Oh, derp. Good point. I'm still not sold on Nightmare Wizardry, since it's a buff that you can get with positioning or other class' skills (TR stealth, HR class feature, etc.) but admittedly I haven't parsed <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> so all I have is perception. It would be great for soloing/PvP but that's not what this build is about.
Assuming 25% bonus damage from CA and gaining 33% uptime from the feat, that's an increase in total damage of 8.33%. The other option is a flat 5% damage increase from Bitter Cold (100% uptime) and then Transcended Master only has to increase your total damage by more than 3.33% to be better than NW. Does 15% extra damage on Shard do that? I'm pretty sure it would. Granted, total group damage will increase from the CA buff. I'm assuming no extra damage from Reaper's Touch because I've found that most of the time when I'm using at-wills it's at range >20' so I'd stick with Critical Power despite the nerf.
combat advantage is only 15-18% your bonus from charisma adds multiplicatively or some other such formula.
Also uptime is over 50%
Also i did some more tests to determine why it was doing more damage, and I managed to get the results/answers some of you are looking for! (confused me too)
Because nightmare wizardry procs on crits, it procs more often whilst eye of the storm is up
I did tests using ray of frost spamming for a while, with eye of the storm equipped the results were as follows:
So 81% of your crits are getting combat advantage (hitting when nightmare wizardry is up)
You may notice the flanks were 75% of the time, 60% crit, this is only because i used ray of frost, which procs things alot, and should not be taken into account (good to know for pvp though).
I recently dropped transcended master for Nightmare wizardry and I am satisfied with the result.
May I ask what is the advantage of lifesteal over stacking defense(or regeneration)?
Maybe its just me and I am wrong but I always prefer defense/regeneration over lifesteal which I consider more of a convenience and a potion saver skill instead of a real life saver for cw.
During Draco fight when my HP is at 10% the HP potion/steal time is 5-6 seconds away I am blinking desperately in AS avoiding red zones/wights lifesteal doesn't help me (because I cant stop to shoot some) but regeneration/defense does(I put on 2-3 greater ring of repulsion).
Although it works greatly to my stealth TR though because you are leaving stealth always at 100% fit&healthy with it but I play cw differently.
Edit: Maybe its better for the preclear though if you are playing without shield with SS?
I recently dropped transcended master for Nightmare wizardry and I am satisfied with the result.
May I ask what is the advantage of lifesteal over stacking defense(or regeneration)?
Maybe its just me and I am wrong but I always prefer defense/regeneration over lifesteal which I consider more of a convenience and a potion saver skill instead of a real life saver for cw.
During Draco fight when my HP is at 10% the HP potion/steal time is 5-6 seconds away I am blinking desperately in AS avoiding red zones/wights lifesteal doesn't help me (because I cant stop to shoot some) but regeneration/defense does(I put on 2-3 greater ring of repulsion).
Although it works greatly to my stealth TR though because you are leaving stealth always at 100% fit&healthy with it but I play cw differently.
Edit: Maybe its better for the preclear though if you are playing without shield with SS?
im going to keep my defense over 1k atleast should be able to keep it where it is due to the new artifacts, giving me space to use hp defensive slots.
I'll prob end up trading my rings for berserker (power/lifesteal/arp) and lifesteal icon on pet, on belt, or some other places where i can (and the dread ring weapon set). havent put too much thought into the calculations. Need to see how hard it is to upgrade those artifacts first! as for being in troublke, if im in trouble ill just use oppressive force ill be safe and gain a rather large amount of health whilst the enemies twiddle their thumbs.
Have you tried stacking life-steal yourself? I have heard great things about it from most wizards who use it. I stack it on my other chars and it works wonders, (who do less damage than i). I cannot formulate a reasonable opinion unless i try both myself first.
darthpotaterMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,261Arc User
edited December 2013
Lifesteal is great for CWs. with 1000 points in lifesteal, shield push, shard, Sudden Storm is about 10k Hp with 5 or more enemies. Steal time and CoI gives lots of hp too.
