Post by Luda on Aug 5, 2017 20:03:40 GMT -5
Hi Everyone, I know this took a lot longer than I originally said but here you go. This is my Master Infiltrator build for dungeons. I am currently working on coming up with a solid dailies spec more focusing more around the Saboteur paragon, as well as a MI Executioner PVP spec. As soon as I have those done, and I am happy with the results I will post those also.
RACE :
The race I picked was human, because I like the 3 extra heroic feats you get, and it was $75 cheaper than Dragonborn. Dragonborn, and Half Orc are 2 other races that I am sure would be solid options to go with. Pick whichever you would like, but make sure your +stats go to Strength and Dexterity. The Combat Advantage damage from Charisma is nice, but by moving the points from Strength into Charisma, you end up losing about 10% damage.
STATS:
Offensively, your priority should go as followed.
1. Armor Penetration – It is important to stack your armor penetration up until your resistance ignored has reached 60%. It is important to get your armor penetration up to this 60% soft cap, because 60% is currently the highest resistance any monster has in PvE.
2. 2a. Power and 2b.Critical Strike – Ultimate name of the game is to get your critical strike between 80-90% (unbuffed), and once you have reached that percentage to stack power as much as you can. If you are starting just starting out try to maintain a ratio of 2:1 Power:Crit. Though critical strike is important you cannot forget without power your critical strikes won’t hit for anything.
3. Recovery – As an executioner rogue our cool downs can take awhile, so it is not a bad idea to work in some recovery to help lower those cool down times, but make sure not to put too much into this stat, because again you will find your damage output drop dramatically.
Defensively, I stack life steal, and some defense (through gear). Compared to other DPS classes rogues have a very low threat generation factor, and if you have a solid tank you should rarely if ever pull agro and have a need for Defense or Deflect as a primary stat. Also, since rogues generally strike many times quickly this will give you a higher probability to proc life steal, and put less pressure on your healers.
Heroic, Executioner & Scoundrel Feats
• Heroic Feat Points
Weapon Mastery 3/3 - This feat increases your Critical Chance. You cannot go wrong with extra Critical Chance; it's such a huge necessity for any Trickster Rogue build.
Toughness 3/3 - This feat increases your overall health points by 3/6/9%. The more health points, the more damage you can take technically.
Action Advantage 5/5 – This feat gives you a 2/4/6/8/10% additional action points for dealing combat advantage damage.
Cunning Ambusher 3/3 - Cunning Ambusher feat grants 6% more damage after leaving stealth - and you leave stealth a lot, you have to have 3/3 on this one, no excuses or reasons not to.
Endless Assault 3/3 - This feat increases the amount of damage your Encounter Power's dish out by 2/4/6%. Obviously your Encounters deal a lot of damage, so I think this one speaks for itself. You want to deal more damage, so a damage bonus is perfect.
Scoundrel Training 3/3 - Basically this increases your damage towards enemies who are not targeting you by 3/6/9%. Mostly useful in group raids where the tank is taking agro.
Disciple of Straight 3/3 - This feat increases the amount of bonus damage STR (Strength) gives you by 2/4/6%. This is kind of a no brainer.
• Paragon Feat Points
• Executioner
Grim Pleasure 5/5 - This feat increases your Power rating by 1/2/3/4/5% for 4 seconds after dealing a critical strike. While running a Crit % of 80-90% unbuffed you will maintain this 5% power increase for the duration of your fights.
Vicious Pursuit 5/5 - You're going to start seeing this 6-second pattern going on in many of the feats. This is due to Shadow of Demise. Vicious Pursuit makes the target you've damaged to take 2/4/6% more damage from you for 6 seconds. It doesn't stack, but still, a consistent 6% more damage is fairly beneficial.
Deathknell 5/5 - You deal 5/10/15/20/25% more damage to foes below 30% Hit points. This feat may not be the best option for standard dailies where 30% HP is burnt through very quickly, but when in End game dungeons/skirmishes/raids this feat comes in handy especially when paired with Last Moments.
Last Moments 5/5 - This is a really nice damage buff. When your enemy, your foe, is below 40% health, you deal 5/10/15/20/25% more damage to them. While stealthed, this buff takes effect when your enemy is below 70% health. This is especially helpful in raids where it takes a longer time to kill the boss, so there's lots of time when the enemy is below 40% health. Like I said, it's an excellent damage buff.
