Strimtom's Vanguide - An Endgame guide to playing Fighter Vanguard

[Strimtom]

This guide is updated for U41.4

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to Strimtom's first attempt at an end game guide. The goal of this guide is to give those of you out there who need a way to step into the end game. If you want paladin, use this build guide, but follow the same general playstyle detailed here.

Before we talk fighter, first I want to define end game as per this guide. To me, end game is:

1. Attempting content that you and a group of people are unable to complete on the first try and require thinking and planning (level 30 quests/raids on high reaper difficulties)
2. A part of the game in which clearly defined roles are needed for success and that not only do you need to have the equipment and stats for the role but that you also need to execute and perform your role well.

Under these parameters, I define the vanguard fighter as:
High DPS
Assassin
Crowd Control

This is due to the nature of the character and it's statistics. There are almost no creatures that you cannot kill in 6 seconds as a vanguard in reaper 10, and your stuns last 6 seconds. Combined with your mobility, you can' easily jump on priority targets like casters or super champs and keep your team safe.

This guide is for playing a vanguard fighter in the end game. For those that don't know what vanguard is, it is using the vanguard tree to kill people with your shield. Why would you want to do this? Because it's obviously a better weapon! Consider the following:

Consider a sword. It's sharp and crafted to be a lethal weapon. You could use this with grace and slice up your foes.

Consider a tower shield. It's a 50lbs piece of steel. You can use this to smash someone's entire body with almost no finesse at all. Clearly, the shield is the better weapon.

Jokes aside, vanguard provides unique game play opportunities in fighter. It gives crowd control options that other fighters don't get as well as very strong burst potential. It's almost like dual wielding, except you are using a shield. For those that don't understand the mechanic, vanguards get Secondary shield bash chance as a stat. This gives your melee attacks to proc a shield bash for free. No, you do not hold block and attack. You just attack like regular and you get free extra hits. This gives you a lot of free attacks, and given the attack speed you get (+35% walking around, and at the 60% cap with action boosts.)

PROS

• Extremely high damage potential
• You look cool as all hell when you smash people
• Able to remove priority targets instantly in high reaper difficulties at level 30
• People will think you are a tank and that you won't do anything but you will be top of the kill board every time.
• Gives you a very optimized and specific way to play, letting you get into the game and focus.
• People will tell you that you can only play monk in endgame but you will out dps 95% of monk players with your rad skills and damage.

CONS

• Does not heal at all
• Your friends will become really jealous of your damage and tell you fighters can't play in the end game
• You aren't a tank, but people will think you are
• Requires you to pay attention, as in R8+ you can't take more than 1 hit.

THE STATS

Welcome to the obligatory stereo instructions included with each build. In this section we will discuss how to make an amazing vanguard. This isn't going to be an in depth levelling guide, the build levels itself.

RACE
Race doesn't matter much. You can play whatever you want, The only difference is warforged which has some neat properties if you have at least 2 racial enhancement points, making it the best option.

I played dragonborn because they look so cool

STARTING STATS

You need strength for damage, you need at least 13 dex for Precision, you need con for life, and you need charisma for UMD.

SKILL PRIORITY

1. Use Magic Device
2. Intimidate
3. Balance
4. Jump
5. Swim

Now you say, "Strimtom, why are you using intimidate? You straight up said this wasn't a tank build and now you are lying to me and I feel hurt and I can't even."

I did say that this isn't a tank build, but I don't use intimidate to tank. I use it to pull monsters off of my healer and off of my casters. Have you ever gotten frustrated chasing around monsters that are chasing the ranged who won't stop running? INTIMIDATE THOSE THINGS YO

FEAT ORDER
Level 1 - Exotic Weapon Prof: Kopesh, Shield Mastery
Level 2 - Stunning Blow
Level 3 - Weapon Focus Slashing
Level 4 - Weapons Specialization Slashing
Level 6 - Improved Shield Bash, Heavy Armor Combatant
Level 8 - Improved Critical Slashing
Level 9 - Improved Shield Mastery
Level 10 - Greater Weapon Focus Slashing
Level 12 - Precision, Tactical Mastery
Level 14 - Greater Weapons Specialization Slashing
Level 15 - Heavy Armor Master
Level 16 - Tactical Supremecy
Level 18 - Power Critical, Quick Draw
Level 20 - Heavy Armor Chamption
Level 21 - Overwhelming Critical
Level 24 - Two handed fighting
Level 26 - Perfect Two Weapon Fighting
Level 27 - Epic Damage Reduction
Level 28 - Perfect Two Handed Fighting
Level 29 - Dire Charge
Level 30 - Improved Two Handed Fighting, Scion of Arborea

(If you have Completionist, take that instead of Power Critical)

