I am relatively new to playing a GWF and I really do like it. I do like the Swordmaster path over the Iron Vanguard path, since it seems to be focused more on killing things rather than on knockdowns and prones as IV seems to do with its reliance on Frontline Surge. So I do appreciate guides like this to help me be a better Swordmaster Destroyer GWF player.
Well this build started off as Swordmaster, then evolved to Iron Vanguard for post-Mod 2 and will being going back to Swordmaster for Mod 3 when it goes live on May 13th. :cool:
More then likely, barring any other changes on the Test Shard, it will be going pure Destroyer Tree as stated in the post a page or two back. Still working on my rotation, but right now I'm kinda really liking Mighty Leap/Restoring Strike/Indomitable Battle Strike and Punishing Charge/Restoring Strike/Indomitable Battle Strike. Relatively low cool downs on everything, and Restoring Strike allows me to not necessarily rely on Endless Consumption and pick up Rampaging Madness for the Power stat increase.
Maybe it's a good time to try cgi, mainly due to lack of threat. you pull enemies, uses roar, is unstoppable and ends the rotation with ibs. from there you administers the destroyer porpose with the roar and puts the CGI as a function of ibs.
but I never had this power in my rotation; I do not know how good or bad it is.
Maybe it's a good time to try cgi, mainly due to lack of threat. you pull enemies, uses roar, is unstoppable and ends the rotation with ibs. from there you administers the destroyer porpose with the roar and puts the CGI as a function of ibs.
but I never had this power in my rotation; I do not know how good or bad it is.
Come and Get It is a decent skill for gathering up mobs, and I ran it a lot on my Sentinel and early testing on Iron Vanguard post Mod 2... That being said I think the power is mediocre at best, and the only time I use it is when I need to kite adds away from the group, ie. End boss of Frozen Heart, etc.
Would you mind describing why you went with Mighty Leap and Punishing Charge instead of, say, Flourish or Not So Fast?
Sure! :cool:
Mighty Leap has NO target cap, so when you are running through a Dungeon it is our only power that can hit more then 5 baddies at a time. Punishing Charge generates Action Points per target hit apparently, and it's nice for manueverability.
Flourish, the animation is too slow unless your fighting a single target like a Boss. Not So Fast is good, but I like the other abilities better IMO.
Hey guys, we have a few more buffs coming soon for Great Weapon Fighters. The changes are listed below.
Powers:
Great Weapon Fighter: Battle Fury: Update the rank up tooltip to specify that this power increases in duration by 1s for each rank in the power. This is only a tooltip change.
Feats:
Great Weapon Fighter: Disciple of War: This feat now grants 25% of your Recovery and Armor Penetration as Power. (Was: Grants 25% of your Recovery as Armor Penetration)
Great Weapon Fighter: Executioner’s Style: This feat no longer has any interaction with Reaping Strike. This feat now also increases the damage of Sure Strike by 6/12/18/24/30% as the target’s health diminishes.
Great Weapon Fighter: Relentless Battle Fury: This feat now grants 10/20/30/40/50% (up from 5/10/15/20/25%) shorter cooldowns to Battle Fury, Takedown, and Roar. Additionally the damage of Roar and Takedown are increased by 5/10/15/20/25% and the duration of Battle Fury is increased by 5/10/15/20/25%. These powers no longer grant Relentless (ignore an additional 1/2/3/4/5% of a target’s resistance).
Great Weapon Fighter: Focused Destroyer: This feat now increases the damage bonus of Destroyer by .7/1.4/2.1/2.8/3.5% (up from .5/1/1.5/2/2.5%) per stack.
Come and Get It is a decent skill for gathering up mobs, and I ran it a lot on my Sentinel and early testing on Iron Vanguard post Mod 2... That being said I think the power is mediocre at best, and the only time I use it is when I need to kite adds away from the group, ie. End boss of Frozen Heart, etc.
yes, I tested today ... was not a good experience ...
With these changes, it seems like Battle Fury is becoming a must-have encounter for SM Destroyer. Would you agree?
I'd say it is a 'Must Have' for PvP focused Swordmaster Destroyer builds for sure.
For PvE? Maybe... That requires testing, as Takedown/Roar/Battle Fury are not in my normal alotment of Encounters I use. Though Battle Fury itself is useful for casket breaking in VT, the others not so much... Though with another second or two off and increased damage could put Takedown into my rotation based on DPS increase.
Currently I have 5/5 points in: Great Weapon Focus, Deep Gash, Disciple of War, Staying Power, Focused Destroyer, and Battle Awareness; along with the Captsone of Destroyer's Purpose.
