Akfortyseven - PvE Build

mizery187

Akfortyseven - PvE Build

This is a build I put together after noticing my previous one wasn't exceeding the full potential of damage that my Great Weapon Fighter was capable of. After doing so, I have been asked numerous times to post a build, so here goes. Also note that this is built on personal preference; I am always up for suggestions so feel free to leave a comment.

• Race/Attributes

• Powers

• Feats

• Stats

Race/Attributes

Race: Human - The 3% defense (explained later in the build) and the extra feat points work wonders with what I have setup. +2 added into STR
Attributes: At level 1: STR:20 CON:13 DEX:13
Attributes: At level 60: STR:26 CON:15 DEX:19

Powers

At-Will: Weapon Master's Strike/Sure Strike
Class Feature: Destroyer/Steel Blitz
Encounter: Flourish/Indomitable Battle Strike/Restoring Strike
Daily: Crescendo/Slam

At-Will: Weapon Master's Strike is definitely your main AOE damage when it comes to mob clearing, or quickly getting rid of the adds that are bothering your cleric. Sure Strike for boss fights or any single target encounter.
Class Feature: I use Destroyer for the 12% increased damage(at 3/3), and with the feat "Focused Destroyer" it adds a 25% chance to apply the damage buff against any amount of targets struck. Steel Blitz for the chance of an extra attack with increased damage for how many targets hit.
Encounter: Use these whenever they are off cooldown for a significant amount of Action Points and Determination. Indomitable Battle Strike is the key ingredient though; With the feat I chose "Powerful Challenge" you do 15% more damage to marked targets. Find yourself a low health add out of the bunch, use it on him and you have 15% + the % you get from the Encounter damage bonus to every marked add around you.
Daily: Crescendo I mainly only use for when I am on boss duty. Slam on the other hand can be used in many situations, whether it's getting rid of a large amount of adds quickly (IBS+SLAM+WMS = GG) or helping my cleric by slowing the adds he/she is kiting to get a quick heal off.

Feats



Heroic

Unstoppable Action: 15% bonus Action Points from dealing damage while Unstoppable; I only went 3/5 because I really do not have a problem proccing my Dailies, and the other 2 points are spent into something a little more useful to my playstyle.
Disciple of Strength: 6% bonus damage increase from STR; I felt that the 6% increase of bonus damage benefits myself more than the 9% increased health from Toughness.
Endless Assault: 6% increased Encounter damage; As I posted I use these immediately when off cooldown, so 6% actual helps quite a bit.
Armor Specialization: Increased effectiveness of Armor Class and Defense by 15%; Without counting the AC from the armor I have on I have 16 AC, giving me 3% damage resistance. On top of my Defense % that gives me around 35% damage resistance.
Steely Defense: Power increased by 20% of your defense; Alright, this is specifically why I chose Human. At 2,000 Defense I get an extra 400 power from this Feat. That's nearly the amount a piece of t2 gear has.
Weapon Mastery: 3% greater chance to land a critical strike; Critical strikes mean more damage, and higher chance to proc "Deep Gash" and "Studen of the Sword"
Devastating Critical: 15% more critical severity; This means my critical strikes will be increased by 15% from the Feat. There has been times where I have seen my Indomitable Battle Strike crit 56,000+

Paragon

Great Weapon Focus: At-Will damage increased by 10%; Great in all aspects, since you will be using your At-Wills when your Encounters are on cooldown and Weapon Master's Strike for clearing mobs.
Deep Gash: Critical strikes cause your target to bleed for 15% of your power over 5 seconds; Increased power by a % of your Defense from "Steely Defense" helps this quite a bit, increasing the DoT it applies.
Staying Power: Weapon Master's Strike reduces the target's mitigation to your Encounters by 15%; On top of the 6% bonus from the Feat "Endless Assault" that's 21% increased Encounter damage not including the damage bonus from STR. On a boss fight or in PvP it's nice to apply this first before engaging with Sure Strike.
Focused Destroyer: 25% chance to apply a stack when attacking any amount of enemies; Helps alot when there aren't 3 enemies in front of you whether it be on a boss fight, or in PvP still giving you the 6% damage increase when stacked full.
Destroyer's Purpose: Gain Determination by dealing damage and Unstoppable increases your Encounter damage by 10%; Using this will free you from having to use "Steady Determination" as a Class Feature and the damage increase as well as the ones listed above from the Feats will be a substantial amount.
Student of the Sword: Critical strikes lower your target's Defense by 15% for 5 seconds, stacking up to 3 times; Not only do you apply a DoT from critical strikes, but you will apply a Defense debuff decreasing the damage resistance of your target.
Powerful Challenge: You deal 15% more damage to marked targets; You have increased damage to marked targets from Indomitable Battle Strike, so having this Feat increases that damage by an extra 15%. Find your lower health target, use Indomitable Battle Strike to finish him/her/it which marks the targets around you and you have a significant amount of increased damage to them, not including the % increase from the Feats above.

