Return of Reckoning

So, leveled to 40/42 being a pure healer and looking to spice things up a bit with some melee DoK play. I'm mostly interested in solo/duo roaming in the RvR lakes.

Looking for advice on gearing/renown spec/build from people who have played around with it more.

I plan on running 4 Merc with duelist shoulders. For Jewelry was thinking Oathstones (AA haste) + Strife/Torment (Parry/reduced parried), and Epic Quest swords until I get something better.

Was thinking this for spec, but to be honest I don't really know whats effective (Sac tree seems pretty lackluster on paper).

For talismans and renown training is it better to go glass cannon or still spec into Dodge/Disrupt and armour...etc?

Anyone can give me some input?

If you plan to solo/duo I would highly recommend sac over torment. Devour is imo a signature skill of the class and I value PE way over WA because its an essence steroid and does very good damage.

This is my build.
http://waronlinebuilder.org/#career=dok ... 9:;0:0:0:0:

For renown I go crit/parry, and I stack strength talis. Currently run 5 piece merc since I am not rr50, once hitting 50 I would recommend changing merc helm for influence helm for the extra crit rate. Inf wep and 1 sc wep should be aims also. Jewels is up to you. I run with as much str/wounds as I can get for duo so I can last longer with my guard buddy.

With this setup it's hard to ever loose a fair duel, of course you can get kited and just streamrolled but against any melee you should win, at least from my experience. As far as duo goes I run with a chosen buddy, since my build/playstyle is far more of a melee healer than a traditional full dps dok as some people run, I can keep us both up for a long while, again any decent premade will know how to counter you so don't plan on being the invincible dok you are in 1vs1 or 1vs2.

Just my opinion anyways, its how I prefer to play the class and have had good success with it.

Can someone post me good build for grinding. I will switch my dok to dps for scavenging mostly ?

For solo/duo Ade's build is perfect.

For grinding use this
* Has Pillage Essence to keep your essence up (needed for emergency rend souls/devour essence);
* Fel Sacrifice paired with Khaine's Imbuement = solid sustained AoE;
* Potent Covenants means more vitality/celerity procs = more dmg (Don't need the AA haste when grinding as you'll be relying on lash/devour essence for most dmg)

If you wanna try competitive small-scale with the DPS DOK (giving it a go atm, and it's very fun), you can either go:

RR40 Torture with Heal Debuff/Wracking Agony/Fell Sacrifice
+ You gain access to the heal debuff - which is probably the DPS DOK's biggest asset to a group. Even if you run with a marauder/sh, it's good to have that tactic as you can keep it up almost all of the time once you get decent crit levels (25%+);
* Fell Sacrifice is important for covering the heal debuff - especially when trying to apply an aoe heal debuff. Damage isn't great, but fluff is fluff right?!;
* Devour Essence - no brainer;
* Wracking Agony: it's actually decent if you are assisting a marauder! The damage is only slightly better than Pillage Essence, though

^ above spec is a basic rr40 torture/sacrifice. you would be running with another DoK using potent covenants/bloodthirst (hopefully) so you would go vitality.

You -could- swap out heal debuff for Potent Covenants but meh - heal debuff is very useful imo.

RR50 (or full merc with rr40) Sacrifice with Pillage Essence/Devour Essence/Heal Debuff
* Your Devour Essence will hit harder;
* Pillage Essence - as Ade said above - will become very useful for keeping your essence up. Mandatory in 6v6 if someone needs an emergency heal as you can pop it, rend soul off a turret/lion and get them back to full;
* Heal debuff

You do miss out on the AoE dot but with a good group they can help you cover it.

For RR I would ensure at least 2 levels of RD before you go for anything else. I've noticed that unless you get RD, you will get abused and thrown around by a good cc tank. I'm aiming to get RD3 and put the rest in crit.

Thanks for the input adei and peterthepan. Definitely overlooked PE's usefulness in my original look through.

adei wrote:If you plan to solo/duo I would highly recommend sac over torment. Devour is imo a signature skill of the class and I value PE way over WA because its an essence steroid and does very good damage.

This is my build.
http://waronlinebuilder.org/#career=dok ... 9:;0:0:0:0:

For renown I go crit/parry, and I stack strength talis. Currently run 5 piece merc since I am not rr50, once hitting 50 I would recommend changing merc helm for influence helm for the extra crit rate. Inf wep and 1 sc wep should be aims also. Jewels is up to you. I run with as much str/wounds as I can get for duo so I can last longer with my guard buddy.