I am using a Perfect Vorpal enchantment, with about 35% crit chance... The debate is if Executioner's Style is worth it. I can see it being good on Boss fights, as those are long fights and the additional damage percentages on Sure Strike and Indomitable Battle Strike will see greater returns, though I see them as being meh when clearing my way through Dungeons.
With Battle Awareness activated my power looks like this w/o any benefit from Rampaging Madness or Elvish Fury boons:
With a power increase of 166 equalling a 1% damage increase, the difference of 2,136 Power equals out to a 12.8% flat damage increase that I can keep up I'd say about 40-50% of the time I am clearing adds and Boss fights a little less. That also needs to be determined if it is better then other feat options, however so far it has been working out well.
So feel free to respond back with questions, experiences on the test shard, thoughts, opinions, etc. The content is only a week away, so let's get brainstorming people! :cool:
Great post with tons of useful info. Still running T1 gear on my relatively fresh GWF but this info shows my what I should do on my next respec. Now to get enough AD to get the good stuff !
Great post with tons of useful info. Still running T1 gear on my relatively fresh GWF but this info shows my what I should do on my next respec. Now to get enough AD to get the good stuff !
Glad it is helpful!
Currently I am running the Avatar of War set, and will need to do extensive testing with the full Black Ice gear to see if it is worth it over the Avatar of War.
Hello! I'm very new to the game and I must say, I thoroughly enjoy reading your threads, specially the sentinel builds - I went for it as soon as I got a little hold of the game
But as it seems with the module 3 coming up, sentinels wouldn't be the better choice for a gwf anymore would it. But then again I notice the hp for a destroyer is low.. even the current set you're using - 23k hp for a gwf is not much. I currently have about 31k hp and i find myself at the end of life most of the time at boss runs, lol.
What I'm wondering is, would it be worth it, having low hp and high dps build instead of tankable hp? who would be the tank? ofc not me >.>
[sorry for bombarding with **** questions, I'm still learning about the weapon and armor enchantments just so you know my level of knowledge]
Hello! I'm very new to the game and I must say, I thoroughly enjoy reading your threads, specially the sentinel builds - I went for it as soon as I got a little hold of the game
Happy you enjoyed the reads... I try to make them entertaining, as well as informative.
But as it seems with the module 3 coming up, sentinels wouldn't be the better choice for a gwf anymore would it. But then again I notice the hp for a destroyer is low.. even the current set you're using - 23k hp for a gwf is not much. I currently have about 31k hp and i find myself at the end of life most of the time at boss runs, lol.
What I'm wondering is, would it be worth it, having low hp and high dps build instead of tankable hp? who would be the tank? ofc not me >.>
Mod 3 is a rough one for PvE Sentinels, that's for sure. No reason to shy away from that fact... The loss of DPS will hurt a great deal, as the Deep Gash and Student of the Sword allowed us to be viable in a group. Without it, I honestly am not sure what can be done to even come close to being as effective with the current feat allocation.
As for the 23k HPs on a Destro, I've found that to be fine... The point, at least in the build for the Destro, is to raise your power as high as possible. That's why I switched the ability scores, and pumped Con, so that I could have less items that pumped ArmPen and I could ratchet up Power. On live, currently, he has about 20.5k HP and I've been fine in groups w/o a DC. It keeps things interesting for sure, as you have to shift around with Sprint during boss fights and avoid some red circles. However, it's a more active approach then facetanking with a Sentinel.
The point of that is, Tanks aren't always necessary based upon party composition and skill level of party members. I still rock my Sentinel, particularly for Guild runs and/or bringing people through Dungeons to teach them. However, if I am going balls to the walls for DPS and want to speed run through a Dungeon it is the Destro spec all the way!
That's some insane numbers right there. What's your Lifesteal? How is your survivability compared to live? Also, have you done comparisons between the two paragon paths?
Dang, really wish I had enough space on my SSD to head over to preview and actually figure something out on my own
That's some insane numbers right there. What's your Lifesteal? How is your survivability compared to live? Also, have you done comparisons between the two paragon paths?
Survivability is 'less' then live as I took Rampaging Madness instead of Endless Consumption in the Dread Ring boons... More Power equals more damage! However, it really isn't a huge issue with adds as long as your active in movement and know what the baddies do. Will you sometimes get caught? Sure, however the increased DPS is worth it IMO. Glass cannon for the win! lol
Paragon paths, Swordmaster is better DPS as a Destroyer then Iron Vanguard is, hands down.
