5 replies to this topic

[MGSmaster101]

(May be a bit Tl:Dr)
Sup, I'm a new commander (just hit 50 yesterday), and I had a few questions about the builds floating around. As a heavy MMORPG player, I'm used to the decision-making required to create an optimal build, but with the amount of outdated information on this game, I'm not sure if I'm making the right decisions. With the information available this is what I came out with. I stated my justifications for some things that may be questionable. I really appreciate the help. Please don't just comment about how it's personal choice (especially on weapons). I posted this in order to get opinions and arguments against my choices since I'm just theory-crafting, and many of you have the experience to back up your own builds. This build is mostly for PvP, but should have a bit of PvE performance.


Skill build at level 80
http://i51.tinypic.com/2myaj4i.png
(Kruxena.com build code: 80,0,0,1,0,1,0,1,6,10,0,5,3,10,1,10,4,1,10,5,5,7,7,10,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,10,1,0,10,0,0,0,3,0)

Skills
No onslaught: Though it preforms very well in terms of CD and damage, the amount of points required to spend to get it to an acceptable level is a huge drawback. So much so that I felt it could be skipped.
L3 Taunting Cry: I kept it at L3 since it still has 1k+ hostility at that level. The loss of an additional ~400 hostility from L6 shouldn't be detrimental if I have to tank as long as I'm outputting enough DPS to maintain aggro between taunts.
L10 Beam Slash: My experience with armor reduction/armor bypass/any sort of damage-reduction bypassing skill goes deep. Armor breaker->Genocide->Sonic Massacre in 2moons, Avenging Wrath and Chaos Bolt in WoW, Knight Symbol in Rohan. All of which create a huge increase in damage or hit so hard that the victim usually claims "OP Dmg". Any skill that does that should be a huge priority for super-heavy crits and a wonderful finisher and outcome changer. The fact that this is also a ranged move makes it even more desirable to fight kiters.

DNA - This was a really tough decision and I'll definitely catch flak for it, but, speaking practically, most DNA builds seem great but are just unnecessary.
None in Poten's Rush: Let's be realistic, it already has only a 12 second cast time. Between Beam slash for when distanced and Chain of Restraint for keeping them close, you REALLY shouldn't need the reduced time. From the PvP videos I've seen, fights usually don't last long enough anyway for those few reduced seconds to make a difference. There's a big difference between having it AVAILABLE every 7 seconds, and NEEDING it every ~7 seconds.
10 in Beam Slash: a ranged move to help fight kiters needs to be an instant cast. Otherwise, stopping to cast it would cause more harm than good since the goal is to keep up to them. In melee PvPs, the increased output speed will be a huge helping hand to allow more DPS.
Only 1 in Face Strike: This turns face strike into an exact 10-second silence. Unless you're busy trying to CC a healer for as long as possible, this should be sufficient to change the outcome of a battle with a caster, or burst->Silence->finish a healer you catch off-guard.
3 in Poten's Moonlight: With this, it turns the CD of a very powerful AoE with a strong DoT from 19 seconds to 12 seconds. This allows you to give the DoT an almost-100% uptime. Not to mention it lets you spam the skill more often, increasing DPS output by a large sum in both PvP and PvE.


Beast skills - I really don't know where to go with this. Floormatt's guide said to max Double strike, but other skills provide a much larger increase in damage.


Armors: This is easily the most confusing thing I've ever had to read. I have no clue what set I need to after, where to get it, or ANYTHING since there's so much outdated information and the auction house is filled with just one armor set. Speaking of which, should I buy the seemless polar icecaps armor as a good 65 "starter set"? Right now I'm level 50 and using full +6 Challengers. What should I be doing to get my next set?

Weapons: From what I read, there's much debate about this. Since my build is a "skill spammer" build and not an AA one, I assume swords should be my choice, though I've been using axes for the larger base damage and crit until I got some real attack skills. Is there any particular sword I should farm for or buy in the auction house that's easy to start out with?

Again, I appreciate the help. Merry Christmas.

Edited by MGSmaster101, 25 December 2010 - 12:02 AM.

[Ninnghizhidda]

From what I see, overall it isnt a bad build. You rely heavily on beam slash, I guess this can work in PvP. Since you seem to have chosen the path of skil spamming rather than AA, I believe you should also try and increase your relevant % crit rate too.

I can say a bit more about gear. First of all, it will probably be impossible to find any old S1 items at affordable prices. For lvl 65, Seamless set is still a good choice and is fairly easy to acquire. On the other hand, dont forget the FoC armour. Although personally I very much dislike Sylrium, it might be a better choice if you really want to stick with PvP and using skills and criticals. Sylrium is somewhat harder to get, since it requires many FoC points, but I guess it can be obtained gradually.

Until you reach lvl 65, you can go for lvl 55 Foc Gordium. I think this is the best armour set today before lvl 65. Of course, there is the question whether you should bother at all since these 10 levels will not take too long to get...

After lvl 65. Here the fun part starts. You will be looking for raid gear now. RH Fierce set is a good one, it also adds quite a bit of critical damage (but NOT skill critical!). The main problem is to get a full set, this would probably require months and dozens of raids. Then there are the Biskra sets. Seismic has STR as the main stat, but offers little in terms of CON and HPs. Sea Protector is CON orientated instead. Both sets are easier to acquire (being 3-piece). Honestly, I havent seen many going for Seismic set, even myself use Sea Protector pieces which I think are quite good.

