I’m a big fan of the Phantasy Star series, and I always wanted to make a Wartecher kind of build in CO, i.e. a character that is survivable, hits hard in melee and has an assortment of pseudo-magical techniques to do stuff pseudo-magical techniques are supposed to do, like buff, debuff, heal, resurrect and hit things at range.
Overall, Etincelle does all the things I’d expect a Wartecher to do – sometimes a little too well because she pulls aggro a LOT! But is honestly one of my favorite Champions Online builds to play right now.
No Phantasy Star melee character is complete without lightsabers, so this build has Laser Sword. Laser Sword‘s base damage is very nice, but with Hybrid mode, you get no threat reduction, so when you hit hard and have no threat reduction, expect things to want to kill you.
Functionally, all the techniques I wanted from Phantasy Star have a rough equivalent in Champions. It has Pyre, because that’s Gifoie to let it burn like Ellie Goulding. Pyre also happens to hit hard. Rebuke is Resta and Grants rolled into one, Redemption is Giresta and the list goes on.
Shadow of Doubt is Jellen, a damage debuff in the original game which was afterthought at first, but I had to throw it in after seeing the aggro it pulled. The build was originally Primary End with Thermal Reverb and Flashfire, but I had to switch to Primary Int, Molecular Self-Assembly (MSA) and Shadow of Doubt to manage incoming damage from bosses like Gravitar, because she just won’t stop targeting me @_@!
For that purpose, Shadow of Doubt works as well as Jellen did in Phantasy Star, and it’s great support for other tanks against Frosty or other party members in Gravitar too.
Playing style is quite straightforward. Pull with Rebuke, throw out Shadow of Doubt like candy to get MSA going, hit single targets with Laser Sword, hit groups with Pyre, heal yourself with Conviction, heal yourself again with Rebuke if Conviction is on cooldown, heal other people with Rebuke, resurrect people with Redemption. The nice thing about this kind of build is power has an obvious purpose.
Nothing too special in the spec trees. It’s a very standard Int/Dex/Con AoPM Form of the Tempest to support the mishmash of damage types on the build.
With 45.7% Crit Chance using Primary Int’s Expertise spec with 422 Dex, along with Ego Surge, crits come very easily and give a lot of energy to supplement MSA.
At 52 energy per Focus stack, a single crit can power a full Laser Sword combo without breaking a sweat, much less with MSA ticking in the background as well.
With the suggested gearing. Int just squarely hits the -20% sweet spot for Detect Vulnerability too, so that’s perfect for most bosses.
Int Mastery just isn’t useful at all with AoPM’s buff, so it had to go with Warden Mastery. Warden on one tree without a second big damage attack means Wardicator, but the mastery is nice because Laser Sword gains so much from it.
Gearing is pretty straightforward as well. Uses Armadillo Secondaries because once again, things just keep coming after me @_@!
Full build follows.
Name: Etincelle
Archetype: Freeform
Super Stats:
Level 6: Intelligence (Primary)
Level 10: Dexterity (Secondary)
Level 15: Constitution (Secondary)
Talents:
Level 1: The Glacier
Level 6: Acrobat
Level 9: Coordinated
Level 12: Healthy Mind
Level 15: Agile
Level 18: Enduring
Level 21: Brilliant
Powers:
Level 1: Throw Fire
Level 1: Rebuke (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 6: Conviction (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 8: Aura of Primal Majesty (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 11: Form of the Tempest
Level 14: Pyre (Rank 2, Rank 3, Accelerated Metabolism)
Level 17: Shadow of Doubt (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 20: Molecular Self-Assembly
Level 23: Laser Sword (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 26: Masterful Dodge
Level 29: Ego Surge (Rank 2, Nimble Mind)
Level 32: Telekinetic Shield (Telekinetic Reinforcement)
Level 35: Redemption
Level 38: Circle of Primal Dominion (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Travel Powers:
Level 6: Distortion Acrobatics (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 35: Teleportation
Specializations:
Intelligence: Enlightened (3/3)
Intelligence: Tactician (2/2)
Intelligence: Detect Vulnerability (3/3)
Intelligence: Expertise (2/2)
Vindicator: Aggressive Stance (2/2)
Vindicator: Merciless (3/3)
Vindicator: Focused Strikes (3/3)
Vindicator: Mass Destruction (2/3)
Warden: Fortified Gear (3/3)
Warden: Slaughter (2/3)
Warden: Ruthless (2/2)
Warden: The Best Defense (3/3)
Mastery: Warden Mastery (1/1)
Gear:
Heroic Breastplate of Agility: Dex 7 / Dex 7 / Gambler 5
Legion’s Gloves of Piercing: Con 5 / Con 5 / Gambler 5 / Gambler 5
Legion’s Gloves of Speed: Dex 7 / Dex 7 / Impact 5 / Impact 5
Armadillo’s Boots
Armadillo’s Ring
Armadillo’s Glasses
