TheEmpire PvP Control Wizard Renegade Build !Theorycrafting of Races, Powers, Feats and Renegade Paragon PathCURRENT LVL:52 - UPDATES AS I LEVELA BUILD CALCULATOR FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO SEE WHAT MY BUILD LOOKS LIKE ATM http://reyva.com/resources/neverwinter-powers-feat-simulator.9/#btHJiOfAtyxLiF1pWAQh4Js6vHc1JdVCQo1PMolOiFAsSaMqw6l2DOo17a56Rck0uIRc GIVE IT A SECOND TO LOAD
Sorry I am feeling lazy and I'm not going to cover the basics of the CW class and outline every power and feat and paragon that they have, hopefully you know this already and are looking for a player who built his character around PvPing. I have leveled majority of the time in PvPs with an hour or two every 10 levels doing skirmishes for Astral Diamonds and hoping for gear. I'm not super worried about gear because the leveling is so fast and ill be spending all my glory on gear which I estimate to have a full set of at level 60.
That said, this is my build and based of my thought processes and playtime experience. This is in no way the ultimate build or a faceroll cookie cutter build. I think it performs very well but that's my opinion from my playtime.
Races
This is a game with some great choices for races and some interesting combinations on how the character build stage works. Honestly, pick what you think will be the most fun. I think halfling CW's look awesome and are harder to target than other races.
If you want to maximize your character and roll the better racial abilities there are two races that I think shine in pvp for a CW.
Human - This is what I rolled. The bonus defense and 3 extra feat points is what really moved me to pick this race over Tiefling. It makes you tankier and the extra feat points are a little IMBA in my opinon.
Tiefling Depending on your playstyle this race could be better for your CW. The main reason for this is the racial that increases your damage by 5% on targets less than 50% health. This race is not as tanky as a Human but probably has a higher dps output.
Stat Rolls
The stats you select for your character will determine a lot about how you perform. I chose Human because they get +2 to any stat they want. Its been a while but I believe I chose +2 INT for my bonus. I believe Tiefling gets +2 int and +2 CHA.
The rolls for the rest of the stats may seem random but they are not. There is a set of 12 different rolls you can get. I believe I got 17-INT 14-WIS and 13- CHA and 10 on everything else.
While these aren't bad rolls, if I were to make a new CW I would take a higher roll on CHA and less of a roll on WIS.
Stat Points
For this build the main focus here is CRIT CRIT CRIT. You should be criting a lot and you will want your stats to compliment this. On your level up put stat points into INT and CHA. All the way across to 60. More damage and more crit. If you want to do others go for it but if you want to maximize damage, these stats are your best friend.
Gear Stats - On you gear I think you should aim Power>Crit>Recovery>Defence. On my Jewelry (rings,neck,belt) these stats are harder to come by so I took HP whenever I could. Again this is my opinion and id love to see other peoples input.
POWERS
Again, its been a while here since I was level 1 so I will do my best. I'm pretty sure the first 5 points are auto assigned. Ill try to give a step by step of how i put my points at a later date when I have a bit more time. Because I leveled in pvp the point allocation does help in how you play during pvp.
In order by level acquired -
Magic Missile - 3/3 - for sure. This is your #1 downtime dps spell
Ray of Frost - 3/3 - up to you. Points here simply because there isnt another better at will and points have to go somewhere.
Chill Strike - 3/3 - always always. I keep it in my tab slot because I like the AOE because it fits with my play style. 99.999% you will always have this on your bar.
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Ice Storm - 3/3 - You will use this for a while. It does great damage and the knockback is nice except for when you want to do a ton of damage and not put your target out of your range. You will use this until you pick up Ice Knife at level 40. Again points gotta go somewhere.
Orb of Imposition - 3/3 - You are going to use this probably forever. 5% longer ccs means more time to dps / run / juke / make time for teammates to escape or / time for teammates to show up. A great passive, I am currently theory crafting dropping this for another passive. More on this later.
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5Conduit of Ice - 3/3 - Points have to go somewhere. You can get away with going 2/3 here and putting the point somewhere else but what would be the point. If you play on doing any pve this will probably come in helpful. As soon as you get Repel you should remove this from your bar and never use it again.
Entangling Force - 3/3 - Your main CC move. I've seen people slot it in the tab slot but I just prefer Chill Strike. Again, you will always use this
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10Arcane Singularity - 3/3 - A truly awesome move. Not only does it look cool, it does a great amount of damage and if you place it properly and follow up, its the longest CC in the game. More on this in play style and tips. You will always have this slotted.
Oppressive Force - 0/3 or 1/3 - At some point around level 39 you are going to need to put a point somewhere to get 40 points. I put mine here. I've used this skill once and found it terrible - not enough damage and the daze is weak. It looks awesome on paper but just plain falls short in pvp.
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15Repel - 3/3 - Pick it up asap and get rid of Conduit of Ice (it sucks). Great for moving people off of points or blasting them off cliffs, more on this later. You will use this skill for at least 10 levels.
