Encounter Powers

Shield Slam

	14s base Cooldown.

Shield Slam is even after its buff in its current state pretty useless. There are better choices to take. Can be used if control is more worth than survivability in broken scaled mob damage. And even then not of much use.

Knee Breaker

	16s base Cooldown.

Technically the second best damage dealing Encounter considering Magnitude, Cooldown and Cast time for single targets.

Bull Charge

	12s base Cooldown. Image contains the added effect from the feat describtion.

Very useful in trash mobs for triggering the bugged-for-good (+50 Magnitude instead of +40 when hitting multiple enemies) ‘Cleaving Bull’ Feat and the best gap closer. Damage wise, only short behind Knee Breaker and Anvil of Doom.

Shield Throw

	12s base Cooldown. 6s base Cooldown with Feat. Image contains the added effect from the feat describtion.

Only useful with the T1 Shieldthrower Feat:

• The best Encounter Power damage wise and threat wise for a single target. Small cooldown and even a ranged attack! Shield Throw generates 300% more threat (multiplier).

When using the Enforced Threat Feat, then Shield Throw is useless.

Anvil of Doom (AoD)

	18s base Cooldown.

Used in trials for its hard-taunting effect with the Anvil of Challenge passive. Useful for gaining aggro on only a specific target instead of gaining it on all via Enforced Threat (Defense of the Moondance, Gzemnid’s Reliquary, Zariel’s Challenge). In cases, the ‘specific target’ is not required, Enforced Threat will do it better than Anvil of Doom, because Enforced Threat has a lower Cooldown and decreases enemies' Awareness! Useful as a second hardtaunt when feated against sweaty dps.

Enforced Threat (ET)

	14s base Cooldown. Image contains the added effect from the feat describtion.

One of the few powers that reduce the stats of the enemy. As mentioned in Part 2, we know that the enemy Awareness is 0%. Thus the question arises what -10% Awareness actually does. The answer is maybe surprising: It is added beyond the cap on the 90% of Combat Advantage, thus it is useful for as long as the CA-Awareness debuff capof 100% is not reached! Less worth due to the CA-Awareness Cap!

Combat Log example

Example: 8374.2/1.834*1.934=8830.8

Additionally takes the aggro immediately on all mobs. Should most time be taken if possible. Only downside is that it deals no damage and looks like it didn't do anything. Can trigger effects like Glyphs.

Also increases threat by +500% if Staying Power feat is taken.

Knight’s Challenge

	24s base Cooldown.

A power that can be used to replenish 50% Stamina. It is especially useful in Master Defense of the Moondance, Crown of Keldegonn, MToS or the Boreworm boss fight in the Lair of the Mad Mage. Outside these situations, this power is only useful when the healer is not great and problems of survivability exist.

Jack of all trades - Master of None: Weaker than Iron Warrior for survivability and if used as a second survivability encounter, aggro problems may occur. Too long cooldown to reliable regenerate stamina. Barely any damage reflected as enemies are not attacking fast enough and blocking / Dig In should not be used purely to trigger the damage reflection. (Instead blocking and Dig In is used to mitigate big hits and small burst frames).

Linebreaker

	16s base Cooldown.

The only viable encounter power for doing direct damage and aggro to mob groups. Gap closer and good fight opener. Linebreaker generates 300% more threat (multiplier).

Iron Warrior

	24s base Cooldown.

The only encounter power that reduces incoming damage. It is part of the damage mitigation multipliers and orthogonal to defensive stats. Should be always used to mitigate big hits and bursts!

Knight’s Valor (KV)

	18s base Cooldown.

An awesome encounter power. Useful for protecting and transferring Threat from one party member. It is often taken to easy Aggro Management at the beginning of boss fights. Useful for mechanics the other player would not survive (Hypothermia) or to protect damage dealers that took aggro (Hello Hardcore runs). Its tooltip is unfortunately so vague, that it could be considered wrong. Lets propose one that describes it better:

Knights Valor

Cover the nearest party member, intercepting every second all pre mitigated damage from the target up to your current amount of Hit Points. The damage you receive is the post mitigated damage that the covered target would take given as unavoidable, deflectable piercing damage. If the damage over the Hit Points limit would still kill your covered target, no damage is transferred to you.

Added Effect: All Threat generated by the covered target is transferred to you. The transferred Threat is not further increased by any threat multiplier. The covered player does not gain any threat while linked.

Bug: Any blocked damage (e.g. by guarding) is transferred to you as piercing damage ignoring the limit. It can effectively kill you! The guard meter is still reduced by that amount, thus meaning that the damage is inflicted twice!

Let's take a look at an example calculation of Knight’s Valor for gaining a better understanding!

Knight’s Valor example for a better understanding of its behavior

Let's assume that our party consists of a Fighter tank that has 1 000 000 Hit Points and a Barbarian Tank with 700 000 Hit Points which can survive some hits from Halaster. Let’s also fix Halasters damage values to fixed amounts for a nicer calculation (completely made up):

• Arcane Blast deals 250 000 post mitigated damage (500 000 pre mitigated on the Barbarian, note that the Combat Advantage vs the Barbarians Awareness is already calculated in the pre mitigated damage). Arcane Blast is cast three times with 0.7s delay in between.

