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Need help with making my paladin fail a little less
jandrix
Member Posts: 12 Arc User
Hello fellow Paladins,
I apologize, this is long. I am upset with myself and I really want to improve so I tired to include a lot of information so hopefully the first few posts are not as many questions. I hope I have given you an adequate picture of my current situation.
I have only recently hit 70 with my paladin. It is my first character to hit max level so the end game is new to me. I have been 70 for a few days and have been working on getting better gear and doing daily quests to unlock boons and other areas of the game. I have done every skirmish while leveling with no problems. I have done each dungeon once and never had problems. My tank is specced Protection/Bulwark and while I realize that Justice is much more popular I have kind of like Bulwark a little bit and up until recently had no problems. I also only have one friend who plays this game and he plays a Protection/Justice paladin so I do not really want the exact build he has. Due to this I have not wanted to spend the money on respeccing my character so far. I got my item level up to 1654 and decided to try some endgame content since I only needed 1600 to unlock the early stuff. I decided to go with something short and chose Kessell's Retreat and The Shore of Tuern Epic.
Kessell's Retreat was the dungeon that popped up first. The group was already in there and seemed to still be at the first fight I am assuming because the enemies were not far. I was a little nervous since I did not know why they needed a new tank this early but I figured that maybe they just got DC'ed since they were still at the beginning. I ran forward and Radiant Strike Charged and Immediately hit Templar's Wrath for my oh so lovely Temp HP and maybe 2 or three seconds later I was dead. No red circles and I did not notice any big charge attacks in those 3 seconds but I just died. One player left the group right then and I was so embarrassed that I left only a few seconds later assuming that I pretty much completely suck.
I have tanked in other MMO's before. I tanked in WoW and quite a few others. I tanked in Star Wars the Old Republic before it went FtP. I recently was tanking in FF14. I am not some ungodly tank but I am decent at what I do with a slight problem of worrying all the time about making mistakes or not doing a good enough job. I had spent the whole day thinking about doing a dungeon because I was worried that I was not good enough or not well geared enough or not familiar enough with the content. It is a problem that I usually get my feet wet and I am good to go and have a blast. This time though I got my feet wet and there were sharks.
I am posting because I need to find out what direction I should go first to improve my character and what changes should be made. I am sitting at 1654 Item Level, my health is 84701 with campfire. All of my gear except my pants and shirt are at least iLevel 115 or higher. My neck slot is the level 70 reward that is iLevel 135 My Shield is the Shield of Elemental Fire at blue quality so far with rank 15. The Power modifier is crappy and affects a power I do not even have points in. I also have unlocked one other power modifier and I do not have points in that one either. The shield also has a Rank 7 Radiant enchantment in its defensive slot and the second slot is still locked. My weapon is the Mace of Elemental Flame so I am getting the set bonus. My mace is blue quality at rank 17. The power modifier is +3% damage on Radiant Strike which is nice. It has a Rank 7 Dark enchantment in its offensive slot. The weapon enchantment slot is empty and the third slot is locked. My pants and shirt are level 50 greens. They need upgraded badly but I have been leveling platesmithing anyway and I am almost maxed on it and would rather craft the gear than buy it since I am poor. I only have 2 artifacts. I have the Waters of Elah'zah rank 55 and the Sigil of the Oathbound Paladin rank 31. I have not found any other artifacts and cannot afford to buy them on the AH. The rest of my equipment are level 115 blues I bought on the AH when I hit 70. All offensive Slots have rank 5 dark enchants. The defensive slots have rank 5 radiant enchants. The utility slots have rank 5 Azure enchants except one is a rank 8 Lesser Dragon's Hoard enchant.
http://i.imgur.com/djiLmed.jpg
My feats could use some improvements. I know that but I did not think that the changes would need to be drastic. One severe failure later and I am now unsure of that. I am specced Bulwark with a little Light.
http://i.imgur.com/tBaIW9k.jpg
My boons are what I have been working on lately. IWD and PvP are empty still. Sharandar I have the first two tiers and both are the top row. Dread Ring I have just the first tier and took the bottom boon. ToD I have the first three tiers and all three boons are the top row but got stuck right now because I just can never find anyone to help me with the cult prison quest. So that is currently stalled.
