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Thorin's Mighty Axe - GWF Guide
fcrowles
Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Hero Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users Posts: 136 Bounty Hunter
Edit 5/11 : Updated PvP guide.
Hey there. I'm Thorin from MindFlayer server. I am a level 60 Great Weapon Fighter. I read these forums from time to time and I always see people struggling and complaining with GWF. I would like to do my best to help you out! If you have any questions feel free to ask me in game. Thorin@Fcrowles
Leveling up:
This is what people seem to regret the most. I personally didn't have any troubles. My first death was level 51 so I'll do my best to share my experience. Keep in mind I did not do any dungeons passed 30, it took too long to get into one at the rate I was leveling. This is also a guide for people who have the legacy weapon because that is the path I took.
Level 1-5 : Intro
Face stomp opponents and as soon as you finish the sewer quest pick up your mail. Legacy weapon!
Levels 5-16 : Roflstomp Mode
The legacy weapon is ridiculously powerful. Just equip skills as you get them, try them all out. AoE works wonders with this weapon. No real strategy here, you should overpower everyone you face against.
Levels 16-25 : Cleric Mode
As soon as you get 16 pick up the cleric companion. She will make your life so much easier. She will save you butt loads on potions. I understand how cool the dire wolf is but the cleric is just so much more useful. Your encounters don't really matter at this point because the cleric will keep you running. Focus the adds first, use wicked strike at-will for 3+ monsters an Sure strike for 1-2. I recommend using Avalanche of Steel as your daily. It will save you in a big pull and destroy everything. It also looks awesome.
Levels 25-30: Dying of old age
These were the hell levels for me. They weren't hard but you fight bandits and bandits use potions. The fights are long and tedious. The cleric should still keep you alive, you might have to start using potions at this point. On gear try to focus on defense, power, and regen/life steal. Continue using Avalanche of Steel for solo. For encounters I use single target encounters. Restoring strike, Takedown and Mighty Leap for a AoE. I'd sprint into a crowd, if there are a lot of weak enemies I use Restoring strike and Takedown on the tough one, then go into Unstoppable and spam wicked strike until the weak ones are at about 40% Then I use mighty leap to finish them before they use a potion or a scroll of healing.
Levels 30-50: Time to shine
These levels were MADE for a Great Weapon Fighter. Tons of weak enemies all piled up in small groups. Use Weapon master strike in place of wicked strike and only use it when there are 3+ enemies. It's beastly. The cleric will save you on tons of potions and basically keep your health full after a fight. These were the fastest easiest levels for my GWF and I ran through things faster than a CW and a TR. I replace Mighty Leap with Flourish and keep the other two. I enter a fight and use my single targets on the big guy, then spam the WMS to kill the little ones then when the cooldowns are over on my encounters I use them on the big guy once more.
Levels 50-55 : Hell
These were the hardest levels by far ever for me. The fire mountain took SO many potions I lost about 10 gold. The cleric was now so weak she wasn't even worth using. I switched to the Dire wolf to get him to level 30. I think using a tank companion would be better or an AoE one. Everything in this area sucks for GWF. Lots of point blank AOE, ground AOE, Aura AOE. All I can recommend is use potions. I used the same encounters. I switched my daily to slam once you get the 5 points in battle awareness. It's all about getting into unstoppable and killing as much as you can before it runs out using AoE. When they are down to single target you can chain CC them with Takedown and Flourish, kiting if you need to.
Levels 55-60: Downhill
These levels became much easier. The drow come in large groups and Slam + WMS + Unstoppable just destroys them. I use the same build, just less potions. Oh, I replaced Takedown with Indomitable battle strike.
End game:
Strategy: Stay in unstoppable as long as possible. Unstoppable raises action point gain faster than any other class. Slam + Unstoppable + WMS is crazy damage.
Build:
Feats -
Heroic :
Unstoppable Action - 5/5 - Bread and Butter of the build.
Endless Assault - 3/3 - More damage on encounters the better.
Disciple of Strength -3/3 - More damage the better.
Steely Defense - 5/5 - More power more benefit from Slam
Devastating Critical - 3/3 - A lot of attacks means a lot of crits
Weapon Mastery 1/3 - Nothing else to put it in
Destroyer:
Great Weapon Focus - 5/5 - GWS is your primary damage tool.
Deep Gash - 5/5 - More damage from crits, can't complain.
Staying Power - 5/5 - Weapon Master strike is awesome.
