Vindicator - Devastation Greatsword

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Focused on: Strike damage and Mobility

Designed for: PvP Conquest

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Hard

Overview

A PvP Vindicator power build with high damage and mobility with moderate sustain and group utility. Primarily made to teamfight and roam but also has the ability to take some 1v1s when played right.

Archival note: various nerfs to Vindi survivability basically made both the high and low sustain version of the spec run the same gear and traits. Hammer also eclipsed Staff in popularity, making it harder to justify keeping a page around for this version. Merged into Vindicator - Greatsword_Shiro.

Skill Bar

Greatsword

Staff

Utility

Utility

Skill Variants

Weapons

• Sword/Sword over Staff - trades survivability for even more damage, the rapid attacks of S/S could help you finish off targets and stick to them better.

• Short bow - strong AoE pressure, adds some range to the build and
  Sevenshot
  is an excellent burst skill. Has 0 sustain however and offers no mobility unlike the other sets. Either weapons could be replaced by Short bow - if you give up Greatsword you'll still have Staff as the defensive set, or you could give up Staff for maximum greed and even higher difficulty. Requires both the Secrets of the Obscure expansion and Path of Fire.

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Equipment

Greatsword

Sigil

Sigil

Staff

Sigil

Sigil

Rune

Amulet

Relic

Equipment Variants

Relics

• Relic of Evasion
  - defensive relic that improves your endurance regen, boosting your evasion uptime and
  Forerunner of Death
  synergy.

• Relic of Isgarren
  - higher burst potential.

• Relic of the Defender
  - improves your self-healing when playing with GS/Staff as both sets have access to blocking skills.

• Relic of Leadership
  - adds a new source of condition removal to the build, cleansing several conditions whenever you use an elite skill (once every 30 seconds).

Runes

• Rune of the Dolyak
  - defensive option in case you expect to be pressured a lot.

Usage

General

• This build's role is essentially identical to that of Power Herald; you are a dps/roamer. You want to be in large teamfights and when you can't be you should be roaming the map looking to get kills as quickly as possible. Your number one priority is getting kills.

• You get a 20% damage bonus after you have dodged so you should try to not have full endurance while you are damaging enemies.

Teamfighting

• Begin larger fights on
  Legendary Alliance
  and use
  Scavenger Burst
  to give the focus target vulnerability through
  Expose Defenses
  and then reapply it through
  Spear of Archemorus
  . When you are ready to engage melee use
  Nomad's Advance
  or
  Phantom's Onslaught
  to gap close before switching to
  Legendary Assassin Stance
  . Swapping to shiro in melee range will proc
  Song of the Mists
  giving the enemy vulnerability and the player quickness. This can be followed up with
  Mist Unleashed
  or even by autoattacking as your autos are highly damaging.

• Phase Traversal
  and
  Jade Winds
  are both extremely valuable but also very dangerous due to their high energy cost. As such the best time to use them is when you have your legend swap available or if you pool enough energy that you can still use your stunbreak. You can stil use these skills when these conitions aren't met (such as to secure a kill on low health enemies) but good players will know to punish your energy mismanagement.

• Generally you should be using your dodges,
  Legendary Alliance
  and
  Scavenger Burst
  as chip damage to contribute to the fight while looking for an opportunity to do a large burst with
  Nomad's Advance
  and your weapon skills.

• You can provide alot of defensive utility to your allies in teamfights through proper usage of your kurzick abilities.
  • Tree Song
    cleanses 3 conditions and gives you endurance.
  • Awakening
    breaks stun for your allies
  • Battle Dance
    provides resistance
  • Selfless Spirit
    provides susbstantial healing
  • All of these skill while providing utility are some of the most valubale skills to use for yourself, as such use them when you are not the target or in such a way to benefit you and your allies simoultaneously.

+1ing

• Both stances provide you ways to plus one enemies and heavily damage them before most players can react.

• Shiro allows you to port in with phase traversal and instantly
  Mist Unleashed
  . As mentioned earlier this can be dangerous as it leaves you open to be cc'ed.

• Alliance allows you to enter a fight with
  Spear of Archemorus
  before proceeding into melee.

• Before opening up your plus one always dodge first.

• Do not linger in a plus one if your duelist is healthy and the enemy is kiting well feel free to go someplace else you will be more useful.

Sustain

• While Vindicator has good passive healing most of your sustain comes through chaining your blocks and evades when you are being focused.

• Your blocks are:
  • Imperial Guard
  • Warding Rift
    if staff is taken.

• Your evades are:
  • Surge of the Mists
    if staff is taken.
  • Battle Dance
  • Riposting Shadows
  • Dodging

• As your dodge does not involve your character moveing you can use it inteligently to kite. Jumping while dodgeing enables you to climb kite spots while simoultaneously evading all pressure.

• While under pressure and kiting you want to use your lowest cost survivability skills first so that you can stunbreak if needed. This will be your dodges and blocks.

• You can cleanse conditions through the use of:
  • Tree Song
  • Renewing Wave
    if staff is taken.
  • Cleansing Channel
  • Sigil of Cleansing

• Swapping legends and using alliance tactics will both heal you and give you endurance through
  Balance in Discord
  and
  Angsiyan's Trust

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