Cool! This build is very much a scaling build as well. As gear and enchantment slots improve you will continue to see vast improvements. Thanks for sharing!
There is so many people who speak so badly of this class. I think it would be very wise and helpful to the community, if you made a video! I think a lot of people would enjoy that, also take some of the flames away. I know I sure would enjoy it, as GWF will be my next class, I'd like to see it in action!
I have never done video work with computer before, I am pretty sure it would be a newbie production. Maybe I will look into it though.
Thanks for posting this. Had I not bothered to do some research I would have picked the Destroyer tree but your guide has given me some serious pause. I really like the idea of filling that pseudo off-tank role and controlling the add packs but before I respec I have a question regarding the capstone...
I agree with what you've said here: 50% power is a very strong capstone. But in the description it says the buff goes away when you are struck. If you are taking mob pack aggro and dpsing them plus relying on taking damage for determination building, then surely the uptime on this would be short and rare. In your experience what exactly is the uptime like? 50% power is great, but only if it's up long enough to take advantage of it.
I think this feat goes away when you are hit because if it didn't it wouldn't exist due to being massively overpowered. However as the feat is I feel like it is extremely strong. The purpose of the OP's build is to control the massive adds, and then burn them down. So this feat provides multiple advantages. When mobs are attacking your cleric, and you are trying to pull them off, you get 50% extra power to do so. I feel like this feat also allows you to close your single target dmg margin so this build will still have some use once those adds are gone.
Would also like some feedback. Is there an internal cooldown built into this feat? And if so how short is it. For example, if I just took a hit, and one second later my tank gets hit 5 times, one second after that I get struck again. Does your encounter or at-will performed during that one second benefit from the feat, and can this on again off again rotation of the buff continually cycle during mob attack animations( when you are not being hit, even though you have agro)?
I think this feat goes away when you are hit because if it didn't it wouldn't exist due to being massively overpowered. However as the feat is I feel like it is extremely strong. The purpose of the OP's build is to control the massive adds, and then burn them down. So this feat provides multiple advantages. When mobs are attacking your cleric, and you are trying to pull them off, you get 50% extra power to do so. I feel like this feat also allows you to close your single target dmg margin so this build will still have some use once those adds are gone.
Would also like some feedback. Is there an internal cooldown built into this feat? And if so how short is it. For example, if I just took a hit, and one second later my tank gets hit 5 times, one second after that I get struck again. Does your encounter or at-will performed during that one second benefit from the feat, and can this on again off again rotation of the buff continually cycle during mob attack animations( when you are not being hit, even though you have agro)?
The capstone buff ticks up and down constantly with the ebb and flow of combat no cooldown. Just up and down based on what's going on around you and your group.
That is a great point Pyke, if the buff didnt have a way to negate back down no other build would be possible because it would be beyond broken OP. Well it would be fun in one sense, it would not make for fun or varied builds cause you'd be gimp without the feat.
Tonight myself and a group of 4 others (2 clerics, 1 wizard, 1 rogue, and me GWF) took down the epic red dragon in a pug group. I tanked the run and this build did fantastic at what it's suppose to do. We all had a lot of fun and successfully 1 shotted the end fight.
I don't know how to take a screenshot? I wanted to take a shot of the group standing over the dragons face haha! Damage done on the run was over 17 million, 5 million ahead of the wizard and 6 million ahead of the rogue.
Honestly though numbers aside this guy is just **** good at owning the battle field. The rogue f'ing loved all the free combat advantage, the clerics let me me pull and set up our fights. If we needed to range pull the wizard would range pull them and I would grab them all with not so fast after we got them into position. Clerics drop a circle to fight in and away we go.
Hey Extinction, so I've tried different things within your template. In PvE aswell in PvP and you did ask for my feedbacks, so there it is:
Feet footed instead of Unstoppable Recovery, I thought it would have make sense as a PvP build, but it did not. Once you have CC an enemy are VERY close to melee ranged, and even Combat advantage ranged aswell. So, the move speed is not practical and becomes obsolete. Unstoppable Recovery, stays the best choice for PvE and PvP combat.
Stunning Flourish over Group Assault, it works perfectly in PvP and you can really feel a difference specially when you have Combat Advantage this thing enable you to burst down almost anything and take out effectively 1/3 of your opponent's hp if you crit. Additionally the CC after all the hits give you the upper hand to land you other abilities as the target cannot move for more a long period of time. In PvE, the crit bonus is "ok", but find itself completely useless most of the time unless you are on a single target dps.