Is not only a Potion saver, your DC will be more relaxed, and in fights like fulminorax, you are self sufficient with those constant hits from Valindra. I have 1000 regen too.
Until now, you must sacrifice other stats for lifesteal, but with artifacts, compations, etc. everyone will hit stat caps, its much better to round all the stats, because you will get much better return. You can have 4000 power, 3500 recovery, 2500 crit, 2200 armor pen 2000 def, 1000 regen, 1000 deflect, 1000 lifesteal easy with boons, companions and artifacts (and ranks 8s, no more). This is much better than stack 6000 power, 4000 crit and have 1000 def and no lifesteal or deflect or regen.
Lifesteal is great for CWs. with 1000 points in lifesteal, shield push, shard, Sudden Storm is about 10k Hp with 5 or more enemies. Steal time and CoI gives lots of hp too.
Is not only a Potion saver, your DC will be more relaxed, and in fights like fulminorax, you are self sufficient with those constant hits from Valindra. I have 1000 regen too.
Until now, you must sacrifice other stats for lifesteal, but with artifacts, compations, etc. everyone will hit stat caps, its much better to round all the stats, because you will get much better return. You can have 4000 power, 3500 recovery, 2500 crit, 2200 armor pen 2000 def, 1000 regen, 1000 deflect, 1000 lifesteal easy with boons, companions and artifacts (and ranks 8s, no more). This is much better than stack 6000 power, 4000 crit and have 1000 def and no lifesteal or deflect or regen.
IMHO
Agreed - at the end of the day, it's not about that 5% extra damage (it might not be 5% but I think you get the idea) from going full offensive stats but rather about that 20% extra survivability you get from investing into defensive stats. At least judging from my experience :-). Talkin PVE ofc.
One more thing, grimah, why did you pick toughness over controlling action if you want to m a x i m i z e the possible damage output? I know, also referring to my points above, that toughness is the better choice in most cases, but still. For max DPS you want to maximize your daily uptime.
0
uurbsMember, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild UsersPosts: 449Bounty Hunter
One more thing, grimah, why did you pick toughness over controlling action if you want to m a x i m i z e the possible damage output? I know, also referring to my points above, that toughness is the better choice in most cases, but still. For max DPS you want to maximize your daily uptime.
I'm obviously not Grimah, but I wouldn't choose "Controlling Action" over "Toughness", because as CW's we're already "squishy" enough and with "Reaper's Touch" requiring you to be up-and-close directly in the middle of those nasties, I would take any defense I can get. Because, bottom line, if you're dead you don't do damage at all.
sure could do 2/5 but well, my HP is so darn low i would get 1 shotted by reds if i didnt have barkshield. and i still nearly get 1 shotted by reds (walk away from certain boss attacks with 2% hp sometimes!
Cant wait to get his hp up a bit and defense, sure you could dodge stuff better but im playing from EU and theres latency issues more often enough.
uurbsMember, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild UsersPosts: 449Bounty Hunter
edited December 2013
Just a short first feedback based on subjective experience, I've gained by farming in Dread Ring, yesterday. At first I did the dailies with my old Renegade build (see signature), after that I switched to Grimah's new Thaumaturge build. I used Tabbed-CoI, Steal Time, Sudden Storm and SotEA (I explicitly wanted to test CoI instead of Chill Strike). Strangely, it felt like I was gaining more APs than before and even with CoI I didn't had any problems killing stuff very fast (any of the groups--I tested all).
Will put it on a test in MC the upcoming weekend and am going to use ACT to get a more "objective" analysis.
Heya, i came back after a long time and im using your build.. had a respec character option but i have no idea what i should do with the stats / int-wis-cha etc. could anyone tell me ? Full int or something ?
