Great Weapon Fighter Breakdown

argantis

This is intended as a guide to help both new and experienced players have a point of reference for the Great Weapon Fighter. As of now all information is current to closed beta weekend four, except when cited. I will do my best to get back and update it when new information comes out but at the very least this can serve us all going into open beta.

Section 1: Overview
Section 2: Racial Traits
Section 3: Abilities
Section 4: Character Ratings
Section 5: Powers (Utility, At-Will, Encounter, Daily, and Paragon)
Section 6: Heroic Feats
Section 7: Destroyer (Paragon) Feats
Section 8: Instigator (Paragon) Feats
Section 9: Sentinel (Paragon) Feats
Section 10: Power and Feat Color Legends
Section 11: Destroyer Build Synergy
Section 12: Instigator Build Synergy
Section 13: Sentinel Build Synergy
Section 14: Swordmaster Paragon
Section 15-20: Reserved for future Paragon content and Epic Destinies

Warbr was kind enough to provide us with a Power Planner here. Many thanks to him!

OPEN BETA EVENT LAUNCH TIMER!

argantis

The only Paragon currently available is the Swordmaster, more may come later but all of this is indeed under the providence of Swordmaster. You will notice that Flourish is featured in the Instigator Paragon Feat tree and Crescendo is Featured in the Sentinel Paragon Feat Tree.

Insitgators will be favored by PvP players or as a more simple style of play for control damage (AoE damage). Wicked Strike is their featured At-Will Power.

Destroyers are mainly focused on control damage. They have a more complex play style that relies on lowering damage resistance of foes with Weapon Master's Strike, which is their featured At-Will along with Reaping Strike.

Sentinels are favored for the defender role. They will be the most stalwart of choices and focus on marking foes and generating threat. Sure Strike is their featured At-Will.

You get 61 points to spend on Powers at level 60.

You get 20 points for Heroic Feats (23 for Humans).

You get 21 points for Paragon Feats.

It remains to be seen how the addition of 10 levels from closed beta to open beta will effect feat points. Cryptic may decide to start awarding feat points 10 levels later in progression and keep the number the same and this is my suspicion. We just have to wait and see how level 51-60 effect the character progression.

Also note that when reading through this guide there is a general color code for everything that has a synergy. With the exception of the actual powers which have green for At-Will, red for Encounter, orange for Daily, and yellow for class feature (passive), all other colors reflect red for offense, green for defense, and gold for utility or a multiple aspect in build synergy.

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Tiefling
Ability Scores: +2 Charisma, +2 Constitution or Intelligence
Bloodhunt: You deal an additional 5% damage to targets below half health.
Infernal Wrath: Whenever you are hit, you have a 10% chance to lower the Power of the attacker by 5% for 5 seconds.

Halfling
Ability Scores: +2 Dexterity, +2 Charisma or Constitution
Nimble Reactions: Your small stature and quick movements grant 3% chance to Deflect incoming attacks.
Bold: Your fearless nature increases your resistance to Crowd Control effects by 10%.

Half-Elf
Ability Scores: +2 Constitution, +2 Charisma or Wisdom
Dilettante: Grants +1 to a non-class Ability Score.
Knack for Success: You are just naturally better at many facets of life, gaining +1% Deflect, +1% Critical Severity, and +1% Gold Find.

Wood Elf
Ability Scores: +2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence or Wisdom
Elven Accuracy: Increases your chance to Critical Strike by 1%.
Wild Step: You have a 10% resistance to effects that Slow your movement.

Human
Ability Scores: +2 to Any Ability Score.
Versatile Defense: Increase your Defense by 3%
Heroic Effort: You gain an additional Heroic Feat point at levels 10, 15, and 20.

Dwarf
Ability Scores: +2 Constitution, +2 Strength or Wisdom
Stand Your Ground: You have increased resistance to Knock and Repel effects.
Cast-Iron Stomach: You have increased damage resistance to Damage Over Time (DoT) effects.

Half-Orc
Ability Scores: +2 Dexterity, +2 Constitution or Strength
Furious Assault: Your Critical Hits do an additional 5% damage.
Swift Charge: You gain a 10% bonus to Runspeed for 3 seconds when you enter combat. This effect can only occurs once every 20 seconds.

