Yallegro’s Big Nightmare Expansion(now with video)
Hello everyone here are the builds I’ve found to be succesful on nightmare so far. There’s still several classes that have to be included and variations to test, but what I have here should alrdy get a good performance out of that class
Some assumptions
-All of this was tested on PS3, which since July 6 2015 receives no further updates, if you use another platform (excluding the X360 which is also no longer updated) skill abilities and game experience may change considerably due to updates or bugs
-I presume for all my builds my own stat profile which is: High willpower medium constitution and low cunning
As of July 31Yallegro has the following stats
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-constitution 90-ish
-willpower 170-ish
-cunning 70-ish
As of July 31 Yallegro has completed this many nightmare runs
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83
As of August 17 Yallegro has completed this many nightmare runs
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170
Video list
All videos are gameplay demonstrations only.
For in-depth information consult the written guide.
All videos are recordings from screen, made with a videocamera. The platform is PS3
it seems elemental resists have become "greater elemental resists" which means damage is being reduced to 1. Elemental Weaknesses seem to be reduced 150% dmg, this combined with increased health and elemental resist buffs ( Venatori Mages) dramatically reduces the appeal of exploiting elemental weaknesses. Status resists seems to be unchanged. Mind that with increased armor, elemental attacks still serve as an important source of armor piercing dmg.
-Armor is increased, above 100 for certain tough enemies like RT Knight, Venatori Brute, Pride demon etc
-Armor increase is especially important for rogues who should focus on low-no armor enemies like animals and mages
-Armor increase makes sunder and other forms of armor penetration very interesting for rogues
-Guard destroying abilities and passives (Guard Smasher) become a lot more interesting
-Passives that cause weakness (Crippling blows/Bloodbath) become more interesting for helping out arcanes and also keepers with restorative veil
-Abilities that can mitigate knockdown become a lot more interesting
-Moves that dispel becomes a lot more interesting
-Chain Lightning and most elemental attacks are reduced in value
-Spirit dmg becomes much more interesting as almost nothing is immune to it
-Mages are advised to be able to attack with at least two different elements
-Mages that relied heavily on Death siphon need an alternative for mana regen or a mana cost reduction
Tips for reviving
A common mistake is to try and revive a ally when there are still very dangerous enemies in range. The Red Templar Shadow is a prime example, he will kill then kill anyone who tries to revive his victims. Do everything you can to take him out first. Other examples include reviving allies when there are half a dozen archers shooting at you, take out as many archers as you can before you revive. Avoid trying to revive anyone when you are being targeted by the Red Templar Commander, his combos will kill you and the person you are trying to revive.
+For warriors with shields: Try and revive while having your shield pointed at the enemies for much better defense
Tips for being revived
If you are being revived you may want to crawl towards an ally or away from enemies, depending on the situation. Tanks prefer that you crawl to them. more vulnerable classes prefer that you crawl away from enemies. Whichever the case, if you can crawl to safety behind a wall or pillar you should definitely do so. DO NOT MOVE WHEN BEING REVIVED, this will make the revive cancel.
+For characters with Scenting Blood (Reaver, Katari, Assassin, Avvar). If a character has SB it has a much faster crawl whenever it is near an enemy with low health, which is very often when things get tough.
Strafing tips
Spoiler
Bows are less accurate than staves, here are some tips to improve your accuracy.
-Moving backwards while shooting greatly increases accuracy
-When an enemy is moving across the screen you want to strafe in a the direction opposite of where the enemy is going. So when an enemy is moving to the left, you go right and when he goes right you go left.
-Many ranged attacks can be (partially) dodged by strafing, Pride demon projectile, RT Horror's hand attack, standard arrows,...
Types of Venatori mages and the effects of their barrier (not very important below Nightmare)
The mages come in 3 types: Electric, Fire and Ice. This type determines which elements and status effects they are resistant to. Electric resists paralysis, Fire resists burning and Ice resists frozen. On sight you cannot tell which is which, but there's a trick. The mages cast deadly elemental mines, but each mage only casts mines of his own type. Ice can be recognized by his blue mines, Electric by purple and Fire by orange. Now Venatori Mages have the ability to pass on their elemental resistances to the targets they give barrier. So a Venatori Fire Mage can half the damage from fire for his companions, a nightmare Venatori Mage can reduce damage taken from that element to 1. Status immunities do not transfer. Elemental weaknesses are overruled by the barrier buff.
White Venatori Mages do not cast mines or barrier (on other venatori, they do cast it on themselves), instead they cast AoE spells and use an elemental slide attack when the player gets close. They can be recognized by their AoE spells but also by a floating elemental "pixie" when they cast spells. This pixie will be purple, blue or orange.
On the same stage the mages will all be of the same element (Whites and Blacks may differ on the element)
Red Templar Behemoth and his annoying Red Lyrium Wall
RT Behemoth cast this big red wall to separate teammates, trap victims, frustrate melee attackers and block small enemies from being targeted by ranged allies. Here are some abilities that can break the wall (does not activate cooldown)
-Shield Bash
-Mighty Blow
-Charging Bull
-Stonefist
-Walking Bomb, but only if an enemy explodes
-Korth's Might
-Explosive Shot
-Throwing Blades
-Veilstrike
-Wrath of Heaven
-Hakkon's Charge
-Elemental Mines
-Crushing Leap
-Payback Strike, if you were recently hit
to be updated
The attack-cancel exploit
Normally a basic attack sequence consists of a four hit combo (more for daggers). If you are at all unsatisfied by the speed of that combo you can try the attack-cancel to speed it up. You wait until you landed your first hit, then hit L3, the sprint button. You will return to your starting position in the combo. By spamming L3 with proper timing you can hit an enemy a lot faster in a fashion much resembling an old-school hack-and-slash animation. Alternative to L3 you can use "press and hold" skills like Shield Wall or Block and Slash, which even provides a chance to block/counter with these abilities.
Grizzly, Archaeologist, JiaJM98 and 1 other like this
All Out Crowd Control Real powerhouse but no taunt
No TTD so no boss slayer
possibly less guard generation
Since Patch 10 Unbowed is replaced by Livid, a re-skin of Rage of the Avvar. Livid has the symbol of Unbowed.
Since Patch 10Bear Mauls the Wolves now reduces all enemy melee attacks from behind to 1 dmg
Since Patch 10 Walking Fortress' upgrade no longer reduces cooldown times.
(Walking Fortress' duration has been increased from 6 to 8 seconds. It is falsely listed as lasting 10 seconds.)
Patch 10Blood Frenzy passiveis now much better, from 0.5% to 1.5% dmg increase per 1% health lost
Video
Spoiler
Patch 10 Variant notes
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Introducing Livid, which gives 10% dmg resistance and 20% dmg increase for every enemy within 5 m of the legionnaire at the time of casting. A perfect cast will not just give you 50% dmg resistance, this dmg resistance combines with your 30% Frontal Defense (shield). This gives you 80% dmg resistance from the front and you can reach this target with zero promotions. (Do read my tips on Frontal Defense if you have not already done so). Obviously this ability combines fantastically with Counterstrike which can aggro almost every enemy in sight.
The downside is that without Unbowed (and maybe even Walking Fortress) you can end up short on abilities that can remove knockdown. This is why I you could choose to replace Shield Bash with Payback Strike. Payback Strike has always combined well with Counterstrike, I'm quite confident it will combine well with Livid as well, both these abilities reach peak efficiency when you are surrounded by enemies.
Reasons to keep Shield Bash
-better hitbox: Will hit more enemies, more easily (my conclusion from dozens of hours using Payback Strike and Shield Bash)
-Better average damage + guard destruction (Payback Strike requires a hit before you'll do any serious dmg)
-More reliable knockdown (you need to be hit before Payback Strike knocks anything down, I believe it takes only 2-3 seconds before this hit is gone)
Shield Bash is fast enough to knock down a (single) Terror demon before it shrieks (including the time required to get back up).
Powerful players may be interested in equipping Lunge and Slash (with skillring and/or Wintersbreath) to capitalize on the increased dmg provided by Livid. (idea by Proto)
Intro Castle Dwarf (original)
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Payback Strike just didn’t work for me on nightmare. Without Counterstrike active you just can’t rely on it for damage or knockdown. On the other hand he needed more tank. So I replaced Payback Strike with To the Death, a move many use on nightmare and I’m pretty happy with him now.
The Skills
Spoiler
Shield Bash
-Lots of damage, breaks through blocks and causes knockdown
-Without tier 2 it is a clumsy move for closing the distance to a foe
-Useless for hitting a fleeing foe, even with tier 2
-Lead with a basic attack, then follow up with Shield Bash to increase your accuracy
-Devastates guard on enemies, even on tier 1 (Less so on nightmare)
-It can hit several enemies if they are adjacent to the legionnaire
-Shield Bash can punch holes in the Red Templar Behemoth's Red Lyrium Wall
Counterstrike
-The taunt of taunts, has immense range
-Can deal a lot of damage
-Especially effective against groups of warriors
-Does not offer much defense against magic or arrows
-Best followed by Walking Fortress
Walking Fortress
-You cannot be knocked down, frozen, chilled, burned etc while it is active
-You can use it to recover from status effects like knockdown, stun, weakness etc
-Mind the brief duration and long cooldown time, use only when necessary
-Tier 2 Walking Fortress loves the beam attack of Despair demon and Arcane Horror
-Can be used as a deminer by walking over elemental mines
To the Death
-Best used on a large and tough target : Venatori Brute/RT Knight/Boss are perfect
-Assassins are less ideal because they hit back a lot and can cloak again
-Do not use on Black Hooded Venatori Mages/Terro demon , they can strip it away with a warp move
-Unlocks quite a bit of damage dealing, making it the equivalent of a powerful curse
-Guard generation is based on damage dealt
-If it dies early the legionnaire loses a good source of guard
-Teammates are advised not to jump on the cursed target, unless it is very dangerous
How to use a Castle Dwarf
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Start with Counterstrike, you up your guard and make all enemies go for the tank. If you are taking more damage than you can handle switch on Walking Fortress. Use the next few seconds to identify a tough target to use To the Death on. If you can’t find one or don’t need the guard, don’t use it, the cooldown time is long. If you do find one get into a scrap with him. If you got enough guard you can consider switching to different targets, then back to your cursed target to replenish your guard. Other players are advised to ignore the cursed target unless it is very dangerous, so as to not endanger the legionnaire’s guard generation.
If you took Guard Smasher make sure you fill your role and beat that guard off of Pride demons, Brutes, Behemoths and the like. Shield Bash does what is has always done, good damage and a knockdown, make sure assassins get what is coming to them. If your party looks like it is at risk or you simply spot a lot of melee attackers, use Counterstrike again. Always keep your shield aimed at the largest amount of attackers, especially towards distant archers.
Oh, and if you are up against a lot of magical mines you can choose to use Walking Fortress as a deminer.
How to build a Caste Dwarf
Spoiler
-Get Shield Bash
-Get Counterstrike
-Get To the Death tier2, Flow of Battle and Guard Smasher
-Go down and get Walking Fortress tier2
-Get your last Passives
+ Turn the Bolt (according to Wavebend, the dmg reduction mechanic of this passive works very poorly on higher difficulties, do not get it on difficulties beyond threatening)
+ Crippling Blows boost arcanes and lowers dmg
+Armor buffs for yourself
Why not to get
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War Cry
-Good defensive qualities but...
-Very short range, at that range you might as well go for a knockdown rather than bait a few enemies.
-If you want to draw enemy attention Counterstrike does a much better job
-From hearsay: Armor buff diminishes drastically over 10 seconds
Lunge and Slash
-A very damaging skill but...
-Can be blocked (less of a problem now)
-Will cause you to become flanked
-Doesn't negate damage with a knockdown like Payback Strike and Shield Bash
Grappling Chain : Great Description but a clumsy move in practice and worse is that it doesn’t actualy stun anything.
Challenge: A shoddy taunt which offers an almost equally shoddy stamina regen with the upgrade
Darkspawn edit: Hurlock Alpha (brute), Mega Shield Genlock, Sha-Brytol mini brute, Darkspawn Boss
Enemies immune to knockdown/stagger : all Wraiths, Pride demon, Red Templar Knight, Red Templar Behemoth, Venatori Brute, Chest Guardians, Great Beasts (Druffalo) and dragonlings, Bosses
The Fear demon is vulnerable to knockdown but instead of being knocked down it hangs its head and keeps floating
The Rage demon (with barrier) responds to knockdown with a counterattack, after the attack it is incapacitated
Enemies immune to taunt : Big Rage Demon (barrier), Venatori brute with guard, Hurlock Alpha (brute) with guard, Qunari Shocktrooper (brute) with guard
The Katari
Builds 1 : Yallegro’s Katari Battlemaster
Patch 10 Bear Maulsthe Wolves now reduces all enemy melee attacks from behind to 1 dmg
Patch 10Blood Frenzy passiveis now much better, from 0.5% to 1.5% dmg increase per 1% health lost
Patch 10Pommel Strikenow does 500% wpn dmg, 700% with the upgrade
The katari makes for a strange presence on the battlefield, part armored knight, part angry footballplayer. Its role is to oversee the situation while gaining guard with every strike (a passive bonus that isn’t explained anywhere in the game) and using tactical abilities to turn the situation to your advantage. It is not a very damaging class but he’s sturdy and does a good job distracting enemies. The damage he does also increases as you face more enemies at once.The Battlemaster was devised to give you the best balance of damage, survivability and tactical abilties the katari can offer.
The Skills
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Combat Roll: Here to replace Block and Slash from the perilous version. The need for knockdown/stun removal is more than great enough in nightmare to warrant the two extra ability points needed to get it to tier2.
Can also be used to roll away from spawning elemental mines, dodge warrior mobs and roll behind cover.
Charging Bull
-The katari’s signature ability, great damage, knockdown and guard generation
-Your charge will start in the direction the katari was facing when you activated it
-Your rate of turn is slow, try going for enemies that are already on one line
-Keep charging until you are past your last target, otherwise the hit may not register
-It is good to follow Charging Bull with War Horn or Mighty Blow
-DO NOT ATTACK WHILE TRIGGERING CHARGING BULL, IT WILL STOP EARLY
-Dive Roll improves your ability to do full length charges
-Charging Bull can charge through the Red Templar Behemoth's Red Lyrium Wall
Mighty Blow : Included as a reliable source of knockdown. The fact that you will be facing many enemies at once in nightmare only increases its value
War Horn : The value of this ability has now spread throughout the community. Offers 100% weapon dmg and disabling panic across a wide area. It also offers serious damage against guard and can incapacitate many dangerous targets like the Pride demon, Despair demon, the RT Knight, Venatori Brute, Mages and big charging animals like the druffalo. It can even be used to flush out cloaked assassins and combines with the katari’s passive guard generation.
Assassins cannot be panicked
How to use Katari Battlemaster
Spoiler
You start out by learning how to use Charging Bull
-Hold the button until you are past your last target (otherwise you may brush/miss)
-Do not try to attack while trying to charge, this may cancel Charging Bull
-Try to hit enemies that are on one line
-Try to reach archers
After hitting/missing the last target follow with War Horn or Mighty Blow rely on Block and Slash when your need for defense is great and you just cant use Mighty Blow or Warhorn at the moment. Mighty Blow is a great move for intercepting enemies heading for you or your allies. War Horn is an attack dealing 100% weapon dmg, use it abundantly. When your abilities are cooling down strike away at your enemies to up your guard and wait for an opportunity. For your survival it is often important to charge your way to enemy archers, to use Mighty Blow/War Horn there. Use Combat Roll whenever you get knocked down or if to roll off an activating magical mine. If you get knocked down, Combat Roll-->Mighty Blow or War Horn should prove very effective
-Get Combat Roll to tier 2 then get Grisly Mutilation
-Upgrade Mighty Blow
-Pick your last passives:
+I always get Opportunist early since I got my Hakkon and the katari does end up behind the enemy a lot
+Crippling Blows is interesting for boosting Arcane Warriors
+Shieldbreaker is helpful if you got rogues and other warriors along
+Fervor remains helpful
Why not to get
Spoiler
Whirlwind
-Slow
-Can be blocked
-Doesn’t deal good damage untill you are several seconds in
-Can be interrupted
-Terrible cooldown time
Pommel Strike
-Very hard to hit something with
has received a very impressive buff
Grappling Chain : Great Description but a clumsy move in practice and worse is that it doesn’t actualy stun anything.
