Here's a Control Wizard guide (Renegade).
note: You can zoom in holding ctrl+ mouse wheel. Same thing on a touchpad, might take a few tries though.
NO LONGER UPDATED, FOR REASON: DEAD GAME
NOTE: Although this is a build focussed for PvP, it will do any PvE zone with ease. You could grab a few extra by going for PvE, but the way things are now, you will mostly be pushing off edges. I myself run CN with 4 peoples regularly. I just want to make sure you understand that although this is focussed on PvP, it will in no way hinder your PvE skills.
Why: I know there is a lot of other builds out there currently, but from my point of view, most (I haven't seen them all) are ineffective. They will suggest combinations or passives which in my opinion will stray you away from some other really good stuff. I see some level 50's make guides, so as one of the top end-game players I think I can enlighten a few.
I'm currently an end game DC // CW (and a TR but I kind of abandoned it shortly after 60). My cw's gear worth is around 7.5 million. I've spent a lot of time on this game. The renegade path is really effective and a good direction to head into. So here I will explain all the feats you will want, why and how they will be applied.
More than theory-crafting, here I'm going to explain things from someone who has experience and played extensively. I will talk about the skills in a realistic fashion which will relate directly to what you will see in-game.
This comprehensive build will be separated in chapters as follow:
0.5 - This will be a really short "What you're getting into" kind of thing, where we will see the main goal of renegade and a general overview of what you're going to do.
1- First we will examine the feats, I will point out which one works, which one don't and why. You're race, rolls and the such will also be included in this section.
2- Secondly, We will see what skills we are looking at. The real deal is the PVP ones, so those are the one we will focus on. I will still make a small talk about the PVE one, but that's pretty simple and quick, so there will only be the essential.
3- For the third section we will discuss the Enchantments we will want.
4- I will discuss strategies and behaviours from other classes. How you should react why and what you can expect.
5- This will be a dedicated section to CW vs CW. It happens often and it's always a pain. Most peoples will trow anything they have in any order, hoping the other CW will die first.
6- I will dedicate this particular chapter to the use of teleport and avoiding/dodging.
7- Team fight / Positioning will cover who to target, where do you want to go and how so.
8- The running away section. It's not gracious but it happens. It will also include what to do if said enemy is running away.
9- General Tips / tricks section, contains general useful little things that you might want to do.
10- Gear-talk.
11- PVE section where I will introduce you to the best way of doing dungeons//bosses and how to maximize your efficiency with the least party members possible for an easy run providing you do as explained.
12-Network section where I will talk about a what helped me construct a network of trust-worthy players, and discuss some simple stuff you should take a habbit to do.
13- Will contain changelog as well as any particular event due to this guide (usually involving either a patch or additional information/coloring etc etc).
WARNING: Some information, especially ability scores, contain information which is long and tedious to explain since it relates to every part of the guide, and I would have to quote nearly the whole guide. Therefore, I recommend re-reading it a second time to have a better understanding.
Chapter 0.5 ~ Renegade
What is renegade focused on: Dealing criticals, which hurt alot and triggers all the other feats one by one to have synergy together. In itself, the renegade build is like a gamble, and you're goal will be to make yourself win as often as you can. Luckily for you, this is a video game, and since true randomness is impossible, you will always hit it with consistency.
As a renegade, you're ideal scenario would be to hit all criticals and kill your enemy in 2-3 skills. You are the one who will target the "squishy" ones first, CW's TR's and DC's.
Race:
We're maximizing efficiency here, so you're definitely heading for Thiefling. The ability scores it gives are the best, as well as the passives. I don't think I need to talk extensively about it. There is numerous "viable" options, but this one is the best. I will probably go more in detail in the future, for those of you who really want to hear it said again.
Ability Scores:
As you might know, there is only a few possibilities you might roll. Instead of looking at your main stats and trying to get them as high as possible, we will look at the actual important and sneaky ones. The grey ones. You will have 3 of them, strength constitution and dexterity.
In order of importance, you're ability scores will go this way:
Intelligence
Charisma
Wisdom
Constitution
Strength
Dexterity
What you will be looking for is the combination: 8 dexterity ~ 10 strength ~ 10 constitution. The main reason for this is that if you get this combo, your main and secondary ability scores will be as high as possible. Also, dexterity is the least important ability score, so it's the one we want at 8. Ability scores start giving out per-point bonus after 10, so dexterity will be two points "late" on there.
In the worst case scenario, you could get 10 dex ~ 8 str~ 10 const. That would also be a good option, a tiny fraction of a percentage less effective, but nearly the same.
Now, here's the "what". Every point in * gives * per level over 10:
Intelligence
~ 1% damage bonus ; 1% cooldown reduction
More damage, and more cooldown reduction. I don't even think I need to explain how much this is mandatory. Maximizes your damage and CC output.
Charisma
~ 1% critical change ; 1% combat advantage ; 1% companion stat bonus
Critical is our core, and combat advantage synergies with our feats. This is nearly as awesome as Intelligence. Not quite, but nearly.
Wisdom
~ 1% control bonus ; 1% control resistance ; 1% cooldown reduction ; 1% action point gain
This is filled with tiny utilities that have their use, they are just not as efficient as the two previous one.
Constitution
~ 2% extra HP
More Life, a few percent extra HP will make the difference between life and death.
Strength
~ 1% damage over time resistance ; 1% stamina regeneration
The stamina regeneration is awesome, but it just doesn't make strength worth the while compared to the other two.
Dexterity
~ 1% Area of Effect damage resistance ; 0.5% deflection chance
Deflection is useless. 0.5% chance at 50% severity means 0.25% damage reduction. It's unreliable
Chapter 1 ~ Feats
Some of the feats stats are not the same anymore, this is all taken into consideration for this build. The feat simulator simply isn't updated yet.
First: a link. Go to the feat section.
http://nwcalc.com/cw?b=p9b:4nwad:8fdj,13n06n0:60000:b0u00:bz501&h=0
column by column.
Controlling Action: 0/5 Controlling action is horrible.
Weapon Mastery: 3/3 Criticals are whole point of a renegade build. More crit= better.
Toughness: 3/3 As for thoughness, you want to resist as much as possible. This will also synergise with the future radiants in the defensive slots.
Fight On : 5/5 10% cooldown reduction... it would be utmost defficient not to get it. This is litterraly like saying 10% more damage, cc and debuff.
Battlewise : 0/3 We dont need threat reduction.
Wizard's Wrath: 0/3 We are not aiming at an AOE PvE build
Blighting Power: 1/3 We have a point to spend, best option overall
Lightning Teleport : 0/5 we dont kill adds here, that 10% restored is not worth 5 feat points.
Arcane mastery: 3/3 Magic Missile is arcane, entrangling force is arcane and ray of enfeeblement is arcane. More damage.
Learned spellcaster: 5/5 We are an egoistic pvp build, we want to murders others, 5% more damage is awesome.
Prestigitation: Not bad but not worth it for PvP.
Focussed Wizardry: we are not PvE and even then...