*Note: The below information is based off of leaked information in CB3 and some guesswork on my part, with the ability scores. It is highly speculative and players should expect that this could seriously change for open beta. This goes true for all of this information since it was based off of closed beta, but it applies even more to the following because this information was never intended to be seen previous to open beta.

Drow (Menzo Renegade)
Ability Scores: +2 Dexterity, +2 Charisma
Dark Fire (Faerie Fire):You have a 5% chance when attacking a foe to apply Faerie Fire for 4 seconds, reducing its Power and Defense by 6%.
Trance:You heal at twice the normal rate at camp fires

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Primary: Strength
Secondary: Constitution or Dexterity
Non-Class: Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma

Strength bonus per point over 10
+1% Stamina Regeneration (Combat Mobility)
+1% Damage bonus (Base Offense)
+1% DoT Damage Resistance (Limited Defense)

Constitution bonus per point over 10
+1% Resistance Ignored (Base Offense)
+2% Hit Points (Defense)

Dexterity bonus per point over 10
+1% Critical Chance (Burst Offense)
+1% AoE Damage Resistance (Limited Defense)
+0.5% Deflection Chance (Defense)

Intelligence bonus per point over 10
+1% Recharge Speed (Utility)

Wisdom bonus per point over 10
+1% Control Bonus (Utility)
+1% Control Resistance (Limited Defense)

Charisma bonus per point over 10
+1% Companion Stat Bonus (Variable)
+1% Combat Advantage Damage (Limited Offense)

*Note: Wisdom, and Charisma both have some utility effects to the ability scores. However I felt that the utility of one bonus was only a compliment or enhancer to the more offensive or defensive nature of the more clearly defined complimentary bonus.

Break Points for ability score increases are as follows:
Level 10, 20, 40, and 50 grant +1 to any two different abilities.
Level 30 and 60 grant +1 to all six abilities.

Known Starting Ability Score Arrays

The first and highest roll will always be your primary ability score. Strength for GWF. The second two rolls will be your secondary class ability scores, Dexterity and Constitution for GWF. The last three rolls will be our non-class ability score, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma for GWF.

When there are different values in secondary and non-class roles they can alternate between the abilities. For instance, the 17, 14, 13, 10, 10, 10 roll can put 14 in Dexterity or Constitution and 13 in the other of the two abilities. For the 18, 13, 13, 10, 10, 8 roll the 8 can show up in Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma and the other two non-class ability scores will have 10's.

18 13 13 10 10 8 Class: 44 Non-Class: 28 Total: 72

17 14 13 10 10 10 Class: 44 Non-Class: 30 Total: 74

17 13 13 11 11 10 Class: 43 Non-Class: 32 Total: 75

16 16 12 10 10 10 Class: 44 Non-Class: 30 Total: 74

16 15 13 11 11 9 Class: 44 Non-Class: 31 Total: 75

16 14 14 11 10 10 Class: 44 Non-Class: 31 Total: 75

15 15 13 12 11 10 Class: 43 Non-Class: 33 Total: 76

15 14 13 12 12 11 Class: 42 Non-Class: 35 Total: 77

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Character Ratings

Power: Increases your damage and healing. This amount is modified on a per power basis.

Critical Strike: Increases a chance that you will land a critical hit with an attack or with healing spells.

Armor Penetration: Increases the percentage of damage resistance that is ignored when attacking an enemy.

Recovery: Increases the recharge speed of your Encounter powers and the amount of Action Points you gain.

Defense: Increases your damage resistance.

Deflect: Increases the chance that you will ignore a large amount of incoming damage.

Regeneration: Increases your Health Regeneration, which grants you a small amount of healing over time.

Life Steal: Increases the amount of Hit Points you gain when you deal damage.

Movement: Increases your run speed.


Offensive and Healing

Attack/Healing: An approximation of your total offense and healing values from gear.

Critical Chance: Total chance to score a critical hit with each attack or healing spell.

Critical Severity: Bonus damage delt or healing done on a critical hit.

Recharge Speed Increase: Increases how quickly your Encounter powers recharge.

Action Point Gain: Increases the rate at which you gain action points.


Defensive

Protection: An approximation of your total defensive values from gear.

Damage Resistance: Decreases the amount of damage you take from incoming attacks.

Deflection Chance: Your chance to deflect an enemy attack.