Grimah, thanks for sharing (yet, again) all of your work. I've been using your old renegade build for a while now, and very much enjoy it. I would love to respec to this one, but the feat graphic won't load for me. Is anyone else having trouble with that?
What are the overall differences between this spec and your versatile renegade spec? I used the renegade spec to level my cw and absolutely loved it but curious to try this out for a different flavor. How does it compare to renegade?
Pros:
Heavy debuffing
more damage output from yourself.
Cons:
More designed for difficult (high hp targets) sustained damage
Uses chilling cloud (people may not like this)
No/low arcane stacks (no long ray duration, repel buff, extra steal time stun time.)
More fiddily to use well (rotation wise/choices during fight.)
Thaums should have no trouble with this build, if you prefer renegade over thaum using renegade maybe better for you, a guildie respecced to this wanting damage, but she didnt like using chilling cloud at all. And hated using conduit of Ice on mastery instead of always using chill strike.
I just hit 60 yesterday. There is much left for me to experience in the game as a cw. Which would be better as a fairly new player to the game and new to endgame?
I just hit 60 yesterday. There is much left for me to experience in the game as a cw. Which would be better as a fairly new player to the game and new to endgame?
To interject for a moment, as a new 60 the most relevant question might be "Which powers do you enjoy using?"
- If you don't want to get married to Conduit of Ice and move it in to your Tab slot for PvE, don't plan on capping the Thaumaturge tree, because you won't like the play style. Same goes for Chilling Cloud and Frozen Power Transfer.
- If you don't like the random quality of Renegade's capstone feat, Chaos Magic, you might want to reconsider going all the way.
- If you don't get a lot of use out of Ray of Frost or Chill Strike, Oppressor might not have a lot of value for you.
And so on. I'd recommend reading over all of the feats and seeing which pertain to which powers, and then theorycrafting a build that will reward you for playing the way that you enjoy most. If a feat looks good on paper, but you aren't sure if it really helps, that's a very good time to browse forums or ask more questions, as well
atm im considering dropping 2 arcane enhancement and 1 blinding power to max fight on cause with 3.5k recovery and 25 in and 15 wis the rotation doesnt feel as smooth as before when i had max fight on, its like a second on encounter thats always left when i want to cast them
Hi grimah...great job on the guide. I have some concerns though, would this still be the best dps build in Power and Feats for a AOE or Recovery based CW's for PVE? I tend to find my role for most end game dungeons doing mostly AOE dmg and CC with single targeted attacks as in-betweeners when encounters are on c/d. I use the HV set with vorpal/barkshield enchant , and according to your guide, only certain spells work with HV:
Procs Debuff with:
Chill Strike x2 (x3 on mastery on main target, x1 on others)
Icy Terrain x1 per target.
Ice Knife: x3
Ice Storm: x2 per target
Icy rays: x1
Shard of Endless Avalanche x1 per target on roll, x1 on explode.
Oppressive force x4 over the duration per target
Buff and Debuff (buff stacks up to 3 times)
Entangling force x1 (x1 per hit on mastery)
Steal time x3 per target (x1 buff total, x2 on mastery)
Repel x1 (x1 per target on mastery)
Shield x1 per target.
I have EotS and Storm Spell on my class features currently.
I have chill strike on tab, encounters are COI, STime, IcyT/Sudden Storm.
With Magic Missiles as my primary and storm pillar as secondary (just for ap gain) as my at-wills.
Should i go with Entangling and get rid of COI based on the buff/debuff of HV? I don't use repel/shield because they are situational, so they are not usually slotted.
Or should some of these things be changed around all together?
Grimah great guide, someone can tell me if the heroic feat controling ACTION is a good option? since there was a large loss of AP gain?
Critical Power + Controlling action is a good choose? Thx.