PARAGON
Thaumaturge -Tempest magic: 5/5 Bugged but we need points, and once it's debugged it will prove useful.
Malevolent surge: 0/5 Nearly NEARLY useless. the use is so tiny I didn't even deem it worth putting in and respecing later.
Destructive wizardry: 0/5 The name is nicer than the effect.
Snap Freeze: 5/5 This... Is... Awesome... It makes you hit few thousands more on Icy rays and/or not chill strike hit. It's a MUST have to burst. The condition is easily met also.
Renegade -Critical power: 5/5 Helps charge your ice knife quicker, and we needed to spend 5 points, so here they are.
Reaper's Touch: 5/5 I said I was realistic, well here's reality, you WILL fight close combat a lot. 3/5 classes are melee and will rush to you. It's not like you can always stay at 80 distance from them. Rogues will be in your face, guardian fighters will rush to your face, and gwf will run to you. A must have. 15% is a lot.
Nightmare wizardry: 5/5 It will proc the next feat also, all about synergy. This also adds a big bunch of damage. You're CHA will also boost this! (we will see it later, but it will synergise with eye of the storm).
http://neverwinter.gamepedia.com/Combat_AdvantageUnrestrained chaos: 0/5 Useless
Phantasmal Destruction: 5/5 Everytime Nightmare Wizardry procs, it will proc this. Or every time you hit someone in the back mostly. You're a crit based character, 15% increased severity is better than sex for you.
Energy Recovery: 0/5 Useless
Masterfull Arcane Theft: 0/5 Enfeeblement ray is our first spell cast in 99% cases, this wont profit it in any way whatsoever. The buff is also severly lower now.
Chilling Advantage: 0/5 This would be wonderfull if it was with storm spell, but we are sadly not using chilling presence.
Chaos Magic: 1/1 Well duh~!!! Can be very usefull. A bit of randomness but eh, we are renegades. That means we are pro gamblers with critical. One more gamble won't hurt.
Chapter 2 ~ Powers
Same link: Power section this time
http://nwcalc.com/cw?b=p9b:4nwad:8fdj,13n06n0:60000:b0u00:bz501&h=0
I will first present to you the set-up followed by the regular combo you will be using. I will then explain the use of each skill. This section will stay relatively short since most of the fighting content will be explained into the general strategies chapter.
Here's what you will want for pvp:
At will 1: Magic Missile
At will 2: Storm Pillar ~ Used to charge Daily when there's no action
Passive 1: Storm spell
Passive 2: Eye of the storm
Mastery: Icy Rays
Encounter 1: Ray of enfeeblement
Encounter 2: Chill Strike (recommended once you hit 60)// Repel
Encounter 3: Entrangling Force
Daily 1: Ice Knife
Daily 2: Ice Storm// Arcane singularity
~~~~~
Regular Encounter combo:
Ray of enfeeblement
Icy rays ~~~~ PS: Always only aim at 1 target. You need to press it twice.
Entangling force
Magic Missile
Chill strike
~~~~~
Ray of Enfeeblement ~ Weakens your target greatly.
Icy Rays ~ Un-avoidable skill which will stun your target and do a humongous amount of damage.
Entrangling Force ~ Beware the Sith! A good CC which also allows you to land your ice knife with certainty.
Magic Missile ~ Yes your at-will! It might not seem like it, but it hurts hard! and that's a few thousand damages you add in for free instead of blowing all your spells away.
Chill Strike ~ This is your other hard hitting spell combined with another CC.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
PvE
At will 1: Magic Missile
At will 2: Storm Pillar ~ Used to charge Daily when there's no action
Passive 1: Storm spell
Passive 2: Eye of the storm
Mastery: Entrangling Force
Encounter 1: Icy Terrain
Encounter 2: Steal Time (recommended once you hit 60)/Repel
Encounter 3: Shield / Shard of E-Avalanche
Daily 1: Ice Knife
Daily 2: Arcane singularityChapter 3 ~ Enchantments
Special Offensive:
Greater tenebrous enchantment
~will be explained further with some un-told stuff in the tooltip
Offensive:
Azures ~ 2100 crit //
Dark ~ at least 1000 //
Radiant ~ everything else
First and foremost, we will look at our critical. We will want azures to bring it somewhere around 2000-2100. The reason is simple, we are using criticals as our bread and butter. And the "soft cap" is 2100 roughly. Therefore, we will want somewhere around there before we invest in anything else.
Secondly, armor penetration (ArP for short). All low armored classes have a minimum armor. This small amount of armor how ever gives a big amount of reduction. Usually around 15%. We will want to remove it. You will need to bring your ArP around 1000 to 1500.
Thirdly and lastly, should you have anything left, Radiants will do. I strongly doubt you will have any slots left here, but I mention it just in case.
Defensive: Radiant
~ Flat HP gives you the best survivability, it will also combine with Toughness and become 9% more effective!
Utility: Dark
~ There's nothing else really... Move speed, even small, isn't bad either.
Weapon: Vorpal
~ The renegade build is critical based, hence why we are looking towards vorpal to be even deadlier!
Armor: Soulforged
~ The uncontested best. Makes you invincible for a good length of time, with a low cooldown! You can see if it's ready if you're armor displays the effect (greater+ will start oozing black smoke and will be easier to distinguish).
Chapter 4 ~ Strategies and general behaviours
~Under construction - This section will be quite big if it goes as I think it will go, therefore I won't write it all in one-go. Might be worth to check it back sometime.
First of all, let's separate this into categories (Cw has his own chapter):
Trickster Rogues:
Trickster rogues are really annoying for most peoples, they hit hard, they daze you and, worst of all, they are invisible!
First of all, the most important thing when facing a trickster is not to be scared. Here's a few reasons you shouldn't:
Tricksters are forseeable, they ain't no tricksters.
Tricksters only have three skills with any damage potential (not including their ultimate).
Tricksters can only roll(dodge) twice.
Tricksters are squishy.
Before I go into how to defeat tricksters, I've got to explain to you guys what tricksters can and might do.
Lashing Blade: The big sword coming from the side. A guaranteed critical strike if it hits out of invisibility. Melee range if not a little more.
Impact Shot: 3 charges of brute damage which adds a small push/stun. If cast to break stealth, it does not consume any charge and add a real stun to it.
Dazing Strike: Jump in the air and fall back down, disabling you for a few seconds. If it breaks stealth, the animation is 50% faster.
Deft Strike: Teleport behind you and hit you once, adding a massive slow. If cast to break stealth, it gives 20 extra range and allows you to teleport on teammate.
Impossible to Catch: Turns them dark/black and gives huge mitigation. If used out of stealth, it makes them immune to pretty much anything.
*I will add a section about this spell and how to deal with it. It's annoying but not that bad in the end, once you understand some concepts.
Smoke Bomb: Creates an area where you are dazed. If cast to break out of stealth, it adds an annoying slow to it.
Shadow Strike: Looks like they are trowing a dagger at you like they are out of some kung fu / james bond movie. Does SUPER TINY little damage. But it refills their stealth bar no matter what you do. Just refresh stealth and add a TINY daze it if they use it while in stealth.