Battle Awareness - 5/5 - 25% more power? So Whaaa
Destroyer's purpose - 1/1 - Faster unstoppable the better
Sentinel:
Student of the Sword - 5/5 - Now you're increasing everyone elses damage by 15%, awesome.
Powerful Challenge - 5/5 - 15% more damage sounds nice.
Passives:
Steel Blitz - Chance of extra attack means faster action points and more determination.
Steadfast Determination - If you have a decent GF you won't be taking many hits so this is good.
Encounters:
Flourish - Very nice damage when it crits.
Indomitable Battle Strike - When you are AOEing a bunch of weaklings use this to finish one off.
Daring Shout - This increases your determination like CRAZY, decreases their resistance and increases your dmg.
Daily:
Slam - All you ever need and should use in any situation.
Crescendo - Really pretty, but that's about it.
At Will:
Sure Strike - 1-2 Targets
Weapon Master Strike - 3+ Targets
Gear:
Priority 1 : Power - More power means more benefit from Slam.
Priority 2: Recovery - Faster cooldowns means faster action points
Priority 3: Defense - Raises power.
Personal Experience:
I usually score second in the DPS charts. Its rare I'll beat a TR, not impossible but rare. I usually beat CW unless they outgear me like crazy. I'm only at a 7000 gear score. Indomitable can crit for about 14-15k which is impressive to me, not sure what rogues crit for. I've main tanked heroic dungeons with this build I change Daring Shout for Come and Get it and I can usually hold threat, not so much on single targets, but clerics are beasts.
PvP:
Passives - Steel Defense, Steel Blitz
Encounters - Flourish, Indomitable battle strike, Takedown
Dailies - Crescendo, Slam
If you want to focus on PvP remove the 10 points from Sentinel and put them in Instigator. Take 5/5 Unstoppable Recovery and 5/5 Stunning Flourish.
Strategy - Run in, initiate with flourish. The one second stun will let you land a takedown with it being dodged. When hes proned hit him with he Indomitable battle strike. This will nearly kill anyone squishy if you are geared. If you have your daily finish him with Crescendo.
Stay with the cleric and CW. Keep the rogues off them. Rogue is your easiest kill. You are not rambo. Don't charge in and tank. If you are fighting a melee use sprint to put distance between you two while you're waiting on cooldowns.
...vs Rogue - This is your ideal target. Everyone else struggles on Rogues. You sir, do not. Start with a Flourish. It cant be dodged. He's now stunned, hit him with the takedown, hes now proned, then hit him with the indomitable. He should be very low or dead. If you can kill him quickly side step and sure strike him to death. If hes at half or so then sprint away. He will follow. Wait for flourish and repeat. Crescendo as needed.
...vs Control Wizards - This is a tough fight. You have to eat his first wave of control effects and sprint towards him. He will usually flash away. After his second flash hit him with all 3 encounters, then pop unstoppable and keep right on his tail. Save Crescendo for when he is low or Slam if you don't think it will finish him.
..vs Guardian Fighters - I usually don't fight them, they take too long to kill and aren't much of a threat.
..vs Cleric - Hardest match up. You have a very brief window to kill one. Eat their encounters, pop slam, unstoppable and all 3 encounters right away and unload. If you don't kill them before their cooldowns reset or slam wears off you're better off running.
Hey there. I'm Thorin from MindFlayer server. I am a level 60 Great Weapon Fighter. I read these forums from time to time and I always see people struggling and complaining with GWF. I would like to do my best to help you out! If you have any questions feel free to ask me in game. Thorin@Fcrowles
Leveling up:
This is what people seem to regret the most. I personally didn't have any troubles. My first death was level 51 so I'll do my best to share my experience. Keep in mind I did not do any dungeons passed 30, it took too long to get into one at the rate I was leveling. This is also a guide for people who have the legacy weapon because that is the path I took.
Level 1-5 : Intro
Face stomp opponents and as soon as you finish the sewer quest pick up your mail. Legacy weapon!
Levels 5-16 : Roflstomp Mode
The legacy weapon is ridiculously powerful. Just equip skills as you get them, try them all out. AoE works wonders with this weapon. No real strategy here, you should overpower everyone you face against.
