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Oppressor PvE Turning Adds to Ice Cubes 101
hidahayabusa
Member Posts: 634 Bounty Hunter
Hello!
It all started here : Starting PvP oppressor build
And it has come down to this Blinkbeard now
So the only change that you will see is getting a Plaguefire, instead of a Vorpal and grabbing the first three Sharandar boons (Defense, Critical, HP). Having played mostly as a PvP CW, I decided to take a run in the dungeons using mostly PuGs and test some build I had in mind. I also wanted to keep it as low-budget as possible in order for it to be presentable to the forums, as a speculation rather than a 'here is my R10, BIS, Perfect gear' type of "guide".
The Build:
Is here
And if you are focusing on PvE, grab Sudden Storm. If you focus on PvP go Ray of Frost boost. However keep Severe Reaction, because no matter how good a group is you are always going to kite. It's better to get prepared for long runs and multi Teleports.
So what's the idea? It's damage, party buff and control at the same time. The idea is to keep mobs that can be controlled, stunned for as long as possible to enable smooth runs and make yourself a bit more comfortable when kiting. The regular setup is:
Icy terrain on tab
Encounters:Chill Strike, Sudden Storm, Conduit of Ice
At-Wills:Chilling Cloud and Ray of Ice
Dailies: Arcane Singularity/Icy Knife
Passives: Eye of the Storm/Storm Spell.
Of course, Steal Time is amazing if you are on kiting duty, so when you do... swap Sudden Storm for it. The rotation is simple: Put the Icy terrain template where your party gathers the adds or nukes the boss and then go Conduit of Ice/Sudden Storm/Chilling Strike and continue spamming Chilling Cloud. The t1 and t2 PvP gear are amazing into getting your Icy terrain to overlap, so you have it on always. The trick here is Plaguefire, which ticks constantly from Icy terrain, ending up in good damage and constantly debuffed mobs for your party to feast upon.
Icy terrain procs Storm Spell, Nightmare Wizardry and your EoTS so everyone is happy. Usually I end up in quite high damage in the end, but the whole point is that the control it provides is amazing.
So some notes:
a) Icy terrain in Tab is very efficient in Gladiator and Champion gear (-1/2 sec CD) and the ability to place the template wherever you want is really helpful for your kiting and positioning.
b) I guess that this is better in HV, but it really works in t1 and t2 PvP gear, which is as cheap as it gets, so it's a good starting point.
c) If you find a way to get a Greater Plague fire you'll be adding a lot to party damage.
d) Needless to say that Arcane Singuarity is your best friend for gathering mobs in the Icy Terrain template.
In a nutshell, I think that this is a good starting point and although I started 'farming' for the High Vizier set, I think that I will completely change my route and get to upgrade all my gear to t2 GG (that is if Luskans ever get to queue up
)
Also...I specced to INT and WIS for faster casts and more AP and I like it much more than INT and CHA. Awaiting for your responses and remarks, especially for those CWs that are much more experienced in PvE content.
Farewell!
It all started here : Starting PvP oppressor build
And it has come down to this Blinkbeard now
So the only change that you will see is getting a Plaguefire, instead of a Vorpal and grabbing the first three Sharandar boons (Defense, Critical, HP). Having played mostly as a PvP CW, I decided to take a run in the dungeons using mostly PuGs and test some build I had in mind. I also wanted to keep it as low-budget as possible in order for it to be presentable to the forums, as a speculation rather than a 'here is my R10, BIS, Perfect gear' type of "guide".
The Build:
Is here
And if you are focusing on PvE, grab Sudden Storm. If you focus on PvP go Ray of Frost boost. However keep Severe Reaction, because no matter how good a group is you are always going to kite. It's better to get prepared for long runs and multi Teleports.
So what's the idea? It's damage, party buff and control at the same time. The idea is to keep mobs that can be controlled, stunned for as long as possible to enable smooth runs and make yourself a bit more comfortable when kiting. The regular setup is:
Icy terrain on tab
Encounters:Chill Strike, Sudden Storm, Conduit of Ice
At-Wills:Chilling Cloud and Ray of Ice
Dailies: Arcane Singularity/Icy Knife
Passives: Eye of the Storm/Storm Spell.
Of course, Steal Time is amazing if you are on kiting duty, so when you do... swap Sudden Storm for it. The rotation is simple: Put the Icy terrain template where your party gathers the adds or nukes the boss and then go Conduit of Ice/Sudden Storm/Chilling Strike and continue spamming Chilling Cloud. The t1 and t2 PvP gear are amazing into getting your Icy terrain to overlap, so you have it on always. The trick here is Plaguefire, which ticks constantly from Icy terrain, ending up in good damage and constantly debuffed mobs for your party to feast upon.
Icy terrain procs Storm Spell, Nightmare Wizardry and your EoTS so everyone is happy. Usually I end up in quite high damage in the end, but the whole point is that the control it provides is amazing.