To the Death: The katari really doesn't have an issue with guard generation. On the other hand it is the best skill the katari can have during the dragon boss battle.
immune to panic: Ben-Hassrath Fire Thrower, Qunari Spearman, Ben-Hassrath Assassin, Qunari Shocktrooper (brute) WITH GUARD ONLY, qunari commander
Note that the Saarebas is vulnerable to panic without his barrier
Darkspawn edit: immune to knockdow/stun/stagger: Hurlock Alpha (brute), Mega Shield Genlock, Sha-Brytol mini brute, Darkspawn Boss
Note that the Emissary is not immune to knockdown/stun/stagger
Immune to panic: Hurlock Alpha (brute), Mega Shield Genlock, Shriek Assassin, Emissary, Sha-Brytol Mage, Sha-Brytol Assassin, Darkspawn Boss
Enemies immune to panic : Fear Demon, Big Rage Demon, Terror Demon, Red Templar Behemoth, Red Templar Shadow, (often) White Venatori Mages, (often) Black Hooded Venatori Mages, Chest Guardians, Bosses
Enemies immune to knockdown/stagger : all Wraiths, Pride demon, Red Templar Knight, Red Templar Behemoth, Venatori Brute, Chest Guardians, Great Beasts (Druffalo) and dragonlings, Bosses
The Assassin
The Murderess Variant (note: Spinning Blades works very well with Cheapshot and Looked like it Hurt)
(I use this build with Master stamina amulet, works better for me than superb cooldown amulet)(switched back after gaining a lot of experience with the build)
Patch 10 Spinning Blades now removes debuffs from your target and puts them on all nearby targets
Patch 10 Stealth now offers invulnerability to various attacks
The assassin is not a runt on Nightmare, not by any means. She’s a highly effective killer than can compete with the reaver, hunter and archer as a damage specialist. Particularly interesting on Nighmare is that she has core passives allowing her to penetrate armor (Ambush) and sunder armor (Cheapshot). That being said she is quite a bit harder to use than the aforementioned three. I do well with her, but I can draw from ample experience playing third person shooters and in particular, playing the scout on Battlefield Heroes. This build did not include Poisoned Weapons, a skill I am otherwise quite fond of. The reason is that Poisoned Weapons is a group damager. While that is not a bad thing it does detract from simply taking down dangerous key targets. Hidden Blades on the other hand empowers your ability to do that, especially on dangerous targets that can create powerful guard or barrier on themselves and need to be taken down quickly. It also combines wonderfully with Deathblow
As the Murderess you will have to
-Always try and find the enemy’s backside
-Scout for low healthbars to use Deathblow
-Avoid any direct confrontation by kiting/weaving with and without Stealth
-Learn how to use Twin Fangs, a very tricky move to master
-Manage stamina and Stealth cooldown times by opportunistically using your basic attacks
The Skills
Spoiler
Twin Fangs
-Very high damage when flanking (180° behind the enemy)
-Dissapointing damage when not flanking
-Tier 2 sunders armor
-Very hard to hit with
-Best used for flanking targets that are standing, more or less, still
-A normal humanoid target moving horizontaly across the screen is hard to hit
-A target with a tail or walking on all fours is easy to hit when moving horizontally across the screen
-I think a knocked down enemy is automatically flanked
Stealth
-Increases movement speed
-Allow for 50% armor penetration with the Ambush passive
-You should move away from enemies while cloaking or you may get hit
-Stealth combines with many passives to increase damage
-It takes a while before you fully cloak and enemies lose sight of you
-Increases dmg of the attacks in the first second after exiting Stealth by 50%
-Tier 2 heals you of all elemental status effects (burning) but not knockdown, stun etc
-Taking dmg while cloaked makes you uncloak
-Good for getting in a flanking position
-Combines very well with Twin Fangs and Hidden Blades
Hidden Blades
-Extremely damaging at 1800% weapon dmg
-Is a ranged attack
-Hitting the wrong enemy is painful, use R3 to lock on properly
-This is the best move you have for breaking out of a knockdown spam, aim for the Terror/Despair demon or other.
-Combined with flanking damage and Sneak Attack it is even more powerful when flanking
Deathblow
-Adds an axtra hit if the target is below 50% health
-Absolutely deadly if the target is below 50% health
-Sequence/damage is not effected by barrier or guard
-Even if not dead, the target will “faint” from the second strike
(this even applies to larger enemies like RT Knight and Venatori Brute)
-below 50% health it has a “grab” like quality, interrupting what the enemy was doing before the grab (NOT TRUE)
-The second strike can hit several enemies if they are close enough
-Cooldown is not triggered if the enemy dies
-Don’t use when enemy has more than 50% health
-Has a short range
-Can be effectivily triggered on a knocked down enemy
-Unlike Twin Fangs, you can use Deathblow freely from the front
-I've noticed a bug where the cooldown is triggered when the second hit fails to kill SECONDARY targets. This bug occurs often.
How to use The Murderess
Spoiler
Start by going into Stealth. At this point it is best to look for an opportunity to use Twin Fangs. Stay away from Despair demon beams and other magical effects that might expose you. If the target is adequatly wounded you can follow up Deathblow. If it is not it is up to your judgement if you can break the 50% mark with basic dagger attacks. If a target is especially tough you can start with Hidden Blades instead then try and follow up with Deathblow. I use this for Despair demons.
You won’t have I Was never Here until you are a very high lvl so it important to jump on opportunities to safely backstab with your daggers to regain stamina and shorten the cooldown time on Stealth.
Avoid any direct confrontation, let your tank do his work and come up behind the enemy. Your daggers ar highly effected by enemy armor so it is important to try and go for low armor targets. Especially interesting are Deepstalkers, Gibbering Horrors and demon Green Wraiths but also important targets like Venatori Mages who are buffing other enemies.
Instead of scrapping with enemies you should spend your time looking for a sound opportunity to use your abilities.
-A target standing still while facing the other way -->Twin Fangs
-Target has below 50% health or close to it --> Deathblow
-Target has low armor --> Anything
-You can also go for panicking targets which you'll be able to crit and sunder with core passives
-Get Ambush and Looked like it Hurt (You need this)
-Get Deathblow tier2
-Upgrade Stealth
-Choose your last passives, I recommend I Was never Here
Why not to get
Spoiler
Shadow Strike : Man is this move clumsy, it looks great until you actually try to hit stuff with it. Especially trying to hit them from behind is a nightmare
Flank Attack : It can be blocked (Correction, this doesn't happen a lot anymore). It is very difficult to hit something properly with it and the cooldown triggers for misses as well. It doesn’t do a lot of damage
Patch 10 Mark of Death's upgrade now grants 4 extra seconds, but you can't detonate it, which means it only deals 50% of stored damage (source Wavebend)
Patch 11 Explosive Shothas been fixed and now works normally again
Patch 10 Spike Trap has its cooldown reduced from 12 to 8 seconds and upgrade adds bleeding dmg
Spike Trap Variant
Spoiler
There is no question that the Spike Trap version is less flexible than the Knockout Bomb version. The problem is that Spike Trap and Leaping Shot both occupy the same niche of "close range attack" and they combine very poorly. If you use Spike Trap first then the enemy is knocked down and the accuracy of Leaping Shot suffers. If you use Leaping Shot first then you are too far away to use Spike Trap. That being said Spike Trap is very effective in helping you deal with two very annoying enemy types : The Shielded Warriors and the Assassins. Sure you can use Leaping Shot on those shield guys too but Spike Trap is fast and effectively stops those annoying shield charges and smashes. Assassins on the other hand are very hard to hit properly with Leaping Shot and they just can’t resist jumping on those mines when you have aggroed them.
Finally, an archer I can like. As you’re sure to notice it does not have Mark of Death or Longshot. Longshot’s absense is easily explained explained. At 500% wpn dmg in optimal circumstances (which you will lose quickly) and 50 stamina per shot it is hardly worth using instead of Explosive Shot which deals similar dmg, elemental dmg, knocks down and hurts groups too. I am assuming that when you attempt nightmare you will get enough out of Opportunity Knocks to get plenty uses of Explosive Shot and Leaping Shot.
Mark of Death was not included for practical reasons. For MoD to work right you need high accuracy so you don’t hit the wrong enemy. And here’s were it goes wrong. Either you are comfortably removed from the right target and it will be very hard to aim for the proper target. Or you are very close and you are at high risk of taking dmg. Aiming or moving closer will also eat up precious time that you could have used for dispensing more attacks. In the end I just ended up doubling the dmg of my Leaping Shot on Fear demons, hitting the wrong Pride demon with MoD and significantly shortening the dragon boss battle. For teams with low dmg however Mark of Death remains a golden option, if you stay organized.
Knockout Bomb on the other hand can easily be used in between your standard Explosive and Leaping Shots and offers a lot of extra survivability in all the stages leading up to the dragon fight. You’ll be using Opportunity Knocks to shorten the cooldown time. You’ll use it when moving and you should use it whenever another ability ends. Knockout Bomb “jams“ when using the auto-attack so that’s why there are those rules for using. It sets up crits with Mercy Killing, which then sunder with Cheapshot and it is very effective as a lead attack, to surprise enemies before they can up barrier or guard. Guard and barrier often protect an enemy from the sleep status effect.
With Explosive Shot as your big main stun, Knockout Bomb for Sleep, Fallback Plan for Health management and Leaping Shot to stay away from enemies, get up from knockdown and do that great Pincushion + Sunder spam you’ll have great option to keep enemies away from you while still doing tons of dmg.
On using Leaping Shot
Spoiler
This has been a hard move to appreciate for me but I’ve finally figured out how to use it properly. Before a recent patch there was a huge problem with the projectiles getting blocked by warriors, that issue is now (mostly) gone, in fact they seem to even pierce greatshields now. The second issue is that of accuracy, a lot of projectiles may miss for several reasons. The easiest way to grasp this is to assume that Leaping Shot has a limited effective range that increases with the size of the target
The size of an enemy is relevant for your accuracy so I distinguish 3 categories
The large foes : Terror demon, Fear demon, Rage demon, RT Horror, RT Knight, Venatori Brute and the Revenant and Arcane Horror Chest Guardians, Shielded Warriors
(new) I've noticed RT Horrors being much harder to hit than Arcane Horrors or Terror demons but still easier than small foes. RT Horrors are noticeably smaller than Arcane Horrors and Terror demons so that would fit the theory that accuracy scales with the size of the targets.
The very large foes : Pride demon, RT Behemoth, the Great Charging Beasts, the Giant and High Dragons
The small foes : everything else
I have not been able to test the darkspawn and qunari factions since they decided to drop support for PS3
The very large foes can be effectivily targetted from a very long range. The large foes can be effectivily hit by Leaping Shot if they are within 15mor so. The small foes can only be effectivily hit if they are within a distance of 5 m or so. A knocked down foe can also only be effectivily hit within a range of 5m or so for large foes, smaller foes really require point blank range to be sure. These are measures that I use and they are not based on in debt understanding of the mechanics, just my experience with the skill. If you use the skill like this you will greatly improve the accuracy of your projectiles and the efficiency of Pincushion and Cheapshot as a result.
Note : You can use Leaping Shot to recover from knockdown
Put to practise this means you can’t use Leaping Shot to snipe at anything but a handful of targets and only large foes can be dealt with at medium range. You should prioritise these large targets as you will be able to do more damage to them than to smaller enemies. Inevitably you will have to move forward if you want to use Leaping Shot again or want to use leaping Shot against smaller targets. You should only do this after you’ve run out of Explosive Shot. Use Knockout Bomb and Fallback Plan to cover some of the risks as you make your way forward.
Additional Tip: Firing Leaping Shot into a dense group will make many projectiles land regardless of the size of the main target.
Additional Tip: If a target is standing perfectly still the effective range is a lot greater
(I do mean PERFECTLY still and the Despair demon does NOT make a good target from range.
The Skills
Spoiler
Knockout Bomb
-Has a long range
-Can hit several targets if they’re close enough
-“Jams“ when auto-attacking, use before attacking or after an ability
-Sets up powerful combos
-Can leave an enemy incapaciated for a long time
-Sleep may fail against some enemies if they have guard or barrier
-Will put a lot of enemies to sleep if you just spam or get them before they can up barrier
-Combines with Mercy Killing to guarentee crits
-Combines with Deathblow on the reaver (auto-crits for reaver)
-Is great for stopping an attacker, then escaping or setting up Leaping Shot
-Misses do not trigger a cooldown time
-Knockout Bomb is deflected by shields, no cooldown time is triggered
Fallback Plan
-Because of Opportunity Knocks you get an amazing amount of uses out of it
-Will restore your health to what it was when the lantern was placed
-Using it can cost you health if your starting health was lower than your current health
-Must be triggered manually before you die
-Cannot be triggered from knockdown/stun
-Combines well with Leaping Shot
-Tier2 is not required due to Opportunity Knocks
-Is very good for getting you back in the fight after you fall of the map
Explosive Shot
-Good dmg against groups
-A reliable stun at short and long ranges
-Very effective against Despair demons
-Cannot be buffed with tier2 Leaping Shot
-The multiple hits offer lots of crit options
-Breaks through shields
-A well placed Leaping Shot goes a long way to recharging the cooldown time
-In optimal circumstances it can be spammed constantly
Leaping Shot
-Has a rather short effective range based on the size of the target
-Effective against very large foes at long ranges
-Effective against large foes within 10m
-Effective against small foes within 5m
-Effective against knocked down foes within 5m
-Extremely powerful combination with Pincushion and Cheapshot
-Very effective boss-slayer
-Can be used from knockdown
-Projectiles pierce greatshields
-Boost of tier2 applies only to auto-attacks
How to use
Spoiler
Lead with Explosive Shot or Knockout Bomb. With Explosive Shot try and go for something like a Terror/Despair demon, RT assassin/Horror or a Venatori Mage. Try and get into range for a Leaping Shot (see How to use Leaping Shot). While on your way, moving or strafing consider using Fallback Plan and a Knockout Bomb. After Leaping Shot try and throw another Knockout Bomb or use Explosive Shot. Feel free to throw another Knockout Bomb after triggering Explosive Shot. While doing all of this it is easy to lose sight of your barrier spammer, keep yourself aware of where he/she is. Fallback Plan is best placed before enemies are already close. If you are getting too much attention then use Leaping Shot possibly followed by a Knockout Bomb or Explosive Shot. If that didn’t do it then make a run for it until you are at sufficient range or your abilities have cooled down. Sometimes you can shake enemies off by triggering Fallback plan. Make sure you try and regroup with your party when the mob has been thinned or is at sufficient distance.
Make sure you use Explosive Shot to stun anything dangerous, wether they be at long or short range. Knockout Bomb cannot be fluently activated from auto-attack, use it whenever an ability ends or when you are moving. Do not Hold auto-attack when triggering Explosive Shot/Leaping Shot or Calltrops, Knockout Bomb will jam.
Summary
-Use Knockout Bomb whenever moving or an ability ends
-Don’t hold auto-attack if you want to trigger Knockout Bomb
-Explosive Shot should be on cooldown all the time
-Aim Explosive Shot at groups and stunnable targets
-Use Leaping Shot based on distance and size of the target
-Use strafing and moving to get in range for Leaping Shot
-Use Leaping Shot from knockdown
-Use Fallback Plan very freely as it cools down very quickly
-Hit Despair demons with Explosive Shot as much as you can
immune to sleep: Ben-Hassrath Fire Thrower, Qunari Spearman, Ben-Hassrath Assassin, Qunari Shocktrooper (brute) WITH GUARD ONLY, qunari commander
Note that the Saarebas is vulnerable to sleep without barrier
Darkspawn edit: immune to knockdow/stun/stagger: Hurlock Alpha (brute), Mega Shield Genlock, Sha-Brytol mini brute, Darkspawn Boss
Note that the Emissary is not immune to knockdown/stun/stagger
Immune to sleep: Hurlock Alpha (brute), Mega Shield Genlock, Emissary, Sha-Brytol Mage, Sha-Brytol Assassin, Darkspawn Boss
Note that the shriek assassin is vulnerable to sleep
Enemies immune to knockdown/stagger : all Wraiths, Pride demon, Red Templar Knight, Red Templar Behemoth, Venatori Brute, Chest Guardians, Great Beasts (Druffalo) and dragonlings, Bosses
Enemies immune to sleep (always): Despair demon, Fear demon, Pride demon, Red Templar Behemoth, Assassins, (White only) Venatori Mages, Giant, Chest Guardians, all bosses except the Red Templar Commander
Enemies immune to sleep (conditional): All enemies under the effect of barrier or guard. Great Beasts with guard (like the Druffalo) are an exception. (Big) Rage demon
Important Elemental Weaknesses and Resists: The Archer
Spoiler
Enemies weak to fire dmg : Despair demon, Red templar knight, Great Beasts (Druffalo), Cold Wraiths, Chest Guardians, Frost Dragon and dragonlings,
Enemies strong against fire dmg : Rage Demon, Red Templar Behemoth, Fire Wraith, (often) Black Hooded Venatori Mages, (Often) White Venatori Mages, Inferno Dragon and dragonlings, Venatori Commander, Darkspawn Emissary, Sha-Brytol Mage, Darkspawn Boss, Qunari Shocktrooper (brute) and Qunari Shieldman
Why not to get
Spoiler
Fulldraw : Way too slow and turns you into a sitting duck. Can be interrupted
Unorganized play is sure to rob you of the double dmg bonus
Long Shot : Pretty moderate dmg even in perfect conditions. Useless at close range, bad at medium range. You can still miss from afar
Knockout Powder : Range is very short, a less practical version of Knockout Bomb
Evade : There are better options looking for skillslots : Calltrops, Knockout Bomb, Fallback Plan, Spike Trap
llandwynwyn, Grizzly, Sir Perkins and 1 other like this
Salamander build Natureweaver Control Natureweaver Damage
Favorite Build ^^
Video (Salamander)
Spoiler
Intro
Spoiler
I’ve tried him with Stonefist but that didn’t do enough damage for the mana it burns off (Death Siphon doesn’t get you a lot of mana quickly in nightmare). I tried replacing Stonefist with Winter’s Grasp but that was generally too expensive and the AoE is just too small. What proved to be a whole lot better? Fade Cloak :-/. Knockdown reduction, unresisted damage, enhanced mobility and it is very cheap. Wall of Fire is golden just for its ability to spread panic. Some enemies like the Pride demon or RT knight even get panicked over and over if you place Wall of Fire underneath them. Along with Immolate you’ll have plenty of mana for casting Barrier supporting the team while letting enemies burn to a crisp.
