I've finished Tower District, except for Cloak Tower. I'm waiting about an hour and a half to queue, so I can nail it during the dungeon event. Bonuses are fun!
At 14, I upgraded Restoring Strike to Rank 2, and put a second point in Unstoppable Action.
At 15, I picked up Steadfast Determination, for the passive Determination gain, as being Unstoppable seems to be very good. So, doing it more often should make it better. I also went 1/3 in Endless Assault, since a 2 percent per level damage boost to encounters seemed the best option.
I'm not thrilled with some of the itemization options I've been seeing on GWF gear. Too much defense, not enough power. I've upgraded two of the level 10 blues with random drops, but the level 16 seal items are junk, IMO, and I won't be getting any of them. I am getting better with using sprint, and Avalanche of Steel is just crazy fun, but I'll flip back to Slam for Cloak Tower, as I think it's pulses will be better for add packs on bosses.
I'm feeling a lot less squishy, and except for the Tower Suicide, I've had no death in Tower District. I still need to try PvP.
I'm very happy with how I did. I came into a run in progress. GF, DC, 2 CWs, and me. The first mob I saw was the first boss, who was almost dead. So, I missed about a third of the run. But, I came out good, numbers wise.
Damage: 2nd at 128k. GF led the way at 164k. I beat one CW by 4k, so, really, that's effectively a tie. But I beat the other one by 46k damage.
Kills: 2nd at 101, with the tank leading at 134. Again, I missed a third of the run. It's fair to say, I had a good chance at first in both if I was on the whole run. Slam is amazing in an instance. However, I have room for improvement. I didn't use Unstoppable as often as I should have, so I likely lost some DPS.
I dinged 16 in the run, but did the spending after. Picked up Takedown, which is damage plus a knockdown for Encounter 3. I put my second point into Endless Assault. I think I'm going to go with a DPS companion on the theory of killing things quicker means less potion drinking! We'll see how that works.
I'm a happy little halfling with a huge sword right now!
Takedown is awesome... just that it has crappy range (which is listed as 3 yards but feels more like 0 yard).
I've always felt the range was decent, I use it PvP alot. In PvP it certainly has a 3 yard range (because people try and usually fail to run from it). CW's have the best luck escaping it. Few mobs in PvE run form me, so range is not usually an issue...
My GWF is a beast though and level 40 atm (fourth character, so not as developed as my others). I personally don't have many issues with content on my GWF very often. It will be sad to hit lvl 60 and find no one wants to let me play, but oh well. Their loss.
I got to 19 doing Linkletter's chain. I was pretty surprised to get 3 levels from it, and I'm not using the Caturday XP scrolls. The chain went rather smoothly, no deaths, and I doscovered, quite by accident, that when you jump up with Avalanche of Steel, you can steer it, and change your landing spot. I'm using the mage as a companion, and his spells are pretty nice.
17 to 19 was just making things I had already better.
At 20, I'll be able to buy the next blue set which will be a nice upgrade, as the level 10 has mostly carried me to 20 (I have upgraded a couple pieces).
I'm not really seeing weakness yet. I'm really starting to get a feel for the class, and while I make mistakes all the time, I am getting better. Looking forward to bandit hitting after maintainance tommorow.
I managed to get to level 20 this morning as I started the Blackdagger Bandits. Found a couple cute tricks with Avalanche of Steel. Now, I'm sure some of you know these, but for those who dont:
1. If you're on a cliff, over mobs, you can trigged AoS, and move while it's in the air to say 'hi' with a bang *and* take no falling damage. Whee!
2. You can also use AoS as an initiator. I was coming up on a group of mobs and had full APs. So, I hit it, and moved forward to get them all into range while I was in the air. As they had not aggroed, they (and my wizard) didn't move at all, and when I landed, I killed all 4 of them at once. Nice and easy way to clear small packs of normal mobs for zero damage.
At 20, I put points into Str and Dex. I also picked up Roar, rank 1, to test it. My feat point went to Steely Defense. As it gives 4 percent of defence, per rank, as power, it lets me use some of the gear with no power and too much defense. At least I get a little bonus from it.
I've picked up the full set of level 20 vendor blues - except for two. I didn't like any of the boots, so stayed with mine. And, I got the white necklace, as I didn't like the green or blue ones. Also, unlike level 16, the seal gear at 26 might be upgrades for me.