Levels 16-25 : Cleric Mode
As soon as you get 16 pick up the cleric companion. She will make your life so much easier. She will save you butt loads on potions. I understand how cool the dire wolf is but the cleric is just so much more useful. Your encounters don't really matter at this point because the cleric will keep you running. Focus the adds first, use wicked strike at-will for 3+ monsters an Sure strike for 1-2. I recommend using Avalanche of Steel as your daily. It will save you in a big pull and destroy everything. It also looks awesome.
Levels 25-30: Dying of old age
These were the hell levels for me. They weren't hard but you fight bandits and bandits use potions. The fights are long and tedious. The cleric should still keep you alive, you might have to start using potions at this point. On gear try to focus on defense, power, and regen/life steal. Continue using Avalanche of Steel for solo. For encounters I use single target encounters. Restoring strike, Takedown and Mighty Leap for a AoE. I'd sprint into a crowd, if there are a lot of weak enemies I use Restoring strike and Takedown on the tough one, then go into Unstoppable and spam wicked strike until the weak ones are at about 40% Then I use mighty leap to finish them before they use a potion or a scroll of healing.
Levels 30-50: Time to shine
These levels were MADE for a Great Weapon Fighter. Tons of weak enemies all piled up in small groups. Use Weapon master strike in place of wicked strike and only use it when there are 3+ enemies. It's beastly. The cleric will save you on tons of potions and basically keep your health full after a fight. These were the fastest easiest levels for my GWF and I ran through things faster than a CW and a TR. I replace Mighty Leap with Flourish and keep the other two. I enter a fight and use my single targets on the big guy, then spam the WMS to kill the little ones then when the cooldowns are over on my encounters I use them on the big guy once more.
Levels 50-55 : Hell
These were the hardest levels by far ever for me. The fire mountain took SO many potions I lost about 10 gold. The cleric was now so weak she wasn't even worth using. I switched to the Dire wolf to get him to level 30. I think using a tank companion would be better or an AoE one. Everything in this area sucks for GWF. Lots of point blank AOE, ground AOE, Aura AOE. All I can recommend is use potions. I used the same encounters. I switched my daily to slam once you get the 5 points in battle awareness. It's all about getting into unstoppable and killing as much as you can before it runs out using AoE. When they are down to single target you can chain CC them with Takedown and Flourish, kiting if you need to.
Levels 55-60: Downhill
These levels became much easier. The drow come in large groups and Slam + WMS + Unstoppable just destroys them. I use the same build, just less potions. Oh, I replaced Takedown with Indomitable battle strike.
End game:
Strategy: Stay in unstoppable as long as possible. Unstoppable raises action point gain faster than any other class. Slam + Unstoppable + WMS is crazy damage.
Build:
Feats -
Heroic :
Unstoppable Action - 5/5 - Bread and Butter of the build.
Endless Assault - 3/3 - More damage on encounters the better.
Disciple of Strength -3/3 - More damage the better.
Steely Defense - 5/5 - More power more benefit from Slam
Devastating Critical - 3/3 - A lot of attacks means a lot of crits
Weapon Mastery 1/3 - Nothing else to put it in
Destroyer:
Great Weapon Focus - 5/5 - GWS is your primary damage tool.
Deep Gash - 5/5 - More damage from crits, can't complain.
Staying Power - 5/5 - Weapon Master strike is awesome.
Battle Awareness - 5/5 - 25% more power? So Whaaa
Destroyer's purpose - 1/1 - Faster unstoppable the better
Sentinel:
Student of the Sword - 5/5 - Now you're increasing everyone elses damage by 15%, awesome.
Powerful Challenge - 5/5 - 15% more damage sounds nice.
Passives:
Steel Blitz - Chance of extra attack means faster action points and more determination.
Steadfast Determination - If you have a decent GF you won't be taking many hits so this is good.
Encounters:
Flourish - Very nice damage when it crits.
Indomitable Battle Strike - When you are AOEing a bunch of weaklings use this to finish one off.
Daring Shout - This increases your determination like CRAZY, decreases their resistance and increases your dmg.
Daily:
Slam - All you ever need and should use in any situation.
Crescendo - Really pretty, but that's about it.
At Will:
Sure Strike - 1-2 Targets
Weapon Master Strike - 3+ Targets
Gear:
Priority 1 : Power - More power means more benefit from Slam.
Priority 2: Recovery - Faster cooldowns means faster action points
Priority 3: Defense - Raises power.