Group Assault MUST be your first choice if you wanna prioritize PvE, I felt like my dps wasn't enough when I encounter a big pack of mobs even with the help of the CW. I was really disappointed over these 5 points choice.
I guess it comes down on what you wanna do first with your char, PvP or PvE. Because choosing one of each will make a huge difference in both cases.
I although thought about removing Student of the Sword to actually get both, I haven't tried that option yet. But, I think it would be a horrible idea.
Instigator's Vengeance, well in PvE this beauty is ALWAYS up ! In PvP its another thing, you efficiently benefit from it only when you are in Unstoppable. I find it ok, since in every single encounter you end up using Unstoppable anyway.
I also tried different things in the Heroic template, which ended up being mistake after mistake. I will explain myself so other GWF won't do the same since the reset option is so expensive !
Unstoppable Action, this is a MUST end of the story. 5 points in it, either PvE, PvP or whatever you must have it. I only put 2 points in it and I really lost so so much dps.
Armor Specialization and Steel Defense, honestly armor specialization have to be ignored unless you wannabe "tank". Its bonus is not strong enough to REALLY make a difference. I think you didn't even mention it in your build if I am not mistaken Extinction. Steel Defense, 4 points is strictly enough. to gain that extra 1 point in either crit or crit dmg.
My thoughts were get the maximum Attack power bonuses to boost Instigator's Vengeance but I was very wrong because the Power that provides these two skill won't make a huge difference in the process even all maxed out. Your gear will !
Toughness, can be a viable option for PvP purposes or "tank" ones. I think that toughness combined with unstoppable recovery can give you that extra edge to not get one shot by a cheesy TR.
Anyway, I think Instigator is THE way to go for any GWF. Your guide and thoughts on the class Extinction are spotless so far, it is a class which is heavily gear dependent unfortunately. You will start to feel a huge difference when your gear will be above 8000 GS.
Another thing I would like to point out, in PvP you do not need Leap or NSF. It isn't your primary job to control a target, you can reach your target easily if you don't mess up your stamina. Other classes have DODGE abilities, we don't. In order to gain combat advantage fast enough or avoid incoming Encounter, after your Flourish run straight up behind your target. Do not try to go around it, just run straight and turn around. Most of your single target Encounter will auto follow the target it might even turn the camera for you.
A note on Roar, Roar when combined with NsF deals a great deal of damage but the sad part of Roar is actually hitting targets properly ! This isn't an easy AoE, you will need some kind of CC from a CW Daily, or get the aggro on yourself. If you are lucky the mobs will stack up like sheep. The efficiency of Roar depends of your ability to place the Encounter well as well as your Party Members to back you up with CC so it makes it easier. I personally found it difficult to use in PuG.
Alright, that was it for my thoughts and feed backs of your build. I will keep using it, this is the most viable build at the moment and will be for a long time. I think tank GWF will soon show up, crossing fingers ! xD
Thanks for those who read the bunch of text, any replies are most welcome.
Edit: 120 Critical Rating with a blue Enchantment gives you 0.5% Critical Chances. Another thing on Roar, I think it would be best to use NsF along with Leap to prolong the Combat Advantage buff in PvE with a good sense of timing. Sorry for my English.
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jshookzusafMember, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian UsersPosts: 1Arc User
edited May 2013
Hey extinction can this build be viable to level up in like 20+?
Thanks for all the info xkxkxk, your feedback testing and input is very helpful to the thread so thank you for that. Ironically, you may have missed when I updated my feat selection - which funny enough pretty much confirms most of my feat selection choices are optimal as you have also tested.
Stunning flourish and Group Assault is the first big choice between pve and pvp and I'd fully agree that whichever one you take begins shaping your character as they are big power boosts for what they do. Stunning flourish IMO is an auto include for pvp builds and group assault is an auto include for pve builds. With help from the others following the thread maybe we can get a pvp instigator build put together even?