Bait and Switch: Make a clone and dashes in a direction (always a stupid direction too). If used during stealth, it refreshes their stealth bar but does not do any dash. If it's not moving, has 3 bar of health and shouts "tricked", ignore it. It's a clone.Whirlwind blade: A blue circle around them, avoid it if you can, but not that dangerous.
Bloodbath: A low-level daily which will make them teleport around you and hit you. Nothing to do about it, just wait till it ends and don't waste your teleports / freak out. It would result in the same as someone trying to avoid a CoI damage by rolling around. Not really problematic.
Shocking Execution: Jump in the air and fall back down. Does more damage the lower hp you are. Only way to avoid this is by killing / using crowd control on them. Hurts.
Lurker's Assault: The most dangerous and vicious of all. It extends their stealth by 10 seconds by regenerating it at really high speed. Their attacks will also deal 60% increased damage. Really annoying, beware of it. It's the most dangerous of all.Cloud of Steel: An at will that trows daggers at you. They have 12 charges with 3s to recharge each dagger. It does increasingly higher damage the more consecutive hits they get on you. Does not break stealth.
Sly Flourish: A basic attack, nothing special about it, they just slash and slash with no special effect.
Duelist's Flurry: A very very slow hit, followed by another very very slow hit, followed by a dozen of light speed quick hits stalking your target with teleport. It also adds bleed on you and can add a few buffs on themselves.
Anything else than what's on this list such as blitz which trows small daggers in a bunch while recoiling back or path of blade which makes daggers come out of the ground in an AOE. Laugh at it, it's ridiculously bad and useless.
Now we know what those pesky little things can do. Knowledge is power, and this is all the more true against Tricksters. The first step in defeating a Trickster rogue is spotting one of the 4 indicators that tells you "Hey, Trickster here!"
1~ A mount with a trickster mounted on it running straight at you(or at least an individual) which suddenly disappears into nothing. In case you wondered, no the mount didn't fly off into the sunset. The trickster just activated his stealth. This is also valid if you see a trickster looking around your way and going invisible.
2~Projectiles being thrown your way. That's cloud of steel, and in rare occurrence impact shot.
3~A weird distortion or seem like movement of some kind right beside you. Usually really brief. No it's no eye-trick. It's a Trickster.
4~ A Trickster running around in circle, trying to find a spot to hide and regenerate his stealth. Just your usual lost trickster, somehow seems to be more abundant in the Hotenow map (fire one).
----
Scenario using the first(1) case.
Once that first step is done, meaning you spotted the Trickster, it's time to act. What you should know is that tricksters are NOT interested in guardian fighters, neither great weapon fighters and rarely clerics. They crave wizards, you are a wizard.
Knowing they got limited time for their stealth and that they want you and think you are stupid and that they are so much smarter. The conclusion we can get is they are going to run straight for you.
Two options might happen:
They will start trowing daggers at you nearly immediately.
~View case 2 to see how to deal with this.
OR
They will run straight to you and try to cast one of their fancy skills. Usually lashing blade, sometime smoke bomb and more rarely around 60: dazing strike.
This second scenario is the most common and most easy to deal with. You know what they will do, and where they are going with the trajectory.
Imagine a straight line going from you to wherever they disappeared first. Then imagine they are running at you with a speed slightly lower than a regular t1 mount. As soon as you think he reached you, wait about .25 to .5 second to let him position himself and start casting (if you got balls you can also run towards them, can make it a little easier, just shorten the waiting delay). Then teleport. About a second later, you will see a rogue appear at your previous location, wondering where you got your psychic powers.
~I suggest teleporting backwards as it will keep him in your field of view.
~This might take you a few times to get the timing down, but it's very easy once you are used to it.
His stealth is down, his highest damage or disabling skill is gone.There is now two options:
He will stand there a second too long trying to think what to do or cast some fancy other skill.
~You can just trow your regular combo in there, and you can be sure he's dead meat.
OR
He will teleport behind you using deft-strike.
As soon as you see him disappear, you should know it's deft strike. Just quickly teleport somewhere else. You are then free to kill him with your regular combo.
----
The second (2) scenario is the annoying scenario. This kind of rogue will run around invisible trowing daggers at you then either running away or coming to finish you off.
The first step in this situation is to deal with the Cloud of Steel daggers. It's damage is exponential, meaning it will start with really low damage and go higher and higher the longer he can keep on attacking you with it.
Step 1.1: Locate where it comes from.
Step 1.2: Walk away from that location until around 4 daggers hit you.
Step 1.3: teleport away from him.
Step 1.4: Repeat step 1.3 if he hasnt stopped shooting daggers at you.[CONTINUE ON NEXT POST]
Comments
You took minimal damage, the rogue will now either flee, either try to push it.
If he flees refer to the "Running Away" section.
If he tries to push it, there's four options:
He might try to run to you and hit you with lashing blade or any skill like that.
~Refer to the "case 1" if you think that's what's going on.
OR
He might get closer to you and start trowing impact shots.
OR
He might deft strike to you.
~Refer to the second part of "case 1" if this is what happens.
OR
He might trow you a Shadow Strike to replenish his stealth.
~He will either follow up with impact shot, run away, run in circles trying to get daggers back or run at you. If he goes with Impact Shot, simply keep on reading this part. If he runs, forget it except except if you got a RoE on him. Then refer to the "running away" Section. If he runs straight at you, refer to the "case 1" section.
So now he trows his impact shots. He's got 3 charge but his first one doesn't count since it's out of stealth. That's the key one. Make sure to spot it coming to you, it looks like some kind of tiny invisible anime super powered tennis ball. If you avoid it, you avoided the worst. You will usually have 1-2 teleports left around this time, depending on how fast it all went. in 99.99% of the cases, you will have 2 left, or you will get your 2nd while you're dodging the first.
Now this part is very important, you will want to avoid the first of the 3 charges, get hit by the second and avoid the third. The reason we want to be hit by the second is because they create a small stun. You will notice it's quite hard to get the timing right to dodge the next one after getting hit. But if you avoid the first two and let the 3rd one hit you, you will allow him to chain his next move which will most likely end up in having to take more damage / death.
Once he's done with the third shot, they will either try another skill most likely a few cloud of steel or some other wierdo thing*. Make sure to mark him with icy ray, avoid his skill and blast him off with Icy Ray. If everything went at a normal rate, skills casted as fast as he can etc, he shouldn't be able to stealth for the next second, allowing you to hit the previously mentioned Icy Ray.
Tricksters are very squishy, thus there is no way in having to cast ray of enfeeblement first, preventing them from moving around is the first step. After that you can cast Ray of Enfeeblement, Entrangling force and finnish off with Chilling strike if he's still alive.