• Annihilation deals 750 000 post mitigated damage (1 500 000 pre mitigated on the Barbarian).

Let’s draw some scenarios:

1a) Completely Intercepted Arcane Blast

The Barbarian draws aggro and the Fighter activates KV at full HP (limit=1 000 000). The Barbarian takes immediately the first Arcane Blast hit. KV intercepts the (pre mitigated) hit and lowers the KVs limit by 500 000. The Fighter takes the post mitigated 250 000 piercing damage and has now 750 000 HP. The second Arcane Blast is cast and is still in the one second time frame where KV has not updated. Thus the limit is still 500 000. The second hit is again completely intercepted and the Fighter takes again 250 000 damage. The Fighter now has 500 000 HP. KV updates and the new limit is now 500 000. The third Arcane Blast is completely intercepted and the Fighter takes again 250 000 damage. The Fighter now has 250 000 HP. The Barbarian is still at full HP.

1b) Not completely Intercepted and Deflected Arcane Blast

Let’s modify scenario 1a). The Fighter activates KV at full HP (limit=1 000 000). 0.5s later the Barbarian draws aggro and takes immediately the first Arcane Blast hit. KV intercepts the (pre mitigated) hit and lowers the KVs limit by 500 000. The Fighter takes the post mitigated 250 000 piercing damage and has now 750 000 HP. KV updates and the new limit is now 750 000. The second Arcane Blast is cast. The second hit is completely intercepted and the Fighter takes again 250 000 damage. The Fighter now has 500 000 HP. KV’s limit is reduced to 250 000. The third Arcane Blast is cast which is still in the one second time frame of the second Arcane Blast. The damage from Arcane Blast is only half intercepted and both the Fighter and the Barbarian take 125 000 damage. The intercepted damage is furthermore deflected by the Fighter (25% Deflect Severity) dealing 125 000 / 1.25 = 100 000 damage. The Fighter has now 400 000 HP and the Barbarian 575 000 HP.

2a) Not completely Intercepted Annihilation

Let’s assume that scenario 1a) happened: The Barbarian has 700 000 HP. The Fighter has 250 000 HP and KV is still up. The KV limit is at 250 000. The next attack is Annihilation. The Barbarian takes the Annihilation without using the guard. 250 000 damage is intercepted by KV, dealing 125 000 damage to the Fighter. The remaining 1 250 000 pre mitigated damage deals 625 000 damage to the Barbarian. Both survive!

2b) Barbarian gets killed case

Let’s modify the case 2a): The Barbarian has only 500 000 HP left. The Fighter has 250 000 HP and KV is still up. The KV limit is at 250 000. The Barbarian takes the Annihilation without using the guard. 250 000 damage is intercepted by KV. The remaining 1 250 000 pre mitigated damage deals 625 000 damage to the Barbarian and kills the Barbarian. The intercepted 125 000 damage is NOT dealt to the Fighter. Only the Fighter survives!

2c) Bug: Barbarian guarding kills the Fighter case

Let’s modify the case 2a). The Barbarian raises the guard and takes the Annihilation guarded. Now the KV Bug hits in: The KV limit is 250 000. 250 000 damage is intercepted by KV, dealing 125 000 damage to the Fighter. 280 000 post mitigated damage is absorbed by the guard. This damage is dealt to the Fighter too, killing the Fighter. The remaining 690 000 pre mitigated damage deals 345 000 damage to the Barbarian. The Barbarian is the only survivor. His guard meter is depleted! and the Barbarian has 355 000 HP left.

Here the picture of the bug report for those who are interested in all details:

Encounter Power Discussion

In the trash mob fights the best choice of Encounter Powers is a combination of Enforced Threat (feated or unfeated), Bull Charge (+ Feat) and either Linebreaker, Iron Warrior or Knight’s Valor. When Shieldthrower is taken, then you may use Shield Throw to aggro some mobs without gap closing (drag them where You stand) and most importantly to not switch another encounter between boss and trash mobs. Linebreaker may be taken to make sure one has aggro, Iron Warrior of course if mob groups are quite strong and Knight’s Valor for damage dealers that play aggressively and may take aggro.

That said there is another gear choice that completely changes aggro management in trash mob fights: The Darklake Ward Ring, Stalwartneedle Ring of Celerity or the Ring of the Condemned +5 (Aggro rings). The tank can run in small circles and aggro this way everything in close combat range. The generated aggro is so high (25 000*Threat Multipliers, at least equating 375 000 damage every half second!) that one most likely won't lose aggro against dps while the trash mobs live. This method is magnitudes easier than the first presented one and does not require any encounter powers!

In boss fights the best choice of Encounter Powers is a combination of Enforced Threat, Shield Throw (+ Feat) and either Knee Breaker, Bull Charge or Anvil of Doom for more damage, Iron Warrior or Knight’s Challenge for mitigation and sustainability or Knight’s Valor for easier aggro holding and special mechanics.