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OC's Protection Bulwark Build (Now RIP.)
obsidiancran3
Member Posts: 1,823 Arc User
This build is finally officially dead. Written back when the T2s were bugged and the little spiders in eToS were one shotting people it has lasted as a workable guide. However with the changes arriving with the end of Storm Kings Thunder it is dead. Once I have settled on a new build I will post it up. Though that could take some time.
Hi All,
I started experimenting with the OP when it was on preview, levelling a couple of Protection Builds and a Devotion Build. I settled on the Bulwark Protection build for my live character because I enjoyed it more than the other options I tried on Preview. The Bulwark build doesn't give the most DPS for an OP, but I found I had to worry less about being alive to do damage than with the other builds I tried, which as my average ping is 400 matters quite a bit to me.
The following is my thoughts on the Bulwark Protection build. Its not a "definitive guide" and is based on my play preferences and observations. I consider myself an average player rather than an expert, so feel free to challenge my ideas. (But please not "make Justice". )
Character Role:
You are a tank that provides supplementary control and buffs for the party. You can do ok damage, certainly plenty for solo play to be straightforward, but not enough to really star on the DPS table at the end of a skirmish/dungeon with similarly geared players. However you will pretty much always take more damage than the rest of the party combined, and that means you are doing your job.
Race:
My character is a half-elf, I think half-elves offer a good DnD stat selection for the class, however as Feats are very important my recommendation is to play a human. However any race with a +2 to Con will do well for an OP.
DnD Stats:
Constitution of 18-20 at first level putting the maximum 7 pips into it is a definite for the OP.
Wisdom and Charisma are equally important for different reasons. Aiming to have them at 20 (with campfire is OK) at level 70 is a good plan. Humans can favour Charisma slightly over Wisdom, but shouldn't have a huge disparity between the 2 stats.
Intelligence and Dexterity are the other 2 important stats. Intelligence gives you more recovery and dexterity gives you more deflection. Currently I have favoured Dexterity, but if starting from scratch Intelligence is well worth considering. One of these should be at or around 14 (with Campfire) at 70.
Note: Strength is an irrelevant stat to OPs, despite what the stat roller might make you think. Don't be tricked!
NWOnline Stats
Hit Points: Hit points matter because many of our class features depend on hit points to function, plus being able to take a hit for 100k damage and stay standing means you have more chance of keeping the whole party standing.
Power: Because hit points are translated to power due to the core paragon mechanic, 8-9K power will be plenty and is achieved easily enough with the default gear.
Defence: The more the better. Note around the 10k mark the return on investment starts to shrink noticeably. However 10k defence puts you in the mid 40's as a base for damage reduction, and then you are going to stack class features on top of that.
Deflection: Matters because if you deflect half the damage before your DR kicks in you are basically taking 1/4 of the damage on your base stats; so at 115k HP you can survive hits of over 300k, which is a big deal when "Archers" can hit that hard in t2 dungeons.
Recovery: After defence and deflection arguably the most important stat you have. More recovery means faster cycling of your encounter powers and your daily powers. The daily powers in particular are critical for running the t1 and t2 dungeon content.
Regeneration: I misunderstood the function of this stat so didn't prioritise, but Regeneration makes your healer work better on you, so having it is important. You don't need 1000's of points in it but a couple of boons and some regen that turns up on gear will make a noticeable difference for your health. After all if you survive that 300k hit, you need to get back to 115k HP fast or you are dead anyway.
Critical & ArP: These 2 are dps boosters, with Critical also potentially boosting the one healing "attack" you have as a Protection OP. If you are worried about PvP then ArP takes on a larger role, but other wise I haven't found it to be that critical with a Terror enchant.
Powers:
I have Aura of Courage, Aura of Wisdom and Aura of Protection at 4, along with Divine Protector, Shielding Strike, Templar's Wrath and Burning Light.
Solo Play:
Aura of Courage, Aura of Wisdom, Relentless Avenger, Templar's Wrath, Burning Light, Divine Protector, Divine Justice. I rotate Burning Light out for either Smite or Vow of Enmity when dealing with things like Giants in IWD.
