Azraiyel – The Assault Vanguard

[Furiyen]

So, now that Furiyen is finally rocking out with those constant haste boosts, I’ve grown quite a fondness for ridiculous melee speeds, and I figure I might be able to do something similar with Azraiyel.

SnB + 20% Vanguard Speed + 30% LD Haste Boosting +15% Haste.

There is a ridiculously good Large Shield in RL right now for Vanguard builds, The Best Defense, and to top it all off I already own Divinity, the raid Bastard Sword from Strahd that lights up like a Christmas tree in the hands of a Paladin.

I was thinking of fully tricking out that speed with a full Tactics spread – Dire Charge, Stunning Blow and all the Stun & Shield Bash tricks from Vanguard.

And then finally, I’ve had a go at the gear setup and I can fit in full tactics as well as both the KoS and the AoM RL gear sets.

It would obviously be at a cost – I’d be losing the defensive benefits of US, namely the extra 20% HP and Vigor of Life stance, losing the Bloodrage Chrism Trinket, and in return getting the Doublestrike/PRR and double MRR benefits of having a Shield strapped on 100% of the time.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

[Pirogen]

If you can get perfect stun DC, it will work very good. Any form of CC is very welcome in Reaper. Plust its +50% minimum damage boost.

As far as I know(could be wrong tho), part of Vanguards capstone is “5% auto shield stun, when just attacking”. This means that it has high synergy with speed. With other stuns you can more or less perma-stun everything 24/7.

Race: PDK gets free BSword from Helm, but you’d need LR+1 to remove Fighter1 (if you want Paladin+capstone).

[Furiyen]

Here’s the calculated Tactics DCs:

Dire Charge – DC 110
Stunning Blow – DC 100
Stunning Shield – DC 130
Shield Rush – DC 128
Shield Champion – DC 115

Shield Rush is the charge forward and Knockdown, Shield champion is the 5% Proc ability from the capstone.

Totals above include various enhancements, feats, Epic Destiny abilities, but doesn’t include any Reaper enhancement, which eventually could be another +4 Str and +6 Tactics (verrrrrry long term, 41 Reaper AP needed).

Highest Stat is 84 Str, and I can fit in the following gear effects:
+22 Stunning
+20 Vertigo (Shield Rush)
+07 Insight Combat Mastery
+04 Quality Combat Mastery

Enough for Reaper?

[Dragavon]

I think any DC over 100 will be useful.

Dragavon has 119 on dire charge in reaper, 122 with bard buffs, and I see very few saves. I could get 6 more with legendary tactics twisted in, but see no need for it.

But you do not have to stun absolutely everything for it to make a difference.

[Furiyen]

Basic Build & Initial Gear

The basic build should hardly be surprising on a Pure Paladin with no bonus feats:

Str: 18 / 84
Dex: 08 / 32
Con: 16 / 64
Int: 08 / 22
Wis: 10 / 34
Cha: 16 / 54

Feats:
THF Chain, Ex: Bastard Sword, IC: Slash, Overwhelming Critical
Imp Shield Bash, Shield Mastery & Imp Shield Mastery
Quicken, Maximise
PTHF, PTWF, Dire Charge
Scion of Fire

Note: Dropped Stunning Blow for Maximise. DC100 is nice but I have a lot of abilities in this arena already to click through with higher DCs.

Enh:
Vanguard: 41AP, Capstone, All T5 Abilities + Shield Charge + Stunning Shield
SD: 25AP – T4, Tenacious & Hardy Defense, Swift Defense, Rez Spells
KotC: 11 AP – Divine Might
3AP left over, maybe a little Heal Amp or KotC Cores

ED: Legendary Dreadnought
Master Blitz, Devastating Critical, Advancing Blows
Haste Boost Rk3, Damage Boost Rk3, Critical Damage Rk3
Extra Action Boost Rk3, Legendary Tactics Rk3

Twists:
T4 Sense Weakness,
T2 Hail of Blows
T2 Legendary Shield Mastery
T1 4th slot is currently spare, customisable T1 Slot

Hail of Blows and 4th Slot can be swapped for Block Elements and Energy Sheath for RtSO.

Gear list

Ok. This might be surprising…

KoS1: Platemail of the Barovian Lord
KoS2: Legendary Feargaze
KoS3: Legendary Plateshard Belt

AoM1: Legendary Bracers of the Fallen Hero
AoM2: Molten Silver Gauntlets
AoM3: Legendary Reflective Bloodstone (Yeah…)
AoM4: Legendary Cursebane Ring
(AoM5: The Best Defense Shield)

Cloak: Legendary Cowl of the Giant Warriors
Helm: Legendary Executioner’s Helm
Ring 1: Ring of Prowess
Boots: Slavers – Charisma +17, Deception +14, Vertigo +20, Qua Str +4
Trinket: CC – Dodge 15%, Devotion 160, Ins Charisma +7

Filigree: 5 Piece Prowess set + 2 Piece 10MP set

Two RL sets, plenty of defense in there despite no Insightful PRR/MRR, and a moderately decent amount of HP letting the build get to around 1600-1700. I’m kinda hoping I can still do some of the Off-Tanking that Azraiyel currently does, despite being a CC Paladin build in Legendary Dreadnought 😀

I though fitting it all in would be easy since my Shield counts as an item towards the Adherants set, but it turns out it’s actually alot more difficult than I imagined. Taking that Bloodstone Necklace is my ‘crap’ set item, as all it does is offer me +50 MRR. Even my Mythic +3 version is only another +3 PRR/MRR lol.

I did seriously think about dropping the KoS set, and going for some Celestial Avenger armor, but … I still want to be able to pull an Intim & Shield Block off as its incredibly useful in RtSO and Strahd.

So, please, please, please if someone can see a better gear layout then feel free to offer suggestions! I’m one Baba run away from buying the Raid Gloves on this toon, meaning I’ll be able to finish his gear with regular questing…

[Palna]

How do you like it so far? How does the stats match up to THF?

[Furiyen]

I really enjoy it, it’s a fun way to play melee with all the Tactics, and the sheer Melee speed is as good as I’d hoped.

Im soooooooooooo close to finishing the gear setup as well, I’m still missing a bunch of Tactics DC at present to make it really shine in Reaper. Finally getting the Cloak from Newcomers was a god send last night. One more run through Slavers, and getting a Executioners Helm will see it finished.

Then it’s just a sackful of Displacement clickies to get 🙂

I’m going to have a tinker with the feats and see if I can squeeze in Precision, as it’s a huge boost for all the Undead/Construct/Plant killing we do in Ravenloft and in Raids.

[Author]

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