The Skills
Spoiler
Immolate :
-An extremely damaging skill, but mind enemies resistant to fire and/or burning
-Very few enemies are immune to burning
-You’ll need some skill to before you can use it properly
+When you have a white crosshair on an enemy, Immolate will be auto-aimed underneath that enemy. Use this instead of dragging Immolate towards them
+After auto-aiming, dragging Immolate a bit to right/left/backwards/forwards will determine wether or not you miss or hit multiple enemies
Barrier :
-Probably the most powerful skill in the game
-Tier 2 is great for reducing cooldown times
-always try and cast on as many players as possible, for defense and reduced cooldown times (tier 2)
-Never cast barrier without casting it on yourself as well
-Avoid dragging barrier for long, rather move yourself closer to your target(s)
-Don’t be afraid to tank when barrier is active
-When choosing who to give barrier, take in mind these priorities
+1 Never let the best performing players die
+2 Don’t run after headless chickens if that means dropping nearby allies
+3 Protect the targets most in need of defense : Rogue, 2handed warrior, necromancer
-Barrier has a slightly larger area of effect than the animation suggests.
-Barrier may be auto-aimed at an enemy when you have a white crosshair on one, causing barrier to miss. To avoid this aim the camera at the ground before casting.
-When fighting a High Dragon the area near the trebuchets and steps distorts the aim of barrier, take more time to aim barrier when near these structures
-Don’t just cast Barrier where you stand, drag it a little towards allies while casting
Wall of Fire
- Acts as a kind of fly catcher for enemies by halting and confusing them with panic
-Deals significant fire dmg, but its burn is weaker than that of Immolate
-When possible, cast inside Static Cage, Blizzard, Pull of the Abyss etc
-Extremely effective against all dragonlings and animals in general
-Does not uncloak assassins, but the burn does make them more visible
-Try and place on natural choke points
-You can frustrate melee enemies by going back and forth through Wall of Fire
Fade Cloak
-Gives you a way o recovering from knockdown/stun/panic which is golden
-Allows you to safely cover a short distance
-Allows you to shake excessive enemy attention (moving to cover quickly is crucial)
-Gives you a powerful spirit dmg hit that knocks down a target
-Buys you a little time to safely aim and cast a spell without interruptions
-A very cheap spell, making it more interesting on nightmare
-Requires quite a bit of skill and knowledge to use perfectly
-You can’t receive barrier during Fade Cloak
-Not very useful when fighting from long range
How to use The Salamander
Spoiler
Diligently maintain barrier on everyone. You see a single target place a powerful burn on it with Immolate. You see a large group place Wall of Fire in their path. What I often do is Immolate a group then erect Wall of Fire underneath them to inflict panic as well and to have the wall in place. There are several targets that are especially vulnerable to this technique. Pride demons and RT Knights get panicked over and over again if you erect Wall of Fire underneath them. Ranged attackers will likely stay away from Firewall, make sure to burn them with Immolate. The way I play I'm very close to my teammates and melee attackers, giving me the opportunity to do a lot of damage "suicide bombing" with Fade Cloak. Fade Cloak also permits me to get up quickly from knockdown and burn enemies or protect my allies with Barrier. If you're inside a knockdown chain, make sure you cast Barrier on anyone trapped there with you as quickly as possibly.
immune to panic: Ben-Hassrath Fire Thrower, Qunari Spearman, Ben-Hassrath Assassin, Qunari Shocktrooper (brute) WITH GUARD ONLY, qunari commander
Note that the Saarebas is vulnerable to panic without barrier
immune to frozen: Ben-Hassrath assassin, Saarebas, Qunari Shocktrooper (brute) WITH GUARD ONLY, Qunari Commander
immune to burning: There are no qunari immune to burning but several are resistant to fire dmg
Darkspawn edit: immune to knockdow/stun/stagger: Hurlock Alpha (brute), Mega Shield Genlock, Sha-Brytol mini brute, Darkspawn Boss
Note that the Emissary is not immune to knockdown/stun/stagger
Immune to panic: Hurlock Alpha (brute), Mega Shield Genlock, Shriek Assassin, Emissary, Sha-Brytol Mage, Sha-Brytol Assassin, Darkspawn Boss
immune to frozen: Hurlock Alpha (brute), Megashield Genlock, Sha-Brytol Mage
Note that you can freeze both assassin types and the Emissary
immune to burning: Emissary, Sha-Brytol Mage, Darkspawn Boss
Enemies immune to frozen : Fear demon, Pride demon, Despair demon, Red Templar Knight, Red Templar Shadow, Black Hooded Venatori Mages are often immune, Great Beasts (Druffalo) but not dragonlings and Great Lizards, Revenant Chest Guardian but not Arcane Horror Chest Guardian, Bosses except Venatori Commander.
Important enemies that can be frozen : Rage demons (shrink when frozen), Terror demon, Red Templar Behemoth, White Venatori Mage, Venatori Assassin, Venatori Commander, Arcane Horror Chest Guardian, Great Lizards and dragonlings.
Enemies immune to knockdown/stagger : all Wraiths, Pride demon, Red Templar Knight, Red Templar Behemoth, Venatori Brute, Chest Guardians, Great Beasts (Druffalo) and dragonlings, Bosses
Enemies immune to burning : Rage Demons, Fire Wraith, Red Templar Behemoth, (often) Black Hooded Venatori Mages, Venatori Commander
Enemies immune to panic : Fear Demon, Big Rage Demon, Terror Demon, Red Templar Behemoth, Red Templar Shadow, (often) White Venatori Mages, (often) Black Hooded Venatori Mages, Chest Guardians, Bosses
Important Elemental Weaknesses/Resists : Elementalist
Spoiler
Enemies weak to fire dmg : Despair demon, Red templar knight, Great Beasts (Druffalo), Cold Wraiths, Chest Guardians, Frost Dragon and dragonlings
Enemies weak to spirit dmg : Fear demon, Terror Demon, Red Templar Horror, Chest
Guardians, Storm Dragon and dragonlings
Enemies strong against fire dmg : Rage Demon, Red Templar Behemoth, Fire Wraith, Venatori Mages Fire type, Inferno Dragon and dragonlings, Venatori Commander, Darkspawn Emissary, Sha-Brytol Mage, Darkspawn Boss, Qunari Shocktrooper (brute) and Qunari Shieldman
Enemies strong against spirit dmg : Darkspawn Boss, Saarebas and nightmare green Wraiths
Why not to get
Spoiler
Flashfire: Doesn't compare to Immolate or Wall of Fire
Stonefist: Huge drain on your mana when there is little chance it will kill anything quickly
Winter's Grasp: Moderately effective on nightmare but it eats up a lot of mana and you'll need it for Barrier and more potent means of crowd control
Lightning Bolt: Very similar to Stonefist and Winter's Grasp, eats up too much mana for what it does.
Natureweaver Control Natureweaver Damage
Intro
Spoiler
Let me state this clearly. THIS IS THE ONLY BUILD WITH FIRESTORM I LIKE.
I DISLIKE ALL OTHER BUILDS WITH IT. The reason is that Firestorm is a royal mess that doesn’t combine with any other skill in the Elementalist’s assortment (but ONE).
Here’s why :
Firestorm inflicts a burning effect that effectivily blocks Immolate from attaching its own much more powerful burn. Firestorm inflicts knockdown , just like Stonefist, Fade Cloak and Lightning Bolt, which means if you use the one, the other becomes useless. The ele’s got Ice Mine and Winter’s Grasp but they have no value inside Firestorm and limited value outside of it. The unremovable burn means the combination with Wall of Fire is poor and used in case of necessity, when Firestorm has been overrun by knockdown immune enemies. On top of that knockdown is inflicted in large quantaties by just about every other class and tons of enemies in nightmare are immune to it.
After that I can still mention that it can’t be auto-aimed (on console) and causes serious accuracy problems for 1-handed warriors and dagger users. Loved by katari’s and reavers though.
There is however 1 skill it combines terrifically with : FADE STEP. This humble skill allows you to zap into the enemies’ mids and cast your storm instantly. Once enemies are incapacitated you can deal considerable dmg (and chill) by skidding over the easy targets with Fade Step. Fade Step also allows you to bolt about the place and cast Barrier on any ally in danger. Getting close to enemies also improves your vision allowing you to cast your 4th skill with greater precision.
That 4th skill is going to be either Wall of fire (for full crowd control) or Immolate to give you at least one good damage option. I hope I’ve explained why the other don’t combine well with Firestorm. Surely, they have complementary value but their mana costs are very high whereas Wall of Fire and Immolate are a good bit cheaper.
How to use Natureweaver
Spoiler
Fade Step is your ticket to everything. Use it to dash into a cluster of enemies and unleash Firestorm. Reach melee or ranged attackers that have gotten themselves into trouble and cast Barrier. When using Wall of Fire or Immolate it is often important to aim for targets outside of Firestorm. Use Wall of Fire to confuse a different enemy cluster or damage ranged attackers with a powerful burn. For those that have auto-aim (console peeps) there are several cool tricks for Wall of Fire. Raise it under a Pride demon or RT Knight to see them panic on the spot over and over. You can also throw Wall of Fire on a Despair demon to incapacitate it for a significant amount of time. Fade stepping on enemies you knocked down is a good source of damage and will leave them chilled.
Once you are inside a Firestorm make sure you use your basic attacks in combination with Gathering Storm to replenish your abilities quickly. When incapacitated it is usually the best idea to cast Barrier as quickly as possible. Should this not be an option (not enough nearby allies) then lead with Fade Step. Should even that fail, resort to casting Firestorm first as a last resort option to get things back under control.
Firestorm
Spoiler
-Very effective against assassins, visible and invisible
-Very effective against venatori mage clusters
-Very effective against RT Horror and archer clusters
-Very effective against Terror demon swarms
-Very effective against Despair demon clusters
-Can deal critical hits (and sunder, should you equip such gear)
-Combines very well with AoE skills from other classes
-Killer when combined with reavers and katari's
-Inflicts a weak burn (100% wpn dmg) which prevents stronger burns from being inflicted
-Is slow to aim
-dmg per enemy is low
-Causes accuracy problems for 1-handed warriors and dagger users
-Not well suited for disorganized play
-Not well suited for playing with very powerful players, but good when team stats are low
A big overhaul was needed here because Chain Lightning just doesn work very well on nightmare. I think many people are replacing it with Dispel and my build has Dispel but I recommend people getting Veilstrike first. There’s several reasons for this
-Dispel works especially well against the venatori but Veilstrike is effective against all the factions
-Mages replace elemental mines almost instantly, disrupt them with Veilstrike
-Spamming Dispel costs more mana than Veilstrike
-Veilstrike inflicts sleep, which triggers much more powerful combos with Dispel than Dispel + paralyzed or frozen (twice the damage +panic)
-Veilstrike combines with Restorative Veil to regenerate mana quickly
The Skills
Spoiler
Dispel
-Anti-Barrier
-Anti-Elemental Mines
-Particularly effective against the venatori
-Less effective against the other factions but still quite useful
-Can be used to heal allies of some bad status effects like slow or High Dragons special attacks
-Combines into a weak combo with paralyzed/frozen but a strong one with sleep/stun
-Spammable, can be a mana drain if overused
-Destroying barrier counts as dmg, counting towards the arcanes barrier generation
Veilstrike
-Large radius
-Uncloaks/disables assassins
-Disrupts crowds of mages/archers
-Breaks though RT Behemoth barrier
-With Restorative Veil and Tier2 it restores a lot of mana
-Inflicts the sleep status effect when it can (it often can’t)
-Cooldown time can be considerably reduced in between basic attacks and casting other spells
-Allows team mates to do more damage to targets that can’t move/fight back
-Sleep effect combines with Dispel to form a powerful spirit combo that causes panic
-Takes a long time to get (lvl16-20 before you have all relevant skills)
Barrier :
-Possibly the most powerful skill in the game
-Tier 2 is great for reducing cooldown times
-always try and cast on as many players as possible, for defense and reduced cooldown times (tier 2)
-Never cast barrier without casting it on yourself as well
-Avoid dragging barrier for long, rather move yourself closer to your target(s)
-Don’t be afraid to tank when barrier is active
-When choosing who to give barrier, take in mind these priorities
+1 Never let the best performing players die
+2 Don’t run after headless chickens if that means dropping nearby allies
+3 Protect the targets most in need of defense : Rogue, 2handed warrior, necromancer
- Barrier has a slightly larger area of effect than the animation suggests.
-Barrier may be auto-aimed at an enemy when you have a white crosshair on one, causing barrier to miss. To avoid this aim the camera at the ground before casting.
-When fighting a High Dragon the area near the trebuchets and steps distorts the aim of barrier, take more time to aim barrier when near these structures
-Don’t just cast Barrier where you stand, drag it a little towards allies while casting
Static Cage
-Very effective against warriors
-Very effective against fleeing enemies like Despair demon, Terror Demon and Venatori Mages
-Works against the Demon Commander
-Paralyzes and inflicts shocked
-Very effective against cloaked and uncloaked assassins
-Does not trap the Arcane Horror Chest Guardian
-Will deliver tons of damage in collaboration with your teammates
How to use The Supreme Guardian
Spoiler
Your main job is to maintain Barrier and spam Static Cage for damage and crowd control. Dispel and Veilstrike are there to give you more tricks. Magical mines are annoying but even if you dispel them, mages replace them very quickly. More important is that you try and remove barrier from enemies, which protect them from status effects like sleep and in the case of the Venatori endow them with powerful elemental resists. You can also use Dispel to remove magic from yourself and teammates, particularly High Dragon special attacks (Storm and Frost), has no such effect on Inferno's explosions. Veilstrike can be used for almost anything. Giving enemies a smack so they can be killed more easily. Stunning ranged attackers. After shocking them with Static Cage you can put them to sleep and trigger a powerful nightmare combo with dispel. Exposing and debilitating assassins. Breaking down the RT Behemoth's Red Lyrium Wall. And of course, regenerating mana with Restorative Veil.
How to Build the Supreme Guardian
Spoiler
-Upgrade Barrier
-Get Knight Protector passive
-Get Static Cage tier2
-Go down the Primal Spirit tree to get Gathering Storm
immune to paralyzed: Benn-Hassrath Assassin, Saarebas, Qunari Shocktrooper WITH GUARD ONLY, Qunari Commander
immune to sleep: Ben-Hassrath Fire Thrower, Qunari Spearman, Ben-Hassrath Assassin, Qunari Shocktrooper (brute) WITH GUARD ONLY, Qunari Commander
Note that the Saarebas is vulnerable to sleep without barrier
Darkspawn edit: immune to knockdow/stun/stagger: Hurlock Alpha (brute), Mega Shield Genlock, Sha-Brytol mini brute, Darkspawn Boss
Note that the Emissary is not immune to knockdown/stun/stagger
immune to paralyzed: Hurlock Alpha (brute), Megashield Genlock, Sha-Brytol Mage
Note that the Darkspawn Boss is vulnerable to paralyzed, he is not vulnerable to other status effects
Immune to sleep: Hurlock Alpha (brute), Mega Shield Genlock, Emissary, Sha-Brytol Mage, Sha-Brytol Assassin, Darkspawn Boss
Note that the shriek assassin is vulnerable to sleep
Enemies immune to shocked: Electric Venatori Mage (1/3 mages), Storm Wraiths, Pride demon, Red Templar Horror
These important enemies can be paralyzed : Dragonlings, Rage demon, Fear demon, Despair demon, Red Templar Shadow, Venatori Brute, Venatori Mages, Venatori Assassin
These important enemies can not be paralyzed or contained : Pride Demon, Big Rage demon, Red Templar Knight, Red Templar Behemoth, Great Beasts, Chest Guardians (except zombies)
Note that dragonlings can be paralyzed but not trapped by static cage and static cage traps but doesnt paralyse the Demon Commander. I don’t think the Red Templar Commander can be trapped. The Venatori Commander cannot be trapped
Shocked enemies that are weakened are afflicted with sleep instead (courtesy of Yarpenthemad)
(List of sleep immunities courtesy of Wavebend)
Enemies immune to sleep (always): Despair demon, Fear demon, Pride demon, Red Templar Behemoth, Assassins, (White only) Venatori Mages, Giant, Chest Guardians, all bosses except the Red Templar Commander
Enemies immune to sleep (conditional): All enemies under the effect of barrier or guard. Great Beasts with guard (like the Druffalo) are an exception. (Big) Rage demon
Important Elemental Weaknesses/Resists : The Keeper
Enemies weak to spirit dmg : Fear demon, Terror Demon, Red Templar Horror, Chest
Guardians, Storm Dragon and dragonlings
Enemies strong against electricity dmg : Red Templar Horror, Spiders, Pride Demon, Storm Wraith, Storm Dragon and dragonlings
Enemies strong against spirit dmg : Darkspawn Boss, Saarebas and nightmare green Wraiths
Why not to get
Spoiler
Chain Lightning: Does no dmg to nightmare enemies resistant to elec. The biggest problem are the electric venatori mages who can make their entire team immune to elec by casting barrier. When facing the red templar faction, RT Horrors will eat up enormous amounts of elec dmg. Demons cause the leasts problems, with the only the pride demon functioning as a powerful lightning rod. Results will be very different when facing the elec weak darkspawn and qunari factions.
