Having fun with Vanguard, any tips from Vanguard pros would be welcome

[Sarlona Raiding]

I've been wanting to try out Vanguard ever since Myth Drannor was on Lamannia, but was a bit nervous as the last time I ran Vanguard dps was just too low to be viable. This is replacing my previous tanky melee which was a dragonlord swashbuckler with handaxe/buckler before this.

I am trying str-based Vanguard now and it's definitely much better now. My last attempt several years ago was vanguard T5/capstone with splashes in KOTC and sacred defender as this was before the 25% hp was available in melee T5s. The DPS was just too low at the time.

My current iteration is T5 KOTC 38 pts, Vanguard 41 pts including capstone, 19 in bladeforged and 2 in Harper agent - definitely looking to make improvements.

My ED split is Divine Crusader 35 T5/Capstone, Unyielding Sentinel 24 and Fury of the Wild 24.

Current gear:

Eyes: Legendary Raven's Sight with Globe of Imperial True Blood and Protection 11
Head: Legendary Helm of Sun's wrath with Healing Amp 57, Wisdom 12 and Solar Melee Power 15
Neck: Legendary Pendant of Crippling Strikes with Stunning 16, Ins Strength 5 and Lunar Melee Power 15
Trinket: Heart of Suulomades with Good Luck 3, Repair Amp 57, Legendary Swordcrossed Topaz
Cloak: Legendary Cloak of the Forest's Blade with Swiftness 15, Strength 14, Solar AC 15%
Belt: Legendary Strap of Saviness with Riposte 6, Ins Con 5, Lunar PRR 30
Ring: Legendary Band of Faith and Fortress with Armored Agility 2, Insightful Dex 5
Gloves: Legendary Raven's Talons with Feather Falling and Festive Con 2
Boots: Legendary Greaves of Season's Warding with Natural Armor 14, Con 14, Lunar MRR 30
Ring 2: CC with Repair Lore 22, Reconstruct 153, Ins Phys Sheltering 17, Fortune Str 2 with Festive Str 2 and Cha 14
Bracers: Devilscale Bracers with Damage 11 and Defense 36
Armor: Legendary Docent of Crownblades' Reflection with Legendary Wraithborn Emerald and Ravil's Book of Legendary Recipes

Main Hand (Mobs): Ignition with Vampire Slayer and Feareater with unleash the storm crafted
Main Hand (Bosses): Bastard sword of the undying age with Vampire Slayer and Deconstructor with Dust crafted
Off-Hand (Mobs): Legendary Large Shield of the Golden Age with Shatter 16 and Ruby of Devotion 153
Off-Hand (Bosses): Palisde with Shatter 16, Devotion 153 with Vacuum crafted

So far did a small amount of testing at level cap with a solo R8 grim and barrett and a few other quests. Compared to dragon lord I am missing the Dragon's Roar / Dire Charge combo, but the rotation of Throw the Boom with KOTC cleaves is working well and on mobs the salt, 2 paralysis procs, feareater and legendary slay living seem to be doing their job well. Soloing LH VOD is easier compared to my Dragonlord.

Anyhow, will be doing alot of tweaking and testing the next few weeks, but any thoughts from long-time vanguards is appreciated.

The main goal of this build:
Solo LH VOD or higher
Solo all quests R6 at a reasonable pace
2-man R10s
2-man/short-man modern raids

Current stats which I haven't mathed out yet to flush out DDO bugs:

AC: 436
PRR: just over 400
MRR: just over 240
HP: just over 4800 in reaper
Melee Power: 320 (not including sancifiied fervor/prowess swap boost, action boost, consumables, etc.)

It's a new gear set so I don't have great curses, mythic/reaper bonuses yet. I put a reaper armor bonus on the docent.

Thoughts on race: Am liking bladeforged so far for the self-healing, but shifter would have rage boosts and aasimar has racial vulnerability allowing me to use ooze on my shield. I may try one or both of those races at some point. Shifter seems like it would scale better to R10s as the rage temp hp isn't impacted by the healing debuff.

Any thoughts, ideas, tips are appreciated. I appreciate all the tips and ideas so far! I've already implemented some.

 

[Mechgraber]

I've been wanting to try out Vanguard ever since Myth Drannor was on Lamannia, but was a bit nervous as the last time I ran Vanguard dps was just too low to be viable. This is replacing my previous tanky melee which was a dragonlord swashbuckler with handaxe/buckler before this.

This is almost uncanny as I was running a 16/3/1 just before this. You'll miss the crits and chain AOE size plus the roar, but it's a bit more survivable, particularly with MRR.

