Let's face it... Gorgeous George is irresistible. He loves being the life of the party and with his jet set lifestyle, George always seems to be in the middle of the action. Women flock to him, orcs flock to him, demons flock to him, everybody loves to be around George. Lets just say George always likes to have an entourage of groupies... and he prefers them on their backs. There's just something about him that makes you want to be as close to him as possible; and never leave.
George is beefy;
he's never tried to pretend otherwise. George loves his Mutton, ale, and women. George however, has a definative character flaw; he's terrible at goodbyes, so terrible in fact that once he has your undivided attention, he is loathe to losing it. This makes George angry. George is a very jealous man, and he shares with no one.
Gorgeous George is a sticky Warden Second Wind optimization build. In his youth George sought to be as fit and impervious to harm as possible, but now George just likes attention. George's strategy is to gather a flock of admirers, lock them down around him, and punish them with Crippling Crush damage as well as mark punishment and OA's should they decide to stray. Restraining, immobilizing, slowing, and forms/feats/zones that create or enforce difficult terrain are the order of the day. Not to be content with merely hampering foes, George can dish out plenty of extra damage thanks to a carefully selected repertoire of Feats and synergy with his Paragon Path Breach Warden.
George is definately no push over... sporting 4 second winds and a variety of ways to stay alive, exploit second wind and it's various defensive strategies, George is in for the long haul
At-Will Powers: L1: Thorn Strike L1: Weight of Earth
Encounter Powers: L1: Roots of Stone L3: Rough Strike L7: Mountain's Stature L11: Venting Breach
Daily Powers: L1: Form of Winter's Herald L5: Earth Shaking Rend L9: Form of the Oak Sentinel
Utility Powers: L2: Endure Pain (endurance skill power) L6: Soothing Wind - Super Mandatory now that the nerfed Dwarves in HotFL L10: Spiritual Rejuvenation
Magic Items (Expected GP=32,000): (13,000): +3 Defensive Warhammer (4,200): Battle Standard of the Hungry Blade (4,200): +2 Cloak of the Walking Wounded (3,400): Boots of Quickness (heroic) (3,400): Circlet of Indomitability (heroic) (3,400): Veteran's Hide Armor (heroic) (580): Bracers of Mighty Striking (10): Heavy Shield
Discussion
This is of course where we pick up our Paragon Path and George has deciden to go with Breach Warden. Carefully selecting our damage type daily will situationally guarantee us advantages, as well as potential vulnerability synergy via Elemental Wind (16th level Utility) which after Second Wind will apply vulnerability of the chosen damage type to all of our marked enemies. In addition we will be employing our Daily Free Action Stance Power (!) Recall the Breach which will apply 2d6 extra damage upon the intial triggering hit, but more importantly will damage any foe that hits us equal to our Con mod.
With Breaching Action, whenever we use an action point to take an extra action and hit with a power all of our adjacent marked enemies will take Con mod in damage as well.
Whenever we Crit and enemy, or take damage ourselves from the chosen type, all enemies marked enemies take our Con mod in damage as well.
And finally Form of the Living Breach is an impressive form to fill out our selections which grants +2 to Defenses, and creates a permanent zone until the end of the encounter 3 squares around us. When an enemy starts its turn within the zone, as a free action we can pull them one square and they are slowed until the end of your next turn.
POWERS Warden at-will 1: Weight of Earth Warden at-will 1: Thorn Strike Warden encounter 1: Roots of Stone Warden daily 1: Form of Winter's Herald Warden utility 2: Endure Pain Warden encounter 3: Rough Strike Warden daily 5: Earth-Shaking Rend Warden utility 6: Treacherous Ice Warden encounter 7: Mountain's Stature Warden daily 9: Form of the Oak Sentinel Warden utility 10: Spiritual Rejuvenation Warden encounter 13: Stormhowler's Strike (replaces Roots of Stone) Warden daily 15: Form of the Crushing Mountain (replaces Form of the Oak Sentinel) Warden utility 16: Diehard Warden encounter 17: Warden's Lure (replaces Rough Strike) Warden daily 19: Howl of Wrath (replaces Form of Winter's Herald)
ITEMS Defensive Craghammer +4 Darkhide Armor of Enduring Health +5 Throwing Shield Heavy Shield (paragon tier) Cloak of the Walking Wounded +4 Helm of Able Defense (paragon tier) Ring of Feather Fall (paragon tier) Boots of Quickness (heroic tier) Strikebacks (heroic tier) Sash of Vitality Ceaseless (paragon tier) Iron Armbands of Power (paragon tier) Battle Standard of the Hungry Blade (heroic tier) Premonition Ring (paragon tier)
POWERS At-Will Powers: L1: Thorn Strike - at will pull L1: Weight of Earth - at will slow
Encounter Powers: L11: Venting Breach L17: Warden's Lure L23: Nature's Ally L27: Ravenous Earth Daily Powers: L5: Earth Shaking Rend L15: Form of the Crushing Mountain L20: Form of the Living Breach L25: Form of the Entangling Spider Utility Powers: L2: Endure Pain (endurance skill power) - Resistance this high is good. L6: Soothing Wind - Super Mandatory now that they nerfed Dwarves in HotFL L10: Spiritual Rejuvenation - regain your second wind, nuff said. L12: Recall the Breach - free action stance that auto damages enemies that hit you, cool. L16: Cleansing Earth - subject to a condition and immediately make a save +9 against it once per ENC L22: Renewal - minor action spend healing surge, regain ENC attack power. Yes.
