I am kind of curious how the mod 6 preview CW would compare to the current GWF. The one with abyss being ridiculously powerful and storm spell unnerfed, also, before lifesteal became less effective on AoE's and when spell twisting efffected everything and not just encounters. Would be in interesting comparison for sure
This would add several fixed issues, to compare CW to GWF. If you want to go back to what ifs, add stackable HV debuffs and you know why ppl ran with 3 CWs. At that time the set was OP, not the class.
I dont think that there is one class, that did not have one or two broken feats for some time. Just remember TRs stackable SOD, HR/ LM bleeds, SW hand of blight, negating all dmg etc.
On the matter of lightning, i found this: Lightning: Greater = 18% weapon damage. chains twice at 50% chance each time. Best for aoe damage If you are using a particular spell loadout. It will proc 6x on conduit and steal time and 8 times on icy terrain. However be warned about using this enchant, you will more often than not agro adds and freshly spawned ones before the tank gets a chance to catch it. Only go for this if you can afford to get greater or higher.
hey, just so you know, the links on the OP going to the various parts of the guide are still using the old version of the vanilla forums, so they end up redirecting here - http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter/#/categories/neverwinter - instead of the parts of the guide they're supposed to
ironzerg79Member, Neverwinter Moderator, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 4,942Arc User
edited December 2015
I know. But because of the character limit in the posts (and many of these posts being grandfathered in under the old character limit) I can't fix it.
Like I literally can't delete some stuff because even if I delete it, the post is still over the limit and I can't save the edit
So for now, it is what it is. If and when there's major balance updates, I'll likely just re-post the entire guide in a fresh thread. So for now things are mostly accurate, minus some nuances.
"Meanwhile in the moderator's lounge..."
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thefabricantMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 5,248Arc User
Just a little fyi zerg, I just finished testing companions and I would say the best one for proccing bondings is......the lightfoot thief. It has always been darn expensive though, so I can understand that most players cannot afford it.
ironzerg79Member, Neverwinter Moderator, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 4,942Arc User
The only thing is he has to be in melee rang to start attacking. If deft strike is on CD (20 secs), you lose time as he runs to new targets. There's the Drow Mercenary companion you can get from promotions that has basically the same attacks, but three offensive slots (power/crit active bonus).
"Meanwhile in the moderator's lounge..."
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thefabricantMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 5,248Arc User
Yes, however the lightfoot thief has a useful active bonus and the mercenary does not. Also, with regards to effectiveness, I did some testing with this guy and basically his big advantage is that what tends to happen is he jumps into combat, you get 3 stacks, everything dies. In comparison to other companions which get into combat and don't necessarily give you stacks and everything still dies. When running with a top notch group, the main issue with active companions is that everything dies before you gain stacks, this is not an issue with the mercenary.
Yes, however the lightfoot thief has a useful active bonus and the mercenary does not. Also, with regards to effectiveness, I did some testing with this guy and basically his big advantage is that what tends to happen is he jumps into combat, you get 3 stacks, everything dies. In comparison to other companions which get into combat and don't necessarily give you stacks and everything still dies. When running with a top notch group, the main issue with active companions is that everything dies before you gain stacks, this is not an issue with the mercenary.
Does the active bonus add enough damage to make up for the power you'd lose from a third bonding runestone in an offensive slot?
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ironzerg79Member, Neverwinter Moderator, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 4,942Arc User
Honestly, at this point it's all splitting hairs. If packs of enemies are dying in 2-3 seconds, nothing much matters beyond that...
"Meanwhile in the moderator's lounge..."
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thefabricantMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 5,248Arc User
Well, the sad thing is, the price of lightfoot thieves just went up and I don't have a lot of lightfoot thieves
Brilliant energy weapon enchants are the most adorable enchants for your great swords. Also if you're a <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> you can keep getting them and throwing them into your guild coffer for 1 point per.
1)One of the selling points of this guide is the fact that this CW is not solely DPSing, but also contributing for overall team's effectivness. Then why 2 points were put in the Heroic Feat "Learned Spellcaster" (+2% int damage for your CW) instead of Prestidigitation (+2% overall stats ratings for every party member)?
2)How much is the increase in damage of Spell Storm? I'm asking because if it is under 30%, then Swath of Destruction rank 4 + Off-Hand Power increases the damage take while Smoldered by 30%, so Master of Flame would have more potential (of course Smolder has to be applied, while Spell Storm just procs from any attacks, in this case Spellstorm is better).