Interesting your thoughts on leaping with ground slam in pvp. For pvp I thought it might be useful to stick on a target, at least in theory. I'd use flourish and takedown as well to really lock down a target while I beat on it. Wasn't sure on the third encounter in pvp. Indomitable does beast damage, maybe indomitable, takedown and flourish. Starting with a flourish with the crit and buff from talents and stun, while he's stunned at the end takedown to knock them down and keep them locked, indomitable while they are getting back up. I could see that being really nasty and bursty especially if some of that crits and they are Armor shredded and bleeding for the big indomitable at the end. I know my indomitable alone has crit for over 24,000 damage against debuffed monsters. If the damage isn't scaled down for pvp that alone would one shot me out lol. Never mind a cc lockdown with flourish and takedown to start it off.
Back on the pve side of things, here's my thoughts. 3rd encounter beyond not so fast and indomitable. Tier 1 dungeons are not as chaotic as tier 2 trash and add wise. I really liked flourish for tier 1. Tier 2 there are so many more mobs and roar has been working great.
Everyone that is reading this, try to remember this as its a huge boost to dps. Whenever possible hit your encounter powers during unstoppable!! Very very important. Not so fast is often used during the pull, seconds after that you should be getting hit and getting determination. Bust unstoppable then hit your other 2 encounters. As you get better gear with recovery your slam will be up so often and is a monster dps boost.
Xkxkxk is bang on, the build scales very hard with gear and enchants. As you continue to progress with gear it gets better and better.
Hey extinction can this build be viable to level up in like 20+?
I used this build from 1-60 so it is def possible. That being said there are some very painful spots along the way where GWF feels gimp. I wish it wasn't that way but that is the reality and I can't deny that. If I remember correctly 20 to 35-40 was pretty weak feeling.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Extinction - GWF
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junkiesnationMember, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian UsersPosts: 17Arc User
edited May 2013
At level 24, GWF feels "weak" compared to other classes, but gameplay is still easy.
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rasupapMember, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian UsersPosts: 0Arc User
edited May 2013
Hey extinction777, thank you for the write-up you have been a great source of information!
I have one question about the build, after you grab all your paragon points in instigator I noticed you chose to go with 5/5 Deep gash and 5/5 Student of the sword. Why did you not snag 5/5 Great Weapon Focus (destroyer tree 1st tier)? Another flat 10% buff to Wicked Strike seems like it would scale well with Group Assault.
I had theorycrafted a build like this using initiator path with bleeds and am happy to see someone else is already making it work well, as far as erasing fodder, I haven't come across anyone else yet (currently lvl 47) who can clear non elite packs as consistently. I'd say the dungeons thusfar have favoured rogues moreso than this kind of spec (more 1v1/elite fights than wiping out trash packs) but the gaps are beginning to close for me on the dps charts.
Haven't been outdamaged by another GWF yet, and only been passed by rogues with higher gearscore than mine (4k at lvl 47). While you do give a list of priority in terms of gearstats, are there any pieces in particular that are must-gets or BiS? what sort of enchants would you reccomend? (assuming power and defence ones but i could be wrong)
Hey extinction777, thank you for the write-up you have been a great source of information!
I have one question about the build, after you grab all your paragon points in instigator I noticed you chose to go with 5/5 Deep gash and 5/5 Student of the sword. Why did you not snag 5/5 Great Weapon Focus (destroyer tree 1st tier)? Another flat 10% buff to Wicked Strike seems like it would scale well with Group Assault.
Let me know what you think!
Thanks for the question and here is my answer:
Nothing I state here is hard fact but this is my current reasoning.
The bleed scales exponentially with your power with no diminishing returns on damage or reduction based on targets hit. Worst case scenario my base roughly 5000 power without capstone stacks that's 750 at 15% bleed damage on a crit over 5 seconds. This is the same damage no matter if 1 target or 10 targets are hit. Also if you need to move to avoid a red blast, got knocked away etc your damage is still ticking while you are unable to swing.
Great weapon focus is capped at 10% whether 1 target or 10 it still outputs 10%. It's defiantly nice but let's look at the scalability of group assault in this scenario vs great weapon focus:
Group assault beasts great weapon focus so hard it's not very comparable. But your question is bleed vs great weapon focus. The bleed scales just like group assault does:
I've never hard calculated out what the 10% to the skill actually is damage wise which is the missing puzzle piece to see how much raw damage increase that is per swing. From there a person could officially math it up and see how great weapon focus matches up. The other thing is if bleeds proc tenebrous procs or not. If the bleeds do in fact proc the enchants the debate is done as it is right now in game because the bleeds would own great weapon focus insanely hard.
