GWF - Looking for Quick Answers on Gear and Spec

ikostus

Hey everyone,

I'm playing a GWF and have done probably like 6 hours of just reading on the forums and such looking for which spec and what end game BIS gear is for whatever you intend to do.

The problem is, a lot of it is jumbled and a lot of people have different things to say, but everything is soo different and nothing shows up multiple times.

I like to DPS (AoE) and to be able to take some damage.

Please, if you can spare some time to write a response with your opinion and common beliefs, I'm sure it would help a lot of other people in their path to becoming the best they can be!

Thanks in advance for all responses!

mutantdemocracy

The general consensus is that 2 piece Vigilant Warlord, 2 piece Avatar of War, and the Ancient Castle weapon set are the best gear you can get. This is due to every single one of GWF's set being bad or sup-par. Full Avatar of War looks the best on paper, but it ends up being really annoying to try and keep your stacks up.

GWF is so muddled, you can't get any real straight answer on feats. You sort of have to read all the feats yourself and remember how many times you think: "I really like the sound of that." Then just pick the one that had you thinking that the most often.
-Instigator has a buff to Wicked Strike(AOE), but overall functions much better against single targets.
-Destroyer has a pretty useless buff to Reaping Strike(+damage against single targets), but ends up being the best AOE build. This is due to the high action power gain to spam Slam.
-Sentinel is your tanky build and can provide a nice chunk of free stats. This pretty much gives you the freedom to do whatever you want.

indolo238

Just hit 60 on my GWF, so while I've done really really well 1-60, I haven't gotten into epic dungeons yet. Take that into consideration with my advice. I also play with more of a mind set of killing things faster reduces the damage they do, regardless of what role my characters are performing (control, heals, tanking, dps).

I went destroyer spec, close to this (it's what I would respec to), but have 5/5 Unstoppable action and 1/3 Constitution Focus currently.

Armor Penetration, Crit and Recovery are stats to focus on. You'll get lots of power regardless and usually enough defense. While leveling up, once you get about halfway and have a lot of HP, regen is a fantastic stat up to 60 (I hear it's usefulness drops in epics while life steal turns awesome once you can stack enough of it). I did str/con build (21/21/17), so with the high HP and regen, I saved a ton of potions (nearing 60 regen ticks were 600-800hp). I leveled up using Ioun Stone, and didn't miss cleric pet at all with regen. If you don't favor Con, it might not work as well. I did Con because it's easier to find crit on gear than armor penetration, and it reduces the amount of armor penetration I need (see thread: Con (GWF) and Dex (GF) are now addative to Armor Penetration).

Great Weapon Focus and Student of the Sword are basically must have feats. Disciple of War (armor pen from recovery), Battle Awareness (+power during slam), and Powerful Challenge (bonus damage to marked targets) are decent, but more to preference (for example, powerful challenge is primarily useful if running with a GF marking targets). Can't tell you much about non-destroyer feats other than that though.

Powers I use:

At-will: Sure Strike, Weapon Master's Strike
Encounter: Indomitable Battle Strike, Restoring Strike, Roar
Daily: Slam, Crescendo (prior to Crescendo, just slam)
Features: Destroyer, Steel Blitz (Weapon Master is also good)

Sure Strike for single targets, WMS for multiple (really nice in unstoppable). Instigator tends to use Wicked Strike and WMS from what I hear, but I've no experience there. Roar is great for building determination and does decent damage; use it a lot. IBS and Restoring Strike are mainly for damage, though the heal and endurance from restoring are nice side benefits. Generally don't worry about using IBS to mark. My only reason for sometimes not using it right away is waiting to get 3 stacks from Student of the Sword for bigger damage on tougher enemies. Slam is great and I build a lot of AP quickly. I probably don't use it often enough.

I do great AOE and solid single target damage. Unstoppable (I build determination quickly) WMS with Roar and Slam covers my AOE, and unstoppable Sure Strike with IBS and Restoring Strike let me lay down good single target damage. While leveling up, Not so Fast is nice, but it's damage gets weak later in levels. I've tanked pre-60 stuff just by laying down damage.

Remember that unstoppable is your defense as well as your offense.

That's my brain dump for now.

ikostus

Thanks for your brain dump, haha

The more replies the merrier people!

meeggtoast

FYI extra info on my build.

Dex> Con is only because Armor pen is easier to stack than Crit.
I did not feel unstoppable action build ap enough to just use it all in Toughness(9% hp), I have tested with Unstoppable action.
TRs with tactics(15% constantly) built faster AP gain.
My build have 0 Lifesteal, Making solo instances a potion drinking game, but has high dps.
For leveling i stacked armorpen and lifesteal.
Note my build is great for endgame, I cannot confirm for lower geared gwfs.