Post by brocephalus on Jan 24, 2012 15:57:04 GMT -5
Didn't see one, so I figure A Fist guide is better than no guide.
Introduction: Hello, I do not actually play this AT, however I do main its twin AT, the Master and their power selections are vastly similar so I am quite familiar with the ebb and flow of combat using this particular power set. The Master is much tankier than The Fist, but The Fist can output more damage, quicker CC, and is less reliant on enemies attacking him in order to be effective.
You will like this AT if:
- You like Brawler ATs.
- You like CCing (crowd controlling) enemies that attack you.
- Deal impressive amounts of damage both in bursts and in a flurry of separate attacks.
-You want your character to kick and punch stuff.
-Chuck Norris (It had to be said)
Preface: This build is useful for both PvP and PvE.
Level 1: Vicious Strikes
Level 1: One Hundred Hands (R2, R3, Ghostly Strikes)
Level 6: Travel Power of Choice (R2, R3)
Level 6: Thunderbolt Lunge (Nailed to the Ground, Crippling Challenge)
Level 8: Way of the Warrior (R2, R3)
Level 11:Crashing Wave Kick / Backhand Chop (Stinging Bee)
Level 14: Parry (R2, Elusive Monk)
Level 17: Dragon Kick (R2, R3)
Level 22: Form of the Tempest
Level 27: Intensity (R2, R3)
Level 32: Burning Chi Fist (R2, R3) / Open Palm Strike
Level 35: Travel Power of Choice
Level 40: Dragon Uppercut (R2, R3)
1 Advantage points remain, I would use them to max a Travel power’s Advantages, but it is your choice in the end.
Reasons for Advantage and Power Selection:
Vicious Strikes: Your energy builder, and nothing more, you will not rely on it for damage, only when you need energy.
One Hundred Hands : AOE attack that deals decent damage very quickly. With Ghostly Strikes you will deal a large amount of Armor ignoring damage which is invaluable in both PvE and PvP.
Travel Power: Teleport is quite handy, but if another TP tickles your fancy go for it.
Thunderbolt Lunge : Gap closer, the advantage points are taken for PvP, keep in mind Crippling Challenge will taunt AI in PvE, so don’t use it on bosses or you will splat.
Way of the Warrior : This Passive gives you Damage and Dodge Stats, granting a mixture of offense and defense. Since the bonuses apply to all of your powers, there is no reason not to max rank this power up.
Backhand Chop: Use this to interrupt foes in both PvE and PvP situations when they are charging an attack against you. It is pretty much a one point wonder in that it performs its effect without any real improvement from advantages. You’re free to add Stinging Bee to increase the rate at which you procure Focus stacks. Now I chose Backhand Chop over Crashing Wave Kick because Crashing Wave Kick is a stun, while Backhand Chop is an interrupt. Whenever you apply a stun in this game, you also apply a stack of stun resistance, the stun resistance increases the enemies' chance to resist repeated stun attempts. Once a foe has 3 stacks of this debuff, they are immune to stun for the duration of the buff. Crashing Wave Kick and Dragon Kick both Stun an opponent, now in PvP you might find a .67 activation time stun more useful than the slow 1.5 second activation time for Dragon Kick (Note: you can add an additional form of CC while charging Dragon Kick to prevent interruption / kiting) but in general, your going to be using your other abilities to deal the brunt of your damage, Crashing Wave Kick is chosen for it's stun, a stun that shares Diminishing Returns (applies the stun resistance buff) with Dragon Kick, which you receive anyway so choosing Crashing Wave Kick over Backhand Chop feels redundant in all but the most contrived of circumstances.
Parry : Increasing your defense is integral to survival against difficult situations. Elusive Monk is useful in PvP and PvE situations because the added defenses and knock resistance are invaluable and more than make up for the damage debuff that it applies to all of your damage sources.
Dragon Kick : Fists have it easy, they get this ability at level 17, Masters have to wait till level 32. This ability allows you to quickly clear waves of baddies and stunning them in the process. It furthermore grants Rush later on when you get Form of the Tempest which allows you to gain large amounts of energy + energy discounts on all of your powers.