Lightning Bolt: Veilstrike is better at inflicting disabling effects and knockdown, it also regenerates mana
Mind Blast: Barrier is better for barrier and Dispel is better for combo detonation (+dispelling of course)
Energy Barrage: I hear it reduces cooldown times now, if it doesn't I don't see how it deserves that much investment.
The Alchemist
Patch 10Elemental Mines now deal 225% weapon dmg each. Go play Alchemist
Patch 10Stealth now offers invulnerability to various attacks
“Let’s face it, you’re just here to throw those bombs.”
Elemental Mines + Flask of Fire, a lethal combination. I can easily throw 5 Mine volleys if I am not interrupted. Each mine volley is worth 2025% weapon dmg, not counting burning damage and the additional mines. (a full bar of stamina is worth another 4050-6075% wpn dmg). So that is at least 10125% wpn dmg I throw onto the floor. Now they won’t all effectivily hit enemies for all kinds of reasons but a large quantity of damage remains. Especially effective is when you can spam 5 volleys onto a single tank. Toxic cloud didn’t deal enough damage to deserve replacing Stealth on Nightmare, and Stealth is in itself more interesting on Nightmare because of the 50% armor penetration from Ambush. I Initially tried take Shadow Strike with me instead of Flask of Frost but that didn’t work. Shadow Strike is stil horribly clumsy and worse, doesn’t trigger cooldown reductions when used from Stealth.
Flask of Frost on the other hand allows you to inflicts a lot of frozen status effects and allow you to use your daggers for at least 8 seconds.
The Skills
Spoiler
Elemental Mines
-Very good potential damage, capable of doing 900-3600% weapon dmg without burning
-Detonating mines stagger foes
-Mines will be thrown in the direction you are facing, do not throw while retreating
-Very tricky to throw onto enemies
-Many mines will not hit a foe
-Mines predetonate when hit by friendly or enemy AoE spells.
-Quite ineffective against enemies already close to you
-Quite ineffective against enemies far away from you
-Try and throw against walls and other objects to shorten the range.
-Can be spammed to great effect with Flask of Fire
-Combines with the Savage Thorn’s guard generation
Stealth
-Increases movement speed
-Allow for 50% armor penetration with the Ambush passive
-You should move away from enemies while cloaking or you may get hit
-Stealth combines with many passives to increase damage
-It takes a while before you fully cloak and enemies lose sight of you
-Increases dmg of the attacks in the first second after exiting Stealth by 50%
-Tier 2 heals you of all elemental status effects (burning) but not knockdown, stun etc
-Taking dmg while cloaked makes you uncloak
-Good for getting in a flanking position
-Combines very well with Twin Fangs and Hidden Blades
Flask of Fire
-With the upgrade it is used to spam abilities over and over
-The knockback it provides is not very good
-Ride the Storm combined with Flask of Frost will increase its duration
-Cannot be used to trigger Flask of Frost without cooldown
Flask of Frost
-Very good damage reduction
-Very good for freezing enemies
-Seems to freeze enemies before they can land a blow
-Works on archers if they are close by
-Ride the Storm combined with Flask of Frost will increase its duration
How to use The Niblheimer
Spoiler
Start by going into Stealth. When you are at the appropriate range or when you see enemies coming, start your mine spam with Flask of Fire. Throw mines onto enemies or in any direction they might be coming from. Do not use Elemental Mines outside the Flask of Fire window. Go back into Stealth. Ambush low armor targets like Deepstalkers, Gibbering Horrors or Venatori Mages or choose to freeze targets/tank with Flask of Frost. When Flask of Fire is about to cool down it is best to walk back, even if you are being attacked to use the mines from optimal range. You can use walls and other obstructive surfaces to shorten the range of Elemental Mines. When surrounded is is often a good idea to spam mines in opposite directions, creating two deadly barriers. When fighting the High Dragon the mines don’t trigger on contact with the dragon, but they will trigger when she starts limping about.
Note that the Saarebas is vulnerable to sleep without barrier
immune to frozen: Ben-Hassrath assassin, Saarebas, Qunari Shocktrooper (brute) WITH GUARD ONLY, Qunari Commander
Darkspawn edit: immune to knockdow/stun/stagger: Hurlock Alpha (brute), Mega Shield Genlock, Sha-Brytol mini brute, Darkspawn Boss
Note that the Emissary is not immune to knockdown/stun/stagger
immune to frozen: Hurlock Alpha (brute), Megashield Genlock, Sha-Brytol Mage
Note that you can freeze both assassin types and the Emissary
Enemies immune to knockdown/stagger : all Wraiths, Pride demon, Red Templar Knight, Red Templar Behemoth, Venatori Brute, Chest Guardians, Great Beasts (Druffalo) and dragonlings, Bosses
Enemies immune to poison : Pride demon, Demon Wraiths, Chest Guardians
Enemies immune to frozen : Fear Demon, Pride Demon, Red Templar Knight, Red Templar Shadow, Black hooded Venatori mages (half the time), Great Beasts (Druffalo), Revenant Chest Guardian, Red Templar Commander, Demon Commander
Important enemies that can be frozen : Rage demons, Terror demon, Red Templar Behemoth, Venatori Assassin, Venatori Commander, Arcane Horror Chest Guardian, Great Lizards and dragonlings
Why not to get
Spoiler
Flank Attack: This ability does fairly little dmg, is hard to hit with, can be blocked and the cooldown triggers when you miss.
Parry: If you want to stand in front of a melee enemy spamming this, be my guest but I think this is a waste of time for most people.
Knockout Bomb: Why spam this when you can spam mines? Maybe if you have a devoted eldritch detonator nearby but not in unorganized play.
Twin Fangs: This move requires quite a bit of expertise to be truly useful on nightmare (see assassin) and the tracking is so bad that many experts will still curse out loud when using this ability. Certainly not worth all those points invested.
Patch 10 Walking Bomb can now no longer be triggered early but has higher explosion damage.
Patch ?? Walking Bomb and Horror can now deal critical hits
(Build has been nicknamed The Conduit, in reference to spirits and its focus on enhancing cooldown times)
Video
Spoiler
Part 1
Part 2
Intro
Spoiler
My nightmare necro is basically an in between of my previous two builds. Instead of Blizzard it has Ice Mine because you really need that Ice Armor protection put you won’t be able to summon enough mana to keep Blizzard going (enemies won’t die fast enough). In playing style it is basically the Speedy Necro without Flashfire. Use Ice Mine to keep yourself safe while regenerating mana with Winter’s Stillness and cutting your cooldown times with Gathering Storm (Winter's Stillness also reduces cooldown times)
The Skills
Spoiler
Winter’s Grasp
-Very incapacitating against lone targets
-Immune to terrain irregularites and blocks
-At tier2 it deals 400% weapon dmg to the primary target
-Can be used to freeze Arcane Horror Chest Guardian, Venatori Assassin, Red Templar Behemoth and the Venatori Commander
-Not very effective at damaging groups (tier2)
-Chill is a fairly minor status effect
-Very interesting combo with Virulence
Walking Bomb
-Can deal critical hits
-Must have tier2
-DOES NOT REQUIRE TARGET TO DIE BEFORE SPREADING, use the manual trigger
-Devastating damage and knockdown when triggered inside a large crowd
-As innaccurate as Stonefist, aim carefully
-Strafe away from lone warriors to take aim at groups of archers further away.
-Not very helpful against lone targets
-If the first target survives the trigger it is no longer affected by Walking Bomb
Ice Mine
-A cheap way to get Ice Armor
-Improved defense lets you use Gathering Storm more easily
-May freeze a Venatori Assassins or warrior trying to sneap up on you
-Ice Armor stays if the nearby target is frozen
-As far as I know it has no maximum duration
-When you want to change position, replace Ice Mine first
Horror
-Can deal critical hits
-Incapacitates many dangerous enemies immune to knockdown and/or frozen
Examples : Pride demon, Red Templar Knight, Venatori Brute, see below for full list
-The area of effect grows a bit bigger at tier2
-At tier2 if only costs 35 mana
-At tier2 it deals considerable damage to groups
-At tier2 use it to deal double damage to targets weak to spirit dmg
-Does not incapacitate bosses, assassins or Chest Guardians see below for a full list
How to use
Spoiler
Always start by placing Ice Mine on a good spot. Fire Walking Bomb into any large group and trigger it manually. Horrors works on many enemies, unfortunately they will not be incapacitated for long. Always try and hit multiple targets with Horror. Winter’s Grasp is for incapacitating dangerous targets and triggering Virulence. Make as much use as possible of Gathering Storm and Winter’s Stillness to reduce cooldown times. If you are facing many shielded Venatori, use Horror and Winter's Grasp first to put holes in their defense for Walking Bomb. Bosses make interesting targets for Walking Bomb, let them take the dmg and wait for enough enemies to cluster around them, then trigger the bomb.If given the option, curse a group of archers or mages with Walking Bomb or Horror rather than cursing a group of warriors of the same size
-Pick your last Passives, wouldn’t advice Overwhelming Force due to mega health on the enemies. Power of the Dead should be good.
Why not to get
Spoiler
Spirit Mark :
-Enemies are designed to have high health and do low dmg
-Players are designed to have low health and do high damage
As a result your minion may do disappointing damage if you are decently strong (still true on nightmare)
-A lot of minions are clumsy and spend a lot of time ignoring or missing enemies.
Blizzard
-Huge manadrain in a mode where things take forever to die
-Strips chill off of enemies when it deactivates
-On the other hand nightmare/heartbreaker may be the only mode where targets stay alive long enough to be fully frozen by Blizzard. I have yet to find a way to properly utilize this.
Flashfire: A paper bullet against the big swarms of beefy enemies
Mind Blast: If you have a friend or player devoted to inflicting sleep, then this ability could be very helpful. Sadly this is almost never the case. You certainly don't want to put your necro in a swarm of enemies just to generate barrier with this.
Fade Cloak/Fade Step: They're both moderately effective at keeping the necro alive but don't underestimate the loss of Ice Armor or crowd control when you equip on or more of these abilities. On the whole their offensive value is rather poor.
Important Status Immunities : Necromancer
Appreciating the chill status effect :
Spoiler
A simple movement speed decrease which yields several small but tangible advantages
-Enemy warriors take longer to reach ranged characters and are more predictable
-Enemies can be kited more easily, if you don’t know what kiting is --> google
-Melee characters can run down enemies much more easily (THIS IS IMPORTANT)
-Causes enemy warrior charge attacks to fail as they "misjudge the distance"
immune to panic: Ben-Hassrath Fire Thrower, Qunari Spearman, Ben-Hassrath Assassin, Qunari Shocktrooper (brute) WITH GUARD ONLY, qunari commander
Note that the Saarebas is vulnerable to panic without barrier
immune to frozen: Ben-Hassrath assassin, Saarebas, Qunari Shocktrooper (brute) WITH GUARD ONLY, Qunari Commander
Darkspawn edit: immune to knockdow/stun/stagger: Hurlock Alpha (brute), Mega Shield Genlock, Sha-Brytol mini brute, Darkspawn Boss
Note that the Emissary is not immune to knockdown/stun/stagger
Immune to panic: Hurlock Alpha (brute), Mega Shield Genlock, Shriek Assassin, Emissary, Sha-Brytol Mage, Sha-Brytol Assassin, Darkspawn Boss
immune to frozen: Hurlock Alpha (brute), Megashield Genlock, Sha-Brytol Mage
Note that you can freeze both assassin types and the Emissary
Despair demons are immune to frozen but not to panic, panic is very effective against despair demons
Terror demons are immune to panic but not to frozen
small Rage demons are vulnerable to panic and frozen but big Rage demons are immune to panic.
Fear demons are immune to both panic and frozen
Pride demons cannot be frozen but are vulnerable to panic
Red Templar Knights are immune to frozen but not to panic
Red Templar Behemoths can be frozen but are immune to panic
The Venatori Commander can be frozen
White Venatori Mages are often immune to panic
Black Hooded Venatori Mages have varying immunities.
Red Templar Shadows are immune to both frozen and panic but Venatori Assassins can be frozen
The Revenant Chest Guardian is immune to panic and frozen but the Arcane Horror Chest Guardian can be frozen.
Surprisingly, Frost dragonlings can be frozen and chilled.
Important Elemental Weaknesses/Resists : The Necromancer
Spoiler
Enemies weak to cold dmg : Rage demon, Red Templar Behemoth, Deepstalker and Gibbering horror, Fire Wraiths, Inferno Dragon and dragonlings, Darkspawn Emissary
Enemies weak to spirit dmg : Fear demon, Terror Demon, Red Templar Horror, Chest Guardians, Storm Dragon and dragonlings
Enemies strong against cold dmg : Despair demon, Red Templar Knight, Cold Wraith, Chest Guardians, most Great Beasts (Druffalo), Frost Dragon and dragonlings, Sha-Brytol Mage, Qunari Spearman andQunari Shocktrooper (brute)
Enemies strong against spirit dmg :Darkspawn Boss, Qunari and nightmare green Wraiths
The Reaver (The reaver now regenerates health by default)
Builds 1
Yallegro’s Advanced Reaver
Patch 10 Bear Maulsthe Wolves now reduces all enemy melee attacks from behind to 1 dmg
Patch 10Blood Frenzy passiveis now much better, from 0.5% to 1.5% dmg increase per 1% health lost
Patch 10Pommel Strikenow does 500% wpn dmg, 700% with the upgrade
The advanced reaver is fully devoted to the use of Dragon Rage and has a much larger damage output than the basic reaver. I recommend dropping Mighty Blow for Combat Roll. Combat Roll allows you to instantly recover from knockdown/stun or the Demon Commander’s panic attack and get back to hitting and killing things. This is important because the reaver needs to hit things (Rampage/Auto-heal) or kill things (lifedrain) to stay alive. It will also save some stamina so that you can use Rampage without delay and allow you to occassionally dodge warrior mobs and archer fire.
The Skills
Spoiler
Devour
-You'll be using this skill for a while
-Heals a little but is most effective as a quick stun move.
-Use it to intercept charging warriors before they strike
-Use it to interrupt archers
-Use it to break through blocking
-After using Devour there is a delay time before you can start attacking again
-Devour will likely miss a target standing lower than you.
Dragon Rage
-Holding Dragon Rage triggers an alternative basic attack
-The combination consists of two single hits followed by a double hit
-The double hit deals double damage
-The game remembers where you are inside the combo for a while, for example you can kill a foe with the first two attacks, then walk up to a new foe and land the double hit
-Dragon Rage does not regenerate health with Rampage (except when a bug occurs)
-During Rampage Dragon Rage costs no health
-Dragon Rage can be blocked by warriors ! Avoid enemies that can block !
-Switch to the basic attack when blocked, this breaks their block for some reason
-Has a large hitbox, easily hitting several enemies at once
-Dragon Rage is extremely good at hitting enemies that have been knocked down
-Except when using Rampage, the basic attack is better for lunging at enemies
-Dragon Rage does not regenerate stamina on hit
War Horn: The value of this ability has now spread throughout the community. Offers 100% weapon dmg and disabling panic across a wide area. It also offers serious damage against guard and can incapacitate many dangerous targets like the Pride demon, Despair demon, the RT Knight, Venatori Brute, Mages and big charging animals like the druffalo. It can even be used to flush out cloaked assassins and combines with the reaver’s passive health regeneration and Rampage.
Assassins cannot be panicked
The reaver also exploits panic by combining two passives :
Deathblow and Flow of Battle. Together they increase damage against panicked targets considerably and cut significant seconds of Rampage’s cooldown time.
Rampage :
-Increases dmg output by about 44 percent
-Best used for healing mid-battle than for increasing dmg at full health
-Best used with Greatsword or Greataxe because
+ they hit faster than a maul
+ they can hit muliple enemies
+ they are more effective at hitting moving enemies than the maul
- Does not actually heal 20 percent of your max health per hit, as you level up and your max health increases it heals noticably less
- A bug can cause Dragon Rage to not regenerate health with Rampage, switch to your basic attack when this happens
-This bug rarely occurs when you are hitting large enemies/bosses with Dragon Rage
Combat Roll
-With the upgrade you recover from knockdown/stun/panic
-You do not recover from burning (how illogical :-/)
-Dodge behind walls to escape archer fire
-Use it to escape when facing too many warriors
-Can be used to flank enemies, avoiding their ability to block
How to use
Spoiler
Even with Dragon Rage you will still use the basic attack a lot because it is better for lunging at enemies, breaking block, regenerating stamina and regenerating health. What I tend to do is lunge towards an enemy with the basic attack, check that my health is regenerating, then finish them of with Dragon Rage. Dragon Rage can be blocked so try and kill things like archers, Red Templar Horror, and Large enemies before trying the warriors. You can break their block by using either Mighty Blow or War Horn. Switching to your basic attack after being blocked with Dragon Rage somehow breaks through their block (this does not work on warriors with shields). War Horn is now a serious damage skill, so use it freely whenever you are inside a mob or need to panic a tough enemy. Still, War Horn is most effective for when you are facing a lot blocking warriors, when you are taking too much damage or need to slash seconds of Rampage's cooldown time, using the Flow of Battle and Deathblow passives. Use Combat Roll to get back up from every stun and knockdown (also works on the Demon Commander’s panic ability). If you are not regenerating health (during Rampage) while using Dragon Rage, switch to the basic attack immediately to get you back to full health, then try again. The reaver is quite vulnerable to archer fire, make the most of natural cover and just quickly kill the archers before they kill you.