Stats


Power > Critical Strike > Recovery : Defense will come natural with your gear sets.

I hope those of you who decide to try this out see a considerable change of damage and enjoyment with the Great Weapon Fighter class.
-Akfortyseven (Dragon Server)

nonameidk

What 56k?! Is that a typo? Regardless imma try this out

urlag

hey i just want to add something concerning 2 features : destroyer and weapon master

destroyer: at rank 3 it gives +4% dmg per stack with a max stack size of 3, which would equal +12% dmg (by my calculations it is actually giving +29.5% dmg at 3 stacks which can be confirmed by avg'ing the actual dmg totals with and without or by looking at the tooltips with and with out (with can be looked at by starting attacking with a spammable aoe atwill, i.e. WMS or WS, and hitting a button that will bring up a menu, without letting go of the mouse button (u will still continue attacking as long as u hold down mouse button but will be able to move cursor around to look at the tooltips) (i use either "i" for the bags or "c" or "p" for the char window, just hitting "alt" does not work due to it cancelling all current held keybinds, including movement)

weapon master: at rank 3 it gives +1.5% crit chance with a max stack of 5, which would equal +7.5% crit chance. it actually gives, at 5 stacks, +10% crit chance as indicated by the char sheet. (i have tried 1/3 and 2/3 which is 3stack max and 4 stack max respectively and it came out to the intended +4.5% and +6% respectively) (can be checked by above method)

just my findings, use it as u will

edit: spacing issue fix

mizery187

Not a typo, I have seen a high critical strike from that Encounter several times. As for urlag, I run with Steel Blitz for a chance to have an extra attack with 24% increased damage (3/3). Being WMS swings in a 240' cone, every target in that vicinity gets hit with the chance for an extra attack. I went back and fixed the 6% to 12% (wasn't counting the 3/3 increase) but I do see what you're saying. Higher critical strike would be nice, but I already sit at almost 45% and I benefit more from Steel Blitz.

silvist00

Heyo,

I just respeced to this as I was having problems as instigator, plus using the wms/wicked strike combo seriously hurt my hand lol. To top it off I would end up alot of times in dungeons not gaining determination fast enough, and even though I was spamming AOE. VS a single target my dmg was utter <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font>.

Funny thing is after I respeced to this build, my gs went down. Now mind you, I'm quite aware that GS lies and is very inaccurate. The tool tips on my attack dmg, was alot higher.

So I did a couple runs to test it out, and wow...HUGE improvement. Both on determination gain, aoe, single target...all of them were "destroying" lol.

Now currently, I only have some of my tier 1, and some duelist/pvp gear. I'm sure this will be more so once I can get a hold of some tier 2 pieces (though it seems hard to get into parties as GWF).

Thanks again for the awesome build! (also thanks for the screen shot of your feats...a wall of txt is sometimes takes entirely to long to get a point across ;p)

Edit:

I also tested this build in pvp, and it works really well. All i had to change was to either steel grace, stead fast determination, or steel defense and take down. Most of the other class features seem to be for multiple enemies. The rest of the set up works wonders though.

mizery187

Happy to hear the build is working out for you! Yeah, I forgot to throw in my build setup for PvP but I mainly switch out Steel Blitz for Steel Grace (less CC) and switch out Restoring Strike for Takedown. Also it helps to at least attack once with WMS to apply the debuff and then proceed with Sure Strike. If you find any alternatives for the build make sure to leave a comment and let me know!

spacejew

I'm just curious but are you using Plaguefire or is that 56k just off your own class buff's? I'm really curious if someone can make Sure Strike workable, so I'm interested to hear your thoughts on it as an at-will as well. Are you just using it as a way to build stacks quickly for your WMS spam or what?

