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Module 3 GWF Swordmaster - Destroyer Guide.
shadowbox
Member, Neverwinter Beta Users Posts: 0 Arc User
This guide is for anyone looking to go SM in Module 3, i will also be updating my old IV guide as well though that is a separate thread.
Part 1: Feats.
Part 1: Feats.
So the Heroic feats we will be getting are going to be mostly dps oriented since we are a Destroyer, and the goal of any good Destroyer is to deal damage right? so i will go over each tier of feats and why we are picking them.
Tier 1: Our first pick is going to be Disciple of Strength, this doesn't net a huge increase in damage but it's a solid option and this build will be utilizing a high STR score (i explain why further down), you will also want to dump 3 points into Toughness as well, we can't deal damage if we are dead, now Unstoppable Action is still a solid choice but i prefer the extra life, the choice is really yours here though.
Tier 2: The choice here should be fairly obvious, Endless Assault is a must, it nets us a flat 6% damage increase on our encounters which is fairly straight forward, now the second choice might not be so clear to some people but the best option here is 1 point in Armor Specialization (3 if you're a human), the 3%-9% less stamina drain on sprinting is useless and you will only notice a big difference with 5 points, which is just too much of an investment to consider it.
Tier 3: All 5 points for this tier will go into Steely Defense there is no choice here, well there is actually one other option you can opt for which is fairly viable, you can drop 2 extra points into Armor Specialization and max out Constitution Focus instead of grabbing Steely Defense now you will have less power, but you make up for it by not needing quite as much ArP and being a bit more durable.
Tier 4: Now this really is the Tier where your options are literally non existent, you will drop 3 points into Devastating Critical and 2 (3 if you're a human) into Weapon Master hands down there is no better setup in this Tier, even if you plan on tanking, the other feat is near useless.
This should be your final Heroic spread.
0/5 - 0/5 - 5/5 - 2/3
3/3 - 3/3 - 0/3 - 3/3
3/3 - 1/3 - 0/3 - 0/5
Now for our Paragon Feats, Well i said this is a Destroyer guide right? well let's get right into the Destroyer tree and finally get a taste of the feats that make GWF one of the top dps classes in the game.
Tier 1: there is one feat in this tree which every Destroyer spec should have and it is Great Weapon Focus you can't argue with a flat 10% damage bonus on your most common abilities.
Tier 2: You are gonna be maxing Staying power and Disciple of War now Disciple of War can be dropped for Deep Gash if you want better AoE damage, now i prefer single target because trash is generally pretty easy anyway, but it's all preference.
Tier 3: Hands down Executioner's Style is the best pick for this Tier, a scaling 1-30% damage bonus is pretty nuts, especially on our two best abilities for beating bosses to a pulp, which as a Destroyer is our main goal.
Tier 4: Once again no choice here Focused Destroyer is simply amazing 15% damage with high up time is just way to good not to take.
tier 5: This is the reason you became a Destroyer Focused Destroyer is quite possibly the most powerful feat in the entire game i shouldn't have to explain this one too you friend.
Tier 1 Instigator: Now you should have five points remaining, we are gonna dip outside the Destroyer tree for these last points and pick up Student of the Sword there are other good options out their but most of them require 10 points, and a 5% damage increase is far from a bad choice.
This should be your final Paragon spread.
Instigator
5/5 - 0/5 - 0/5 - 0/5
0/1
0/5 - 0/5 - 0/5 - 0/5
Destroyer
5/5 - 5/5 - 5/5 - 5/5
1/1
0/5 - 5/5 - 0/5 - 0/5
Sentinal
0/5 - 0/5 - 0/5 - 0/5
0/1
0/5 - 0/5 - 0/5 - 0/5
Part 2: Attributes
STR I put my 2 points into this stat as a human because it gives 16.96% more damage for me (that factors in Disciple of Strength), no gear in the game can replace the STR stat, and here's why, if you go CON you won't need as much ArP which in turn means your Disciple of War will have a lower ArP to scale from, hard cap for 15 CON is 1850=462 bonus power while the cap for 19 is 1500=275 power, which already cuts the extra power you'd be able to get from going CON by almost 200, which leaves you with about 150 extra power you'd get from the CON which is about 1% damage, now that's not even factoring in the fact that you now have 26 Strength which is 16.96% Damage, compared to 12.72%, now even if you like having extra Health you will only be getting about 8%.
CON our next major score is left fairly low, there is one exception to this and it relies on Constitution Focus if you do end up maxing this feat you have the option of pumping CON very high, as the 15% effectiveness will make it very strong making a CON of 26 have an ArP stat of 18.4% and Health bonus of 36.8%
DEX should be the next highest score next to STR, it gives us some nice defensive utility while also allowing us to break crit cap (about 3500 Critical Strike rating).
Part 3: Races.
In this section we will look at races and see what our best choices are, Half-Orc is our strongest pick, it gives us 2 STR and 2 DEX, and 5% Crit severity, these bonuses cannot be beaten by any other race, but don't worry as more than just Half-Orc aren't the only strong picks
The next most viable race is Human, it grants +2 to any attribute (which will be STR), it provides 3 Heroic Feat points, which give you some wiggle room and allow you to optimize in a variety of ways.
My next pick would be Drow, probably best suited for HR or TR but they can work within the confines of a GWF +2 DEX is great for this build, and Darkfire works wonders if you are the only Drow in the group, stacking well with Student of the Sword.
And finally Tiefling, they are usually better as tanks for GWF but they offer some decent bonuses, + 2 CON means they need less ArP, they also deal 5% more damage to targets below 50% health, and they can reduce enemy power by 5% not shabby.
So we have
Half-Orc: Highly Recommended.
Human: Recommended.
Drow: Solid Pick.