Form of the Tempest : FotT grants stacks of Focus everytime you Crit (which will be often seeing as you have both Dex and Ego as SSs) The buff will grant a damage bonus and a surge of energy. One might think it would be beneficial to rank this up but all it does is increase the rate of Focus procurement. If that is more in tune with your playstyle, go for it, you have 4 advantage points to spare.
Intensity : An active Offense that gives you a surge of bonus damage, I put ranks into this power because you cannot go wrong with improving a +Damage Power Up.
Burning Chi Fist : This ability deals devastating amounts of damage, but you need to fully charge it in order for it to be worth the energy and damage. Fists of Righteous Flame is not taken because it requires you to dole out a lot of One Hundred Hands activations in order for the debuff to be worthwhile. AT least with R3, the bonus damage is completely free. I chose Burning Chi Fist over Open Palm Strike because Open Palm Strike knocks enemies away from you, which may not be ideal since you are a melee AT. Burning Chi Fist deals a lot of damage in one big burst, so it counters your weakness too enemies using Invulnerability (set damage reduction which greatly diminishes large amounts of small attacks). The DOT is icing on the cake, though you will rarely count on it. Combined with Dragon Kick / Dragon Uppercut, Burning Chi Fist is an ample outlet for excess energy during your Rush Buff (When facing against a swarm of henchies + a villain / super villain I like to charge dragon kick, kill the henchies with it, and use the rush buff to fully charge an easy Burning Chi Fist to knock out the villain / super villain). Keep this in mind though; Open Palm Strike CAN be used in PvP to interrupt enemies with its knockback, furthermore Knockback is under its' own set of diminishing returns so it will not be anti-synergistic with your Dragon Uppercut's knockup effect. Combined with Dragon Kick and Backhand Chop, you have a great set of CCs to weave in and lock down your opponent.
Dragon Uppercut : Okay, so, not only does it apply CC (a knock up) it deals impressive damage and applies Rush to you allowing you to spam more attacks with little concern for energy management. This ability, when combo’d with Dragon Kick, and a Backhand Chop or two thrown in can and will completely lock someone in place while you beat the ****out of them.
Keep Crippling Challenge, and Nailed to the Ground power choices at the top of the power heap when you purchase new advantages so that you do not need to spend as much gold later on to replace them for PvE and PvP.
Notes for PvP:
- Crippling Challenge is necessary or else your opponent will just block all of your stuff
- Nailed to the Ground is also necessary or else your opponent will just Teleport spam around the arena. Furthermore it provides some decent utility for your teammates.
Talent Choices:
Recovery / Endurance - Amazing Stamina
Recovery / Strength - Relentless
Endurance / Strength - Bodybuilder
Recovery / Dexterity – Impresario
Endurance / Dexterity - Accurate
Strength / Dexterity – Martial Focus
For ATs, talents are gained at Levels 7, 12, 15, 20, 25 and 30. Order does not matter, take whatever you need at the time of picking.
Reasons for these choices: Strength confers a bonus to Knock Strength and melee damage. The melee damage bonus caps once your strength reaches 68 (20% bonus). Take these talents until your strength is at that level (assuming lvl 40). Generally, you only need the strength talents and two +20 strength enhancements SOMEWHERE in your gear to reach this cap.
Endurance and Recovery allow you to store more energy for bursts, and Dexterity is your SS which you will have trouble finding space for since most slots that can occupy Strength occupy Dexterity as well (Ego is also important, but utility featuring Ego is easy to come by).
General Playstyle
Assuming you followed my guide down to the finest detail, the final result that you will generate is a:
-Brawler fighter that is decently durable due to Parry's Elusive Monk and Way of the Warrior's bonuses to Dodge and Avoidance (you still have no means of healing so your not immortal, but you should stand a better chance of prolonged survival in tight situations.
-You Have multiple forms of interrupts and crowd control to disable enemies from attacking you. Dragon Kick stuns enemies and Dragon Uppercut knocks an enemy up. Backhand Chop can be used to interrupt charging powers effectively denying the enemy from using their abilities while wasting their efforts standing still like a big immovable target dummy.
