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[PS4] sk-Guardian's DPS/Tank Guide - Mod 10.5
cerebo
Member Posts: 11 Arc User
Hello, I am sk-Guardian and I play a full dps Guardian Fighter on PS4.
My goal is to do as much dps as possible.
This built is for highest dps (in my opinion) but u can also tank with this built in strong groups if the dc's can protect your life.
I think there is no instance where you really need a full def tank cause the dc buffs will or should protect you.
(sorry for my bad english, hope u can understand all)
Race and rolling your Stats
Half-Orc is the best way cause your Critical Severity is 5% higher than that of other races and it gives you best dps output. Choose STR and CHA cause STR gives Damage Bonus and CHA gives Combat Advantage Damage & Companion Stat Bonus.
Think you dont need INT cause you have dc's in group for recharging your cooldowns and dont need DEX cause you got enough Arp form your Compamion and Equipment
http://imgur.com/a/fhmNL#ht11vCV
Feats
First I wanna say that some people playing Iron Vanguard cause Crushing Pin with Trample the Fallen & Battle Tramp gives great bonus damage. Your daily power will be Indomitable Strength, which will proc your Crushing Pin regularly. Trample is far more reliable than the Swordmaster’s Counterpart Steel Blitz.Trample deals 20% bonus damage to any controlled NPC plus the Battle Trample Feat deals 25% additional weapon damage to any controlled NPC, where as Steel Blitz offers only a 5% chance to deal 80% weapon damage. Trample the fallen combined with Battle Trample offers a significantly higher damage potential
This sounds really good in theory but there is a problem when you are playing in a highend group with strong dc's. The dc's will reduce your cooldowns so fast that we have to spam our commander strike as much as possible in combination with knight's challenge and into the fray. Now there is no time for any controll effect in our rotation and it would be better if u play Swordmaster with Steel Blitz. (only in the highend game)
Powers & Feats - Click here
http://imgur.com/w5Gg68m
Powers
You should know that u must switch your Powers sometimes cause in every situation u need other Powers. Your importend Powers for rank 4 should be
Commander Strike, Knight's Challenge, Into the Fray, Knee Breaker, Lunging Strike, Enforced Threat, Anvil of Doom
Combat Superiority, Steel Blitz, Steel Defense, Shield Talent, Crescendo
Villain's Menace, Fighter's Recovery
Weapon Master's Strike, Crushing Surge
Powers & Feats - Click here
At-Wills
always use your Weapon Master's Strike for max dps output - if u need heal in solo playing use your Crushing Surge
Personal
always use Combat Superiority and Steel Blitz for max dps output
Steel Defense or Shield Talent if u wanna tank something and if its really essential
Daily
always use Villain's Menace and Fighters's Recovery (switch on Crescendo for stunning trash mobs in fbi when they wanna run away)
Encounter
DPS with 3 or more strong dc's in group
always use Commander Strike, Into the Fray and Knight's Challenge (switch itf to Knee Breaker when second GF in group)
DPS with normal group
always use Commander Strike, Into the Fray and Knee Breaker (switch itf to Anvil of Doom when second GF in group)
AoE DPS
Lunging Strike, Enforced Threat and Into the Fray
Tanking with 3 or more strong dc's in group
same like DPS
Tanking with normal group
always use Commander Strike, Into the Fray. Choose between Enforced Threat or Knee Breaker
Don't forget to use your Mark with "R1" for your Commander Strike. It's very important cause Commander Strike is your strongest Encounter with a very strong dps group.
Boons
You can see all Stats of each Boon in my Video at the End of this Guide or you can only look at the pictures.
http://imgur.com/a/aZ9Ss#D7J5tTa
Companions
Use Air Archon as main comp for 2 legend ring slots and 1 neck place (neck with Power & ArP)
For the Offense Slots u must choose between Power or Crit - I use Brutal enchants with Power & Crit.
Air Archon increases your damage against targets not at full health by +5% Each additional active Archon increases this bonus by 0,5%
Fire Archon increases your damage against targets below 50% health by 7%
Siege Master + 4% increased dmg
Cambion Magus +10% Critical Severity
Eriynes of Belial +10% Critical Severity
Critical Severity
Your critical severity adds 75% to the damage - its 175% of the whole damage
base damage "x" *(1 + 0.75) = 1.75
now you gain +10% crit sev
base damage "x" *(1 + 0.75 + 0.1) = 1.85
1.85/1.75 = 1.056 and its give u 5.6% damage increase
If your critical severity is at 160% - its 260% of the whole damage
base damage "x" *(1 + 1.6) = 2.6
now you gain +10% crit sev
base damage "x" *(1 + 1.6 + 0.1) = 2.7
2.7/2.6 = 1.040 and its give u only 4% damage increase
Mounts & Insignea's
I use Swift Golden Lion Power for protecting the group and 2000 Power Mount
For max dps output you should use Tenser's Floating Disk Power which gives you 10% Power, 10% move faster, 2 Str, Dex, Con and Armor Class over 12 seconds and 4000 Power Mount
For your Insignea's try to use Diminance as much as possible cause it gives you 200 Power and 100 Companion influence which is the only Insignea with has 2 strong Stats on it. But you need some other Insignea's for your Boni I would take Insignia of Skill with 200 Critical Strike and 100 Action Point Gain for it.