Dungeons:
This is way more complicated and depends a lot on the party you are with and which dungeon you are in.
Aura of Protection, Aura of Wisdom, Templar's Wrath, Divine Protector are always in slot pretty much.
Binding Oath: Solid choice, but beware the ability to proc for 400k plus damage, which kills you right proper.
Cleansing Touch: Useful at various times, usually when the heals are not quite enough to keep up or if you get dragged away from the party for some reason (eg kiting).
Bane: Solid de-buff and a way for luring enemies to where the party wants with the agro on you. Good for single target enemies/bosses.
Vow of Enmity: for when you really want to hold the agro.
Circle of Power: Great for traveling through a dungeon and certain bosses. If the DPS isn't fast enough this gives you more tank breathing room. (25% more DR from a base of 45% is pushing you towards the 80 cap.) With Aura of Wisdom and a reasonable recovery stat you can just about drop Circle of Power over Circle of Power without help from any party members, with any sort of cooldown reduction from others this becomes reliable and a huge benefit.
Feats
Divine Action: At 5/5 in combat this makes a noticeable difference to AP gain, and AP gain is pretty important.
Impassioned Pleas: For Protection OPs Divine Call regenerates slowly, it also clears if you happen to be dropped by a big attack. As its a tool for AP gain (see Divine Action) as well as providing defence buffs (see Vigilance and Holy Barrier) getting it back faster is a important. This is the most reliable way of doing that without depending on you taking damage (Head Unbowed).
Sanctity: This basically provides a buff 50% of the time of 4200 to one of Defence, Deflection or Regeneration, all of which are quite good to have buffed. This, for me, beats out a 10% chance of getting the debuff from Martyr's.
Aura Gifts: As this means you can hand out say 4500 power to most of your party, this is a workhorse feat for your party. Staying close enough to the OP (and its a big distance), means that your party members are all getting this on top of your Auras.
Humans:
Force of Will: the place to put those 3 human extra feats. Charisma does double duty as a result!
Hi All,
I started experimenting with the OP when it was on preview, levelling a couple of Protection Builds and a Devotion Build. I settled on the Bulwark Protection build for my live character because I enjoyed it more than the other options I tried on Preview. The Bulwark build doesn't give the most DPS for an OP, but I found I had to worry less about being alive to do damage than with the other builds I tried, which as my average ping is 400 matters quite a bit to me.
The following is my thoughts on the Bulwark Protection build. Its not a "definitive guide" and is based on my play preferences and observations. I consider myself an average player rather than an expert, so feel free to challenge my ideas. (But please not "make Justice". )
Character Role:
You are a tank that provides supplementary control and buffs for the party. You can do ok damage, certainly plenty for solo play to be straightforward, but not enough to really star on the DPS table at the end of a skirmish/dungeon with similarly geared players. However you will pretty much always take more damage than the rest of the party combined, and that means you are doing your job.
Race:
My character is a half-elf, I think half-elves offer a good DnD stat selection for the class, however as Feats are very important my recommendation is to play a human. However any race with a +2 to Con will do well for an OP.
DnD Stats:
Constitution of 18-20 at first level putting the maximum 7 pips into it is a definite for the OP.
Wisdom and Charisma are equally important for different reasons. Aiming to have them at 20 (with campfire is OK) at level 70 is a good plan. Humans can favour Charisma slightly over Wisdom, but shouldn't have a huge disparity between the 2 stats.
Intelligence and Dexterity are the other 2 important stats. Intelligence gives you more recovery and dexterity gives you more deflection. Currently I have favoured Dexterity, but if starting from scratch Intelligence is well worth considering. One of these should be at or around 14 (with Campfire) at 70.
Note: Strength is an irrelevant stat to OPs, despite what the stat roller might make you think. Don't be tricked!