I am trying str-based Vanguard now and it's definitely much better now. My last attempt several years ago was vanguard T5/capstone with splashes in KOTC and sacred defender as this was before the 25% hp was available in melee T5s. The DPS was just too low at the time.

It's much improved, yes. It's not TOP dps or anything but I'll really only get outkilled by someone who really knows their **** and is very optimized. Or an artificer/inquisitive who tries a bit.

My current iteration is T5 KOTC 38 pts, Vanguard 41 pts including capstone, 19 in bladeforged and 2 in Harper agent - definitely looking to make improvements.

Agree KotC tier 5 is much better than vanguard. When I first did this build I went a similar route but I've since switched to 41 KotC, 31 vanguard, 8 vistani for haste boost. You miss that tasty vanguard capstone but I always felt that a lot of the vanguard tree was a bit fluffy, and 31 is plenty in it.

My ED split is Divine Crusader 39 T5/Capstone, Unyielding Sentinel 23 and Macrotechnic 21.

DC 37, US 21 and FoTW 24 here. Quick cutter is absolutely amazing, and you can pick up that massive melee power scaling heal every 30 seconds, plus grab 3 rage charges for "oh ****" moments. I also slotted a +3 rage augment so I have 6 big big heals. They'll hit for around 5-6k in normal, so even in r8 it's useful enough. Can even have a hotswap of blood feast for massive temp hp going into combat, I'll couple that with a brighthorn throwing dagger for 2k+ hp going into big fights.

What did you take in macro? I've never really ran that much. I guess for BF is has a lot of synergy there.

Current gear:

Eyes: Legendary Raven's Sight with Globe of Imperial True Blood and Protection 11
Head: Legendary Helm of Sun's wrath with Stunning 16, Wisdom 12 and Solar Melee Power 15
Neck: Legendary Pendant of Crippling Strikes with Melee Power 10, Ins Strength 5 and Lunar Melee Power 15
Trinket: Heart of Suulomades with Good Luck 3, Repair Amp 57, Legendary Swordcrossed Topaz
Cloak: Legendary Cloak of the Forest's Blade with Swiftness 15, Strength 14, Solar AC 15%
Belt: Legendary Strap of Saviness with Riposte 6, Ins Con 5, Lunar PRR 30
Ring: Legendary Band of Faith and Fortress with Armored Agility 2, Insightful Dex 5
Gloves: Legendary Raven's Talons with Feather Falling and Festive Con 2
Boots: Legendary Greaves of Season's Warding with Natural Armor 14, Con 14, Lunar MRR 30
Ring 2: CC with Repair Lore 22, Reconstruct 153, Ins Phys Sheltering 17, Fortune Str 2 with Festive Str 2 and Cha 14
Bracers: Devilscale Bracers with Damage 11 and Defense 36
Armor: Legendary Docent of Crownblades' Reflection with Legendary Wraithborn Emerald and Ravil's Book of Legendary Recipes

Looks very reasonable. I went vecna infernal dance for chest/helm/cloak (I had some nice curses/reaper bonuses), sora katra for ring/trinket/glovees (artifact PRR/universal spellpower/to hit/damage/imbue dice/helplessness damage/+3 all stats is crazy for 3 items), and then MD for belt/necklace/boots/bracers with profane augments (MP/heal amp/MRR/PRR) and MD berserker goggs (proc is amazing!) with artifact PRR.

I also went with the acid proc ring from MA instead of the faith and fortress, although I may reconsider that.

Trinket artifact is quite nice, can also hotswap to plat piece for 50 spell absorb. I put treachery and dark divergence in mine, can get to -70% threat which is usually enough. 0% threat probably isn't enough against some tanks.

MD armor is certainly nice for AC, though. But I don't have the stones to try to farm those out.

Main Hand (Mobs): Ignition with Cold Iron and Feareater with unleash the storm crafted
Main Hand (Bosses): Bastard sword of the undying age with Cold Iron and Deconstructor with Dust crafted
Off-Hand: Palisade with Shatter 16, Devotion 153 with Vacuum crafted

Pretty much identical here, except was lucky enough to get a large golden shield yesterday, and put lifetaker in it. Was using a fallen tower before, and before that collossus. Guardbreaking is super handy. And ignition has deconstructor.

So far did a small amount of testing at level cap with a solo R8 grim and barrett and a few other quests. Compared to dragon lord I am missing the Dragon's Roar / Dire Charge combo, but the rotation of Throw the Boom with KOTC cleaves is working well and on mobs the salt, 2 paralysis procs, feareater and legendary slay living seem to be doing their job well.

