GFs and Icewind Dale

thestaggy · May 2014

I have a few questions pertaining to GFs and Black Ice gear and Icewind boons.

First the gear -

I've recently unlocked the second tier of Baerick's Iceforge so I can start crafting Black Ice gear. I'm inclined to go with the defensive Purified set as I run Preserver armour in PVP, so it will keep in line with how I like my GF in PVP. Saying that, I'm not sure how a pure defensive setup will work in Kessel's Retreat. I have no idea what that skirmish is like, so not sure if I should go for the Corrupted set to get better value in the Skirmish.

Boons -
I have my first boon, which was easy enough. +250 AOE resist seemed the most useful.

I can now select my 2nd and 3rd boons. I'm certain of the 3rd boon, +250 recovery. As for the 2nd boon, in PVP spec I currently have 11% regen so a healing bonus on top of that would be great, but then again, GF's have a guard made out of paper, so any bit helps there.

So, are there any GFs out there that have experienced Kessel's Retreat and can provide some insight to what it is like for a GF (I'd assume it is like every other high end PVE encounter, a GWF is better :rolleyes:)? Also, feedback on the boons would be appreciated as well?

nuitrari · May 2014

Don't know about Kessel's Retreat, but for the boons, as a pvp GF I would say go with the guard meter, take in consideration that theres a boon (can't remember its name) that gives you power based on how much stamina/guard you have so that would be a wiser investment then the incoming heal choice. I'm not even sure that the incoming heals take in affect regeneration and life steal I think it only works for actual incoming heals from players or companions, again not sure about that.

ripyourlipsoff · May 2014

Yea same here until I get clarification that increase incoming healing applies to regen and life steal/ fighters recovery I took the ladder.

kattefjaes · May 2014

nuitrari wrote: »

I'm not even sure that the incoming heals take in affect regeneration and life steal I think it only works for actual incoming heals from players or companions, again not sure about that.

If you have an Eye Of Lathander or similar artifact, you could check this, as it has that stat. However, I think you're right, FWIW.

ripyourlipsoff · May 2014

Confirmed I have the 250 increased healing boon and Endless consumption on my GF and i get more heals on everything regen, life steal, pots , fighters recovery.

romon22 · June 2014

Yes, the increased healing boon works on regen ticks too. With my GF the 250 points you get equeal 3% extra healing

vitizax · June 2014

I had a question about Gf and maybe someone here could answer it.

For a pvp DPS GF, whats better? profund conqueror (what i am aiming nowadays) or corrupted black ice gear?

Thanks in advance

ripyourlipsoff · June 2014

The Refined Black Ice gear will probably be better I dont think any GFs have it yet as its harder for us to progress all the requirements.

As far as Profound gear, I use a mix of Profound Conq with High Generals 2 piece bonus, and a mixture of Other profoud and ancient jewelry and neck pieces.

You cannot make a pvp DPS GF with the gear they give you! You will need to mix and match like the rest of us... sorry.

vitizax · June 2014

That sounds pretty unfair to me, im not going to go Pve, period.
Theres a full pvp gear, whats wrong with it?

ripyourlipsoff · June 2014

vitizax wrote: »

That sounds pretty unfair to me, im not going to go Pve, period.
Theres a full pvp gear, whats wrong with it?

You either get Def /Delfect/ Regen or Power / Def / Max HP or Little Power / Def / Recovery You receive no Crit, no Armor Pen. So if you really want DPS pvp you will need appx. (This is my opinion not gospel)

3000 Power without Reckless Attacker
2000 Crit
2000 Arp
2000 Rec

1500 Regen
1500 Lifesteal

4000 Def
20% Deflection

To get that you will need a hodge podge of gear mis matching... I decided to get rid of my high Generals Helmet and Bracers giveing up the great defense / power/ regen and 2 piece set bonus of 450 ARP.

I grabbed 2 pieces of Grim Conqueror both had significant tenacity and power. I ended up with almost 9000 power but had low everything else and the 334 extra Tenacity brought me from 20% to 21% which was abysmal!