http://imgur.com/a/lmpmk#MvAb0Xg
Equipment, Enchants & Stats (look the video at the end)
Equipment
Shieldbearer's full Raid Set - if u dont have this use 2 of Dragonflight and 2 of Dusk Armor for Set Bonus
Shieldbearer's Longsword with Weapon Master's Strike Artifact Power
Shieldbearer's Shield with Steel Blitz Class Feature and +400 Combat Advantage Bonus
Use Ring of Rising Power & Ring of Dod
Shirt & Trousers selfmade Warrior's Gemmed Exquisite Elemental Chainmail/Chausses
Neck & Waist from Orcus Set
Wheel of Elements, Shard of Orcus' Wand, Lantern of Revelation, Sigil of the Controller
Enchants
Weapon Slot: Vorpal - You strike with an additional 50% Critical Severity. Critical Severity increases the damage your Critical Strikes deal.
Your Critical Strikes now reduce your target’s Damage Resistance by 2% and Damage by 2%
Armor Slot: Negation - When receiving dmg each hit stacks 3% Damage Resistance, 1% incoming Heal, 1% Recovery for 9 seconds.
This effect can stack a maximum of 10 times or u can use a Soulforged Enchant if u need
Offense Slot: Brutal gives +420 Power and Critical Strike (840) actually I use Azure which gives +700 Critical Strike
Defense Slot: Black Ice gives u + Def, Lifesteal and Deflect which are the Stats for "Assassins's Covenant" Insigniea Bonus
Reinforced: You can take +200 Power or +200 Critial Strike and +100 Action Point Gain on other Items.
Stats
Our most important Stats are Power, Critical Strike and Resistance Ignored (60%). Now we have to push our Power and Critial Strike. You dont need 100% Critical Chance. I was hitting with 70% 75% 80% ...100% on bosses and my result is that I run better with about 80% Critical Chance and much more Power than 100% Critical Chance and much lesser Power.
Dont need many Recovery cause we have our dc's for our cooldowns and it's the same with our defense / damage resistance so we can concentrate us on our Power and Crit.
Stats without Comp
http://imgur.com/a/s8nPV#ypuKH3w
Stats with Comp hitting
http://imgur.com/a/nYEov#QZEYSnv
Video with Equipment, Powers, Feats, Boons, Comp, Mounts and (not up to date)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PauwAFPn4Ww
Doing Master Assault of Svardborg as full dps tanking
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hV32b2eax0c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtUaBia4xXs
My goal is to do as much dps as possible.
This built is for highest dps (in my opinion) but u can also tank with this built in strong groups if the dc's can protect your life.
I think there is no instance where you really need a full def tank cause the dc buffs will or should protect you.
(sorry for my bad english, hope u can understand all)
Race and rolling your Stats
Half-Orc is the best way cause your Critical Severity is 5% higher than that of other races and it gives you best dps output. Choose STR and CHA cause STR gives Damage Bonus and CHA gives Combat Advantage Damage & Companion Stat Bonus.
Think you dont need INT cause you have dc's in group for recharging your cooldowns and dont need DEX cause you got enough Arp form your Compamion and Equipment
http://imgur.com/a/fhmNL#ht11vCV
Feats
First I wanna say that some people playing Iron Vanguard cause Crushing Pin with Trample the Fallen & Battle Tramp gives great bonus damage. Your daily power will be Indomitable Strength, which will proc your Crushing Pin regularly. Trample is far more reliable than the Swordmaster’s Counterpart Steel Blitz.Trample deals 20% bonus damage to any controlled NPC plus the Battle Trample Feat deals 25% additional weapon damage to any controlled NPC, where as Steel Blitz offers only a 5% chance to deal 80% weapon damage. Trample the fallen combined with Battle Trample offers a significantly higher damage potential
This sounds really good in theory but there is a problem when you are playing in a highend group with strong dc's. The dc's will reduce your cooldowns so fast that we have to spam our commander strike as much as possible in combination with knight's challenge and into the fray. Now there is no time for any controll effect in our rotation and it would be better if u play Swordmaster with Steel Blitz. (only in the highend game)
Powers & Feats - Click here
http://imgur.com/w5Gg68m
Powers
You should know that u must switch your Powers sometimes cause in every situation u need other Powers. Your importend Powers for rank 4 should be
Commander Strike, Knight's Challenge, Into the Fray, Knee Breaker, Lunging Strike, Enforced Threat, Anvil of Doom
Combat Superiority, Steel Blitz, Steel Defense, Shield Talent, Crescendo
Villain's Menace, Fighter's Recovery
Weapon Master's Strike, Crushing Surge
Powers & Feats - Click here
At-Wills
always use your Weapon Master's Strike for max dps output - if u need heal in solo playing use your Crushing Surge
Personal
always use Combat Superiority and Steel Blitz for max dps output
Steel Defense or Shield Talent if u wanna tank something and if its really essential
Daily
always use Villain's Menace and Fighters's Recovery (switch on Crescendo for stunning trash mobs in fbi when they wanna run away)
Encounter
DPS with 3 or more strong dc's in group
always use Commander Strike, Into the Fray and Knight's Challenge (switch itf to Knee Breaker when second GF in group)
DPS with normal group
always use Commander Strike, Into the Fray and Knee Breaker (switch itf to Anvil of Doom when second GF in group)
AoE DPS
Lunging Strike, Enforced Threat and Into the Fray
Tanking with 3 or more strong dc's in group
same like DPS
Tanking with normal group
always use Commander Strike, Into the Fray. Choose between Enforced Threat or Knee Breaker
Don't forget to use your Mark with "R1" for your Commander Strike. It's very important cause Commander Strike is your strongest Encounter with a very strong dps group.