WARFORGED FEAT ORDER
Level 1 - Exotic Weapon Prof: Kopesh, Shield Mastery
Level 2 - Stunning Blow
Level 3 - Adamantine Plating,
Level 4 - Weapon Focus Slashing
Level 6 - Weapons Specialization Slashing, Heavy Armor Combatant
Level 8 - Improved Critical Slashing
Level 9 - Improved Shield Mastery
Level 10 - Greater Weapon Focus Slashing
Level 12 - Precision, Tactical Mastery
Level 14 - Greater Weapons Specialization Slashing
Level 15 - Heavy Armor Master
Level 16 - Tactical Supremecy
Level 18 - Improved Shield Bash, Quick Draw
Level 20 - Heavy Armor Chamption
Level 21 - Overwhelming Critical
Level 24 - Two Handed Fighting
Level 26 - Perfect Two Weapon Fighting
Level 27 - Epic Damage Reduction
Level 28 - Perfect Two Handed Fighting
Level 29 - Dire Charge
Level 30 - Improved Two Handed Fighting, Scion of Arborea

(If you have Completionist, take that instead of Power Critical)

ENHANCEMENTS

A quick breakdown of the enhancements.
First, notice that we don't use Stalwart defender. This is for two reasons.

1. Stalwart adds aggro, and we don't want that. We want the tank to have aggro.
2. This tree doesn't do damage so it is completely useless to us.

You want T5 kensai and core 5, because that is 40 melee power and a tonne of damage. Along with this, you need the attacks A Good Death for a sweet as hell execute, and Deadly Strike for the auto crit. Shattering strikes is a great 1 pointer, since it drops enemy fortification (great for shroud portals).
T5 Kensai is way better than T5 vanguard which is why you take it. However, the vanguard capstone is where the magic happens. It reads

While shield is equipped: +2 attack, +2 damage, +5% doublestrike, +1(W) to your shield, an additional +5% (total 20%) Combat Style bonus to Melee Attack Speed, and shield bash stuns 10% of the time DC (10 + 1/2 Character lvl + strength modifier + stun bonus)

This was recently changed from what it was previously on this guide. The capstone used to read that it was a 5% chance to stun, but it was actually performing as a 50% stun. Since U38.1, this has been changed to 10%. This is a good chance for clarity, since new players will understand it initially, but this is an 80% nerf on the proc rate of the stun. As a result, stun locking targets is nearly impossible if they aren't stunable. Undead, constructs, and many abbertions will be completely immune to stunning blow and dire charge, meaning that you get Stunning shield and then a small proc chance, making it less reliable.

Out of Vanguard, shield stun is basically the best stun in the game since it works on all monsters, and shield charge is your version of a cleave. Yes, it moves you a great distance but that isn't how WE use it. I will go into details later in gameplay.

Okay, but what about warforged? you want at least 1 racial enhancement point so you can fully take healers friend, which this build won't work unless you have 2 racial points.

EQUIPMENT
This is where this gets confusing. I will do my best to simplify. There will be two items lists. One as warforged, and one as non-warforged. Warforged is clearly superior for itemization and stats.

WARFORGED
Head:Mighty Stormreach Guardian Helm a- Globe of True Imperial Blood Slotted
Neck: Slavelords Crafted Chains (False Life - Accuracy - Use Magic Device - Quality Strength)
Trinket: Echo of Ravenkind - Slotted with a Topaz of Deathblock, Topaz of Blindness Immunity
Cloak: The Invisible Cloak of Strahd
Belt: Legendary Braided Cutcord
Ring 1: Legendary Band of Insightful Commands
Ring 2: Ring of Nightfall - Slotted with Topaz of Power +250
Gloves: Molten Silver Gauntlets - Slotted with Golems heart, Charisma +8 Augment
Boots: Flightfoot Grieves
Googles: Epic Precision Lenses
Bracers: Bracers of the Fallen Hero
Armor: Legendary Memory of Hiding in Darkness - Slotted with -15% ASF Sapphire
Mainhand: Calamity, a brush with death (Slotted with Prowess 5 set)*
Off-hand: MirrorPlate Tower - Slotted with Ruby of Good


This Item set gives you all the stats you need and also lands you with the ravenloft set as well as the silent avengers set.