My companions are a work in progress. I am currently running with a Dire Wolf with a lesser bonding rune stone as my active when solo which is nice. I also have a Rimefire Golem, a Storm Rider, an Air Archon and a Fire Sprite. The dire wolf is epic level 35 and the others are green level 25s. I do realized that I need an Augment badly. I will be getting the Ioun Stone of Allure in the next day or two and have three rank 7 Profane runestones waiting to go into it.
http://i.imgur.com/5HP2GpW.jpg
I am not sure how to proceed at this point. I am planning to keep doing all the dallies I can which is pretty time consuming. I do not know how to get an artifact beyond purchasing one or doing the dungeons that I do not seem to be able to do. I know I need a weapon and armor enchant but they are just so expensive. I do have 4 feytouched shards but the 1% sort of is a problem and Convalescent wards are expensive. Should I use one of my 3 rank 7 profane runestones and upgrade another to rank 8? I already have the refinement points, I just need the runestone? I do have one Convalescent Ward that is bound to my account. Should I go ahead and use it to make my feytouched weapon enchant or should I save the ward for something else since it costs twice what the weapon enchant costs.
I am sorry it was such a long post and may have started rambling a little toward the end there. I have always enjoyed tanking and I want to be a good tank. I have had no problems up until this point, except maybe a little slow to kill thinks especially since this most recent patch... I really would appreciate any advice that hopefully goes beyond save up money and buy epics and artifacts but I am really worried that is what I will end up hearing because that is the only path I am seeing right now. Will someone be my Master Yoda?
Also, I do not have a guild and my only friend that plays the game is only level 53 so no help there.
Second also, I have never posted pictures on a forum and I hope I did it right. If not please inform me of the correct or even just the social acceptable way to post.
Thank you all for your time. I really do appreciate the effort of just reading through the email and even more so if you respond. Oghma bless you with the knowledge that I do not have.
I apologize, this is long. I am upset with myself and I really want to improve so I tired to include a lot of information so hopefully the first few posts are not as many questions. I hope I have given you an adequate picture of my current situation.
I have only recently hit 70 with my paladin. It is my first character to hit max level so the end game is new to me. I have been 70 for a few days and have been working on getting better gear and doing daily quests to unlock boons and other areas of the game. I have done every skirmish while leveling with no problems. I have done each dungeon once and never had problems. My tank is specced Protection/Bulwark and while I realize that Justice is much more popular I have kind of like Bulwark a little bit and up until recently had no problems. I also only have one friend who plays this game and he plays a Protection/Justice paladin so I do not really want the exact build he has. Due to this I have not wanted to spend the money on respeccing my character so far. I got my item level up to 1654 and decided to try some endgame content since I only needed 1600 to unlock the early stuff. I decided to go with something short and chose Kessell's Retreat and The Shore of Tuern Epic.
Kessell's Retreat was the dungeon that popped up first. The group was already in there and seemed to still be at the first fight I am assuming because the enemies were not far. I was a little nervous since I did not know why they needed a new tank this early but I figured that maybe they just got DC'ed since they were still at the beginning. I ran forward and Radiant Strike Charged and Immediately hit Templar's Wrath for my oh so lovely Temp HP and maybe 2 or three seconds later I was dead. No red circles and I did not notice any big charge attacks in those 3 seconds but I just died. One player left the group right then and I was so embarrassed that I left only a few seconds later assuming that I pretty much completely suck.
I have tanked in other MMO's before. I tanked in WoW and quite a few others. I tanked in Star Wars the Old Republic before it went FtP. I recently was tanking in FF14. I am not some ungodly tank but I am decent at what I do with a slight problem of worrying all the time about making mistakes or not doing a good enough job. I had spent the whole day thinking about doing a dungeon because I was worried that I was not good enough or not well geared enough or not familiar enough with the content. It is a problem that I usually get my feet wet and I am good to go and have a blast. This time though I got my feet wet and there were sharks.