Yep it's a hell of a build and I'm enjoying it as well, probably will be my final life build. A nice mix of CC, DPS and tankiness.

Anyhow, will be doing alot of tweaking and testing the next few weeks, but any thoughts from long-time vanguards is appreciated.

The main goal of this build:
Solo LH VOD or higher
Solo all quests R6 at a reasonable pace
2-man R10s
2-man/short-man modern raids

I think that's all doable. I've done just about all r6, working on all r8.

Duo r10 is possible with the right person, pally heals with renew/cure serious is plenty if you have a partner who has good dps and can tank, or can trade agro back and forth. Some quests might be an issue (Marilith in Vecna comes to mind) but overall it's an excellent duo r10 option with enough self/other healing and the CC/tankiness/DPS.

Did LH Chrono and LN VOD was very comfortable, will try LH soon. LN FOM as well, LH is probably doable too.

Current stats which I haven't mathed out yet to flush out DDO bugs:

AC: 470
PRR: just over 400
MRR: just over 240
HP: just over 4800 in reaper
Melee Power: 320 (not including sancifiied fervor/prowess swap boost, action boost, consumables, etc.)

Yea pretty close here, HP 4850, PRR 374 MRR 207, and my AC tops out around 300. I imagine the difference is MD armor and macrotechnic and no 15% AC augment. Lower MRR, I think due to no ring. MP 317 so almost exactly the same.

It's a new gear set so I don't have great curses, mythic/reaper bonuses or curses yet. Was planning to put a reaper bonus on the docent, but my AC seems high enough without it so I may or may not do that.

Thoughts on race: Am liking bladeforged so far for the self-healing, but shifter would have rage boosts and aasimar has racial vulnerability allowing me to use ooze on my shield. I may try one or both of those races at some point.

I'm currently Tabaxi just for the past life, but the healing amp from Aasimar makes it a winner. Should hit ~350 with it. Both fallen or whatever the other option is are both solid, I'll probably go fallen but having more hp and PRR/MRR rarely hurts.

Eladrin for dodge wings is also nice, 50 seconds of +37 dodge is very nice for r8+ dooms.

Dwarf for radiant forcefield also solid but would probably use the dwarven axe so not worth swapping for me.

All in all, I don't really have a ton to add, there are of course tradeoffs to make but I think what you've penciled out will work very well.

 

[Sarlona Raiding]

This is almost uncanny as I was running a 16/3/1 just before this. You'll miss the crits and chain AOE size plus the roar, but it's a bit more survivable, particularly with MRR.

It's much improved, yes. It's not TOP dps or anything but I'll really only get outkilled by someone who really knows their **** and is very optimized. Or an artificer/inquisitive who tries a bit.

Agree KotC tier 5 is much better than vanguard. When I first did this build I went a similar route but I've since switched to 41 KotC, 31 vanguard, 8 vistani for haste boost. You miss that tasty vanguard capstone but I always felt that a lot of the vanguard tree was a bit fluffy, and 31 is plenty in it.

DC 37, US 21 and FoTW 24 here. Quick cutter is absolutely amazing, and you can pick up that massive melee power scaling heal every 30 seconds, plus grab 3 rage charges for "oh ****" moments. I also slotted a +3 rage augment so I have 6 big big heals. They'll hit for around 5-6k in normal, so even in r8 it's useful enough. Can even have a hotswap of blood feast for massive temp hp going into combat, I'll couple that with a brighthorn throwing dagger for 2k+ hp going into big fights.

What did you take in macro? I've never really ran that much. I guess for BF is has a lot of synergy there.

Looks very reasonable. I went vecna infernal dance for chest/helm/cloak (I had some nice curses/reaper bonuses), sora katra for ring/trinket/glovees (artifact PRR/universal spellpower/to hit/damage/imbue dice/helplessness damage/+3 all stats is crazy for 3 items), and then MD for belt/necklace/boots/bracers with profane augments (MP/heal amp/MRR/PRR) and MD berserker goggs (proc is amazing!) with artifact PRR.

I also went with the acid proc ring from MA instead of the faith and fortress, although I may reconsider that.

Trinket artifact is quite nice, can also hotswap to plat piece for 50 spell absorb. I put treachery and dark divergence in mine, can get to -70% threat which is usually enough. 0% threat probably isn't enough against some tanks.

MD armor is certainly nice for AC, though. But I don't have the stones to try to farm those out.