I've kept moving smoothly through Blackdagger Hills with no issues. I haven't done the skirmish or instance yet, but I will soon. I've knocked out three more levels, putting me to 23.
At 21 and 22, I maxed out Avalanche of Steel and Slam. Both are awesome, and both are now on my bar at the same time. I still prefer AoS mostly when soloing, as it super effective and doesn't pull extra groups. Slam has it's moments, however, and I think it's better for group play. I maxed Unstoppable Action at 21, and went to 2/5 Steely Defense at 22.
At 23, I picked up Wicked Strike to test it. It's an at will, a 360 degree swing. The animation looks cool, though I haven't played since getting it. I also got Steely Defense 3/5.
While I drink more pots with the wizard than I would with the cleric, he is pretty useful. I may pick up the cleric at some point, and use the wiz in instances for extra damage and the cleric when soloing for heals. Or I may not, as I do like the wizard. We'll see.
At this point, I'm not seeing any weakness to GWF. In groups I've been damage competetive. Soloing I've done well, and I have awesome dailies. Halfling Jump Nukes are just cool!
The vendors in the Enclave. There are two, standing each other. One pair each for weapons, armor, jewelry, and impliments for caster types. There are level 10 and 20 sets for silver, from the cash guy, and level 35 and 47 sets for ADs from the AD guy.
At this rate (& with me PvPing my DC for gear) you may catch up to my GWF who is level 41 right now... XD
Though I can say for me I'm noticing a slight downturn around 40 compared to the 'omg this is insane' of earlier levels, but that happens a bit with every class... Only my CW never really felt that way... And I refuse to solo with my TR... No real AoE to speak of and every lvl 50+ encounter is 5 or 6 mobs...
I finished off the Hills - except for the Crypt, which I'll queue for later, once my wizard is done training.
I did do Storming the Keep. 2 GFW, 2 DC, GF was the group. Pretty easy run. I was second on damage to the other GWF (292k to 256k). I was first in kills, he was second (86 to 76). I played much better. I was Unstoppable a lot more (I still have room for improvment on that), and I was popping daily's as soon as they came up. I didn't tunnel vision, either, I peeled off the boss for add pick up.
Up to 24 now, added Wicked Strike, Rank 2 (which I am liking a lot), and Steely Defense 4/5. My potion use has been high, but I expected that with the controller companion.
Next up, the Crypt and the Graveyard. For a 'terrible' class, GWF is loads of fun!
The lack of decent ranged options is a real downer. I'm leveling a CW at the same time, and I have to say while the GW is fun, there is no comparison.
My favorite part of the GWF is the speed, actually. ALL of the at-wills allow some movement and/or at least root you less - Sure STrike continues to move you towards the target. I also don't like the activiation time on reaping strike, so when I feel like it may be an issue, I put in the one from the paragon (Weapon Master). It does a decent area as well, esp. if you're facing mobs you want to hit-then-avoid.
The dailies are fun, the at-wills are fun. The only encounter I really find myself waiting and wanting to use is Takedown. If respecs weren't so expensive, I'd monkey around with some others - but I think the real issue is that (a) their encounter powers blow and (b) you want to use unstoppable a bunch, which boosts your at-wills. This is a similar problem to the cleric, where when you fire divinity you (generally speaking - there are exceptions) don't want to use the at-wills with it. Maybe if every encounter built determination as well? Dunno. It's like Battle Fury is a tacit acknowledgement that really, your encounters are lower on your priority list than at-wills.
At this point I've tried them all - and while I can do pretty nifty stuff w/ the GWF, still weak.
1-30: (Newbie Levels) - Weak like a freshly hatch duckling. Pick up bread crumbs for food.
31-40: (Teen levels ) - Feeling stronger. Catch the early worms and dares hunt small mammals.
41-50: (Mature levels ) - Feel very strong. This is where GWF shines the most. Hunt buffalo for food. Top of the world feeling.
51-60: (Elder levels) - Starting to feel the age and feeble. GWF power curve suddenly dives because everything else is stronger. Mobs is stronger, other classes is stronger. Tries to hunt buffalo for a meal, gets trampled instead.
1-30: (Newbie Levels) - Weak like a freshly hatch duckling. Pick up bread crumbs for food.
31-40: (Teen levels ) - Feeling stronger. Catch the early worms and dares hunt small mammals.
41-50: (Mature levels ) - Feel very strong. This is where GWF shines the most. Hunt buffalo for food. Top of the world feeling.