3)When you talk about Steal Time on your guide, you say it is better to use the Nightmare Wizardry to gain Combat Advantage, but why? AFAIK the Combat Advantage from TABed Steal Time is 100% chance while from the feat is 20% if you crit (and your crit is not always 100%, so it'll proc less than 20%).
1.) Prestidigitation may be worth looking at now that your average player is much more powerful. Before it would only give maybe +100-200 of most stats. Now players could probably get as much as +500-600 on some stats which may outweigh the +2%int damage boost the CW gets. Hard to say and would be hard to test but it will definitely be viable the more powerful groups get.
2.) Someone else will have to answer this.
3.) Most well-geared CW's have 80% and as much as 100% crit chance and it usually takes just a couple seconds till I see Nightmare Wizardry pop up and then it is usually 100% uptime after that. The mastery bonus of other powers such as CoI just seem to outweigh that of Steal Time it seems to me.
1. For the highly geared, Prestidigitation my be better, or a wash. 2. Spell Storm still outdamages MOF in the content as it is now. 3. The Combat Advantage given by Steal Time is extremely short, and the other benefit of speed only wrecks havoc on the group. Plus you lose the benefit of COI on tab.
My 2 cents worth.
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kieranmtornMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 382Arc User
edited December 2015
Steal time in mastery: A good way to get allies killed that aren't used to the speed boost. Much like the havoc an ITF (GF: Into the Fray) causes when you are trying to dodge by movement (ie not burning a teleport), you over-run your destination....
Unlike ITF (which at least boosts power for a nice duration), Steal Time is very transitory.
Combat Advantage is easy, Nightmare Wizardy or just wait for the GF/GWF to mark everything.....
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kieranmtornMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 382Arc User
Now for an interesting speculation. As your critical change climbs, at what point do you de-slot Chilling Presence for something else as a Renegade. My logic: since Critical Chance > 100% is pointless, if my base chance (stats, azures, potions) > 70, I'm going to start considering it (since capstone will put us at 100%). The only viable choices look like Evocation or Arcane Presence. Any comments?...
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romotheoneMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 729Arc User
Now for an interesting speculation. As your critical change climbs, at what point do you de-slot Chilling Presence for something else as a Renegade. My logic: since Critical Chance > 100% is pointless, if my base chance (stats, azures, potions) > 70, I'm going to start considering it (since capstone will put us at 100%). The only viable choices look like Evocation or Arcane Presence. Any comments?...
You are forgetting that Chilling Presence is not just 10% crit chance, but also 48%(96% against frozen) damage increase against targets with 6 chill stacks.
No just get rid of Uncertain Allegiance and take Abyss of Chaos. Chilling is a must. Also at that point you are adjusting stats on gear towards ALL gear has power. When using a summoned companion, you have the same issue with ARP...less so with PVP, but very much so with PVE.
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kieranmtornMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 382Arc User
Now for an interesting speculation. As your critical change climbs, at what point do you de-slot Chilling Presence for something else as a Renegade. My logic: since Critical Chance > 100% is pointless, if my base chance (stats, azures, potions) > 70, I'm going to start considering it (since capstone will put us at 100%). The only viable choices look like Evocation or Arcane Presence. Any comments?...
You are forgetting that Chilling Presence is not just 10% crit chance, but also 48%(96% against frozen) damage increase against targets with 6 chill stacks.
As you correctly remind me of the damage boost from slotting Chilling Presence. So consider the effect, of keeping Chilling Presence slotted without it being feated.
Regardless, I've got to do some testing with ACT on preview over the holidays (after I get my the weapons finished for both my main toons).
3.) Most well-geared CW's have 80% and as much as 100% crit chance and it usually takes just a couple seconds till I see Nightmare Wizardry pop up and then it is usually 100% uptime after that. The mastery bonus of other powers such as CoI just seem to outweigh that of Steal Time it seems to me.
And if the crit connects 100% time, the crit itself only has a 20% to activate Combat Advantage, or are you saying that after Nightmare Wizardry pop up it will be activate the rest of the fight with no need for "hit" that 20% again?
My last question (for now):
Despite the guide saying that Icy Veins feat it's risky and such (has to get too close to work) that's why Spell Twisting was choosen, but isn't the (almost) instant Frozen from Icy Terrain + Icy Veins a great sinergy for slotted Chilling Presence? Basically you get that 96% bonus damage on the 1st second of fight.
Nightmare Wizardry is up so often because we hit so fast/often. As far as icy veins vs spell twisting, chill stacks happen so fast with spell twisting that on boss fights or immune mobs, there is no better option. Trash dies quick enough.