So some notes:
a) Icy terrain in Tab is very efficient in Gladiator and Champion gear (-1/2 sec CD) and the ability to place the template wherever you want is really helpful for your kiting and positioning.
b) I guess that this is better in HV, but it really works in t1 and t2 PvP gear, which is as cheap as it gets, so it's a good starting point.
c) If you find a way to get a Greater Plague fire you'll be adding a lot to party damage.
d) Needless to say that Arcane Singuarity is your best friend for gathering mobs in the Icy Terrain template.
In a nutshell, I think that this is a good starting point and although I started 'farming' for the High Vizier set, I think that I will completely change my route and get to upgrade all my gear to t2 GG (that is if Luskans ever get to queue up
)Also...I specced to INT and WIS for faster casts and more AP and I like it much more than INT and CHA. Awaiting for your responses and remarks, especially for those CWs that are much more experienced in PvE content.
Farewell!
* Notorious Dwarven Bear Cavalry Leader *
Post edited by hidahayabusa on
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Comments
This is interesting to see how it pulls together. I've avoided IT due to covering red spots o' doom from bad guys. I actually have chill strike on tab when PVE, icy rays on tab for pvp. I don't like CoI, so just don't use it. My normal outfit is chill on master, icy, shard, entangle/ss. I find solo play I almost never get hit. Group play it's a solid set up, although I do feel a bit the lack of a hard AoE stop. I've never really gotten into steal time to understand it well enough. I grew my cw off pvp due to oppressor eating people there.
The key is getting AoE+ constant Control element together without relying on Shard for burst damage+stun. The idea is to keep Plaguefire ticking all the time, giving your party the opportunity to hit debuffed mobs. Also the Nightmare Wizardry procs are very regular with Icy Terrain and the damage goes up by a significant amount.
Give it a shot. There is nothing as good as hard AoE stop than Steal Time while mobs are in Icy Terrain. If you have a tank that knows his role, you can keep lots and lots of mobs stunned and debuffed in a certain place for a lot of time. It's been quite handy in many battles.
- use all AoEs for trash clearing (so no CS off Mastery, no "wasted" Mastery for IT)
- you miss Shard which is still great damage and CC even after stealth nerf
- Steal Time is a must for every add heavy dungeon, not just for kiting, but for proccing stuff and dealing good damage/CC
It is good to see CWs going out of the established path though, thanks for taking the time to post this, I'm sure it will help many.
Jugger Conq GF
....
@Pers3phone: I get what you are saying, but I don't think that you are wasting Icy Terrain if you tab it. Non tabbed is really awkward to use, since you need to pretty much get near, then back away and go ahead with DPSing. It's possible, but being able to set it as a template where the fight is going on (or many times where there is not i.e. aggroing spawns or keeping icy terrain on boss for PF to debuff it for your TR while you kite) is very handy.
I agree with Steal Time. I am changing constantly between it and Sudden Storm depending on the dungeon/mobs or role I have. Also, Shard is awesome but I don't really miss it.
@overddrive: I am trying to avoid running in the center of mobs, espcecially when you hit 60. It takes 2 hits maximum to get downed or just 1 hit to get into kiting mode which means 'no damage mode'.
Thanks for the replies!
Now there is this quest to get an artifact, with a succession of platforms. I have not tried it yet but I can see difficulties coming for my mage who is mainly build for 1v1 pvp, control over damage, and who will be facing fights with typically:
- A big Melee elite that keeps coming at you and is immune to cc (entangling, repel)
- Ranged adds that you cannot push off because there are invisible walls that keep them inside the platform.
- Your companion not playing its aggro-decoy role because for some reason it gets prenvented from entering the platform until the fight is over.
How do you handle such fights?
Yep, you won't have a proble in solo PvE if that's what you are asking. I am doing Sharandar/Dread ring dailies in a very fast pace with this build. Also the artifact recovery quest is really simple, so don't worry about it.
Edit: I think that my companion is rank 15, and I wouldn't really care if it didn't even join the fight anywhere. Not willing to spend time/AD on leveling companions.
That said, I'm going to respec my CW, once I ease up on playing the HR over to MoF and will give input as I test it out. I really enjoy the opressor spec and I think MoF with CoI + IT will be good times of burning firey death had by all.
I did the respec last night on my CW. Your talk made me curious and so I tried it out. I was missing 1 piece of gear for t1 pvp set, rest was blue. Purple weapon.
I picked up IT on tab, CoI, CS and repel to start with. First PVP match I went into, I had so much more control. The HRs loved to try and kill me though, but I saw even more freezes using that set than before. I kind of missed the damage of IR on tab, however the control was amazing. I would use scorching pillar, IT, CoI and then pick a target to CS and ray of frost down. I tweaked out the setup a bit more with fanning the flames, and steal time in place of CoI and shield. I decided to do the artifact quest, as that one scales to level so was a good trial to me.