Pretty much identical here, except was lucky enough to get a large golden shield yesterday, and put lifetaker in it. Was using a fallen tower before, and before that collossus. Guardbreaking is super handy. And ignition has deconstructor.

Yep it's a hell of a build and I'm enjoying it as well, probably will be my final life build. A nice mix of CC, DPS and tankiness.

I think that's all doable. I've done just about all r6, working on all r8.

Duo r10 is possible with the right person, pally heals with renew/cure serious is plenty if you have a partner who has good dps and can tank, or can trade agro back and forth. Some quests might be an issue (Marilith in Vecna comes to mind) but overall it's an excellent duo r10 option with enough self/other healing and the CC/tankiness/DPS.

Did LH Chrono and LN VOD was very comfortable, will try LH soon. LN FOM as well, LH is probably doable too.

Yea pretty close here, HP 4850, PRR 374 MRR 207, and my AC tops out around 300. I imagine the difference is MD armor and macrotechnic and no 15% AC augment. Lower MRR, I think due to no ring. MP 317 so almost exactly the same.

I'm currently Tabaxi just for the past life, but the healing amp from Aasimar makes it a winner. Should hit ~350 with it. Both fallen or whatever the other option is are both solid, I'll probably go fallen but having more hp and PRR/MRR rarely hurts.

Eladrin for dodge wings is also nice, 50 seconds of +37 dodge is very nice for r8+ dooms.

Dwarf for radiant forcefield also solid but would probably use the dwarven axe so not worth swapping for me.

All in all, I don't really have a ton to add, there are of course tradeoffs to make but I think what you've penciled out will work very well.

Thank you! That is quite a bit of great info to look over.

Macrotechnic is primarily for defenses - primarily armor class - there are other nice things like amp, imbue dice, doublestrike. I will take a look at Fury as an alternative. If I put the 5% ac reaper buff on my armor I don't think losing 15% ac will be that impactful as I will still be around 435 or so with a net loss of 10%.

 

[DBZ]

What 4 curses would you want on this build 1 hat 2 rings 1 armor

 

[Dandonk]

What 4 curses would you want on this build 1 hat 2 rings 1 armor

Hmm, well, not sure that matters. What you'll get is +1 bard songs two times, UWA and +1 to Conjuration DCs.

Anyways, I tried a vanguard a little while ago. In my case, I really didn't like it that much, lowish DPS and not as much defense as I'd hoped.

In my case, though, I'm fairly certain that a fairly large portion of the issue was player-based and not so much the build. Looking forward to see if there's any new ideas floating around I can try out at some point. And see if I've gotten better at vanguarding since last time...

 

[DBZ]

Fire flies and awesome ranged power yep that tracks

 

[eartheyes]

not to imply my dps was as good as when i ran that swashy dragonlord build, but...

i had a lot of fun with pdk (bastard sword )and dwarf (dwarven war axe) vangaurds running thf with shield specialty with tower shield...you get pretty fast attacking with strikethrough and the shield bashes.

i was able to solo VoD on norm without a hitch, which i know isnt that impressive to a lot of players but it was a huge accomplishment for me. i honestly never tried LH VoD but the normal solo completion was my personal goal...and now my main is an alch and def not trying to solo VoD

 

[Mechgraber]

Thank you! That is quite a bit of great info to look over.

Macrotechnic is primarily for defenses - primarily armor class - there are other nice things like amp, imbue dice, doublestrike. I will take a look at Fury as an alternative. If I put the 5% ac reaper buff on my armor I don't think losing 15% ac will be that impactful as I will still be around 435 or so with a net loss of 10%.

No problem and yea it's hard for me to give up any tree out of DC/US/FotW.

DC has lots of great synergy with paladin and is a pretty obvious choice for tier 5.

US has renew which is will get you through tons of content alone (especially soloing LN/LH raids where you want your resources to stretch), knight's challenge which is great for agro management, lots of extra defenses too.

FotW gets QC and those huge 5-6k heals.

If I had to choose I'd probably get rid of Sentinel but any three would sting.

It's hard for me to say the difference between my just under 300AC, 435AC and 470AC, as I've never had AC above 400. I'm guessing 435 and 470 are about enough to see tons of misses but probably mostly in content where it's not as needed? I find most of my deaths are due to silly BS like nothic force bolts or horrid wilting or 1s versus disintegrate or someone popping a venge early or double dooms. It's rarely due to just melee trash alone, with quick cutter crits+guardbreaking, para weapon, identity crisis auto-slow and shield stun for high priority targets things are often pretty locked down.