NON-WARFORGED MEAT BAGS
Head:Mighty Stormreach Guardian Helm a- Globe of True Imperial Blood Slotted
Neck: Slavelords Crafted Chains (False Life - Accuracy - Use Magic Device - Quality Strength)
Trinket: Echo of Ravenkind - Slotted with a Topaz of Deathblock, Topaz of Blindness Immunity
Cloak: The Invisible Cloak of Strahd
Belt: Legendary Braided Cutcord
Ring 1: Legendary Band of Insightful Commands
Ring 2: Ring of Nightfall - Slotted with Topaz of Power +250
Gloves: Molten Silver Gauntlets - Slotted with Golems heart, Charisma +8 Augment
Boots: Flightfoot Grieves
Googles: Epic Precision Lenses
Bracers: Bracers of the Fallen Hero
Armor: If you need more defense Legendary Scales of Avarice - Slotted with -15% ASF Sapphire, if you need more damage use Platemail of the Celestial Avenger - Slotted with -15% ASF Sapphire
Mainhand: Calamity, a brush with death (Slotted with Prowess 5 set)*
Off-hand: MirrorPlate Tower - Slotted with Ruby of Good


There is some debate between MirrorPlate Tower and The Best Defense. I use mirrorplate because in higher end reaper it gives better defensive stats as well as critting harder due to having a higher top end of base damage. Best defense does more damage overall but I personally prefer the increases defensive stats in high end reaper mode. Either are good, but for R6+ I recommend Mirrorplate.

Epic Destinies
For this you want to use legendary dreadnaught, the only epic destiny for melee classes. Since you already get all the actionboosts you need from your enhancement trees, you simply take strength and blitz and the rest doesn't matter really.
Your Twists are:
T4 - Sense Weakness
T2 - Legendary Shield Master
T1 - Primal Scream
T1 - Flex: Dragonhide Rank 3, energy sheathe.

Past Lives
You do not need any past lives for this build to be good. My character that I have been playing has 1 ranger life and 1 monk life, and I have no issues killing in reaper 10.
Good past lives (Rated in order of most beneficial to least beneficial)
Doublestrike 3
Enchant Weapons 3
Monk 3
Fighter 3
Paladin 3
Fast Healing 3
Brace 3
Artificer 3 (UMD good)

If you had all these past lives you would have +9% double strike, +6 to hit and damage, +3 to DCs of combat feats, +30 healing amp, a little healing and DR when blocking, and +3 UMD. Not essential, but still good to have.

Now you are all set! You have everything you need to play this character properly.

Oh wait, I forgot the how to play section. Lets do that now!

GAMEPLAY

Prowess and YOU!
Prowess is the best filigree set in the game for melee, don't let anyone tell you otherwise., It gives you a 75 melee power boost for 10 seconds after you activate an actionboost. This build gives you 17 actionboosts allowing you to sustain 340 seconds of prowess between shrines thanks to action boost damage and actionboost haste. However, the mechanic isn't as obvious as to how it works.

How do the skills work? What is my rotation?
Your abilities are as follows...

• Single target damage
  
  • Right Click, the best attack in the game!
  • Shield Smash
  • Opportunity Attack
  • A Good Death for executes
  • Deadly Strike for Burst damage
• AOE Damage (Cleave)
  
  • Dire Charge (also a stun)
  • Shield Charge (also a stun)
• Situational Crowd Control
  
  • Stunning Blow
  • Stunning Shield (Works on unstunable targets like undead and oozes)
  • Dire Charge (AOE)
  • Shield Charge (AOE, Works on unstunable targets like undead and oozes 10% of the time)
  • Shattering Strike

As you can see, your single target attack list and your CC options are really good. I`ll now breakdown how to use each one.

Rightclick: This is the bread and butter of fighter. Auto attacks are super strong since you shield bash almost 100% of the time you auto attack, which also gives a 50% chance to stun the target. Essentially, every 6 swings you make you are guaranteed to stun the monster you are fighting for 6 seconds without even using an ability. That's super good.
Shield Smash: A single target shield attack that doesn't interrupt your normal attacks. It's basically free damage, hits extremely hard, and stuns 50% of the time. It also only has a 6 second cooldown, so always use this on cooldown.
Opportunity Attack: Use this skill whenever it is off cooldown and you have charges. it recharges when you hit stuff, it hits hard, and it gives you 20 melee power. It's great.
A Good Death: This should primary be used as an execute. The execution damage when a target is under 30% HP is massive, especially since this ability can double strike. Try to use this only when you are in execute range. As well, if you can activate prowess and/or have the buff from opportunity attack active you can easily hit with this for over 30k damage on elite difficulty.
Deadly Strike: I use this on cooldown for anything less than R4, but in R4 up I use this as an execution tool to quickly burst down priority targets.
Dire Charge: Usually my first action in combat. IT does a fantastic AOE stun, and when you don't have a CC caster present you basically become the CC caster. Against undead I just use this as cleave.
Shield Charge: You don't need to use this as a charge. If you use this in melee (it requires a target) it is basically a 360 degree cleave but using your shield. Your shield is about 4x the base damage of your kopesh, so use this on cooldown in combat. The only except to using it on cooldown is when you want to save the stun for a potential priority target. Extremely useful in quests with lots of unstunable monsters (The wizard of the Wines, anytime you face packs of scarecrows).
Stunning Blow: A great single target stun, but the DC is 30 points lower than stunning shield and also has a longer cast time. Only use this when you need to stun and have no other options.
Stunning Shield: Not only does this skill stun everything with a ridiculous DC, but it also hits like a truck since it adds +3[W]. Your best stun since it works on command, so be careful of the cooldown. This skill alllows you to stun and delete any enemy since they cannot make their save. Use this wisely.
Shattering Strike: Use this on cooldown against monsters that have fortification. It helps both you and your team.