*~ There's one annoying annoying super annoying case here, where the TR will use ItC. It shouldn't be a problem, just cast on him, but if he survives and still want to attack you, you will have to go thru part of the sequence again, he will have less daggers and possibly only 1-2 charges of Impact shot, making it fairly easy. But it's a real pain. In this case, slowly back towards a health potion. They will have to go for it before you do, thus breaking their combo. Even if they get the health pot, just kill them as soon as they turn visible, with your burst, their potion shouldn't be any use to them. They most likely will also be around half health already. More of this will be discussed in the "Running Away" section.
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The third(3) case is really simple. And possibly one of the easiest but also the hardest.
What you will want to do is avoid his skill, and then proceed as in the "case 1".
It's easy because it's not much thinking, and those TR's are usually dead fast. Most of them don't think you could ever possibly avoid them, and might waste 2 skills in empty air.
But it's also one of the hardest because you need to develop the reflex. Once it's there, it's simple, but until then, it requires constant attention.
PS: It's better to dodge and dodge nothing than let it by and eat a huge amount of damage.
--
I will group the fourth(4) case here also because it's pretty straight forward. The wandering Trickster probably just burnt his skills on someone else, or he's low on HP.
Initiate with Icy Ray and then follow up with your regular pattern, he shouldn't see it coming. Otherwise if he runs at you, he will do one of the two cases depicted above, minus a big chunk of life.
Though in most cases, he will run away. Refer to the "Running Away" Section for this.
----
There is always this 1% of unorthodox who runs around carrying weird skills or trying to initiate in a strange manner. Just avoid their more than probable daze if that's what they are going for, and then kill them, or tank whatever inefficient skill they are using (path of blade for instance) and kill them on the spot. Those are rare, and usually don't really know what they are doing, or think they got it all right and that everybody is wrong. In both cases, they are blind to their mistakes and shouldn't pose any challenge.
A lot of peoples have been complaining about this, but the truth is... They are not dangerous! They scare you because you are not taking this rationally.
A good PvP perma-stealth with abusively high enchantments (perfect vorpal and 9's) will be able to kill you in a fairly short amount of time if you stand around. Those are extremely rare though, and they fall off in team-fights. If you ever hit one of those, run for your teamates. This will see an average / good-with-non-abusive-enchantment perma-stealth TR.
Let's go over why-perma-stealth-are-weak.
1-They have to use PVP set. No swash for them.
2-Their encounters are limited... They need to make this stealth last as long as possible, they have to run multiple non-damaging/dangerous encounters in order to make their stealth last longer.
Basically, you assume they are perma-stealth and that they retain all the raw power that someone who doesn't use these extra-stealth encounter has. (And I'm not talking about their passives...)
Here's how their encounter goes:
E1: Shadow strike
E2: Bait and switch (clone)
E3: ??? usually Impossible to Catch or, but less likely, Lashing Blade. I've seen a few impact shots too.
If we follow the most standard built, we can reach a conclusion.... They have no damaging encounter. Their whole damage is based off their at wills. In the worst case they have one big skill to do damage, but it's a close combat one which is very easy to avoid and breaks their stealth.
Chasing them is not a good idea, they will always get away except if they are completely dumb. What I would suggest though is as soon as you spot a perma-stealth in your game, the next time you see him attacking you with his Cloud of Steel, teleport near him and start your combo.
Here are the few options he will get, all which result in his death:
1-Try to run away
~Follow him, or go to the location where he's stunned, and finnish him off. Make sure to stay close to him.
OR
2- Keep trowing Cloud of Steel daggers.
~Your combo will stop and kill him.
OR
3- Try lashing blade
~ Dash back, he just broke his invisibility. Smack him down, he might try to use shadow strike to replenish his stealth bar if he didn't use it already, but he shouldn't have time to do that. Stun-lock him to death!
OR
4- Use Impossible to Catch
~it will make him invulnerable for a little while, just wait there, remember he cannot do anything that will damage you. In the worst case, it will be weak at-wills. If he used Shadow Strike to replenish his stealth, just stay close to him, and as soon as he try to go invisible/Impossible to Catch goes away, burst him down. He won't have anything left.
OR
5- Use impact shot.
~avoid as much as you can while going backward. This skill has only 40 range, thus it's quite easy to get out of his range, while maintaining him in yours. Cast him a skill before he goes stealth again, you will kill about half his Stealth bar, and thus making is stealth way shorter. Then just go on him as usual.
~Alternatively, if you're full HP and just want to kill him quickly, you can avoid them while going towards him. You might get hit by 1 or 2 depending on your number of teleport, but You should get close to him and start your combo.
Devoted Clerics:
Here they are, the divine little buddies who never die. Clerics are pretty simple to deal with. There is a few things you need to watch out for though, as those skills might completely annihilate you and/or your damage output.
They are the easy guys, with a lot of annoying functionality.
Clerics have a lot of spells in their book, but only certain of them are dangerous, some of them look like they might be, but they really aren't, and some don't look dangerous, but are devastating.
I will mention all the ones that you might possibly care to know about, the others you should just forget about them and let them hit you, as there is hardly a way to avoid them, while they do not change your damage output and will not restrict you in any way. In the worst case, you will suffer a slight defence debuff followed by a low amount of damage 5 seconds later.
Astral Seal: An at-will which looks like they are trowing a bowling ball. It trows a wierd light ball with runes in it. It's inflicts weak damage, but will apply this seal on you. Any hit you suffer will heal the attacker for a small amount (usually 100-200 depending on critical). Not dangerous at all.
Lance of Faith: Light javelins at-will where the third hit will hit harder (roughly 150%). Not dangerous at all.
Forge master's Flame: This is a near-troll spell. It looks like light falling from the sky on you (on you only, do not mix it up with a big aoe skill with glyphs). It damages and slows you. The nasty part of it is when it is used in divine mode. It will also heal whoever is near you by a HUMONGOUS amount. Stay far from everybody when you got that on you.
Break the Spirit: This one looks like a small ball of solid compact light coming towards you in a small curve. They will cast it by raising their symbol high above their head. It will slow you and reduce your damage by 40%, and reduce weaken you by 30%. The divine version will make it stun also. AVOID TO GET HIT AT ALL COST. Easy to see coming.
Astral Shield: that yellow / blue circle on the ground. It creates a zone which increases mitigation by 20% and if used with divine (blue) will heal whoever stands in it. Makes peoples a pain to kill in it.
Hammer of Faith: This is the only daily worth mentioning, all the others are self-explanatory (adds shield or buff offence / defence). The cleric will trow 3 hits at you, knocking you backward. It's the strongest daily in the game damage-wise. A cleric can easily kill you with this skill alone. It is however really easy to avoid. AVOID AT ALL COST. If you can't avoid them all, avoid the 3rd hit especially, it's the strongest.
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Clerics usually stick with their team-mates while you are with your own team-mates when you engage them. You shouldn't have to worry about them 99% of the time, just avoid the dangerous skills mentionned above and you don't have to worry about them
But in the case you would meet a cleric in 1v1, DPS them down, it seems stupid and simple, but that's as far as it goes. Just make sure none of their damage-reducing abilities hit you. I am also the owner of a 60 Cleric (end game as well), and I tested it inside out. There is no way a Cleric will win against a well skilled Control Wizard except if the wizard gets hit by those skills.
