User:DKS01/sandbox

Preliminary ideas for a PvE Nightfall P/W build, saved here so I don't forget it by the time Nightfall comes out.

Paragon/Warrior Spear Soldier

Attributes and Skills
Notes and reasoning: They're on Fire!(TOF! from here on out) seems may seem a silly shout to use in regular PvE play where you're not guaranteed to have a lot of ways to set enemies on fire, but there's a reason for it. Soldier's Fury gives you a 33% attack speed boost for 23 seconds(at 8 leadership) while you're under the effects of a shout or chant. It costs 5 energy and has a 5 second recharge. Now, TOF! is a 10 energy shout(with up to 4 energy back, due to Leadership) that lasts 20 seconds, and has a 20 second recharge. Using TOF!, you can stay in Soldier's Fury indefinately, without the need to recast your shout(and as such expend energy) every 10 seconds or less, and without having to worry about the 10 second duration/20 second recharge time many of them have. By staying in 33% IAS constantly, you effectively increase your damage and adrenaline gain by 50%. Of course, other shouts could be used, but you'd have to make sure the duration matches or exceeds the recharge in order to stay in permanent 33% IAS. The only other shout with both a 20 second duration and a 20 second recharge is Can't Touch This!, which seems like it would be even less useful in PvE play. Altneratively, you could use Watch Yourself! which is an adrenal skill and would in turn take a few attacks to activate, but once activated could be kept up basically indefinitely. Still, this requires a bit more management on your part. The attacks are not definite, but I like Vicious Attack-Damage boost, and a deep wound if you critical, too nice to pass up. Of the other paragon sources of deep wound, Cruel Spear is elite and so won't work with Soldier's Fury, Merciless Spear only works on foes below 50% health, and Spear of Envy also damage boosts, but only provides DW if the enemy has more health than you. Merciless or SoE could substitute for VA, but without more thorough testing I'm putting VA as the attack of choice. Also makes a nice opening strike, as it's energy based(SoE is also energy based so could serve the same purpose). Blazing Spear adds a hefty damage boost and sets enemies on fire for 3 seconds, which is always fun, and would allow your team to benefit at least somewhat from TOF!. You could another attack of choice here, I'll experiment with different ones myself, but for now I'm using this one as the placeholder. Besides, I LIKE the skill and I like burning enemies. Wild Throw is simply to counter those nasty evade/block stance users. If playing in an area where those aren't common, another attack could suffice. And not to mention Wild Throw requires adrenaline, which is kinda hard to build up with the enemy evading/blocking your attacks. Yeah, you could switch targets to build adrenaline then switch back, but by that time the monster's stance probably has nearly worn off anyways. Oh well, as I said, the attack choices aren't definite. Barbed Spear is kind of a wildcard as well. It's a low cost way of spreading degen, but I'm not convinced it's the best attack choice to go here either. Alternatively, if 3 attacks are enough I suppose it could also be replaced with Remedy Signet, which appears to be a very nice condition counter. Reasonable activation time, short recharge, and removes any condition, hmmm. Seeing as how Blindness is anethema to this build, this skill might come in VERY handy...plus even in areas without blinding enemies, it could be nice to remove bleeding or poison. Let's face, nearly every area has SOME annoying condition you can be hit with. Now, Soldier's Defense...thanks to this, I get my own nasty little block stance...at 9 tactics, it lasts for 15 seconds, and gives me a 75% chance to block attacks as long as I'm under the effects of a chant or shout. Now, since I should have TOF! up almost all the time, meeting this condition is not a problem, and since the stance has a 20 second recharge, I could potentially keep it up with only a 5 second window of vulnerability. Could be especially useful in areas with enemies using Distracting Shot, Savage Shot, Distracting Blow, Disrupting Throw, or other physical interrupts, that way you have a better chance of activating Soldier's Fury when you need to. Since the stance is the only warrior skill here, you could optionally go with another secondary profession and another skill of your choice here, but I like the stance so I aim to keep it. Last of all we have Rez Sig because, well, everyone who is not soloing should have a rez. Alternatively you could use the paragon's Signet of Return hard rez. Rez Sig ressurects your ally with full health and 25% energy, and has a 3 second cast time, SoR(at 8 leadership) ressurects them with 10% health and 3% energy for each party member(which includes you) within earshot. In a 4 man party, assuming the one member is dead and the other two are within earshot, this brings the party member back with 30% health and 9% energy. In an 8 man group, with 1 member dead and all 6 other players within earshot(not sure how likely THAT is), the ally is raised with 70% health, and 21% energy. SoR also has an agonizingly slow 6 second cast time, not exactly ideal for mid combat rezzing. If you only plan on rezzing post-combat, bring SoR, for mid battle rezzing, the choice is a bit trickier.

For attributes, obviously you want spear mastery maxed, as more mastery=more damage=faster kills. And we all want our enemies dead fast. Spear mastery helm is in turn the best option, and of course you want a rune. You could use a superior rune if you wanted, I normally don't on my physical damage characters, but the option is still there. And in fact, a sup really might be useful here though, you won't be in melee combat, you have high AL, and you DO have a rather nice defensive stance to protect you(not to mention a shield), so your lower life might not be a big disadvantage. Tactics are set at 10 for 2 reasons...first, it gives you a nice lengthy Soldier's Defense, and second, it allows your paragon to use any of the current Tactics based shields such as Victo's Bulwark or the Exalted Aegis(approriate, since paragons are supposed to be the "guardian angels" of the Elonian people). Probably be a lot easier to obtain one of these(if you don't already have one) than hoping to get a good paragon shield, at least early on after the NF release. Leadership is set to 8 to give us a long duration on Soldier's Fury, and since it returns a max of 1 energy for every 2 ranks, you want it to be an even number. At 8 Leadership, Fury lasts as long as it needs to be kept up indefinitely. Spare points can go whereever, as there's no skill on the bar that doesn't fall under Spear Mastery, Tactics, or Leadership.

For weapons, you'll probably wanna go with a 15^50 spear of some sort. If energy is a problem with this build(I wouldn't think it would be, but testing is in order) you could use a zealous spear, which with your attack speed should recoup energy rather quickly. Otherwise(or in addition to), you could use a vamp spear to up your damage a little(with constant 33% IAS you should be gaining more health than you lose as long as you're fighting), with an elemental damage spear on switch for use vs warriors and necros and for when not in combat. Since we don't know all paragon armor types I can't say for sure which armor to use. If all the PvP armor types are in PvE as well, I would think you would want either an Overseer's armor set(for +35 HP), or one of the 2 armor sets that adds armor vs elemental(Radiant adds +10 vs ele, +10 vs fire, Empyrean adds +10 vs ele, +10 vs lightning). Templar's Armor adds +7 energy, but I don't really think it should be needed for this build. TOF! plus Soldier's Fury is 15e ~every 20 seconds(and 4 points of that may be returned due to Leadership), Soldier's Defense is 5e every 15 seconds, and you only have 1 energy attack which only costs 5e and has an 8 second recharge, not exactly spammable. And frankly, even if you WERE having energy problems a zealous spear should cover it, so I don't think Templar's will be needed.