I am posting because I need to find out what direction I should go first to improve my character and what changes should be made. I am sitting at 1654 Item Level, my health is 84701 with campfire. All of my gear except my pants and shirt are at least iLevel 115 or higher. My neck slot is the level 70 reward that is iLevel 135 My Shield is the Shield of Elemental Fire at blue quality so far with rank 15. The Power modifier is crappy and affects a power I do not even have points in. I also have unlocked one other power modifier and I do not have points in that one either. The shield also has a Rank 7 Radiant enchantment in its defensive slot and the second slot is still locked. My weapon is the Mace of Elemental Flame so I am getting the set bonus. My mace is blue quality at rank 17. The power modifier is +3% damage on Radiant Strike which is nice. It has a Rank 7 Dark enchantment in its offensive slot. The weapon enchantment slot is empty and the third slot is locked. My pants and shirt are level 50 greens. They need upgraded badly but I have been leveling platesmithing anyway and I am almost maxed on it and would rather craft the gear than buy it since I am poor. I only have 2 artifacts. I have the Waters of Elah'zah rank 55 and the Sigil of the Oathbound Paladin rank 31. I have not found any other artifacts and cannot afford to buy them on the AH. The rest of my equipment are level 115 blues I bought on the AH when I hit 70. All offensive Slots have rank 5 dark enchants. The defensive slots have rank 5 radiant enchants. The utility slots have rank 5 Azure enchants except one is a rank 8 Lesser Dragon's Hoard enchant.
http://i.imgur.com/djiLmed.jpg
My feats could use some improvements. I know that but I did not think that the changes would need to be drastic. One severe failure later and I am now unsure of that. I am specced Bulwark with a little Light.
http://i.imgur.com/tBaIW9k.jpg
My boons are what I have been working on lately. IWD and PvP are empty still. Sharandar I have the first two tiers and both are the top row. Dread Ring I have just the first tier and took the bottom boon. ToD I have the first three tiers and all three boons are the top row but got stuck right now because I just can never find anyone to help me with the cult prison quest. So that is currently stalled.
My companions are a work in progress. I am currently running with a Dire Wolf with a lesser bonding rune stone as my active when solo which is nice. I also have a Rimefire Golem, a Storm Rider, an Air Archon and a Fire Sprite. The dire wolf is epic level 35 and the others are green level 25s. I do realized that I need an Augment badly. I will be getting the Ioun Stone of Allure in the next day or two and have three rank 7 Profane runestones waiting to go into it.
http://i.imgur.com/5HP2GpW.jpg
I am not sure how to proceed at this point. I am planning to keep doing all the dallies I can which is pretty time consuming. I do not know how to get an artifact beyond purchasing one or doing the dungeons that I do not seem to be able to do. I know I need a weapon and armor enchant but they are just so expensive. I do have 4 feytouched shards but the 1% sort of is a problem and Convalescent wards are expensive. Should I use one of my 3 rank 7 profane runestones and upgrade another to rank 8? I already have the refinement points, I just need the runestone? I do have one Convalescent Ward that is bound to my account. Should I go ahead and use it to make my feytouched weapon enchant or should I save the ward for something else since it costs twice what the weapon enchant costs.
I am sorry it was such a long post and may have started rambling a little toward the end there. I have always enjoyed tanking and I want to be a good tank. I have had no problems up until this point, except maybe a little slow to kill thinks especially since this most recent patch... I really would appreciate any advice that hopefully goes beyond save up money and buy epics and artifacts but I am really worried that is what I will end up hearing because that is the only path I am seeing right now. Will someone be my Master Yoda?
Also, I do not have a guild and my only friend that plays the game is only level 53 so no help there.