It's also good to not that Clerics have no extreme avoiding skills like some other classes. They have NO WAY to avoid getting stun-locked once your Ice Rays are out.
Great Weapon Fighters:
NOTE: Use magic missile as much as you can since it will effectively buff you or debuff him since he's always close to you.
These are the pain in the butt guys. They are currently UP in my opinion. Not overpowered, but stronger than other characters in that they are no-brainers and will do as good as a near perfect play from another class by just running straight at peoples.
But! They are killable, extremely annoying, but killable, it just takes time. There's only one way to deal with them, although there's a more expeditive method that I will describe below.
Great weapon fighters are pretty straight forward, damage them, they pop unstoppable and heals them. They are annoying, but there's ways to deal with them.
First, their annoying skills:
Flourish: They point their sword at you, and a bunch of red "shadows" appear around you to hit you while you're paralyzed. It's a ranged skill which is terribly annoying. It somehow can still be avoided and hit you at the same time, although it wont paralyze you and it seems to do less damage.
Takedown: Hit you with their sword hilt, knocking you prone. If it misses, the cooldown becomes slightly shorter.
Crescendo: This is the skill I hate the MOST. It will kill about 2/5 to half your life in one go. it's ranged, it paralyses you, knocks you prone and has a stupid animation glitch where you can still see the animation being displayed on you from time to time.
Let's talk about their two big flaws:
1-They have no dodging skill (for the number of people using it, and the chance that you attack them during it, I don't count the jump as one.)
2-Their skills are all close combat, and have a slow animation.
First of all, it's important to understand that if a Great Weapon Fighter skill hits you, all of their skills will hit you in a stun-lock combo. If they are well geared / pvp-specced, it means death. Therefore you need to do a flawless/near flawless play.
Here's how every fight against a Great Weapon Fighter will go:
They run to you, Ray of Enfeeblement, and throw as many skills you can at them, remember to keep Entangling Force at last since it does little damage, but doesn't block them from using Unstoppable
So now most of your skills are down and you have a raging great weapon fighter running towards you. We are not cowards, but neither are we stupid, therefore the only obvious answer is: Run! You will want to dodge their encounters. Let them get close to you, and as soon as you see them start an encounter, teleport away.
If possible, cast a skill at them, or magic missiles otherwise. If you can break their Temp-HP and hit their life, it will make a huge difference, remember that some Great Weapon Fighters won't let you much time for that, focus on avoiding their skills, not on casting yours.
Repeat this until their Unstoppable runs out, once it does, don't forget they are still dangerous, don't let them start a skill on you because you tried to cast while they were still too close. Teleport away once last time if needed.
Start your combo again, and repeat this until they die.
This is pretty brain dead, if you make a mistake you die, if you play it perfectly, you will win 99% of your fights.
PS: A super heavily geared GWF might be impossible to kill depending on a few factors (partly luck on your crits). Don't sweat it, run for your life and handle him with your team-mates. (After the recent nerf, I'm not yet sure about this, I'd have to see).
--
For the quicker method, it will require your daily: Ice Knife. It's basically a combo that goes as follow:
Ray of enfeeblement
Entrangling Force
Ice knife
Icy Rays
Chill strike
Magic Missile
Hope they are dead.
Depending on your crits, their deflection, and basically luck, he will either be dead, either be low but ready to pop his Unstoppable.
If they are not dead, refer to the first way to deal with them and simply do the same, usually though as soon as their unstoppable is done and you start your combo, it means their death.
I know you guys probably expected some kind of fail-proof method like for Tricksters or Clerics, sadly Great Weapon Fighters are currently made in a near-unkillable way which doesn't allow you any fail-proof method.
Guardian Fighters:
I found two methods to beat them. Firstly, the "normal" method, and secondly the "IGBOS" method (I Got Balls Of Steel). The second method relies more on experience and "feeling", while the first one is more like the others, pure skills.
Guardian Fighters are comparable to bouncing machines, don't let them get started.
Their skills are pretty much all the same, dashing towards you, using their shield to push you prone (even at range) and bouncing you around. I don't really think I need to cover them since they are all the same with no noticeable effect except what you see. (I might cover them in the future just for the sake of covering them).
The only skill I think important to mention is their daily:
Iron Vanguard: It's a two hit skill which throws you far away as well as knocking you prone. You can't do anything to evade it. You can avoid the first hit, but somehow, even if you are really far away, the second hit will always hit you.
Both method will use the "feeling". This is the weird feeling you get when you are facing a Guardian Fighter slowly advancing towards you. You know he will dash to you, and you are expecting it. This feeling grow stronger and stronger the closer he gets.
--
For the normal method:
Magic missile! Keep casting it on them until this kind of "feeling"(it will develop with experience) tells you they will dash on you // you got good reflex and teleport as soon as you see them do it.
Their dash having no special effect, they will follow it in 99% of the cases by a shield hit knocking you prone. Lucky for you, you avoid both in one teleport.
Now the tricks is just to keep Magic-Missile-ing them until their shield is down. Be aware of another dash, but don't be paranoid on it either. Once their shield is down, they got nothing to protect themselves, so combo them to death.
Repeat if you didn't kill them on your first combo.
----
The IGBOS method really requires balls of steel. It worked for me several times, but I wouldn't suggest it except if you need to end the fight quickly as it's quite risky. It also requires experience on timing to make it work 99% of the time.
It involves the "Entrangling Force" encounter. Since it has this "cast time", you need to time it properly. You need to get the "Feeling" of when they will dash at you, and use it not even half a second before.
If done correctly, they will dash to you but be stuck in the air right in front of you, because while they dash, their block is down, leaving them vulnerable.
Combo them to death, and repeat or continue with the first method if they get back up. Most likely they will be very very pissed. DO NOT FORGET to teleport away once your combo is done, don't just stand there casting magic missile except if you are 100% sure they will die in before the CC wears out.
Chapter 5 ~ CW vs CW
Why did I dedicate a section on his own to the CW? Because he can do everything you do, and that's were skills come in play, and you need to make the wise decision.
Control wizards are really squishy, therefore, one rotation of both of your spells will kill the other.
First step first, is he a renegade or a thaumaturge.
A thaumaturge will usually initiate with CoI while a renegade will cast chill strike or entangling force or any other kind of bauble.
The second step is looking if they are using the "Shield" skill.
And then the fighting begins....
You both advance towards each other, wondering what the other one will cast, or one of you already got his classic little rotation in mind (those are usually the Thaumaturges).
If he got a shield, hit him once with a Magic-Missile in order to remove that 60% (or 90%) reduction.
Now starts the distinction between Renegade and Thaumaturge.
NOTICE: Treat a thaumaturge who initiates with chilling strike or Entrangling force the same you would with a renegade.
THAUMATURGE:
You win! I'm saying this before anything else. You will most likely get hurt a little, but he's the one who's going to die.