Edit: another factor is multiple bleeds stacking, I see some heavy bleed numbers as the bleeds get stacked which leads me to believe that multiple bleeds stack instead of refresh. If that is the case then bleeds continue to be very nice. Again this whole scenario is looked at worst case scenario, our cap stone still boosts our power and makes our bleeds the most lethal of all the possible specs.
I had theorycrafted a build like this using initiator path with bleeds and am happy to see someone else is already making it work well, as far as erasing fodder, I haven't come across anyone else yet (currently lvl 47) who can clear non elite packs as consistently. I'd say the dungeons thusfar have favoured rogues moreso than this kind of spec (more 1v1/elite fights than wiping out trash packs) but the gaps are beginning to close for me on the dps charts.
Haven't been outdamaged by another GWF yet, and only been passed by rogues with higher gearscore than mine (4k at lvl 47). While you do give a list of priority in terms of gearstats, are there any pieces in particular that are must-gets or BiS? what sort of enchants would you reccomend? (assuming power and defence ones but i could be wrong)
The current progression seems to be move up in dungeon difficulty add more monsters. The build continues to scale to the design of the progression better then any of the other classes as far as I have see. Early tier 1 epic the build doesn't shine as much as later in tier 1. By tier 2 you are beast mode in the dungeons.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Extinction - GWF
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rasupapMember, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian UsersPosts: 0Arc User
edited May 2013
what about ignoring student of the sword and taking great weapon focus + deep gash
what about ignoring student of the sword and taking great weapon focus + deep gash
The Armor shred is dps for the whole team, and increases the damage of all attacks. Student is way stronger then great weapon focus IMO.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Extinction - GWF
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sravingmMember, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Hero UsersPosts: 0Arc User
edited May 2013
Just wanted to say thanks much for this guide! I'm leveling up a GWF and enjoying it a lot, but was somewhat discouraged by the perception that the GWF is somehow broken. I understand that leveling may be more difficult (especially more difficult than a TR), but it is often the case that the more powerful classes are also more difficult to get to the final reward. Glad to see someone at least say that the GWF scales well into the endgame, and I'm very excited to try this build.
Just wanted to say thanks much for this guide! I'm leveling up a GWF and enjoying it a lot, but was somewhat discouraged by the perception that the GWF is somehow broken. I understand that leveling may be more difficult (especially more difficult than a TR), but it is often the case that the more powerful classes are also more difficult to get to the final reward. Glad to see someone at least say that the GWF scales well into the endgame, and I'm very excited to try this build.
Have fun on the journey to 60. Best of luck getting there. It was a lot of fun for me, some of the spots were pretty nasty though as I was levelling.
You skipped the best race for it. Humans seems to be OP for everything thanks to their +3 feats bonuses. But tieflings seems good too for a dps build thanks to their damage proc. Though? And yeah, I'd like to skip the "play what you like".
You skipped the best race for it. Humans seems to be OP for everything thanks to their +3 feats bonuses. But tieflings seems good too for a dps build thanks to their damage proc. Though? And yeah, I'd like to skip the "play what you like".
I play half Orc with starting +2str and +2dex. All points into str and dex. Human will have less crit and crit severity then the half Orc or lower str and lower crit severity.
Done with a PUG, I am looking for a hardcore/pro guild to farm T2s and get ready for the next content, just tell me in game Cammy@xkxkxk
Edit: Extinction, tell me what do you think about Come and get me following by NsF when you lack of CW or good CC within a group.
Cool Cammy nice dragon kill. I'm not sure if the non tier GWF dragon Armor dropped for you guys on the run. It's weird as its a BoP item and the graphic for it is terrible. A big chain coat lol, not sure if they forgot to make a proper graphic skin for it?
Come and get it, a couple fights it could be useful possibly. The frost giant end fight possibly as the adds are ridiculous in that fight and it could be useful to pull trash into the clerics circle to fight in? Most fights not neccassry if the group is fighting in the cleric circle from what I've seen anyway.
How does group assault work? Does it just buf wicked strikes damage by 5% or is it an infinite stack of 5% every time it hits?
Hey dat, group assault buffs wicked strike +5% per additional target hit. No "stacks" in the sense of stacking, but it does stack an additional 5% for every target beyond the first.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Extinction - GWF
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n3st34Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Hero UsersPosts: 1Arc User
edited May 2013
hey men,
thank u for your great guide i was really sad that i read whining posts how bad is GWF but this guide is awesome and i realy enjoy my meatgrinder but there is my question is it possible that u record some video from your gameplay and upload it to somewhere?thanks
Comments
Cool! This build is very much a scaling build as well. As gear and enchantment slots improve you will continue to see vast improvements. Thanks for sharing!