Boons
You can see all Stats of each Boon in my Video at the End of this Guide or you can only look at the pictures.
http://imgur.com/a/aZ9Ss#D7J5tTa
Companions
Use Air Archon as main comp for 2 legend ring slots and 1 neck place (neck with Power & ArP)
For the Offense Slots u must choose between Power or Crit - I use Brutal enchants with Power & Crit.
Air Archon increases your damage against targets not at full health by +5% Each additional active Archon increases this bonus by 0,5%
Fire Archon increases your damage against targets below 50% health by 7%
Siege Master + 4% increased dmg
Cambion Magus +10% Critical Severity
Eriynes of Belial +10% Critical Severity
Critical Severity
Your critical severity adds 75% to the damage - its 175% of the whole damage
base damage "x" *(1 + 0.75) = 1.75
now you gain +10% crit sev
base damage "x" *(1 + 0.75 + 0.1) = 1.85
1.85/1.75 = 1.056 and its give u 5.6% damage increase
If your critical severity is at 160% - its 260% of the whole damage
base damage "x" *(1 + 1.6) = 2.6
now you gain +10% crit sev
base damage "x" *(1 + 1.6 + 0.1) = 2.7
2.7/2.6 = 1.040 and its give u only 4% damage increase
Mounts & Insignea's
I use Swift Golden Lion Power for protecting the group and 2000 Power Mount
For max dps output you should use Tenser's Floating Disk Power which gives you 10% Power, 10% move faster, 2 Str, Dex, Con and Armor Class over 12 seconds and 4000 Power Mount
For your Insignea's try to use Diminance as much as possible cause it gives you 200 Power and 100 Companion influence which is the only Insignea with has 2 strong Stats on it. But you need some other Insignea's for your Boni I would take Insignia of Skill with 200 Critical Strike and 100 Action Point Gain for it.
http://imgur.com/a/lmpmk#MvAb0Xg
Equipment, Enchants & Stats (look the video at the end)
Equipment
Shieldbearer's full Raid Set - if u dont have this use 2 of Dragonflight and 2 of Dusk Armor for Set Bonus
Shieldbearer's Longsword with Weapon Master's Strike Artifact Power
Shieldbearer's Shield with Steel Blitz Class Feature and +400 Combat Advantage Bonus
Use Ring of Rising Power & Ring of Dod
Shirt & Trousers selfmade Warrior's Gemmed Exquisite Elemental Chainmail/Chausses
Neck & Waist from Orcus Set
Wheel of Elements, Shard of Orcus' Wand, Lantern of Revelation, Sigil of the Controller
Enchants
Weapon Slot: Vorpal - You strike with an additional 50% Critical Severity. Critical Severity increases the damage your Critical Strikes deal.
Your Critical Strikes now reduce your target’s Damage Resistance by 2% and Damage by 2%
Armor Slot: Negation - When receiving dmg each hit stacks 3% Damage Resistance, 1% incoming Heal, 1% Recovery for 9 seconds.
This effect can stack a maximum of 10 times or u can use a Soulforged Enchant if u need
Offense Slot: Brutal gives +420 Power and Critical Strike (840) actually I use Azure which gives +700 Critical Strike
Defense Slot: Black Ice gives u + Def, Lifesteal and Deflect which are the Stats for "Assassins's Covenant" Insigniea Bonus
Reinforced: You can take +200 Power or +200 Critial Strike and +100 Action Point Gain on other Items.
Stats
Our most important Stats are Power, Critical Strike and Resistance Ignored (60%). Now we have to push our Power and Critial Strike. You dont need 100% Critical Chance. I was hitting with 70% 75% 80% ...100% on bosses and my result is that I run better with about 80% Critical Chance and much more Power than 100% Critical Chance and much lesser Power.
Dont need many Recovery cause we have our dc's for our cooldowns and it's the same with our defense / damage resistance so we can concentrate us on our Power and Crit.
Stats without Comp
http://imgur.com/a/s8nPV#ypuKH3w
Stats with Comp hitting
http://imgur.com/a/nYEov#QZEYSnv
Video with Equipment, Powers, Feats, Boons, Comp, Mounts and (not up to date)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PauwAFPn4WwDoing Master Assault of Svardborg as full dps tanking
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hV32b2eax0chttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtUaBia4xXsPost edited by cerebo#5260 on
1
Comments
I'd suggest putting a disclaimer bold that this is not an easy style of play, nor is it one that works at lower Itemlevels (no offense man, but there's been a lot of hate going around for us tanks which can push out pretty good DPS while tanking. People are jealous that there are people who can do this.
About Powers
I know you said Steel Blitz was awful in comparison to Trample, which makes sense. But, in my experience, Steel Blitz is just... average. In several tested runs (Tiamat, ECC, CN, occasional FBI bossfight), Steel Blitz only made up 1-3% of my total DPS, which isn't the greatest. I mean, sure, it is extra DPS, but not a significant amount.