51-60: (Elder levels) - Starting to feel the age and feeble. GWF power curve suddenly dives because everything else is stronger. Mobs is stronger, other classes is stronger. Tries to hunt buffalo for a meal, gets trampled instead.
I've actually felt a dropoff in power @ 40 (though minor), felt feeble until around lvl 14-15, godlike between 16 & 40... I'm hoping the 50+ will be where all my feats kick in and I can finish off my build to feel stronger yet.
I have a 60 GWF in full PvP gear and I've taken some 24k+ crits here and there. And you'll find that at lvl 60, unless you stack ALOT of crit, power and some armor pen, you wont be able to kill a decently geared cleric even if you had a gun to the back of your head and had all day.And sometimes you'll feel at those some CW's have never-ending stamina from all the Sprinting you're doing to try and chase them down.
I personally like my GWF, Tho I feel that they can probably give you 4 extra slots for your encounters to be spammed and you wouldn't amount to the Single target DPS of a TR or the AoE and Mob control of a CW. Feels like the threat we generate is almost none existent compared to the other classes. And maybe it was just me but my cleric might as well not even be summoned from levels 40-60 because she pulls more threat and dies in an instant.
In my personal opinion the class is still very weak which is a result of week 3 when GWF's were OP and they saw fit to grab the Nerf Bat and nearly beat the class to death with it. It definitely needs buffing but i still enjoy playing my GWF tho its hard to get into a group for T2 dungeons unless you wait the queue time.
@ chronomancer: I haven't felt weak at all. While I kill slower than say a TR, I also can drop 3 or 4 mobs at once, which is nice mitigation.
@voodoogroves: I totally agree that the Encounters are not the flash of GWF. They're not terrible, but they're not by any means the focus of the class. I think Encounters trump Daily's for GF, and the reverse for GWF.
As for me, beyond being destroyed in my first PvP (mostly from daze and stun), I've started Neverdeath. Cragmire hasn't popped for me yet, unfortunately, though I have knocked out two more levels. I'm sitting at 26 now.
At 25, I finished off Not So Fast, and went 1/3 in Weapon Mastery for it's 1 percent to crit chance per level.
At 26, I finished off Wicked Strike, which is my new go to at will. 360 degree swings are very paractical. 2/3 into Weapon Mastery.
I've finished off the Pauper's Field half of Neverdeath, and I did a Cragmire Crypt run.
The Cragmire run was interesting. GF, CW, 2 TR, and myself. That's right. No cleric. No deaths, no issues. I came in second for damage behind one of the TRs (628k to 541k, the GF was next, then TR 2, and the CW). I'm pretty happy with that result. I also led in kills with 290, number 2 was 247. Overall, I'm happy with that run. I had Unstoppable up a lot more, although I still have room for improvement.
At 27, I went to 3/3 in Weapon Mastery, and also went to Rank 1 in the Class Feature 'Weapon Master'. I swapped it in for Destroyer, as getting stackable crit on any swing seems to be better than a damage bonus when hitting 3+ targets.
And no deaths since I jumped into the basement of the Tavern in Tower District
28 and 29 were identical for buys: Weapon Master 2 and 3 for Powers, and Devastating Critical (+5 percent to crit damage per level) 1/3 and 2/3. Healing potion use is going up a bit, but not that badly. As much as I do like my wizard, I'm thinking more about grabbing a cleric.
Just a small update. Made it to level 30 with the first two Helm's Hold Quests.
I picked up Flourish, Rank 1, to test it. It's taking Restoring Strike's place for the moment. But, if I like it, I may swap Restoring back in, and put Flourish in place of Roar.
+1 to all stats gives me Str/Dex/Con of 19/18/18.
I took the Destroyer paragon Tree. For now. I may respec in Sentinel at higher level. I'm at 1/5 in Great Weapon Focus for the pure +2 percent per level damage to At willls.
Just a small update. Made it to level 30 with the first two Helm's Hold Quests.
I picked up Flourish, Rank 1, to test it. It's taking Restoring Strike's place for the moment. But, if I like it, I may swap Restoring back in, and put Flourish in place of Roar.
+1 to all stats gives me Str/Dex/Con of 19/18/18.
I took the Destroyer paragon Tree. For now. I may respec in Sentinel at higher level. I'm at 1/5 in Great Weapon Focus for the pure +2 percent per level damage to At willls.