Understanding your skills helps you understand how you play. My rotation is usually as follows

1. Actionboost and Power Surge before combat
2. Shield charge into combat, and hold rightclick as you get into combat so you are constantly auto attacking
3. If fortification, use shattering strike
4. If stunable, use Stunning Shield
5. Use Opportunity attack
6. Use Shield Smash
7. Use Deadly Strikes
8. If in execute range, use A Good Death

This attack priority is everything you need to do super sick DPS.

How should you play?
Do not think of yourself as a beefy tank fighter. You are an assassin who can shield slam for over 25k in a single strike. Your job is to wait until someone gets aggro and then manoeuvre around the combat to find priority targets. Wisps, casters, and every champion there is. Your thought process once the fight starts is like this:

1. Are the monsters clumped? If yes and they are stunnable, dire charge them. If yes and not stunnable, use shield charge to stun the crowd anyway. If no, go to the next step.
2. Beastmark/Arborean/Mark of Law melee's need to die or your tank dies. Kill them first.
3. If no clumps, move onto the caster types in the back. Champions first.
4. Single target down ranged, and continuously dire charge backs when it's off cooldown.

Your job is to stand behind the boss and go to town.

Once you equip all this gear, you will notice that your saves are abysmal. Like, really bad. This might seem awful, but it isn't. You see, this gives you as a player a chance to be better than the game. You have deathward and freedom of movement already, locking away many of the bad effects. You have UMD so you can heal and restore away any stat or level damage you take.So what happens when you get stunned by a soundburst?

Harper Pin, Greater Harper Pin, and Unstoppable all break you out of crowd control effects. Use them, and master the cleanse. Being able to efficiently cleanse debuffs is essential to your survival in reaper mode. Your understanding of positioning should grow to the point where you are aware of spellcasters casting certain spells and to stay away from AOE spells that cause ailments like Otto's sphere of dancing or symbol of stunning. Yes, you can swap around your gear to get better saves, or you can learn to position and have much better damage overall. I highly recommend you practice this skill because it will save you much more and is also transferable to all your characters in DDO.

A backpack full of success!
Consumables are key in epic content. Don't leave home without these items in tow.

• Raise dead scrolls (Or resurrection, if your UMD is high enough)
• Heal Scrolls
• Greater restoration + Restoration scrolls
• Tensers Transformation Scrolls
• Potions of Prowess (+2 to hit and damage pots from comms of valour)
• Teleport Scrolls (So convenient! And the don't have spell failure!)

And... that's it! This build works really well, just keep in mind that it doesn't have any way to heal outside heal scrolls which really stop working in reaper mode. That is why in reaper mode you need support characters with you to unlock your full potential. So go on reddit or the forums, find one of these only healer players, and become best of friends!

I will be keeping this guide up to date, and I will also be testing out vanguard paladin next for a comparative look at what the difference is. As far as I know, it's a trade of damage for survivability, which I don't think is worth it given that this is a DPS build first and foremost. If I missed anything, please let me know!

FAQ

1. How does Paladin vanguard perform?
   It's all right. I played as a paladin vanguard using Aasimar and the enhancement tree. the damage is similar but about 10% lower. It also loses all of the burst since you don't have th combo of A Good Death and Deadly Strike, as well as some good base damage and shattering strike. Instead, you gain vulnerability on hit from Aasimar (void if you have Calamity, the raid kopesh) and you are about 30% more life, as well as having all your saves over 80. You also get the ability to lay on hands which is extremely valuable. Honestly, it lags behind in raw performance in the dps category, but if you have a shake group of player a paladin vanguard can more reliably raise the dead as well as get a heal in a pinch.
   
2. Update 38.1 drastically changed vanguards, are they still good? Can you still play them?
   Yes, they are still good and you can play them.
   
   Vanguards can no longer stun lock stun immune monsters (you can still stun lock stun vulnerable monsters by rotating dire charge -> Stunning blow -> stunning shield), but vanguard fighters are still capable of instantly deleting high priority targets with their assassination tools. This is a blow to the sustained survivability, but if you enjoy the assassin play style this class presents than it is largely unchanged.