetration or Resistance Ignored, I would get those ASAP.

Draconic is good for defense, but if you are having problems staying alive, then just go with Radiants.

I don't know if Wanderer's Fortune stacks. And no you don't have to ride the mount in order to get the bonus, it just has to be one of the five active mounts in your stable, with the correct insignia slotted.

And yeah Air Archon is going to be expensive because every DPS class is going to want one. If the Air Archon is too expensive right now, you may want to get one of the other companions that you are going to get anyway, like another archon or the siege master, and use that temporarily as a bonding companion. Or a cheap augment companion as I mentioned.

Hope this helps.

santralafax

Typical companion loadouts on endgame GWFs tend to look like this: Sellsword/Con-Artist (summoned), Air Archon, Fire Archon, Earth Archon, Siege Master. The Sellsword/Con-Artist gives a group-wide debuff on the enemy. The others all give damage multipliers.

The OP may not be able to get all of these right away, but it is the sort of thing you would be working towards. Siege Master gives 3% additional damage at blue level to all outgoing damage--and when improved to purple, it goes up to 4%. The debuff companion gets its debuff at blue level, I believe.

I can't emphasize the importance of getting bonding runestones at rank 8 or above enough.

bigtohe

Ok so thanks to some helpful tips here, I have hit my first goal of item level 12k and am working on
On xbox

But it’s time to regroup with my build and fine tune this as I think I might be a bit of a mess all over the place with feats and gear. I’m a bit confused with what’s current for builds, I had been tying deviants and someone else’s and now looking at neko’s? My builds r all just slop. Lol. I’m looking for a build that will be high dps yet not an easy kill. Doesn’t have to be end game. Just thrive in chult for now

I currently have the lostmauth set, all legendary as well as fighters sigil at legendary
I am looking at eye of giant and possibly lantern to round out my artifacts. Thoughts?

I have the wootz sword and knot but am thinking of moving to arboleth set from river district

I have the air archon with decent bonding and high azure’s but what should I put in his defensive gear slots?

I was working on azure’s for my own offense slots and radiant for defensive but some of builds say to stack azure’s in defence as well so I guess that depends on build I choose. Any pointer (link) in the right direction for building for high dps but not too soft that I can’t solo chult would be great

Chult has been a struggle. I’d kill for a legendary mount but that seems out of my reach for now. But I lose half my hp getting pulled down by packs so I definitely need to adjust

For chult...
I am shooting for 85 arpen
Then for 99 Crit
Hopefully whatever I have for power after that should be plenty

What should I aim for as minimums for defence, deflect, recovery, Regen, and Lifesteal

santralafax

Put some azures in your pet's defense slots. It will help toughen your character. Are you in a guild? Guild boons and advice from guildmates are both invaluable.

If you are unsure about hit points (radian) vs defense (azure), you could always do Brutals for defense, which gives you a bit of both. Savages give you hit points + life steal, which can help keep you going as well. As you get closer to endgame, azures can be best, because defense converts to more power when you have the right feat. But these are all choices.

If you are grinding River District anyway and want the Aboleth, go for it--but don't fight too hard to get to legendary on them, as better weapons are now available in Chult.

I don't know what your stats are, but the artifacts you are seeking are both good, generally. Eye of the Giant is a good active artifact, due to the buff.