Simply go on him and start your combo, go with:
Icy Rays
Entrangling Force
Ray of Enfeeblement
Chill Strike
Magic Missile
You will CC him first, and since he won't be able to dodge any of your skills to hope you won't hit him fully, you can count him as dead meat already.
RENEGADE
You both plan on murdering the other the quickest possible, hoping to do that one big critical that will kill him before he can even react.
NOTICE: when I say not to do anything, I mean not to cast any encounter, that's the time where you cast your Magic-Missile.
Don't cast first, let him do the first move. Let him cast an encounter you know you will dodge easily. There is usually four options for them, if they use anything else, just avoid it and laugh, and keep on going like if you were just starting the fight.
Icy Ray
~ Okay, he's not crazy. Here you will start with a small disadvantage, you will get hit, and it will root you in place. Cast Chilling Strike as soon as you can, most likely he will do the same or cast Entrangling Force. Resulting in both of you being CC'd at the same time. As soon as it wears off, hit him up with the Icy Rays mark DO NOT shoot it yet, he will probably try to cast his third CC spell, the one he didn't use up a second ago. Avoid it, and then cast Icy Rays. Follow up with Entrangling force and Ray of Enfeeblement.
Most chances are he is already dead, but in case he isn't yet, magic missile him to death!
OR
_
Ray of Enfeeblement \
Chilling Strike > All the same
Entrangling force _/
~ Avoid avoid avoid. Just dodge. Keep avoiding those three. They are the big dangers because they let you start a combo from which there's NO WAY to escape (except Ray of Enfeeblement). They are also the only three really dangerous spells. As soon as he's done casting those, or if he stops casting for a second too long, hit him up with this combo:
(hit him up again with magic missile once if his shield is back up (been over 6 seconds))
Icy Rays
Entrangling Force
Ray of Enfeeblement
Chill Strike
Magic Missile
Those methods might look stupidly simple, but it will win you every fight against another Control Wizard.
There's two more details I would like to talk about. First, what do you do if you end up against another Control Wizard doing the same thing as you (which you will seriously never see happen, but just in case).
Once it's clear both of you are waiting for the other to do the stupid move, cast Icy Rays and follow it up with Chilling Strike. We'll assume he does the same thing I mentioned above, and cast a chilling strike himself. You will both end up CC'd. The trick here, is as soon as you guys get back out of that state, don't do anything. Just wait for him to follow up with his next skill.
He will probably think it's time for all-out-ing your encounters and will throw at you everything he has. Avoid it. If it's Icy rays, cast entangling force as soon as you can, your own Icy Rays will come back down off cooldown first though, so if he isn't dead by your magic missile yet, just cast Icy ray again followed up by chilling strike again.
NOTE: In a case like this, Ray of Enfeeblement can be used during the "do nothing" periods, since it's not a CC and doesn't do huge amount of damage, you do not have time to spare to cast it during your combo.
[CONTINUE ON NEXT POST]
Here for the build+guide
You can also use it to your advantage. When you hear it, even if it's in your back, just dodge, better safe than sorry.
NOTE: a bug, if you/the enemy wizard cast your daily and have it interupted, it will "refund" it, but the next time you cast it, although there will be the flashy animation, it will be silent. So Beware!
Chapter 6 ~ The use of teleport
=================== OUT OF ANYTHING
[It really means a lot to me when you leave a comment, thanks for doing so!]
[If you require any additionnal information in a section I've already covered, sent me a pm or put a comment, I will answer it and add it to the section if it's something that should be added there.]
As I previously mentionned, writing this takes a loooong time, and as such, I cannot constantly write. Bear with me I'll write tommorow, going to sleep (tommorow's the 13th!)
====================
Chapter 7 ~ Positioning / Team fight
Chapter 8 ~ Running Away
Chapter 9 ~ General tips and tricks
Play "Eye of the Tiger" when it gets intense, it will guarantee you a win.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEjgPh4SEmU
Chapter 10 ~ Gear-talk
Chapter 11 ~ PVE
I'm personnaly a fervant shield lover, but the Shard also has some good points depending on the situation. I do not advise using shard if you are in need to push, but in a general context, it can be really usefull. At your own discretion.
FIRST OF ALL: Yes your job is to "control", but do more than that! You can easily top the damage charts, and be a real assets to your team. Peoples will love you for it. You will progress a gazillion time faster in the game too, not only because of a faster clearing time, but because other good players will add you and you will create your own little network.
Imagine a Guardian Fighter who only stands there and doesn't do anything except getting hit, or a cleric standing in the back throwing healing words and his shield and then just going to turn in circle in some corner. This is something which is true for every class and that peoples seems to forget. So I will make a point here and state it. Do more than your job.
If i mention "Your job is to do this" If you have the opportunity to do something else, don't hesitate! Just keep your priorities in your head.
If there is any dungeon in particular (all epics) Else than those that you want me to talk about, feel free to send me a PM or leave it in the comments.
Lair of the Mad Dragon
This one is annoying, the adds are a big pain in the butt if you don't have a high ennough dps in your team, those erinyes can just perma-group-heal. Avoid using singularity to group 3+ erinyes together.
You can bait the second boss out of his circle, it can really help to do so. Wind it up mostly, since he got nerfed and most of his drops became worthless (notably the heavy archon shield), I don't think it's worth running for all the trouble. I just don't run it anymore in fact.
Lair of the Pirate King
A very easy T2, should be a T1 at that. Being a secret Ninja-at-Heart, this map is my favorite, with all it's short cuts and secrets//ways to get out of the map.
There is a HUMONGOUS amount of chests between the first and second boss, look carefully around, I will let you the pleasure to discover them for yourself, but I wouldn't stop looking until I found at LEAST 5. There is also a few others scattered here and there. The first boss dies quite quickly, get the adds off, keep them on the side as they are extremely annoying. Your cleric will help you with that.
The second boss is just about going near the edge and pushing mobs off. Really straight foward and easy. Your job is to keep singing/shielding off the edge the adds.
For the last boss, head straight to the left after getting on the boat. You will notice on one of the side, part of the side of the deck has been thorn off. You can jump on that up to the top, get your cleric and yourself up there, if you are two Wizards, decide on one sacrifice to send down there also with the Rogue/whatever else. Then, it's just about focussing the boss entirely. Send all your attacks on him, but sing the adds off the boss. Avoid getting sucked in or pushed off. If your cleric does his job, and you do yours also, you should both manage to survive and keep the others alive. The faster the boss dies, the faster it is for you guys. Once he's dead, feel free to wipe for adds to go out.
PS: There is a puzzle in there, where you read an inscription, roll three wheels kind of, push some weird button and end up with a chest to open with thievery. I did all the steps multiple times, but I could never find it's use. If anybody has any clues, it would be greatly appreciated
The Trone of Idris
Mob Grinder. Pretty simple. At the last boss, make sure to clear ALL the adds. Except those two little summons. They will keep coming back no matter what.
Small strategy to avoid those dark energy bubbles, Teleport towards them. If you go on the side, The chances are high you'll hit another one beside.
Karrundax
This one is also quite easy. The bosses go decreasing in difficulty.