I was going to give up a ton of stats for 700 power and 1% more tenacity DR! It wasn't worth the loss in my other stats. This is just my 2 cents you do what you think is right for you.

query523 · June 2014

Kessell is challenging for the GF. If you do not utilise mobility you will find yourself in a bad place. That said it leans toward smaller numbers of more powerful mobs so it is easier to control than some of the Zergier dungeons. in the end cycle I was keeping a hard mark on Kessell, moving away from the spheres, and then lunging back to Kessell. If you are with a party that is willing to plan you can just grab the second golem spawn and let the party finish Kessell. Pro-Conq was servicable. I only have 3 peices of BI as that is the current maximum. I ran some matches with corrupt BI and Pro-Conq chest and the added ArPen pays dividends.

ripyourlipsoff · June 2014

All I know is the further I get in the IWD campaign the longer it takes to complete the quests!

fuldry · June 2014

vitizax wrote: »

I had a question about Gf and maybe someone here could answer it.

For a pvp DPS GF, whats better? profund conqueror (what i am aiming nowadays) or corrupted black ice gear?

Thanks in advance

Purified all the way. The set is sooo good.

Tier 2 bonus :
4798 HP
14 AC
2201 Defense
1077 Deflect
574 Power
465 Tenacity
326 ArPen
326 Regen
520 Recovery

It corrects the high defense of the Grand Regent set, while giving us useful stats. Tier 3 charge increases the stats even more.

Corrupt set bonii aint that good.

You've got extra life, defense at cap but not over it, power for conqueror, recovery etc. I just love this set.

ripyourlipsoff · June 2014

fuldry wrote: »

Purified all the way. The set is sooo good.

Tier 2 bonus :
4798 HP
14 AC
2201 Defense
1077 Deflect
574 Power
465 Tenacity
326 ArPen
326 Regen
520 Recovery

It corrects the high defense of the Grand Regent set, while giving us useful stats. Tier 3 charge increases the stats even more.

Corrupt set bonii aint that good.

You've got extra life, defense at cap but not over it, power for conqueror, recovery etc. I just love this set.

Im making Corrupted, as Defense means nothing in PvP! GWFs hit me like I am wearing saran wrap with all their ARp, and I need as much DPS I can muster.

beckylunatic · June 2014

ripyourlipsoff wrote: »

All I know is the further I get in the IWD campaign the longer it takes to complete the quests!

My experience is this is going to be true for any class, just because of the nature of the quests that unlock at rep 20. I suspect I'll be skipping them a lot, but at that stage there's lots of time to get enough gold/tears to finish everything off.

silence1x · June 2014

Honestly, I'm just playing now to see if I EVER get the gloves. I'm basically putting in the time and waiting on Mod 4 to come out. IWD is a let down for me. Sure it has some interesting new stuff (HEs in two different zones), some new PvP stuff (which I rarely do) but it's already becoming a chore much like DR and Shar. Does anyone else think the IWD boons and/or the BI Gear are not that great?

ripyourlipsoff · June 2014

beckylunatic wrote: »

My experience is this is going to be true for any class, just because of the nature of the quests that unlock at rep 20. I suspect I'll be skipping them a lot, but at that stage there's lots of time to get enough gold/tears to finish everything off.

Maybe? I know I had a CW in my area doing the same quests, she had 2k less GS then I did and was mopping the floor with mobs with reckless abandon. Mean while she was done and mounted up to leave I was still fighting my second group!

beckylunatic · June 2014

I mostly mean it's going to take longer for all classes because every one of the new dailies I've encountered so far involves extended travel and a lot of hunting for sufficient numbers of the correct things to kill or fetch. (One exception found for TT in IWP where it was just an extended Fed-Ex quest with no fighting required.)