Just wondering since so far the only people I've seen do ok with Sure Strike we're using Plaguefire.

mizery187

Really the only time I use Sure Strike is on a boss fight or in PvP (after applying WMS's Feat debuff) but no, I use Lightning. As for using it as a main At-Will I'm not entirely sure.

vampman06

I am in current transition to this build (gear was for the Thorin build) and have noticed alot of improvement! the determination gets up faster and my daily also gets up alot faster!

like i said i am in transition to this build as gear needs changing.

as for a link to a build site, try this one http://reyva.com/resources/neverwinter-powers-feat-simulator.9/



Sepitus

ssspartacus

How do u fair against tr in dungeons for dps ?

chudovishye

I stopped reading at Sure Strike.

mizery187

It really depends on which dungeon I am running. Some dungeons I will top a TR no problem, but some with less mobs and more single target attacking they can easily out DPS me.

angrygoiterboy

I told myself I'd respec once I hit 60 with the free one I got from being a Guardian founder. Figured I'd try this one out because it sounded pretty effective and I can't stay alive. I can't survive a 4 mob pack in the underdark for more than 5 or 6 seconds before going down. Is gear THAT big a priority? I'd think a build could carry itself pre-T1 dungeons without needing uber gear, but I'm just not able to survive. My Determination and powers are cycling pretty fast, but that does me no good when I can barely get them off once before getting crushed.

I'm sure I'm doing something wrong here. Oh well. I'll level an alt while I figure it out.

churchilligc

I literally have no defense other than what my gear gives me but you will chug potions on GWF because you don't do enough damage to kill the packs fast enough and your healer companion will draw more aggro than you can hold.

I've wanted to take my TR and GWF into Underdark and see which can kill groups of mobs faster (as I bet it would be TR) but regardless of whether TR does it faster or at an equal rate, because a TR is actually killing them it takes less damage by virtue of there being less enemies.

mizery187

Well as a GWF we do see alot of incoming damage, and yes the gear could be a big part of the intake you are seeing. One question I have is are you using level appropriate gear, and are you staying stocked up on potions? You might also try using a Cleric as a companion, though she doesn't really do as much as you'd expect. In dungeons it's a little different; Cleric's will normally drop Astral Shield (w/ Divinity) under the mobs since we are pretty much the "Death Blossom" of adds.

mizery187

As for leveling with a GWF, I'm not entirely sure. I leveled up with a friend who was a TR so it went a little smoother than what you would see solo leveling.

silvist00

@angrygoiterboy - I had no issues surviving even with all green gear in the underdark, and cleared most of it. Though it was mainly because of my cleric companion saving me on pots. In terms of a group, that's amazing you have problems. That's where GWF shines the most.

Before I respeced to this build, I was all AOE. Without a group to fight, my dmg was really bad. That's why I like this build, it has a mix of both, where you can shine in both single target and multi target. I even out dps my friends CW who has better gear than me.

If your having alot of problem, taking dmg I would advise using daring shout. That is probably one of the best tank like abilities GWF has, and I use when I really have to. Otherwise what you do is run into the center of the group toss daring shout up, spaming WMS to build up your determination. Depending on the pack, you may use encounters differently.

I typically use IBS to 1 shot a mob I know I can, so I can get my action points to do my daily immediately. I can typically do this every fight if I time things properly.

In terms of your gear, yes it can make a huge difference. I would advise having not just power/crit, but other things like defense/armor pen and what not. Its better to be well rounded when lvling up, unless you got friends or a cleric to back you up.

One question though I have for the OP is what would you suggest I socket in a defensive runestone slot?

angrygoiterboy

Cleric companion is sort of lame at 60, yeah. I don't have much level 60 gear, no. Freshly leveled recently and wanted to finish quest stuff before diving into the PVP grind that is decent gear. I may have to reverse that decision, though.

I'm mostly soloing. I get that it's weird to prefer solo in an MMO, but that's how it is. Hehe.

silvist00

@angrygoiterboy - If you haven't noticed things tend to scale to your lvl. So if your fighting lvl 60 mobs, they basically "expect" you to have lvl 60 gear. When I was freshly lvl to 60 with non 60 gear, I was getting destroyed in foundry quests. Especially by zombies or undead.

After I got some tier 1, and pvp gear, and respeced to this build, I absolutely destroyed foundry.

angrygoiterboy

That's what I'm suspecting is the case. I'm woefully undergeared. Just did a couple PVPs where I was obliterated by other 60s. Hehe. Long road ahead, I suppose. Will chug through it, though.

silvist00

@angrygoiterboy - PvP shouldn't even be a way to test your gear. I don't think gear would help you from being 1 shoted by a CW or TR. Even with good gear they can still 1 shot you in pvp as it stands now. So in pvp its a matter of surprise, and who acts first.

silvist00

@Op - I did a couple skirmishes today, and actually pulled agro off of the GF lol. Hot dam my dps is out of control (always landing in top dps spots to). I'm really liking this build, thanks a ton for the guide!