Hi Kolat.Could you explain how the 25% shorter cooldown from Battle Awareness works when activate Savage Advance?thanks
It's been decent in testing, but really hasn't been spectacular in my mind...
For the beginning of Mod3, I am probably going with Executioner's Style instead of Battle Awareness. The extra power is super nice, but I feel the extra Sure Strike/Indomitable Battle Strike damage will be more consistent (and more useful on Bosses) in overall dungeon running.
Are Student of the Sword and - 1st and foremost - Vicious Advantage not an option with M3?
If yes, is Battle Awareness that really good?
To have 5 secs of buff after dailies?... I don't know (...
I suppose Disciple is good now (it is 25% of both Arpen and Recovery, right? meaning that you have ~610 additional power). But, wouldn't be more prudent to spend the final 5 points on Unstoppable Recovery due to survivability reasons?
If yes, is Battle Awareness that really good?
To have 5 secs of buff after dailies?... I don't know (...
I was using it mostly for the bonus to Power it gives you when you pop Slam. As stated above, I haven't done a lot of testing with Savage Advance, sorry!
I suppose Disciple is good now (it is 25% of both Arpen and Recovery, right? meaning that you have ~610 additional power). But, wouldn't be more prudent to spend the final 5 points on Unstoppable Recovery due to survivability reasons?
Yes, both.
Suvivability isn't really an issue with the Glass Cannon approach. It's maxing your damage in every way possible. The faster things die the less you have to worry about dying! lol
However you can, and will die, it will also teach good movement, rotations, etc. I'm enjoying it immensely!
cdwhite1Member, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 6Arc User
edited May 2014
Lots of great information here. Thanks a lot for keeping it updated. Have you made any final decisions on your Swordmaster Destroyer build as far as feats go?
Have you made any final decisions on your Swordmaster Destroyer build as far as feats go?
Currently I have 5/5 points in: Great Weapon Focus, Deep Gash, Disciple of War, Staying Power, Executioner's Style, and Focused Destroyer; along with the Captsone of Destroyer's Purpose.
I've actually started using battle fury with its feat. It's a really nice boost: with flourish I can hit a 17k crit with it with a normal vorpal ibs tends to hit 27-36k and wms at 2-4k per hit and a 4-7k per swing of wicked strike. Crescendo hits around 30-40k through out the attack and a 16k on all targets with avalanche of steel.
These numbers are highest I've acheived wether through my own strength or while enemies are debuffed all crits.
Plus it works partially for my party to increase damage so theres that. Its good for maintaining the damage increase when not unstoppable or increasing the dps while under its effects. Or gaining ap for more dailies for the whole party it also allows me to break engagement to avoid an attack. I also use come and get it to replace battle fury; as the next attack - IBS hits much harder and it allows wms to encircle all who are pulled and allows aggroless tanking for a second.
yes using battle fury means i have 1 less encounter but the damage increase feels worth it as i tend to swing and hit more enemies as my at wills are all aoe and ive noticed no decreases in damage in dungeon.
A good looking build kolat grats for that my build is slightly different but similar. I also agree that sword master is way better dps than IV.
IV is all about slow spiky damage and knockdowns its why its perfect for sentinels SM is about tearing through multiple opponents or crushing just 1 very quickly which is why its so much better for destroyer.
I've actually started using battle fury with its feat. It's a really nice boost: with flourish I can hit a 17k crit with it with a normal vorpal ibs tends to hit 27-36k and wms at 2-4k per hit and a 4-7k per swing of wicked strike. Crescendo hits around 30-40k through out the attack and a 16k on all targets with avalanche of steel.
These numbers are highest I've acheived wether through my own strength or while enemies are debuffed all crits.
Plus it works partially for my party to increase damage so theres that. Its good for maintaining the damage increase when not unstoppable or increasing the dps while under its effects. Or gaining ap for more dailies for the whole party it also allows me to break engagement to avoid an attack. I also use come and get it to replace battle fury; as the next attack - IBS hits much harder and it allows wms to encircle all who are pulled and allows aggroless tanking for a second.
yes using battle fury means i have 1 less encounter but the damage increase feels worth it as i tend to swing and hit more enemies as my at wills are all aoe and ive noticed no decreases in damage in dungeon.
A good looking build kolat grats for that my build is slightly different but similar. I also agree that sword master is way better dps than IV.
