Neverwinter GWF Pure PvE DPS Iron Vanguard Destroyer Guide
Neverwinter GWF Pure PvE DPS Iron Vanguard Destroyer Guide by shadowbox
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 4 (5 Human) Unstoppable Action.
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 if you’re a Human you will also want to drop 1 point intoArmor Specialization.
Tier 3: All 5 points for this tier will go into Steely Defense there is no choice here.
Tier 4: Now this really is the Tier where your options are literally non existent, you will drop 3 points intoDevastating Critical and 2 (3 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.
5/5 – 0/5 – 5/5 – 2/3
——————–
3/3 – 3/3 – 0/3 – 3/3
——————–
0/3 – 0/3 – 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, we will also be picking up Deep Gash it boosts our AoE damage and since Executioner’s Style doesn’t benefit us as much we will be dropping it.
Tier 2: You’re gonna be maxing Disciple of War no questions asked.
Tier 3: This tier gets ignore by this build.
Tier 4: Once again no choice here Focused Destroyer is simply amazing 15% damage with high uptime 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 Sentinal: Now you should have ten points remaining, we are gonna dip outside the Destroyer tree for these last points and pick up Scale Agility now 5% deflect doesn’t seem like the best choice when looking atStudent of the Sword but the Tier 2 Sentinal feat is really good especially with other GWFs who share it.
Tier 2 Sentinal: Obviously we are gonna be grabbing Powerful Challenge this ability has great synergy withThreatening Rush.
This should be your final Paragon spread.
Instigator
0/5 – 0/5 – 0/5 – 0/5
———————0/1
0/5 – 0/5 – 0/5 – 0/5
Destroyer
5/5 – 5/5 – 0/5 – 5/5
———————1/1
5/5 – 0/5 – 0/5 – 0/5
Sentinal
0/5 – 5/5 – 0/5 – 0/5
———————0/1
5/5 – 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, reasoning is explained above.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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 Indomitable Strength 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: Not so Fast Good for AoE and building Avatar if you are using that set, can be swapped out forCome and get It or Battle Flurry.
Next we have Frontline Surge a fantastic AoE ability that let’s us control the battlefield, just be careful you don’t knock targets away from your teamates AoE abilities.
Finally Indomitable Battlestrike the single most powerful encounter we have damage wise.
At-Wills: Wicked Strike is a very good AoE, it has a fast animation chains together very well and is very versatile, just be careful as it can cause some rubberbanding if you need to move during the animation.
Threatening Rush is our bread and butter ability, it has great damage can be animation canceled to speed it up and marks targets which interacts with Powerful Challenge wonderfully, you should always mark before using yourEncounters as well, it will substantially increase your damage, especially if you get good at abusing Combat Advantage with the mark to keep high uptime.
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.
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