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ironzerg79Member, Neverwinter Moderator, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 4,942Arc User
Again, this guide was written a while ago, and while the core is still good, some of the nuances may have changed. Unfortunately it's too long for the new forum post limit, so I can't edit anything and save it, without massive amounts of work. So I won't do a 2.0 version until balance changes dictate a major re-write.
So as far a Prestidigitation vs Learned Spell Caster, in a group with very high iLevels, Prestidigitation probably has a slight edge...but at the gear level in which it matters, nothing really does matter since content should be pretty trivial. So it's the difference of splitting hairs. The point at which it matters doesn't really matter, because there's no content in the game that comes close to challenging a group in that level of gear.
And yes, despite the impressive nature of Swath of Destruction, I haven't met a MoF player that's come close to matching the overall damage of the SS build. And when you consider solo vs 5 man vs 10 man content, I'd rather be able to hold my own in all categories, versus just being "that guy" who brings one debuff, as good as it is.
Nightmare Wizardry is a 12 second debuff, which gets refreshed. You should have 90%+ uptime on Nightmare Wizardry, nearly 100% on targets that take longer than a few seconds to die.
As for Chilling Advantage, until I'm consistently parsing at or near 100% critical rates on my spells, I'm keeping it in the build. However, one option if you're getting close might be to consider 5 points in Abyss and 5 in Uncertain Allegiance and forget Chilling Advantage. In fact, if you really, really want to use Abyss of Chaos, I'd probably opt for dropping Chilling Advantage for it, and keeping the 5% crit buff for the team, versus dropping Uncertain Allegiance.
And as for Icy Veins vs Spell Twisting...sure, you'll get a good damage boost on trash, but it's useless on bosses, which is where the real challenge is. Long gone are my days of bragging about racking up tons of damage points on trash. But when you get into the fight, the DPS gains from Spell Twisting are pretty substantial, and far outweigh the minor benefit of Icy Veins on trash.
The only thing i still disagree is about Learned versus Prestidigitation. I mean, even people with less than 3k ilvl (not much above 2k) can have around 12k power, then that 3% from Prestidigitation will turn into +400 Power which means +1% damage. Your CW lose about 1 or 2% damage for the Learned feat, but all party members with 12k more or less will have +1% damage. I guess it's preferable 5 guys +1% damage each than one guy with +2 or 3% damage. AND STILL there is all other stat ratings of ALL party to be affected by Presti while only your damage gets a little improve from learned. Look at the bigger picture.
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thefabricantMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 5,248Arc User
edited December 2015
Whilst I do agree with you that in general @ironzerg79 at the point where min/maxing like that matters, it doesn't really matter, it would still be nice if you included that kind of min/maxing, just so that, in situations where it does matter (like when you trying to solo dungeons for example) that information is readily available. You will notice if you look over my paladin guide I try to make it cover everything. Yes, I could have just provided a list of feats and then said.."wear your weapon and armour transmutes, you playing paladin, the gear doesn't actually matter so there is no point in investing AD into anything other then your transmutes and no point in actually transmuting stuff" but I know that for some person, in some circumstance, having a more complete picture would help. Whilst it does make it rather long, when players are trying to min/max, it is a lot easier to verify someone elses work then work something out from the ground up and so I am sure that whilst it would be painful, it would be nice to see an up to date rendition of chems compendium done by you or someone else....(I am NOT going to write another document like that for a long while, so count me out )
One more question (they are coming out of nowhere :P)
Since i'm a big fan of electricity/lightning element, i want to know if chains from Lightning Enchantments can crit, and if they can this means Lostmauth procs on chains? Or Spell Storm hits can proc on chains?
And the CONTRARY is possible? A Spell Storm strike releasing a chain from Lightning Enchant?
Comments
I dont think that there is one class, that did not have one or two broken feats for some time. Just remember TRs stackable SOD, HR/ LM bleeds, SW hand of blight, negating all dmg etc.
Lightning: Greater = 18% weapon damage. chains twice at 50% chance each time.
Best for aoe damage If you are using a particular spell loadout. It will proc 6x on conduit and steal time and 8 times on icy terrain. However be warned about using this enchant, you will more often than not agro adds and freshly spawned ones before the tank gets a chance to catch it. Only go for this if you can afford to get greater or higher.
here is the link
mmominds.com/2013/08/30/grimahs-comprehensive-wizard-guide/
It throws up a ton of very tiny damage numbers, which looks impressive, but really doesn't amount to large amounts of damage.
Like I literally can't delete some stuff because even if I delete it, the post is still over the limit and I can't save the edit
So for now, it is what it is. If and when there's major balance updates, I'll likely just re-post the entire guide in a fresh thread. So for now things are mostly accurate, minus some nuances.