Don't forget that War Horn can do 1200% wpn dmg to guard, which is especially helpful on nightmare, but also against all High Dragons and Pride demons
immune to panic: Ben-Hassrath Fire Thrower, Qunari Spearman, Ben-Hassrath Assassin, Qunari Shocktrooper (brute) WITH GUARD ONLY, qunari commander
Note that the Saarebas is vulnerable to panic without barrier
Darkspawn edit: immune to knockdow/stun/stagger: Hurlock Alpha (brute), Mega Shield Genlock, Sha-Brytol mini brute, Darkspawn Boss
Note that the Emissary is not immune to knockdown/stun/stagger
Immune to panic: Hurlock Alpha (brute), Mega Shield Genlock, Shriek Assassin, Emissary, Sha-Brytol Mage, Sha-Brytol Assassin, Darkspawn Boss
Enemies immune to panic : Fear Demon, Big Rage Demon, Terror Demon, Red Templar Behemoth, Red Templar Shadow, (often) White Venatori Mages, (often) Black hooded Venatori Mages, Chest Guardians, Bosses
Enemies immune to knockdown/stagger : all Wraiths, Pride demon, Red Templar Knight, Red Templar Behemoth, Venatori Brute, Chest Guardians, Great Beasts (Druffalo) and dragonlings, Bosses
The Templar
Patch 10 Bear Maulsthe Wolves now reduces all enemy melee attacks from behind to 1 dmg
In the other guide I have 3 variations for a Wrath of Heaven build, but for nightmare and with recent buffs, the Horn of Valor version emerged victorious. I even dumped Shield Bash to save stamina for Horn of Valor and the Wrath of Heaven combo. Don’t expect to kill many enemies in a single combo, often it takes two so you’ll need the stamina for it. It’s worth noting that the combo weakens targets, boosting arcanes.
In other modes Horn of Valor had a problem being efficient. Targets died too quickly, people under/overestimated their damage and the boost was wasted while people ran towards new targets. In nightmare you fight long battles against enemies with tons of health, solving these problems (and somewhat replacing them with knockdown spam).
Horn of Valor now adds considerably to armor so you want to use it whenever possible.
Shield Bash was hard to let go but enemies had too much health, too much guard too and there where just too many enemies that couldn’t be knocked down. I replaced it with Attack-cancel spam to pump me full of stamina and lower cooldown with Flow of Battle. Shield Wall does a good job replacing it, stunning assassins, RT knight and shieldbearing warriors while giving you a defensive option against bosses and Revenants. It was even necessary to function properly.
+Venatori Mages are a prime target for WoH but they’re protected by shieldbearing warriors who knock you down for trying, use Shieldwall and make them pay
+There’s tons of Venatori brutes about and blocking them prevents a knockdown
The Skills of The Nightmare Vanguard
Spoiler
Wrath of Heaven
-Devastating against demons
-Devastating against all when combined with Spell Purge
-Range is similar to that of barrier
-Can be made to damage mages and several red templar units with Mageslayer passive
-Long cooldown time
Spell Purge
-Mostly used for a combo with Wrath of Heaven
-Can be used to dispel magical mines
-Can be used to dispel the Storm/Frost Dragon’s special attack from you and allies
-Damages barriers a lot but does not simply destroy them by default
Horn of Valor
The good :
-Is easy to get for a Wrath of Heaven build
-Increases the damage of every party member by 20% at tier2 (not 35%, no dmg increase at tier1)
(courtesy of Yarpenthemad)
-Since the recent armor buff it now adds greatly to your armor rating
(+15%)
Shield Wall (use when)
-You want to block a boss attack (which generate enormous amounts of guard)
-You want to block a Chest Guardian attack which generate enormous amounts of guard)
-You have stepped on a magical mine
-Shield Bash will stun warriors with shields if they attack you
-You want to disrupt a fierce combo (assassins, Rage Demon, Red Templar Knight,…)
-Remember that blocking with low stamina makes the block fail at the cost of stamina.
How to use Nightmare Vanguard
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You’re going to have to jump, a lot. Wether it be elemental mines, knockdown warriors or Terror/Despair demons, there is all kinds of stuff trying to stop you from effective casting Wrath of Heaven and finishing with Spell Purge. It’s even so that I had to switch the order often, dispelling mines first then hitting the mages with Wrath of Heaven (+Mageslayer for 700% wpn dmg). Shield Wall can protect you from at least a few knockdowns though I have no full list of attacks that can be prevented this way. Always try to keep your shield aimed towards enemies for defensive bonusses. Consider a quick retreat to have all your enemies on one front. Your main job is boosting allies, setting of the Wrath of Heaven combo and occassionally tank a Brute, Assassin or RT Knight. I strongly recommend giving Spell Purge the damage upgrade as there is tons of damage to be done that way. I adopted Guard Smasher for this build so remember this when you spot a Brute or Pride demon. I use this build with a lot of attack-cancel to speed things up a bit, I left a description of what the attack cancel is in Yallegro’s Big MP Build Thread.
-Get Flow of Battle (unless you have a poor critical chance)
-Get Horn of Valor tier2
-Get Deep Reserves
-Upgrade Spell Purge and acquire the Mageslayer passive
-Choose your last passives, I really like Guard Smasher
The attack-cancel exploit
Spoiler
Normally a basic attack sequence consists of a four hit combo (more for daggers). If you are at all unsatisfied by the speed of that combo you can try the attack-cancel to speed it up. You wait until you landed your first hit, then hit L3, the sprint button. You will return to your starting position in the combo. By spamming L3 with proper timing you can hit an enemy a lot faster in a fashion much resembling an old-school hack-and-slash animation. Alternative to L3 you can use "press and hold" skills like Shield Wall or Block and Slash, which even provides a chance to block/counter with these abilities.
Appreciating the Mage Slayer passive
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Obviously you will do more damage to mages with this passive but there are several other creatures affected by this passive namely: Red Templar Horror, Red Templar Knight, Red Templar Shadow, Red Templar Behemoth and all the Chest Guardians. These enemies will take 700% weapon dmg from Wrath of Heaven and will take 10% extra dmg from everyone in the party because of the Champions of the Just passive.
Frontal defense
Spoiler
Besides some knockdown and a killer combo, you will need to learn how to use your frontal defense. I cannot stress this enough, the difference in defense from the front and anywhere else is a difference of night and day. This only increases when you get the relevant passives that up your frontal defense. The front is an area covering about 180° wherever the legionnaire is facing. Always try and keep yourself facing the largest amount of enemies possible. Do not blindly rush forward to get yourself flanked. If you do get surrounded it’s time for Wrath of Heaven. If that is not a option, retreat to get your enemies on one front. Also, if you have to retreat : Jump, jump, jump. It really helps
Getting enemy attention
Spoiler
Finally, the best way to get your enemy’s attention without a taunt is to swing your sword in his face. Do whatever you can to get in the way of charging warriors, get between an archer and his target and chase down targets that moved past you with your basic attack. Chasing down is risky however as you allow yourself to be flanked. Do not chase down warriors when still facing archers from the front
Since Patch 10 Unbowed is replaced by Livid, a re-skin of Rage of the Avvar. Livid has the symbol of Unbowed
Rage of the Avvar has no knockdown mitigation and doesn't combine with other % dmg resistance like on the Avvar
I believe it does stack with the 30% Frontal Defense of your shield
If you are on PS4, Xone, PC you shouldn't consider this build valid for nightmare, The Nightmare Vanguard should be better.
The result of my attempts to include Unbowed in some way. I like the result.
The big plus for Unbowed is that you now have knockdown mitigation to go with your Wrath of Heaven combo and your search for groups yields bot more guard and combo targets. You also get some good defensive passives from the Sentinel tree. The con is that you get less damage than with the nightmare vanguard (at level 16) and your party will have to do without the armor and dmg buffs of Horn of Valor.
The Skills of The Heavenly Soldier
Spoiler
Unbowed
-Will give you immunity to knockdown for a brief few seconds
-Will get you up from knockdown
-Has a short range Mind Blast like effect, staggering light enemies
-With a 12 second cooldown time and Flow of Battle you can generate good amounts of guard with it
-Combines very well with the Wrath of Heaven combo
-Takes quite a few ability points to get
Blessed Blades
-Only hurts demon for 15% additional dmg, and maybe others with Mageslayer
-Very cheap
-Can be used to significantly reduce the cooldown time on the combo
-You must stay in the area to receive the cooldown reduction, use Unbowed to stand your ground
Wrath of Heaven
-Devastating against demons
-Devastating against all when combined with Spell Purge
-Range is similar to that of barrier
-Can be made to damage mages and several red templar units with Mageslayer passive
-Long cooldown time
Spell Purge
-Mostly used for a combo with Wrath of Heaven
-Can be used to dispel magical mines
-Can be used to dispel the Storm/Frost Dragon’s special attack from you and allies
-Damages barriers a lot but does not simply destroy them by default
How to use Heavenly Soldier
Spoiler
Your main job is nuke those mobs with your combo. Aim for powerful enemies that can be stunned or are affected by the Mageslayer buff (acquired at 17 or higher). Assassins and mages come to mind but also RT Horrors which take additional spirit dmg and are affected by Mageslayer. Unbowed will literally keep you standing to set of your combo, use it before triggering the combo or after a knockdown then finish the combo. The buff of Blessed Blades gets better when the mob is large enough to hit several foes with your weapon, the combo itself can also knock off a few seconds. After the combo has been unleashed place Blessed Blades were you are expecting a scrap. Strike away until you can use the combo again and always try and get up with Unbowed to go on fighting. Don’t forget that you have better physical defenses than others, when your party is threatened by an RT Knight , Venatori Brute or assassins, make sure they go for you and not squishier targets. You’ll feel a bit hapless during a dragon boss fight however as your combo is useless there, you can choose to get Guard Smasher to still fill an important role during the final fight.
How to build Heavenly Soldier
Spoiler
-Get Wrath of Heaven tier2
-Get Spell Purge
-Get Flow of Battle
-Get Unbowed tier2
-Get Blessed Blades tier2
-Choose to spend your points on :Mageslayer, Spell Purge tier2, Turn the Bolt, Guard Smasher, Adament or Deep Reserves
Why not to get: Templar
Spoiler
Payback Strike : The templar is not much of tank or a taunter so this ability doesn’t work for the templar like it works for the legionnaireFalse, actually works rather well with the Bodyguard Skill
Challenge: This rather poor taunt has an only very limited ability to regen stamina faster with two points invested
Important Elemental Weaknesses and resists : Templar
Spoiler
Enemies weak to spirit dmg : Fear demon, Terror Demon, Red Templar Horror, Chest Guardians, Storm Dragon and dragonlings
Enemies strong to spirit dmg: N/A (these enemies can't be stunned)
Darkspawn edit: immune to knockdow/stun/stagger: Hurlock Alpha (brute), Mega Shield Genlock, Sha-Brytol mini brute, Darkspawn Boss
Note that the Emissary is not immune to knockdown/stun/stagger
Enemies immune to knockdown/stagger : all Wraiths, Pride demon, Red Templar Knight, Red Templar Behemoth, Venatori Brute, Chest Guardians, Great Beasts (Druffalo) and dragonlings, Bosses
THIS GUIDE IS DESIGNED SPECIFICALLY FOR USE WITH THE GRIFFON BOW or Hakkon's Wrath. If you take any other bow you may not like the playstyle I’m suggesting here.
Patch 10 Spike Trap has cooldown reduced from 12-->8 seconds and the upgrade now adds bleeding dmg
Patch 10 Elemental Mines has damage/mine increased from 100 to 225% wpn dmg
Patch 10Stealthnow offers invulnerability to various attacks
Video
Spoiler
Part 1
Part 2
Intro
Spoiler
A great damager for nightmare with his poison and sunder effects. I think a single use of Throwing Blades on a high armor target ( a Pride demon) brought my damage from 260 to 420 for a brief duration. Elemental Mines is more effective than ever due to the many enemies and assassins. Stealth is personally preferred for all kinds of tactical maneuvers but you can switch it with Spike Trap for extra damage (you’ll have the stamina) or Leaping Shot for all the big easy to hit targets.
a short range archer that uses deadly traps. Recent buffs for traps and hunter passives have made this strategy only more appealing
- +25% damage for enemies within 10m (On the Razors Edge)
- Increase of trap damage
- +50% increase to the power of Throwing Blades
The griffon bow is best suited for such a playstyle because it can easily hit several targets at mid-short range, but even more importantly BECAUSE IT CAN LAND 3 ARROWS AT ONCE ON THE SAME TARGET and only if you are at point blank range.
Spike Trap VS Elemental Mines (for Nightmare I prefer Elemental Mines)
Spoiler
Let’s start of by stating that they are both good traps. Spike Trap is best at close range. You can effectivily blow up the enemy right in front of without having to take damage, making Spike Trap a rogue equivalent of Shield Bash or Fade Cloak. Spike Trap is also the better trap for doing damage to a single target. The short range of Spike Trap also has a downside. You can throw Elemental Mines on a group of enemies of enemies that are a little further away. You can throw them on enemies moving past you or on enemies attacking a nearby ally. Spike Trap can’t do that. Elemental Mines also has a better chance of exploding and disrupting at least some enemies. The wide range it covers makes Elemental Mines infintely better at uncloaking assassins. Spike Trap needs to be placed diretly onto an enemy or directly in front of an enemy headed towards you. If you don’t do that there’s a good chance it won’t hit anything. By comparison Elemental Mines can be thrown almost carelessly in the direction of some enemies and they may very well be effective that way. Damage wise they’re about equal but Elemental Mines has some cool status effects but Spike Trap is much less vulnerable to predetonation than Elemental Mines as it tends to ignore AoE spells.
In Short : Spike Trap is effective at close range. Elemental Mines is effective at medium range and can uncloak assassins.
The Skills
Spoiler
(If you have trouble managing your health you can replace a skill with Fallback Plan)
Explosive Shot
-You’ll be using this for a while until you replace it with Stealth
-Most effective at knocking things down from long range
-Quite effective at damaging a group
-Very helpful aganst Despair demon
-Pitiful against enemies that can’t be knocked down
-You’ll be immobile while aiming which is dangerous
Throwing Blades
-Deals 750% weapon dmg at tier1 (Throws 5 blades, not 4 at 150% each)
-Staggers a foe until the last knife is thrown
-Very good stopping power against a lone warrior or assassin
-The sunder effect is quite trivial if you have a decent bow
-Can only be used at short-medium range
-The stagger effect is considerably reduced if you hit more than one target
Elemental Mines
-Very good potential damage, capable of doing 1000% weapon dmg without burning
-Good for uncloaking assassins
-Detonating mines stagger foes
-Mines will be thrown in the direction you are facing, do not throw while retreating
-Very tricky to throw onto enemies
-Not all mines will hit a foe
-Mines predetonate when hit by friendly or enemy AoE spells.
-Quite ineffective against enemies already in front of you
-Quite ineffective against enemies far away from you
-Try and throw against walls and other objects to shorten the range.
-Much more efficient for the ranged hunter than for the alchemist
Patch 10 Elemental Mines has damage/mine increased from 100 to 225% wpn dmg
Toxic Cloud
-Deals a lot of damage to groups
-Can only be placed underneath the rogue
-Has a short range
-Only the undead Chest Guardians are immune to poison dmg
-Demon Wraiths cannot be poisoned but still take direct poison dmg
-No enemy in the game takes only half dmg from poison
-Due to the range, it is a risky move for a rogue
-Combines very well with Stealth or Fallback Plan
-The only move the hunter has to deal serious dmg to a group
-Can make assassins visible but does not uncloak them
Spike Trap and How to use Spike Trap
-Very good at close range
-Very fast to deliver a knockdown allowing you to use it like a Shield Bash
-Deals 500% wpn dmg which is pretty good for a rogue
-Place Spike Trap in front of an enemy headed towards you
-Has a small hitbox, if you can’t bait an enemy to step on it it probably won’t detonate
-Can hit several enemies at once, but only if they’re directly next to each other
-Can be placed from stealth if you want to get the upgrade
-Unlike Elemental Mines it is not at all effective at uncloaking assassins
-Generally more effective against a boss than Elemental Mines
Patch 10 Spike Trap has cooldown reduced from 12-->8 seconds and the upgrade now adds bleeding dmg
Stealth
-Increases movement speed
-You should move away from enemies while cloaking or you may get hit
-Stealth combines with many passives to increase damage
-It takes a while before you fully cloak and enemies lose sight of you
-Increases dmg of the first attack from stealth by 50%
-Tier 2 heals you of all elemental status effects (burning) but not knockdown, stun etc
-Taking dmg while cloaked makes you uncloak
-Don’t count on it to keep you alive if you have inadequate Heal on Kill %
-Improves your ability to place Toxic Cloud
-Improves your ability to do triple arrow attacks considerably
-Good for getting in a flanking position, which not insignificantly combines with the hunter's innate Cripple/Hamstring
Strafing tips
Spoiler
Bows are less accurate than staves, here are some tips to improve your accuracy.