I'm surprised you didn't mention Shield Warrior's Wrath for bossfights, because there are many times in FBI/Svardborg where you need to shield a hit (to not die), and getting free damage boosts from tanking is always great.
Commander's Strike does not work with your own powers. That is, the damage boost from CS won't apply to your Anvils/KBs.
About Gear
Not much different than what I have, except I have the Loyal Avenger gear (and thus, don't need a Dark for the ArmorPen). I don't use Steel Blitz, so the offhand bonus is mostly just whatever I get.
Since you're slightly over 60% RI, I would personally consider a Savage R12 to replace your Dark, since an R12 Savage gives you some Crit to go with ArmorPen. However, your setup works and has pretty good stats all around, so your choice.
Do consoles have the Suvivor's Wraps item from Normal Demo?
I haven't got one to test, but if consoles do have the Survivors Wraps (and you own a copy), could you check if the Survivor's Wraps procs Reckless Attacker (Conqueror Capstone)? If it does, then the Survivor's Wraps might be good on the lowertier dungeons (ex: EToS) where you kill the boss so fast that s/he has no time to build up any stacks of Reckless Attacker.
I personally wouldn't get the Tenser's Disk. I own 1 (on a GWF) and the bonus STR/Power is slowwww. Like, you need to stop, do nothing for 3-4 seconds, and then you get the bonus. I'd personally just avoid it and use the legendary Lion for the "oh HAMSTER" moments where you screw up.
(The fourms has a weird cursing censor. don't ask why)
About Crit/Power:
If you run with an AC DC alot (and/or a Paladin with Aura Gifts), then the extra power from Brutals/Insignias/Mount isn't really necessary, since the DC (and/or OP) is giving you so much power that a marginal +1000 or +3000 power won't give you a huge DPS increase.
But what should I use then?
Crit, ArP, APG, CAB are capped and dont need rec cause I have 2-3 or 3-4 DC's in my group.
I try to do max dps output and I dont know what else to take except power.
At the End:
I think the Iron Vanguard with Trample the Fallen, Battle Trample, Crushing Pin, Knee breaker and Indomitable Strength would be better for People and Groups which aren't in highend speed groups. There u should have enough time for playing with Dots.
When I run CN or FBI all enemys will be dead in a few seconds and the bosses too with the right group setup.
Same in Svardborg. There isnt enough time for me when u hit Svardborg in a few seconds from 100% to about 40%-30% and skip a Manticore Phase.
I don't have that luxury on PC, as the DC community is already overworked as is.
I get 1 DC or a Healadin, or even no heals, and I have to last.
(also, pls tell me your 2-3 DCs aren't just all using AA? because AA doesn't doublestack, no matter how many balls you have. and AA + HG is just an amazing spread of damage bonuses all around.) DId it get fixed on consoles?
Usually, in the teams I roll with, the DPSers can melt the mobs by the time the Tensers Animation finishes.
I don't actually own a legendary lion, but the times my teammates had one, it's been a (literal) lifesaver.
Oh, I based your stats off your screenshot with comp hitting enemies, which should be the one below if I didn't get the link wrong.
http://imgur.com/a/nYEov#QZEYSnv
Yeah, if you cover your last % Crit chance via consumables (Wild Storm, Squash, etc.), then power is the way to go, since lolrecovery and everything else. IV, SM, only difference is that IV struggles in trash clearing. Otherwise, IV gets Trample, which is arguably better than Shield Warrior's Wrath for singletarget DPS (and Threatening Rush is just lovely). And Indomitable Strength also has the advantage of being able to be canceled without losing DPS (that is, activate IS like any daily, but cancel the animaton with shield. you should stop doing the IS animation, but get both of the hits).
Since you took Staggerring Challenge, have you considered Griffon's Wrath for "easier" bosses (ex: EToS boss 1/2, ELoL Boss 1, etc.)? I've had good success with using Griffon's as a 3 hit boss destroyer.
Obviously, on the tougher bosses (FBI/Svard), you won't be able to drop the bosses in 3 hits of Griffon's, so Knee Breaker reigns supreme there.
U can easely run cn under 10 min, fbi good 20 min or svardborg 5 min.
The Screenshot is right but it's only alone with my comp hitting a dummy and brutal enchants missing on comp.
I dont play with 100% crit. I testet it and with 80% crit and more power instead I am running better so I put all in my power.
I am not able to play with griffon or knee breaker cause I need my itf, cs and kc always.
Only when a second GF is in group I can switch itf to knee breaker or griffon.
Cant switch my cs or itf cause buffing the whole group is better then my own dps and I wont miss the 50% of kc
Actually, recently, I @tom#6998, ran a sub 15 min FBI with a SW, HR, OP, DC, and my GF (but I was a buffing GF for that run). (Natsu, where did you put that screen of our 14min FBI clear?)
But I won't deny having a second DC with FF at the ready makes life so much easier and faster.
On the easy boss burns, I usually roll with ITF/KC/Griffons, since I can cast KC and ITF, poke the boss a little bit with my at-wills, then use 3 hits of Griffons to destroy the boss before KC expires.
My milage has varied with CS (and I say this with a lot of Tactician experience under my belt).
With a GWF, another DPS GF, OP, CS is amazing and totally worth the slot.
If I run with a CW or HR, I find CS to be rather poor, as it's hard to coordinate my CS with their hard hitting encounters, since those two fling encounters almost all the time.