Shadowborn 5/5 - This is another Feat that works well for my build, because I'm entering Stealth usually 2 and sometimes 3 times in a row within Shadow of Demise's 6 seconds. Whenever I enter stealth, this feat increases my power rating by 20/40/60/80/100% for my next attack. Very useful
Shadow of Demise 1/1 - This is the Shadow of Demise feat we've been reading about through all my feats. This feat, is the key to a good chunk of the damage you deal. Basically, when you use an Encounter Power on an enemy while stealthed, Shadow of Demise will proc. The total damage you deal within the following 6 seconds is added up, and when 6 seconds are up, the enemy who you targeted with Shadow of Demise, takes an additional massive hit for 50% of the total damage you dealt in those 6 seconds. This massive hit of damage cannot be deflected or ignored - it's piercing damage. So basically, you deal an extra 50% raw damage. It's a very powerful feat, and it's where an unbelievable amount of your total damage is going to come from. This feat makes the Executioner Paragon Path what it is - a true DPS path.
• Scoundrel
Bloody Brawler 5/5 - I've really focused on my Life Steal for this build, so for me this feat is valuable. It increases my Life Steal over all, which always helps. I prefer Life Steal over Deflection because Life Steal restores Health Points, and a high amount of HP as well. Deflection doesn't restore any HP at all. Life Steal keeps me alive longer!
Press The Advantage 5/5 - Basically whenever you use the defensive encounter power "Impossible to Catch", you also gain an offensive 10% power increase. This feat is only really valuable to players that have more than 35,000 Power when buffed.
Back Alley Tactics 5/5 - Basically when your AP Gauge is empty, you gain a 25% damage bonus which slowly diminishes as your AP Gauge refills once again, all the way until its full, where your damage bonus is then reduced down to 0%. Now, why this is rather useful is because when you cast a daily power (so your Whirlwind of Blades or Lurker's Assault, both offering a damage buff of sorts) you're now also gaining a 25% damage bonus increase because yes, you guessed it - you just used your Daily Power so your AP Gauge is 100% empty, giving you the full effects of the buff. Fun fact; Lurker's Assault blocks AP gain from all sources while its buff is up - minus the AP bonus from your Neck Piece. So basically for the entirety of Lurker's damage buff, you also gain the buff from Back Alley Tactics.
• Powers
Cloud of Steel (4) - I've ranked this up to 4 because it's a good quick ranged At-Will attack. It's actually the only ranged At-Will you'll have following the Master Infiltrator path. It can be extremely useful when in a position where you can't afford to play melee (close combat).
Sly Flourish (4) - Another really great At-Will attack, perfect for when you can't take a whole few seconds to cast Duelist's Fury, which takes several seconds to finish cast. Sly Flourish also gives whats called Broken Armor, which is if in the event you finish the powers combo, the target takes 5% more damage from all sources - great for group runs.
Duelist's Fury (4) - Very powerful At-Will. It does take a few seconds to finish its combo (it casts in 3 stages). Using this has a chance to add a Bleed Effect which deals even more additional damage, and this can stack up to 10 times. Very useful, very powerful.
Dazing Strike (4) - Dazing Strike first and foremost dazes your opponents. Casting it while stealthed is well worth it - not only does it active Shadow of Demise, but it also damages and dazes multiple targets. This is really helpful in keeping yourself alive; if players are dazed, they cannot attack you. This gives you time to deal as much damage as you can while Shadow of Demise is active.
Lashing Blade (4) - Lashing Blade is going to be your main DPS Encounter, It deals the most damage of any other Encounter, but also has a longer cool-down than most of the Encounters. It's a must-have encounter.
Smoke Bomb (4) - Smoke Bomb dazes opponents just like Dazing Strike, but affects a larger area, and dazes for a longer period of time. On a critical hit, this Encounter can deal some really nice damage to multiple enemies over a period of time. When used Stealthed it does add a Slow effect, but find that part to be a bit useless. Note: Smoke Bomb doesn't activate Shadow of Demise the same way other Encounters do. You have to activate Stealth AFTER casting Smoke Bomb, while Smoke Bomb is still actively dealing damage-over-time to trigger Shadow of Demise.