Extinction - GWF
I have never done video work with computer before, I am pretty sure it would be a newbie production. Maybe I will look into it though.
Extinction - GWF
Extinction - GWF
I think this feat goes away when you are hit because if it didn't it wouldn't exist due to being massively overpowered. However as the feat is I feel like it is extremely strong. The purpose of the OP's build is to control the massive adds, and then burn them down. So this feat provides multiple advantages. When mobs are attacking your cleric, and you are trying to pull them off, you get 50% extra power to do so. I feel like this feat also allows you to close your single target dmg margin so this build will still have some use once those adds are gone.
Would also like some feedback. Is there an internal cooldown built into this feat? And if so how short is it. For example, if I just took a hit, and one second later my tank gets hit 5 times, one second after that I get struck again. Does your encounter or at-will performed during that one second benefit from the feat, and can this on again off again rotation of the buff continually cycle during mob attack animations( when you are not being hit, even though you have agro)?
The capstone buff ticks up and down constantly with the ebb and flow of combat no cooldown. Just up and down based on what's going on around you and your group.
That is a great point Pyke, if the buff didnt have a way to negate back down no other build would be possible because it would be beyond broken OP. Well it would be fun in one sense, it would not make for fun or varied builds cause you'd be gimp without the feat.
Tonight myself and a group of 4 others (2 clerics, 1 wizard, 1 rogue, and me GWF) took down the epic red dragon in a pug group. I tanked the run and this build did fantastic at what it's suppose to do. We all had a lot of fun and successfully 1 shotted the end fight.
I don't know how to take a screenshot? I wanted to take a shot of the group standing over the dragons face haha! Damage done on the run was over 17 million, 5 million ahead of the wizard and 6 million ahead of the rogue.
Honestly though numbers aside this guy is just **** good at owning the battle field. The rogue f'ing loved all the free combat advantage, the clerics let me me pull and set up our fights. If we needed to range pull the wizard would range pull them and I would grab them all with not so fast after we got them into position. Clerics drop a circle to fight in and away we go.
Continue to love this build.
Extinction - GWF
Feet footed instead of Unstoppable Recovery, I thought it would have make sense as a PvP build, but it did not. Once you have CC an enemy are VERY close to melee ranged, and even Combat advantage ranged aswell. So, the move speed is not practical and becomes obsolete. Unstoppable Recovery, stays the best choice for PvE and PvP combat.
Stunning Flourish over Group Assault, it works perfectly in PvP and you can really feel a difference specially when you have Combat Advantage this thing enable you to burst down almost anything and take out effectively 1/3 of your opponent's hp if you crit. Additionally the CC after all the hits give you the upper hand to land you other abilities as the target cannot move for more a long period of time. In PvE, the crit bonus is "ok", but find itself completely useless most of the time unless you are on a single target dps.
Group Assault MUST be your first choice if you wanna prioritize PvE, I felt like my dps wasn't enough when I encounter a big pack of mobs even with the help of the CW. I was really disappointed over these 5 points choice.
I guess it comes down on what you wanna do first with your char, PvP or PvE. Because choosing one of each will make a huge difference in both cases.
I although thought about removing Student of the Sword to actually get both, I haven't tried that option yet. But, I think it would be a horrible idea.
Instigator's Vengeance, well in PvE this beauty is ALWAYS up ! In PvP its another thing, you efficiently benefit from it only when you are in Unstoppable. I find it ok, since in every single encounter you end up using Unstoppable anyway.
I also tried different things in the Heroic template, which ended up being mistake after mistake. I will explain myself so other GWF won't do the same since the reset option is so expensive !
Unstoppable Action, this is a MUST end of the story. 5 points in it, either PvE, PvP or whatever you must have it. I only put 2 points in it and I really lost so so much dps.
Armor Specialization and Steel Defense, honestly armor specialization have to be ignored unless you wannabe "tank". Its bonus is not strong enough to REALLY make a difference. I think you didn't even mention it in your build if I am not mistaken Extinction. Steel Defense, 4 points is strictly enough. to gain that extra 1 point in either crit or crit dmg.