Deflection Severity: How much damage you avoid when you successfully deflect an attack.

Health Regeneration: Increases the percentage of your max Hit Points you regain every 3 seconds. The full bonus is given when Bloodied, and diminishes the closer you are to your maximum Hit Points.

Damage Gained As Hit Points: Percentage of the damage you deal returned to you as hit points.


Utility

XP Bonus: Increases the rate at which you gain XP.

Gold Bonus: Increases the rate at which you gain gold.

Glory Bonus: Increases the rate at which you gain glory.

Run Speed Bonus: Increases how quickly you run. Has no effect on mounted movement speed.

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Utility Power
Sprint
Enhance your Run Speed allowing you to rush targets or avoid attacks.
While Sprinting you temporarily ignore speed reducing effects.

Class Feature (Passive) Power Slots: It needs to be noted that Class Feature Powers, something most of us will think of as "passive" powers, can only have two slotted at any one time. So be careful in planning these out and you can have a lot more variety in your active power slots. Much like your active powers, the two passive slots that you have "equipped" on your button bar are the only ones you will receive a benefit from.

Tier 1 Powers
Reaping Strike (15' Range)(3' Cylinder) At-Will
Hold the button to prepare a powerful sweeping strike that grows in strength the longer you charge it up. While charging your swing, you gain more Determination from taking damage.

Sure Strike (15' Range)(5' Cylinder) At-Will
Swing your blades in a series of narrow slashes, followed by a powerful downward slam. Damage is slightly reduced for every target you hit beyond the first.

Not So Fast (13' Burst) (15s cooldown) Encounter
Release a fast spinning slice to the legs of enemies around you, briefly Slowing them.

Spinning Strike (10' Burst) Daily
Using the weight of your body against it, you swing the sword around you multiple times, cutting into foes around you, and increasing your Run Speed while active.

Destroyer (Class Feature) Passive
Your Huge Swipes Strike Deep, increasing your damage by 2% every time you hit more than 3 enemies with a single attack. Stacks up to 3 times.


Tier 2 Powers Available at 5 points
Mighty Leap (12' Burst) (16s cooldown) Encounter
Leap to target location, damaging those around the impact.

Restoring Strike (15' Range) (3' Cylinder) (15s cooldown) Encounter
You slice through a single target in front of you merciless satisfaction, Healing yourself based on the damage dealt and restoring Stamina.


Tier 3 Powers Available at 10 points
Determination Tab - Unstoppable (Mechanic) Automatically Granted
Usable at 50% or more Determination.

With grim resolve you break free from control effects, and steel yourself for the challenge ahead.
While active, you are immune to control effects, your At-Will attacks are much faster but slightly weaker, and you resist 25-50% of incoming damage based on how much Determination you had.

Determination is built by taking damage or killing foes.

Avalanche of Steel (Personal) (30' Burst) Daily
Leap into the air and come down with a crushing force that leaves your enemies Prone.

Slam (Personal) Daily
Smash the ground, causing the earth to temporarily shake beneath you, Slowing and damaging the enemies around you.


Tier 4 Powers Available at 15 points
Takedown (3' Cylinder) (15s cooldown) Encounter
Smash into your foe with your hilt, knocking your target Prone. If you fail to hit, the cooldown is reduced.

Bravery (Class Feature) Passive
Increase your Deflect and Runspeed by 10%.

Steadfast Determination (Class Feature) Passive
Steadily gain Determination while in combat.


Tier 5 Powers Available at 20 points
III - Unlock Rank 3 of all previous powers! Automatically Granted

Wicked Strike (12' Range) (290' Cone) At-Will
Deals damage in a wide arc around you. The third hit deals additional damage, and damage overall is slightly reduced for every target you hit beyond the first.

Roar (30' Range) (45' Cone) (14s cooldown) Encounter
Unleash a mighty battle roar in front of you, interrupting and pushing your opponents back, and building Determination for every target hit.

Weapon Master (Class Feature) Passive
You refine your mastery of great weapons, increasing your critical strike chance by 1.5% on every successive hit. Stacks up to 3 times.


Tier 6 Powers Available at 30 points
Daring Shout (20' Burst) (16s cooldown) Encounter
Release a mighty challenge that Marks, nearby enemies for a short period, building your Determination for every target hit, and increasing your Damage Resistance based on how powerful the targets are.

