Solo CW w/o icy veins?

fentium · October 2016

Hi,

I am pretty new to neverwinter (first month of lvl70). I am a CW with around 10k Power, 40%crit and 59% RI and nearly no life steal and still a long way to go. With icy veins and a healing companion life is good solo. At the moment I use a SS Thaum build and like it very much. But in dungeons I am not that fond of this build because the cc is much less effective.
As there is no free respec I am very reluctant to respec to SS Ren only to realize that I cant solo all the Campaign stuff (which there is still a lot to be done) without constantly chucking potions because I have no icy veins and cant snapfreez everything around me before it can damage me.

I dont have the AD to buy all those nice highlvl enchants to get my life steal up to par. So my question is, how is solo survivability as SS Ren? Is chaotic growth enough to offset the increase in damage without sufficient life steal? Or is there another (cheap) way to increase survivability?

I would really appreciate If an experienced CW could give my advice on this matte.

armadeonx · November 2016

Oh definitely worth it. With Icy Veins keeping groups frozen you can handle them with a 10% loss but a 30% boost in boss fights is huge. (plus a 30% on the perma-slotted disintegrate ofc)

For survivability you need to get your damage reduction stat over 10% for mobs and 15% for bosses but after that go with lifesteal as much as you can - ideally you'll find a guild with the lifesteal boon, choose all the lifesteal options from campaign boons plus the ones that give you back 20k HP (4th ones from sharandar and dread ring I think).

You need to get over 10% to start appreciating it but with guild boons you can get to be >20%. Generally I'd suggest a negation enchantment for CW armor but if your issue is constant 1 shots then it could be worth opting for the (much cheaper) Barkshield for now. My TR uses one and it appears to absorb a lot more damage than stated. It acts in the same way as your shield where it mitigates 3 hits and recharges layers over a few seconds.

As a general rule in a dungeon, always let the tank run in first and get the aggro before you start hitting anything. Never stand next to the tank, be on the opposite side of enemies so you are behind them. Use Icy Terrain & Conduit of Ice (on Mastery) so everything is frozen then come in with sudden storm, disintegrate and Daily if ready (oppressive force only in mobs).

If anything looks like it's noticed you, do a hop/dodge so you get behind it then fire 2 encounters to freeze it up. You should be using Chilling Cloud and Ray of Frost as your at-wills - mostly using Cloud but apply RoF if something needs extra chill stacks to freeze it up. There's a campaign boon for an extra 5% stamina regen (underdark 4th boon). More stamina gain means you can dodge out the way more often, which is really useful.

Make sure you have the Valindra artifact set ( see here ) as it boosts your control powers (i.e. they last longer).

If you're still using Mulhorand weapons (or worse, the free Elemental ones) then the absolute first thing you should go and do is farm for the Water ones. The self-healing will help but also the stats are just better - you can feed them into Twisted once you get that far.

Are you in a guild by the way? If not there's a couple of good ones in my alliance with space, no IL req and decent boons.

fluffy6977 · October 2016

Honestly the best thing about Icy Veins in a dungeon is not having to slowly stack chill for Chilling Presence. I don't think I know any CWs at the moment that don't use Icy Veins, even the Renegades I know use it.

Endgame CC is broken (possibly by design) and not likely to be fixed any time soon, so I would focus on the Chilling Presence side of things (in dungeons) and use IV to maximize your damage.

A great place for info on the CW class is the CW forum http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter#/categories/the-library

armadeonx · October 2016

Yeah Icy Veins is not just about control, it's about using it with Chilling Presence and increasing your DPS.

I used Ironzergs build for a long time (renegade SS) but switched out for more firepower. If you want to survive that way you will need a lot of lifesteal.

Personally I'd suggest you use Icy Veins & Chilling Presence along with 3 points in Blighting Power (Heroic Feat) to fully maximise chill based damage - you can take them from Wizard's Wrath if you have any there. An extra 1 or more in Arcane Enhancement would also help to squeeze out a bit more dps.

armadeonx · October 2016

By the way, you'll find that you have problems in 5 man dungeons due to your current stats as much as your build. Your power and crit are still pretty low.

You should get a fire archon companion (if you can afford one atm) and load him up with bonding runestones - as high as possible (rank 8 at least) - get a couple of decent underdark rings for power and crit and load darks into the defence slots for lifesteal.

armadeonx · November 2016

You do know you get 1 free respec token via a campaign (can't remember what it's called - the one that gives you points for completing levelling areas)

fentium · November 2016

Thank you for the information about icy veins, chill stacking and companions.