NWOnline Stats
Hit Points: Hit points matter because many of our class features depend on hit points to function, plus being able to take a hit for 100k damage and stay standing means you have more chance of keeping the whole party standing.
Power: Because hit points are translated to power due to the core paragon mechanic, 8-9K power will be plenty and is achieved easily enough with the default gear.
Defence: The more the better. Note around the 10k mark the return on investment starts to shrink noticeably. However 10k defence puts you in the mid 40's as a base for damage reduction, and then you are going to stack class features on top of that.
Deflection: Matters because if you deflect half the damage before your DR kicks in you are basically taking 1/4 of the damage on your base stats; so at 115k HP you can survive hits of over 300k, which is a big deal when "Archers" can hit that hard in t2 dungeons.
Recovery: After defence and deflection arguably the most important stat you have. More recovery means faster cycling of your encounter powers and your daily powers. The daily powers in particular are critical for running the t1 and t2 dungeon content.
Regeneration: I misunderstood the function of this stat so didn't prioritise, but Regeneration makes your healer work better on you, so having it is important. You don't need 1000's of points in it but a couple of boons and some regen that turns up on gear will make a noticeable difference for your health. After all if you survive that 300k hit, you need to get back to 115k HP fast or you are dead anyway.
Critical & ArP: These 2 are dps boosters, with Critical also potentially boosting the one healing "attack" you have as a Protection OP. If you are worried about PvP then ArP takes on a larger role, but other wise I haven't found it to be that critical with a Terror enchant.
Powers:
I have Aura of Courage, Aura of Wisdom and Aura of Protection at 4, along with Divine Protector, Shielding Strike, Templar's Wrath and Burning Light.
Solo Play:
Aura of Courage, Aura of Wisdom, Relentless Avenger, Templar's Wrath, Burning Light, Divine Protector, Divine Justice. I rotate Burning Light out for either Smite or Vow of Enmity when dealing with things like Giants in IWD.
Dungeons:
This is way more complicated and depends a lot on the party you are with and which dungeon you are in.
Aura of Protection, Aura of Wisdom, Templar's Wrath, Divine Protector are always in slot pretty much.
Binding Oath: Solid choice, but beware the ability to proc for 400k plus damage, which kills you right proper.
Cleansing Touch: Useful at various times, usually when the heals are not quite enough to keep up or if you get dragged away from the party for some reason (eg kiting).
Bane: Solid de-buff and a way for luring enemies to where the party wants with the agro on you. Good for single target enemies/bosses.
Vow of Enmity: for when you really want to hold the agro.
Circle of Power: Great for traveling through a dungeon and certain bosses. If the DPS isn't fast enough this gives you more tank breathing room. (25% more DR from a base of 45% is pushing you towards the 80 cap.) With Aura of Wisdom and a reasonable recovery stat you can just about drop Circle of Power over Circle of Power without help from any party members, with any sort of cooldown reduction from others this becomes reliable and a huge benefit.
Feats
Divine Action: At 5/5 in combat this makes a noticeable difference to AP gain, and AP gain is pretty important.
Impassioned Pleas: For Protection OPs Divine Call regenerates slowly, it also clears if you happen to be dropped by a big attack. As its a tool for AP gain (see Divine Action) as well as providing defence buffs (see Vigilance and Holy Barrier) getting it back faster is a important. This is the most reliable way of doing that without depending on you taking damage (Head Unbowed).
Sanctity: This basically provides a buff 50% of the time of 4200 to one of Defence, Deflection or Regeneration, all of which are quite good to have buffed. This, for me, beats out a 10% chance of getting the debuff from Martyr's.
Aura Gifts: As this means you can hand out say 4500 power to most of your party, this is a workhorse feat for your party. Staying close enough to the OP (and its a big distance), means that your party members are all getting this on top of your Auras.
Humans:
Force of Will: the place to put those 3 human extra feats. Charisma does double duty as a result!