Marked foes have reduced Damage Resistance until they attack you.

Flourish (17' Range) (3' Cylinder) (14s cooldown) Paragon Encounter
With masterful grace, Stun your opponent and stab them with blinding speed.

Steel Blitz (Class Feature) Paragon Passive
Become adept at fighting multiple targets, gaining a chance to deal an extra attack which increases based on how many enemies you hit.


Tier 7 Powers Available at 35 points
Weapon Master's Strike (12' Range) (240' Cone) Paragon At-Will
You attack with an expert strike that briefly reduces Damage Resistance against your At-Wills, and then quickly follows up with another attack from behind. Damage slightly reduced for every target hit beyond the first.

Come and Get it (30' Burst) (15s cooldown) Encounter
Pull your enemies towards you in a massive area around you, then gain a flat damage buff to your next attack within 3 seconds.


Tier 8 Powers Available at 40 points
Savage Advance (Melee) Daily
Release a warcry that Pushes nearby enemies away, and then charge your target, slamming them Prone from the impact.

When close to your target, the warcry will Knock them away from you, then charge and stab them as they lay Prone.

Steel Defense (Class Feature) Paragon Passive
After activating a daily power become immune to damage for 3 seconds.


Tier 9 Powers Available at 45 points
Battle Fury (Personal) (22s cooldown) Encounter
Increases your At-Will and Encounter damage as well as Action Point gain for brief period. In addition, when first activated your Stamina is refilled.
This power may be activated while moving.

Punishing Charge (25' Range) (4' Cylinder) Encounter
Rush forward, passing through enemies and striking them along the way.


Tier 10 Powers Available at 50 points
Indomitable Battle Strike (13' Range) (3' Cylinder) (12s cooldown) Encounter
Savagely strike your target to show your other foes the fate that awaits them. After killing a target with this strike, you gain bonus Action Points, and nearby enemies are briefly Marked.

Marked targets take additonal physical damage until they attack you.

Crescendo (30 Range) (4' Cylinder) Paragon Daily
Stun your enemy with a flurry of attacks, and then attack from many angles simultaneously to send them Prone.

Steel Grace (Class Feature) Paragon Passive
Your skills with weaponry increase, allowing you to mitigate the duration of controlling effects by 10%.

argantis

Tier 1
Unstoppable Action
You gain 5/10/15/20/25% bonus Action Points for dealing damage while you are Unstoppable.

Disciple of Strength
Increase the amount of bonus damage Strength gives you by 2/4/6%.

Toughness
Increase your Maximum Hit Points by 3/6/9%.


Tier 2 Available at 5 points
Fast Runner
Decrease Stamina drain while Sprinting by 3/6/9/12/15%.

Endless Assault
Your encounters deal 2/4/6% more damage.

Armor Specialization
Increases the effectiveness of Armor Class and Defense by 5/10/15%.


Tier 3 Available at 10 points
Steely Defense
Grants you Power equal to 4/8/12/16/20% of your Defense.

Constitution Focus
Increase the effectiveness of Constitution by 5/10/15%.

Grit
Gain 1/2/3% of your Max Hit Points in Temporary Hit Points when you are Healed by a power. (40 second cooldown)


Tier 4 Available at 15 points
Weapon Mastery
1/2/3% greater chance to land a critical hit.

Devastating Critical
Increases Critical Severity by 5/10/15%.

Ubiquitous Shield
Reduce the damage effects of Combat Advantage against you by 5/10/15/20/25%.

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Tier 1
Great Weapon Focus
Increase the damage of your At-Will powers by 2/4/6/8/10%.

Deep Gash
Your critical strikes cause your target to Bleed, taking 3/6/9/12/15% of your Power as Damage over 5 seconds.


Tier 2 Available at 5 points
Staying Power
Weapon Master's Strike now also reduces your target Mitigation to your Encounter powers 2/4/6/8/10%.

Disciple of War
Grants you Armor Penetration equal to 5/10/15/20/25% of your Recovery.


Tier 3 Available at 10 points
Executioner's Style
Increase the damage of Reaping Strike when hitting a single target by 5/10/15/20/25%.

Relentless Battle Fury
Reduces the Cooldown of Roar, Takedown, and Battle Fury by 5/10/15/20/25%.