Most of the bosses are quite straight foward. The first one, everybody hang around the boss. Try to get the adds off your teamates. Your cleric will have the job to keep you alive then. Just make sure you don't get hit by a big hit. The boss will go down fast.
Second boss is the same, but easier. You can also glitch in a wall (near the entrance to the boss room, on the right hand side, mess around a little and you'll find it) and do it safely from there. Although I've already seen a mob there, but in general they can't reach it.
Once you go after the second boss, get your laces tied up and run for your life to the last camp-fire. If you also want to get rid of all the ads over there, make sure to have singularity. Once you reach the campfire keep going on and turn left, go around the pillar while remaining close to it. You might want to jump towards the pillar once you reached the "end". getting out of the "rock" to a visible area.
Once you reached that point, wait for all your team-mates to die or be where you are. Get your shield up, then go forward a little bit and cast your arcane on the little tiny thing right before the edge. Then time yourself to go on the other side as it's ending and blow them all to hell.
Minor clean-up might be required afterwards, but with your now re-spawned team-mates, it should be a piece of cake.
Third boss is EXTREMELY easy. On minion waves, focus the drakes, otherwise, stand behind him. If your cleric is good, you can just cast everything on the boss and just use your sing/shield to remove pressure temporary. Otherwise, focus the minions while your Rogue/anything else take care of the boss (it will be way slower this way though).
Frozen Heart
First boss is the most complicated once again. Start of by getting him low, he will drop really really quickly. Shield the adds off but focus the boss. Once he opens his first side, run to it's entrance, right after getting there, on the right hand side, you will notice a hole, sing there and push all the adds off there. Clean it up. Then proceed to advance. Break the orb.
Get someone to hit the boss once, he will come up, kill him there, then go for the last orb and repeat the process.
Second boss is just a pure all in dps on him. Not much to do about those golems, but do sing trolls off if needed.
The third boss has SOOO many strategies that keep changing as time goes. Here I will only talk about the most efficient one I've seen.
On the first spike on the right, get a GF to go on top of it to the edge. Then all he has to do is "Taunt" every add. They will all go on the other spike, or stand down like idiots. Feel free to DPS the boss without a worry in the world.
Once the boss is dead, if it's DD. Go get your chest, then ask your cleric to go beside the GF and heal him. The aggro should be changed to the cleric, have the GF die and go get his chest.
In the worst case, you might have to do a general wipe with a pain in the butt situation, but you'd get that anyways.
PS: Auto-correct wants to replace "golems" with "Togolese" kind of funny.
SpellPlague
This is the one that drops the helms... Such an annoying one. Your team will be depending on you at 49%, your cleric at 49% and any other class at 2%. The trick here is to go from edge to edge, using your shield and arcane singularity to push them off.
The first boss is annoying, you will loose sight of your team-mates. You want to destroy all those spawners first of all. Go from the left, in circle. The boss here is quite easy to avoid, so don't worry too much. The adds will be the problem. Try to Sing them as much as you can. Keep them off your team-mates, but focus the spawners. You should have a big pile of "Gazers" in the middle. They are annoying, but REALLY easy to avoid.
Just focus the boss, throwing a sing here and then to finish it off. To be honest, this part's success depends mostly on your cleric keeping an eye on you an making you stay alive.
Few short cuts later, you reach the second boss. A bunch of Big Maw's are blocking your way. Wait till they open a path to the left, and sneak there up to the other side of the boss area. Then kill the first of the Maw's who get there. Don't get the boss's attention. Once he's dead, go for it. Grab the boss back to your corner and destroy him. Lot's of avoiding circles. Count on your cleric to keep you alive, but remember that he can't heal everything. So use your dodges smartly to position yourself at an EASILY SEEN location with the least mobs around. It's so easy to loose your team-mates of view when you're a cleric. Being in view will allow him to heal you more and for you to output more damage on the boss by not being as scared with your HP.
You can run the last part up to the last boss (once you jump down). Head to the right side at the end, you can go around one of the spikes there. A well placed sing will kill 99% of the monsters that were following your party.
Now you reached the big bad larva. This one might be problematic due to some bugs/what'snot but let's assume there's none.
Get any tr/gwf/gf on the boss. It will break the "platform" every (and I'm saying this from memory, check it for yourself or wait till i post the exact amount) 3 bar. You, your other CW mate(s) and the cleric should be near the opposite side, at about 120 degree roughly (1/3rd of a circle). Push the adds off, and try to hit the boss when you can.
This part should be the cleric's job, but not all cleric are self-aware that they should be doing more than just healing the person next to them. When you see an add going for your buddies near the boss, either try to repel it off (because you want to have repel on tab for this) or attack it to attract it's attention.
It will be pretty much the same up to the last part, where there's a circle. This is the dance party moment, you want to sing when you can, and just run in circle basically, your number one priority is to run in circle while staying alive. Everybody except the tr/gwf/gf should be doing the same. Those will hit the boss while you keep the adds attention. If you can throw a shield here and there, the better. It wont damage them much since they got the super buff, but you will get them on you instead of on your team-mates. Try to repel off the adds that try to knock you and your buddies off.
Castle Never
Well well well, this one's quite long, and strategies come and go for it. I will probably simply place a video in the future.
A quick go
Here's my "ideal" set up:
1 Control Wizard + Yourself
1 Cleric
1 Guardian Fighter
The guardian fighter can be replaced by a TR, both do it fine. (yes I know it's four, I just don't run it at 5 because I'm a greedy ***** and like to have 25% chance at the loot, also because I can.)
If you want a 5th member, another cleric/wizard will do fine.
Well, I was sceptic about guardian fighters the first time I did it, but, it's as good as you to deal damage (contests are fun to do, to add a little challenge) (rogues suck to do damage on the counter, since you're aoe, you will output a gazillion time more, it's not about them being good or bad) (believe it or not, but there's generally over 20 million damage done by a good Guardian Fighter). It will be able to take EVERY short cut you take, so you will NOT be slowed down. It can push adds off with you, it will tank for you, it will NOT die easily, it can help your whole party run faster and be stronger, and regarding the dracolich, it won't ever die to those stupid hands, he can block them and they don't 1 hit them; They can push the Red towards your team too!
Not to mention a low maintenance from your cleric, so you get more heals.
GF>TR and that's that, I won't ever be convinced otherwise since I saw it.
I haven't really pugged recently, but in general peoples know strategies, just learn them. You will get better ones and more refined ones as you play it yourself. Small details that make it faster.
I usually like to lead my parties, but if you're not that kind of person, your cleric/fellow cw can probably do it.
Chapter 12 ~ Network
Blacklist: I will discuss it further, with everything related here, but it's usually made of those players which will kick for loot, be dishonnest and such. I will go more in details, but until then, if you want a quick black-list of some players which might try to screw you up, feel free to PM me, and I will send you mine.
I cannot and will not post any names here, such are the Terms of Service.
Chapter 13 ~ Changelog
[7/19/2013] First appearance of this build!