IV is all about slow spiky damage and knockdowns its why its perfect for sentinels SM is about tearing through multiple opponents or crushing just 1 very quickly which is why its so much better for destroyer.
sir, I was testing this yesterday!
the battle fury, apparently now, before or since, except I notice (it was the "right to encounter the wrong class"). will increase by x% of your base damage. the point is, this also has the focused destroyer / destroyer porpose or any other boost.
in other words, those two accumulated bonus the battle fury brings a larger bonus than the focused destroyer (which looks like it was set ... sad).
in fact, all these pools buff and fast countdown of battle fury/extended time had a incredible synergy.
edit: bf + executioner tested in sp... cw party. Kolat, you'll like it.
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cdwhite1Member, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 6Arc User
Currently I have 5/5 points in: Great Weapon Focus, Deep Gash, Disciple of War, Staying Power, Executioner's Style, and Focused Destroyer; along with the Captsone of Destroyer's Purpose.
Hope that helps! :cool:
Thanks! Changing my feats really upped my power and raised my GS 600. Whoa! Now to decide whether or not to keep the vorpal. I tested out a plague fire, but lots of my guildies have those so it seems like a waste. I was thinking maybe a lightning enchantment? Since our bleeds no longer crit and since student of the sword was nerfed, I just don't know if a vorp is the best choice for PvE. Thoughts?
Comments
Well this build started off as Swordmaster, then evolved to Iron Vanguard for post-Mod 2 and will being going back to Swordmaster for Mod 3 when it goes live on May 13th. :cool:
More then likely, barring any other changes on the Test Shard, it will be going pure Destroyer Tree as stated in the post a page or two back. Still working on my rotation, but right now I'm kinda really liking Mighty Leap/Restoring Strike/Indomitable Battle Strike and Punishing Charge/Restoring Strike/Indomitable Battle Strike. Relatively low cool downs on everything, and Restoring Strike allows me to not necessarily rely on Endless Consumption and pick up Rampaging Madness for the Power stat increase.
At least that's how I am seeing it right now...
but I never had this power in my rotation; I do not know how good or bad it is.
Sure! :cool:
Mighty Leap has NO target cap, so when you are running through a Dungeon it is our only power that can hit more then 5 baddies at a time. Punishing Charge generates Action Points per target hit apparently, and it's nice for manueverability.
Flourish, the animation is too slow unless your fighting a single target like a Boss. Not So Fast is good, but I like the other abilities better IMO.
Hope that helps bud!
<< image removed >>
:cool:;):D
yes, I tested today ... was not a good experience ...
For PvE? Maybe... That requires testing, as Takedown/Roar/Battle Fury are not in my normal alotment of Encounters I use. Though Battle Fury itself is useful for casket breaking in VT, the others not so much... Though with another second or two off and increased damage could put Takedown into my rotation based on DPS increase.
Yea, mediocre at best bud, sorry!
I figured I would update this thread with a bit of the testing I have done on the preview shard...
On the test shard, my relevant build looks like, currently, this:
1st Row:
2nd Row:
4th Row:
Currently I have 5/5 points in: Great Weapon Focus, Deep Gash, Disciple of War, Staying Power, Focused Destroyer, and Battle Awareness; along with the Captsone of Destroyer's Purpose.
I am using a Perfect Vorpal enchantment, with about 35% crit chance... The debate is if Executioner's Style is worth it. I can see it being good on Boss fights, as those are long fights and the additional damage percentages on Sure Strike and Indomitable Battle Strike will see greater returns, though I see them as being meh when clearing my way through Dungeons.
With Battle Awareness activated my power looks like this w/o any benefit from Rampaging Madness or Elvish Fury boons:
With a power increase of 166 equalling a 1% damage increase, the difference of 2,136 Power equals out to a 12.8% flat damage increase that I can keep up I'd say about 40-50% of the time I am clearing adds and Boss fights a little less. That also needs to be determined if it is better then other feat options, however so far it has been working out well.
So feel free to respond back with questions, experiences on the test shard, thoughts, opinions, etc. The content is only a week away, so let's get brainstorming people! :cool:
Currently I am running the Avatar of War set, and will need to do extensive testing with the full Black Ice gear to see if it is worth it over the Avatar of War.
But as it seems with the module 3 coming up, sentinels wouldn't be the better choice for a gwf anymore would it. But then again I notice the hp for a destroyer is low.. even the current set you're using - 23k hp for a gwf is not much. I currently have about 31k hp and i find myself at the end of life most of the time at boss runs, lol.