- Your Intensity Power can be used in a pinch (or punch if you want to be punny) to drastically increase your offense for a short period of time, it can also be used to aid you in breaking free of holds and disables that might afflict you.
- One Hundred Hands and Dragon Kick are your go-to AOE attacks when fighting crowds. Dragon Kick can be used to apply Rush for greater energy efficiency and ability spamming in these situations while One Hundred Hands is an easy to use maintained AOE that deals great damage and partially ignores enemy defenses to boot.
- Dragon Uppercut and Burning Chi Fist are your Single Target damage abilities when facing off against big enemies, One Hundred Hands can be used as well since it still deals great damage against single targets. In sustained damage scenarios (bosses and the like) your goal is to keep Rush on yourself by refreshing it with Dragon Uppercut when it is about to expire. Use One Hundred Hands and Burning Chi Fist in between Dragon Uppercuts (before level 40, Dragon Kick can be used in place of uppercut).
- Thunderbolt Lunge is your gap closer. In PvP it is used to easily apply NTTG and Crippling Challenge which allows you to deal your damage without having your opponent run away with travel powers or mitigate the damage by blocking.
- When gearing, focus on Dexterity and Ego. Make sure you add enough Strength to your build to get the 20% damage bonus (this is achieved at level 40 with ~68 Strength) as this greatly increases your damage pound for pound compared to other stats available. Keep in mind that once you reach 200-220 in your SS (DEX and EGO) you will see a drop off in terms of the SS bonus damage that these stats provide, generally this is not a big deal until you add more of the stat, just remember not to go overboard.
- Presence can be skipped since you have no healing and if you truly with to lower your threat, stop attacking. Intelligence is likewise unnecessary since you have the Rush and Focus buffs to grant you energy.
- You may wish to add some Constitution to your gear so you are not incredibly squishie. Don't invest in it because you do not have enough mitigation to make it worthwhile.
- Endurance and Recovery should not be ignored because you will want some energy to get use your abilities at the start of a fight so you can get enough Focus stacks to start taking advantage of Rush.
Closing Notes:
I will update this guide as more reputable sources offer their insight!
The CO Wiki is wrong, The Fist does not gain those abilities in the same order (or some not at all).
Introduction: Hello, I do not actually play this AT, however I do main its twin AT, the Master and their power selections are vastly similar so I am quite familiar with the ebb and flow of combat using this particular power set. The Master is much tankier than The Fist, but The Fist can output more damage, quicker CC, and is less reliant on enemies attacking him in order to be effective.
You will like this AT if:
- You like Brawler ATs.
- You like CCing (crowd controlling) enemies that attack you.
- Deal impressive amounts of damage both in bursts and in a flurry of separate attacks.
-You want your character to kick and punch stuff.
-Chuck Norris (It had to be said)
Preface: This build is useful for both PvP and PvE.
Level 1: Vicious Strikes
Level 1: One Hundred Hands (R2, R3, Ghostly Strikes)
Level 6: Travel Power of Choice (R2, R3)
Level 6: Thunderbolt Lunge (Nailed to the Ground, Crippling Challenge)
Level 8: Way of the Warrior (R2, R3)
Level 11:
Level 14: Parry (R2, Elusive Monk)
Level 17: Dragon Kick (R2, R3)
Level 22: Form of the Tempest
Level 27: Intensity (R2, R3)
Level 32: Burning Chi Fist (R2, R3) /
Level 35: Travel Power of Choice
Level 40: Dragon Uppercut (R2, R3)
1 Advantage points remain, I would use them to max a Travel power’s Advantages, but it is your choice in the end.
Reasons for Advantage and Power Selection:
Vicious Strikes: Your energy builder, and nothing more, you will not rely on it for damage, only when you need energy.
One Hundred Hands : AOE attack that deals decent damage very quickly. With Ghostly Strikes you will deal a large amount of Armor ignoring damage which is invaluable in both PvE and PvP.
Travel Power: Teleport is quite handy, but if another TP tickles your fancy go for it.
Thunderbolt Lunge : Gap closer, the advantage points are taken for PvP, keep in mind Crippling Challenge will taunt AI in PvE, so don’t use it on bosses or you will splat.