Tier 4 Available at 15 points
Focused Destroyer
Destroyer now has a 5/10/15/20/25% chance to grant a stack when hitting any number of targets.

Battle Awareness
Savage Advance grants you 5/10/15/20/25% shorter cooldowns for 5 seconds and Slam grants you 5/10/15/20/25% more Power while it is active.


Tier 5 Available at 20 points
Destroyer's Purpose
You now gain Determination by dealing damage, and Unstoppable also increases your Encounter power damage by 10%

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Tier 1
Unstoppable Recovery
Activating Unstoppable now grants you 1/2/3/4/5% of your maximum Hit Points.

Fleet Footed
Whenever you control a target, you gain an additional 3/6/9/12/15% Run Speed for 3s.


Tier 2 Available at 5 points
Stunning Flourish
Flourish has an extra 1/2/3/4/5% chance to crit and stuns for (0.2/0.4/0.6/0.8/1) seconds on last hit.

Vicious Advance
Combat Advantage now grants you an additional 1/2/3/4/5% Damage and Crit Chance.


Tier 3 Available at 10 points
Nimble Runner
Sprint and Punishing Charge grant 2/4/6/8/10% Deflect chance.

Allied Opportunity
Mighty Leap and Not so Fast deal an additional 2/4/6/8/10% damage and you and your allies gain Combat Advantage against the damaged targets for 1/1.5/2/2.5/3s.


Tier 4 Available at 15 points
Group Assault
Wicked Strike now deals an additional 1/2/3/4/5% for each target hit.

Crippling Strike
Spinning Strike and Avalanche of Steel now Slow your targets by 10/20/30/40/50% for 5s.


Tier 5 Available at 20 points
Instigator's Vengence
Whenever an ally within 15' of you is hit, you gain a stack of Vengence for 10s. Each stack increases your Power by 10%. Stacks up to 5 times. Goes away when you are struck.

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Tier 1
Student of the Sword
Your critical strikes lower your targets Defense by 3/6/9/12/15% for 5 seconds. Stacks up to 3 times.

Scale Agility
You gain 1/2/3/4/5% chance to Deflect attacks.


Tier 2 Available at 5 points
Grim Promise
Crescendo reduces the damage your target deals to you by 3/6/9/12/15% for 10 seconds.

Powerful Challenge
You deal an additional 3/6/9/12/15% damage to Marked targets.


Tier 3 Available at 10 points
Grudge Style
Sure Strike now has an extra 1/2/3/4/5% chance to Crit and generates an additional 5/10/15/20/25% Threat on a Crit.

Intimidation
Daring Shout and Come and Get it generate 5/10/15/20/25% additional threat and now do 1/2/3/4/5% of your Power as damage.


Tier 4 Available at 15 points
Master at Arms
Furthering your ability to use your weapon defensively, each stack of Weapon Master now also grants 1/1.5/2/2.5/3% Deflect Chance, and having Weapon Master slotted increases your AC by 1/2/3/4/5.

Defiance
Slam and Spinning Strike generate 5/10/15/20/25% additional threat and your Defense is increased by 5/10/15/20/25% while they are active.


Tier 5 Available at 20 points
Sentinel's Aegis
Increases the effectiveness of your Defense stat by 20% and causes Restoring Strike to Heal an additional 50% over 3 seconds.

argantis

You may have noticed some color coding in the powers and feats sections. This is here to help us clearly see a few things.
Powers are color coded by the following:

Powers
At-Will Powers are Green
Encounter Powers are Red
Daily Powers are Orange
Class Feature (Passive) Powers are Yellow

This is here to help players plan out their power sets as they progress through the tiers.


Heric and Paragon Feats are color coded by the following:
Offensive Feats are Red
Defensive Feats are Green
Utility Feats are Gold

Some interpretation is needed here on my part. Generally offensive feats will add damage in some way. Defensive feats will focus on damage reduction, avoidance, or threat. Utility feats will focus on things like Action Point gain, movement effects, or sometimes feats that provide both offensive and defensive benefits. These are here to better help you focus your build as you move through the feat tree. This is not to say that anyone should take all offense, all defense, or every utility feat. It just lets you pick your way through the feat progressions and see exactly what your character is shaping out to be. For example a PvP build may have a balance of offense, defense, and utility. A damage focused build may focus entirely on offense, but at some point will have to take utility or defensive feats to progress. It will also be the least stalwart build and die the easiest. A defensive build may focus on damage resistance and avoidance, but also will choose some survival and threat feats. They also will need to have some offense in there somewhere.

