GCTRL's "Sentinel" Cleric Tank V3 (PvP)
UPDATE 4:- I've been getting a lot of requests on this so starting today I'll be recording and uploading Premade vs. Premade matches until I get my ISP changed and can resume streaming. Keep a look out here as I will be adding links to every match from my YouTube channel.UPDATE 3:- Daily/Power changes (Screenshot Update)
- New Feat loadout (Screenshot Update)
- Added additional Armor/Weapon Enhancement Enchant choices
UPDATE 2:- Now at 36% Damage Resistance and 26% Deflect Chance from first two defensive BoonsUPDATE 1:- Added 5 new gameplay videos
- Made slight Feat changes
INTRODUCTION
The idea behind this build is simple:
Be as tanky as possible and still provide considerable team support with light healing and damage mitigation.
Typically what you see most clerics doing when trying to increase their survivability is to stack a significant amount of Defense or Regeneration (usually in the 1000-1400 range) <- This is extremely beneficial as even a small amount of Regen can provide a good boost for recovering quickly after losing large amounts of health.
However, when it comes to burst damage, Regen and Defense can only do so much, this is where Deflect comes in. Normally Clerics do not even consider building up Deflect because it's presumed that you can never get enough of it to make a significant impact. So the rule of thumb going around now is focus on Defense and Regeneration to boost your survivability.
IMHO, this is wrong and cuts your defenses short. Through different gear combinations, enchants and ability score allocation,
I've managed to get 26% chance to Deflect - while still having 2430 Defense (36% Damage Resistance) and 1078 Regeneration.
This, in combination with certain defense boosting abilities and weapon/armor enchants, gives your Cleric states of near invulnerability, even in the most dire pvp scenarios imaginable where you are getting focused by multiple targets.
It also allows you to hold/contest points by yourself (similar to the infamous Sentinel GWF, who 99% of the time require more than 2-3 average players to kill).
HOW THIS BUILD PLAYS - VIDEOS
V3 Build:
Lemonade Stand vs. Essence of Aggression - Game 1Lemonade Stand vs. Essence of Aggression - Game 2Lemonade Stand vs. Essence of Aggression - Game 3Lemonade Stand vs. Enemy Team - Game 1Lemonade Stand vs. Enemy Team - Game 2 <- Lag/Disconnecting starts at 30mins, but we still manage to pull off the win.
Lemonade Stand vs. Enemy Team - Game 3
V1/V2 Build:
1 v 4 - Tanking burst damage <- See 5 for full video
Stalemating a BIS GF with GTenes <- Using Divine Armor in this for fun
Stalemating a BiS Sent GWF w/ GTenesMore stalemating a BiS Sent GWF w/ GTenes <- Other miscellaneous fights including 1v2's
4 v Premade - Deathless Cleric Tanking1 v 3 - Holding point until backup arrives1 v 2 - Holding point until backup arrives
RACE & ABILITY SCORE
To get the most deflect possible, and also to help with CC immunity, I picked Halfling. I put points into CON and DEX as I level. DEX for Deflect and CON for HP. Simple.
POWERSAt-Wills: Sacred Flame, Astral Seal
Encounters: Sun Burst, Healing Word, Astral Shield
Dailies: Divine Armor, Guardian of Faith
Class Features: Foresight, Divine Fortune
FEATSMY GEAR
ENCHANTS
Offense Enchants: Silvery for Recovery (Rank 5 minimum)
Defensive Enchants: Silvery for Deflect (Rank 7 minimum)
Utility Enchants: Dark for Movement Speed
Armor Enhancement: Barkshield (Greater/Perfect) or Negation (Perfect)
Weapon Enhancement: Feytouched or Holy Avenger (Greater/Perfect) or Tranquility (Although I do not think Tranquility is working as intended right now, the proc rate seems to be abysmal)
Please leave any questions, comments or suggestions you might have and I will do my best to address them. Also check out my TWITCH and YOUTUBE for more PvP content and godly tanking.
Comments
My next character was going to be a Halfing too, lol.
Thanks for your efforts. But how do you level so fast?!
Np, its really easy to lvl in this game.
* TWITCH * YOUTUBE * MY GUIDES *
@post above
I don't see you posting a vid about your build.
http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?427911-The-PvP-itemization-that-worked-for-me
Rubbish. Absolute rubbish!
1. Regen builds have been around since at least mid-beta. Unspecifiederror is the most famous for espousing them and has had multiple complete build specs stickied by moderators. So, there goes your attribution for Regen on DC.
2. This is NOT a Regen build in the least. It is a Deflect build. And as far as I can tell, the very first one I have ever seen for DCs. GTRL/HCTRL even goes out of his way to point out that Deflect is normally dismissed by Regen builders, which is very true, just like in the link that you showed:
"- had a feeling that regen had to do more with the survivability than deflect, since my DC has a lot of heals and damage reductions to fill the shoes of 50% deflect chance."