Teifling: Decent Pick.
Half-Orc: Highly Recommended.
Human: Recommended.
Drow: Solid Pick.
Teifling: Decent Pick.
Now if you wish to venture away from these 4 choices when picking race remember it will not be optimal, though Haflings and Dwarfs are also fairly solid races just not great for this build.
Part 4: Optimization.
[/CENTER]Now that we have a race and our feats laid out, let's look at stat optimization and what we can do to improve, now the first major factor when looking at my stats, is that my Recovery seems low, but with this build you should always be running Avatar of War (until you can get Black Ice Gear), as it will let us treat our effective stats as if we had the 4 piece, which adds 1350 recovery and power.
Now you may be wondering, where do i stop with stats? well that is a good question and varies by build, for this build we will want around 3500 crit which will put us over 45% fully buffed, 24% ArP (Which CON is factored into) and 1150-1650 recovery, after that the only important stat is power, but worry about it last as it is the weakest stat until the others are capped.
Also don't forget to get an Ioun Stone of Allure, here are the stats i'm getting from my stone alone just to show why stone is so important, the only limitation of stone is stats from it will NOT be modified by feats like Steely Defense or Disciple of War.
HP: 300
Power: 1203
Critical: 520
Armor Pen: 649
Recovery: 366
Part 5: Abilities/Features.
Power: 1203
Critical: 520
Armor Pen: 649
Recovery: 366
Part 5: Abilities/Features.
Features: We will always have Weapon Master and Destroyer slotted as our features, the only exception to this is if you are kiting adds, which should be left to our tanky brethren if given the choice, but if you are the only one available to do such a task you will need to slot Bravery.
Dailies: These choices are pretty straight forward Crescendo is our best single target daily.
Spinning Strike turns you into a moving meat grinder, Avalanche of Steel is also a solid option but is much more situational as you can't cast spells while you are channeling it.
Encounters: Mighty Leap gives us a good bit of mobility that we desperately need and is also just a good AoE ability.
Next we have Flourish which is a great single target spell and can interrupt enemies which is always a bonus.
Finally Indomitable Battlestrike the single most powerful encounter we have, especially since we grabbed Executioner's Style, when this ability crits you will see heads fly.
At-Wills: Weapon Master's Strike is somewhat of a utility ability, it will apply a debuff which buffs our Encounter damage and it can hit a wide swath of enemies, so for AoE pulls it's a must and it's good to weave it into your rotation on single target fights so you are always getting that 10% bonus.
Sure Strike is our bread and butter ability, it's damage scales with enemy health, and it hits fast and hard, not much else to say.
Part 6: Boons.
Sharandar: Other than Dark Fey Hunter, Elven Ferocity, and Elven Resolve you are free to pick whatever you like, none of the other choices will matter much and are mostly preference.
Dread Ring: This tree is much more specific and you will want to follow it exactly, get Reliquary Keeper's Strength, Evoker's Thirst, Forbidden Piercing, Shadow Touch, and Endless Consumption which is incredibly powerful with decent LS, if your LS is very low and you won't be getting Black Ice Gear anytime soon Rampaging Madness is also good, but you will need to respec into Endless Consumption at some point if you take that route.
Icewind Dale: This tree is pretty much entirely preference, however like Sharandar there are a few that stand out from the rest Rapid Thaw is a great choice as it will scale with Disciple of War and with Black Ice Gear we will need the extra recovery we lose from not having AoW 4 set, Cool Resolve is the other choice that is going to be the better choice, other than that have fun.
Part 7: Pets (Optional).
Beyond just having an Ioun Stone of Allure there are many pets with active bonuses that are very useful, this will be a short list of some of the better pets for a dps GWF.
-Dancing Blade: This pet give ?/?/3%/5% crit severity, it can be purchased from the AD trader and costs 750k AD.
-Fire Archon: This pet give ?/?/?/5% extra damage on targets below 30%, it can be gotten either through the Auction House or by trading in Tarmalune Trade Bars at the trader in Neverwinter for 1000 bars.
-Galeb Durr: Gives you ?/?/?/1% extra damage for every 10% of life you are missing, is gotten on the Auction House or from the Zen Market.
There are many other good pets to find but i feel these are the three best active bonuses out there.
Post edited by shadowbox on
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Comments
Always a good read, and good info...
Thanks, good to see you are still playing
Yeah that was me Haha >.<
Welcome back...
I can vouch for this guy's guide, good info! (Tho personally I'd go IV any day
Looks like i forgot to add that, Student of the Sword is the best choice with 5 points left for damage that is, and thanks for posting i had forgotten about those last 5 and updated the guide accordingly.
So taking Students of the Sword is a better dps increase than Deep Gash for single target?
Yes because you want your crits to be hitting as hard as possible with Vorpal, plus Deep Gash can't crit, which means it's application is fairly limited to AoE at this point which is not really the focus of this guide, though like i said it's still a solid option.
But 5% less mitigation also applies to critical strikes so it gets exponentially better as your crit severity and crit chance increases, as the damage scales directly with how hard you are hitting an enemy, also the damage is applied instantly to each strike, meaning it also scales off unstoppable and you won't need to wait for ticks to get the bonus damage.
becuase if it does, that, to me, makes it worth more than a measly 5% mitigation debuff on crit
As far as i know it doesn't cause it is factored into what damage you are already doing, but you won't be using Rampaging Madness as the LS is generally a better boon and you should always use Vorpal with this build so it shouldn't matter anyway.
Edit: i'm dumb and was thinking of SotS, yes DG applies Madness for sure idk about palgue of terror though.
DG works on Rampaging Madness, but I have no idea about plaguefire/terror (don't use either to test).
Ohh man i just realized i was thinking of SotS yeah DG applies Madness.