I was particularly put out that the deathlock wights in DV heroic encounters were the apparently the wrong kind of deathlock wights.

ripyourlipsoff · June 2014

OMG those wights own me! It literally takes me like 10 mins to kill the second group.

query523 · June 2014

Oh and for some people who were taking too long on the solo IWD missions here's something to keep in mind. Most of them are small numbers of really tough mobs. Switching to single-target attacks (Anvil, Griffin, Lunging) makes them go signifigantly faster. Just tab-mark the thing you want to take down first and work your way through the list.

pitshade · June 2014

Lunging never leaves my bar. I usually have FLS and either Anvil or Griffons but ditch surge when fighting tougher mobs. Usually it gets Kneebreaker, since a lot of the single targets are either CC immune or they move around a lot.

query523 · June 2014

Just got the BI longsword. Beholder. Was running lunge/ Griffin/ Anvil. Timing: The big hit from the beholder can kill pretty easilly. It will also about fill the AP meter when blocked. So while the beholder was up I was almost constantly in Menace. At 26% ArPEn (pretty sure beholder violates the 24% rule) 3/4 corrupted with lesser corrupt overloads, >10k Power. 22/77 crit. Keep at it.

ripyourlipsoff · June 2014

query523 wrote: »

Just got the BI longsword. Beholder. Was running lunge/ Griffin/ Anvil. Timing: The big hit from the beholder can kill pretty easilly. It will also about fill the AP meter when blocked. So while the beholder was up I was almost constantly in Menace. At 26% ArPEn (pretty sure beholder violates the 24% rule) 3/4 corrupted with lesser corrupt overloads, >10k Power. 22/77 crit. Keep at it.

Thats great news but your DPS is matched by a 10k geared GWF with ease. This is the problem you probably have BIS and are one of the best geared GF in game. Rest of us are having difficulty progressing that far.

query523 · June 2014

I had a chest that costs glory and arms/ feet/ head that I built with professions. No enchant higher than a R7. a grand class necklace a pair of pyros (about 50k total current market rate) and a blue belt. Artifacts? Hmm the lantern that I got at L20, the Ravenskull I got from PVP, and the GF artifact that you get automatically from the campaign. WAY overgeared. Oh no my OP weapon set! which is the non-set T2 sword and shield.........

Look I am not denying that we are getting ignored by the game, not my point at all. I am saying that if you want IWD drops I will share anything and everything that has worked for me here.

Edit: Sorry I forgot there's one R8 I made durring a CTA that I was farming particulariily hard.

thestaggy · June 2014

I'm actually finding IWD to be easy now. It is tedious (at least not Sharandar tedious, which I am still 260 sparks away from completing), but easy. One joy is that I am now 8 Dwarven coins away from no longer having to do a full run through Icewind Pass and the Valley. I can simply choose one or the other.

I unlocked Kessel's yesterday, so only the 3rd level of the Iceforge, the final two boons and the 3rd tier of the Frozenfar store are outstanding.

My bar in IWD:

Passives: Combat Superiority (never leaves, daily grinds, PVP, dungeon) + Trample the Fallen
At-Wills: Cleave + TR (Tried Crushing Surge, it's too slow and TR adds mobility)
Encounters: Lunging Strike (never leaves) + Griffon's Wrath (realised it can stun and interrupt Yeti and Bear charges/roars) + FLS/Anvil (Anvil for when I have to fight the giants & Yetis)
Dailies: VM + Fighter's Recovery (for those ''Oh s**t!'' moments)

Gear: 4/4 Timeless, 2/2 Ancient weapons, blue rings and belt (243 pow-133 crit, 133 crit-243 arpen), free artifacts (all blue), rank 6s and a normal Plaguefire.

guille23mx · June 2014

Sadly it is still a dps race "most" gf are not going to win...
From what youre saying we need to spec specifically for iwd for max dps...
Not for tanking.
So good luck to all gf out there and specialy to all defenders and tacticians. Omg

query523 · June 2014

thestaggy wrote: »

I'm actually finding IWD to be easy now. It is tedious (at least not Sharandar tedious, which I am still 260 sparks away from completing), but easy. One joy is that I am now 8 Dwarven coins away from no longer having to do a full run through Icewind Pass and the Valley. I can simply choose one or the other.

I unlocked Kessel's yesterday, so only the 3rd level of the Iceforge, the final two boons and the 3rd tier of the Frozenfar store are outstanding.

