Chem's MoF Renegade Companion/Build (MOD 5)

chemboy613

Or the true buffing and debuffing CW!

First of all, this companion assumes you have read my main CW guide, here:

http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?768881-Chem-s-Comprehensive-MoF-guide-(PvE-Mod4)

Even though that focuses on my Thaum spec, the knowledge in there applies to all kinds of CWs. It is required reading before reading this companion.

If you say that reading four pages of a forum is too much work, well, you don’t really want to be good then, do you?

1 - What is the renegade tree?

2 - Spec

3 - Gear

4 - Pets

5 - Playstyle

6 - Loadout

7 - Disclaimer

chemboy613

1 - What is the renegade tree?

The key feature of the renegade tree is Nightmare Wizardry, which grants combat advantage to the whole party - boosting their damage 15% (or more). This ability is great, but it is proced by crit. This means that to use it effectively you must have a relatively high real crit to keep appreciable uptime and make NW effective.

For a discussion of real crit vs. sheet crit, please see here:

http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?776041-Real-Crit-vs-Sheet-Crit-a-study

The real crit is, of course the only one that matters. It is vital you have “enough” real crit for two reasons:

Keep smolder up
Keep Nightmare Wizardry Up

Hence crit is really important.

The second key feature of the renegade tree is chaos magic, which are group wide buffs to one of three things:

a regen buff
a crit/arp buff
a damage/lifesteal buff

Now these things were lukewarm until now, but they have been buffed substantially in mod 5. It’s important to note that currently they will show on yourself, but not on your teammates (though, i do believe they are getting the benefit). Hopefully this will be fixed before it hits live.

As you can see the two main features of renegade are team buffs. This means we can think of the trees like this:

Oppressor = control/pvp
Thaum = damage
Renegade = buff

Also remember from our guide,

SS = burst, direct damage
MoF = DoT damage, team buff

So therefore a MoF/Renegade is the most team oriented spec out there.

Now each combination of paragon path and paragon tree are going to have a different feel and playstyle, so i suggest trying them out and see which one is right for you. I’m confident that well built and well played, they can all be effective.

However, as of this writing, it’s my opinion that the oppressor tree doesn’t do enough damage to match up with the other two, yet I know that many PvP players take their feats from there. Hopefully one of them will write a guide.

chemboy613

2 - Spec:

We feat very similarly in the heroic feats to a Thaum build, which you can find in my guide, page two. The difference is in the paragon tree.



The key feats are: Critical Power, Reaper’s Touch, Nightmare Wizardry, Phantasmal Destruction, and Chaos magic.

Crit power is amazing and will really help your AP gain. Reaper’s touch is ok, but both energy recovery and arcane burst are very lackluster.

Nightmare wizardry is obviously key and cannot be missed, and in terms of damage Phantasmal Destruction is simply more DPS than Masterful Arcane theft.

Obviously Chaos Magic, the capstone, is powerful and must be taken.

With our remaining ten feat points, we have options. I would say there are four good places to put these:

Bitter Cold - 5% more damage with chill, so most of the time. Problem is it doesn’t stack with other CWs, so if you run with multiple CWs, this is easily redundant

Malevolent Surge - up to 5% more damage, which is nice. I am not sure of the uptime, but i suspect it’s high.

Tempest magic - 1.5% more damage, but all at the end of their life, so you finish things faster. Malevolent surge is probably more DPS, but maybe this happens at a better time.

Masterful Arcane Theft - 15% more damage to Steal Time and RoE with chill (basically always), also more arcane stacks (read - more damage). I suspect this might be the highest DPS one of the four. I am not in the mood to do more extensive testing (i also have to play the game sometime), but i suspect this feat is excellent.

I personally chose Bitter Cold and Masterful Arcane Theft - though all four options are good.

Chilling advantage SOUNDS good, but isn’t. This is because the combination of critical conflagration and swath of destruction is simply far too powerful to pass up. Changing either one of those out results in a massive DPS loss, not just to you personally, but to the team as a whole.10% crit chance is honestly a footnote in comparison.

Yes, CC and SoD are simply that good.

chemboy613

3 - Gear:

Gear is largely the same as what i outlined in my main guide, but with a few changes.



You will obviously want the arcane eye, as magic missile is the main at will.
Artifacts with combat advantage bonuses have added value, so the Lantern, the Black Ice Beholder, Kessel’s Spheres, and the Trickster’s Sigil have added value to renegades. I suspect that the devoted sigil is still BIS for active bonuses, but you might want to consider two of these four for the other two.

Now, it is very important you choose gear that gets you a high enough crit chance - i’d say 35% +. If you have a less than ideal stat roll, you might wish to wear Shadow Weaver, but if you have a perfect stat roll and crit elsewhere on your gear, you can wear High Vizier.