I think going from Defense+Regen to +Deflect is quite straightforward, I myself went to balance defense/deflect myself the moment i reached reasonable defense (since you can't socket regen even if you want)...
You say that and yet there has never been a build posted explicitly for Deflect which includes committing fully to DEX, so again, there goes your "common sense"-I-knew-it-all-beforehand theory...
Never been a fan of regen. I'm more a lifesteal and defense kind of cleric. Yes i love lifesteal!
The point of this build is to get as much deflect as possible while still having a decent amount of hp, regen and defense. There is nothing tankier than this build in the game currently. 25% deflect allows me to tank ridiculous amounts of damage in PvP, having a larger hp pool and more regen is not going to help you against true burst damage, especially when you are proned. I'll be putting up some videos that demonstrate this soon. Remember this is a tank build before it is a healing build.
* TWITCH * YOUTUBE * MY GUIDES *
That build is solely focused on regen, this build is heavily focused on Deflect while still having a significant amount of regen and defense. This makes it way more tankier than any pure regen build, which lacks the strength to deal with true burst damage.
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* TWITCH * YOUTUBE * MY GUIDES *
Interesting, but this spec is for purely tanking, holding points, and mitigating damage, I'll let my teammates get the kills. Sunburst is a must, for knocking people away from me/knocking them off the point/interrupting, etc... So its not only good for mitigating damage but its useful for building up extra points in Domination.
Healing step is the only thing that I've considered trying out, but I really like the extra healing I can give to myself and my team from Invigorated Healing and Moon Touched.
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I didn't notice that much of a difference on the test server, but yeah it will probably be somewhat of a hindrance.
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If I understand deflection mechanism correctly, these around 25% deflect with 50% value gives you efficently around 12.5% damage reduction on average.
I assume that deflection is calculated before damage reduction by defense. This mean these 12.5% doesn't even "stack" fully with defense.
Example: if you receive 50,000 damage within a fight, 12.5% are deflected, that are 6250 damage, leaving 43,750 damage. This value is reduced again by defense by 35%. So 28,437,5 damage have been done effectivly to you. However, a real stack of 47,5% (12,5% + 35%) would have reduced the damage to 26,250.
So, the total effectiviness of deflect to the total defense is more around 8,125%. That's not that great deal.
Going instead with the full miracle set bonus in combination with HP and regeneration should give similar results.
Of course, a deflection build might provide the "luck" bonus. If just the "right" attacks are deflected, it can be much more effective in short fights. However, there is also a chance, that instead of the 20k lashing blade only the 500 damage shadow strike is deflected.
This is where practice trumps theorycrafting easily. You forget or are not aware of several critical aspects, for example:
1. Defense and Armor Class are subject to Resistance Ignored effects, including Armor Penetration. Deflection is not.
2. In PvP, unlike PvE, almost every strike is an attempt at burst damage. This further increases the value of Deflection.
Yeah and 25% deflection means that there is a 1/4 chance that a strike got deflected. Now, if you are lucky, e.g. the lashing blade of a rogue gets deflected preventing high burst damage. If you are unlucky, only some at will or low damage encounter power gets deflected while the actual burst encounter is not.
So, I find this quite unreliable.
Another question would be if it is possible to deflect when dazed? From the point of logic, it wouldn't.
Thanks
Also, note that given your calculations then the higher damage, the more useful deflect is. Feel free to check gctrl's vid and calculate just how much damage that GWF in full teneb was doing to him in 3 mins. How is the miracle healer set supposed to compete with that? Especially considering that to actually get the most of out of the miracle healer set, you -must- use your encounter powers. What happens when, inevitably, you get caught with all your encounter powers on CD? Surely that's going to happen at some point in 3 minutes, possibly within the first 30 seconds.
Of course just credit me and put a link to this thread somewhere on it.
* TWITCH * YOUTUBE * MY GUIDES *
You won't have any idea of how effective it is until you actually try it, and get at least somewhere close to my percentage.
I've added 5 more video clips to the main post that demonstrate the effectiveness, here are a few:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Nx6p4GC1uU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSfWNNw4pdI
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That's what your summoned minions-...er party members are there for.
Contagion - Cleric
Testament - Wizard
Pestilence - Ranger
Dominion - Paladin
NIGHTSWATCH
Yeah let's think about this... a cleric that can't die and doesn't kill anything. Sounds like someone EVERYONE would love to have on their team.
For solo pvp it might be fun to really be immortal, but you cant really do damage so its limited.
For premade pvp though (which is what matters for me) your build is a bad idea.
Im already so tanky on my dc that groups tend to switch targets a lot and focus someone else, so that you have to heal them and keep them alife, which your build just cant - not enough healing no crits.
Also you are using pve feats mostly, just saying.
Thank you, I will post it tomorrow