About the Build
Check your ego at the door; this is a pure support build. You won’t be at the top of the Paingiver charts, but you will clear dungeons and bosses faster. A support CW has quite a few buffs and debuffs, so keeping them up is a pretty engaging way to play and somewhat distinct within Neverwinter.
Disclaimer: The debuff formula is ridiculous and not straight forward. If I give a percent damage buff or percent debuff, keep in mind that it goes through some modifiers before application. Things like the enemy’s level, damage resistance and attackers resistance ignored go into it along with some other resistances. They are not within your control though, so for practical purposes these crude round numbers listed here should be a decent guide on what procs to keep up.
Credits: michela123, Sharpedge
Why This Build is Awesome
This build is inexpensive and effective. The buffs and debuffs are just a matter of class features and your ability to keep them up. This results in a very active and fun playstyle. Sure, if you want to blow loads of money on this you can make some increases and I’ll tell you where to below. Further, these buffs and debuffs come from an array of sources, so you won’t feel like a one trick pony a-la the Guardian Fighter’s Into the Fray pre Mod 10.
Nobody is running Master of Flame and so most groups don’t know what to do with a pure buff/debuff CW. This can take the place of a support class or DPS, just knowing that you’ll be the lowest DPS if you’re playing with anyone who is good at their class.
Where do the Buffs and Debuffs Come From?
- Prestidigitation (feat) – Allies gain 3% increased stats
- Bitter Cold (feat) – Targets with chill take 5% more damage
- Uncertain Allegiance (feat) – Allies gain 5% Crit Chance
- Nightmare Wizardry (feat) – Allies gain Combat Advantage (>= 15% damage)
- Chaos Magic (feat) – chance of 30% Arm Pen + 30% Crit or chance of 30% damage. Could also proc healing.
- Swath of Destruction (passive) – 20% more damage to targets with smolder/rimfire
- Combustive Action (passive) – 24% more damage when you use a daily. Extended by Twisting Immolation feat.
- Ray of Enfeeblement (encounter) – 17.5% more damage, double on tab
- Dark Fire (racial passive) – 5% more damage when procs, can stack.
There are more ways to get debuffs through weapon enchants, companions, and artifacts. Those will be explained below. In short though, the goal is to keep up chill, smolder/rimfire, and do dailies as often as possible. Chill comes easy through Icey Veins, but you’ll have to be intentional about smolder with Scorching Burst (at-will), Fanning the Flames on tab (encounter) or Furious Immolation (daily).
Race
Play Drow for Dark Fire.
INT and WIS are the two most important stats to help with recharge time and AP gain.
Feats
Keep in mind the goal is to assist others as much as possible. You can split hairs if you don’t like the two points in Battlewise (less threat), but the other options of Fight On and Controlling Action are pretty crappy in reality. The rest of the build is centered around maximizing buffs and debuffs. A notable absence from this build is Spell Twisting (Thaum feat). This is because we get the Bitter Cold debuff, Icy Veins for chill/rimfire management, and the feat that lengthens the Combustive Action debuff.
Powers
Master of Flame
Here are the things you’ll want 4 points in, the rest is up to you.
- Swath of Destruction
- Combustive Action
- Ray of Enfeeblement
- Fanning the Flames
- Icy Terrain
- Disintegrate
- Steal Time
Typical Rotation
At Wills: Scorching Burst (applies Smolder) and Chilling Cloud/Ray of Frost (applies chill)
Dailies: Furious Immolation (applies smolder and gathers mobs) and Ice Knife
Multiple Targets
Fanning the Flames on Tab
Icy Terrain
Ray of Enfeeblement
Steal Time
Start combat with Fanning the Flames within melee range (for Icy Veins). This puts both Smolder and Chill on the target (each conveying a debuff). Next is Icy Terrain to keep Chill up and turn Smolder into Rimfire. Next Ray of Enfeeblement on the big guy, and finish with Steal Time.
Single Target
Ray of Enfeeblement on Tab
Disintegrate
Icy Terrain
Fanning the Flames or Other Single Target
The 17.5% debuff for Ray of Enfeeblement stacks with itself when on mastery, so this is too good to pass up on boss fights. You’ll want to use your Scorching Burst At-will to apply smolder and then you can keep it up with Icy Terrain or any encounter within melee range (Icy Veins).
Equipment
We care about maximizing Recovery and having around 50% crit chance to proc things in the Renegade feats.
Dragonflight Raid Cap
Dusk Assault Robes
Drowcraft Armlets
Dusk Raid Shoes
The Flaming or Twisted Sets are Fine. Swath of Destruction Off-Hand
Belt of Valindra’s Guard
Lostmauth or Valindra Neck
Rings: Brutality, Rising Power, Rising Focus
Artifacts:
Lantern of Revelation – 8% boost (tooltip is misleading)
Sigil of Devoted – more AP for more Combustive Action
Token of Chromatic Storm – insanely powerful debuff, insanely expensive
Vanguard’s Banner – 8% boost for first hit and then 8% RI, have to play some serious PVP to get it.
The rest are up to you. Keep in mind that Recovery and Power are most important.
Enchants:
If you can afford it, go for Trans Lightning. It will proc Dark Fire a lot and will help with recharge times. This is important as we don’t have Spell Twisting. If you’re not up to T. Lightning, go with the best Plague Fire you can get.
Silveries in Offense Slots, Darks and Radiants in Defense. Once Lifesteal is comfortably high, 10% should be fine with Chaos Magic, then go for more HP.
Mounts
Shepherd’s Devotion – Whenever you use a Daily power, your teammates Defense, Deflection, and Movement are increased by 5% of your Power for 15 seconds.
Gladiator’s Guile – makes life so much easier
Artificer’s Persuasion – more recovery. This is really only awesome if you have a Mythic active artifact
Artificer’s Influence – see above
Wanderer’s Fortune – refinement
The rest are up to you as none of them really help to buff or debuff. If you have lots of money, the Flail Snail mount power is good for keeping up Combustive Action.
Companions
Here are the three best summoned companions. Dancing Shield is a bit controversial as you could be messing with the tank’s threat. No companions have good buff or debuff active abilities.
- Dancing Shield – 20% debuff
- Sellsword – 10% debuff
- Con Artist – 10% debuff
- Sprite – 2 % Action Point Gain
Because crit isn’t very high on this build, the Owlbear Cub active can help with some of your damage. It is really expensive though and doesn’t help the party.