1)One of the selling points of this guide is the fact that this CW is not solely DPSing, but also contributing for overall team's effectivness. Then why 2 points were put in the Heroic Feat "Learned Spellcaster" (+2% int damage for your CW) instead of Prestidigitation (+2% overall stats ratings for every party member)?
2)How much is the increase in damage of Spell Storm? I'm asking because if it is under 30%, then Swath of Destruction rank 4 + Off-Hand Power increases the damage take while Smoldered by 30%, so Master of Flame would have more potential (of course Smolder has to be applied, while Spell Storm just procs from any attacks, in this case Spellstorm is better).
3)When you talk about Steal Time on your guide, you say it is better to use the Nightmare Wizardry to gain Combat Advantage, but why? AFAIK the Combat Advantage from TABed Steal Time is 100% chance while from the feat is 20% if you crit (and your crit is not always 100%, so it'll proc less than 20%).
I guess that's all my doubts at the moment!
2.) Someone else will have to answer this.
3.) Most well-geared CW's have 80% and as much as 100% crit chance and it usually takes just a couple seconds till I see Nightmare Wizardry pop up and then it is usually 100% uptime after that. The mastery bonus of other powers such as CoI just seem to outweigh that of Steal Time it seems to me.
2. Spell Storm still outdamages MOF in the content as it is now.
3. The Combat Advantage given by Steal Time is extremely short, and the other benefit of speed only wrecks havoc on the group. Plus you lose the benefit of COI on tab.
My 2 cents worth.
Unlike ITF (which at least boosts power for a nice duration), Steal Time is very transitory.
Combat Advantage is easy, Nightmare Wizardy or just wait for the GF/GWF to mark everything.....
Regardless, I've got to do some testing with ACT on preview over the holidays (after I get my the weapons finished for both my main toons).
My last question (for now):
Despite the guide saying that Icy Veins feat it's risky and such (has to get too close to work) that's why Spell Twisting was choosen, but isn't the (almost) instant Frozen from Icy Terrain + Icy Veins a great sinergy for slotted Chilling Presence? Basically you get that 96% bonus damage on the 1st second of fight.
So as far a Prestidigitation vs Learned Spell Caster, in a group with very high iLevels, Prestidigitation probably has a slight edge...but at the gear level in which it matters, nothing really does matter since content should be pretty trivial. So it's the difference of splitting hairs. The point at which it matters doesn't really matter, because there's no content in the game that comes close to challenging a group in that level of gear.
And yes, despite the impressive nature of Swath of Destruction, I haven't met a MoF player that's come close to matching the overall damage of the SS build. And when you consider solo vs 5 man vs 10 man content, I'd rather be able to hold my own in all categories, versus just being "that guy" who brings one debuff, as good as it is.
Nightmare Wizardry is a 12 second debuff, which gets refreshed. You should have 90%+ uptime on Nightmare Wizardry, nearly 100% on targets that take longer than a few seconds to die.
As for Chilling Advantage, until I'm consistently parsing at or near 100% critical rates on my spells, I'm keeping it in the build. However, one option if you're getting close might be to consider 5 points in Abyss and 5 in Uncertain Allegiance and forget Chilling Advantage. In fact, if you really, really want to use Abyss of Chaos, I'd probably opt for dropping Chilling Advantage for it, and keeping the 5% crit buff for the team, versus dropping Uncertain Allegiance.
And as for Icy Veins vs Spell Twisting...sure, you'll get a good damage boost on trash, but it's useless on bosses, which is where the real challenge is. Long gone are my days of bragging about racking up tons of damage points on trash. But when you get into the fight, the DPS gains from Spell Twisting are pretty substantial, and far outweigh the minor benefit of Icy Veins on trash.
The only thing i still disagree is about Learned versus Prestidigitation. I mean, even people with less than 3k ilvl (not much above 2k) can have around 12k power, then that 3% from Prestidigitation will turn into +400 Power which means +1% damage. Your CW lose about 1 or 2% damage for the Learned feat, but all party members with 12k more or less will have +1% damage. I guess it's preferable 5 guys +1% damage each than one guy with +2 or 3% damage. AND STILL there is all other stat ratings of ALL party to be affected by Presti while only your damage gets a little improve from learned. Look at the bigger picture.
Since i'm a big fan of electricity/lightning element, i want to know if chains from Lightning Enchantments can crit, and if they can this means Lostmauth procs on chains? Or Spell Storm hits can proc on chains?
And the CONTRARY is possible? A Spell Storm strike releasing a chain from Lightning Enchant?