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Harder than a Rock: The Fighter's Handbook (By lorduskblade)
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<blockquote data-quote="Veep" data-source="post: 6707807" data-attributes="member: 6793297"><p style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 18px"> <strong>Tactics: How to Be a Rock</strong></span></p><p></p><p>After some analysis and playtesting, I believe that the following guidelines are key to playing a successful Fighter.</p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>1. Know how you rock.</strong></strong></span></p><p></p><p>Making a successful Fighter is a balancing act - you have a finite number of resources, and very distinct priorities in how to invest them. I would argue your primary priority is to establish yourself as a <strong>threat</strong>, so that enemies feel compelled to respond to you. You can achieve this by a variety of means, including controlling enemy positioning, debuffing, personal damage, and even the mere act of putting yourself between your enemies and your allies. Most successful Fighters will have a smattering of all these techniques, with a focus one or two of them.</p><p></p><p>Next, you have worry about <strong>resilience</strong>, because all the attention you're warranting will be counterproductive if the enemies actually succeed in downing you without expending massive amounts of their own resources. That means investment in game elements to make yourself even more durable should definitely be on your radar.</p><p></p><p>Last but not least, a Fighter relies on <strong>timing</strong>. In general, your goal is to make life as painless as possible for your party, and that usually works out when you seize the initiative and take the fight to your enemies before they realize they're in one. As such, I prize initiative and additional ways to interrupt enemy actions on a Fighter more than on other classes.</p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>2. Be all you can be.</strong></strong></span></p><p></p><p>Now that we've covered the general priorities of what you're building for, we'll delve into the builds themselves. Fighters are a rather diverse class when it comes to their particulars (as befits a class with such a massive amount of feat support), so we'll discuss those individually:</p><p></p><p><strong>Battlerager</strong> - Given the massive amounts of THP this build generates, it's no wonder that most strategies focus around exploiting them in some way. The first one to consider is to use them as ablative resistance, which can justify a move to a more damaging weapon in an effort to generate the necessary threat, though it does feature being rather vulnerable to status effects. An alternative strategy is to "turtle up", and focus on either hard lockdown using powers, or ways to get these THP to your allies.</p><p></p><p><strong>Brawler</strong> - As could be surmised, it's all about the grabs for this build. However, what you do in order to make that work varies. A Net Brawler has two notable advantages in range and control-oriented weapon support (though it gets pretty feat-intensive), whereas a Heavy Blade wielder can eschew these things in favor of increased personal damage (as well as setting allies up for said damage as well).</p><p></p><p><strong>Tempest</strong> - This build has increased access to damaging powers, though its At-Will damage won't be notably different from that of other Fighters. In general, it features a strong bias for the Light Blade and a more aggressive flavor of Fighter, featuring two weapons, slightly higher personal damage, and a bit of mobility over the traditional package.<strong></strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong></strong><strong>Weapon Talent (Sword + Shield)</strong> - This build has three main flavors: you can go for a build that is damaging to either individual targets or groups (Heavy Blade being the preferred weapon), a single-target lockdown specialist with solid damage of its own against its victim (with a Flail), or a debuff-oriented mass control sort of build (the Hammer seems to work best here). All have their virtues.</p><p></p><p><strong>Weapon Talent (Two-Handed Weapon)</strong> - Two main schools of thought here; the first is one that focuses on control (with a Polearm and its associated feats), and the other focuses on threat via damage dealing (with Gouges and Fullblades being the weapons of choice).</p><p></p><p><strong>Weapon Talent (Two Weapons)</strong> - Very similar to the Tempest build in concept, rather different in execution. The reason for this difference is access to the depth and breadth of the Fighter weapon and armor catalog, which in turn makes choices such as scale armor and Heavy Blades (or even Flails) available.</p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>3. Know when to ask for help.</strong></strong></span></p><p></p><p>You may be the guy with the best healing surges and HP in your party (most of the time), but you're not a Solo monster. What this means is that you should take MOST of the hits, not ALL of the hits. If you do, you'll be face-planting more often than not (even with a dedicated healer), and you won't be contributing much after that. Having other allies who can dart in and out of the Melee and take some of the pressure off you can go a long way in prolonging the group's overall encounters per day before an extended rest. Not only that, but having an ally who can go toe-to-toe with the Brutes and Soldiers for a while frees you up to chase and lock down more mobile enemies like Artillery, Lurkers, and Skirmishers.</p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>4. Be a team player.</strong></strong></span></p><p></p><p>If the party Rogue needs you to flank an enemy, help him out (especially if he's the one who has to provoke the OA to do it, because that nets you a potential free attack too). If you have to take some heat off the enemy so the Wizard can nuke the area, that's OK. If you have to provoke an occasional OA for moving in to get the aforementioned flank or to help get an enemy off your Wizard, that's OK too; you're the one responsible for everyone getting out of the situation alive.</p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>5. Apply force judiciously.</strong></strong></span></p><p></p><p>Having a good understanding of a given tactical situation can save your party more time and HP than any combo you (or anyone else) can cook up. Learn when to stick to your guns and fight conservative, and when to gamble more resources to end the encounter faster. You don't necessarily need ALL your Dailies to take out the BBEG, after all, but you probably will need SOME of them.</p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><strong>6. Balance specialization with versatility.