Also this build is insane for daily's, because under unstoppable you gen action points like mad..and IBS gens action points like mad. To top it off your determination also goes up mad fast, making this build truly that of an unstoppable berserker ^^

ironwill92

Guide is okay but what I dont get is:

"Power > Critical Strike > Recovery : Defense will come natural with your gear sets."

So you dont literally believe in something like a Recovery Cap or Crit Cap and you're COMPLETELY ignoring ARP?

mizery187

For my Defensive slots I put Azure Enchantments in them for the power increase from Steely Defense, and I'm glad you're finding improvement/enjoyment with this build. As for ironwill92, I never once posted saying I don't believe in soft/hard caps. I had just posted what I mainly focus on when gearing out my character. Armor penetration is nice, but I don't go for it with this build and haven't seen any downfall of not gearing into it.

silvist00

@Op - I just got my tier 2 armor thanks to this build, and to top it off I was highest dps. All I can say is that truly to me shows how well this build works. Nothing I've tried has even come close to this. Thanks again!

naldjiano

How are u able to put more than 20 points in HEROIC?

mizery187

You're welcome silvist00; I chose Human as my race for the 3 extra heroic points and the 3% Defense that works into Steely Defense.

theliethesame

Just some notices :
1.) Sure strike sucks

2.) You get Powerfull challenge feat, but not using Darting Shout (the one that actually marks the targets). Darting Shout will give you 15% damage buff on multiple targets for a couple of seconds, as well as a **** load of determination (close to half the bar on 4+ targets), while Restoring Strike only does a small portion of dmg, and heals for nothing. Depending only on killing target with IBS for the mark is a bad idea overall. So you should replace Restoring strike with Darting Shout.

3.) You pick destroyer single target feat ,while fighting only 1 target is pretty rare, and choose not to get the 25% power buff while slam is active. Destroyer spec advantage is that you build action points fast, unlike Instigator, so the ammount of times you will have Slam up (and thus 25% more power) will outperform the utility the 25% chance to get a Destroyer stack while hitting less than 3 targets.

4.) 10% encounter dmg from Destroyer's purpose means that you should use encounters while in Unstoppable phase, and not outside (more dmg+more action points). Only skills that you should use outside are : Darting Shout (and maybe Roar if you choose this instead of Flourish for AoE) and Battle shout.

5.) You should care more about stats, getting the caps. Not sure about exact numbers now ,but its something like this : 3k Recovery,2.2k ArmPen, 2k critical(or 3k not sure), then Power.Obviously the only way to get these numbers overall is using Ioun Stone or Cat,that gives you full benefit of their stats and equipment.

mizery187

Sure Strike might not be the best option in mob clearing (being why I have built around WMS) but when you are put on boss duty what are you going to use? Wicked Strike (another AOE that's a small % of the damage compared to WMS) or Reaping Strike that takes seconds just to charge up? Daring Shout/Roar really only gains Determination for you, and I have no problem getting a full bar; My Indomitable Strike pretty much seals the deal with marking targets around me and I like having Restoring Strike as a quick Action gain with a shortish cooldown.(The heal also helps considerably) As for Focused Destroyer, It helps me in many situations; I also PvP with this build and run Destroyer/Steel Grace but maybe if building around a full AOE mob clear, then it'd be wise to take Slam's 25% Power increase but I am (as I mentioned) put on the boss from time to time. An extra 12% consistently > 25% periodically works better for what I am usually running. As I said though, I do care about my stats in every aspect but in this post I suggested what you should focus on in general, not particularly. All I can say is try the build out and I hope you see what everyone is talking about, it's a game changer.

burleyxiii

theliethesame wrote: »

3.) You pick destroyer single target feat ,while fighting only 1 target is pretty rare, and choose not to get the 25% power buff while slam is active. Destroyer spec advantage is that you build action points fast, unlike Instigator, so the ammount of times you will have Slam up (and thus 25% more power) will outperform the utility the 25% chance to get a Destroyer stack while hitting less than 3 targets.

Why would you want 25% more power if you are not stacking power in the first place? I'd take the 6% DPS increase on a single target boss over that <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> anyway.

urlag

as of right now, pvp and pve are completely different situations

(pve) in the same timeframe:

with my current build, reaping does 15%+ (depending on # of targets) more dmg with WMS buff then just using WMS, with WMS buff during aoe
also reaping on single target with WMS buff does at minimum twice the dmg of SS with WMS buff with both being all normal hits
(all crits, with same req as previous line, reaping does at least triple of SS)

pvp:
yes SS is better than reaping for pvp because of the charge time (aka, players will react, ai controlled mobs will not)

also survivability isnt an issue in pve with my build, so it becomes more of a benefit