test content
Logo
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc
Help with character improvement (CW)?
fearflames
Member, Neverwinter Beta Users Posts: 7 Arc User
Hi Everybody,
I've played this game for a couple of months irregularly and have a level 60 CW at 10.6 GS. I've been looking through guides about what to build on CW, but everybody seems to have a different idea about how to play CW, and I'm not sure who to follow. Does anybody here have any advice about what I should do first/next to continue improving my character's gear/gs/viability in pve/pvp? Here is a screenshot of the character sheet I took from the gateway, because I couldn't think of a better way to do it.
http://imgur.com/f3lTIas
Thank you for your time,
Fearflames
Edit: I think maybe general discussion would have been a better place for this post. Sorry.
I've played this game for a couple of months irregularly and have a level 60 CW at 10.6 GS. I've been looking through guides about what to build on CW, but everybody seems to have a different idea about how to play CW, and I'm not sure who to follow. Does anybody here have any advice about what I should do first/next to continue improving my character's gear/gs/viability in pve/pvp? Here is a screenshot of the character sheet I took from the gateway, because I couldn't think of a better way to do it.
http://imgur.com/f3lTIas
Thank you for your time,
Fearflames
Edit: I think maybe general discussion would have been a better place for this post. Sorry.
Post edited by fearflames on
0
Comments
Other than that it's a matter of taste and personal playstyle. I went with an AoE focus on my spells and pumped up my Life Steal stat so, on a good solid hit, I can heal myself pretty noticably in the middle of combat.
Anyway, a lesser soulforge and some gemmed blue shirts/pants would be the next step
Whether that's the building with Debuffs to completely debuff and opponent and then hitting with massive AoEs.... to building incredibly strong base AoEs, to buiding and utilizing combat advantage like a rogue and then building to Crit, to running a Master of Flame build which involved stacking DoTs and then AoEs.
One thing you have is AoEs up the wazzu, Its more the question of how you want to make them effective. There's a million ways to do it on this character.
Without knowing that the first bit of advice I would give is to pump up your power as much as possible. Don't worry about crit strike or recovery. They're inferior to power.
so specifically focus on neck, rings, waist and definitely get blue slotted shirt/pants. they can be had for about 40-50k AD on the AH. make sure you get the level 55 variety. if you're going after regen for health replenishment, the gear will have 'of youth' as the suffix. if you want to give life steal a try, you can look for 'of restoration'.
power is king so you want more radiant enchants than azures or darks in offensive slots. again, the crit ratio depends on what paragon path you chose. in feats, thaum is more balanced than renegade. oppressor builds, i've never used but there are some that claim it's possible.
after you get that situated, you'll either run dungeon delves to get tier 2 gear or you can run gauntlegrym to get your first t2 set... or you can pvp and acquire your first t2 set that way.
i use high viziers for most everything including pvp. i do have a pvp set but most of the time i'm too lazy to swap gear. if you haven't built up the profession tailoring, do that. you can reinforce your bracers with it (only on some sets, not all sets).
for defense slots, you have a choice to use defense, deflect, life steal or hit points. you're a glass cannon either way... some people buff hit points here. i've tried it all. personally, i either go with deflect (silvery) or life steal (dark).
if you have any questions, feel free to PM me.
I dunno. CW seems like the obvious character to main due to the need for them, but they're so hard to gear up. My HR isn't wanted, but was very easy to gear up and has good damage reduction, life steal and regen nearing the 1500 mark.
Ahhh a Renegade build.
Well on top of Gear score there's something else you should know. I assume you speccd the Top part of the Renegade Tree right? Now I understand why you're having trouble... there's a little more to the Renegade path than meets the eye... and its in the Fine Print...
If so... you did pick the right part of it for a Renegade build... but in order for you to get all that added Crit Damage you will need to ALWAYS place yourself in the position of gaining a combat advantage. Much like a Rogue... the Renegade Wizard depends on it to be able to do damage.
I recommend a high dose of Steal Time Combined with Sudden Storm. Ideally you want to teleport behind the mobs as they're running at the party, Steal Time, then Use Sudden Storm from behind them. The Steal Time Will lock them in the shoes of a combat advantage position to you and it will kick in your Nightmare Wizardry and your Eye of the Storm. Allowing you a seriously enhanced Sudden Storm Strike,
Then you roll a Shards of Endless Avalanche into them to polish them off. Or at least prone them so you can survive.
Contrary to popular belief, magic missiles aren't used much by most mages. We tend to use all encounter powers.
And as a Renegade, your tactics are very different. The Thaumaturge is a more straight on fighter, the Renegade is more like the Rogue.
These are the tactics you have to keep in mind when playing a Renegade, or you will never be able to take advantage of the Strengths of that build.
I advise using Chill Strike on tab, Sudden Storm, Shards, and Steal Time, with Singularity and Oppressive Force. Use Eye of the Storm and Storm Spell as passives. Use Singularity to group the mobs up. As they're getting sucked in, use Steal time and Chill Strike, then drop a shard. When they drop out, hit them with sudden Storm, then push the Shard in. If they're already grouped up, use Oppressive Force from outside the group, not inside.
A Blink Dog active bonus is good for renegades.
Pyrotechnic Rings are good, and not too pricey. Farm T2s for High Viziers. Use Terror (cheaper and easier) or Plaguefire (better) and Lesser Soulforged. I'd slot mostly Radiants in Offense and Darks in Defense and Utility. As you PvP, save up for the artifact. Choose neck/rings/belt that has Power, Recovery, Crit, Armor Pen, and/or Life Steal.
When you can, stay in the blue and out of the red. Attack from the back. Unload what you can when your see Eye of the Storm or Nightmare Wizardry proc.