Flourish is IMHO more of a pvp skill due to the stun and the range (it still hits even if the opponent move out of range of the animation). Restoring strike still best for PvE esp if you are soloing. Roar is very very useful in pve, first it has an interrupt function and second it helps build action points for Slam, also it's range is actually slightly longer than the effect indicates.
@chronomancer: I agree with you about Flourish. Still, testing it for a couple levels was worth it. The stun seems unreliable at best, but I'd probably risk it in PvP. For PvE I'll be swapping Restoring Strike back in. Roar is useful, I also agree.
I've hit 32 as I've worked through Helm's Hold.
At 31, I maxed Steadfast Determination, and I went 2/5 into Great Weapon Focus. I also ran Straight to Helm. 2 TR, DC, GF, and I. Damage I was third at 201k. One of the TRs led with 275k, and the DC was next with 220k. Kills, I led, hugely at 116 for me, with the DC next at 85.
I'm not sure how to feel about this one. As a DPS class, I don't want the healer coming in ahead of me. At the same time, I'm doing better and better at add pick up, which I think helps with my consistently high kill totals. I guess I'm happy and upset about the skirmish. I did my job well, but I need to pick up my DPS. Still, two runs in a row I've had 2 TRs in my party, and I've beat one of them on damage.
At 32, I took Roar Rank two, and Great Weapon Focus, 3/5. I'm also starting to gear for ArP. Mine is at 785, right now, which give me 10.9 percent enemy DR ignored at my level.
I finished Helm's Hold and I'm up to level 35. No real issues at all, pretty much smoked everything. I did notice a killing power increase after my ArPen gearing at 32. I was killing Imp packs with one less overall swing, every time. They'd been going down to 3 swings, but after the ArPen, it was two. Every time. I also noticed tougher mobs going down significantly faster.
At 33 and 35, I maxed out Restoring Strike, Roar, and the last two points of Great Weapon Focus.
At 35, I took rank 1 in Weapon Masters Strike, and went 1/5 in Disciple of War, so that a percentage of recovery gets added to ArPen.
After another AH gearing, I'm at 1107 ApPen, or 15.1 percent of enemy DR ignored. I'm thinking about going ArPen/Crit/Recovery for stat priority.
A little update. Did Lair of the Mad Dragon. Mostly. 3 wipes on said Mad Dragon himself, with the insane adds. Well, not really insane, numbers wise, just too many have too much CC. We had 2 TRs, DC, GF, and myself. I'd run with one of the TRs before, and knew she was good.
Damage: TR1: 1.65 million (this was the one I'd grouped with before), me (1.51 million), TR2 (1.2 million). The DC was just under 1 million, and the GF had about 900k.
Kills: Me 475. Next was the DC at 364.
We did our best on try 3. I think we would have beat him if a) The second TR was doing more damage, or b) The GF would not have kept facing the dragon at us when were were trying to get adds off the Cleric in the two big waves.
Even with the fail - and the massive amounts of potions I used, I'm happy with the run. I played very well, my best personal play ina group yet, and while being 10 percent behind a very good TR in damage, I outdid another by 20 percent, and just destroyed the GF in damage. Kill count wise, I was well ahead of everyone. I did, I feel, what I am supposed to do, wipe out zillions of adds and mobs.
It would have been nice to get the kill in, but, from a personal performance standpoint, I'm happy.
Did another try at Mad Dragon. Another fail, but I suspected that from the start as the group was GF, TR, CW, and 2 GWF. Yep, no cleric. We did get to the Dragon, but folded after one wipe. We didn't even get the first nasty add wave, and decided it wasn't worth the resource spending.
Numbers wise, I did well. 1st in DPS at 1 million, TR at 962, CW at 880, GF at 645, GWF 2 at 562. Yes, I outdamaged someone else of my class by over 400k. I dominated kills, as I expect to at this point. 367 for me, 288 for the CW, 261 for the other GFW, 251 for the tank, 250 for the rogue.
That said, I think I played better in the first group that failed to get him down. Now, I don't think it would have mattered, given the lack of healing, and the drop off on DPS after the CW. But, I'm a little disappointed in me.
Hit 36 in the attempt, so not I can't que for it anymore. Put Weapon Master to Rank 2, and went to 2/5 in Disciple of War.
Did another try at Mad Dragon. Another fail, but I suspected that from the start as the group was GF, TR, CW, and 2 GWF. Yep, no cleric. We did get to the Dragon, but folded after one wipe. We didn't even get the first nasty add wave, and decided it wasn't worth the resource spending.