Hi grimah...great job on the guide. I have some concerns though, would this still be the best dps build in Power and Feats for a AOE or Recovery based CW's for PVE? I tend to find my role for most end game dungeons doing mostly AOE dmg and CC with single targeted attacks as in-betweeners when encounters are on c/d. I use the HV set with vorpal/barkshield enchant , and according to your guide, only certain spells work with HV:
Procs Debuff with:
Chill Strike x2 (x3 on mastery on main target, x1 on others)
Icy Terrain x1 per target.
Ice Knife: x3
Ice Storm: x2 per target
Icy rays: x1
Shard of Endless Avalanche x1 per target on roll, x1 on explode.
Oppressive force x4 over the duration per target
Buff and Debuff (buff stacks up to 3 times)
Entangling force x1 (x1 per hit on mastery)
Steal time x3 per target (x1 buff total, x2 on mastery)
Repel x1 (x1 per target on mastery)
Shield x1 per target.
I have EotS and Storm Spell on my class features currently.
I have chill strike on tab, encounters are COI, STime, IcyT/Sudden Storm.
With Magic Missiles as my primary and storm pillar as secondary (just for ap gain) as my at-wills.
Should i go with Entangling and get rid of COI based on the buff/debuff of HV? I don't use repel/shield because they are situational, so they are not usually slotted.
Or should some of these things be changed around all together?
its 3 stacks on OF forgot to change it
But yes its good for both recovery/power. Im low recovery (3k) compared to say 5k-6k ones. Think of the high vizier set piece as a bonus. Same with cold power transfer, use it when you can. every thing you do does a debuff (apart from sudden) so dont think too much on what spell first/debuff is more important.
reason why people went crazy about keeping HV up 24/7 in the past was because it was bugged and you can keep the stacks getting higher and higher.
The only spell i suggest you cast first and always is conduit since it takes time to do the full effect.
Grimah great guide, someone can tell me if the heroic feat controling ACTION is a good option? since there was a large loss of AP gain?
Critical Power + Controlling action is a good choose? Thx.
Do not choose "Controlling Action" ever--it is just not worth it. You can/should replace "Reaper's Touch" from Grimah's build (if it is still in there ), with "Critical Power" if you either do not want to be that close to your targets or if you have problems with AP build.
What is a good "new 60 set" for use with your new thaum build?
Additionally to what Grimah already suggested, the T1 set "Archmage" is a very nice start, as you're casting "controll" spells all the time with this build and the 4-set bonus helps with the encounter cooldowns.
At-Wills: Chilling Cloud
Class features: Chilling presence (10% increase over stormspell), Eye of the Storm
Mastery: Icy Rays
Encounters: Ray of Enfeeblement, Conduit of Ice, Chill Strike
AoE:
At-wills: Chilling Cloud
Class features: Storm spell, Eye of the Storm
Mastery: Conduit of Ice
Encounters: Sudden Storm, Shard of the Endless Avalanche, Steal Time.
Thanks for all the great info. I would like to understand a bit more of the strategy with this build. I'm an HV Thaumaturge and generally run with this loadout for dailies and solo instances;
AoE:
At-wills: MM / RoF
Class features: Storm spell, Eye of the Storm
Mastery: Chill Strike
Encounters: Sudden Storm, Steal Time, EF
Dailies: AS/IK
I open with CS on the toughest mob, ST on the rushing mobs, SS if anything is left alive or EF on boss and then SS and burn him down. This might be slower but is very safe. (I have never really embraced SotEA)
What is the rotation for your loadout and how do maintain the safety/control of my current setup?
0
uurbsMember, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild UsersPosts: 449Bounty Hunter
From the description: "Gain 2/4/6/8/10% additional Action Point when using powers on a controlled target". Just by reading the tooltip, there are two possible interpretations:
anytime you hit a "controlled" target, you gain 10% of your action point dice
anytime you hit a "controlled" target, you gain 10% more of those action points you would normally gain--e. g. if you would gain 100 points normally, you would gain 110 points
Do you see an increase of 10% of your action point dice, anytime you hit a "controlled" target? Probably not, therefore, I would suggest it is interpretation 2. And honestly, 1.1 instead of 1 action point per controlled target just doesn't cut it. Especially, if there are more viable options to choose from.