Arcane Presence - 3/3 - Why not? It makes your cold spells do more damage and at the low level you get it there really isnt a better passive. You will use this until you can grab storm strike at level 40
Chilling Presence - 0/3 - Although this is probably good for some builds, I don't find it useful. There is a paragon skill for it but Eye of the storm will end up being better. You could put 1 point here instead of Oppressive Force, that's your call.
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20Chilling Cloud - 0/3 - I see people using it all the time so I assume it works well with a cold build. I prefer my arcane build and I only use one cold spell so chill stacks are useless to me. Mediocre damage and pretty useless IMO.
Shield - 0/3 - I see people using it all the time. Honestly I didn't skill it because I don't like it and I kill people with it up all the time. Can't be that good if I can kill them right?
Evocation - 0/3 - Probably good for PvE but this is a PvP build. Skip this one, your skills are better spend elsewhere.
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30Icy Terrain - 3/3 - Up to you, I prefer it to Sudden Storm because of the cast speed and area of effect. Great for putting on points or use for a quick escape.
Sudden Storm - 3/3 - Does a ton of damage, but it casts pretty slow and is easy to miss. Yes you can cast a CC first and then use it but I ended up not liking this play style and used Icy Terrain instead. Points have to go somewhere though.
Storm Fury - 0/3 - Another good looking passive but we already have 2 great ones and in a few levels you would replace this skill anyways. Skip it
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35Storm Pillar - 0/3 - I was so excited for this spell, it was all I needed to finish off that last little bit of HP on those kids who manage to get away from me. BUT THE DAMAGE IS SO LOW ITS NOT EVEN WORTH IT. STAY FAR AWAY FROM IT.
Ray of Enfeeblement - 3/3 - Another you will always have on your bar. I see people with it in the tab slot all the time so it must be good, i just personally havent tried it out. Awesome damage and it makes all your other skills do more damage. Great all around, more on maximizing its uses later.
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40Ice Knife - 3/3 - You will use this the rest of your time playing, unless you feel like swapping it out for something else. I personally love this skill because it does so much damage and has such a quick casting time. Also with the feats and paragons we will be picking up you will use it all the time. I love to finish off people on the run with this, and sometimes you get luck with a huge crit. Highest ive gotten this far is a 6.3k and I believe I was about 47 or 48
Storm Spell - 3/3 - This is your new passive, slot it over Arcane Presence. It is one of those backwards skills that looks useless on paper but that 5% ends up procing ALL THE TIME. It is a lot of fun to see what I call "bugged Procs" when it happens on every spell you cast. In short, allows you to melt foes.
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45Ice Ray - 0/3 - Didn't look tasty enough for me to pick up plus its another cold spell and this build focuses on arcane damage. Yawn here but pick it up if you need the points.
Steal Time - 3/3 - Ended up using this to replace Icy Terrain. A great spell, AOE slow followed by a stun and it gives you 5/5 stacks of arcane mastery AND it synergizes with all your other powers AND your paragon skills. Great skill
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50
(I have not gotten this far down the tree as I am only level 51, but it looks like I will have enough points to pick up all 3 of these skills. I started with Eye of The Storm because it seems the most useful. The other two are not part of my current build and I will update with Info when i pick them up and actually use them / see how other people use them with and against me.)
Shard of the Endless Avalanche -Seen a little bit of it. Seems like 2=3k damage non crit on me at level 51 and a long stun. prone twice for maybe 4=5 seconds. Ouch. might pick this up and swap it out for Steal Time. We will see
Maelstrom of Chaos -
Eye of the Storm - 3/3 - Currently experimenting with this and Storm Spell
FEATS
Not much room here for variation. You move to the next column of skills for every 5 points that you put in. I have 4 Builds for feats, depending on what race you rolled. Humans shine here because of the 3 extra Points.
Skills are listed in the order you should put points into themBuild 1 (My Current Build . Humans Only) This build boots your action point gainWeapon Mastery - 3/3
Toughness - 3/3
Wizards Wrath - 3/3
Controlling Action - 1/5
Arcane Mastery - 3/3
Controlling Action - 3/5
Focused Wizardry - 3/3
Prestidigitation - 3/3
Controlling Action - 5/5
Build 2, same but for nonHumansWeapon Mastery - 3/3
Toughness - 3/3
Wizards Wrath - 3/3
Controlling Action - 1/5
Arcane Mastery - 3/3
Controlling Action - 3/5
Focused Wizardry - 3/3
Prestidigitation - 1/3
The last 2 points are up to you, Either Prestidigitation(my suggestion) or Controlling Action.Build 3 (for Humans Only) This build lowers your skill cooldowns (by 1 second)Weapon Mastery - 3/3
Toughness - 3/3
Wizards Wrath - 3/3
Fight On - 1/5
Arcane Mastery - 3/3
Fight On - 3/5
Focused Wizardry - 3/3
Prestidigitation - 3/3
Fight On - 5/5
Build 4 (for nonHumans)Weapon Mastery - 3/3
Toughness - 3/3
Wizards Wrath - 3/3
Fight On - 1/5
Arcane Mastery - 3/3
Fight On - 3/5
Focused Wizardry - 3/3
Prestidigitation - 1/5
Fight On - 4/5
You can theory craft these all you want but everything I've read and see the math for other feats just don't live up. This isn't a cold guide so I don't know about the cold feats.