Impossible to Catch (4) - Basically, you dodge your enemies attacks making you untouchable, and gain 50% Damage Resistance. At Rank 4, this buff lasts for 5 seconds. The cool-down for it is 10 seconds, sometimes 9 in combat with buffs - so over half the time. You can empower your defences with this buff, and using it in-line with the Press The Advantage feat - also gain a good power buff, increasing your offences. Win-win situation all the way around (just be sure you have the feat, and enough power to make it worth your while).
Whirlwind of Blades (4) - Another power that in my opinion, is a must-have. This Daily deals really decent damage to multiple enemies at once. When you're in battle, and you have a crowd of enemies around you, this spell tallies up some really major damage. Plus, you gain power for every enemy you hit - so in this case, the more the merrier! Approximately each enemies hit grants you roughly 20k Power, at least from my calculations. Might be slightly less, but its a huge amount of power you gain either way!
Lurker's Assault (4) - Lurker's Assault doesn't deal damage but it still works with Invisible Infiltrator (Class Feat Below), meaning it will still restore your stealth meter on initial use. Lurker's Assault then continues to restore your stealth meter at a very rapid speed, This Daily Power also grants you +25% damage, which is a big damage buff. The stealth meter restoration and damage buff both last 10 seconds, which is also a great length of time. It takes a while to get used to implementing this in your rotations, but it is worth the while trust me. Lurker's assault also blocks further AP Gain while it's buff is active.
Skillful Infiltrator (4) - This class feature gives you everything you could want - additional run speed, deflection chance, and critical chance. At Rank 4, it gives 20% Run Speed, 4% Deflection Chance, and 4% Critical Chance. It adds up, and can be really useful.
Invisible Infiltrator (4) - This Feat restores all your Stealth upon casting a Daily Power. This can really help you during your Shadow of Demise rotations, and other situations. I actually depend on it a lot for my rotations, as the extra Stealth Bar fill allows me to cast something with a guaranteed Critical Hit.
Rotation:
Multiple Mobs:
I usually cast Impossible to Catch, Dazing strike (Stealthed), Whirlwind of Blades, and Smoke Bomb (Stealthed), followed by Duelists Fury x1 or x2 depending how much time you're working with.
Single Target:
I usually cast Impossible to Catch, Lashing Blade (Stealthed), Lurker's Assault, and Dazing strike (Stealthed), followed by Sly Flourishx1, Duelists Fury x1 or x2 cycles depending how much time you're working with.
When available I will activate my combat mount power, and Artifact power to increase damage buffs even more.
Companions:
When it comes to increasing your overall damage output having the right companions, runestones, and companion gear will be one of your most important investments. All non-augmented companions should have Bondings runestones in all 3 runestone slots. When you summoned companion activates a power, it has a chance to grant you a percentage of your companion’s stats. Each rank 12 bonding runestone can give you up to 95% of your companion’s stats (3 Rank 12 Bondings x 95% = 285% of your companions stats).
When picking your companions you need to make sure you are identifying the attributes the companion brings to the table (Summoned Bonus/Active Bonus/buff or debuff).
• Summoned Bonus – Is a bonus that is only applied when that specific companion is summoned.
• Active Bonus – Is a bonus that is applied when the companion is occupying one of the 5 active companion spots.
• Buff/Debuff – This is a buff/debuff that is applied when a summoned companion does uses a specific attack and/or spell. This can only be applied by that specific companion.
In my opinion Active Bonuses are the most important stat to consider when selecting your companions, since the active bonus to all of your active companions will be applied to you as long as you have a companion summoned. For that reason I have selected the following companions.
Fire Archon (Summoned) – Increases your damage against targets with less than 50% hit points by 7%.
Air Archon – Increases your damage against targets not at full health by +5.0%. Each additional active archon increases this bonus by .5%
Earth Archon – Increases your damage against targets by 6% when you are at full health. Each additional active archon increases this bonus by .5%
The Erynes of Belial – 10% Critical Severity
Siege Master – Deal +4% increased damage. This effect is increased to 8% damage while on Stronghold map.
Other decent companions to consider – Cambian Magus, SellSword/Rebel Mercenary/Con Artest (summoned), Dancing Blade, Wild Hunt Rider.
