Avenger Experience?

[cignus_pfaccari]

I've got a Pursuit Avenger. Played one session with 2.5 combats.

One fight had a lot of movement, which worked very nicely, but the second half of that fight was in a fairly cramped crypt and getting Oath was kinda irritating. Also, our tank, quite frankly, is awful (Str paladin who shafted Cha), so the DM decided the mummy would ignore him and keep the pain on me, which was, ahem, also irritating. But that's more a function of the paladin's incompetence than anything with the class.

My high AC was pretty helpful, except when the damn mummy kept rolling in the 30s. It did not help against something attacking Fort, like the (bleep)ing kruthik hive mommy later on.

It was quite fun, though. I think I missed an attack once, when I rolled very low on both dice, and didn't think to use my elven re-roll. We'll see how it goes this weekend.

Brad

 

[Cadfan]

I've been playing a Pursuit Avenger. The bonus damage almost never happens. The double roll to attack happens almost always. That doesn't necessarily mean that the bonus damage isn't useful- part of the reason it never happens is because enemies fear it. If I engage a spellcaster or an archer, there's at least a chance that they'll forego their best attacks, which would require provoking OAs or shifting back to attack and provoking my bonus damage, in favor of attacking with weaker melee or close attacks. The fact that my opponent is fighting with a second choice attack in order to avoid the bonus damage means that my bonus is doing its job.

 

[Oren]

Interesting. I'll know better once we run our first session with an Avenger next Tueday

 

[kmdietri]

I'm thinking I really want to try:

Censure of Retribution:
20 Int
Melee Training (Int)
Shield Proficiency (Light)
A Jousting Shield.

See how many OA's I can draw on the way to my oath each round...
See if I could survive a session...

 

[Herschel]

I'm rolling out two of them soon, one for a campaign and teh other for a secondary LFR character. I'm doing either Elf, Human or Deva. I really want to do a Deva for one of them (I want to use my Asura minitaure for it) but I prefer the pursuit version.

With all the attack rolls I do think a High crit weapon is the right choice. I'm thinking it will also mitigate a +3/+2 proficiency discrepancy and maybe go with Great Axe. It's flavor weird though and I have no lightly armored big axe-wielding minis.

 

[Satori]

I'm thinking I really want to try:

Censure of Retribution:
20 Int
Melee Training (Int)
Shield Proficiency (Light)
A Jousting Shield.

See how many OA's I can draw on the way to my oath each round...
See if I could survive a session...

Hmm...at first I thought your high INT would keep you from getting hit. However, a light shield negates the Avengers AC bonus, so you could wear Cloth Armor and a Light Shield for an AC of 16 (at level 1). Drop the shield and your ac goes to 18. Pick up Hide and your AC goes to 21.

You could charge into combat with a Vanguard Long Sword and Jousting Shield, then swap out the weapons for a Fullblade upon closing the distance.

Oooh! You could wear Summoned Hide! Banish it before charging to ensure maximum suicidal tendencies, then spend a Minor to become a Mighty Morphing Power Ranger!

I may have to play with this...

 

[Satori]

I'm thinking I really want to try:

Censure of Retribution:
20 Int
Melee Training (Int)
Shield Proficiency (Light)
A Jousting Shield.

See how many OA's I can draw on the way to my oath each round...
See if I could survive a session...

Hmm...at first I thought your high INT would keep you from getting hit. However, a light shield negates the Avengers AC bonus, so you could wear Cloth Armor and a Light Shield for an AC of 16 (at level 1). Drop the shield and your ac goes to 18. Pick up Hide and your AC goes to 21.

You could charge into combat with a Vanguard Long Sword and Jousting Shield, then swap out the weapons for a Fullblade upon closing the distance.

Oooh! You could wear Summoned Hide! Banish it before charging to ensure maximum suicidal tendencies, then spend a Minor to become a Mighty Morphing Power Ranger!

I may have to play with this...

 

[DracoSuave]

Avenger's bonus damage is interesting in that it involves two different triggers that give two different types of damage. Bonus damage from Censure is -easy- to calculate, but the damage benefit from Oath is a lot more subtle.

Normally, the average damage from an attack (not counting critical hits) is equal to pd where p is probability of hitting, and d is the probability of damage. However, when you make two rolls per attack, the formula changes to [p + (1-p)p]d... which equals to [2p - p^2]d.

The damage increase becomes (2p - p^2)/p - 1, or 2 - p - 1, or 1 - p.

So, if you have a 50% chance to hit, Oath increases your DPR by 50%. If you have 75% chance to hit, it increases it by 25%.

So.... from there you can figure out which is the bigger damage increase for your situation.

 

[cdrcjsn]

I'm playing an Avenger in the RPGA living forgotten realms campaign (Int/retribution).

Currently 6th level. Using a +2 Vicious Fullblade to take advantage of the crit (roll twice means that you are just under twice the crit rate). If I really wanted to take advantage of this, I would go with the Tempus channel divinity feat that makes my next attack an automatic crit, but I would feel dirty using that feat.

The striker feature of the class is the ability to roll twice, not increase damage.

With that said though I usually get the bonus damage at least once per combat, sometimes more.

I manage to roll twice on almost all my attacks. The only exception is when I use the ranged at-will to get some temp HPs.

The level 1 encounter power Avenging Echoes is amazing. 5+Int points of automatic damage whenever someone attacks me (hit or miss) or ends their turn adjacent to me. I usually run around the battle when the ability is on and purposely trigger OAs.

AC is decent as well. Usually only a couple of points behind a defense focused defender (and on par with a striker/defender). Leather + Armor of Faith feat.

I'm really liking the class.

Also, depending on how your DM rules on teleportation (i.e. can you teleport targets up in the air), the ability to teleport foes can be used offensively.

 

[Ktulu]

Pursuit for me: Drow race. (using longspear)

We went through the lvl 1 delve in DD. First combat I was ok. Second combat I trapped a dragonshield kobold.

The third combat I beat the unholy crap out of the dragon, landing all attacks thanks to the darkness and my re-rolls. Temple of light really gets the damage cranking once you've marked your enemy and got them in a globe of darkness:

Encounter power - Alacrity attack, shifted and then struck
Minor - globe of darkness
-AP - Temple of light

Next round, the creature moved away to get out of the darkness, so my damage boosted. I shifted one square and was still able to hit him (reach weapon) because the Invoker had him slowed.

Hit with bond of pursuit and followed directly after him as he moved away again.

The Avenger is definitely a favorite new class for me.