For a detailed discussion of HV v. SW, see here:

http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?774701-Chem-s-HV-v-SW-comparison-(MOF-THAUM-MOD-4)

Also, because of the crit bonus and combat advantage bonus, I suspect a charisma belt might be optimal for renegades (though Int is hard to pass up). Also the new Black Ice belt is probably BIS for all not renegades. Any of these three options will be outstanding for you.

chemboy613

4 - Pets

Obviously, you will want an augment and the Wild Hunt Rider in two slots, as an augment is necessary and WHR is too good to pass up (yes, it really is).

The rest of the pet evaluations are similar to those in the CW guide, only now the blink dog and intellect devourer (brain dog XD) have added value. Since these are both inexpensive, you can add them for the CA bonus. Together you might be able to get 30% (additive) or over 50% (multiplicative) combat advantage bonus. Considering you might have 50% + uptime of combat advantage, that can be 15-25% more damage - which is _huge_.

This assumes: 2 CA artifacts, 2 CA pets at epic, and a high charisma roll.

If you do all these things, i suspect renegade damage can get close to Thaum damage.

Other great options are control pets - and I would take the epic mage as my 5th pet in this build. If you want to max damage or movement, there is a detailed discussion in my guide.

chemboy613

5 - Playstyle

Thaums have so much damage from procs, they just need to focus on hitting everything and let the procs do their job. A renegade doesn’t have Elemental Empowerment or Assailant, so they must work to maximize their bonuses - which are based around combat advantage. This means you must pay more attention to positioning yourself across from teammates than a Thaum would (though everyone should pay attention, it’s just more important for a renegade).

Also magic missile is NOT chilling cloud. It’s not as effective at group situations, nor does it add any control. You have to use it more judiciously.I would mainly use it to proc chaos magic when everything is on cooldown, but not as a control spell.

chemboy613

6 - Loadout

I used Conduit on Tab, Shard, Icy Terrain, and (obviously) Steal time.

At wills were magic missile and (insert whatever you like best here).

For dailies, obviously Oppressive Force and Furious Immolation.

Your rotation - i would just say cast whatever you feel is best for the situation. Make sure conduit is on the biggest guy and use your other three encounters to control and AOE.

chemboy613

7 - Disclaimer:

Obviously this is for Mod 5 and NOT on live. If they change anything with the feats, the build needs to be updated and re-tested.

Since i tested it solo, i am guessing on how good the buffs are for the team. I did run with a renegade recently, and I was quite impressed with how he made his feats and build work optimally. I truly noticed the team killing things faster, so I think they are “good,” but i haven’t done extensive testing.

Since I will keep my main CW on live a MoF/Thaum, I would encourage people to log and test this build. I would encourage those people to run ELOL with me and help me get my belts .

That said, take it with a grain of salt, but if you are going to play MoF - Renegade, this is probably the way to do it.

Chem.

laughingbirdddd

Thank you for your guide and the tests:)

In Ioun Stone of Allure...it states
Augmentation: Ioun Stones grant bonuses to the wearer while they are summoned.
How many bonuses will it give to the wearer?

Can the artifact belt put in the waist slot of the cat?

laughingbirdddd

And one more silly question...

Will companions gain any stats or bonus to the owner in PVP

chemboy613

Ioun stone gives you all the stats on the stone, plus its based stats. Sadly the slow bonus is bugged. That bonus is also affected by your charisma bonus.

The artifact belt CAN NOT be put on a cat.

Companions give no bonus in domination or Gauntlygrym PvP, but can be used in black ice domination.

laughingbirdddd

chemboy613 wrote: »

Ioun stone gives you all the stats on the stone, plus its based stats. Sadly the slow bonus is bugged. That bonus is also affected by your charisma bonus.

The artifact belt CAN NOT be put on a cat.

Companions give no bonus in domination or Gauntlygrym PvP, but can be used in black ice domination.

Is Augmentation a ability of all augment companions or just for ioun stone so ioun stone can gain stats to the owner twice when it is summoned?

chemboy613

laughingbirdddd wrote: »

Is Augmentation a ability of all augment companions or just for ioun stone so ioun stone can gain stats to the owner twice when it is summoned?

All aguments. Stats are only added once.

laughingbirdddd

chemboy613 wrote: »

All aguments. Stats are only added once.