Insignias and Insignia Bonus
So what is an Insignia and what do they do?
Insignia's more or less are like applying Runestones to your Companion, or Enchantments to your Gear - just instead it's applying Insignia's to your mounts, and if you match them right, you can get a type of "set bonus" known as an Insignia Bonus. You will notice I have Epic Insignia's on my mounts - you do not need Epic Insignia's in order to obtain an Insignia Bonus from your mount - any rank of Insignia will work, be it Common, Rare, or Epic.
How can I get an Insignia Bonus then?
There are 5 different types of Insignia's - Crescent, Barbed, Enlightened, Regal, and Illuminated. By mixing / combining those types of Insignia's, you can get an Insignia Bonus. For example, as you can see below, x1 Crescent, x1 Barbed and x1 Enlightened create the Cavalry's Warning Insignia Bonus. Also note that mounts, like gear and companions, come with pre-set slots. Depending on the quality of the Mount (Common, Rare, Epic or Legendary) you'll have more or less "free for all" slots called Universal Slots. Apart from that, Barbed Insignia's can only go in Barbed Slots - and the same goes for any Insignia Type. This also means that while my White Tiger mount may offer Protector's Camaraderie, my Axe Beak mount does not due to the Insignia Slots available - so if you're looking for a specific Insignia Bonus, you need to look for the specific mounts that offer it.
Cavalry's Warning - This insignia bonus gives a 10% buff to all stats whenever you activate a mount's combat power. It's a sick buff and well worth using if you have a Mount Combat Power.
Artificer's Persuasion - Whenever you activate an Artifact Power, 10% of your total Power is added to Recovery, Movement, Action Point Gain, and Stamina Gain. Note, you do not actually lose any Power.
Assassin's Covenant - You lose 10% of your Defense, Deflection and Life Steal, and gain the combination of those lost stats as Power. Considering your Life Steal should be fairly high, this accounts for a decent amount of free extra Power.
Berserker’s Rage – While you have full action points, you gain 10% of your Armor Penetration as Power.
Protector's Camaraderie - Whenever your companion deals damage to an enemy, you gain "Protector's Camaraderie" which grants 3% Power and 3% Defense for 10 seconds - this stacks 4 times making for a total of +12% Power and 12% Defense during combat as long as you have your companion summoned (which you should for Bonding Runestones).
RACE :
The race I picked was human, because I like the 3 extra heroic feats you get, and it was $75 cheaper than Dragonborn. Dragonborn, and Half Orc are 2 other races that I am sure would be solid options to go with. Pick whichever you would like, but make sure your +stats go to Strength and Dexterity. The Combat Advantage damage from Charisma is nice, but by moving the points from Strength into Charisma, you end up losing about 10% damage.
STATS:
Offensively, your priority should go as followed.
1. Armor Penetration – It is important to stack your armor penetration up until your resistance ignored has reached 60%. It is important to get your armor penetration up to this 60% soft cap, because 60% is currently the highest resistance any monster has in PvE.
2. 2a. Power and 2b.Critical Strike – Ultimate name of the game is to get your critical strike between 80-90% (unbuffed), and once you have reached that percentage to stack power as much as you can. If you are starting just starting out try to maintain a ratio of 2:1 Power:Crit. Though critical strike is important you cannot forget without power your critical strikes won’t hit for anything.
3. Recovery – As an executioner rogue our cool downs can take awhile, so it is not a bad idea to work in some recovery to help lower those cool down times, but make sure not to put too much into this stat, because again you will find your damage output drop dramatically.
Defensively, I stack life steal, and some defense (through gear). Compared to other DPS classes rogues have a very low threat generation factor, and if you have a solid tank you should rarely if ever pull agro and have a need for Defense or Deflect as a primary stat. Also, since rogues generally strike many times quickly this will give you a higher probability to proc life steal, and put less pressure on your healers.
Heroic, Executioner & Scoundrel Feats
• Heroic Feat Points
Weapon Mastery 3/3 - This feat increases your Critical Chance. You cannot go wrong with extra Critical Chance; it's such a huge necessity for any Trickster Rogue build.
Toughness 3/3 - This feat increases your overall health points by 3/6/9%. The more health points, the more damage you can take technically.