At-Wills: Chilling Cloud
Class features: Chilling presence (10% increase over stormspell), Eye of the Storm
Mastery: Icy Rays
Encounters: Ray of Enfeeblement, Conduit of Ice, Chill Strike
AoE:
At-wills: Chilling Cloud
Class features: Storm spell, Eye of the Storm
Mastery: Conduit of Ice
Encounters: Sudden Storm, Shard of the Endless Avalanche, Steal Time.
[...] an how do maintain the safety/control of my current setup?
Sudden Storm is no control spell (besides killing stuff fast); Entangling Force only works on one target (as you don't have it on tab); Chill Strike on tab also only controls (stun) one target; Steal Time is a very good control spell, but it is used in Grimah's version as well.
Just using Shard of the Endless Avalanche multiplies the control in comparison to your load out, without taking the chill stacks from Conduit of Ice on tab and using Chilling Cloud into account so far, at all. And I didn't even talk about the damage aspect of those, yet.
Sudden Storm is no control spell (besides killing stuff fast); Entangling Force only works on one target (as you don't have it on tab); Chill Strike on tab also only controls (stun) one target; Steal Time is a very good control spell, but it is used in Grimah's version as well.
Just using Shard of the Endless Avalanche multiplies the control in comparison to your load out, without taking the chill stacks from Conduit of Ice on tab and using Chilling Cloud into account so far, at all. And I didn't even talk about the damage aspect of those, yet.
I agree with all your advice/input and I really want to try out a new, more well thought out, engagement strategy. I love the thaumaturge line and do want to stay with it on my main CW. I will have to put points in SotEA in my respec. I already have Chilling Cloud maxed as I use it in group play. I do follow Grimah very closely in group play, but I am more interested in how to improve my solo efforts. Just to help me out a bit more, how would you approach a typical daily fight? For example; a Red Wizard with a flame spiker and a couple of minions? What would be your sequence of attacks?
0
uurbsMember, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild UsersPosts: 449Bounty Hunter
[...] Just to help me out a bit more, how would you approach a typical daily fight? For example; a Red Wizard with a flame spiker and a couple of minions? What would be your sequence of attacks?
I'm not sure if that depends on equipment, but I have no problems with the standard dungeon add clearing setup: Conduit of Ice on tab, Steal Time, Sudden Storm and Shard of the Endless Avalanche, as well as constant Chilling Cloud. Depending on the group size I rarely need more than one rotation of those spells (for the group you mentioned). Those guys die very fast. If I would have problems, I would probably exchange Conduit of Ice with Chill Strike on tab.
I normally start with casting Shard of the Endless Avalanche (builds Arcane stacks), put Conduit of Ice on a big (high HP guy), start casting Chilling Cloud, push the Shard into the group, continue with Sudden Storm and if the guys are still standing, finish them with Steal Time.
But I'm over the cap of Armor Penetration (>2,536) around 2,400 critical strike, 2,900 recovery and over 4,000 power with the High Vizier set.
I even do not use any dailies--not needed. But, if you're experience problems with the above mentioned setup, you should throw in Oppressive Force--but keep Conduit of Ice on tab, as it generates action points real fast.
If you wish to have more control just switch out sudden storm for icy terrain, it still works fine and is something i do depending on the situation (boss fight aoe, e.g. xivros).
As for rotation its hard to say, it depends on the situation i just use my judgement. conduit first usually, shard, steal time. move a bit and get a nice row for sudden storm, chilling cloud.
Or i will start with conduit (if someone is using singularity) i use chilling cloud to get a 25% bonus, whilst i wait for them to drop out, sudden storm followed by a push on my ball which is on the ground ready. steal time as they are proned.