Second also, I have never posted pictures on a forum and I hope I did it right. If not please inform me of the correct or even just the social acceptable way to post.
Thank you all for your time. I really do appreciate the effort of just reading through the email and even more so if you respond. Oghma bless you with the knowledge that I do not have.
Post edited by jandrix on
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Comments
http://nwcalc.com/index.html#/op?b=1oa5:k6rwk5:8dep:5tb7d,1cik3ei:1uu550v:1000000:1uu5000&h=0&p=ood
In dungeons, use bond of virtue, burning light and vow of enmity, with aura of courage and aura of wisdom/vengeance. Outside of dungeons, swap bond with relentless avenger. For dailies, you want Heroism and divine judgement. You absolutely must get the burning guidance dread ring boon, its ridiculous.
If you want to go protection, look at predo's guide.
TheFabricant's advise to do Justice tree... I'm not so sure about that part of it, I say UM, NO. Not yet at least, do much, much more research before you do that because you will be *weaker* if you do it and that will require a change in play-style for certain (I know because I was full Justice and respecc'd to Bulwark.) But the encounters he suggests: I agree completely.
I have both Paragon paladins and my Bulwark-Protection tank is my favorite toon of the 15 I have, including my previous main which was a DC from alpha/beta days until the Paladin was released. Here is what I've done to my Brick-Wall Abrams Tank Toon:
HP. More HP. Everything is HP. Every single defensive enchantment slot I have is geared with a rank 8 (or 5) Radiant (Gold) to add HP. All the gear I have (similar to what OP describes) is HP/Regeneration-based. All my offensive slots are rank 8 (or 5) Dark enchantments for Armor Penetration.
Companions: I have active and summoned a Stone of Radiance - with Companion Gear that each have two slots and - you guessed it - Radiant and Dark enchantments.
My other companions are an easy choice (and I fully understand I am fortunate to have these as they are not so easily available):
Purple Rimefire Golem/Active: 1200 HP
Purple Iron Golem/Active: 1200 HP (Stacks with above for additional 2400 HP)
Sylph (Knight of the Feywild Pack) for 50% CC Resist
Dire Wolf for 5% Chance to interrupt.
I am using Freebie Elemental Shield and Mace (god that thing is ugly) - I have a rank 12 Dark and a Perfect Terror in there. I am using a Perfect Briartwine armor enhancement.
Paragon is Protect tree; Bulwark branch: almost 100% of that entire branch
What all this does is make me survivable. DPS takes a hit but I can survive pretty much everything I've been faced with so far. In skirmishes and events while everyone is looking at the "Most Damage Dealt ("paingiver) rankings my biggest interest is in the "Most Damage Taken" stat and I rank #1 every time. This tells me that as a tank I'm doing my job.
I know the main argument is: "Moar DPS! Killin' faster means less dmg means fstrrr dunjins!" - um no. I don;t think so and I believe it's one of the reasons the Devs have set-up the new mobs to specifically 'fight against' this very idea.
Though Justice tree is absofreakinglutely awesome (I was a full Justice spec during leveling) - I decided to respec to a full Bulwark and have been a LOT more survivable and the game has been a lot more fun during SOLO EXCURSIONS. And this is really the key to it all: how much of your game time is spent in group play/PvP versus SOLO instances?
If 60% or more is in solo play - you should stay with Bulwark and work on beefing-up your HP and Regen, then Defense and Deflect. Mind you: I am NOT a min-maxed, I suggest this because it's worked for me and I'm only in this for fun.
So there you have it: not intended as "advice" to go do all this, but rather a description of my personal experience that create a recipe for fun. SO: OP - it's your call on what to do next and how to proceed.
Neverwinter Census 2017
All posts pending disapproval by Cecilia
Here is my build (well it will be once I can get the 116k AD together for a feat change, I'm moving 2 points from Exemplar's Haste to Impassioned Pleas): http://nwcalc.com/index.html#/op?b=2v2i:zb5qpg:9ktk:5yksd,1xi6350:1000000:1u0z5u1:1u0z000&h=0&p=oop
My Always On Bar powers are:
Aura of Wisdom, Templar's Wrath, Shielding Strike, Radiant Strike, Divine Protector (DP)
For Dungeons:
The exact powers needed varies according to what is happening and the party you are with, however...