-Moving backwards while shooting greatly increases accuracy
-When an enemy is moving across the screen you want to strafe in a the direction opposite of where the enemy is going. So when an enemy is moving to the left, you go right and when he goes right you go left.
-Many ranged attacks can be (partially) dodged by strafing, Pride demon projectile, RT Horror's hand attack, standard arrows,...
Griffon bow tips
Spoiler
-Archers are the most desirable desirable target for a triple arrow attack as they get no advantage from being close to you and you get triple damage
-If an enemy if further than 10m it is generally not worth rushing up to them to do a triple arrow attack. Throwing Blades will get you a feel for how far this is.
-You don’t need to approach an enemy already heading towards you, choose to shoot instead
-If an enemy is large you can do triple arrow attacks from a safer distance
-If an enemy is large it may help to circle him at close range to avoid his attacks. Stay at his back when you're there
-The Griffon bow is superior to all other bows in regard to slaying a boss
On using Leaping Shot
Spoiler
This has been a hard move to appreciate for me but I’ve finally figured out how to use it properly. Before a recent patch there was a huge problem with the projectiles getting blocked by warriors, that issue is now (mostly) gone, in fact they seem to even pierce greatshields now. The second issue is that of accuracy, a lot of projectiles may miss for several reasons. The easiest way to grasp this is to assume that Leaping Shot has a limited effective range that increases with the size of the target
The size of an enemy is relevant for your accuracy so I distinguish 3 categories
The large foes : Terror demon, Fear demon, Rage demon, RT Horror, RT Knight, Venatori Brute and the Revenant and Arcane Horror Chest Guardians, Shielded Warriors
(new) I've noticed RT Horrors being much harder to hit than Arcane Horrors or Terror demons but still easier than small foes. RT Horrors are noticeably smaller than Arcane Horrors and Terror demons so that would fit the theory that accuracy scales with the size of the targets.
The very large foes : Pride demon, RT Behemoth, the Great Charging Beasts, the Giant and High Dragons
The small foes : everything else
I have not been able to test the darkspawn and qunari factions since they decided to drop support for PS3
The very large foes can be effectivily targetted from a very long range. The large foes can be effectivily hit by Leaping Shot if they are within 15mor less. The small foes can only be effectivily hit if they are within a distance of 5 m or so. A knocked down foe can also only be effectivily hit within a range of 5m or so for large foes, smaller foes really require point blank range to be sure. These are measures that I use and they are not based on in debt understanding of the mechanics, just my experience with the skill. If you use the skill like this you will greatly improve the accuracy of your projectiles and the efficiency of Pincushion and Cheapshot as a result.
Note : You can use Leaping Shot to recover from knockdown
Put to practise this means you can’t use Leaping Shot to snipe at anything but a handful of targets and only large foes can be dealt with at medium range. You should prioritise these large targets as you will be able to do more damage to them than to smaller enemies. Inevitably you will have to move forward if you want to use Leaping Shot again or want to use leaping Shot against smaller targets. You should only do this after you’ve run out of Explosive Shot. Use Knockout Bomb and Fallback Plan to cover some of the risks as you make your way forward.
Additional Tip: Firing Leaping Shot into a dense group will make many projectiles land regardless of the size of the main target.
Additional Tip: If a target is standing perfectly still the effective range is a lot greater
(I do mean PERFECTLY still and the Despair demon does NOT make a good target from range.
How to use The Saboteur
Spoiler
You start out by using Explosive Shot to knock down threats, Fallback Plan will at least give you some health management. Explosive Shot will continue to be a good friend through the early stages of the build until you can replace it with Stealth. Elemental Mines are best placed where you expect enemies to pass by. Do not wait for enemies to come very close to use your mines or you will throw them over their heads. Sometimes you can throw mines against a nearby wall to shorten their range. Once you have Throwing Blades use it to deal with anything dangerous within range. Don’t be afraid to walk up to a foe to use Throwing Blades as it deals six times the damage of a basic attack. Staying within 10m will also help you hit several enemies at once with your griffon bow and set you up to do triple arrow attacks. Toxic Cloud is best placed within a group of enemies. If the mob is nearby you can strafe towards them and place the trap. If they are further away, drop your basic attack and run to them instead. If they are further than 10m and you have no Stealth, don’t bother and wait for a better opportunity. Toxic Cloud will deal serious damage to a group. After placing Toxic Cloud you can strafe back out, hitting several targets with your griffon bow. Try and stay near the trap to get more enemies to walk in and stay in it. With Stealth you gain a number of tactical advantages. You can use it to shoot triple arrows in an enemy’s back, throw mines into a group of enemies, set up a more powerful Throwing Blades and you can pinpoint Toxic Cloud and place it faster. Stealth will also help you flee from approaching warriors, heal you from deadly burning attacks or electricity traps and just help you cover some ground when you need to.
-Get Elemental Mines tier1 (do not get the upgrade !) Or get Spike Trap tier1
-Get Throwing Blades tier1
-Get Toxic Cloud tier2 (A bug allows you to get the whole skill + upgrade at tier1)
-Get On the Razor's Edge now adds a 25% increase to dmg within 10m
-Go down the survival tree to get Stealth tier2
-Get Explosive Toxin, Sadism, Knife in the Shadows in any order
-Get Pincushion if you are using the Griffon bow/Hakkon's Wrath
Sadism provides extra stamina whenever you take dmg, even if you have barrier (or guard) active.
Why not to get
Spoiler
Full Draw
-Leaves you immobilized
-The sleep status effect will never last more than a few seconds (practically)
-Too many ability point required to reach it
-easily interrupted (by archers no less)
Evade
-very small hitbox
-Being a ranged character you will not damage many enemies with it
-Stealth will be more helpful in dealing damage and avoiding damage (imo)
Knockout Power: This is Knockout Bomb without the range. It can be used without breaking Stealth but otherwise the cooldown time is too high to compete with Leaping Shot, Spike trap, Throwing Blades or even Toxic Cloud.
Hook and Tackle: Some people love it, it can get you out of a tight spots, offers a quick stagger and sets up a proper Leaping Shot. On the other hand it is just an alternative version of Evade.
Darkspawn edit: immune to knockdow/stun/stagger: Hurlock Alpha (brute), Mega Shield Genlock, Sha-Brytol mini brute, Darkspawn Boss
Note that the Emissary is not immune to knockdown/stun/stagger
Enemies immune to knockdown/stagger: all Wraiths, Pride demon, Red Templar Knight, Red Templar Behemoth, Venatori Brute, Chest Guardians, Great Beasts (Druffalo) and dragonlings, Bosses
The Fear demon is vulnerable to knockdown but instead of being knocked down it hangs its head and keeps floating
The Rage demon responds to knockdown with a counterattack, after the attack it is incapacitated
Enemies immune to poison : Pride demon (when they have guard), Demon Wraiths, Chest Guardians
The Arcane Warrior
Builds 1
-Yallegro’s Earth and Sky Arcane
Note: The Arcane Warrior suffer from a bug that can leave him stuck at 50% mana, use Chain Lightning, Stonefist or Fade Cloak when this occurs. Pointed out by ThatbruhyouDK and Kmeeg
Patch 10 Spirit Blade functionality has changed! It now builds up damage as you deal damage with other sources and expends the charge when you use Spirit Blade. This makes the ability really strong if used rarely and really weak if you just spam it.
You can effectively replace Spirit Blade and/or Fade Cloak with Pull of the Abyss and/or Dispel. It all works well
Not much changed for the arcane, its still Stonefist+Chain Lightning to keep your barrier up and Fade Cloak for knockdown/stun removal. New is the possible inclusion of Dispel for removing hostile magic and giving yourself a potent combo detonator. For more crowd control support equip Pull of the Abyss instead of Spirit Blade or Fade Cloak.
+Dispel pulls of powerful Nightmare combos on sleep/stun
+Tier2 Dispel Improves attack and barrier generation
-Dispel shines against the venatori, but is only decent against the others
-Dispel pulls of rather weak combos on frozen/paralyzed
-Dispel “steals” combos from other classes
-No Spirit Blade means you lose a good tool for dealing unresisted dmg
(especially interesting against the RT Horror, who negates electricity and is weak to spirit dmg)
- No Spirit Blade means you lose a good way to hit mutiple targets
- No Spirit Blade means you lose a good tool for damaging guard
Should I get Pull of the Abyss?
If you want to use Pull of the Abyss it will fill a slot you could have used for Dispel, Spirit Blade or Fade Cloak. Measured against Dispel, Pull of the Abyss is effective in more situations but Dispel is very effective against the venatori. Dispel also gives you a strong combo detonator on sleeping targets and with the upgrade improved dmg and barrier generation. Pull of the Abyss on the other hand is a potent sleep generator when used on targets that have been shocked. It combines with Stonefist but not to the extent that it is amazing.
What Pull of the Abyss is best for is improving the performance of other players. Setting up sleep combos and grouping targets. If you want to detonate the combos yourself you 'll need Pull of the Abyss AND Dispel, costing a lot of ability points and mana. You'll also lose Fade Cloak for knockdown mitigation and Spirit Blade for dealing unresisted spirit dmg (very interesting when you're facing waves of RT Horrors or barrier buffed venatori).
If you want to stay autonomous I'd recommend sticking with Fade Cloak and Spirit Blade. If you can trust your teammates to back up your support then Pull of the Abyss has a huge potential.
The Skills
Spoiler
Chain Lightning
-Very damaging, dealing 1500% weapon dmg if it can chain between enemies
-Is deadliest when it can chain between 2 enemies, dealing each 750% weapon dmg
-Staggers foes briefly but not always
- Is very good at uncloaking enemy assassins and Fear demons
-Not very effective when aimed at solitary targets, dealing only 250% weapon dmg
-When a target is resistant against electricity it will be heavily negated and Chain Lightning can’t just go around these targets
-Be wary of these enemies and use Stonefist, staff dmg or Spirit Blade to kill them quickly
Stonefist
-A devastating spell if you can summon enough mana to use it.
-Combines with Restorative Veil to increase your mana supply
-Effective in almost any situation, single targets, groups, Bosses
-Very innacurate, try to aim for non-moving targets
-always aim for the largest/most dangerous group of enemies
-Mana regain from Restorative Veil is a bit inconsistent
-Aim for the many targets weak to spirit dmg
-Sometimes inflicts the Sleep status effect
-Stonefist now successfully triggers a Rupture combo
Fade Cloak
-Negates all status abnormalities, including knockdown, stun, panic, burning etc
-Deals a lot of damage but has a very small hitbox (area of effect)
-Be careful, you cannot receive barrier while using Fade Cloak
-Too small and light to shake of a whole group of attackers
Spirit Blade
-A fallen ability since the nerf
-Still effective against foes weak to spirit dmg
-Can still hit multiple foes at close range
-Still effective against Barrier and Guard
-Can be blocked
-Slower and less accurate than basic attacks.
Using your skills
Spoiler
Start by using Chain Lightning and recharging it with Gathering Storm. Reserve Spirit Blade for nearby foes weak to spirit dmg. Once you have Stonefist and Restorative Veil, Stonefist becomes your lead attack. Aim it into the center of groups and follow with Chain Lightning to recharge your mana. Recharging your mana doesn’t always work as well, but keep using Stonefist followed by Chain Lightning and you should get plenty of mana for additional casts. Fade Cloak is not for hugging enemies because they’re often too fast, too spread out and trying to hug means no basic attacks, which means no cooldown reduction. Instead use it whenever you get knocked down, stunned or just get too much attention from warriors or archers. Keep using spells and basic attacks while Fade Cloak is active. Your main targets are groups, especially groups of archers which make a great target for Stonefist. If you are facing a lone enemy that just happens to be resistant to your staff dmg, or weak to spirit dmg, you can use Spirit Blade.
-Spirit Blade is an effective alternative to basic attacks when you can hit more than one enemy with a single swing
In Nightmare mode you can suffer heavily when you are up against targets resistant to your lightning. Such common enemies include the RT Horror, Pride demon and every Electric Venatori Mage is not only immune, it can transfer its immunity to other venatori by casting barrier on them. You must take out these targets to regain full efficiency on Chain Lightning. RT Horror is weak to your Stonefist and Spirit Blade, its barrier can be dispelled with Spirit Blade. Pride demon generates a lot of guard and is immune to knockdown, try using Spirit Blade against him. Electric Venatori Mage can be recognized by his purple colored mines, disrupt him with your Stonefist.
-Get your last passives I recommend Combat Clarity, and Conductive Current
NOTE : If you have problems managing your mana supply you can take Pull of the Abyss tier2 (instead of Spirit Blade or Fade Cloak) to generate more weakness. It will also allow you to put more enemies to sleep which triggers powerful combos with Dispel, Stonefist and other detonators
Why not to get :
Spoiler
Mind Blast: Doesn't really do much
Fade Step: Elemental damage is heavily resisted on nightmare, costs 2 points, tactical value is low as arcane shouldn't melee many enemies and as a tank you shouldn't be dodging behind a lot of walls
Flashfire: Not worth your limited mana when you have Stonefist and Chain Lightning
Veiled Riposte: Because enemies are designed to deal low dmg and have high health, the dmg this passive provides is close to laughable. Even on Nightmare it makes no mathematical sense.
Stormbringer: Deals 300% weapon dmg every 15 seconds. Or 20% weapon dmg every second. May hit an enemy that has alrdy died or is resistant. That is bad.
immune to sleep: Ben-Hassrath Fire Thrower, Qunari Spearman, Ben-Hassrath Assassin, Qunari Shocktrooper (brute) WITH GUARD ONLY, qunari commander
Note that the Saarebas is vulnerable to sleep without barrier
Darkspawn edit: immune to knockdow/stun/stagger: Hurlock Alpha (brute), Mega Shield Genlock, Sha-Brytol mini brute, Darkspawn Boss
Note that the Emissary is not immune to knockdown/stun/stagger
Immune to sleep: Hurlock Alpha (brute), Mega Shield Genlock, Emissary, Sha-Brytol Mage, Sha-Brytol Assassin, Darkspawn Boss
Note that the shriek assassin is vulnerable to sleep
Enemies immune to knockdown/stagger : all Wraiths, Pride demon, Red Templar Knight, Red Templar Behemoth, Venatori Brute, Chest Guardians, Great Beasts (Druffalo) and dragonlings, Bosses
Enemies immune to shocked : Pride demon, RT Horror, electric venatori mages
Enemies immune to weakness : Giant, Red Templar Behemoth and Fear demon
Shocked enemies that are weakened are afflicted with sleep instead (courtesy of Yarpenthemad)
(List of sleep immunities courtesy of Wavebend)
Enemies immune to sleep (always): Despair demon, Fear demon, Pride demon, Red Templar Behemoth, Assassins, (White only) Venatori Mages, Giant, Chest Guardians, all bosses except the Red Templar Commander
Enemies immune to sleep (conditional): All enemies under the effect of barrier or guard. Great Beasts with guard (like the Druffalo) are an exception. (Big) Rage demon
Patch 10 Bear Maulsthe Wolves now reduces all enemy melee attacks from behind to 1 dmg
Patch 10Pommel Strikenow does 500% wpn dmg, 700% with the upgrade
Yallegro’s Son of Korth (Now with 3 variations)
This Avvar is unchanged for nightmare, though I do recommend the 2 defensive variations.
The Ice Giant
If you have trouble with stamina management for this build (which I predict you will if you use a maul) consider switching to Master/Superb Stamina Amulet
(New) Mountain Mage
Tanker Supporter
Specced for New Factions
Video Son of Korth
Spoiler
Son of Korth Part 1
Son of Korth Part 2
Intro Son of Korth
Spoiler
The Avvar is a fast moving warrior with access to a devastating splash attack, Crushing Leap. To keep himself alive the Son of Korth uses the combination of Ice Smash, Hakkon’s Charge and Chilled Defense. You won’t just get a lot of knockdown out of Hakkon’s Charge, Ice smash combined with Chilled Defense gives the avvar a damage resistance of 60%. This is the equivalent of more than doubling his health and he still has access to Fire Smash which can increase his damage output by 50%. On top of that he has the War Horn attack. If you’ve seen my Katari and Reaver, you know I love this ability. Fully equiped he is a hard thing to topple and a nightmare to enemies weak to fire and ice.
Edit: I've added two variations on the same build, the Lady's Revenge one is an all out offense variation that cares little for defense, the one with Rage of the Avvar is the most defensive of the three provides some heavy duty defense but is not as flexible as the original
Notes: Offensive Son of Korth with Lady's Revenge
Spoiler
One of the most intensive builds I've played, you hardly have time to use all your skills. What you definitely need to do is avoid canceling Ice Smash with Storm Smash. Likewise when you have Lady's Revenge active or want to activate it, aim to use Fire Smash to increase your damage output. This build is the easiest to complete, having all relevant skills 3 levels before the War Horn version.