With this setup it's hard to ever loose a fair duel, of course you can get kited and just streamrolled but against any melee you should win, at least from my experience. As far as duo goes I run with a chosen buddy, since my build/playstyle is far more of a melee healer than a traditional full dps dok as some people run, I can keep us both up for a long while, again any decent premade will know how to counter you so don't plan on being the invincible dok you are in 1vs1 or 1vs2.

Just my opinion anyways, its how I prefer to play the class and have had good success with it.

I know this might feel like a necro, but since I love the build, I have some questions:

What would you say the ratio of stats would be?

Since you mention that you run as a melee healer rather than a traditional full dps, I guess you have some willpower mixed in? Or are you running full str/wound?

*edit* forgot to mention that I am running solo, since I haven't been able to find a proper guild yet

Lifetap abilities like Rend Soul, Devour Essence and Pillage Essence scale from offensive stats in their entirety and stacking both willpower and strength isn't viable since your castable heals that scale off of willpower will be reduced in it's effectives by Divine Fury and even Murderous Intent tactics (while lifetaps aren't affected).

So as a melee DoK you won't be running any willpower, which means that you are relying on your melee heals to keep you and others healed up. Which also means you are prone to getting kited to death.

When he says he runs as a melee healer he means that he doesn't pick up Wracking Agony in his build and doesn't stack Weaponskill. DoKs doing that can come close to being a viable melee DPS career (but they forego some lifetapping potential).

DoKs are one of the best classes to run solo as, just be vary of getting kited and of attacking defensive tanks. They have a myriad of disrupts and since your lifetaps abilities won't be healing you for much because of their resists/armor/toughness and avoidance you can get worn down pretty easily.

But I can tell you from experience that there's nothing like surviving an onslaught by keeping yourself and your buddies healed by killing people.

3+ years of play on live
here is the build for 40/40: http://waronlinebuilder.org/#career=dok ... :;;0:0:0:0:
here is the second build for 40/40 (i prefer 1st one): http://waronlinebuilder.org/#career=dok ... 4982:0:0:0:
here is the build for 40/60: http://waronlinebuilder.org/#career=dok ... :;;0:0:0:0:
morales: life's end, khaine's withdrawal, universal confusion
Gear: boots and shoulders - duelist, chest and gloves merc, helmet from infl. chaos reward, cloak - infl. reward, belt - t3 infl. reward, weapon - ork infl. reward + scenario reward. Jewelry: 1 from vendor, 1 from chaos infl., other 2 is 20/20 str/wou.
https://www.returnofreckoning.com/armor ... name=Arena
talismans: strength only, after Invader will be implementer try WS (if it will be as on live)
RR: resolut defence is your best friend, 10 point to it, all that left - strength and crit.
find chosen or black guard with greatweapon (dont even try without, just don't), bork isn't gonna fit btw.
also i strongly recommend to find full party.
DO NOT play solo as dd dok, just don't do it.

There is no reason to use 2 pieces of duelist once you can get 4/5 or 5/5 merc.
Not sure why you'd not use parry/crit over str/crit (str is easily attainable via gear)
Heal debuff should be a staple in almost all builds (it's the reason a group would bring you in the first place)
BO/DOK actually have quite a lot of good synergy, too.

Taranthula wrote:I know this might feel like a necro, but since I love the build, I have some questions:

What would you say the ratio of stats would be?

Since you mention that you run as a melee healer rather than a traditional full dps, I guess you have some willpower mixed in? Or are you running full str/wound?

*edit* forgot to mention that I am running solo, since I haven't been able to find a proper guild yet

Ratio of stats? For that build its crit/parry in renown, I would grab resolute when you can as it can make or break a fight that will rely on you rending a target, rend is super easy to counter. I stack str talis and get crit/str/wounds on gear so I can survive, have around 6k hp with 750 str, 30%ish crit.

I am currently working on a new build with weapon skill, just a case of getting the pieces I need, will give me 70% parry, 45% armor pen and there is no drop in damage as far as standard hits go, crit will however take a drop because of this, but being I run in a duo and most of the time the fights we take are about outlasting against larger odds, it might be ok.

To echo the above pan is correct, you always run the heal debuff, its just too good not to use, stacking str with renown seems a waste of points considering its on almost every single gear piece that you have, there is little point to use 2 piece duelist when you could run 4 piece merc and inf helm for 7% crit ( or some variant of 4 piece + inf ) Any tank works well with a DoK, blorc fits nicely if you want to go for some rather insane instant kills with the combos it can create, but chosen helps with the added defences it can give you to just again, outlast the opposition. Same with BG.