Way of the Warrior : This Passive gives you Damage and Dodge Stats, granting a mixture of offense and defense. Since the bonuses apply to all of your powers, there is no reason not to max rank this power up.
Backhand Chop: Use this to interrupt foes in both PvE and PvP situations when they are charging an attack against you. It is pretty much a one point wonder in that it performs its effect without any real improvement from advantages. You’re free to add Stinging Bee to increase the rate at which you procure Focus stacks. Now I chose Backhand Chop over Crashing Wave Kick because Crashing Wave Kick is a stun, while Backhand Chop is an interrupt. Whenever you apply a stun in this game, you also apply a stack of stun resistance, the stun resistance increases the enemies' chance to resist repeated stun attempts. Once a foe has 3 stacks of this debuff, they are immune to stun for the duration of the buff. Crashing Wave Kick and Dragon Kick both Stun an opponent, now in PvP you might find a .67 activation time stun more useful than the slow 1.5 second activation time for Dragon Kick (Note: you can add an additional form of CC while charging Dragon Kick to prevent interruption / kiting) but in general, your going to be using your other abilities to deal the brunt of your damage, Crashing Wave Kick is chosen for it's stun, a stun that shares Diminishing Returns (applies the stun resistance buff) with Dragon Kick, which you receive anyway so choosing Crashing Wave Kick over Backhand Chop feels redundant in all but the most contrived of circumstances.
Parry : Increasing your defense is integral to survival against difficult situations. Elusive Monk is useful in PvP and PvE situations because the added defenses and knock resistance are invaluable and more than make up for the damage debuff that it applies to all of your damage sources.
Dragon Kick : Fists have it easy, they get this ability at level 17, Masters have to wait till level 32. This ability allows you to quickly clear waves of baddies and stunning them in the process. It furthermore grants Rush later on when you get Form of the Tempest which allows you to gain large amounts of energy + energy discounts on all of your powers.
Form of the Tempest : FotT grants stacks of Focus everytime you Crit (which will be often seeing as you have both Dex and Ego as SSs) The buff will grant a damage bonus and a surge of energy. One might think it would be beneficial to rank this up but all it does is increase the rate of Focus procurement. If that is more in tune with your playstyle, go for it, you have 4 advantage points to spare.
Intensity : An active Offense that gives you a surge of bonus damage, I put ranks into this power because you cannot go wrong with improving a +Damage Power Up.
Burning Chi Fist : This ability deals devastating amounts of damage, but you need to fully charge it in order for it to be worth the energy and damage. Fists of Righteous Flame is not taken because it requires you to dole out a lot of One Hundred Hands activations in order for the debuff to be worthwhile. AT least with R3, the bonus damage is completely free. I chose Burning Chi Fist over Open Palm Strike because Open Palm Strike knocks enemies away from you, which may not be ideal since you are a melee AT. Burning Chi Fist deals a lot of damage in one big burst, so it counters your weakness too enemies using Invulnerability (set damage reduction which greatly diminishes large amounts of small attacks). The DOT is icing on the cake, though you will rarely count on it. Combined with Dragon Kick / Dragon Uppercut, Burning Chi Fist is an ample outlet for excess energy during your Rush Buff (When facing against a swarm of henchies + a villain / super villain I like to charge dragon kick, kill the henchies with it, and use the rush buff to fully charge an easy Burning Chi Fist to knock out the villain / super villain). Keep this in mind though; Open Palm Strike CAN be used in PvP to interrupt enemies with its knockback, furthermore Knockback is under its' own set of diminishing returns so it will not be anti-synergistic with your Dragon Uppercut's knockup effect. Combined with Dragon Kick and Backhand Chop, you have a great set of CCs to weave in and lock down your opponent.
Dragon Uppercut : Okay, so, not only does it apply CC (a knock up) it deals impressive damage and applies Rush to you allowing you to spam more attacks with little concern for energy management. This ability, when combo’d with Dragon Kick, and a Backhand Chop or two thrown in can and will completely lock someone in place while you beat the ****out of them.