Obsidian Moonlight - Paladin
Obsidian Oath - Warlock
A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
Obsidian Oath - Warlock
A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
Post edited by obsidiancran3 on
1
Comments
Sharandar
Despite the importance of Hit Points, I value Action Point gain more. If I have Divine Protector up then I'm pretty much not getting killed (unless the whole party stands in red and someone takes one of those 300k crits) and (bugs aside) no one else in the party is dropping either. So in this instance AP Gain > HP.
Dread Ring
You could take Conjurer's Gambit over Reliquary Keeper's Strength, both are really just a stepping stone to the later ones rather than mattering themselves.
Icewind Dale
I'll be taking Rousing Warmth, there are a lot of things that are healing me and having a Healer around in a dungeon just makes it more pronounced. Though Avalanche could be just as strong a choice, it depends if it counts 0 as damage.
Tyranny of Dragons
I'll be honest, getting the last boon is a very low priority, none of them seem particularly necassary for the character. It will probably be Dragon's Revival just to make heals work better for those times when you drop and need to be healed back to full again.
PvP
Take whatever you like.
Obsidian Oath - Warlock
A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
Current Gear (08/Sep/15)
[If you don't have the Black Ice (or the patience to grind it) for the Black Ice Belt and Neck then the Seldarine Belt is a good choice because of both its stats and the DnD stats it boosts. Its also quite cheap on the AH.
Other Artifacts:
The OP, DC, and GWF artifacts all have pretty clear benefits (AP regain, more HP etc), but not everyone has all the classes available to them. So these are my thoughts, especially if you cannot get the DC Sigil. The Controller Sigil is just there for the stats, it can easily be swapped for other artifacts according to your taste and gear.
Tiamat' Orb of Majesty provides a good stat selection.
Lostmauth's Hoard Necklace or Greater Imperial Dragon Cloak both provide AP, Power and Crit, the choice is Armor Pen (Lostmauth's) or Recovery (Imperial). I am seriously considering swapping to the Dragon Cloak this weekend with 2x RP.
Free artifact at level 21 I went with the Lantern of Revelation, but the Waters is a good choice as well.
If you enjoy PvP the Tactician's Banner is a solid choice as well (more AP gain again).
Enchants:
Armor: Negation, no need to really go higher it seems, but one day. Considering using Soulforged in dungeons.
Weapon: Terror I believe Plaguefire is the other good candidate here. Giving your whole team more ArP effect matters, especially when Radiant Strike will spread the love around. They also reduce the ArP burden you have as well. For example this gives me an effective ArP of 62% after the first hit on a target.
Defence: All Radiants on the character, Silvery on the Stone.
Offence: 2x Radiant and Lesser Tenebrous on the character, 3x Dark on the Stone. When I open up the remaining offence slots they will likely be getting Dark enchants. (Keeping in mind my functioning power is 20k or so.)
Companions:
2 Sprites give me an extra 3.5% AP gain.
Fire Archon gives me more damage against things below half HP.
Stone: is for the stat boosts.
Angel: is for those times when something goes wrong to get a bit more breathing room when back on my feet. Also why I'm looking at the Soulforged armor enchant more seriously now.
What this all leaves me with is:
Critical Chance: 26.2% (Severity 76%)
Resistance Ignored: -32% (note Terror effectively adds another 30%)
Recharge Speed Increase: +51.5% (includes Aura of Wisdom)
Action Point Gain +31.3% (higher in combat)
Damage Resistance: 44.2% (54.7% with Sanctity proc)
Deflection Chance: 21.2% (31.7% with Sanctity proc)
Health Regeneration: 3.7% (14.2% with Sanctity proc)
Life Steal Chance: 0.9%
Dragonflight Set:
With the launch of the Stronghold module we gained a new BiS set of armor. Chances are you will be able to (or even need to) farm up the Elven set before you get this one but here is my recommendation for the Dragonflight set:
Head: Dragonflight Restoration Armet (Crit, Recovery Defence)
Armor: Dragonflight Ward Cuirass (Defence, Deflect, Regen)
Arms: Dragonflight Restoration Couters (Power, Recovery, Defence)
Feet: Dragonflight Ward Poleyns. (Recovery, Defence, Deflect)
With this and the Wizard's Tower (Level 5) Boon I have 150k hp with no other changes from my current build.