When choosing a build path it is always best to start out with the most progressed part of character development and work backwards. In this regard it is best to look at what paragon feat choices we favor first and build our character around that.

argantis

Looking at the overall flavor of the Destroyer Feats there are 8 offensive and 1 utility selection available. The end feat is only defined as utility because it will enhance the Unstoppable mechanic which is both offensive and defensive. So in a sense, every feat you choose is offensive. The flavor of thies section of Paragon Feats should be obvious at this point and the emphasis of destroyers is completely on offense. It should be noted that while the class is mainly focused around controller (AoE) damage aspects, this section has some synergy with increasing single target damage as well. I will now go through the feats and extract the keywords to make it more obvious what the selections feature and what types of other choices will synergize with them.

Great Weapon Focus: At-Will Powers
Deep Gash: Critical Strikes, Power

Staying Power: Weapon Master's Strike, Encounter Powers
Disciple of War: Armor Penetration, Recovery

Executioner's Style: Reaping Strike, Single Target
Relentless Battle Fury: Roar, Takedown, Battle Fury

Focused Destroyer: Destroyer, Any Targets
Battle Awareness: Savage Advance, Slam, Power

Destroyer's Purpose: Determination, Unstoppable, Encounter Power

argantis

Looking at the overall flavor of the Instigator Feats there are 5 offensive, 2 defensive, and 2 utility selections. The flavor of this section of Paragon Feats is balance. The ability to take movement enhancers, slow effects, and stuns also makes it ideal for PvP players. However since there is plenty of movement in the actual PvE encounters as well, this tree is not a PvP only tree. With some careful power choices it can allow a player the flexibility to still perform a control and damage role in PvE. Wit the combat advantage mechanics it very well can dish out significant damage as long as the player does NOT have threat. As such this is an alternate path for offensive minded players. I will now go through the feats and extract the keywords to make it more obvious what the selections feature and what types of other choices will synergize with them.


Unstoppable Recovery: Unstoppable, Hit Points
Fleet Footed: Control, Run Speed

Stunning Flourish: Flourish, Crit, Stuns
Vicious Advance: Combat Advantage, Damage, Crit Chance

Nimble Runner: Sprint, Punishing Charge, Deflect Chance
Allied Opportunity: Mighty Leap, Not so Fast, Additional Damage, Combat Advantage

Group Assault: Wicked Strike
Crippling Strike: Spinning Strike, Avalanche of Steel, Slow

Instigator's Vengence: Ally Hit, Increases Power, Goes Away When Struck

argantis

Looking at the overall flavor of the Sentinel Feats there are 5 defensive, 2 offensive and 2 utility selections. The flavor of this section of Paragon Feats is defense and threat. As such any player focsuing in this area will be aiming to play a defender role in the group. Even one of the offensive selctions have threat and damage reduction mechanics. I will now go through the feats and extract the keywords to make it more obvious what the selections feature and what types of other choices will synergize with them.

Student of the Sword: Critical Strikes, Lower Targets Defense
Scale Agility: Deflect

Grim Promise: Crescendo, Reduces Damage Target Deals To You
Powerful Challenge: Additional Damage, Marked Targets

Grudge Style: Sure Strike, Chance To Crit, Additional Threat On Crit
Intimidation: Daring Shout, Come and Get it, Additional Threat, Power As Damage

Master at Arms: Weapon Master, Deflect Chance, Increases Your AC
Defiance: Slam, Spinning Strike, Additional Threat, Defense Increased While Active

Sentinel's Aegis: Defense, Restoring Strike To Heal Additional

argantis

The Swordmaster is the only paragon option available to us currently. These are the powers that are tied into it. Currently it features the ability to emphasize offense and control effects and there is really only one defensive or survival aspect to them through the build options. Until there are more class Paragon's available there really is no way to compare them side by side.

Weapon Master's Strike (12' Range) (240' Cone) Paragon At-Will
You attack with an expert strike that briefly reduces Damage Resistance against your At-Wills, and then quickly follows up with another attack from behind. Damage slightly reduced for every target hit beyond the first.