Each area, I was easily able to control the crowd. I had seen oppressor as single target before, this put it into a whole new light. The burning made everything drop fast. Frozen, burning and I think the smolder doesn't cause the damage pop of frozen as they'd stay frozen while burning. It was quite enjoyable. The only reason I didn't stay playing is because I'm trying to get my HR to 60. He's up to 35 now.
edit: Forgot to mention - burnafication in pvp is nice. Those people who thought they got away low health? Yeah.. don't think so~
ahem.. anyways, yes. I highly highly recommend testing it out oppressor + MoF. Things fall down even faster than before.
I tried and only completed the first two platforms. Basically the platforms are too small, I was unable to keep it a "ranged" fight, it was always too Melee-ish for me. Plus it's a 1 vs 5 and you're never sure that your spell will hit the intended mob. One CW guildie said it took him two hours to complete the quest, so I guess it's not as easy for CWs as it is for other classes.
For those bosses you can't freeze completely, it doesn't matter. They're slow as molasses, and the frost slows them down more. If they do anything red, avoid it, keep them in icy terrain, and keep the ray going. Frost extends the burnafication indefinitely.
I've been using oppressor PVE side for dailies. With a decent crit level, the critical conflaguration makes this beast. Icy terrain crits often, which is an aoe burnafication, also adds chill, which extends the burn. It makes lots of things melt. Fast. I use IT on tab, CS, fanning the flames and I slot out different things on the 3rd depending on what I feel like doing. It's very impressive and I think the burn goes well with Oppressor.
... I'd even say Oppressor is the go-to tree for MoF.
edit: Forgot to mention, I'd love to get plague fire with this. More burn, reduce armor, it fits the theme so well as a MoF style setup... now to get enough AD together to get one.
That's more of a "skill" issue than a class issue........
You're doing it wrong, sadly
There's no need to keep mobs ranged, you can blast them up from close range.
What spec are you? Maybe if you post your spec we can help you make it more efficient.
Also, try this encounter setup (saying this blindly, as I have no idea what your CW is):
- Chill Strike on Tab, Icy Terrain, Steal Time, Shard
It is not optimal, but it should offer most AoE CC/DPS combo. When you become more skilled at dodging, You can use some no CC encounters such as CoI (if thaum, for debuffing) and Sudden Storm (for huge AoE damage) instead of CS and Icy Terrain.
Trust me, that quest is easy. I know for sure as I did it with a DC without any feats around lvl. 30 and me being a complete **** at clerics.
Oppressor lvl 55 in blue un-enchanted gear.
Ok the elite may be slowed but not immobilized and the platform is small.
So it is a big elite that's giving you trouble? Immune to CC? I cannot remember. All you have to do is jump around it and kite, but you should be able to even tank it quite easily. You have your cleric companion out? Do you drink potions when you take damage? Blue gear should be plentiful for this task.
Anyway if an unstoppable elite is your main issue, you just need to keep distance, stop for encounter, run, encounter, run... EF is useless though for such cases. Use Icy Rays/RoE/CS/CoI.
The platform seemed plenty space to me.
Hope it helps. Knock em dead!
My cleric companion remains blocked by an invisible wall and cannot enter the platform.
I don't have Icy Rays, so besides CoI and Chill Strike I slotted whatever I had, depending on the platform. Steal time, shield. Finally I got my artifact, but I did not like the fights very much, they were very random. No feeling of being in control.
There is recent talk about MoF not working with rimfire properly on smolder. So while Oppressor is good, may be best to hold off on MoF until that can be looked into. That said, I still see lots of times where this is a solid build. One question if you could Hida? Would you say fanning the flames is worth going on tab? That gives up icy terrain setting at will, but smolders everything in FtF range.
As far as the Fire path is concerned I really have no idea. I've been against in once with my DC and it was the first time seeing the abilities real time. After module 2 I was leveling and then swapping enchants from my other toons to the Ranger, so I just went with the Oppressor as it's on the first post. Clearly I will need some time to familiarise myself with the new tree.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Like a snow plow, but for people.
Edit+Update:
Updated in the first post and linking it here also :
Build
Right now I am using :
Tabbed Chill Strike
Icy Terrain, Shard of the Endless Avalanche, Steal Time/Sudden Storm
Quite different from the original post, but serves the same functionality if you stick to Plague Fire. The reason I changed is that speccing WIS + high Recovery made Icy Terrain overlap even with non-mastery slot...so I just had to run in and place it. With 31k HP I can take a hit if need be
I am between PvE and PvP all the time, so if you check gateway you will probably see my PvE lineup. The HP are 31k, and when I change to PvP, Youth off-gear+artifacts provide 1300 Regen. The rest of the numbers are the same.
Also worsk with a vorpal.
Thanks for posting this.