Obsidian Oath - Warlock
A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
On encounters I'm definitely running a couple different from you (I prefer Circle in party and Relentless Avenger in Solo) - but then the obvious ones like Templar's and Smite, etc. I'm not sure what you;re planning to recommend for gear enchantments, so I'll share this on my own build: all darks and gold (radiant) - for Armore Pen and HP. My DPS is respectable (I'm usually third place in "paingivewr" chart, but always number one in paintaker chart - like you said: more than entire party combined).
I crank a Perfect terror and Rank 12 Dark in my freebie Artifact Mace, rank 8 Darks everywhere else and Rank 8 Radiants. I do have a couple Silvers in my summoned Companion (currently enjoying my Stone of Radiance).
But as stated in the O/P: Rank high in partaker charts: get nuked and when the smoke clears you're just standing their saying "more, please" then you're doing your job. Bulwark Protection OP is the tank of tanks (at least I've never been able to get my GF or GWF to be this tank; could be my builds).
I use Circle a lot in dungeons (not necessarily in every party), but it isn't "the right power" every time, it depends on how much the fight needs you to move around (eToS final boss for example), which is why I gave a list of encounter powers I use other than Templar's Wrath.
Obsidian Oath - Warlock
A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
Obsidian Oath - Warlock
A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
The thing will be adjusting and tinkering as they tweak the game and the rest of the end game gear rolls in. So those are good ideas for tweaking, especially as I start to upgrade the rest of her gear.
Obsidian Oath - Warlock
A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
Good point (and I suspect you meant defensive slots, not offensive)
From my purview you cannot have too much HP. As for recovery: I'm not entirely sure what I did in my heroic and paragon feats (Bulwark/Protection) but my cooldowns are scary-quick. It has been happening ever since my respec and I'm able to (almost literally) spam encounters; for example: keeping Circle on the ground almost constantly and even sometimes have it doubled-up.
I'll have to see what enchants/gear/anything else I can find to improve Action Points specifically - other than that I genuinely can't think of anything else I want or need to improve except AP (though there's probably something). Does anyone have any ideas?
Edit: to fix autocorrupt misspelling, such as "cooldowns' arbitrarily being changed to 'codlins'.
edit: Out of nowhere my STO sig shows up. lol.
I know this - the comment I was quoting was referencing offensive slots and HP, which is defensive slots.
EDIT: OH! I see what the context of that other commentator was: they were referencing Power, not HP in the slot. Sometimes context can be a tricky thing in here. -call me heel-
Obsidian Oath - Warlock
A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
I'd be happy to. Though I don't have a set schedule... I do suspect it would be on-topic if I post my stats and such in this thread. I just have to hunker down and do it, really. Though I must say that I know just enough to be dangerous (more to myself than others) so I'll have to brace myself for the eventual nose-holding-finger-pointing-while-laughing that would be sure to come. LOL
I also picked Feywild's Fortitude instead of Elven Haste. I still prefer the extra HP, to be honest about it, especially since there is still that wonderful bug that makes our defense puff up and smoke at random times until we die. I might swap over to Elven Haste when I can afford some kits and to upgrade my enchants.
As far as the 5th boon in Sharandar, I would pick Elven Resolve almost instantly. 10% stamina regain in combat is a life saver especially in those situations where you find yourself having to block for extended periods of time.
I also use silvery enchants in my offensive slots for recovery. Power is not a concern as our health handles that.
Also in our Heroic Feats, I didn't bother with the critical chance feat at all, my crit chance doesn't change significantly with it, and I put 5 points into the top second row item. As a human I also put 2 additional points into the critical effect on the last bottom row.
The rest of your feats match mine at this point. But that's my view. Again I will probably go for Elven Haste when I can afford some additional gear upgrades. But for now I feel safer with the additional 1600 health.