My bar in IWD:

Passives: Combat Superiority (never leaves, daily grinds, PVP, dungeon) + Trample the Fallen
At-Wills: Cleave + TR (Tried Crushing Surge, it's too slow and TR adds mobility)
Encounters: Lunging Strike (never leaves) + Griffon's Wrath (realised it can stun and interrupt Yeti and Bear charges/roars) + FLS/Anvil (Anvil for when I have to fight the giants & Yetis)
Dailies: VM + Fighter's Recovery (for those ''Oh s**t!'' moments)

Gear: 4/4 Timeless, 2/2 Ancient weapons, blue rings and belt (243 pow-133 crit, 133 crit-243 arpen), free artifacts (all blue), rank 6s and a normal Plaguefire.

You have the right approach IMHO, I am geared differently but using the same methodology. There is no available IWD content that I cannot run at a decent pace and I have every drop for full set when I reach 350 reputation. Which I will attain the first day it is available. My HR runs the same content faster but he is a viscious killing machine with a lot of gear.

thestaggy · June 2014

guille23mx wrote: »

Sadly it is still a dps race "most" gf are not going to win...
From what youre saying we need to spec specifically for iwd for max dps...
Not for tanking.
So good luck to all gf out there and specialy to all defenders and tacticians. Omg

I'd think that for all daily grinds (Sharandar, Dread Ring and IWD) you would run your most DPS-orientated set-up to get through it as quick as possible. More so than ever in IWD as the mobs hit harder than anywhere else, so you need to kill them fast.

Even if you have a Protector/Tactician you should have a set of DPS gear to help you. My Conqueror has 3 sets of gear; Timeless to maximise damage, KC for buffing party runs and Profound Preserver for PVP survivability. I also have different rings and belts that either boost DPS or survivability.

Saying the above, I do understand that even with Timeless armour it must be very frustrating for a Tactician/Protector to finish IWD alone.

query523 · June 2014

I do not use the same setup for Sharandar/ Dread becausse there you have a lot of little mobs to kill so lower damage AOEs make more sense. Killing a Powie with anvil< hitting all of them with threat/ FLs. I actually ran tactician for a while and it is not that bad. The capstone makes up a lot of lost ground due to the capacity to spam dailies. Protectors, man it is gonna be a long haul no matter what you do.....

ripyourlipsoff · June 2014

thestaggy wrote: »

I'm actually finding IWD to be easy now. It is tedious (at least not Sharandar tedious, which I am still 260 sparks away from completing), but easy. One joy is that I am now 8 Dwarven coins away from no longer having to do a full run through Icewind Pass and the Valley. I can simply choose one or the other.

I unlocked Kessel's yesterday, so only the 3rd level of the Iceforge, the final two boons and the 3rd tier of the Frozenfar store are outstanding.

My bar in IWD:

Passives: Combat Superiority (never leaves, daily grinds, PVP, dungeon) + Trample the Fallen
At-Wills: Cleave + TR (Tried Crushing Surge, it's too slow and TR adds mobility)
Encounters: Lunging Strike (never leaves) + Griffon's Wrath (realised it can stun and interrupt Yeti and Bear charges/roars) + FLS/Anvil (Anvil for when I have to fight the giants & Yetis)
Dailies: VM + Fighter's Recovery (for those ''Oh s**t!'' moments)

Gear: 4/4 Timeless, 2/2 Ancient weapons, blue rings and belt (243 pow-133 crit, 133 crit-243 arpen), free artifacts (all blue), rank 6s and a normal Plaguefire.

Doing quests sure, try soloing a heroic! GWFs can, CWs can, TRs can, DCs, can, HRs, can GFs cannot.

masterjewstar · June 2014

ripyourlipsoff wrote: »

Doing quests sure, try soloing a heroic! GWFs can, CWs can, TRs can, DCs, can, HRs, can GFs cannot.

I've soloed several HE's with my full tank maybe none of the major ones but mid level ones aren't impossible as long as you put in effort and recognize thier attacks and know which ones are too hard.

GFs and Icewind Dale

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