The first 2 bosses in Karru are pretty hard for a 10K GS party. A 16K HR isn't going to make it much easier. Don't feel bad for doing poorly your first few times.
Yes, at least on one count. Combat Advantage damage now reads correctly. A Blink Dog active bonus will not show properly (For the OP Active bonus is what you get when you have it slotted, whether you summon it or not).
But all of that is meaningless to a renegade if they cannot achieve the one thing ALL their powers depend on....
... Combat Advantage... Learn it, and learn it well. As a Renegade its your key to success.
Here's why... although Nightmare Wizardry can put foes in a combat advantage position... you can STILL crit as a Renegade Spellstorm outside of that...
IF you do that... it kicks in your Phantasmal Destruction feat which increases your Crit Severity by 15%... IF you have a Combat Advantage on a foe. Giving you some pretty massive Crits only the Master of Fire build can achieve.
Ergo... the more you keep sustained combat advantage as a Renegade... whether you're using Nightmare Wizardry or not... the more and more Enhanced Crits you will get on your Critical Severity...
Hence... Combat Advantage for a Renegade isn't just "something you do for kicks"... its EVERYTHING that increases the damage on that build.
Learn wut, just attack till you see blue circles:P
Fine-tuning your gear and build will be something you'll do gradually over time to suit your needs and changes in the game. My main-and-only is a Sun Elf Renegade in Focal Magi as well. I'm no expert, but I can see a couple places you might be able to improve quickly/affordably:
- Epic "Gemmed" shirt/pants are good if you want to spend that much in one place (eventually you will), but you could go cheaper "for now" as I did. I opted for blue gemmed clothes once I had my T1 set and was looking for ways to improve. There are a few different varieties with different names which boost different stats, and there are upgrades to be had over you're using in level 4* and 5* blue gemmed clothes.
- You may do well to lose some crit points in favour of power and ArP. I found a few helpful bits of research into game mechanics which helped me to begin to grasp how to distribute points (still relatively clueless). ArP is said to be finicky, crit diminishes, and power just got a rework. Reading up on the raw numbers and results that seasoned players have disseminated by parsing logs has been invaluable to me so far. Keep in mind while browsing old forum threads and the like that this stuff changes. As there have probably been some tweaks with the new expansion, I'm always watching for posts from the dedicated people who crunch the numbers. Apparent in the data are invisible factors with many spells and feats that may influence your decisions regarding encounters for your style and build.
- Neck/ring/waist items from the uni/drake vendor shows the naming schemes for those accessories. If you want to swap an accessory out for something that gives you bonuses for stats x/y/z, you can check in there and then search the name (control/undeath/etc) @ the AH. Prefixes and/or suffixes will vary, for example none/grand/ancient/seal. The prefix indicates tier, each tier giving a little better bonus to the same stats. There are a few accessories that don't use this naming scheme, such as the Pyrotechnic Band. You don't have to go all out right away as the cost/points ratio is of negligible benefit unless you're putting the finishing touches on a character (I assume). Just get whatever is available for your budget and salvage when you want to upgrade.
- It's safe to raise enchantments to level 5 as the reagents are cheap enough that you won't feel it. Make sure your enchantments are all rank 5s and complementary to your build. Our T1 set has lots of crit, which experiences drastic diminishing returns. We've also got Eye of the Storm. As a result, you likely won't need to spend precious enchantment slots on crit. I recently upgraded to rank 6s from the AH.
- A decent investment if there ever was one is an augment companion, such as the Ioun Stone of (whatever). I'm glad I bought it (on sale). It passes stats directly to you. Whatever items you slot, with their enchantments, and whichever runestones you choose, all will be directly applied to your stat points. They don't count towards GS, but that's not an issue for us at this point as we can hardly survive the content we're geared for. Also, augment companions such as Ioun Stones or Cats are vital in T2s as regular companions are brutal for pulling extra mobs. The rest of my companions are green from CTAs and giveaway codes and all boost primary stats. Rarer (blue or epic) companions seem to give "chance to" or "% increase." I don't see them as viable options just yet.
- High Vizier set is the priority among T2 sets. Examine a few 1337 CWs in the wild...they're wearing it. I won't go into detail here, but it's something to be aware of. I planned on going SW, but HV is it for now. Due to the cost, I plan on delving for it. I'll opt for a 2/2 set until I have full HV as I haven't seen the 4pc Focal Magi set bonus as being terribly helpful (hope someone corrects me if I'm mistaken).
- The orb and the talisman are both relatively inexpensive (compared to, say, T2 armor) to upgrade from the AH. I use matching T2 orb/talisman to offset stats (spread some points to power/recovery for example, away from crit).
With those changes in place, you would be pretty much where I'm at. I've finished the first two campaigns and would highly recommend you grind them out as well for the boons. The gear that drops in the lairs in DR isn't the best, but as you're doing with the belt, you can comfortably use them for a while if you need to bank some AD before investing in ring/belt/neck upgrades from the AH.
Lol yeah as a Thaumaturge that's the way you can play.... but as a Renegade... no... that one takes a lot more skill. The damage potential is higher in a Renegade because your Crits work with all your powers.... IF you know how to play it correctly and understand how to gain combat advantage.... outside of just Nightmare Wizardry...
Otherwise... you're better off just playing a Thaum.
Too many people do not understand the Renegade or how Different they really are than a Thaum. It takes an entirely different mindset, gear, and the whole 9 yards. Because they function entirely different than a Thaumaturge.
EDIT: in a nutshell man, the Thaumaturge build is generally what I recommend to unskilled players or newbies. Because you can't screw it up. The Renegade... well that one takes some serious know how to play, and you have to know what you're doing to use it properly.