Return of Reckoning

Greetings all, newly returned player here. Now I haven't played since live, but I've been browsing the forum and have already seen the flames towards the "Wrath" spec focused Warrior Priest. I'm already prepared to be "less viable", and to have reduced efficacy until later renown ranks (I plan on running 2 gear sets and a book in larger rvr anyway, and am not coming with the expectation that I'm going to be a better dps than a pure class). Let's be real.... we're playing a private server of a game with around 1200 active, I'm not concerned about becoming a MLG warhammer online player and getting recruited into esports, I'm here to play the playstyle of which personally appeals to me, and do my best to make jank viable (not optimal, but viable). With that being said, I was curious to see builds being ran by some of the more successful players of the style.

I get it.... it's not a dps class, but we're going to start with the premise "This is happening even if it is the weakest class/spec in the game", because I generally choose my characters based on playstyle, not flavor of the month (feels much better killing people with an offmeta spec anyway than with the best of the best to me. I'd rather win creatively, and less frequently, than min/max my way into the best W:L I possibly can). With that being said, can anyone point me in the direction of a guide/player that could assist me with general talent/renown builds?

You're looking for this I believe.
viewtopic.php?f=113&t=30627

Actually looking for a Wrath main build, with grace to support (I intend to go 2h and use the book/1h as off, I don't plan on playing 1h/shield). I intend on largely reducing my healing capacity with the +damage% tactic and the +critical tactic, but want to take it in a little different from Rydiak (I believe I heard mention of someone on the forums named Halcite who might play a little closer to what I'm looking to do, but I couldn't find his guide). The Rydiak guide was a great read, however, and helped me brush up on some class knowledge I had largely forgotten since live.

If that's the case Grace isn't for you. Grace is solely 1h/shield. If you want to use 1h/book, that's the backline healing spec, Salvation.

Halcite doesn't have a guide - just message him in game if you see him on.

^ Figured as much, and ty for the info. I don't "want" to use the 1h/book, but I know my place in large scale... =). My ideal setting is going to be duo with my IB buddy in largely pug scenarios/small scale roam (Finding one of those black sheep 3/2/1 setups would be nice as well), but I already know I'm not standing with the big boys in the front when it comes to keeps =), and already plan on collecting multiple gear sets (figure I'll get a halfway decent salv set to hold me off while I grind, then somewhere between rr60-70 I'll be able to stop being exclusively book.

I'm used to drinking tears... my main vanilla wow was an enhancement shaman, and melee hybrid dps is generally my favorite playstyle. Back in wow the ONLY way you could raid in enhance (and even then people were still iffy) was if you brought a nightfall, and even with a nightfall, you were still unanimously viewed as a lulspec though more people were willing to look past that once you brought something to the table.

For starters, you should get the following equip:
- ring set "The Winds Impervious" (3 rings)
- beastlord set (you wear 4 pieces: ring, book, back, and either shoulder or helm)
- 3 pieces dominator (you can buy gloves + boots from Auction House, and the belt only costs few dominator emblems)

Quick ways to get a proper 2hand-hammer:
- do the T4 epic quests (one gives a 2hand hammer with armor debuff proc, this is very useful)
- buy the cheap lvl 39 scenario weapon
- use your first purple loot bag with subjugator item (if its not the Subjugator 2hand-hammer it doesn't matter, there is a "smuggler NPC" in Altdorf where you can trade subjugator items, e.g. you have the "subjugator book" and you can trade it for a "smuggler 2hand-hammer" which has identical stats as the "subjugator 2hand-hammer")

how to spec?
You want the following skills:
- wounds buff (grace tree)
- sigmars shield (grace)
- Fanaticism (crit tactic, wrath)
- heal debuff (wrath)
- Hammer of Sigmar (finisher, wrath)
- Guilty Soul tactic (wrath)
- Sigmars Wrath (temporary armor ignore, wrath)

Unfortunately you need RR70 to spec all of them.
But you don't have to wait for this. I'd say you can start going melee dps with RR50.

Tactics:
There is really only one viable tactic setup for dps warrior priests:
- Divine Fury (+25% damage/-20% heal)
- Fanaticism (crit)
- Hastened Divinity (autoattack haste)
- Guilty Soul (extra damage)

If you don't have a guard tank (and/or not high enough RR to spec all skills) you might want to skip the Guily Soul tactic and use the AoE detaunt tactic instead.

Endgame gear:
- the lvl 40 weapons from Scenarios are the best, even better than Subjugator
- Oppressor set, either wear it full, or mix it with Dominator.
- complete Genesis ring set, offensive version ("of the warrior")
- new: since Beastlord set got changed to melee stats, a mix of Beastlord and the Genesis ring set is now viable as well

what else?
Use armor potions! Always! Never leave your warcamp without active armor potion. Are they that good? Yes they are!

^ As Snoxx said above, only by "Sentinel ring set" he means Genesis ring set.

Oh, right, Genesis ring set of course

edited my previous posting

Thanks Snoxx, this was exactly what I was trying to find.

I saw something interesting that you mentioned... primarily the 2h armor debuff hammer. Is this weapon currently considered one of the BiS? Reason I ask is, I don't know how far the game has changed from live, but I remember the WP usually needed another buddy to help reduce armor otherwise the damage felt a little meh. I'm thinking, perhaps with this aforementioned armor debuff hammer, it would open me to to duo with a swordmaster and capitalize on the fact that people build less spirit resistance than phys.... do you think a SM/WP duo could perform comparably to an IB/WP duo if I intend specifically to acquire this hammer (maybe even up our dps if 2h SM is still a pseudo dps), or should I really push to find an ironbreaker buddy in particular?

That 2h armor debuff hammer is a good start, mostly because it's really easy to obtain.

Compared to Subjugator and lvl 40 scenario weapons, the dps is lacking, and the stats are nothing great. Only good thing is the armor debuff proc, but it's far from being 100% uptime. It's not the best-in-slot weapon for a dps WP.

Regarding your question about tanks:

Ironbreaker:
Probably the best duo partner for a melee WP, because he has a strong armor debuff, and his buffs are designed to buff a single player (instead of a full group). Together you have incoming and outgoing healdebuff, so you have really good tools to kill enemy healers.

KotBS:
His buffs (Auras) are designed for full groups, but they are very useful even for a 2-man group. The resistances aura will make your life much easier, and the AP regeneration stuff is nice too. Unfortunately KotBS seems to have the lowest dps output of all order tanks.

Swordmaster:
His most important unique buff is "Whispering Winds", a cooldown reduce, which is great for some groups but rather useless for a melee WP. Your damage output isn't limited by long cooldowns, it's limited by your limited AP pool. More useful is the spririt debuff from Swordmasters, because part of your damage is spirit, and your most important healing ability is spirit damage as well (with spirit damage debuff on target it will heal for more). Another unique feature of the Swordmaster is his "pounce" Morale 2. Again, this is super-great in a team with a White Lion, but not really useful with a melee WP (because the WP has very limited mobility). One good thing about Swordmasters is their high damage output. It's like having a melee dps class with guard as teammate.

So which one is the best? Probably the Ironbreaker because of the armor debuff, but the other tank classes can have an armor debuff as well:
- from Morale 1
- from beastlord set
- and maybe from weapon procs (dunno exactly)