That and having ~160 charges of spell absorb helps a lot too, when I remember to swap to it. Giving up a bit of offence/defense to protect against spells when vengies are floating around is usually a good deal.

 

[Sarlona Raiding]

Hmm, well, not sure that matters. What you'll get is +1 bard songs two times, UWA and +1 to Conjuration DCs.

Anyways, I tried a vanguard a little while ago. In my case, I really didn't like it that much, lowish DPS and not as much defense as I'd hoped.

In my case, though, I'm fairly certain that a fairly large portion of the issue was player-based and not so much the build. Looking forward to see if there's any new ideas floating around I can try out at some point. And see if I've gotten better at vanguarding since last time...

Fire flies and awesome ranged power yep that tracks

This might be the first non-bard I have that didn't get a bard song curse. Fear immunity on my paladin and 5 ranged power - yeah have both and 10 universal spell power and 2% spell crit damage. But I do have 2 melee power and 1 imbue dice.

 

[Sarlona Raiding]

No problem and yea it's hard for me to give up any tree out of DC/US/FotW.

DC has lots of great synergy with paladin and is a pretty obvious choice for tier 5.

US has renew which is will get you through tons of content alone (especially soloing LN/LH raids where you want your resources to stretch), knight's challenge which is great for agro management, lots of extra defenses too.

FotW gets QC and those huge 5-6k heals.

If I had to choose I'd probably get rid of Sentinel but any three would sting.

It's hard for me to say the difference between my just under 300AC, 435AC and 470AC, as I've never had AC above 400. I'm guessing 435 and 470 are about enough to see tons of misses but probably mostly in content where it's not as needed? I find most of my deaths are due to silly BS like nothic force bolts or horrid wilting or 1s versus disintegrate or someone popping a venge early or double dooms. It's rarely due to just melee trash alone, with quick cutter crits+guardbreaking, para weapon, identity crisis auto-slow and shield stun for high priority targets things are often pretty locked down.

That and having ~160 charges of spell absorb helps a lot too, when I remember to swap to it. Giving up a bit of offence/defense to protect against spells when vengies are floating around is usually a good deal.

I am now 35 divine crusader, 24 unyielding sentinel and 24 fury and I think that is an improvement. AC is around 430 dropping the 15% ac boost from macrotechnic and adding the 5% reaper armor bonus.

It's definitely an improvement. I am using quick cutter although I tried adrenaline for a bit and liked that as well. Both iterations were better than before. The heals I am not noticing as much in part because I am bladeforged I think.

Thanks again for the tip!

 

[DBZ]

I meant if your willing to put in the grind time 50-100 blanks each +

Masterwork on iod trinket or gomf then str, con, xx, xx

Then mythic melee power or prr mrr on the rest

 

[Fisto Mk I]

Masterwork on iod trinket or gomf then str, con, xx, xx

Artifact, you means?

Yea, i have one with masterwork for my PM. And one masterwork at Cloak... but here it's have lesser effect. 8)

 

[Sarlona Raiding]

Hmm, well, not sure that matters. What you'll get is +1 bard songs two times, UWA and +1 to Conjuration DCs.

Anyways, I tried a vanguard a little while ago. In my case, I really didn't like it that much, lowish DPS and not as much defense as I'd hoped.

In my case, though, I'm fairly certain that a fairly large portion of the issue was player-based and not so much the build. Looking forward to see if there's any new ideas floating around I can try out at some point. And see if I've gotten better at vanguarding since last time...

At least my take is that Vanguard is working better now because of specific gear and changes to ED. The enhancement tree is not in terrible shape, but can use a small update, but the other things helped Vanguard enough it doesn't matter.

For example, using ignition and leading with throw the boom and then using the 3 paladin cleaves + quick cutter and exalted smite is a much better rotation than used to be available. With ignition there are 2 paralyze procs, 2 death procs with feareater and salt that slows down orange names and basically anything living.

With an undying age bastard sword in main hand with dust and palisade shield in off-hand with vaccuum for bosses, I have debuffing options that weren't available in the past. Boss fights definitely don't feel like a slog with dust and vaccuum.

And the 25% hp in melee T5s makes dipping into the defender tree less necessary unless you want to be more of a tank.

I feel this build is an upgrade to my previous tanky dragonlord swashbuckler, better at soloing LH VOD and dungeons in general.