Numbers wise, I did well. 1st in DPS at 1 million, TR at 962, CW at 880, GF at 645, GWF 2 at 562. Yes, I outdamaged someone else of my class by over 400k. I dominated kills, as I expect to at this point. 367 for me, 288 for the CW, 261 for the other GFW, 251 for the tank, 250 for the rogue.
That said, I think I played better in the first group that failed to get him down. Now, I don't think it would have mattered, given the lack of healing, and the drop off on DPS after the CW. But, I'm a little disappointed in me.
Hit 36 in the attempt, so not I can't que for it anymore. Put Weapon Master to Rank 2, and went to 2/5 in Disciple of War.
Even at lvl 60 you won't be out damaging a decent TR. I'm always rank #2/3 in damage. Sometimes a decent CW and Me would go toe to toe in damage. You need to stack Armor Penetration, Recovery, Crit/Crit Dmg as those seems to give you the best bang for your buck. Power sucks for GWF (which really is an irony). In the epic version of Caverns of Karrundax I did roughly around 5M damage, TR did 10M and CW did 5M too (we did it with TR/CW/GWF/2CLR double stack Astral shield ftw!).
Tip: the easy and cheap way (without any death) to do epic Karrundax is with 2 cleric stacking astral shield. CW handles all the adds, everyone else on the dragon while cleric spam heal / double stack astral shield. The billions of adds is killed inside the astral shield (together with the dragon) so you won't get instant KO by the sheer number of adds.
Even at lvl 60 you won't be out damaging a decent TR. I'm always rank #2/3 in damage. Sometimes a decent CW and Me would go toe to toe in damage. You need to stack Armor Penetration, Recovery, Crit/Crit Dmg as those seems to give you the best bang for your buck. Power sucks for GWF (which really is an irony). In the epic version of Caverns of Karrundax I did roughly around 5M damage, TR did 10M and CW did 5M too (we did it with TR/CW/GWF/2CLR double stack Astral shield ftw!).
Tip: the easy and cheap way (without any death) to do epic Karrundax is with 2 cleric stacking astral shield. CW handles all the adds, everyone else on the dragon while cleric spam heal / double stack astral shield. The billions of adds is killed inside the astral shield (together with the dragon) so you won't get instant KO by the sheer number of adds.
This not true. A good GWF with good build and gear will always outdamage any rogue.I never get second place in dps even on castle never runs. The problem is that a rogue is still far more useful than a GWF because he has much more single target damage for the bosses. Apart from that GWF dps is fine
Comments
At 14, I upgraded Restoring Strike to Rank 2, and put a second point in Unstoppable Action.
At 15, I picked up Steadfast Determination, for the passive Determination gain, as being Unstoppable seems to be very good. So, doing it more often should make it better. I also went 1/3 in Endless Assault, since a 2 percent per level damage boost to encounters seemed the best option.
I'm not thrilled with some of the itemization options I've been seeing on GWF gear. Too much defense, not enough power. I've upgraded two of the level 10 blues with random drops, but the level 16 seal items are junk, IMO, and I won't be getting any of them. I am getting better with using sprint, and Avalanche of Steel is just crazy fun, but I'll flip back to Slam for Cloak Tower, as I think it's pulses will be better for add packs on bosses.
I'm feeling a lot less squishy, and except for the Tower Suicide, I've had no death in Tower District. I still need to try PvP.
It's no fun getting two shotted by TR and CW even while wearing T1-T2 epics.
It'll be a bit before that's a worry!
I'm very happy with how I did. I came into a run in progress. GF, DC, 2 CWs, and me. The first mob I saw was the first boss, who was almost dead. So, I missed about a third of the run. But, I came out good, numbers wise.
Damage: 2nd at 128k. GF led the way at 164k. I beat one CW by 4k, so, really, that's effectively a tie. But I beat the other one by 46k damage.
Kills: 2nd at 101, with the tank leading at 134. Again, I missed a third of the run. It's fair to say, I had a good chance at first in both if I was on the whole run. Slam is amazing in an instance. However, I have room for improvement. I didn't use Unstoppable as often as I should have, so I likely lost some DPS.
I dinged 16 in the run, but did the spending after. Picked up Takedown, which is damage plus a knockdown for Encounter 3. I put my second point into Endless Assault. I think I'm going to go with a DPS companion on the theory of killing things quicker means less potion drinking! We'll see how that works.