With TRs and SWs, my milage with CS has varied so much I can't figure out whether it's good or bad for them.
Looking forward to see what others think about this build, I personally think it's great (although it has a learning curve, either from learning how to tank + DPS or in finding DC friends :P)
Try to run with 2 or 3 dc's (over 40k power for buffing) and be lucky of seeing how fast ur cooldowns are ready and how high your power will be now. u can spam your commander strike and all people in your group will be happy xD Sure that gwf's love u more then other classes with cs
Would be nice to see/heare ur experience with this setup.
Thanks for ur discussion even if we do not agree in everything
Anyway, did you mean Steel Grace? Because the dps from Steel Blitz is minimal. The dps you gain from Steel Grace is higher. Reckless Attacker doesn't give you 20% crit, it gives you 10% crit, so with 75% + 10% you would be at 85%, not 100%.
About Dancing Blade, you should check all topic here and on reddit about the formulas. 5% critical severity is not 5% more damage, it's something around 2.4%. And that if you have 100% crit. Since you don't have 100%, you are getting 2% or less dps from the Dancing Blade.
The idea of tanking having HDPS is really nice, but the truth is, you are a dps, not a tank, what makes you tank is Anointed Army. But the day they change AA you will have to forget the "tank" word from your toon.
I'm not criticizing you, I'm a 4.1k gs HDPS GF and I love it. You can't tank FBI or MSVA without AA spam, that's the truth. You are full dps like me, no defensive stuff, giants would HAMSTER you without AA.
I tanked a couple FBIs with 2 DCs, and even then I died a couple times on giants. I'd not be able to tank it with only 1 DC without 10+ deaths.
Few minutes ago I was "tanking" a MSVA run, but because the group had 3 DCS spamming AA like hell. Everyone knows AA is broken as f... at the moment.
You said you are on PS4, right? Is Commander Strike still bugged? Because Knee Breaker is waaaaaaaaaay more superior than Commander Strike on mod 10.5 after they fixed Commander Strike.
Also, Crushing Surge is something around 10% more dps than Weapon Master's Strike, and faster too.
I'd like to see your stats after bonding procs, can you post it please?
Because my unbuffed stats are much like yours and I have 98.5% crit after bondings and without Reckless Attacker.
Gratz for the initiative
Off-topic. @rjc9000 what's your toon name? I don't think we met in the game, I'd love too. I always run with tom but I don't think we ran something together. Yesterday I did a run with Light (idk if you know him) on his op. 1 dps GF, 1 dps OP, 2 DC, 1 mof renegade CW. We killed turtle within 11 minutes of dungeon start, but we overkilled it TWICE lol, so the run was something like 19min =/
Hælja, Swordmaster Conqueror Guardian Fighter of Thieves World
@cerebo#5260 2 DCs wont give u more Power then 1 since their power sharing doesnt Stack. Most power is DC/OP combo, u get way over 200k then
I went with dex to improve arm pen none on relic gear didn't consider charisma but will have a look.
As some of the guys have mention I would have a look at steel grace this class feature is awesome and outperforms steel blitz by a mile, especially if your confident that your DC are taking care of your defence, I slot steel defence in Svardborg just for emergencies but if I know the AA is going to be reliable then steel grace.
I personally use combat superiority as off hand just to generate more threat so I can pull mobs but doesn't contribute towards Dps.
I have personally left CS alone if you run with high end groups anyway and your melting stuff then slot knee breaker and KC. CS seems to be more useful for struggling groups to get more out of them, I pug alot and also run many of my lower guildies and alliance members through t2's and ill slot CS and KV for that to help out seems to do ok.
Me personally I wouldn't like to drop recovery and rely on DC's to do it for me. Its awesome in 10 man agreed but you will see a Dps loss in five mans or without DC I've found that about 5k and your good, I'm swapping out gear at the moment and I dropped under 2k and its hamster.
Checked feats looks fairly similar, personally I threw a point in Grit in heroic feats as it procs wrathful warrior especially if you are always running with DC's
@rjc9000
Played with Griffons a little couldn't get on with it and didn't see a return on investment will have a look again later though as i have it feated (lack of better option plus KC boost) will also look at survivors wraps, however being on xbox testing is hardwork.
No love for anvil ? its not what it once was (thanks PvP) but can be surprising especially soloing
The Legendary Outlaws
My GF is Kris@rjc9000. It was originally was Anri@rjc9000, but a certain CW (*coughcough @romotheone coughcough*) found out the unfortunate implications I didn't think about behind the name. I did the same with my ability scores, I went STR/DEX (on a Moon Elf, laugh it up because it's a stupid race to pick).
Same for me with my feats, I put a point into Grit and Take Measure for those little extra Wrathful Warrior procs (also, consider using some of the purified Black Ice overloads).
Steel Grace is, imo amazing due to its runspeed bonus. I mean the extra Crit and Deflect are "nice", but Steel Grace + ITF + Gladiator's turns the GF into a ridiculously fast class, so fast where I feel slow if I use any other class.
For Griffon's Wrath, you need Staggerring Challenge.