I might actually put up my own bulwark guide later. Since I do have my own ways of doing things (like I don't use relentless avenger myself anymore).
On Relentless I only use it for solo play, never in groups.
On Feywild's Fortitude vs Haste I originally had Fortitude, but with the most recent respec swapped to Haste. As I'm now back over 120k HP that doesn't seem to be a problem.
My Con is 28 (with Campfire) now, so yes I focussed on Con.
As to Elven Resolve and 10% more stamina regain, I passed on that because I rarely use it and put 400 Stamina/Guard gain in from Refreshing Chill (IWD Boon). Instead I went for some more damage when I do deflect (which should be at least 1/5 attacks). But both are sound choices I think, and the one that is better probably comes down to play style. I don't use Sanctuary much so 10% more stamina gain isn't that much of a help for me.
Obsidian Oath - Warlock
A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
Honestly, I am sort of waiting for the nerf hammer to come down, I've been bracing for it really. I wrote a guide for Scourge Warlock when they first came out and I expected a few tweaks, but that hammer just kept coming down on them.
Like you I expect Justice to get the nerf hammer first.
Obsidian Oath - Warlock
A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
I'll also add here (because you are still working on yours) that I'm switching my Heroic feats to match yours next time I have the AD spare. Also Aura of Protection definitely works for the OP. You should also mention Aura of Vengeance for PvP, it ends up doing meaningful damage in there, but kind of useless for PvE.
Obsidian Oath - Warlock
A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
Obsidian Oath - Warlock
A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
Having a DC with Gift of Haste (and the skill to apply it well) makes keeping DP up very easy. I'm pretty happy with my AP gain and general standard at this point, I've been running Lesser Corrupt Black Ice enchants in Overload slots, because they are free drops from KR, but plan to eventually move to the piercing ones.
I also expect to ultimately get the Personalised regen rings, and apply the AP gain buff to some of my gear. But getting either of those things might happen by Christmas!
Obsidian Oath - Warlock
A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
Anyway, now that Lostmauth's neck arti is down to around 100k AD I have swapped to it, and even at blue it makes a meaningful improvement to the AP gain I have. Very much recommend it now it can be obtained reasonably.
Obsidian Oath - Warlock
A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
Obsidian Oath - Warlock
A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
I am currently trying to test some other feat structures on Preview, but now that its basically down to needing to be in a t2 to test its hard.
Obsidian Oath - Warlock
A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
The main feat change I'm considering is moving Vigilance to Avenger's Presence; while at the low end of the gear spectrum Vigilance is a handy defence buff, but now its basically useless to me while Avenger's Presence may well get me that extra bit of AP gain I need when the heal isn't a Virt DC.
I'm also considering a switch to Soulforged over Negation, now that I have my Angel (finally managed to invoke on a toon for 360 days) it gives a bit more of a buffer for that occasional fail moment.
Obsidian Oath - Warlock
A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
Obsidian Oath - Warlock
A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
1) It works as presented still. I made no changes to accommodate the last round of "updates" to the OP, I have simply completed Boons and upgraded gear. I simply switched from using Divine Protector in dungeons to running Shield of Faith (most content) and Heroism (Orcus, GWD final boss, CC final boss and LoL Scorpions). With these I've successfully tanked Orcus without a problem really (run Aura of Protection, Aura of Wisdom, Bane, Templar's Wrath and Smite using either Bubble on his big attacks or Heroism and watch for his green balls and avoid them.)
2) Once you start running with parties of 3K+ adventurers this build is irrelevant.
3) Until the new module's Dungeon is available for testing (if it gets available in a timely manner) I plan to respec to a Justice/Bulwark mix based off this build (basically only changing the Paragon feats). If it turns out survive-ability matters again (it doesn't in the start of the new content so I'm not concerned) I will go back to Bulwark primary and start a new thread detailing my current spec fully.
So in short;
This remains a good leveling and gearing up build, however around the 3k mark you will want to respec.
Obsidian Oath - Warlock
A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.