Those are just some examples off the top of my head, the best thing to do is judge when and which spells to use. Also i rarely if ever use singularity, Despite how singularity bunches things up, i think OF is a far better control.
I am usually solo CW (when i can help it, as its more fun having all the control relied on you) and trash management is sooo much better when using OF in my experience, if you have no tank or no other CW with you. Mainly because you can hurt them like hell (building AP) whilst they cannot do anything, whilst Sing only delays the envitable.
To answer ianthewizard, Id prefer if you do not post here, because your build would be totally different to mine since you do not use steal time. You would probably need all the AP you can get. I have no issues getting my dailies up and solo control in ANY dungeon. (not saying i could solo CW draco though.... well maybe if i had 2 gwfs with me with "come an get me" slotted).
Comments
combat advantage is only 15-18% your bonus from charisma adds multiplicatively or some other such formula.
Also uptime is over 50%
Also i did some more tests to determine why it was doing more damage, and I managed to get the results/answers some of you are looking for! (confused me too)
Because nightmare wizardry procs on crits, it procs more often whilst eye of the storm is up
I did tests using ray of frost spamming for a while, with eye of the storm equipped the results were as follows:
386 hits
293 combat advantage hits
231 crits
187 flanks were crits.
So 81% of your crits are getting combat advantage (hitting when nightmare wizardry is up)
You may notice the flanks were 75% of the time, 60% crit, this is only because i used ray of frost, which procs things alot, and should not be taken into account (good to know for pvp though).
and also the featured satirical comedic adventure "A Call for Heroes".
I recently dropped transcended master for Nightmare wizardry and I am satisfied with the result.
May I ask what is the advantage of lifesteal over stacking defense(or regeneration)?
Maybe its just me and I am wrong but I always prefer defense/regeneration over lifesteal which I consider more of a convenience and a potion saver skill instead of a real life saver for cw.
During Draco fight when my HP is at 10% the HP potion/steal time is 5-6 seconds away I am blinking desperately in AS avoiding red zones/wights lifesteal doesn't help me (because I cant stop to shoot some) but regeneration/defense does(I put on 2-3 greater ring of repulsion).
Although it works greatly to my stealth TR though because you are leaving stealth always at 100% fit&healthy with it but I play cw differently.
Edit: Maybe its better for the preclear though if you are playing without shield with SS?
im going to keep my defense over 1k atleast should be able to keep it where it is due to the new artifacts, giving me space to use hp defensive slots.
I'll prob end up trading my rings for berserker (power/lifesteal/arp) and lifesteal icon on pet, on belt, or some other places where i can (and the dread ring weapon set). havent put too much thought into the calculations. Need to see how hard it is to upgrade those artifacts first! as for being in troublke, if im in trouble ill just use oppressive force ill be safe and gain a rather large amount of health whilst the enemies twiddle their thumbs.
Have you tried stacking life-steal yourself? I have heard great things about it from most wizards who use it. I stack it on my other chars and it works wonders, (who do less damage than i). I cannot formulate a reasonable opinion unless i try both myself first.
and also the featured satirical comedic adventure "A Call for Heroes".
Is not only a Potion saver, your DC will be more relaxed, and in fights like fulminorax, you are self sufficient with those constant hits from Valindra. I have 1000 regen too.
Until now, you must sacrifice other stats for lifesteal, but with artifacts, compations, etc. everyone will hit stat caps, its much better to round all the stats, because you will get much better return. You can have 4000 power, 3500 recovery, 2500 crit, 2200 armor pen 2000 def, 1000 regen, 1000 deflect, 1000 lifesteal easy with boons, companions and artifacts (and ranks 8s, no more). This is much better than stack 6000 power, 4000 crit and have 1000 def and no lifesteal or deflect or regen.
IMHO
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Agreed - at the end of the day, it's not about that 5% extra damage (it might not be 5% but I think you get the idea) from going full offensive stats but rather about that 20% extra survivability you get from investing into defensive stats. At least judging from my experience :-). Talkin PVE ofc.