[7/19/2013] First version of the Feats section!
[7/20/2013] First version of the Powers and Enchantments section!
[7/25/2013] Got my first thank letter! So happy!
[8/2/2013] 1000 views! Woohoo! This really means a lot to me considering how much time I put in.
[8/2/2013] I'm back! Starting on the first version of Strategies and General Behaviours.
[8/4/2013] Had to make a new thread because of the post character limit.[/COLOR]
[8/4/2013] Retouched ability scores for a better understanding.
[8/4/2013] Added a chapter and separated general tips and tricks / gear
[8/6/2013] 2500 views!
[8/6/2013] Finally finished Strategies and General Behaviours v1
[8/28/2013] Think this changelog is such a pain in the butt. New "Network" Chapter.
Here for the build+guide
Here for the build+guide
Here for the build+guide
Here for the build+guide
Here for the build+guide
Here for the build+guide
Here for the build+guide
Here for the build+guide
I still can't beat a good PvP specced GF 1v1, and a sent/Regen/37k HP GWF still requires flawless play and a little luck, but anything else (including high GS PvE GWF and GF) were basically no challenge. I even won a couple if 1 v 2s, which didn't happen before.
Nice spec now that enough of the feats are working.
Thaum is very good, bit it plays a little differently - less bursty. For burst there is no question in my mind that this is the way to go. And in my opinion, turning a 5v5 into a 5v4 very quickly is optimal.
Plus it's raining blues! Come on belts!
I would also like to add that repel is a viable option against gwfs (effective when used whenever they r not unstoppable) and pushing enemies off the point. Repelling and ray of frosting whenever possible in between dodges saved me more often than not against those gwfs. Also, in my opinion dodging in their direction rather than away from them can creat more space between you and the gwfs/gfs in 1v1 situations.
Lastly, shard of endless avalanche on tab is also very fun to use in pvp (HAMSTER on them lol). Here is a traditional nonstop cc combo that may help new pvpers.
Entangle -> drop shard on tab right after (proned) -> chill strike (stunned) -> move shard to them (shard explodes, proned again) -> icy rays (locked) -> then whatever you need to do finish them off
In my experience, this is a killer combo against gfs.
Anyways looking forward to the rest of the guide, I learned alot
Huge problem with Shard is that the shard itself disappears if you are CC'd (which you almost always are in pvp) and you need time to cast it just to drop it. These two things combine to make it inferior or an expensive slot compared to other Encounters in pvp.
That said, it is nice for a change of pace every once in a while and if you happen to pick just the right fight with many clustered players and you have some skill in using it, it can be truly devastating to an enemy group, particularly in combo with Arcane Singularity.
That said, I've never had it used effectively against either my CW or my GWF. And the GWF is what is should be good for. I did watch a guy streaming with it one day and he did some pretty cool stuff. But that's not to say he couldn't have just killed them faster with IR on tab.
But I come to the same conclusion. As much as I like its CC, it just isn't worth the opportunity cost, which means for now, there is no room for it.
Can I add your guide to mmominds.com? Or should I wait until you add the missing chapters?
Thank you.
As for the question of gear above, I'm currently using Champion Mage gear mainly for the set bonus that decreases the CD on the Mastery skill by 30% and increases it's damage by 5%. That means that if you use the build in the OP, your Icy Rays will recharge faster and hit a little harder. I think last time I checked, the CD for Icy Rays was 10.8sec for me in the Mastery slot. However, I don't think you can go wrong w/ Vizier or Shadow Weaver. I just haven't used them that much, so I don't really want to speak to them.
I'll go over it, more in detail, but currently I'm positionned on a 2/2 shadow weaver / magelord l t2 pvp or a 4 t2 pvp set.
If you got good enchantments, I would go with the t2 pvp set, otherwise I'd go with a 2/2. I will be more precise once I get to the section.
PS: Once you hit 60, if you aren't paying, I suggest you start with the regular pvp set since it will be cheap and decent. The whole set will come down way cheaper than 1 piece of some other sets. Work your way up!
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I have a request: Can you add a video of your gameplay? It would be awesome. Thanks again
Agreed. EF on Tab is a waste of the Tab slot when the extra effect won't do much. As for tabbed shield, I don't even carry shield untabbed. As jawarisin was saying in his guide, you can be hit with one of anything, and the damage mitigation effect is pretty much neutered. That makes it pretty useless considering the only time you'd really need it is to save you from like an Ice Knife. However, there are 5 players on the enemy team, so the chances that you won't get touched until someone decides to burst you down is pretty slim.
I am currently really busy IRL, only some time to check here and there, hence why the guide is on a hiatus (hopefully will continue to write it soon).
As for videos of gameplay, I've been thinking of it. I'm hesitating, first I'm a terrible video editor. Also, I'm not playing NW as much as i used to be, as previously said, I'm quite busy. The idea is still on the table, I'm considering along with a few other ideas such as more straight forward stream or the such.
We'll see how it turns out.
Refer to a post about 3 posts before yours, I make a quick go on the gear.
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I will try to write a bit more on the guide tonight, I will also finnish up a few details of CW vs CW
Stay tuned!
~Jawarisin
Here for the build+guide
Loving my CW with this build so far. Crit based/pvp builds are always awesome, but I would like to read on the General tips/PVE chapter as well!
Thank you
But what about the rest of your gear? What rings do u use, what belt do u use, what enchants u have on them to fill up your "required" stats? Are u running with the cn weapon/s?
I'm happy to hear you're still checking. Since you're not the only one who've asked me about PVE, I will jumpt to the section right now, and give it a rough draft, without being complete (until I get there officially), it should give you the key points of what to do/not to do, and such.
The general tips are coming up, but I have SOOOO much to write about. I even had to cut short a little bit on some parts just to be able to go on with the rest of the guide and give it a good shape first. It's mostly complete, and you have all the key points in the part which is already written, but I will probably add a few details here and there.
CN weapons yes, I'm currently running with Ancient Berserker ring of cleaving I beleive (154 crit/arp/lifesteal) (Although I am seriously thinking about either this or the slavemaster ring of control. Slavemaster has more lovable stats, but the arp is just lovely on the berserker's) an ancient Exorcist's necklace of blessing, an ancient fugitive's belt of revolt.
Here for the build+guide
Take your time!
I'm sure this guide will be a reference
Even though PVP is my main focus, I want to be able to finish any dungeons I lay my eyes on, and as you stated this build won't hurt that. Perfect.
I'm slowly leveling my CW after the GWF fiasco (mainly in epic dungeons, did quite well in PVP even tho I never had the best gear/enchants), and with the right guidance (as I'm not a theoricrafter) I know I'll enjoy the game even more.
Also english is not my main language, hope you didn't notice it =P
I am personnaly not much of a theorycrafter, yes i look at possibilities, i do calculate them roughly, but I don't go calculate all the overlapping damage to the fraction of %. I'll usually say it roughly rounding up my calculations to the % except when I want something precise.
Most of this, is coming out of me playing way too much. I'd say it's half theorycrafting and half experience.
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