Action Advantage 5/5 – This feat gives you a 2/4/6/8/10% additional action points for dealing combat advantage damage.
Cunning Ambusher 3/3 - Cunning Ambusher feat grants 6% more damage after leaving stealth - and you leave stealth a lot, you have to have 3/3 on this one, no excuses or reasons not to.
Endless Assault 3/3 - This feat increases the amount of damage your Encounter Power's dish out by 2/4/6%. Obviously your Encounters deal a lot of damage, so I think this one speaks for itself. You want to deal more damage, so a damage bonus is perfect.
Scoundrel Training 3/3 - Basically this increases your damage towards enemies who are not targeting you by 3/6/9%. Mostly useful in group raids where the tank is taking agro.
Disciple of Straight 3/3 - This feat increases the amount of bonus damage STR (Strength) gives you by 2/4/6%. This is kind of a no brainer.
• Paragon Feat Points
• Executioner
Grim Pleasure 5/5 - This feat increases your Power rating by 1/2/3/4/5% for 4 seconds after dealing a critical strike. While running a Crit % of 80-90% unbuffed you will maintain this 5% power increase for the duration of your fights.
Vicious Pursuit 5/5 - You're going to start seeing this 6-second pattern going on in many of the feats. This is due to Shadow of Demise. Vicious Pursuit makes the target you've damaged to take 2/4/6% more damage from you for 6 seconds. It doesn't stack, but still, a consistent 6% more damage is fairly beneficial.
Deathknell 5/5 - You deal 5/10/15/20/25% more damage to foes below 30% Hit points. This feat may not be the best option for standard dailies where 30% HP is burnt through very quickly, but when in End game dungeons/skirmishes/raids this feat comes in handy especially when paired with Last Moments.
Last Moments 5/5 - This is a really nice damage buff. When your enemy, your foe, is below 40% health, you deal 5/10/15/20/25% more damage to them. While stealthed, this buff takes effect when your enemy is below 70% health. This is especially helpful in raids where it takes a longer time to kill the boss, so there's lots of time when the enemy is below 40% health. Like I said, it's an excellent damage buff.
Shadowborn 5/5 - This is another Feat that works well for my build, because I'm entering Stealth usually 2 and sometimes 3 times in a row within Shadow of Demise's 6 seconds. Whenever I enter stealth, this feat increases my power rating by 20/40/60/80/100% for my next attack. Very useful
Shadow of Demise 1/1 - This is the Shadow of Demise feat we've been reading about through all my feats. This feat, is the key to a good chunk of the damage you deal. Basically, when you use an Encounter Power on an enemy while stealthed, Shadow of Demise will proc. The total damage you deal within the following 6 seconds is added up, and when 6 seconds are up, the enemy who you targeted with Shadow of Demise, takes an additional massive hit for 50% of the total damage you dealt in those 6 seconds. This massive hit of damage cannot be deflected or ignored - it's piercing damage. So basically, you deal an extra 50% raw damage. It's a very powerful feat, and it's where an unbelievable amount of your total damage is going to come from. This feat makes the Executioner Paragon Path what it is - a true DPS path.
• Scoundrel
Bloody Brawler 5/5 - I've really focused on my Life Steal for this build, so for me this feat is valuable. It increases my Life Steal over all, which always helps. I prefer Life Steal over Deflection because Life Steal restores Health Points, and a high amount of HP as well. Deflection doesn't restore any HP at all. Life Steal keeps me alive longer!
Press The Advantage 5/5 - Basically whenever you use the defensive encounter power "Impossible to Catch", you also gain an offensive 10% power increase. This feat is only really valuable to players that have more than 35,000 Power when buffed.
Back Alley Tactics 5/5 - Basically when your AP Gauge is empty, you gain a 25% damage bonus which slowly diminishes as your AP Gauge refills once again, all the way until its full, where your damage bonus is then reduced down to 0%. Now, why this is rather useful is because when you cast a daily power (so your Whirlwind of Blades or Lurker's Assault, both offering a damage buff of sorts) you're now also gaining a 25% damage bonus increase because yes, you guessed it - you just used your Daily Power so your AP Gauge is 100% empty, giving you the full effects of the buff. Fun fact; Lurker's Assault blocks AP gain from all sources while its buff is up - minus the AP bonus from your Neck Piece. So basically for the entirety of Lurker's damage buff, you also gain the buff from Back Alley Tactics.