Keep Crippling Challenge, and Nailed to the Ground power choices at the top of the power heap when you purchase new advantages so that you do not need to spend as much gold later on to replace them for PvE and PvP.
Notes for PvP:
- Crippling Challenge is necessary or else your opponent will just block all of your stuff
- Nailed to the Ground is also necessary or else your opponent will just Teleport spam around the arena. Furthermore it provides some decent utility for your teammates.
Talent Choices:
Recovery / Endurance - Amazing Stamina
Recovery / Strength - Relentless
Endurance / Strength - Bodybuilder
Recovery / Dexterity – Impresario
Endurance / Dexterity - Accurate
Strength / Dexterity – Martial Focus
For ATs, talents are gained at Levels 7, 12, 15, 20, 25 and 30. Order does not matter, take whatever you need at the time of picking.
Reasons for these choices: Strength confers a bonus to Knock Strength and melee damage. The melee damage bonus caps once your strength reaches 68 (20% bonus). Take these talents until your strength is at that level (assuming lvl 40). Generally, you only need the strength talents and two +20 strength enhancements SOMEWHERE in your gear to reach this cap.
Endurance and Recovery allow you to store more energy for bursts, and Dexterity is your SS which you will have trouble finding space for since most slots that can occupy Strength occupy Dexterity as well (Ego is also important, but utility featuring Ego is easy to come by).
General Playstyle
Assuming you followed my guide down to the finest detail, the final result that you will generate is a:
-Brawler fighter that is decently durable due to Parry's Elusive Monk and Way of the Warrior's bonuses to Dodge and Avoidance (you still have no means of healing so your not immortal, but you should stand a better chance of prolonged survival in tight situations.
-You Have multiple forms of interrupts and crowd control to disable enemies from attacking you. Dragon Kick stuns enemies and Dragon Uppercut knocks an enemy up. Backhand Chop can be used to interrupt charging powers effectively denying the enemy from using their abilities while wasting their efforts standing still like a big immovable target dummy.
- Your Intensity Power can be used in a pinch (or punch if you want to be punny) to drastically increase your offense for a short period of time, it can also be used to aid you in breaking free of holds and disables that might afflict you.
- One Hundred Hands and Dragon Kick are your go-to AOE attacks when fighting crowds. Dragon Kick can be used to apply Rush for greater energy efficiency and ability spamming in these situations while One Hundred Hands is an easy to use maintained AOE that deals great damage and partially ignores enemy defenses to boot.
- Dragon Uppercut and Burning Chi Fist are your Single Target damage abilities when facing off against big enemies, One Hundred Hands can be used as well since it still deals great damage against single targets. In sustained damage scenarios (bosses and the like) your goal is to keep Rush on yourself by refreshing it with Dragon Uppercut when it is about to expire. Use One Hundred Hands and Burning Chi Fist in between Dragon Uppercuts (before level 40, Dragon Kick can be used in place of uppercut).
- Thunderbolt Lunge is your gap closer. In PvP it is used to easily apply NTTG and Crippling Challenge which allows you to deal your damage without having your opponent run away with travel powers or mitigate the damage by blocking.
- When gearing, focus on Dexterity and Ego. Make sure you add enough Strength to your build to get the 20% damage bonus (this is achieved at level 40 with ~68 Strength) as this greatly increases your damage pound for pound compared to other stats available. Keep in mind that once you reach 200-220 in your SS (DEX and EGO) you will see a drop off in terms of the SS bonus damage that these stats provide, generally this is not a big deal until you add more of the stat, just remember not to go overboard.
- Presence can be skipped since you have no healing and if you truly with to lower your threat, stop attacking. Intelligence is likewise unnecessary since you have the Rush and Focus buffs to grant you energy.
- You may wish to add some Constitution to your gear so you are not incredibly squishie. Don't invest in it because you do not have enough mitigation to make it worthwhile.
- Endurance and Recovery should not be ignored because you will want some energy to get use your abilities at the start of a fight so you can get enough Focus stacks to start taking advantage of Rush.
Closing Notes:
I will update this guide as more reputable sources offer their insight!
The CO Wiki is wrong, The Fist does not gain those abilities in the same order (or some not at all).