Assuming you have Griffon's Wrath + Staggerring Challenge, don't apply all 3 hits at the start of combat, smack the boss a little bit with your At-wills, wait a small bit for your damage bonuses (Orcus/Air Archon/etc.) and your team's damage bonuses (EmpBtS, Longstriders, duckonaplate, etc.) to kick in. As soon as you see the boss hit half or so health (or you see buffs go up), you can activate any additional buffs you have, apply KC if you haven't done so, and apply 3 hits on the boss. Boss should drop extremely quickly.
Anvil isn't total "garbage" and I find uses for it in my GF's kit. For example, if I run NDemo with good teams, Anvil becomes useful in Phase 1 because the mobs die so quickly. To deal any damage, you need to apply something quick with good damage (Surge is a bit slow, Knee is a DoT, and ET has that annoying fistbump after you apply the marking effects), of which Anvil fits the criteria.
Anvil also finds uses in some bossfights, as when you apply it to an enemy low on health, you effectively deal double the damage, except the second half of the damage is split into a DoT.
Ex: I fight the FBI Boss 1 which is at 25% health.
Anvil hits for 1 mil (rather low, but math is hard). Then, the DoT after the initial hit ticks 5 times for 5 seconds. Each tick does 1/5th of the original hit (so 200K ticks, in this case).
(Yo sk-Guardian, sorry for hijacking your thread man, I love it when the GFs come together to discuss things).
I'll send you a message in game whenever I have the chance so we can run something
Hælja, Swordmaster Conqueror Guardian Fighter of Thieves World
I love to read it cause on ps4 its very hard to test somerhing.
So can u explain why u use griffon or knee breaker when i can buff 4 gwf's with my cs in a group of 10 men and cs is always ready with 3 or 4 dc? The Buff is the only reason why i dont change my cs to knee breaker or griffon and I use steel blitz cause i dont need the crit from grace. Switched to 80% crit and i am always critting dont know why.
In those situations, the boss dies so quickly that whether you burn the boss via Griffons, or the GWF does it with IBS + CS, it won't matter much in the long run.
But you're right, in FBI/Svardborg, if you run with a bunch of GWFs (for some reason... teams get stronger with more varied classes), you might as well use CS to boost their damage.
Thanks for the discussion - really helped
If you are in a very good group, Hati will burn to second phase in like 15 seconds, that would be 3 IBS I suppose. You would give let's say 6M damage to three 5M IBS (I'm basing on a BIS GWF who I ran FBI with who did some 5M IBSs without a GF). On those awesome groups my Knee Breaker dots for 800k each hit. Taking into consideration that you can hit 3 Knee Breakers like the GWF can hit with 3 IBS (3 encounters because of Hastening Light) you would deal more damage than the damage you would be contributing. Yes, Knee Breaker is a dot but it keeps damaging when Hati flies, you won't lose that damage.
If you are in a group with 2 DCs and 1 Mof Renegade CW, and 1 GWF. If they are very good, you can burn turtle to phase transition so quickly that the GWF won't have time to use more than 2 IBS, and you probably hit with 2 Knee Breaker. Turtle will keep taking damage from Knee Breaker when it is swimming.
On Drufi, she dashes like megaman and run like Michael Owen and Ronaldo used to run, a GWF has a hard time hitting her with IBS, Knee Breaker would be way more superior.
Since Commander Strike applies only to your group, the same applies to MSVA, unless you are in a group with 4 more very good gwfs but what happens is that you usually are in a group with 1 dc, 1 gwf, 2 from other classes. Sometimes you get 2 gwfs in your group, but are they as good as you? Because if they are not good as you then you are giving damage to someone weak instead of giving damage to someone that would raise the group dps.
GWF does not rely mainly in IBS for dps, their main source of dps is Sure Strike.
You are giving up your main source of single target dps to give a partner a bit more dps on their secondary dps skill.
If the difference between CS and KB were 10% then I'd for sure use CS, I'd be losing 10% damage to contribute with one or two people. But losing 75% damage on my only dps encounter to help with someone's secondary skill is way too much.
In the end, what I mean is: depending on the gwfs, cws or whatever you are running with and on the type of fight, your group is losing more damage with you using CS than it would be if you used Knee Breaker.
I'm still waiting for your stats after bonding proc if you can show me the screenshot
Hælja, Swordmaster Conqueror Guardian Fighter of Thieves World
When I am running msva with 2 DC, 1 Pally and 1 other DPS for sure - cs is wasted
The first hit of Knee Breaker does more damage than the other 14 ticks.
It has an intitial damage and then all the other dots tick for 30% each of the initial damage, but the first 3 ticks are empowered by Crushing Pin
Without bondings that would be something around (Crit) 30k plus 14 ticks of 9k. Commander Strike crits for 85k.
In that run I used Knee Breaker 28 times (423 divided by 15). Ofc, we only use it on bosses.
When I said 40% on top of a 5M IBS I didn't take into consideration how buffs/debuffs work. I don't know the formula but I'm pretty sure the 40% damage from commander strike doesn't apply after ALL other buffs.
So I told you 1 commander strike from you would give 2M more damage to a IBS, and from my point of view it's probably not 2M damage.
But let's say it's 2M more damage. 28 times 2M is 56M damage.
You would be giving 56M damage to their IBS.
Now you assume 28 CS from you. 28 CS would never do 104M damage. Maybe you can crit for 3M or 4M once or twice when the boss is under 20% with all buffs and that will not happen more than 5 times in a single FBI run. I've seen some 4M Anvil crits on bosses close to death (anvil and cs damage are almost the same), the average from Anvil with all bufs is 1.5M-2.5M. 2M x 28 = 56M.