One more thing, grimah, why did you pick toughness over controlling action if you want to m a x i m i z e the possible damage output? I know, also referring to my points above, that toughness is the better choice in most cases, but still. For max DPS you want to maximize your daily uptime.
Cant wait to get his hp up a bit and defense, sure you could dodge stuff better but im playing from EU and theres latency issues more often enough.
and also the featured satirical comedic adventure "A Call for Heroes".
Will put it on a test in MC the upcoming weekend and am going to use ACT to get a more "objective" analysis.
Heavy debuffing
more damage output from yourself.
Cons:
More designed for difficult (high hp targets) sustained damage
Uses chilling cloud (people may not like this)
No/low arcane stacks (no long ray duration, repel buff, extra steal time stun time.)
More fiddily to use well (rotation wise/choices during fight.)
Thaums should have no trouble with this build, if you prefer renegade over thaum using renegade maybe better for you, a guildie respecced to this wanting damage, but she didnt like using chilling cloud at all. And hated using conduit of Ice on mastery instead of always using chill strike.
and also the featured satirical comedic adventure "A Call for Heroes".
To interject for a moment, as a new 60 the most relevant question might be "Which powers do you enjoy using?"
- If you don't want to get married to Conduit of Ice and move it in to your Tab slot for PvE, don't plan on capping the Thaumaturge tree, because you won't like the play style. Same goes for Chilling Cloud and Frozen Power Transfer.
- If you don't like the random quality of Renegade's capstone feat, Chaos Magic, you might want to reconsider going all the way.
- If you don't get a lot of use out of Ray of Frost or Chill Strike, Oppressor might not have a lot of value for you.
And so on. I'd recommend reading over all of the feats and seeing which pertain to which powers, and then theorycrafting a build that will reward you for playing the way that you enjoy most. If a feat looks good on paper, but you aren't sure if it really helps, that's a very good time to browse forums or ask more questions, as well
Contagion - Cleric
Testament - Wizard
Pestilence - Ranger
Dominion - Paladin
NIGHTSWATCH
http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?464811-Versatile-Renegade-build-Feywild"
easier to use and feel more snappy. (due to the animations of magic missile vs chilling cloud)
and also the featured satirical comedic adventure "A Call for Heroes".
Procs Debuff with:
Chill Strike x2 (x3 on mastery on main target, x1 on others)
Icy Terrain x1 per target.
Ice Knife: x3
Ice Storm: x2 per target
Icy rays: x1
Shard of Endless Avalanche x1 per target on roll, x1 on explode.
Oppressive force x4 over the duration per target
Buff and Debuff (buff stacks up to 3 times)
Entangling force x1 (x1 per hit on mastery)
Steal time x3 per target (x1 buff total, x2 on mastery)
Repel x1 (x1 per target on mastery)
Shield x1 per target.
I have EotS and Storm Spell on my class features currently.
I have chill strike on tab, encounters are COI, STime, IcyT/Sudden Storm.
With Magic Missiles as my primary and storm pillar as secondary (just for ap gain) as my at-wills.
Should i go with Entangling and get rid of COI based on the buff/debuff of HV? I don't use repel/shield because they are situational, so they are not usually slotted.
Or should some of these things be changed around all together?
Critical Power + Controlling action is a good choose? Thx.
its 3 stacks on OF forgot to change it
But yes its good for both recovery/power. Im low recovery (3k) compared to say 5k-6k ones. Think of the high vizier set piece as a bonus. Same with cold power transfer, use it when you can. every thing you do does a debuff (apart from sudden) so dont think too much on what spell first/debuff is more important.
reason why people went crazy about keeping HV up 24/7 in the past was because it was bugged and you can keep the stacks getting higher and higher.
The only spell i suggest you cast first and always is conduit since it takes time to do the full effect.
and also the featured satirical comedic adventure "A Call for Heroes".
