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INT-based GWFs
l0th4ri0
Member Posts: 589 Arc User
Hey, just wondering if anybody out there is running with this right now, or has tried it out. I'm leveling one ATM and it's pretty funny, actually.
Post edited by l0th4ri0 on
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It's funny because even with my craptastic stats (10 STR 11 DEX) it's still good enough to get by and fun to play. Having a starting INT of 18 (with half-elf racial) does give a noticeable boost to CDs... so I'm cycling through my encounters pretty quick and generating a lot of AP as a result. I'm only level 23 right now, but I've been able to pop a daily in just about every fight with a bandit officer (blackdagger ruins), and I don't remember being able to do that with any of my other GWFs I've messed around with.
Haha, I'm actually spamming avalanche right now instead of slam. Since you are essentially taken out of the fight for 5 seconds (or thereabouts) during the insane mid-air leap, it acts like a 5-second CD reducer as well as a very big AoE (without a target cap) that does pretty decent damage -- enough to shatter any trash mobs and take a nice chunk out of the elites.
Slam has about a 10 second duration, and ticks 11 times. After all is said and done, it does slightly more damage than Avalanche if you keep the mobs in the AoE during each pulse. But it has a 5 target cap per pulse... so if you have more than 6 targets around you, Avalanche technically does more total damage (for whatever that is worth).
I really like Slam too, but I'm just having too much fun with Avalanche right now and hitting one almost every little tussle I get into.
What about it? INT bonus only reduces cooldowns, it does not increase AP gain like recovery does.
I don't even think it is worth it for a daily spam build. INT only decreases the cooldown of encounters, unlike Recovery which does that and increase AP recharge. Yes you would indirectly get higher AP recharge if you have shorter CD on encounters like Roar and Daring Should, but you can do pretty much the same thing with a couple of feats in Destro, without stretching your ability scores thin like this.
That is not quite accurate, because in practice Slam cast time is a split second and you continue to dps while it is active with At-wills or other encounters. So during the 5sec or so you are flying in the air, you could have been doing a good full two rounds of WS or 4-5 rounds of WMS. In a sense using slam allows you to do like triple the damage in the same time frame you would use Avalanche.
Yes I have a 10 STR and 11 DEX. There is a rare, high-INT weird stats roll available at char creation for the GWFs. You have 10 STR, 11 CON and 11 DEX from that roll. Since I picked half-elf for my race, I got +2 to CON and +1 to INT/WIS/CHA each.
Capticone,
This is not a min-max build, for sure. Just a fun experiment... something different. But about Slam vs. Avalanche I have to disagree... kinda.
Everything you said was right. Yes, you can keep attacking right through the slam duration and pour on great DPS as well as have controlled mobs that are getting nailed by the AoE. Slam is awesome.
HOWEVER
If you are running solo and not in a group (as I am ATM), then anything that causes the mobs to stop attacking or have any effect on you turns into a "time stop", in a manner of speaking. Since the mobs can't do anything to you while you are airborne, and you can't do anything to them... then the game might as well be "paused" during the avalanche leap. As far as all the participants in the fight are concerned, nothing is happening. THEN the avalanche lands, doing pretty decent damage to everything in that big ole AoE.
If you think about it, Avalanche in this solo setting is actually AoE instant burst damage -- that reduces your CDs by 5 seconds or whatever it is.
I totally understand what you are saying. My comments are usually for end game purposes. And I totally appreciate doing something "different" and/or just for fun. Avalanche is a daily I would have loved to keep as a main. I used it while leveling up. But once I saw what I can do with Roar + Daring Shout + Life Steal, I personally never found a need for those "Time Stop" moments.
Gotcha. Thanks for your comments, I appreciate any feedback/ideas or whatever... and I value the collective insight of the GWF community. If this build turns out to be somewhat partially half-decent at something, then maybe somebody else can learn from my little experiment here, and/or try it out for a laugh or two. There is something inherently funny about wielding a giant sword while being a total wimp.
Since you use avalanche have you tested steadfast? I would think the 5 seconds of extra combat determination would work well with the concept.
Oh yes, I am using steadfast... it is helping. Not a lot -- even with 3 ranks -- but it's there. I'm using anything I can to get determination: reaping, roar, you name it. I'm even not wearing chest armor to keep my AC lower! LOL but that's more just for giggles than out of any kind of attempt to min-max this out any more. I don't even know if going armorless actually builds determination faster or not. I DO know that it makes PVE a little more challenging, and therefore more fun.
Hahaha, this IS a weird build. I will not try to deny that.
Here's my char at level 25 right now:
Note that my AC is somehow 16 instead of 10... I have no idea why that is. It's been 16 since level 1.
The last patch ruined the stats distribution... so much for any non-cookie-cutter GWF builds. Thanks, Cryptic!
So I'm done with this char now.... no point in playing it anymore. Maybe I'll reroll to a DC or something.
Look at my STR/CON/DEX and whatnot in the two screeners of my char sheet in the previous posts above.
The entire idea of this build was to base it around that high INT I had from char creation, and see what happened with such a low STR/DEX. Now my STR/CON/DEX is 18/18/14 and my INT went down due to the patch. Might as well be any other kind of GWF at this point.
LOL
No, because I would have rather had a harder time and had fun if the build hadn't worked out. Now it's just more of the same that I've already done. <Yawn>
Have you tried to roll anything that close favoring the int?
Also it's kind of boring that the rolls are almost exactly the same, only with 2 points of differences on the class's main stats..
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