My thoughts were get the maximum Attack power bonuses to boost Instigator's Vengeance but I was very wrong because the Power that provides these two skill won't make a huge difference in the process even all maxed out. Your gear will !
Toughness, can be a viable option for PvP purposes or "tank" ones. I think that toughness combined with unstoppable recovery can give you that extra edge to not get one shot by a cheesy TR.
Anyway, I think Instigator is THE way to go for any GWF. Your guide and thoughts on the class Extinction are spotless so far, it is a class which is heavily gear dependent unfortunately. You will start to feel a huge difference when your gear will be above 8000 GS.
Another thing I would like to point out, in PvP you do not need Leap or NSF. It isn't your primary job to control a target, you can reach your target easily if you don't mess up your stamina. Other classes have DODGE abilities, we don't. In order to gain combat advantage fast enough or avoid incoming Encounter, after your Flourish run straight up behind your target. Do not try to go around it, just run straight and turn around. Most of your single target Encounter will auto follow the target it might even turn the camera for you.
A note on Roar, Roar when combined with NsF deals a great deal of damage but the sad part of Roar is actually hitting targets properly ! This isn't an easy AoE, you will need some kind of CC from a CW Daily, or get the aggro on yourself. If you are lucky the mobs will stack up like sheep. The efficiency of Roar depends of your ability to place the Encounter well as well as your Party Members to back you up with CC so it makes it easier. I personally found it difficult to use in PuG.
Alright, that was it for my thoughts and feed backs of your build. I will keep using it, this is the most viable build at the moment and will be for a long time. I think tank GWF will soon show up, crossing fingers ! xD
Thanks for those who read the bunch of text, any replies are most welcome.
@xkxk1.
Edit: 120 Critical Rating with a blue Enchantment gives you 0.5% Critical Chances. Another thing on Roar, I think it would be best to use NsF along with Leap to prolong the Combat Advantage buff in PvE with a good sense of timing. Sorry for my English.
Stunning flourish and Group Assault is the first big choice between pve and pvp and I'd fully agree that whichever one you take begins shaping your character as they are big power boosts for what they do. Stunning flourish IMO is an auto include for pvp builds and group assault is an auto include for pve builds. With help from the others following the thread maybe we can get a pvp instigator build put together even?
Interesting your thoughts on leaping with ground slam in pvp. For pvp I thought it might be useful to stick on a target, at least in theory. I'd use flourish and takedown as well to really lock down a target while I beat on it. Wasn't sure on the third encounter in pvp. Indomitable does beast damage, maybe indomitable, takedown and flourish. Starting with a flourish with the crit and buff from talents and stun, while he's stunned at the end takedown to knock them down and keep them locked, indomitable while they are getting back up. I could see that being really nasty and bursty especially if some of that crits and they are Armor shredded and bleeding for the big indomitable at the end. I know my indomitable alone has crit for over 24,000 damage against debuffed monsters. If the damage isn't scaled down for pvp that alone would one shot me out lol. Never mind a cc lockdown with flourish and takedown to start it off.
Back on the pve side of things, here's my thoughts. 3rd encounter beyond not so fast and indomitable. Tier 1 dungeons are not as chaotic as tier 2 trash and add wise. I really liked flourish for tier 1. Tier 2 there are so many more mobs and roar has been working great.
Everyone that is reading this, try to remember this as its a huge boost to dps. Whenever possible hit your encounter powers during unstoppable!! Very very important. Not so fast is often used during the pull, seconds after that you should be getting hit and getting determination. Bust unstoppable then hit your other 2 encounters. As you get better gear with recovery your slam will be up so often and is a monster dps boost.
Xkxkxk is bang on, the build scales very hard with gear and enchants. As you continue to progress with gear it gets better and better.
Extinction - GWF
I used this build from 1-60 so it is def possible. That being said there are some very painful spots along the way where GWF feels gimp. I wish it wasn't that way but that is the reality and I can't deny that. If I remember correctly 20 to 35-40 was pretty weak feeling.
Extinction - GWF
I have one question about the build, after you grab all your paragon points in instigator I noticed you chose to go with 5/5 Deep gash and 5/5 Student of the sword. Why did you not snag 5/5 Great Weapon Focus (destroyer tree 1st tier)? Another flat 10% buff to Wicked Strike seems like it would scale well with Group Assault.
Let me know what you think!