• Powers
Cloud of Steel (4) - I've ranked this up to 4 because it's a good quick ranged At-Will attack. It's actually the only ranged At-Will you'll have following the Master Infiltrator path. It can be extremely useful when in a position where you can't afford to play melee (close combat).
Sly Flourish (4) - Another really great At-Will attack, perfect for when you can't take a whole few seconds to cast Duelist's Fury, which takes several seconds to finish cast. Sly Flourish also gives whats called Broken Armor, which is if in the event you finish the powers combo, the target takes 5% more damage from all sources - great for group runs.
Duelist's Fury (4) - Very powerful At-Will. It does take a few seconds to finish its combo (it casts in 3 stages). Using this has a chance to add a Bleed Effect which deals even more additional damage, and this can stack up to 10 times. Very useful, very powerful.
Dazing Strike (4) - Dazing Strike first and foremost dazes your opponents. Casting it while stealthed is well worth it - not only does it active Shadow of Demise, but it also damages and dazes multiple targets. This is really helpful in keeping yourself alive; if players are dazed, they cannot attack you. This gives you time to deal as much damage as you can while Shadow of Demise is active.
Lashing Blade (4) - Lashing Blade is going to be your main DPS Encounter, It deals the most damage of any other Encounter, but also has a longer cool-down than most of the Encounters. It's a must-have encounter.
Smoke Bomb (4) - Smoke Bomb dazes opponents just like Dazing Strike, but affects a larger area, and dazes for a longer period of time. On a critical hit, this Encounter can deal some really nice damage to multiple enemies over a period of time. When used Stealthed it does add a Slow effect, but find that part to be a bit useless. Note: Smoke Bomb doesn't activate Shadow of Demise the same way other Encounters do. You have to activate Stealth AFTER casting Smoke Bomb, while Smoke Bomb is still actively dealing damage-over-time to trigger Shadow of Demise.
Impossible to Catch (4) - Basically, you dodge your enemies attacks making you untouchable, and gain 50% Damage Resistance. At Rank 4, this buff lasts for 5 seconds. The cool-down for it is 10 seconds, sometimes 9 in combat with buffs - so over half the time. You can empower your defences with this buff, and using it in-line with the Press The Advantage feat - also gain a good power buff, increasing your offences. Win-win situation all the way around (just be sure you have the feat, and enough power to make it worth your while).
Whirlwind of Blades (4) - Another power that in my opinion, is a must-have. This Daily deals really decent damage to multiple enemies at once. When you're in battle, and you have a crowd of enemies around you, this spell tallies up some really major damage. Plus, you gain power for every enemy you hit - so in this case, the more the merrier! Approximately each enemies hit grants you roughly 20k Power, at least from my calculations. Might be slightly less, but its a huge amount of power you gain either way!
Lurker's Assault (4) - Lurker's Assault doesn't deal damage but it still works with Invisible Infiltrator (Class Feat Below), meaning it will still restore your stealth meter on initial use. Lurker's Assault then continues to restore your stealth meter at a very rapid speed, This Daily Power also grants you +25% damage, which is a big damage buff. The stealth meter restoration and damage buff both last 10 seconds, which is also a great length of time. It takes a while to get used to implementing this in your rotations, but it is worth the while trust me. Lurker's assault also blocks further AP Gain while it's buff is active.
Skillful Infiltrator (4) - This class feature gives you everything you could want - additional run speed, deflection chance, and critical chance. At Rank 4, it gives 20% Run Speed, 4% Deflection Chance, and 4% Critical Chance. It adds up, and can be really useful.
Invisible Infiltrator (4) - This Feat restores all your Stealth upon casting a Daily Power. This can really help you during your Shadow of Demise rotations, and other situations. I actually depend on it a lot for my rotations, as the extra Stealth Bar fill allows me to cast something with a guaranteed Critical Hit.
Rotation:
Multiple Mobs:
I usually cast Impossible to Catch, Dazing strike (Stealthed), Whirlwind of Blades, and Smoke Bomb (Stealthed), followed by Duelists Fury x1 or x2 depending how much time you're working with.