I'm not taking maths and calculations deeply, there are some theorycrafters in the forum but I'm not one of them. But from simple maths you are giving up 58M damage to give someone 56M damage. And that ONLY if Commander Strike is raw 40% after ALL buffs to a IBS. So if an IBS hits for 5M it would hit for 7M but I don't think that's how it works.
You are also giving up 10% more damage for 3 seconds from Crushing Pin and your whole party is losing that 10% damage.
Commander Strike would never be superior than Knee Breaker unless you run in a party with 3 more REAL F.cking awesome HDPS that can do same damage as you.
I'd like to give a more accurate answer but like I said, I don't know much about buff/debuff formulas.
Hælja, Swordmaster Conqueror Guardian Fighter of Thieves World
Then yes, bug always win WAI stuff
Hælja, Swordmaster Conqueror Guardian Fighter of Thieves World
Anyway, if you can suck 50% of Hati's health in a single blow then keep using CS
Hælja, Swordmaster Conqueror Guardian Fighter of Thieves World
Something is really not working as intended when it comes to buff and debuff stacking.
You know what I'm talking about, we use to do 17-19 min FBI runs and 5min MSVA runs.
Hælja, Swordmaster Conqueror Guardian Fighter of Thieves World
You poke the manticores as per usual, and when you see a bunch of buffs (ITF/Longstiders/duckonaplate/EmpBtS/etc.) up, you tell your GWFs to prepare their IBSes. They do their pre IBS buff routine, you press CS, and all 4 mash IBS.
Done correctly, and that's 4 super-powered IBSes smacking the manticore at once (and 4 "Hawkeye" hits of CS as well), which can cut the boss' HP bar really quickly.
This morning, Sharpegghead asked me to run a ESvard with 3-4 GWFs (WickedDuck, Sani's GWF, a GWF from Gutbusters, and someone else). We did something pretty similar to the manticores, where I pressed CS at a good opporunity, the GWFs used IBS, and then the HP bar dropped instantly.
Depending on the team, Crushing Pin may actually end up being superfluous due to being a capped debuff.
I think what SK Guardian is trying to say is that he swaps his powers in and out as it would benefit the group. This is what I would do as well.
Am I teaming with some amazing GWFs/SWs like WickedDuck or Snoo Snoo?
I don't need to DPS, since boosting their DPS will contribute to a faster run than tacking on my DPS. So CS and my Tactician setup it is.
Am I running with some HRs/CWs or people whose DPS I'm unsure of (or is questionable)?
Time to slot in the DPS stuff, KC/KB/Anvil, Shieldbearers/Relic Armor, DPS artifacts, etc.
(now that I think about it, my setup pretty much shows what I think about people. lmao)
(and sorry about hijacking your thread again man, us DPS GFs love to talk about how things work.)
@cerebo#5260
"This built is for highest dps (in my opinion) but u can also tank with this built in strong groups if the dc's can protect your life.
I think there is no instance where you really need a full def tank cause the dc buffs will or should protect you."
Very, very dangerous. If you cannot tank without 3 DC's constant protections ( please tell me you don't mean AA) then you cannot tank.
We have an arsehat trolling the GF forum with qq about DPS GFs who refuse to tank.
Please don't feed our troll by fitting the stereotype.
Unless you strictly pre-made or LFG with clearly announced "DPS (non-tank) GF LFG..." you will be expected to tank, AA or not.
Please read Grimah, Fatmushroom and @rjc9000 's builds on how to balance DPS and tank duties.
@cerebo#5260
"1 DPS and THREE DCs"
Now that is a hell of a thing.
No doubt you are the Belle of the ball in that party: buffed to godlike power and in a constant state of AA, BoB, DGlow, WoL and HG.
I'm sure ACDCs grow on trees in the console world. Good on ya, if that is common.
I hope you are not dependent on them.
We PC GFs are lucky to find any decent DC or healadin. But it forces all PC GFs to maintain tanking skills.
But a newer player with blue gear could never survive with this build. You should label this as a re-spec for high gear players.
That said, your toon is very impressive.
Interesting reading.
I am Took.
"Full plate and packing steel" in NW since 2013.
When I started looking for MSVA and FBI pug groups (I don't do that anymore after a KC drama involving some dumb people who insisted to come by my side even though I was trying to find a spot without anyone beside me) I used to say "3.9 HDPS GF LF FBI/MSVA. I'm not a tank!"
You don't really need a tank for t1 and t2 dungeons. Maybe for Ethraniev, since even Orcus you can do with ranged dps, so I go as a "tank" on these dungeons. But I never tried to tank FBI. I did it twice when tom asked me to "tank" and I died like Kenny, and 5 days ago with Sani, Teh Roa, 2 DC and 1 mof renegade, but the truth is that Teh Roa was tanking hahaha.
I like the way you see your GF, changing him to fit the group, changing builds. But I'm done tanking on MMORPGS. I tanked all the Burning Crusade content on WoW and a bit of Icecrown Citadel. Then I made some paladin/fighter sword and board builds on DDO with very nice damage but still tanks.
I can't tell you why but like we say here in Brazil, I don't see myself tanking or being a support on Neverwinter. I like to be HDPS on Neverwinter and I think I will always be.