If we move to even higher levels... Here comes the carus gear joke. Well, in a few words, if you are going to mess around with carus, I would suggest going straight for the lvl 75 Conqueror set. It is a cool set, seriously hard to complete of course and seriously hard to upgrade too.

Weapons... In S2 there is nothing really special to use apart from raid weapons. At lvl 65 you can get the DS weapons, nothing to write home about really. Also, it seems that it is true that swords are better for skill spamming and help crit more. Your choice is quite limited, at 65 you can get a Kusherphoon Devil sword, thats about it. At 67 RH Twisted Sword and at 68 Biskra's Siren's Poison Tooth. I personally prefer RH weapons, they give more HPs overall and the difference in damage capacity is pretty small.

Finally, after the rare ones, comes the realm of carus weapons too. Same story as armour sets. The first carus weapons are available from DC (Doom Cheras) and LW (Lord Werinuman). Difficult raids (especially DC), quite rare drops. Then you have weapons of Control (lvl 72) and of Soul Reposing (lvl 75) from JS bosses. Sword of Soul Reposing has the ultimate damage capacity, but will not add any critical stat. On the other hand DC and LW swords will add some % crit too.

Shields... More or less, exactly the same case as weapons.

For weapon / shield, my advice would be to first go for the lvl 65 ones, they are not that hard to get and can be also upgraded without too much hassle. Then try to get some rare raid ones and do the same. Carus ones do offer significantly more damage, but it is a hard decision and all depends on your resources and ability to acquire / upgrade them.


I hope the above are of some help, good luck building a good Commander! Takes time and effort, but the final result can be pretty rewarding. All the best!


P.S. I forgot to mention that you can also get Infinite VI sword and shield from Theme Battle. It takes a while for them since you need many points and they are also expensive. These are not bad at all, but they are mainly resistance gear, their other stats will NOT upgrade. Upgrading VI items is VERY expensive. They are useful for PvP of course, but at higher levels (70+) the stats and damage they provide are not really sufficient.

[MGSmaster101]

holy crap, thanks for the huge amounts of info. I think I'll go with sylrium for the sCAD bonus. For enchants, I was thinking a 2:1:1 ratio of sCrit%, sCAD, and res%. Why bother build up on HP and defense when that's something a commander already naturally has? 10k HP doesn't mean if you can't do enough damage to kill that healer, kill before your AM wears off, or just burst out enough damage to get a kiter before they realize what the hell's happening.
Do you recommend me doing the FoCs at level 50? besides getting my ass whooped, I'm not gonna run into much trouble, am I? Also, if i were to carry all 25 of the Xenoa event cards, would i recieve double the reward points, or does that only effect Xenoans?

Time's not really a concern for me. In 2moons, I was a 141 AK with full +8/+9s, in WoW I have a full Wrathful gladiator paladin. I was a 97 Guardian in Rohan. I'm a 16x WR in Cabal. I end up spending way too much time and effort in any game I play and end up being fairly well-off, it's not a problem. I just need to know what direction to go in since this game really doesn't have a lot of information on it, and what there is is mostly outdated or just poorly constructed.

Edited by MGSmaster101, 26 December 2010 - 06:58 PM.

[Ninnghizhidda]

Well, I guess you will have almost everything sorted there. Only one thing to keep in mind too. Difference in characters levels also affects fights a lot. So, if you end up fighting someone a few (or more) levels higher, apart from any obvious disadvantage in skills and gear, you will have to deal with reduced % of success for your own skills. This is the part I dont particularly like about skill spamming builts.

And while casters might have the luxury to afford to miss a bit with their attack skills the same is not true with melee classes, especially Commanders. Of course, I will agree that you need to be able to spit out high amounts of damage quickly. However, HPs and def (and res of course) are still not that great, unless you put some effort in those too. Yes, 10K HPs would probably be useless if you fight like a Protector. On the other hand 10k HPs coupled with nice damage will probably be enough to sail through a few opponents, given the opportunity.

As I said, battlefields before lvl 74 will not exactly be Heaven for a Commander. Dont expect really awesome results, but I suppose it can still be fun. From what I understand, anyone can carry those Xmas cards to receive the relevant bonus. So, the Xenoa cards arent made specifically for Xenoas, I believe.

And, again, all the best sailing through the levels and building a strong character. Advancement can be fairly rapid up to about lvl 65. The grindfest begins after 67 and levels in the 70s are always a pain, even with events. The amount of exp needed rises exponentially and long sessions of boring grinding is unavoisable. But it can still be fun, especially with good company!

[kevs]

Hey,

I'm also doing a commander and like ur build.
At the site the max lvl is 86 but everywhere i look it's the speak of 79 or 80 - so which lvl is the max lvl you can get ?

[xShadowGigx]

Hey,

I'm also doing a commander and like ur build.
At the site the max lvl is 86 but everywhere i look it's the speak of 79 or 80 - so which lvl is the max lvl you can get ?

79 and 100% not even lvl 80 exact yet.