Burning Light: this is useful for trash mobs in dungeons once you have enough personal defence that Divine Touch and Templar's Wrath will keep you going while the rest of the party does their thing. At a full charge it dishes out quite a bit of CC for the party on trash.
Circle of Power: for if you need more defence.
Cleansing Touch: useful on bosses like the Scorpions when tanking away or if the healer needs a small buff to keep the people fighting in close going (also CC mitigation..must try in the final VT encounter vs the hand...)
Binding Oath: you take less damage, however when combined with DP and the enemies getting some crits this can actually proc and kill you (I took 400k damage from it the other day, so even after all mitigation I still had 150k left...)
Divine Touch: it adds defence and it builds AP well.
Bane: Really handy on big powerful bosses or to taunt things to positions where the party can manage them better without having to go all the way too the enemy.
Vow of Enmity: Solves the "aggro" problem as anything with Vow on it will get really mad at you. Good for bosses hat hit hard with lots of adds as well. So you keep the boss while everyone else gets the adds, even when everyone else can be "all on boss".
I've been known to remove the 2nd Daily from my bar so that miss-clicking 2 instead of one doesn't cost a fight.
Gear I currently have:
Eternal Alliance Restoration helm and boots
Alliance Restoration arms
Alliance Ward armour.
Main and Off Hand artifacts unlocked to blue.
Cloak, Belt and Artifact of the Seldarine all unlocked to blue.
Sigil of the Devoted unlocked to orange.
Sigil of the Oathbound Paladin unlocked to purple.
Artifact priority is Belt > Shield > Main Hand with the Paladin sigil in parallel because those rank 5 enchants need to go somewhere.
Negation in armour. One day it might get an upgrade, or I might try Soulforged.
Lesser Terror in weapon (cheap armour pen for the party). In process of upgrading.
All defence slots on the character are Rank 8 Radiants.
All defence slots on my stone are Rank 7 Silvery. Note HP does not translate from the stone at 100% of listed amount.
Offence is a Lesser Teneberous and Radiants.
Without campfire I have 26 Con, 19 Wis and 20 Cha with 13 Dex. (Dex = Deflection).
HP is 114K, Crit is about 25%, Defence is 47% or so deflect is about 20% and Cool Down Reduction is 49% and AP gain is 25% (%'s are rounded up)
Companions that matter:
Stone of Allure
Flame Sprite (1% AP gain) (green)
Ice Sprite (1% AP gain) (green)
I forget what the other 2 are....
With all of that I tend to die under the following conditions:
Binding Oath Kills me.
DP is down and something crits for a huge amount.
DP is down and I take several large crits in a row.
With a good party DP being down only matters in boss fights.
Obsidian Oath - Warlock
A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
Let me assure you though, you're not at fault. The main problem you're having is 1600-ish item level is too low for the content. So gear up a bit more before attempting it again. 1600 might be fine for DPS/healers (no idea), but for a tank you're going to need at least 1800, if not more. Go spend time in IWD farming Heroic Encounters with the zerg to get black ice (to buy the new level 70 gear) and Aquamarines/Peridots (to upgrade your Artifact equipment). You can also buy the artifact belt (Greater Plated Band of Constitution) from the AH for dirt cheap so get it and start upgrading it as well. Work on all 4 campaigns (5 if you do PvP) to get the boons. Also, if you have any enchants that are below rank 6, time to upgrade. Rank 7 would be better, but can be expensive.