Notes: Heavy Duty Son of Korth with Rage of the Avvar (Nicknamed: Mountain Behemoth)
Spoiler
I figured since the Son of Korth aims to have a 60% damage reduction with ice Smash and Chilled Defense, why not go all the way and up damage reduction to 100% (*Cough*..you can't, 80% max :-)). If you add Rage of the Avvar you can do just that. Stand inside a mob and cast it to enjoy 10 seconds of invincibility or near invincibility + Dmg boosts. Still, there aren't as many good opportunities to use Rage of the Avvar than there are to use War Horn and you won't always have all the defensive buffs. When for instance I'm facing a tough Red Templar Horror and Red Templar Knight I'd rather have War Horn then try to Ice Smash+chill+Rage of the Avvar. This build takes just as long to complete as the War Horn version as Rage of the Avvar doesn't need to be tier2 to have the desired effect.
The Skills of Son of Korth
Spoiler
Korth’s Might
-An extremely versatile skill
-At tier2 gives 8 sec of +50% damage if you just used a fire skill
-At tier2 gives 8 sec of +35% damage resistance is you just used an ice skill
-Quite a slow ability
-Looks like Mighty Blow but has no knockdown
-Still as effective as Mighty Blow for intercepting enemies and giving them a brief stun
-Can exploit elemental weakness but also suffers from elemental resistances
-The chill caused by Ice smash gives you +25% damage resistance with Chilled Defense
-Korth's Might can be used to create holes in the Red Templar Behemoth's Red Lyrium Wall
Crushing Leap
-Devastating ability with a fast cooldown time
-Huge area of effect
-You deal 25% extra dmg to targets set on fire by this ability
-You will always do a leap before attacking
-Leap becomes longer or shorter depending on how far the target is
-Length of the leap can be altered by speed bonusses or the chill effect
-Use on enemies weak to fire dmg
Hakkon’s Charge
-Has Guard Smasher built in even if you don't have that passive.
-Always deals cold dmg
-Can knockdown enemies just like Charging Bull
-Much faster than Charging Bull
-You can steer better than with Charging Bull
-Can be used to cover great distances
-The tackle is followed by a more powerful strike that deals cold dmg (and adds guard)
-Learn to aim this strike (I still have trouble with this)
-More suited than Charging Bull for short bursts that may only hit a single enemy
-Less suited than Charging Bull for lenghty charges, deals less dmg and gives less guard
-CAN BE BLOCKED BY SHIELDS ! (does not trigger cooldown)
-The chill it causes gives you +25% damage resistance with Chilled Defense
-If Hakkon’s Charge is cancelled by an enemy attack, the cooldown is not triggered
War Horn
-Tier2 deals 100% weapon dmg
-Panic works on many enemies, including very powerful ones
-Combines well with Hakkon’s Charge
-Exposes Asssassins (assassins don’t panic)
-When used after Crushing leap it deals an extra 25% damage because of a passive
-Hits enemies behind you
-Tier2 devastates guard
-Can be used to break through blocks and shields
Note: The Chilled Defense passive also activates when you are chilled or frozen
Lady's Wrath
-Can deal critical hits
-Deals "damage over time" two times faster than other DoT abilities (so 40% wpn dmg is actually 80% by comparison)
-Very large AoE
-Somewhat makes up for the Avvar's lack of knockdown mitigation by dealing dmg while incapacitated
-With upgrade it can be active 90% of the time
-Extra interesting with the new factions being so vulnerable to lightning
How to use Son of Korth
Spoiler
The first move you need to master is Hakkon’s Charge. You’ll be relying on this ability to sprint great distances, knockdown foes and setting up Ice Smash. Unlike Charging Bull, Hakkon’s Charge is not suited for charging through endless ranks of enemies. This is because the initial hit of Hakkon’s Charge isn’t very damaging and because Hakkon’s Charge gets interrupted by enemy shields. It is however much better than Charging Bull at simply rushing towards a single enemy and knocking it down (you can also do this at close range). Hakkon’s Charge is followed by a much stronger attack and you would well to learn how to land this on the enemy you just knocked down. Another thing HC is very important for is setting up Ice Smash. Now this can conflict with your other abilities. You’ll often want to use HC to charge towards a group and immediately follow with Crushing Leap or War Horn. I you use Crushing Leap however you replace Ice Smash with Fire Smash forfeiting a powerful defensive bonus. So what I do pretty much all the time is use HC, then Ice Smash then Crushing Leap/War Horn. Skipping Ice Smash usually makes me feel really naked. Another important things to know is that Ice Smash has to hit something or you won’t get the bonus, takes this in mind when using HC. On the whole I would recommend that you use Ice Smash religiously and Fire Smash opportunistically, you don’t need Fire Smash to stay alive, but you do need Ice Smash.
Still sneak in Fire Smash whenever you can. Using Crushing Leap is fairly simple, you reach a mob then plunge. You can use War Horn immediately after or save it for a different mob. Last but not least, the avvar is a master of dealing massive elemental damage so read up on the elemental weaknesses/resists I listed below. If you recognize an enemy weak to ice or fire, know that you can use Fire Smash/Ice Smash to double up on that damage.
Lady’s Revenge : Combines rather well with Hakkon’s Charge but it can cancel your better better Ice and Fire Smash and has no defensive qualities if you don't kill your enemies.
Rage of the Avvar : You have to activate it in a mob, so you take a lot of damage just to cast it and it doesn't always function at maximum capacity. I find it much easier to stick to Ice Smash and Fire Smash. Mind that Rage of the Avvar is my main choice now for the Son of Korth build, a result of increased skill and tanking power.
Pommel Strike
-Very hard to hit something with
-Does not combine with Avvar elemental passives
Grappling Chain : Great Description but a clumsy move in practice and worse is that it doesn’t actualy stun anything.
immune to panic: Ben-Hassrath Fire Thrower, Qunari Spearman, Ben-Hassrath Assassin, Qunari Shocktrooper (brute) WITH GUARD ONLY, qunari commander
Note that the Saarebas is vulnerable to panic without his barrier
immune to frozen: Ben-Hassrath assassin, Saarebas, Qunari Shocktrooper (brute) WITH GUARD ONLY, Qunari Commander
Darkspawn edit: immune to knockdow/stun/stagger: Hurlock Alpha (brute), Mega Shield Genlock, Sha-Brytol mini brute, Darkspawn Boss
Note that the Emissary is not immune to knockdown/stun/stagger
Immune to panic: Hurlock Alpha (brute), Mega Shield Genlock, Shriek Assassin, Emissary, Sha-Brytol Mage, Sha-Brytol Assassin, Darkspawn Boss
immune to frozen: Hurlock Alpha (brute), Megashield Genlock, Sha-Brytol Mage
Note that you can freeze both assassin types and the Emissary
Enemies immune to panic : Fear Demon, Big Rage Demon, Terror Demon, Red Templar Behemoth, Red Templar Shadow,(often) White Venatori Mages, (often) Black Hooded Venatori Mages, Chest Guardians, Bosses
Enemies immune to knockdown/stagger : all Wraiths, Pride demon, Red Templar Knight, Red Templar Behemoth, Venatori Brute, Chest Guardians, Great Beasts (Druffalo) and dragonlings, Bosses
Enemies immune to frozen : Fear Demon, Pride Demon, Despair Demon, Red Templar Knight, Red Templar Shadow, Venatori Mages: Ice type, Great Beasts (Druffalo), Revenant Chest Guardian, Red Templar Commander, Demon Commander
Important enemies that can be frozen : Rage demons, Terror demon, Red Templar Behemoth, Venatori Assassin, Venatori Commander, Arcane Horror Chest Guardian, Great Lizards (except one) and dragonlings
Enemies immune to burning : Rage Demons, Fire Wraith, Red Templar Behemoth, most Black Hooded Venatori Mages, Venatori Commander
Important Elemental Weaknesses/Resists : Avvar
Spoiler
Enemies weak to fire dmg : Despair demon, Red templar knight, Great Beasts (Druffalo), Cold Wraiths, Chest Guardians, Frost Dragon and dragonlings
Enemies weak to cold dmg : Rage demon, Red Templar Behemoth, Deepstalker and Gibbering horror, Fire Wraiths, Inferno Dragon and dragonlings, Darkspawn Emissary
Enemies weak to electricity dmg : Fear demon, Shieldbearing Venatori Warrior, Venatori Brute, Deepstalker and Gibbering horror, Shielded Darkspawn Warrior, Hurlock Alpha (brute), Megashield Genlock, Darkspawn Boss, Qunari Shocktrooper (brute) and Qunari Shieldman
Enemies strong against fire dmg : Rage Demon, Red Templar Behemoth, Fire Wraith, Black Hooded Venatori Mages, Inferno Dragon and dragonlings, Venatori Commander, Darkspawn Emissary, Sha-Brytol Mage, Darkspawn Boss, Qunari Shocktrooper (brute) and Qunari Shieldman
Enemies strong against cold dmg : Despair demon, Red Templar Knight, Cold Wraith, Chest Guardians, most Great Beasts (Druffalo), Frost Dragon and dragonlings, Sha-Brytol Mage, Qunari Spearman, Qunari Shocktrooper (brute)
Enemies strong against electricity dmg : Red Templar Horror, Spiders, Pride Demon, Storm Wraith, Storm Dragon and dragonlings
Yallegro's Ice Giant
If you have trouble with stamina management for this build (which I predict you will if you use a maul) consider switching to Master/Superb Stamina Amulet
Okay I admit it looks a lot like Son of Korth (with Chilling Tremor) but it gets its own section because it actually changes your gameplay somewhat. With the SoK you’re running about using the three main skills and aiming to set up Crushing Leap with the fourth skill there to improve the process in some way. With the Ice Giant you are constantly trying to set up Chilling Tremor using Crushing Leap as a bonus or to hit a different group with different elemental resists. You’ll also be more suited to take on heavy guard and you’ll kick even more ass when facing demons.
The Skills of The Ice Giant
Spoiler
Chilling Tremor
-Deals good dmg
-Freezes for a very long time
-Gives you another chance to use Ice Smash
-Good cooldown time
-Will briefly stagger enemies even if no one is frozen
-Somewhat helps you cover your rear by hitting enemies behind you
-Acquiring it opens up the possibility of getting Guard Smasher
-Can lead to a big shatter combo with Crushing Leap
Korth’s Might
-An extremely versatile skill
-At tier2 gives 8 sec of +50% damage if you just used a fire skill
-At tier2 gives 8 sec of +35% damage resistance is you just used an ice skill
-Quite a slow ability
-Looks like Mighty Blow but has no knockdown
-Still as effective as Mighty Blow for intercepting enemies and giving them a brief stun
-Can exploit elemental weakness but also suffers from elemental resistances
-The chill caused by Ice smash gives you +25% damage resistance with Chilled Defense
-Korth's Might can be used to create holes in the Red Templar Behemoth's Red Lyrium Wall
Crushing Leap
-Devastating ability with a fast cooldown time
-Huge area of effect
-You deal 25% extra dmg to targets set on fire by this ability
-You will always do a leap before attacking
-Leap becomes longer or shorter depending on how far the target is
-Length of the leap can be altered by speed bonusses or the chill effect
-Use on enemies weak to fire dmg
Hakkon’s Charge
-Always deals cold dmg
-Can knockdown enemies just like Charging Bull
-Much faster than Charging Bull
-You can steer better than with Charging Bull
-Can be used to cover great distances
-The tackle is followed by a more powerful strike that deals cold dmg
-Learn to aim this strike
-More suited than Charging Bull for short bursts that may only hit a single enemy
-Less suited than Charging Bull for lenghty charges, deals less dmg and gives no guard
-CAN BE BLOCKED BY SHIELDS !
-The chill it causes gives you +25% damage resistance with Chilled Defense
-If Hakkon’s Charge is cancelled by an enemy attack, the cooldown is not triggered
How to use The Ice Giant
Spoiler
Sprint to your enemy with Hakkon’s Charge and knock down what you can. Avoid enemies reistant to ice and favor targets weak to it (the despair demon is an exception as it needs to get knocked down). Land your Ice Smash to get your 35% dmg resistance +25% from Chilled Defense. At this point you have to choose to use Chilling Tremor or Crushing Leap.
-Consider elemental resistances
-Have you chilled enough (important) enemies to use Chilling Tremor ?
-If the group is dense that’s a pro for Chilling Tremor with its short range
-If the group is spread out use Crushing Leap with its large splash
If you could not sensibly use Chilling Tremor than use Hakkon’s Charge + Ice Smash to set up another chance. Fire Smash will add 50% to your dmg but it can only be used right after Crushing Leap and will be erased if you use an ice skill instead. Use it whenever it is favorable but don’t let your Ice Smash buff drop and don’t miss good chances to freeze with Chilling Tremor. That’s it, have fun.
-Choose your last passives, I recommend Guard Smasher
(New) Mountain Mage
Intro
Spoiler
Despite lacking Rage of the Avvar this is my tankiest Avvar yet. It also offers the most support and is a strong contender for the spot of best solo avvar build. With the new factions being so vulnerable to lightning and resistant to fire and cold it is also extra interesting for use against them. (Granted the build also deals a lot of cold dmg, but cold resistant foes are often still vulnerable to frozen.)
That being said it is best suited for players that have attained moderate to high survivability. There’s two reasons for that.
One, this build requires you to stay close to enemies whereas the other builds are best used in a « burst and run » strategy. Second is the nature of damage resistance (see below)
Damage resistance mechanic
Spoiler
Damage resistance can scale up to a maximum of 80% for both melee, ranged and magic.
It is made up of Stats, Frontal Defense, Passives and Abilities.
Stats : constition, cunning and willpower each add a specific type of damage resistance
Con : melee defense, cunning : ranged defense and willpower : magic defense
The formula for dmg resistance is (stat – 10) divided by two.
For instance 155 Willpower becomes 72,5% Magic Defense.
Frontal Defense : Applies only to 1-handed warriors and adds 30% to overal damage resistance within an arc of 180° in front of the character.
Passives : Examples are Ice Armor and Chilled Defense, do not confuse with Damage Reduction (Turn the Bolt, Crippling Blows, Weakness,…) which is a very different and less effective mechanic.
Abilities : Examples are Rage of the Avvar, Livid and Korth’s Might
I believe the different components are simply added up
The value of increasing dmg resistance rises as you get closer to the 80% cap.
Raising from a flat 25% dmg resistance to 50% will reduce incoming damage from 75% to 50%. This is the equivalant of reducing dmg by 33%, which in turn would allow you to survive 50% longer
Raising from a flat 25% to 80% will reduce incoming dmg from 75% to 20%. This is the equivalent of reducing dmg by 73% and allowing you to survive 275% longer.
Lady's Wrath
Spoiler
-Can deal critical hits
-Deals "damage over time" two times faster than other DoT abilities (so 40% wpn dmg is actually 80% by comparison)
-Very large AoE
-Somewhat makes up for the Avvar's lack of knockdown mitigation by dealing dmg while incapacitated
-With upgrade it can be active 90% of the time
-Extra interesting with the new factions being so vulnerable to lightning
How to use the Mountain Mage
Spoiler
Charge in, chill, freeze, tank. Then microwave them with Lady’s Wrath.
Lesson 1 : Use Lady’s Wrath first
Using Lady’s Wrath before charging just makes more sense. You can then chill with Hakkon Charge and Ice Smash and follow up with Chilling Tremor. If you activate after Hakkon’s Charge then Electric Smash will replace the Ice Smash from Hakkon’s Charge. This complicates your defense and Chilling Tremor combo.
Lesson 2 : Manage chill
Chilling Tremor has a very long freeze duration of 6 seconds.
It may even be 7.5 seconds with Elemental Attunement, I haven’t tested this.
Contrary to that, chill duration on the Avvar is short.
Chill from Korth’s Might only lasts 4 seconds.
Chill from Hakkon’s Charge lasts 6 seconds (this includes the 2nd hit).
This means you can’t just chill some foes and assume they will freeze when you eventually use Chiling Tremor, you have to use Chilling Tremor quickly.
Use Chilling Tremor right after
- Hakkon’s Charge
- -Ice Smash
- Hakkon’s Charge + Ice Smash
Lesson 3 : Appreciate Chilling Tremor’s range
Chilling Tremor has a much longer range than the animation would suggest.
Luckily the range of Chilling Tremor is identical to that of Lady’s Wrath, use this to mark and learn your range.
Lesson 4 : Just because an enemy is strong against cold doesn’t mean you can’t freeze that enemy.
Examples : Qunari Spearman, Venatori affected by cold resistant barrier, frost dragonlings, Qunari brute WITHOUT GUARD
Lesson 5 : Whenever you are knocked down, try and retaliate with Hakkon’s Charge/ Ice Smash/ Chiling Tremor to stun foes and up your defenses
Lesson 6 : Manage your defenses
-Chilled Defense can get glitchy, beware the glitch
-Using Ice Smash before the previous Ice Smash expires will not replace Ice Smash. Use Ice Smash after the previous one expires (watch the Ice Smash icon above your skills)
Lesson 7 : You can’t freeze an Arcane Horror because they’re immune to chilled.
Lesson 8 : Hitting an enemy with Electric Smash does decent dmg and seriously increases the dmg they take from magic attacks (35-57% in my notes)
Lesson 9 : Work together
The Mountain Mage benefits greatly from other characters inflicting chill.
+Better Chilling Tremor
+Better chilled defense
He even gets a 25% attack buff if an enemy is burning or shocked (shocked allows for even more dmg). Rogues in particular can set off powerful combos on frozen enemies.
-Choose your last passives. I recommend Warrior’s Resolve, Furious Blows and Guard Smasher.