ITEMS Elderhide Armor of Enduring Health +6 Defensive Warhammer +6 Iron Armbands of Power (epic tier) Boots of Quickness (paragon tier) Timeless Locket +6 Shadow Band (epic tier) Belt of Vim (paragon tier) Shield of Ultimate Protection Heavy Shield (epic tier) Foe Caller Gauntlets (epic tier) Battle Standard of the Hungry Blade (heroic tier) Ring of Guarded Will (epic tier) Circlet of Indomitability (paragon tier) Feyslaughter Throwing hammer +5 Stone of Earth (paragon tier) Dice of Auspicious Fortune (paragon tier)
Level 30 "Sticky Nova, Form of the Living Breach damaging version"Show
Move/Minor Action - Form of the Living Breach (+2 Defenses)
Standard Action - Warden's Lure, pull all enemies adjacent to you hit or miss. All enemies are slowed via Hindering Shield. All enemies who are slowed take 9 damage via Crippling Crush.
Free Action - Mark all adjacent enemies with Nature's Wrath.
Free Action - Second Wind - All defenses increase +15, +9 for Earthstrength, +6 Defensive Weapon, all adjacent enemies gain vulnerable 9 to energy of our choice for the day via Elemental Wind until EONT.
Action Point - Earth Shaking Rend (close blast 3!) - knock all adjacent enemies prone, deal 18 damage to each via Breaching Action.
All enemies are now Prone, slowed, and in difficult terrain. If they try to stand then use their standard to move out of zone they will be eating an OA, not to mention if they start their turn within 3 squares of us we will be pulling them 1 square as a free action and they will be slowed until EONT.
If they attempt to stand with their move and then Charge one of your allies with their Standard you can use Warden's Grasp to shift them and negate the attack.
Essentially they cant leave the zone.
Turn 2
Minor Action - Sustain Earth Shaking Rend zone.
Standard Action - Form of the Living Breach Attack - 4(W)+26 (+9 from vulnerability) to each sorrounding enemy. Ongoing damage 10 versus each enemy and each adjacent enemy to target takes an additional 14 (9 from vulnerability). Now add another 2d6 for each with Recall the Breach (+9 for vulnerability) as well as 9 more for Crippling Crush as you will be slowing them via Hindering Shield.
Level 30 "Stickier Nova, Form of the Crushing Mountain version"Show
Move/Minor Action - Form of the Crushing Mountain (+2 AC, enemies can't shift and must spend an extra square of movement to move away from you)
Standard Action - Warden's Lure, pull all enemies adjacent to you hit or miss. All enemies are slowed via Hindering Shield. All enemies who are slowed take 9 damage via Crippling Crush.
Free Action - Mark all adjacent enemies with Nature's Wrath.
Free Action - Second Wind - All defenses increase +15, +9 for Earthstrength, +6 Defensive Weapon
Action Point - Earth Shaking Rend (close blast 3!) - knock all adjacent enemies prone All enemies are now Prone, slowed, difficult terrain and must spend an extra square of movement to leave squares adjacent. If they try to stand then use their standard to move out of zone they will be eating an OA, not to mention if they start their turn within 3 squares of us we will be pulling them 1 square as a free action and they will be slowed until EONT.
So essentially they can't leave the zone.
Turn 2
Minor Action - Sustain Earth Shaking Rend zone
Standard Action - Ravenous Earth - 3(W)+17 and all adjacent squares to target become a zone of shifting ground until EONT. any in the zone are immobilized and take 2d10 damage.