Maybe the Ren idea is not a good one. I only read that the Thaum build is considered more of a high Ilvl build so I thought maybe Ren would be better for my current state. Is there maybe a more low Ilvl friendly spec or should I stick with SS Thaum for now?

I will eventually get a better companion like a fire archon, but at the moment I cant afford neither the archon nor the bonding runestone so that will take time.

About the the respec token, that is exactly my problem. I can get the free respec token to spec into a new build, but cant get back if the new build does not suit me (xbox btw).

armadeonx · November 2016

I'm on xbox and yes, you only get 1 free token I'm afraid.

Your stated goal is more DPS but unfortunately that can only come about via (a) having good gear or (b) being in a high ranked guild and using their boons. The SS Thaum build is definitely the one to stick with though but you should check your feats and stats:

Your initial roll should've given you 18 points for both INT & CHA and you've placed all points in just those two.
Your Heroic Feats include:
weapon mastery 3 pts
blighting power 3 pts
focused wizardry 3 pts

Thaum feats include 10 points on tier 1 and tier 3 plus 5 in tier 5 (I went with 5 in elemental empowerment).

The choice between Vorpal and Dread depends on your thoughts on getting an extra 25% crit from your encounters is better or worse than getting an extra 50% from your Daily but Dread is a LOT cheaper than Vorpal so for now that should answer your question - you also need to get your crit chance over 50% to be competitive. Once you have good armor, apply armor kits with 200 crit on each piece for a boost and farm PoM for a +4 Precision ring, then CN for sudden rings.

If you have a spare character slot you can also level up a new character with the sole purpose of running them through 2 dungeons and skirmishes to make you more AD. This will get you an extra 20k per day plus salvage from skirmishes.

fentium · November 2016

Thanks for the detailed answer armadeonx.

So is the 30% singletarget dmg but 10% reduced aoe from focused wizardry worth it in your experience?

And I have one other question which concerns mostly dungeons but also solo. What is the biggest contributor to survivability? Get more LS, get a soulforged enchant , get something else?

I ask because I have a big problem staying alive in T2 dungeons (and pls dont say stay out of the red:)). I know I am at the very bottom with concern to Ilvl for those dungeons but it would be nice not to be killed in seconds if I draw aggro.

armadeonx · November 2016

Heh, I thought I answered this but it's not here!

Yes, it's worth it - bear in mind it's not a total 10% loss as you are putting the points into Blighting Power which is cold based so cold based AOEs such as Icy Terrain and Conduit get that 6% back. Thing is, CW's have no problem with groups, the issue is bosses. This is where the success or failure happens in runs so this is where you need to be effective.

For survival you need to get your DR to 15% then stack the hell out of lifesteal. 15% DR will cause some damage negation - it doesn't protect you from high crits but they'll knock you out even at 60% DR.

Because you deal a lot of Damage over Time (DoTs) lifesteal can proc quite often but to really appreciate it you'll definitely need over 10% - closer to 20% is better so if you're in a guild that has that boon try it out. Lifesteal is great for soloing dailies. If you are using Mulhorand weapons - or worse, the free Elemental ones then you should immediately go and farm for the Water ones from Drowned Shores. You can upgrade to Twisted once your survivability is better. The water weapons heal you for 50% of your total HP over 30 secs every minute. The 30 secs start on acquiring damage.

Normally I'd suggest a Negation armor ench for CW but if you're dying in the first couple of hits you can go with a Barkskin for now (it's a lot cheaper too). It works the same way as the CW shield, absorbing 3 or 4 hits then rebuilds layers over a few seconds.

When going into any fight in a T2 you need to remember to let the tank go first. They need to get the aggro and then you jump behind the enemy and let loose with Icy Terrain and Conduit to freeze them up, then Sudden Storm, Disintegrate and Daily if charged.

Never fire before someone else has acquired aggro.

Your Daily should be Oppressive Force in mobs and Ice Knife for bosses.

mordekai · November 2016

There's no direct free respec, but if you do the quests and claim the rewards for Sybella (?) the blind sooth sayer at the back of PE she gives a currency that can be exchanged for a respec token. And its bound to account not character.

armadeonx · November 2016

mordekai#1901 said:
There's no direct free respec, but if you do the quests and claim the rewards for Sybella (?) the blind sooth sayer at the back of PE she gives a currency that can be exchanged for a respec token. And its bound to account not character.

So long as you don't open it

Unknown · November 2016

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Solo CW w/o icy veins?

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