I'm a happy little halfling with a huge sword right now!
I've always felt the range was decent, I use it PvP alot. In PvP it certainly has a 3 yard range (because people try and usually fail to run from it). CW's have the best luck escaping it. Few mobs in PvE run form me, so range is not usually an issue...
My GWF is a beast though and level 40 atm (fourth character, so not as developed as my others). I personally don't have many issues with content on my GWF very often. It will be sad to hit lvl 60 and find no one wants to let me play, but oh well. Their loss.
17 to 19 was just making things I had already better.
17: Reaping Strike Rank 2, Endless Assault 3/3
18: Takedown Rank 2, Unstoppable Action 3/5
19: Steadfast Determination Rank 2, Unstoppable Action 4/5
At 20, I'll be able to buy the next blue set which will be a nice upgrade, as the level 10 has mostly carried me to 20 (I have upgraded a couple pieces).
I'm not really seeing weakness yet. I'm really starting to get a feel for the class, and while I make mistakes all the time, I am getting better. Looking forward to bandit hitting after maintainance tommorow.
1. If you're on a cliff, over mobs, you can trigged AoS, and move while it's in the air to say 'hi' with a bang *and* take no falling damage. Whee!
2. You can also use AoS as an initiator. I was coming up on a group of mobs and had full APs. So, I hit it, and moved forward to get them all into range while I was in the air. As they had not aggroed, they (and my wizard) didn't move at all, and when I landed, I killed all 4 of them at once. Nice and easy way to clear small packs of normal mobs for zero damage.
At 20, I put points into Str and Dex. I also picked up Roar, rank 1, to test it. My feat point went to Steely Defense. As it gives 4 percent of defence, per rank, as power, it lets me use some of the gear with no power and too much defense. At least I get a little bonus from it.
I've picked up the full set of level 20 vendor blues - except for two. I didn't like any of the boots, so stayed with mine. And, I got the white necklace, as I didn't like the green or blue ones. Also, unlike level 16, the seal gear at 26 might be upgrades for me.
At 21 and 22, I maxed out Avalanche of Steel and Slam. Both are awesome, and both are now on my bar at the same time. I still prefer AoS mostly when soloing, as it super effective and doesn't pull extra groups. Slam has it's moments, however, and I think it's better for group play. I maxed Unstoppable Action at 21, and went to 2/5 Steely Defense at 22.
At 23, I picked up Wicked Strike to test it. It's an at will, a 360 degree swing. The animation looks cool, though I haven't played since getting it. I also got Steely Defense 3/5.
While I drink more pots with the wizard than I would with the cleric, he is pretty useful. I may pick up the cleric at some point, and use the wiz in instances for extra damage and the cleric when soloing for heals. Or I may not, as I do like the wizard. We'll see.
At this point, I'm not seeing any weakness to GWF. In groups I've been damage competetive. Soloing I've done well, and I have awesome dailies. Halfling Jump Nukes are just cool!
Say what!? :eek: Where are these ?
The vendors in the Enclave. There are two, standing each other. One pair each for weapons, armor, jewelry, and impliments for caster types. There are level 10 and 20 sets for silver, from the cash guy, and level 35 and 47 sets for ADs from the AD guy.
Though I can say for me I'm noticing a slight downturn around 40 compared to the 'omg this is insane' of earlier levels, but that happens a bit with every class... Only my CW never really felt that way... And I refuse to solo with my TR... No real AoE to speak of and every lvl 50+ encounter is 5 or 6 mobs...
I did do Storming the Keep. 2 GFW, 2 DC, GF was the group. Pretty easy run. I was second on damage to the other GWF (292k to 256k). I was first in kills, he was second (86 to 76). I played much better. I was Unstoppable a lot more (I still have room for improvment on that), and I was popping daily's as soon as they came up. I didn't tunnel vision, either, I peeled off the boss for add pick up.
Up to 24 now, added Wicked Strike, Rank 2 (which I am liking a lot), and Steely Defense 4/5. My potion use has been high, but I expected that with the controller companion.
Next up, the Crypt and the Graveyard. For a 'terrible' class, GWF is loads of fun!
The lack of decent ranged options is a real downer. I'm leveling a CW at the same time, and I have to say while the GW is fun, there is no comparison.
My favorite part of the GWF is the speed, actually. ALL of the at-wills allow some movement and/or at least root you less - Sure STrike continues to move you towards the target. I also don't like the activiation time on reaping strike, so when I feel like it may be an issue, I put in the one from the paragon (Weapon Master). It does a decent area as well, esp. if you're facing mobs you want to hit-then-avoid.