The Duelist
Yallegro's 9 Lives Duelist
This not a build I'm particularly proud of. It was designed to give players with low stats at least one way to tank with a rogue. Nowadays that function is filled much better by the Silents Sister.
Yallegro's Swashbuckler A Yallegro's Swashbuckler B Yallegro's Swashbuckler C
Patch 10 Bear Maulsthe Wolves now reduces all enemy melee attacks from behind to 1 dmg
+Is ready sooner than the Keelhaul version requiring only Flank Attack tier 2 and Swashbuckle
+If you miss with Flank Attack you have at least Flashing Steel as backup.
+Better for giving everything a quick stun during a knockdown spam
+Better results when facing Shielded Warriors which you can stagger with Flashing Steel
+Good for hitting enemies behind you when using Bolt.
How is it worse ?
-Gets less use out Kirkwall Kiss because of vendetta stripping and less vendetta spam. But before both builds acquire Kirkwall Kiss, the Flashing Steel version is better (imo)
-Less effective from range
-Less suited when you need to retreat
-Invites greater risk
How to use
Make no mistake. At least 75% of your Swashbuckle attacks should be set up by your Flank Attack. Flashing Steel is helpful as a backup source of elusive, for providing a quick stagger and when you can strip two vendetta marks at once. Do not close in on opponents if you you’re not sure you’ll cash in a kill.
Blinding Shot Variant
Spoiler
This skill inflicts Blindness in a wide radius. The initial target is staggered and the cooldown is low. Blindness in essence means that the first attack these enemies make behaves like the receiving player had an elusive coin. Damage is reduced to 1 and no knockdown etc occurs. This also applies to attacks like Magical Mine. This makes it a good source of defense for the whole party. It also spares some of your elusive coins which you can then turn into Swashbuckle. Blindness is visible as smog covering the enemies
Advantages :
-Party defending duelist
-Blindness spares elusive coins which means improved offense
Disadvantages :
-Lower dmg output
-You get a little less use out of Kirkwall Kiss
-Requires more ability points (tier2 + higher dependence on Dead Men Tell no Tales)
Intro
Got two for the moment. The 9 Lives Duelist and Yallegro’s Swashbuckler. Respectivily an elusive tank and a high risk/high reward DPS machine.
The Skills
Spoiler
Flashing Steel
-The duelist’s best elusive grabber
-Briefly staggers all enemies it hits
-Can grab elusive of a dying enemy
-Targets have to have vendetta marks for the best possible damage
Ambush
-You leap forward much further if you target an enemy than if there are no enemies
-Deals massive damage to foes attacking other allies
-is an elusive grabber
-Placing vendetta often aggro’s enemies, foregoing the damage boost
-Very good for reaching enemies
-Taunts an enemy, which is generally a bad thing
-With the upgrade the taunt is an advantage, giving massive stamina regen.
-Ambush will not leap you to an enemy that’s offscreen, use your camera
Bolt
-Play like an archer at the cost of stamina
-The most reliable vendetta placer
-Can be used to finish of weak enemies
-Can deplete your stamina quickly if you overuse it
-Strafe to place vendetta on as many targets as possible
Flank Attack
-Tier1 is the same for assassin/alchemist and duelist
-Tier2 provides stealth to alchemist and assassin and two stacks of elusive for the duelist
-Works very well with Swashbuckle
-Works very well with Bolt
-Missing triggers the cooldown period
-Can hit several enemies if they’re close by and in line of the attack
-Not a very damaging ability
Swashbuckle
-Pierces Greatshields!
-The most damaging move the duelist has
-Has no cooldown whatsoever
-Has no stamina cost whatsoever
-Consuming elusive triggers a combo
-You leap forward at the start of this combo
-The combo has a wide AoE in front of the duelist
-The combo can be interrupted, elusive will still be gone
-Increases attack speed at tier2 (extra helpful with Kirkwall Kiss and also applies to Bolt)
Keelhaul
-Briefly staggers targets
-Immobilize works on many enemies
-Good damage and vendetta placement
-less damage and AoE than Broadsides
-Very helpful against Despair demons
-A good move to use during an enemy knockdown spam
How to use The 9 Lives Duelist
Spoiler
Couldn’t be simpler. Use Bolt on everything (strafing and camera tilts help) then use the most appriate move to get it back off. Flashing Steel is best for when surrounded or when needing a wide swing. Flanking Attack can dive deep into a mass, hitting several targets where the duelist is facing. Ambush is best for distant targets. Tier2 Ambush allows you to regain stamina when hitting the taunted target, you’ll need this stamina to spam Bolt and other moves. Always look for targets that aren’t facing you for using Ambush with a huge damage increase.
How to use The Swashbuckler
Spoiler
Quite a bit trickier. You start by using Bolt to place vendetta marks on as many different target as possible. Use Flank Attack to grab two stacks of elusive. Now would be a good time to use Swashbuckle.
“Here’s a cool trick, grab elusive, then place a vendetta mark on a target with Bolt. Kill this target with Swashbuckle, the mark should spread with Dead Men Tell No Tales”
Keep using your daggers ( Or Bolt which is what I often do)while looking for an opportunity to use Flank Attack/Swashbuckle. Kirkwall Kiss will lower your cooldown times if you strike at vendetta targets. Use KeelHaul to quickly place vendetta marks on grouped enemies this also acts as a quick interrupt (think Terror demons). KeelHaul is also very good for setting up Flank Attack with multiple targets and trapping Despair demons. You should be very good at killing Despair demons (and mages and most things) but Despair demons are also very good at killing you as their beam rips through your limited elusive. Make use of your tank and barrier spammer.
(new) Flank Attack makes for a very good interrupt that doesn't knock the target down. As such, the target is extra vulnerable to incoming damage. Use abundantly on mages and Terror demons. Despair demons require quite a bit of precision to hit appropriately. When they are using their beam attack the fail rate of Flank Attack is especially high, consider other options or try to hit them from a favorable angle.
(new) Flank Attack can be used on knocked down targets with a bit of precision. Larger targets like the RT Horror and Terror demon are very easy to hit while knocked down.
(new) Swashbuckle's tracking isn't perfect. The first hit is quite accurate but the following hits will miss often if the target moves but a little. Avoid using Swashbuckle on targets running away from you. Swashbuckle is also very vulnerable to interruptions. Use Swashbuckle right after getting elusive with Flank Attack (or Flashing Steel) to minimize interruptions
(new) If you can't flank a shielded warrior you can still place vendetta on them by baiting their smash attack and firing Bolt when they drop their guard. Follow up with Flank Attack.
(new) the duelist has no built in armor penetration. This means that it is very important to equip armor penetration if you don't want your attacks decimated by high armor targets like Venatori Brutes, RT Knight, RT Horror, Rage demons, Pride demons, Shielded Warriors, Great Charging Beasts and of coursethe Dragon. Even if you have some armor penetration it pays to seek out low armor targets like Archers, Mages, Gibbering Horror, Deepstalker, Terror demons, Demon Wraiths and Despair demons.
(new) You can improve Swashbuckle's tracking significantly with the attack speed increase on the Swashbuckle upgrade. This does not apply to the first Swashbuckle you use.
(new) If you have enough power, try taking out a single target with Bolt volleys. Dead Men Tell no Tales will then spread vendetta faster then you could have with strafing and camera swings.
If using your daggers is too risky then escape the fray and use Bolt from a distance until your abilties recharge. Immobilizing helps a lot
-Get Salty Sea Dog (according to Wavebend, the dmg reduction mechanic of this passive works very poorly on higher difficulties, do not get it on difficulties beyond threatening)
-Get Dead Men Tell No Tales
-Choose your last passives and upgrades: I recommend Ambush tier2, Avenger, Black Mark
Do not Get Savvy, supposedly it does not work for Bolt
-Choose your last passives: possible are "Salty Sea Dog" (according to Wavebend, the dmg reduction mechanic of this passive works very poorly on higher difficulties, do not get it on difficulties beyond threatening), "Savvy" (actually very bugged), Black Mark, Naturally Elusive (I found a fourth hit on Swashbuckle to be impractical, I don't get this passive), Unyielding and Avenger. I get the Swashbuckle upgrade and Unyielding or Bear Mauls the Wolves
Why not to get
Spoiler
Gangway: If you want to speed towards a foe, Ambush is more damaging/faster and get you elusive. If you want to to step away from a foe, Bolt will do more dmg and add vendetta marks
Grizzly, Sir Perkins, Thadrial and 1 other like this
Normally a basic attack sequence consists of a four hit combo (more for daggers). If you are at all unsatisfied by the speed of that combo you can try the attack-cancel to speed it up. You wait until you landed your first hit, then hit L3, the sprint button. You will return to your starting position in the combo. By spamming L3 with proper timing you can hit an enemy a lot faster in a fashion much resembling an old-school hack-and-slash animation. Alternative to L3 you can use "press and hold" skills like Shield Wall or Block and Slash, which even provides a chance to block/counter with these abilities.
Is there a way to cancel War Horn animation? I find L3 doesn't work....or I suck.
Is there a way to cancel War Horn animation? I find L3 doesn't work....or I suck.
I have remapped/switched my L3 and L1 buttons, takes a few games to get out of the habit of clicking the stick to get running, but is so much nicer. I have a habit of hitting run anytime I pass over a rock as that always seems to knock me back to a walk. Also helps with run cancelling too.
I don't get much use out of it with Reaver (barring the first game after a promote), but I figure I've extended the life of my joypad greatly by not driving my thumb into the stick a million times a game!
When i get home I can try it out a bit and see if there is anything to cancel out of warhorn.
I find that combat roll doesn't break the animations of previous attacks anywhere near where I'd like. I'd love to be able to roll out of unnecessary claw swipes.
Awful builds. No payback strike on lego, no TTD on katari, no firestorm on elementalist, no fade step/cloak on necromancer, spirit blade on aw, veilstrike on keeper.
The reaver is the only good build here and its been covered several times on this forum.
Do you even play nightmare? Can you post some nightmare gameplay? In your previous thread i asked you to post gameplay but you didnt respond.
Also all mages are resistant to their own element. Not just fire.
I'm fairly sure you can't edit the controller layout on the PS4. I can't seem to find it anywhere in the options menu, at least.
It's part of the PS4 OS. You'll find it under settings>accessibility, something like that. You can even enable and disable the remapping on the fly while a game is running.
Awful builds. No payback strike on lego, no TTD on katari, no firestorm on elementalist, no fade step/cloak on necromancer, spirit blade on aw, veilstrike on keeper.
The reaver is the only good build here and its been covered several times on this forum.
Do you even play nightmare? Can you post some nightmare gameplay? In your previous thread i asked you to post gameplay but you didnt respond.
Also all mages are resistant to their own element. Not just fire.
I think he mentioned in his first data dump thread that he was working on Perilous testing most of the builds, so take that for what it's worth!
I think Yallegro did a fine job with these... Few little mistakes here and there.
What really kills me is trying to use it for any sort of reference. Would it kill you to add some spoiler tags? Seriously, it's completely useless on mobile, and even on desktop it takes me years to scroll through all of it.
Some decent work here but you have what I consider one big contradiction. You extoll the virtues of shield bash for the legionaire and then you say it sucks for the Templar. for the Templar I keep shield bash and instead of shield wall I go with unbowed to generate a fairly constant guard.
I rarely see any Legionnaire focused on real tanking... The setup I like in FC NM is:
-War Cry
-Counterstrike
-Walking Fortress
-Either Shield Bash or Payback Strike
Having two provoking abilities you can tank far more reliable instead of a 45sec cooldown taunt. Starting level 14, this build http://da-skills.net...1,00100,010,1,d, becomes very effective imo. You'll tank most monsters and protect your allies if grouped together. Having one of these Legionnaires makes the damage dealer's job easier to do.
Also, on Elementalist. That Firestorm... It's just EXTREMLY good for crowd control due massive knockdown. One gotta like it! xD
I don't dislike Shield Bash at all, I just switched to Shield Wall for better stamina supply. The character plays a lot smoother this way
(This is a sensitive issue) Firestorm is a bit overrated, it stacks burns you can't replace, it costs tons of mana, hopeless trying to cast it during an enemy knockdown spam and nightmare is full of targets just immune to fire and/or knockdown. Still going to test some Firestorm versions, but I greatly preferred this one over the previous Firestorm else I used.
I don't dislike Shield Bash at all, I just switched to Shield Wall for better stamina supply. The character plays a lot smoother this way
(This is a sensitive issue) Firestorm is a bit overrated, it stacks burns you can't replace, it costs tons of mana, hopeless trying to cast it during an enemy knockdown spam and nightmare is full of targets just immune to fire and/or knockdown. Still going to test some Firestorm versions, but I greatly preferred this one over the previous Firestorm else I used.
Will find out how to place spoiler tags
later,
Aggrojagg: that is just a troll, ignore him
Right so because i call you out for not showing any nightmare gameplay whatsoever, i must be a troll. No, your builds just suck. Your post is full of misinformation and yet again youre deciding to stick your fingers in your ears instead of addressing the points i made.
I think he mentioned in his first data dump thread that he was working on Perilous testing most of the builds, so take that for what it's worth!
Perilous and nightmare are hugely different difficulties. Explains why these builds are so sub par though, theyd probably work for perilous and below, but not for NM.
Awful builds.
Do you even play nightmare? Can you post some nightmare gameplay?
I will not defeat Yallegro's build here, but since played with him several times on FC NM, clearing the stages without wiping even once (mostly without anyone dying in the team), yes he is playing on NM and he is doing a good job. Period.
You simply have to acknowlegde the effort and work he puts into his work. Of course he is not the only one writing and building some guides here and like any other human, makes mistakes here and there, but all in all the guides might help some clueless or casual players, who do not know how to build their classes or how to react to different situations and enemy types. Since Yal tries to cover a very large area of the MP, from enemy weaknesses, to reviving strategies, to pro/cons of skills etc, its unfair to say "everything is awful".
I rarely see any Legionnaire focused on real tanking... The setup I like in FC NM is:
-War Cry
-Counterstrike
-Walking Fortress
-Either Shield Bash or Payback Strike
Also, on Elementalist. That Firestorm... It's just EXTREMLY good for crowd control due massive knockdown. One gotta like it! xD
This!
Exactly the build I'm using for my lego. ^^
Best teamplayer, constantly drawing attention to him, knocking enemies down with his payback strike. I sometimes switch Counterstrike or War Cry for To the Death on NM, for the very bulky and heavy armoured enemies like Pride Demons, but WC and CS with "Cutting words" aren't so bad either if you want to boost the dps of your group.
@ Topic
Yal, you should really consider "Firestorm" for the Ele. It's just too good. If I was supposed not to use it, i wouldn't even know what to use my The Flashpoint buff for. Immolation? Barrier? No... just no. Immo's burn effect doesn't stack, as we all know, and barrier needs to be worn off, so that the next casting has a shorter cooldown. Firestorm in a group of enemies can really help the whole group to take a short break and focus on more dangerous targets. It even immobilize several very dangerous ones like RT Shadows and Despair Demons. It's just... too good. :3
For the Avvar: I know how useful War Horn on NM is, but replacing something ingeniously good as "Lady's Wrath"? I think the Avvar really needs to have all 3 elemental option ready for any nightmare match, because of the high resistances the different enemy types have, just to have more than 1 option to deal dmg to your target.
For the AW: Your Setup is "staying alive at all cost" with SB and Fade Cloak, so the very tanky approach, I like the "supporting" AW more. Pull of the Abyss has such a nice synergy with different classes like the Reaver or the Duelist. It can amazingly increase their dps. And it weakens enemies, with Smotering Veil even more. Perhaps you remember the runs, where I played the AW with PotA and you and 1 other player were playing 2 reavers. I heard the enemies crying, because of how fast they were dying. ^^
For the Keeper: I like Disruption Field. I simply like it. It's like a second barrier. Savely reviving allies while standing under the bubble or protecting you and your fellow range dps companion like an archer with it from enemy range attacks, is just nice. Even stupid random dragon fire can be blocked with it.
AW is just straight up bad in nightmare (and overall right now) imo. Only thing going for him is PotA and even that is outclassed by static cage or firestorm in both duration and damage. Everything else he has is available on ele or keeper who are much better in team support. I didn't mention spirit blade because that skill is dead to me, seriously don't use it. Unless you really have no dps in your team and need to take out guard somehow.
If you want a class with high survivability and low damage, take lego. At least he can help others stay alive too. If you want 1,5h NM castle runs, take AW.
I wouldn't recommend taking avvar to nightmare either but maybe that's just a l2p issue.
Forgot to reply to this one: Veilstrike does inflict sleep at tier2 AND weakness. But the conditions for sleep to take effect are "wily" ,need to update on that one
-Cant argue with a Firestorm fan Lax , I get more breathing room from Fade Cloak then casting Barrier on everyone 2 seconds later
-I do like the idea of Disruption Field so it is definitely off the why not to get list for Nightmare, still: delayed acquisition of Gathering Storm which so enhances Static Cage and Barrier and you can kiss Veilstrike + Restorative Veil goodbye
-Arcane is just fine for nightmare, especially with scepter of Razikale, a bit slow on the dps though. Ya I should consider more teamplay options like Abyss Pull, most of my builds are centered around the "be ready to do it all yourself principle"
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, I get more breathing room from Fade Cloak then casting Barrier on everyone 2 seconds later