RENEGADE PARAGON SKILLS
At level 30 you pick a paragon path. Currently there is only Spellstorm Mage, YAY! Seeing as this build uses several skills from this path (and its your only choice ATM) this is the path you want!!!
Paragon skill points are different though. They are shown on the Feats page and become available at level 30. For this build majority of your points will go into the Renegade path, More specifically the top row of the renegade bath (Green Background).
You are going to max all of these skills and pick up the passive at the end of the tree. I will elaborate on each effect later, but know that they all affect one another and when one skill procs the other 2 are more likely to as well. They almost all revolve around critical hits which is why you want such a high percent. You are already going to be doing a lot of damage and when you crit and things proc it gets crazy.
Critical Power -5/5
Nightmare Wizardry - 5/5
Phantasmal Destruction - 5/5
Masterful Arcane Theft - 5/5
Chaos Magic - 1/1
This leaves you with 10 points left. These can be placed in a number of different skills depending on your play style. Ill list a couple different variations that I think look good on paper. I haven't tested all of these except for the build I am...building
My Build
Tempest Magic - 5/5 (Thaumaturge Tree)
Bitter Cold - 5/5 (Oppressor Tree)Build 2 (I'm thinking nonTiefling)
Tempest Magic - 5/5 (Thaumaturge Tree)
Severe Reaction (Oppressor Tree) - 5/5Build 3 (Probably better with Tiefling race but still viable, probably lower dps
Bitter Cold - 5/5 (Oppressor Tree)
Severe Reaction - 5/5 (Oppressor Tree)
OR
Brisk Transport - 5/5 (Oppressor Tree)Build 4 (A little different way to do damage, may be higher dps. Not sure
Tempest Magic - 5/5 (ThaumaturgeTree)
Snap Freeze - 5/5 (Thaumaturge Tree)I've seen people take Reapers Touch but 20' is not very far at all and I like to play farther away than 20' as much as possible
(IM SLEEPY NOW AND A LONG DAY AT WORK TOMORROW. MORE COMING SOON)
Comments
That depends on your play style. The way it works is, press your hotkey and it brings up a rectangle in front of you to display the area of effect. Its a little wider than your character but the range is only 20' or 30' so its a little short. The casting animation is kinda long too, your charicter lifts their hand up and then slams the ground with it, and then the lightning strikes, closest to you first and then moving away. If you don't have your target cced, you dont lead them off correctly, or they arent distracted by attacking someone else your going to miss every time.
You can definitely put the points into other skills as you see fit but I used it a little bit in pvp. It does great damage, and in PvE its unsurpassed in its aoe damage.
Hope that helps!
I don't see the problem with it. I am not well informed, other wise I would have the skill in question and I would be informed as to if it is good or not. I've read this on numerous other guides and I think it portrays exactly what I want it to. Take your hate elsewhere son
It's actually good to post information like this to let others know that even though the maker of the guide does not use it that it must have some kind of use if a seemingly majority of players use it. I PvP occasionally on Beholder with my CW Khareena, and I personally cannot stand having RoE on my tab slot since it does not benefit from recharge speed, of which I have over 50% of. On tab slot the power gets 2 charges, but you have to wait 14 seconds for each charge (which I have yet to find a way to reduce since every method seems to be bugged/not work), which equates to using your tab slot at its full effectiveness only once every 28 seconds, which for me is about how long it takes to get my daily back in PvP (assuming my team is not getting face rolled). I could just put RoE on a standard slot and have it up every 8.5 seconds, and if you have the arcane stacks it will last 8 seconds, which I find much more consistent. I play more of a support style myself, however, so if you're playing with the intent of handling 1v1 situations or going in solo for caps then having that RoE tab slot charged up before going in could be vital to handling potentially rough situations.
As far as Shield goes, I agree with wholyhandgrenade. Since I play a support build that often times gets in close to use Icy Terrain or Steal Time, having that extra damage reduction along with the added 'back off' option is quite nice. Again, however, if you're playing with the intent of taking down single targets at a distance then it may seem like a wasted slot. Shield, although repel could work, also works wonders for me for getting Clerics or other single targets out of Astral Shield for the team to focus them. As soon as I hit a Cleric standing in his shield with either Icy Terrain or Chilling Strike, I immediately smack them with a knockback and, if I successfully knock them out of the AS, I keep them bound in place as long as possible. I use the Archmage's set, and since each tick of Steal Time counts as a separate use of a control power I can often Chill Strike>Icy Terrain>Steal Time>Chill Strike>Icy Terrain, which can lock people in place for quite a while. Since Shield counts as a control power as well, doing this also gives me Shield back immediately after my rotation so no loss of damage reduction and I can knockback again if they get back into the AS. Adding Singularity to this when dailies are up makes life seem even better as I always try to aim Singularity to center outside of the blue circle while including as much of the circle as possible.
here:
http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?343771-has-anyone-tried-this-feat