Flourish (17' Range) (3' Cylinder) (14s cooldown) Paragon Encounter
With masterful grace, Stun your opponent and stab them with blinding speed.

Crescendo (30 Range) (4' Cylinder) Paragon Daily
Stun your enemy with a flurry of attacks, and then attack from many angles simultaneously to send them Prone.

Steel Blitz (Class Feature) Paragon Passive
Become adept at fighting multiple targets, gaining a chance to deal an extra attack which increases based on how many enemies you hit.

Steel Defense (Class Feature) Paragon Passive
After activating a daily power become immune to damage for 3 seconds.

Steel Grace (Class Feature) Paragon Passive
Your skills with weaponry increase, allowing you to mitigate the duration of controlling effects by 10%.

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Reserved Section 20

sinbius

I mean if u are going to full all this 20 sections with good info you will be employ by Cryptic for sure

leisses

**** it! If you can fulfill those 20 Sections please play as GF and make it for us lovers of the Defensive Class! =D

erlucius

sinbius wrote: »

I mean if u are going to full all this 20 sections with good info you will be employ by Cryptic for sure

And then you shall read: "GWF Characters Customization: argantis" xD

argantis

Now that I have at least this much information out there people can plan their builds out for Open Beta. I will get to the build synergies and racial traits later on. The racial stuff is easy information to find anyways but I might use one of my reserved sections to go into racial synergy with a build.

Now some web programmer needs to take my feat and power information and make a planner, GO GO! I assure you that it is all legit info from CB4 tool tips. I will even file xfer my video capture to you if you want to use it for extracting the tool tips. :P

zingarbage

Can I hire you out to write one of my research papers? The game releasing at the end of the semester is a bummer.

argantis

zingarbage wrote: »

Can I hire you out to write one of my research papers? The game releasing at the end of the semester is a bummer.

Hah! If only I was that good...

slimey26

good start but please just reference the GWF wiki at:
http://nwowiki.co/index.php?title=Great_Weapon_Fighter

It's not my wiki but it just is better displayed. What your guide should have done is rate, on a scale of 1-10 on each of the feats. Give some thought on why a feat is good for this or that. Most sites, the wiki included, give great reference data but fail at giving any thought if it's a good or bad feat.

Reference data is great but what we all want to know is how some of these feats are parsing. Which ones are dead weight and which ones are mandatory. Yes, your opinion will be called into question but that will allow the guide to get some actual feedback as right now there is zero opinion anywhere in your guide and just reference, which frankly the wiki does a better job.

Here is an example of EXACTLY the type of guide we need. Back when I played a zerker in tera, this was a go to source of great info:
http://tera-forums.enmasse.com/forums/berserker/topics/GUIDE-Blaydes-Berserker-Class-Guide

Give us your insight into what you felt was good. Let us poke holes in your logic, offer counter points. This has the potential to be a really great thread.

asavios

argantis wrote: »

Tier 1
Student of the Sword
Your critical strikes lower your targets Defense by 3/6/9/12/15% for 5 seconds. Stacks up to 3 times.

This seems quite overpowered. Are you sure this feat is correct? I was only in BW2 and 3 but if I remember correctly it was more like 1/2/3/4/5% for 5 seconds (stacks up to 3 times) for a total bonus of 15% lower Defense then. 45% less Defense seems a bit much^^

elspethtirelnw

asavios wrote: »

This seems quite overpowered. Are you sure this feat is correct? I was only in BW2 and 3 but if I remember correctly it was more like 1/2/3/4/5% for 5 seconds (stacks up to 3 times) for a total bonus of 15% lower Defense then. 45% less Defense seems a bit much^^

The tooltip certainly said that, although the results were not as visible as one might imagine. However, It does refer to a targets secondary defense stat. If a mob or player target does not have high defense to begin with, we won't see a huge benefit in direct damage. Then again, at this point, who really knows... could be an incorrect tooltip or not working properly.

rkv13

Love the guide, very detailed and cleanly presented. Well done!

Question: So is the GWF still the AoE tank many of us believed it to be? The decision to move Wicked Strike from lvl 1 to tier 5 really confused me and made me think they are trying to make the GWF into more of a Striker (ie single-target dps).