The dailies are fun, the at-wills are fun. The only encounter I really find myself waiting and wanting to use is Takedown. If respecs weren't so expensive, I'd monkey around with some others - but I think the real issue is that (a) their encounter powers blow and (b) you want to use unstoppable a bunch, which boosts your at-wills. This is a similar problem to the cleric, where when you fire divinity you (generally speaking - there are exceptions) don't want to use the at-wills with it. Maybe if every encounter built determination as well? Dunno. It's like Battle Fury is a tacit acknowledgement that really, your encounters are lower on your priority list than at-wills.
At this point I've tried them all - and while I can do pretty nifty stuff w/ the GWF, still weak.
1-30: (Newbie Levels) - Weak like a freshly hatch duckling. Pick up bread crumbs for food.
31-40: (Teen levels ) - Feeling stronger. Catch the early worms and dares hunt small mammals.
41-50: (Mature levels ) - Feel very strong. This is where GWF shines the most. Hunt buffalo for food. Top of the world feeling.
51-60: (Elder levels) - Starting to feel the age and feeble. GWF power curve suddenly dives because everything else is stronger. Mobs is stronger, other classes is stronger. Tries to hunt buffalo for a meal, gets trampled instead.
I've actually felt a dropoff in power @ 40 (though minor), felt feeble until around lvl 14-15, godlike between 16 & 40... I'm hoping the 50+ will be where all my feats kick in and I can finish off my build to feel stronger yet.
I personally like my GWF, Tho I feel that they can probably give you 4 extra slots for your encounters to be spammed and you wouldn't amount to the Single target DPS of a TR or the AoE and Mob control of a CW. Feels like the threat we generate is almost none existent compared to the other classes. And maybe it was just me but my cleric might as well not even be summoned from levels 40-60 because she pulls more threat and dies in an instant.
In my personal opinion the class is still very weak which is a result of week 3 when GWF's were OP and they saw fit to grab the Nerf Bat and nearly beat the class to death with it. It definitely needs buffing but i still enjoy playing my GWF tho its hard to get into a group for T2 dungeons unless you wait the queue time.
@voodoogroves: I totally agree that the Encounters are not the flash of GWF. They're not terrible, but they're not by any means the focus of the class. I think Encounters trump Daily's for GF, and the reverse for GWF.
As for me, beyond being destroyed in my first PvP (mostly from daze and stun), I've started Neverdeath. Cragmire hasn't popped for me yet, unfortunately, though I have knocked out two more levels. I'm sitting at 26 now.
At 25, I finished off Not So Fast, and went 1/3 in Weapon Mastery for it's 1 percent to crit chance per level.
At 26, I finished off Wicked Strike, which is my new go to at will. 360 degree swings are very paractical. 2/3 into Weapon Mastery.
The Cragmire run was interesting. GF, CW, 2 TR, and myself. That's right. No cleric. No deaths, no issues. I came in second for damage behind one of the TRs (628k to 541k, the GF was next, then TR 2, and the CW). I'm pretty happy with that result. I also led in kills with 290, number 2 was 247. Overall, I'm happy with that run. I had Unstoppable up a lot more, although I still have room for improvement.
At 27, I went to 3/3 in Weapon Mastery, and also went to Rank 1 in the Class Feature 'Weapon Master'. I swapped it in for Destroyer, as getting stackable crit on any swing seems to be better than a damage bonus when hitting 3+ targets.
And no deaths since I jumped into the basement of the Tavern in Tower District
28 and 29 were identical for buys: Weapon Master 2 and 3 for Powers, and Devastating Critical (+5 percent to crit damage per level) 1/3 and 2/3. Healing potion use is going up a bit, but not that badly. As much as I do like my wizard, I'm thinking more about grabbing a cleric.
Helm's Hold up next.
I picked up Flourish, Rank 1, to test it. It's taking Restoring Strike's place for the moment. But, if I like it, I may swap Restoring back in, and put Flourish in place of Roar.
+1 to all stats gives me Str/Dex/Con of 19/18/18.
I took the Destroyer paragon Tree. For now. I may respec in Sentinel at higher level. I'm at 1/5 in Great Weapon Focus for the pure +2 percent per level damage to At willls.