AC - Base 39 - 53 after second wind------(55 at start of ENC till injured) Fort - Base 35 - 49 after second wind------(51 at start of ENC till injured) Ref - Base 31 - 44 after second wind------(46 at start of ENC till injured) Will - Base 30 - 44 after second wind------(46 at start of ENC till injured)
AC - Base 49 - 66 after second wind--(72 with Shield of Ultimate Defense)---(74 Form of the Living Breach) Fort - Base 45 - 62 after second wind--(68 with Shield of Ultimate Defense)---(70 Form of the Living Breach) Ref - Base 39 - 56 after second wind--(62 with Shield of Ultimate Defense)---(64 Form of the Living Breach) Will - Base 44 - 61 after second wind-- (68 with Shield of Ultimate Defense)---(70 Form of the Living Breach)
But I only casually know Wardens (largely from the DM side), so please explain the following to me: But how are you doing your encounter to encounter work in Heroic or Paragon ? What do you have left it the chips are down, no encounter powers left and dailys used up in earlier fights ?
But I only casually know Wardens (largely from the DM side), so please explain the following to me: But how are you doing your encounter to encounter work in Heroic or Paragon ? What do you have left it the chips are down, no encounter powers left and dailys used up in earlier fights ?
Luck? No seriously that's a great question which brings up a serious issue with this build, and I'm afraid most Wardens in general. They aren't going to really hit their stride till about 9th level. Their survivability, especially this build, will really kick into overdrive around 11th/12th level... after that with a few second winds per encounter he should be fine. Unless your DM is overtly sadistic then nothing will save you anyway!
I wasn't talking about your surviveability - Warden's are great or even greater at that, no question. I was interested in your capacities in building up "lure" on an encounter and on an at-will basis, because that's what I thought the build would be about.
I will be posting per tier strategy's - early on no question will be relying on Form of the Winter's Herald as well as thorn Strike at Will (this pulls). Mountain's Stature is 7th level pull or knock prone... the build alas will not sticky shine until paragon as well.
You'll want to take a look at your defenses when you second wind. You're missing the +2 from the act of second winding alone, but at 1st level you don't get Con to your NADs, just AC (that comes with Earthstrength Defenses).
Here's what I got:
Level 1: AC: +5 (+2 for second wind, +3 for class feature) Fort, Ref, Will +2
Level 11: You took Earthstrength Defenses here, so you now get +Con to all defenses +10 to all defenses (+2 for second wind, +5 Con, +3 for Defensive Weapon)
Level 21 should give you a +13 to all defenses, and level 30 should give you a +16
I'm loving the dwarf love lately. I guess it's only due, since they're borderline overpowered now when you look at how well they synergize with the warden class features. I admit that I've neglected my LFR warden in recent months, and the change that they'll be getting in Essentials has renewed my interest to the point where I'll be pulling out that character a lot more often.
I'll add this thread to my build list the next time I'm at my home computer.
You'll want to take a look at your defenses when you second wind. You're missing the +2 from the act of second winding alone, but at 1st level you don't get Con to your NADs, just AC (that comes with Earthstrength Defenses).
Here's what I got:
Level 1: AC: +5 (+2 for second wind, +3 for class feature) Fort, Ref, Will +2
Level 11: You took Earthstrength Defenses here, so you now get +Con to all defenses +10 to all defenses (+2 for second wind, +5 Con, +3 for Defensive Weapon)
Level 21 should give you a +13 to all defenses, and level 30 should give you a +16
I'm loving the dwarf love lately. I guess it's only due, since they're borderline overpowered now when you look at how well they synergize with the warden class features. I admit that I've neglected my LFR warden in recent months, and the change that they'll be getting in Essentials has renewed my interest to the point where I'll be pulling out that character a lot more often.
I'll add this thread to my build list the next time I'm at my home computer.
Ahhh good catch sir! Thanks man! Ya the image was a little intentional haha. making adjustments now.
For all you Warden optimizers out there *obtusehobbit* here's my plan for future uberdom. I need a reliable and consistent form of damage that will hurt me such as a zone, ongoing damage that I can opt not to save for (like stream of life cleric power tho I don't think one exists) or anything that can injure me even slightly via elemental damage for the next phase of my master plan. Thoughts?
I will look it over a little more closely when I get the chance. I to love the dwarf love and the number of different and interesting Warden builds that have been put together over the last week or so.