Other options are 2x shadow weaver/2x GG T2 (champion mage) or 2x Magelord.
4x shadow weaver is also an option but the set bonus only works half the time.
Its working your equipment and enchants to getting the right amount of stats.
and also the featured satirical comedic adventure "A Call for Heroes".
Additionally to what Grimah already suggested, the T1 set "Archmage" is a very nice start, as you're casting "controll" spells all the time with this build and the 4-set bonus helps with the encounter cooldowns.
Thanks for all the great info. I would like to understand a bit more of the strategy with this build. I'm an HV Thaumaturge and generally run with this loadout for dailies and solo instances;
AoE:
At-wills: MM / RoF
Class features: Storm spell, Eye of the Storm
Mastery: Chill Strike
Encounters: Sudden Storm, Steal Time, EF
Dailies: AS/IK
I open with CS on the toughest mob, ST on the rushing mobs, SS if anything is left alive or EF on boss and then SS and burn him down. This might be slower but is very safe. (I have never really embraced SotEA)
What is the rotation for your loadout and how do maintain the safety/control of my current setup?
Do you see an increase of 10% of your action point dice, anytime you hit a "controlled" target? Probably not, therefore, I would suggest it is interpretation 2. And honestly, 1.1 instead of 1 action point per controlled target just doesn't cut it. Especially, if there are more viable options to choose from.
Just using Shard of the Endless Avalanche multiplies the control in comparison to your load out, without taking the chill stacks from Conduit of Ice on tab and using Chilling Cloud into account so far, at all. And I didn't even talk about the damage aspect of those, yet.
I agree with all your advice/input and I really want to try out a new, more well thought out, engagement strategy. I love the thaumaturge line and do want to stay with it on my main CW. I will have to put points in SotEA in my respec. I already have Chilling Cloud maxed as I use it in group play. I do follow Grimah very closely in group play, but I am more interested in how to improve my solo efforts. Just to help me out a bit more, how would you approach a typical daily fight? For example; a Red Wizard with a flame spiker and a couple of minions? What would be your sequence of attacks?
I normally start with casting Shard of the Endless Avalanche (builds Arcane stacks), put Conduit of Ice on a big (high HP guy), start casting Chilling Cloud, push the Shard into the group, continue with Sudden Storm and if the guys are still standing, finish them with Steal Time.
But I'm over the cap of Armor Penetration (>2,536) around 2,400 critical strike, 2,900 recovery and over 4,000 power with the High Vizier set.
I even do not use any dailies--not needed. But, if you're experience problems with the above mentioned setup, you should throw in Oppressive Force--but keep Conduit of Ice on tab, as it generates action points real fast.
As for rotation its hard to say, it depends on the situation i just use my judgement. conduit first usually, shard, steal time. move a bit and get a nice row for sudden storm, chilling cloud.
Or i will start with conduit (if someone is using singularity) i use chilling cloud to get a 25% bonus, whilst i wait for them to drop out, sudden storm followed by a push on my ball which is on the ground ready. steal time as they are proned.
Those are just some examples off the top of my head, the best thing to do is judge when and which spells to use. Also i rarely if ever use singularity, Despite how singularity bunches things up, i think OF is a far better control.
I am usually solo CW (when i can help it, as its more fun having all the control relied on you) and trash management is sooo much better when using OF in my experience, if you have no tank or no other CW with you. Mainly because you can hurt them like hell (building AP) whilst they cannot do anything, whilst Sing only delays the envitable.
To answer ianthewizard, Id prefer if you do not post here, because your build would be totally different to mine since you do not use steal time. You would probably need all the AP you can get. I have no issues getting my dailies up and solo control in ANY dungeon. (not saying i could solo CW draco though.... well maybe if i had 2 gwfs with me with "come an get me" slotted).
and also the featured satirical comedic adventure "A Call for Heroes".