When you're ready, queue up for Shores of Tuern exclusively. The boss fight in Kessell's is at least twice as difficult as SoT. Once the 2 dragons are killed, there are no more adds, unlike Kessell's where they spawn throughout the fight. Granted SoT isn't exactly easy, but I've done it many time with no healer and even done it a few times with only me and one DPS left for 75% of the fight. The SoT boss fight is more about timing than anything so it will take you a few tries to learn his attacks and what to watch for so you can avoid them. You'll wipe repeatedly trying to get it down, but keep at it until you do because eventually it just becomes a long annoying fight rather than a challenge.
As far as surviving the first 3 seconds of combat, I use Aura of Truth and Aura of Protection to minimize the damage. I'll pop Binding Oath just before engaging, jump in and hit Templar's Wrath, and then keep my shield up until Binding Oath expires. It helps to move around so the mobs don't have a chance to hit you with their special attacks (many have deadly non-red attacks). I'll constantly use radiant strike to charge a mob and do AoE damage, then pop whatever encounters I need to hit, maybe use an at-will 2 or 3 times, then toss up my shield and move out of their range. Rinse, repeat.
Same BTW for that Ioun Stone. You will want to get some nice "loyal" gear for that. The "economy line" among these is quite affordable and also gives you a decent buff, you can always get the high priced ones later...
Thanks for the feedback, I'll look into this option. And if it turns out that's a better way for me I can chuck the Ioune Stone and grab a companion with better Active Bonus than what it offer.s
Absolutely agree. People are always trying to get top spot in "Damage Dealt" stat on leaderboards, I'm always trying to get top spot on "Damage Taken".
Thanks for the heads-up on the HP Enchants in companions, I did not know about the reduction of amount taken from them. As for the Flame Sprite - it's ironic that I won two of them in this weekend's CTA and I was going to just dump both of them into the AH - now I may just take BeckyLunatic's advice and dump the stone, summon the Dire Wolf and plop those Fire Sprites in active a lot on both my Paladins. (And a summoned Dire Wolf is also great at physically blocking brutes, elites, and bosses from getting at me too quickly.)
Hehehehe: great thread this is!
When that happens I wonder if it would been better not to use Binding Oath, but then again, since I'm only getting hit for half the damage that I would have taken (albeit all at once), wouldn't I have died anyway?
Thoughts?
Oh! I was referring to the original poster's screenie (fully levelled wolf with a bonding and two training runes), but actually a strong striker companion is a fine choice for any paladin to run as a summoned companion, and the wolf is a goodie. Load up all slots with bonding stones and look for some Loyal gear with good stats for you, and plop some rank 6s into that too (the increase in stats between rank 6 and 7 is a blankety-blanking joke if you're on a budget).
Neverwinter Census 2017
All posts pending disapproval by Cecilia
Looking at you char you have around 1000 recovery this will lead multiple times to fail tanking and lead to many deads .
I have around 16000 recovery and i play an elf paladin with 15 int also i use rank 4 aura of wisdom.
I have around 126% recharge speed but i can buff it up to 180% if i want .
GMC have gived paladins a super pro tip .
Note i done T2 w/o any fail with starter Ilvl. 2011 and the key word was RECOVERY and AP GAIN.
After you have at least 80-90% recharge speed things start to get more easy why?
Cuz you can only facetank somthing if y have temp hp how can i get more temp hp or more freq ?
From recharge speed so simple .
How can i protect my self ?
With daly up and this lead to recovery and ap gain.
So actually GMC gived tanks in nw a pro tip .
My pro tip is the same .(note some devs know how to play this game and one of them is GMC)
This statement is baffling considering GMC is the powers guy, he designed the powers how they work and function with themselves, of course he has insight. Expecting an environment artist or animator to have the same insight as the guy who does the powers seems a bit insulting there. The devs just play on their private accounts since they do want times to relax.
And 16,000 Recovery? Well I am glad you have money to burn, not everyone can.
GMC = gentlemancrush
16000 recovery isnt really a money issue at all , those stuff y can get for almost free .
Rank 7 Silvery enchants(you can make it by your self for free) rigth armor setup waters arti is for free hunter ranger arti is for free kessel arti is for free tia orb is for free to get o and i forget raven skull is for free to.