Flourish is IMHO more of a pvp skill due to the stun and the range (it still hits even if the opponent move out of range of the animation). Restoring strike still best for PvE esp if you are soloing. Roar is very very useful in pve, first it has an interrupt function and second it helps build action points for Slam, also it's range is actually slightly longer than the effect indicates.
I've hit 32 as I've worked through Helm's Hold.
At 31, I maxed Steadfast Determination, and I went 2/5 into Great Weapon Focus. I also ran Straight to Helm. 2 TR, DC, GF, and I. Damage I was third at 201k. One of the TRs led with 275k, and the DC was next with 220k. Kills, I led, hugely at 116 for me, with the DC next at 85.
I'm not sure how to feel about this one. As a DPS class, I don't want the healer coming in ahead of me. At the same time, I'm doing better and better at add pick up, which I think helps with my consistently high kill totals. I guess I'm happy and upset about the skirmish. I did my job well, but I need to pick up my DPS. Still, two runs in a row I've had 2 TRs in my party, and I've beat one of them on damage.
At 32, I took Roar Rank two, and Great Weapon Focus, 3/5. I'm also starting to gear for ArP. Mine is at 785, right now, which give me 10.9 percent enemy DR ignored at my level.
At 33 and 35, I maxed out Restoring Strike, Roar, and the last two points of Great Weapon Focus.
At 35, I took rank 1 in Weapon Masters Strike, and went 1/5 in Disciple of War, so that a percentage of recovery gets added to ArPen.
After another AH gearing, I'm at 1107 ApPen, or 15.1 percent of enemy DR ignored. I'm thinking about going ArPen/Crit/Recovery for stat priority.
Damage: TR1: 1.65 million (this was the one I'd grouped with before), me (1.51 million), TR2 (1.2 million). The DC was just under 1 million, and the GF had about 900k.
Kills: Me 475. Next was the DC at 364.
We did our best on try 3. I think we would have beat him if a) The second TR was doing more damage, or b) The GF would not have kept facing the dragon at us when were were trying to get adds off the Cleric in the two big waves.
Even with the fail - and the massive amounts of potions I used, I'm happy with the run. I played very well, my best personal play ina group yet, and while being 10 percent behind a very good TR in damage, I outdid another by 20 percent, and just destroyed the GF in damage. Kill count wise, I was well ahead of everyone. I did, I feel, what I am supposed to do, wipe out zillions of adds and mobs.
It would have been nice to get the kill in, but, from a personal performance standpoint, I'm happy.
Numbers wise, I did well. 1st in DPS at 1 million, TR at 962, CW at 880, GF at 645, GWF 2 at 562. Yes, I outdamaged someone else of my class by over 400k. I dominated kills, as I expect to at this point. 367 for me, 288 for the CW, 261 for the other GFW, 251 for the tank, 250 for the rogue.
That said, I think I played better in the first group that failed to get him down. Now, I don't think it would have mattered, given the lack of healing, and the drop off on DPS after the CW. But, I'm a little disappointed in me.
Hit 36 in the attempt, so not I can't que for it anymore. Put Weapon Master to Rank 2, and went to 2/5 in Disciple of War.
Even at lvl 60 you won't be out damaging a decent TR. I'm always rank #2/3 in damage. Sometimes a decent CW and Me would go toe to toe in damage. You need to stack Armor Penetration, Recovery, Crit/Crit Dmg as those seems to give you the best bang for your buck. Power sucks for GWF (which really is an irony). In the epic version of Caverns of Karrundax I did roughly around 5M damage, TR did 10M and CW did 5M too (we did it with TR/CW/GWF/2CLR double stack Astral shield ftw!).
Tip: the easy and cheap way (without any death) to do epic Karrundax is with 2 cleric stacking astral shield. CW handles all the adds, everyone else on the dragon while cleric spam heal / double stack astral shield. The billions of adds is killed inside the astral shield (together with the dragon) so you won't get instant KO by the sheer number of adds.
This not true. A good GWF with good build and gear will always outdamage any rogue.I never get second place in dps even on castle never runs. The problem is that a rogue is still far more useful than a GWF because he has much more single target damage for the bosses. Apart from that GWF dps is fine
At 37, I went Weapon Master's Strike, Rank 3 and Disciple 3/5
At 38, I took Steel Blitz, Rank 1, though I haven't slotted it yet, and Disciple, 4/5.
I used AoS a lot less in the Downs, mostly because you spend so much time indoors, so Slam is much better as it doesn't pull add groups then.