</strong></strong></span></p><p></p><p>Fighters are not exactly varied with regards to what they do; you get in your enemies' faces and keep them off the fragile members of your party. Avoid being one-dimensional; your opponents will exploit your limitations if you are. However, remember to play to your strengths as well; wanting to be good at everything usually ends up with your being good at nothing and mediocre at everything.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Veep, post: 6707807, member: 6793297"] [CENTER][SIZE=5] [b]Tactics: How to Be a Rock[/b][/SIZE][/CENTER] After some analysis and playtesting, I believe that the following guidelines are key to playing a successful Fighter. [Size=3][b][b]1. Know how you rock.[/b][/b][/size] Making a successful Fighter is a balancing act - you have a finite number of resources, and very distinct priorities in how to invest them. I would argue your primary priority is to establish yourself as a [b]threat[/b], so that enemies feel compelled to respond to you. You can achieve this by a variety of means, including controlling enemy positioning, debuffing, personal damage, and even the mere act of putting yourself between your enemies and your allies. Most successful Fighters will have a smattering of all these techniques, with a focus one or two of them. Next, you have worry about [b]resilience[/b], because all the attention you're warranting will be counterproductive if the enemies actually succeed in downing you without expending massive amounts of their own resources. That means investment in game elements to make yourself even more durable should definitely be on your radar. Last but not least, a Fighter relies on [b]timing[/b]. In general, your goal is to make life as painless as possible for your party, and that usually works out when you seize the initiative and take the fight to your enemies before they realize they're in one. As such, I prize initiative and additional ways to interrupt enemy actions on a Fighter more than on other classes. [Size=3][b][b]2. Be all you can be.[/b][/b][/size] Now that we've covered the general priorities of what you're building for, we'll delve into the builds themselves. Fighters are a rather diverse class when it comes to their particulars (as befits a class with such a massive amount of feat support), so we'll discuss those individually:[b][/b] [b]Battlerager[/b] - Given the massive amounts of THP this build generates, it's no wonder that most strategies focus around exploiting them in some way. The first one to consider is to use them as ablative resistance, which can justify a move to a more damaging weapon in an effort to generate the necessary threat, though it does feature being rather vulnerable to status effects. An alternative strategy is to "turtle up", and focus on either hard lockdown using powers, or ways to get these THP to your allies. [b]Brawler[/b] - As could be surmised, it's all about the grabs for this build. However, what you do in order to make that work varies. A Net Brawler has two notable advantages in range and control-oriented weapon support (though it gets pretty feat-intensive), whereas a Heavy Blade wielder can eschew these things in favor of increased personal damage (as well as setting allies up for said damage as well). [b]Tempest[/b] - This build has increased access to damaging powers, though its At-Will damage won't be notably different from that of other Fighters. In general, it features a strong bias for the Light Blade and a more aggressive flavor of Fighter, featuring two weapons, slightly higher personal damage, and a bit of mobility over the traditional package.[b] [/b][b]Weapon Talent (Sword + Shield)[/b] - This build has three main flavors: you can go for a build that is damaging to either individual targets or groups (Heavy Blade being the preferred weapon), a single-target lockdown specialist with solid damage of its own against its victim (with a Flail), or a debuff-oriented mass control sort of build (the Hammer seems to work best here). All have their virtues. [b]Weapon Talent (Two-Handed Weapon)[/b] - Two main schools of thought here; the first is one that focuses on control (with a Polearm and its associated feats), and the other focuses on threat via damage dealing (with Gouges and Fullblades being the weapons of choice). [b]Weapon Talent (Two Weapons)[/b] - Very similar to the Tempest build in concept, rather different in execution. The reason for this difference is access to the depth and breadth of the Fighter weapon and armor catalog, which in turn makes choices such as scale armor and Heavy Blades (or even Flails) available. [Size=3][b][b]3. Know when to ask for help.[/b][/b][/size] You may be the guy with the best healing surges and HP in your party (most of the time), but you're not a Solo monster. What this means is that you should take MOST of the hits, not ALL of the hits. If you do, you'll be face-planting more often than not (even with a dedicated healer), and you won't be contributing much after that. Having other allies who can dart in and out of the Melee and take some of the pressure off you can go a long way in prolonging the group's overall encounters per day before an extended rest. Not only that, but having an ally who can go toe-to-toe with the Brutes and Soldiers for a while frees you up to chase and lock down more mobile enemies like Artillery, Lurkers, and Skirmishers. [Size=3][b][b]4. Be a team player.[/b][/b][/size] If the party Rogue needs you to flank an enemy, help him out (especially if he's the one who has to provoke the OA to do it, because that nets you a potential free attack too). If you have to take some heat off the enemy so the Wizard can nuke the area, that's OK. If you have to provoke an occasional OA for moving in to get the aforementioned flank or to help get an enemy off your Wizard, that's OK too; you're the one responsible for everyone getting out of the situation alive. [Size=3][b][b]5. Apply force judiciously.[/b][/b][/size] Having a good understanding of a given tactical situation can save your party more time and HP than any combo you (or anyone else) can cook up. Learn when to stick to your guns and fight conservative, and when to gamble more resources to end the encounter faster. You don't necessarily need ALL your Dailies to take out the BBEG, after all, but you probably will need SOME of them. [Size=3][b][b]6. Balance specialization with versatility.[/b][/b][/size] Fighters are not exactly varied with regards to what they do; you get in your enemies' faces and keep them off the fragile members of your party. Avoid being one-dimensional; your opponents will exploit your limitations if you are. However, remember to play to your strengths as well; wanting to be good at everything usually ends up with your being good at nothing and mediocre at everything. [/QUOTE]
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Harder than a Rock: The Fighter's Handbook (By lorduskblade)
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