Wisdom belt is super cheap to and all stuff with recovery is cheap.
Stone of allure is not to free but at some point you can spend 400k .
Sword coast(companion gear) is for free also the Fawn of Shiallia is super cheap too.
Rank 8 runestones are super cheap to .
And i want to point out Light tree from there you can get holy bonds 20% recovery stat from each ally total 100% if somone have companion summoned.
If she/he can buy Dire Wolf what is coming from a pack he shoud not have any issue to buy stone of allure.
Says you. Not only do these statements show a disconnect it shows an incredible missing the blindingly obvious that to get to that level requires either time or money. And since time doesn't a lot as huge returns as spending money does, then some people aren't as well off as others, or as lucky to get instant cash prizes that net them the ability to afford some things.
(We assuming bond of virtue is already up)
Activate daily power (Heroism)
Vow of enmity one of them
Relentless avenger to mobs (if you choose to use it) Or walk up to them and use a charged burning light.
Do a combination of hit/tab/shift depending on the situation
Repeat
Whats going on behind the scenes, assuming you got burning guidance, is this:
Your activation of daily powers started off prism
Vow of enmity is converting all damage into healing, healing both you and your allies
The healing of you is proccing prism
Prism is healing your allies
Bond is arcing all this healing, back onto everyone
The healing from bond is causing some weird interactions
All this healing above btw, is attempted IRRISPECTIVE of wether a person is at full health or not, it won't heal them if they are, but because the game attempts to, it all proccs burning guidance.
Burning guidance damages adds nearby, if you are next to the vowed target, this rapidly causes the above list to spiral out of control
Basically, heroism gives you the HP you need in t1's and t2's to survive long enough next to the adds for the above combo to kill them.
This makes justice the strongest healing path and damage path for a devotion OP, in addition to having the best buffs to the party.
Neverwinter Census 2017
All posts pending disapproval by Cecilia
Justice has fewer layers of defence and relies on getting more Temp HP (through higher DPS) more frequently (through shorter CDs) and is probably better with BO than without. At least I've never been killed by it even in the middle of huge fights where I'm taking constant damage.
Aelar Hawkwind - Archer
Karrin Feywinter - Mistress of Flame
Errin Duskwalker - Executioner
Darquess - Soulbinder
Aelar Hawkwind - Archer
Karrin Feywinter - Mistress of Flame
Errin Duskwalker - Executioner
Darquess - Soulbinder
Lets just say that him and I completed a ETOS where we - both Justice Devotion - were the main damage dealers
As a frame of reference, mine is geared very poorly (rank 6/purple) enchant/artifact wise and I have little troubles running T2. I will state I do pick my parties, if everyone is as weak (or weaker) than me gear-wise, I know it's gonna be a hard or fail run.
Binding Oath isn't piercing. All my defences mitigate it just fine. However if you take multiple crits (or someone else does while DP is up, and then DP drops before Binding procs) of over 300k damage while it is up your mitigation isn't going to stop it all. That's the only time its killing me these days. If you get Vigilance or DP (especially with Exemplar of Light) you are pretty much immune to Binding Oath. Binding Oath definitely boosts my survivability and DPS making it worthwhile, however in a situation like the final boss in eToS its a gamble power. Syndreth and the spiders can both crit for 300k or more and if timing is off a little bit...dead.
Companions: I only noticed the thing with the stones and HP because I added Rank 8 Radiant to my stone and my HP didn't adjust to what I thought. So I removed it and reslotted it and got less than 1k boost. Slotted it in the character and got a clean 1k boost.