Haven't been outdamaged by another GWF yet, and only been passed by rogues with higher gearscore than mine (4k at lvl 47). While you do give a list of priority in terms of gearstats, are there any pieces in particular that are must-gets or BiS? what sort of enchants would you reccomend? (assuming power and defence ones but i could be wrong)
Thanks for the question and here is my answer:
Nothing I state here is hard fact but this is my current reasoning.
The bleed scales exponentially with your power with no diminishing returns on damage or reduction based on targets hit. Worst case scenario my base roughly 5000 power without capstone stacks that's 750 at 15% bleed damage on a crit over 5 seconds. This is the same damage no matter if 1 target or 10 targets are hit. Also if you need to move to avoid a red blast, got knocked away etc your damage is still ticking while you are unable to swing.
Great weapon focus is capped at 10% whether 1 target or 10 it still outputs 10%. It's defiantly nice but let's look at the scalability of group assault in this scenario vs great weapon focus:
Great weapon focus - 1 target 10%, 5 targets 10%, 10 targets 10%
Group assault - 1 target 0%, 5 targets 20%, 10 targets 45%
Group assault beasts great weapon focus so hard it's not very comparable. But your question is bleed vs great weapon focus. The bleed scales just like group assault does:
Great weapon focus - 1 target 10%, 5 targets 10%, 10 targets 10%
Deep Gash - 1 target 750 dmg, 5 targets 3,750 damage, 10 targets 7,500 damage
I've never hard calculated out what the 10% to the skill actually is damage wise which is the missing puzzle piece to see how much raw damage increase that is per swing. From there a person could officially math it up and see how great weapon focus matches up. The other thing is if bleeds proc tenebrous procs or not. If the bleeds do in fact proc the enchants the debate is done as it is right now in game because the bleeds would own great weapon focus insanely hard.
Edit: another factor is multiple bleeds stacking, I see some heavy bleed numbers as the bleeds get stacked which leads me to believe that multiple bleeds stack instead of refresh. If that is the case then bleeds continue to be very nice. Again this whole scenario is looked at worst case scenario, our cap stone still boosts our power and makes our bleeds the most lethal of all the possible specs.
Extinction - GWF
The current progression seems to be move up in dungeon difficulty add more monsters. The build continues to scale to the design of the progression better then any of the other classes as far as I have see. Early tier 1 epic the build doesn't shine as much as later in tier 1. By tier 2 you are beast mode in the dungeons.
Extinction - GWF
The Armor shred is dps for the whole team, and increases the damage of all attacks. Student is way stronger then great weapon focus IMO.
Extinction - GWF
Have fun on the journey to 60. Best of luck getting there. It was a lot of fun for me, some of the spots were pretty nasty though as I was levelling.
Extinction - GWF
I play half Orc with starting +2str and +2dex. All points into str and dex. Human will have less crit and crit severity then the half Orc or lower str and lower crit severity.
Extinction - GWF
http://25.media.tumblr.com/77d22613574582476468d0c1e44a7f74/tumblr_mmgi2s2CLT1sqs4lvo1_1280.png
Done with a PUG, I am looking for a hardcore/pro guild to farm T2s and get ready for the next content, just tell me in game Cammy@xkxkxk
Edit: Extinction, tell me what do you think about Come and get me following by NsF when you lack of CW or good CC within a group.
Cool Cammy nice dragon kill. I'm not sure if the non tier GWF dragon Armor dropped for you guys on the run. It's weird as its a BoP item and the graphic for it is terrible. A big chain coat lol, not sure if they forgot to make a proper graphic skin for it?
Come and get it, a couple fights it could be useful possibly. The frost giant end fight possibly as the adds are ridiculous in that fight and it could be useful to pull trash into the clerics circle to fight in? Most fights not neccassry if the group is fighting in the cleric circle from what I've seen anyway.
Extinction - GWF
I use plague fire in my weapon with tenebrious in my offensive slots.
Extinction - GWF
Not sure if I'm missing something junkie, I've got stat priority in there. End game I value power, crit, recovery, arm pen.
Extinction - GWF
Hey dat, group assault buffs wicked strike +5% per additional target hit. No "stacks" in the sense of stacking, but it does stack an additional 5% for every target beyond the first.
Extinction - GWF
thank u for your great guide i was really sad that i read whining posts how bad is GWF but this guide is awesome and i realy enjoy my meatgrinder