The groups I run with usually are based on 2 dcs, 1 op, 1 gf, 1 gwf/sw...a different setup is 1 dc, 1 mof renegade, 1 op, 1 gf, 1 gwf/sw. I don't think there are a lot of debuffs here.
Crushing Pin can be irrelevant sometimes, ok, but still, for us on PC Knee Breaker is way more damage than CS if you are a totally dps focused toon like I am.
I already give up 1 encounter for a buff, that's it. Yeah, I know I need it, but as a HDPS toon I can't afford dropping another encounter to buff the party, I'd play tactician if I wanted to spend 2 of my 3 encounters for buffing skills.
But well, everyone has a different playstyle. Cerebo likes to buff the party, you like to change things according to the situation, and me..well, I always use the same encounters no matter the group I run with xD
Hælja, Swordmaster Conqueror Guardian Fighter of Thieves World
Anyway, I'm gonna repeat it.
I tank t1 and t2 dungeons, but who doesn't? I've run several t1 and t2 dungeons on my SW without any OP or GF in the group. You don't even need a tank for ORcus if you got 2 decent ranged hdps. Maybe you need a tank for Ethraniev Marrowslake.
I never tried to tank FBI, but two or three times tom insisted we didn't need a tank and that I could do it. We ran, I died like 8 or 9 times in the process
When I created this toon I said to myself "I'm gonna be a HDPS toon and that's it". I like the way you play your GF, changing to fit the situation, but I'm a bit different. I don't care being hybrid and I don't care buffing. I'm not selfish but if I wanted to buff I'd play DC or mof renegade cw.
I tanked all the burning crusade content back in Wow and a bit of Icecrown Citadel. I played as dps sword and board paladins and fighters on DDO (The stances and skills I used all generates a lot of threat so I was forced to tank). The way things work on Neverwinter let me do dps on a GF without holding aggro if the tank is good so I'm happy.
I have 2 kinds of setup with Sani and Tom and 1 setup when I make when I create the group.
With Sani and Tom is usually 1 OP, 1 DPS GF (me), 1 GWF or SW, 1 DC, 1 Mof Renegade CW. Sometimes they replace for 1 OP, 1 DPS GF (me), 1 GWF or SW, 2 DCs.
My personal and favorite setup is 1 Tactician GF, 1 DPS GF (Me), 1 DC, 1 Mof Renegade CW, 1 GWF or SW.
Like I said, I don't understand much about buff/debuff stacking formulas, but I talked about Crushing Pin just as an addition.
The thing is: for us on PC (I don't know how things work on PS4/Xbox), Knee Breaker is way superior to CS if you are a totally dps focused toon like I am.
I already use a buffing encounter, that's ITF, I use because it increases my damage as well. I wouldn't drop a second encounter leaving me with only KC to buff others. I'd play as tactician if I wanted to buff others.
But well, people are different. You like to change your skills according to the group, Cerebo likes to buff the party while doing some dps. But me? Well, I'm a totally dps focused toon and I'm always using what increases my dps.
When I started my GF I used to use a sentence for MSVA and FBI pugs (I don't do fbi and msva pugs anymore after a KC drama on a very bad MSVA group), the sentence was "3.9 HDPS GF LF FBI/MSVA. I'm not a tank". Like I said and dreadmore said, you can't really tank if you need 3 DCs spamming AA to survive. So changing this build description to "HDPS GF" is a good idea, or else, like dreadmore said "someone" is going to think he/she is right about saying that a very strong dps GF can tank and that's not true.
The initiative of Cerebo and the details on the topic are very nice, I appreciate it. I'd follow his advices if I was new to DPS GF, but nobody is going to change my mind that Knee Breaker is superior to Commander Strike
Hælja, Swordmaster Conqueror Guardian Fighter of Thieves World
It's not an easy playstyle, but it's a lot of fun, especially since your survival is on the knife's edge. So you either pump out as much DPS as you can take... or you fail miserably and become a professional floor inspector.
But yeah, I pointed out to SK earlier in that he should put a big flashing warning sign (or bold or something) saying that this build is not for the new players and defintetly not for the undergeared.
I'm gonna try for the LAST time to answer you but I'm not going to use all words as I'm no clown to keep repeating stuff on this bad forum.
People like to play in different ways. You like to change according to situations, Cerebo likes to buff. But me, I'm a totally dps focused toon. I already use ITF, I wouldn't drop Knee Breaker for another buffing skill. I'd rather play as tactician gf, mof renegade cw or a dc if I wanted to buff.
It's just a matter of game style. I'm dps single-minded like I said.
About crushing pin, I usually run FBI with tom or sani. I don't really know exactly how buff/debuff stacking works but I doubt with 1 op, 1 ac dc and 1 mof renegade we would be at debuff cap.
Anyway. For us on PC, Knee Breaker is superior to CS, I don't know how things work on PS4/Xbox.
I appreciate your way of playing and I really appreciate the topic Cerebo made, it can help some GFs who want to dps.
But like dreadmore said, if you need 3 DCs spamming AA, that's not tanking. "Someone" who is really jealous and blind can use this topic to try to show people that a very strong dps GF can tank, and that's not true.
To finish: Nobody is conving me that CS is superior to Knee Breaker
Hælja, Swordmaster Conqueror Guardian Fighter of Thieves World