Personal Experience:
I usually score second in the DPS charts. Its rare I'll beat a TR, not impossible but rare. I usually beat CW unless they outgear me like crazy. I'm only at a 7000 gear score. Indomitable can crit for about 14-15k which is impressive to me, not sure what rogues crit for. I've main tanked heroic dungeons with this build I change Daring Shout for Come and Get it and I can usually hold threat, not so much on single targets, but clerics are beasts.
PvP:
Passives - Steel Defense, Steel Blitz
Encounters - Flourish, Indomitable battle strike, Takedown
Dailies - Crescendo, Slam
If you want to focus on PvP remove the 10 points from Sentinel and put them in Instigator. Take 5/5 Unstoppable Recovery and 5/5 Stunning Flourish.
Strategy - Run in, initiate with flourish. The one second stun will let you land a takedown with it being dodged. When hes proned hit him with he Indomitable battle strike. This will nearly kill anyone squishy if you are geared. If you have your daily finish him with Crescendo.
Stay with the cleric and CW. Keep the rogues off them. Rogue is your easiest kill. You are not rambo. Don't charge in and tank. If you are fighting a melee use sprint to put distance between you two while you're waiting on cooldowns.
...vs Rogue - This is your ideal target. Everyone else struggles on Rogues. You sir, do not. Start with a Flourish. It cant be dodged. He's now stunned, hit him with the takedown, hes now proned, then hit him with the indomitable. He should be very low or dead. If you can kill him quickly side step and sure strike him to death. If hes at half or so then sprint away. He will follow. Wait for flourish and repeat. Crescendo as needed.
...vs Control Wizards - This is a tough fight. You have to eat his first wave of control effects and sprint towards him. He will usually flash away. After his second flash hit him with all 3 encounters, then pop unstoppable and keep right on his tail. Save Crescendo for when he is low or Slam if you don't think it will finish him.
..vs Guardian Fighters - I usually don't fight them, they take too long to kill and aren't much of a threat.
..vs Cleric - Hardest match up. You have a very brief window to kill one. Eat their encounters, pop slam, unstoppable and all 3 encounters right away and unload. If you don't kill them before their cooldowns reset or slam wears off you're better off running.
Post edited by fcrowles on
0
Comments
Would be cool to see one in the future, but now it's good to have different experiences, as everyone really has their own experience with the game.
Marginal mistake I found in your heroic feats: you spent only 19 points. guess you wanted to write 2/3 Weapon Mastery.
thanks!
He did post powers.
You truely haven't read it then.
armor penetration helps you do closer to true damage on foes with damage mitigation to physical attacks. power increases your damage in general.
1k power will do more damage than 500 power and 500 arpen on zero mitigation trash mobs, but 500 power 500 arpen will day way more damage on high mitigation boss mobs and such
I think its true that armor pen will increase your damage over recovery BUT recovery gets slam going faster and I believe 25% more power will increase your damage more than any amount of armor pen.
Whats your build and What is AW?
There is one, its for astral diamonds at the vendor. There's also a club that drops a lot in Heroic Cloak Tower
I play a dwarf and its not that big. The glow isnt as impressive when you enchant it but it does look like you would expect a real great axe to look like.
have you've done the math on this? cause my Flourish hits for 3500-3700 crit with WMS debuff up, without it, its at least 2800-2900. i'm level 42 with 2k power, that's a BIG gain just to put the debuff up through alot of effort
Edit: IF you are wondering how I got that much power, I use only gear with power and defense on it, even have a level 28 bracers that have 175 power on it. Anytime I lose power I seem to lose damage by alot, and the gear I get keeps getting in quests are me reflection/armor pen/recover/defense. >.<:
I can't do exact math because I don't have a parser. Its hard to say. I will say this. If you get a crit with indomitable or Flourish with the WMF then it's totally worth it to keep WMF debuff on. If not I'd have to say from looking at the numbers spamming sure strike is higher damage. I tried on the dummies, but I have so many things that proc from swings I get a lot of extra damage from attack more times. Enchantment damage, crit DoT, ect.
There are three others. One is a club from a boss in early Cloak Tower. Another is a axe from the astral diamond vendor. The third is a level 80 blue version of the club from Heroic Cloak Tower.
i call BS my damage was less - not to mention you need to be 'locked in' for 4 full strikes to get the proper damage out of it and you cant afford that in most boss fights and dungeons because you need the mobility.
the only place you would trade sure strike out of wicked strike is on bosses to increase your single target dps on them. thats not your job any way and you should be peeling and doing heavy aoe dps on trash mobs.
sure strike is useless when you get wms