Thank you:)

valencay

I just want to specify one thing about oppressor tree
Bitter cold is a 5% damage increase for the party
controlled mometum is a 5% damage increase for the party
cold infusion is a 5% increased def for the party

ofc renegade is THE debuffer but oppressor can have some love too

chemboy613

valencay wrote: »

I just want to specify one thing about oppressor tree
Bitter cold is a 5% damage increase for the party
controlled mometum is a 5% damage increase for the party
cold infusion is a 5% increased def for the party

ofc renegade is THE debuffer but oppressor can have some love too

Oh yeah, i wasn't trying to say oppressor doesn't do anything for the party at all! If anything, you'll know i think control is very important.

Just i think for PvE anyway, it's efficient to pick a Thaum or Renegade tree and then get control pets rather than picking the oppressor tree and picking DPS pets.

What I do know is that most PvPers have some sort of oppressor build, but as you know, they are a bit... secretive

valencay

chemboy613 wrote: »

Oh yeah, i wasn't trying to say oppressor doesn't do anything for the party at all! If anything, you'll know i think control is very important.

Just i think for PvE anyway, it's efficient to pick a Thaum or Renegade tree and then get control pets rather than picking the oppressor tree and picking DPS pets.

What I do know is that most PvPers have some sort of oppressor build, but as you know, they are a bit... secretive

I actually think that even pvp'es now are thaum because of assailant and creeping frost being too good.
what do you think with the planned changes to orb of imposition then? I would actually go for a oppressor+renegade set up

chemboy613

valencay wrote: »

I actually think that even pvp'es now are thaum because of assailant and creeping frost being too good.
what do you think with the planned changes to orb of imposition then? I would actually go for a oppressor+renegade set up

I know most pvpers take at least severe reaction in oppressor tree. I'm not sure of the exact spec.

I think the orb change is somewhat moot - CWs have two or three features far better than orb in almost all situations. Orb is like an emergency fix when you really really need that extra control.

On top of that, Orb will now be as effective as an epic mage. Yes i know he costs 1.35 M AD - which is not trivial - but it's night and day in terms of control.

valencay

chemboy613 wrote: »

I know most pvpers take at least severe reaction in oppressor tree. I'm not sure of the exact spec.

I think the orb change is somewhat moot - CWs have two or three features far better than orb in almost all situations. Orb is like an emergency fix when you really really need that extra control.

On top of that, Orb will now be as effective as an epic mage. Yes i know he costs 1.35 M AD - which is not trivial - but it's night and day in terms of control.

for oppressor orb will still be 75%. i found that the extra control allow you to be the only cw in a party that still lack some high dps and let you clear the dg without problems

harkin

Great read. Might be an option for my currently broken Oppressor build. Anything to see my damage increase abit.

chemboy613

harkin wrote: »

Great read. Might be an option for my currently broken Oppressor build. Anything to see my damage increase abit.

Thaum is also good DPS, but different styles. Play the one you like best.

harkin

Yeah but Thaum is so common. :P One reason im still flame is because Thaum SS have been such common place.

davecheese

I've managed to get RoE up to 7736-9211 damage with Masterful Arcane Theft.

ychiaki

Thanks for the build, was indeed an interesting read. What I'm wondering still is, why do you need Magic Missiles? To get mastery stacks?

chemboy613

The old renegade chaos magic was only off magic missile.

As it stands now any at-will will do.

Benefit of magic missile is quickly building arcane stacks, which will boost your damage.

This is because you don't have FPT for chilling cloud for thaum, but not the same for renegade.

Now of course if you like some other at will, go ahead, but it seems that people (in general) prefer magic missile over the other option and use Chilling cloud for FPT, more so because they like it. (though personally i like CC and RoF).

laughingbirdddd

1.If I put eldritch runestone in the def slot in the companions but I dont summon, will I still gain the pet's rating??
2.Why is WHR so good?It has only 5% when it is epic

Thank you^^

onegaki101

I have noticed lately that there are more people thinking that thaum has a different play style than the other feat paths or paragon. Regardless of each paragon or feat path you take, you always do the same thing, cast as many encounters as you can and avoid the damage.

I can't think of any scenario where a different paragon would do something totally different than say an ss thaum. In any scenario you have to cast your powers to proc either assailant, Storm spell, or Smoulder.

In all scenarios, CWs are usually in melee or less than 20 ft from the enemy because of ST and IT. Teammates are usually close to the mobs or at least they should be and within 50ft . The only classes that I can think of that may have a problem with that is SWs and archer HRs.

Enough about that, let's go back to your build.

I have something similar to this except i moved 2 points from night wiz to Malevolant surge (might change it to 1, not sure). The reason is, that once you have a GF in your party, this buff becomes somewhat obsolete as they will usually have mark on most mobs.

I haven't had time to test in preview to know the % proc rate for the cap stone, but all three buffs are pretty sweet in mod5. I have heard that the growth one procs a lot more. Initially I wasn't too happy about it, but then realized it will help with the survivability problem most CWs have.