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MASTER OF FLAME CONTROL WIZARD

FEAT SELECTION FOR DPS CONTROL WIZARD BUILDS A selection of builds for every need, every group and every dungeon

Control Wizard  Facebook group - 2018

I often see people asking or posting builds and a lot of us think of builds as something odd and mysterious and often hard to do. Reality though is different and as long as you know the mandatory feats it's easy to build up. Also you will see a selection of optimized builds to use and adjust for your CW.

I need to point out that there is no "best build", if there was one we will all be using it and we would not need groups such as this. There is the right build for the right situation and group composition.

PRIMARY / SECONDARY FEATS In every build there are 3 kind of feats.

Primary Feats : Feats that we must have no matter what. Those feats offer the most dps for any other near them or are used in important combos. Secondary Feats : Feats that are based on our preference and gears. Those feats become important when we miss an aspect in our builds. For example Chilling advantage gives 10% critical. Useful if you need critical, useless if you don't. Progress Feats : Feats that are used to advance in a particular tree. There is no way to avoid them and in some cases it doesn't really matter which one of the 2 you will pick. So as you see from the above you can alter some feats without much worry and adjust them to your IL and gears, but there are others you absolutely must have. This is why you see so many builds around. People on youtube or mmominds etc just change the secondary feats and present it as their own "build".

RENEGADE BUILDS Renegade is the path that is most team oriented. It has very good dps output while supporting the team. It's the best path to use in aoe setups and in some cases the best to use in boss fights too.

MOF / SPELL STORM - AOE

Build offers the best combo of buffs to you and your team and very hard hits. Can be used by both MoF and SS CWs.

MOF / SPELL STORM AOE #2

It's harder to have the chill stacks but if you are able to maintain them without Icy veins it has higher potential. Can also be run as MoF or Spell storm.

MOF SINGLE TARGET, BOSS FIGHTS

If you have issues maintaining Chill stacks, use the oppressor feats, if you are good on managing chill stacks use the thauma feats. Both are marked blue (optional). This build will provide very good dps output as well as buffs to the team.

OPPRESSOR BUILD MOF / SPELL STORM - SINGLE TARGET

Oppressor, with the changes in mod 13 is an excellent Boss / single target killer. It's best to use this build with groups that can provide Combat Advantage or even better with a Renegade CW.

THAUMATURGE BUILD MOF / SPELL STORM - SINGLE TARGET

Thauma can still deal a lot of damage for those who want to use it. The advantage of using spell twist and Icy veins is not something to be overlooked.

RENEGADE DEBUFF BUILD RENEGADE MOF

A build better suited for aoe and mass buff / debuff. Focused on not changing loadouts (when one feels lazy) and provides 18% total critical chance so you can invest in recovery. Very good for starting MoFs too and doesn't require high IL.

FEAT EXPLANATION As you may noticed, some feats are always marked red which means those are primary feats and always must be selected at max rank, but what does makes them so special? Bellow you will see some of the feats with explanations about what makes them really good.

HEROIC FEATS Toughness Increases your maximum Hit Points by 3/6/9% (Actually 9.89% ). More hp = more damage from Aura of Courage and better survivability. Blighting Power Your Cold powers deal an additional 2/4/6% damage to targets affected by Chill. Its actually 6% per rank and a total of 19% DPS Learned Spellcaster Increase the amount of bonus damage Intelligence gives you by 1/2/3/4/5%. So its always at least a 5% more dps which multiplies by your total Intelligence bonus. (1+ (Current_Int -10)/100 )*5= % DPS increase or in case of 30 int (1+ (30-10)/100) *5 = (1+20/100)*5 = 1.2*5 = 6% dps more dps Focused Wizardry Your single target powers deal 10/20/30% more damage and your Area of Effect powers deal 30/20/10% less damage. Best to be used ONLY with single target builds as is aoe it reduces your damage and Aura of Courage hits.

OPPRESSOR TREE Bitter Cold Targets take 1/2/3/4/5% more damage for 6 seconds after being affected by Chill. This effect does not stack. Essentially a 5% debuff, whenever you apply a chill power. Icy Veins When you activate an Encounter power all foes within 15' of you have 1/2/3/4/5 stacks of Chill applied to them. I would not suggest having 5/5 as 2/5 or 3/5 will virtually have the same effect and that lets you with 3 points to add somewhere else depending if its used in aoe or single target builds.

THAUMATURGE TREE Tempest Magic When your target is below 30% max Hit Points you deal an additional 1/2/3/4/5% damage. In reality its a 6% per rank, multiplicative damage buff which means 6%^5 or 33.8% dps when below 30%

RENEGADE TREE Nightmare Wizardry When you crit a foe you have a 4/8/12/16/20% chance for you and your allies to gain Combat Advantage against it for 12 seconds. After Module 12b Positional combat advantage isn't working anymore and can now be offered by classes only. Combat advantage as mechanic is a very significant portion of our damage. It start by default as 15% bonus further increased by Charisma, boons and combat advantage stat. When dealing critical hits, it becomes Critical severity. Also the new tiger companion needs CA to reliable apply the debuff. Uncertain Allegiance When you critically strike you grant allies 1/2/3/4/5% Critical Chance for 10 seconds. It also works for you so 5% free crit.

WHEN TO USE EACH BUILD Each build has pros and cons and it really shines once some conditions are met. Renegade AOE is best suited for mobs as the name suggests and not on bosses if you want to be a good dps. Renegade single target is best to be used in groups where you are the only CW and no one else can offer reliable combat advantage. Oppressor single target is best to be used in groups that can provide combat advantage. Provides excellent DPS and very good and reliable buffing. If you are Human race, the extra 3 points are best to be allocated, like this:

AOE

SINGLE 

As renegade specially when you run with an oppressor cw , it's a good option to switch to the 3 feats in thauma path as oppressor will handle the chill stacks and in that way your dps will increase.

FINAL THOUGHTS The Control Wizard class is very versatile, and you need different load outs to take the best advantage of different situations . Feats alone wont get you far, you need a deeper understanding of the class, its mechanics and its synergy with other classes as well as proper gear. The above selection of Feats can be customized to each person's play style and needs but the feat choices already selected give the best outcome in most cases so make sure you understand what you are doing and have the full info on feats before you make a change. I would like to hear your feedback and read your comments and questions. Hope you will find it useful in your adventures as CW.

special thanks to Aris Meyde@Lobodlak  Sweet@Poptawrt  Sethanon@LukeJones77 Zana for being "Grammar Nazi"