Single Target:
I usually cast Impossible to Catch, Lashing Blade (Stealthed), Lurker's Assault, and Dazing strike (Stealthed), followed by Sly Flourishx1, Duelists Fury x1 or x2 cycles depending how much time you're working with.
When available I will activate my combat mount power, and Artifact power to increase damage buffs even more.
Companions:
When it comes to increasing your overall damage output having the right companions, runestones, and companion gear will be one of your most important investments. All non-augmented companions should have Bondings runestones in all 3 runestone slots. When you summoned companion activates a power, it has a chance to grant you a percentage of your companion’s stats. Each rank 12 bonding runestone can give you up to 95% of your companion’s stats (3 Rank 12 Bondings x 95% = 285% of your companions stats).
When picking your companions you need to make sure you are identifying the attributes the companion brings to the table (Summoned Bonus/Active Bonus/buff or debuff).
• Summoned Bonus – Is a bonus that is only applied when that specific companion is summoned.
• Active Bonus – Is a bonus that is applied when the companion is occupying one of the 5 active companion spots.
• Buff/Debuff – This is a buff/debuff that is applied when a summoned companion does uses a specific attack and/or spell. This can only be applied by that specific companion.
In my opinion Active Bonuses are the most important stat to consider when selecting your companions, since the active bonus to all of your active companions will be applied to you as long as you have a companion summoned. For that reason I have selected the following companions.
Fire Archon (Summoned) – Increases your damage against targets with less than 50% hit points by 7%.
Air Archon – Increases your damage against targets not at full health by +5.0%. Each additional active archon increases this bonus by .5%
Earth Archon – Increases your damage against targets by 6% when you are at full health. Each additional active archon increases this bonus by .5%
The Erynes of Belial – 10% Critical Severity
Siege Master – Deal +4% increased damage. This effect is increased to 8% damage while on Stronghold map.
Other decent companions to consider – Cambian Magus, SellSword/Rebel Mercenary/Con Artest (summoned), Dancing Blade, Wild Hunt Rider.
Insignias and Insignia Bonus
So what is an Insignia and what do they do?
Insignia's more or less are like applying Runestones to your Companion, or Enchantments to your Gear - just instead it's applying Insignia's to your mounts, and if you match them right, you can get a type of "set bonus" known as an Insignia Bonus. You will notice I have Epic Insignia's on my mounts - you do not need Epic Insignia's in order to obtain an Insignia Bonus from your mount - any rank of Insignia will work, be it Common, Rare, or Epic.
How can I get an Insignia Bonus then?
There are 5 different types of Insignia's - Crescent, Barbed, Enlightened, Regal, and Illuminated. By mixing / combining those types of Insignia's, you can get an Insignia Bonus. For example, as you can see below, x1 Crescent, x1 Barbed and x1 Enlightened create the Cavalry's Warning Insignia Bonus. Also note that mounts, like gear and companions, come with pre-set slots. Depending on the quality of the Mount (Common, Rare, Epic or Legendary) you'll have more or less "free for all" slots called Universal Slots. Apart from that, Barbed Insignia's can only go in Barbed Slots - and the same goes for any Insignia Type. This also means that while my White Tiger mount may offer Protector's Camaraderie, my Axe Beak mount does not due to the Insignia Slots available - so if you're looking for a specific Insignia Bonus, you need to look for the specific mounts that offer it.
Cavalry's Warning - This insignia bonus gives a 10% buff to all stats whenever you activate a mount's combat power. It's a sick buff and well worth using if you have a Mount Combat Power.
Artificer's Persuasion - Whenever you activate an Artifact Power, 10% of your total Power is added to Recovery, Movement, Action Point Gain, and Stamina Gain. Note, you do not actually lose any Power.
Assassin's Covenant - You lose 10% of your Defense, Deflection and Life Steal, and gain the combination of those lost stats as Power. Considering your Life Steal should be fairly high, this accounts for a decent amount of free extra Power.
Berserker’s Rage – While you have full action points, you gain 10% of your Armor Penetration as Power.
Protector's Camaraderie - Whenever your companion deals damage to an enemy, you gain "Protector's Camaraderie" which grants 3% Power and 3% Defense for 10 seconds - this stacks 4 times making for a total of +12% Power and 12% Defense during combat as long as you have your companion summoned (which you should for Bonding Runestones).