Is tactical Warlord really blowful?

[DrSkull]

I've been playing an Inspiring Warlord since July, he's now 5th level (playing 2 times per month). I find his to be totally awesome and am as pleased a punch with him. He's a melee star, and I love moving dudes around the board, and shouting at them to get hit points back.

However, I'm making up a new guy for an online game. Since there are only 2 players in this one, as opposed to 9 in our face to face games, having a leader seemed necessary. I finally agreed to do another warlord (clerics don't interest me).

This time I decided to go with Tactical Warlord, and to pick a range of powers that were different than my Inspiring Warlord. However, looking over Tactical Presence, I'm a little underwhelmed. It seems to me that with all the combat advantage I'm going to arrange, and the fact that we seem to hit a large portion of the time in 4e anyway, I just don't see the Tactical Presence being all that useful. At most you give a +2 to hit at first level, and it's not until 8th level that it gets any better.

The range of powers that benefit from Tactical Presence seems underwhelming too. I'm thinking that Resourceful Presence might be more generally useful. Am I misisng something with Tactical Warlords that I should know (Keep in mind I will likely ever only have 1 ally with the Taclord).

 

[Wish]

Well, with only one ally, there's less benefit to anything that says "all your allies get +bonus". The tactical warlord powers like Lead the Attack are just made of win, but only if you've got people to take advantage of them.

Since you don't like clerics, resourceful warlord may indeed be the way to go. Tactical warlords work best for setting up their party members to completely unload on something with huge bonuses to hit. If you don't need that capability, you don't need a tactical warlord.

 

[Rechan]

If you or your DM has access to DDI, you might want to try the Bard.

 

[RefinedBean]

9 players in a face to face game? Snap.

Anyway, I agree with Rechan, the Bard might be more of what you're looking for, although it's far from completely represented in the D&DI article. But it'll allow you some great battlefield control, and you can focus on your one ally a lot easier than with a TacLord.

For instance, there's a power that lets you set a mark on an enemy as if your ally had actually marked them...quite powerful if you're teamed up with a Fighter!

Otherwise, the new Warlord builds in Martial Power are well-balanced, fun, and have plenty going for them. Good gaming!

 

[Klaus]

Go with Bravura, the extra attack or move when spending an action point seems really neat!

 

[Evilhalfling]

Bravura in a party without a back up healer? bleh.
I have a 3 member party in my tabletop game, inspiring warlord and 2 strikers. A small party really requires you to focus on healing, I think inspiring or even cleric is the way to go, as I have only seen the bard second hand.

 

[Nail]

I currently play a Taclord in one game, and play alongside an Inspiring Warlord in another game. Both games are low level.

So far, I'd call the Taclord the better option, by far. It's true we haven't played with MP yet, but getting a bonus to attack is *far* better than getting a couple of hp back. The Tactlord encounter powers are also much better - IMO - for the same reason.

 

[Wish]

I don't disagree with either suggestion that Taclord is more useful than Inspiring in a normal game, or that cleric (strength cleric in particular) would be great for a 2 person party. However, the OP said he didn't want to play a cleric, and Taclord is really suboptimal for his party size. Gotta stay on target for the OP here a little bit. The bard suggestion is a good one though.

 

[Victim]

Tactical lords are great, but not really in a two person group.

 

[Gruns]

Best choice?

I know you said Clerics don't interest you, but if your partner is basically ANY melee class, your best choice for leader by far is a Battle Cleric. Rogue, melee Ranger or even 2Hand Fighter fit nicely. The reason, of course, is Righteous Brand. No other class has anything that can match the awesomeness. So just use Righteous Brand every single round and pretend you're shouting out commands like a Warlord... Go ahead and be a Dwarf with a Mordenkrad and Dwarven Weapon Training and wreak havoc yourself, too. It will be fun and uncleric like.

I still haven't seen the Bard, but I'd guess, like Warlords, a lot of their buffs affect "each of your allies" which makes them much less useful with only one ally.

Later!
Gruns