What I'm wondering is, would it be worth it, having low hp and high dps build instead of tankable hp? who would be the tank? ofc not me >.>
[sorry for bombarding with **** questions, I'm still learning about the weapon and armor enchantments just so you know my level of knowledge]
Mod 3 is a rough one for PvE Sentinels, that's for sure. No reason to shy away from that fact... The loss of DPS will hurt a great deal, as the Deep Gash and Student of the Sword allowed us to be viable in a group. Without it, I honestly am not sure what can be done to even come close to being as effective with the current feat allocation.
As for the 23k HPs on a Destro, I've found that to be fine... The point, at least in the build for the Destro, is to raise your power as high as possible. That's why I switched the ability scores, and pumped Con, so that I could have less items that pumped ArmPen and I could ratchet up Power. On live, currently, he has about 20.5k HP and I've been fine in groups w/o a DC. It keeps things interesting for sure, as you have to shift around with Sprint during boss fights and avoid some red circles. However, it's a more active approach then facetanking with a Sentinel.
The point of that is, Tanks aren't always necessary based upon party composition and skill level of party members. I still rock my Sentinel, particularly for Guild runs and/or bringing people through Dungeons to teach them. However, if I am going balls to the walls for DPS and want to speed run through a Dungeon it is the Destro spec all the way!
That's fine bud, I'll be happy to answer any questions...
Keep rocking!
Dang, really wish I had enough space on my SSD to head over to preview and actually figure something out on my own
Paragon paths, Swordmaster is better DPS as a Destroyer then Iron Vanguard is, hands down.
For the beginning of Mod3, I am probably going with Executioner's Style instead of Battle Awareness. The extra power is super nice, but I feel the extra Sure Strike/Indomitable Battle Strike damage will be more consistent (and more useful on Bosses) in overall dungeon running.
Are Student of the Sword and - 1st and foremost - Vicious Advantage not an option with M3?
If yes, is Battle Awareness that really good?
To have 5 secs of buff after dailies?... I don't know (...
I suppose Disciple is good now (it is 25% of both Arpen and Recovery, right? meaning that you have ~610 additional power). But, wouldn't be more prudent to spend the final 5 points on Unstoppable Recovery due to survivability reasons?
Thanks again for your devotion and kind responses
Unless you are strictly PvP I wouldn't take Student of the Sword, which in and of itself cancels out the option for Vicious Advantage.
I was using it mostly for the bonus to Power it gives you when you pop Slam. As stated above, I haven't done a lot of testing with Savage Advance, sorry!
Yes, both.
Suvivability isn't really an issue with the Glass Cannon approach. It's maxing your damage in every way possible. The faster things die the less you have to worry about dying! lol
However you can, and will die, it will also teach good movement, rotations, etc. I'm enjoying it immensely!
You're welcome bud, no problem at all!:cool:
These numbers are highest I've acheived wether through my own strength or while enemies are debuffed all crits.
Plus it works partially for my party to increase damage so theres that. Its good for maintaining the damage increase when not unstoppable or increasing the dps while under its effects. Or gaining ap for more dailies for the whole party it also allows me to break engagement to avoid an attack. I also use come and get it to replace battle fury; as the next attack - IBS hits much harder and it allows wms to encircle all who are pulled and allows aggroless tanking for a second.
yes using battle fury means i have 1 less encounter but the damage increase feels worth it as i tend to swing and hit more enemies as my at wills are all aoe and ive noticed no decreases in damage in dungeon.
A good looking build kolat grats for that my build is slightly different but similar. I also agree that sword master is way better dps than IV.
IV is all about slow spiky damage and knockdowns its why its perfect for sentinels SM is about tearing through multiple opponents or crushing just 1 very quickly which is why its so much better for destroyer.
sir, I was testing this yesterday!
the battle fury, apparently now, before or since, except I notice (it was the "right to encounter the wrong class"). will increase by x% of your base damage. the point is, this also has the focused destroyer / destroyer porpose or any other boost.
in other words, those two accumulated bonus the battle fury brings a larger bonus than the focused destroyer (which looks like it was set ... sad).
in fact, all these pools buff and fast countdown of battle fury/extended time had a incredible synergy.
edit: bf + executioner tested in sp... cw party. Kolat, you'll like it.
Thanks! Changing my feats really upped my power and raised my GS 600. Whoa! Now to decide whether or not to keep the vorpal. I tested out a plague fire, but lots of my guildies have those so it seems like a waste. I was thinking maybe a lightning enchantment? Since our bleeds no longer crit and since student of the sword was nerfed, I just don't know if a vorp is the best choice for PvE. Thoughts?