If they ever fix magic fang I want to try shifter with the rage synergy of Fury. I didn't like the rages as well with bladeforged as I can't cast spells and my repair spells restore more hp than the fury abilities due to my healing penalty. I do like bladeforged though - the self-healing is nice, but I think shifter will scale better to R10s and bladeforged might be better at R6-R7 where the self-healing still works ok.

If you ever get the itch, give it a try and let me know if you figure out some cool things I might be missing.

 

[Sarlona Raiding]

I meant if your willing to put in the grind time 50-100 blanks each +

Masterwork on iod trinket or gomf then str, con, xx, xx

Then mythic melee power or prr mrr on the rest

Unfortunatey most of my items give me only one shot at the curse and even if my curses suck I still sell my cleansing cards for AS. Shameless promotion: if anyone needs one I have the cheapest one on the Sarlona ASAH for only 1999 AS - over 1000 cheaper than the next cheapest.

 

[Lagin3]

dwf, pally, str based, with a few pts into dex. blunt with d-hammers or slashing w/ bastard swds. Both are trip/stun/bash. shld rush & charge when needed.

 

[Djoe]

Wouldn't a longsword be a better swap for boss/single target dps than a bastard sword? Other than that, this seems like a really well done take on vanguard. I haven't played one in a couple of years but I used to prefer fighter vanguard over the paladin version because it had better DPS, even before second wind was added, but that's personal taste. Normal warforged would probably be better than bladeforged iirc, but to be fair bladeforged look a lot cooler. Nice build

 

[Sarlona Raiding]

Wouldn't a longsword be a better swap for boss/single target dps than a bastard sword? Other than that, this seems like a really well done take on vanguard. I haven't played one in a couple of years but I used to prefer fighter vanguard over the paladin version because it had better DPS, even before second wind was added, but that's personal taste. Normal warforged would probably be better than bladeforged iirc, but to be fair bladeforged look a lot cooler. Nice build

I think you are spot-on regarding longsword, although I probably still want a boss-beating bastard sword for situations where there is a boss and mobs at the same time, but yes I believe you are right that a swap long sword for when I am just fighting a boss alone is the right answer since I get it as a favored wepaon for free in KOTC. I just need to figure out what feat I would swap out which isn't easy on a paladin.

Now I just need a golden age long sword to drop or 2 other gold age weapons. I'll get back to you in 6 months when those drop for me and let you know

I might try it out with a dino bone weapon in the meantime which should give me a good benchmark on long sword dps.

Thank you!

 

[Djoe]

I think you are spot-on regarding longsword, although I probably still want a boss-beating bastard sword for situations where there is a boss and mobs at the same time, but yes I believe you are right that a swap long sword for when I am just fighting a boss alone is the right answer since I get it as a favored wepaon for free in KOTC. I just need to figure out what feat I would swap out which isn't easy on a paladin.

Now I just need a golden age long sword to drop or 2 other gold age weapons. I'll get back to you in 6 months when those drop for me and let you know

I might try it out with a dino bone weapon in the meantime which should give me a good benchmark on long sword dps.

Thank you!

I'm glad you found me helpful. You also get the feat Knight's Training free in KOTC. Of course don't get rid of your current boss-beating bastard sword, but you do have 4 cleaves at your disposal, so it might not be a problem. Hope those golden age weapons drop faster for you

 

[Mechgraber]

Thanks again for the tip!

My pleasure! And yea quick cutter is awesome. Helps a lot in r8-10 solo, you can kind of do "drive bys" where everything is salt-slowed/paralyzed/guardbreakered and you just run through and quick cutter, then run around and exalted/avenging, repeat till all dead. It's rare to die to trash mobs unless there's some other factor (vengies/dooms).

Bladeforged might not notice the rage heals as much, yea. But they're very useful when trying to push the limits on what you can solo tank I think. For me LOH is about 4.4k in the tavern, and primal/rage is 5.3k, but I imagine yea the bladeforged amp reverses that ratio. Rage+cancel rage+primal (to get rid of the exhaustion) is 10k+ of non-reaper healing, so about 2000-2400 in r6, 1200-1500 in r8. I'm not actually raged 99.9% of the time, they're just for the heals.

Also getting 6 charges of it, plus one freebie every 30s is nice. I'm guessing you dropped DC mass res (hence only 35 pts there?) and picked up more LOH in US, plus have 1 more point so can get all 3, so have 5 LOH? I'm 37/24/21 DC/Fury/US.

 

[Mechgraber]

Quick update: Managed hard LVOD since chiming in, and to my surprise, elite as well just now. I think with your AC you definitely could take on elite as well!