Solo Play & My Build: I can happily solo IWD up to Totem or Auril HE's in Pass or Valley, heck I can stop and chat while doing them without danger of a death. Its worth noting that speed killing is harder now thanks to the DJ change, but drop a Vow of Enmity on something then just Templar's/Burning or Templar's/Smite with Shielding strikes on that mob burns it down fast enough to do things in a timely fashion, dropping DJ to get some solid hits out as needed across the whole mob (that will be standing on top of you unless its giants)
Recovery: The argument that recovery & AP gain is critical to an OP seems fair. Power is not a big deal. Even a basic mob encounter in IWD procs my power up to 18k from the 8k base. So Defence/Recovery/Deflect are probably the primary 3 for PvE content followed closely by Regen (which I missed earlier).
Obsidian Oath - Warlock
A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
The damage from DEVOTION justice pally comes from a very large number of infinite loops (8-10 in total). The damage from Protection pally is actually very small, all though going by paingiver it looks big. This is because the damage a tank absorbs through divine protector and Binding oath counts towards their paingiver. What it does is it takes in the damage, converts it to a number for binding oath/divine protector, then deals it as damage to the paladin. However, because the ability dealing the damage to the paladin was cast by the paladin, it counts to their damage and makes it look like they hitting for really large amounts, which they actually aren't.
Great stuff. Keep it coming
Ah, I see. And YESSSS! I agree with you completely. I may have misunderstood the OP. I thought he was a Protection P = stay on Bulwark; but if Devotion then yes: Definitely go Justice. That's how I have each of my Paladins set up.
And that's good to hear. As I've said in my OC: my description is only that; not intended as advice to follow. And I think when people approach these kind of conversation that way it all comes across much cleaner and genuine. What mean is this: I never proclaim my way is the best and other ways are 'HAMSTER' - We all play differently and I really appreciate seeing how others play; if gives great food for thought.
Though I'm seeing in this thread many of us are thinking very similarly here. LOL
I concur: juicy stuff. I love threads like these where nobody is wrong, but everyone is sharing their own insights generating great ideas and 'food-for-thought' meat for everyone else. THIS is how these forums should always be.
Obsidian Oath - Warlock
A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
Oh, but there is, prism heals insanely, much better then the light tree just by itself especially when you can keep up a perma daily. In addition, you can go through solo content much faster by yourself.
Hell, I will be honest, the capstones of Bulwark and Light both sound good on paper but require too much wind up time to be useful against Justice fire and forget.
My Devotion Paladin is on Justice tree and my Protection Paladin leveled on it, then I respecc'd into Bulwark (and I'm enjoying that one even more, frankly speaking).
Other than Prism I don;t recall Judgement branch having a lot of out-going healing in it. It is the Light branch that is obviously designed from the ground-up to be the healer path, for those basically wanting a melee DC. The Judgement branch feels a lot like the DC's "Righteous" branch; more like the "focus on damage" path (I know better than to call it a "DPS path" LOL).
And Bulwark is very obviously the main "tank" branch. So if Prism in the Justice path really is *that* good as people claim, perhaps better than the entirety of (or 'majority') usefulness of the Light branch: expect a cold hard nerf to it in the middle of the night.
I respecc'd a second time last night (I still have dozens of respect tokens from Winter event so nanner-nanner) and I did something I'm not sure what... but suddenly in a dragon fight my cool-downs are almost nonexistent and I'm able to chain-stun mobs and my AP was refilling stupidly fast. Possibly another OP in the area helping all that along that I didn't see. Either way - I am bracing myself for some nerf in the Bulwark branch also because it feels rare that my HP ever falls below 50% - ever. Even in that (still a nightmare) Ghost Stories instance. Being able to almost literally spam encounters I had more THP than I think the system could even give me, I was indestructible, rarely used Sanctuary (even at Dragonbreath) and I was still init.
I've never tried the Light branch at all. However the DPS output on Bulwark is definitely a lot less than on Justice, so as for "wind-up time": yes, you get that. I am seeing feats proc'ing left and right when in the bigger fights with bosses, brutes and elites. It's awesome. So what you see on paper must be pretty accurate: it really great, and it does take some wind-up.
But this is the primary thing to remember: you are trading DPS for invincibility; everything takes a LOT longer, but even dragons "can't touch this'.