Conclusion and Stat Priorities

Now that metrics, stats, build varieties and survivability are discussed, let's conclude the topic by discussing stat priorities and general recommendations.

Endgame goal

As an endgame goal, you want to cap Defense, Awareness and Critical Avoidance and add some Mitigation and Debuffs on top of it. If you are close to the endgame, you can stop reading here. However, if you are not, you can read the further details about what to prioritize.

---

As a general recommendation I would forgo to take one of the defensive routes first to be more sturdy and make sure to fulfill the tank role. Especially for beginners and for less experienced healers, this route gives the highest chance to finish a dungeon without a wipe. Once later on one can sacrifice survivability for support buffs or for increased dps (to better hold aggro / support weaker damage dealers) until the personal sweet spot is found. Or make 2 or 3 loadouts!

On a more detailed level: Thinking of stat targets, capping Defense, Awareness and Critical Avoidance is not that easy. For starters, it is enough to slowly raise them to 75% / 75% / 60% first and then fine tune stats. Which stat to rise first is discussed in the following stat priorities section.

Stat Priorities

Due to the various possible stat distributions there are no cut out clear stat priorities, however some recommendations can be made per metric.

MEHP

Getting high Awareness and Critical Avoidance before increasing Defense and Hit Points (at high levels of Item Level) gives the most MEHP increase because of the reverse relative increase of the stats. Of course gaining some nice reliable damage mitigation via Set Bonuses is even more important. At lower levels of Item Level increasing Hit Points gives more benefits, especially when scaled content is the main focus. However, the long run shall be focused to avoid false investings. Thus better avoid too many HP bonuses.

AEHP-Boss

Getting high Awareness is still the priority 1. After Awareness is capped, Defense and Hit Points follow. Only if those are capped (or over 1 000 000 for Hit Points) an investment into Critical Avoidance and Deflect / Deflect Severity is worth it. The same about Set Bonis and mitigation is true for AEHP-Boss too.

General AEHP

Defense and Hit Points are the priority 1. After capping defense and getting HP over 1 000 000 an investment into Critical Avoidance, Awareness and Deflect / Deflect Severity is worth it. The same about Set Bonis and mitigation is true for AEHP too.

As a rough first conclusion, one would focus on the priority stats of the chosen metric. However, the recommendations can be constrained a little bit more by taking the following points into account:

• In Neverwinter the trash groups are of lesser trouble thus one would focus on survivability of Boss fights first. Then the focus lies on Defense, Awareness and to a lesser degree on Hit Points (It is gained by upgrading stuff anyway). However as Defense is more effective on trash mobs there is no clear cut priority.

• Later on in endgame dungeons and trials mechanics will start to do high burst damage, like for example Halaster’s Annihilate in Tower of the Mad Mage. Then Critical Avoidance gains importance to increase. As there are only a few such burst damage mechanics in game, Critical Avoidance is often treated as the next important stat after Defense, Awareness (and Hit Points by Item Level).

• Deciding to choose an Augment Companion or a Combat Companion builds the basis if any Deflect shall be built. With Combat Companions, there are not enough stat points available to go for Deflect!

• If the defensive /supportive route is chosen, then Deflect and Deflect Severity build the last layer to invest. However, since there are barely enough stat points and stat % sources available, both should be rather neglected and put into Hit Points instead.

• If the deflect - defensive route is chosen, then Deflect and Deflect Severity can be focused the same as Critical Avoidance. (Not including the Defense of the Moondace, as the tankbuster can not be defletcted).

Additionally Hit Points resemble a special case:

• There are only a few sources of Hit Points. All of these slots give stat ratings and not stat percentages. Next to the companion power slots, Hit Points of a sum of only around 120k (worth 30% of other stats) can be chosen by gear. However, these few slots are only best filled with Hit Points for scaled content:

  • For beginners in scaled content Awareness and Hit Points are still lacking and give the best of return for survivability.

  • For more advanced tanks in scaled content, Awareness is capped and Hit Points beats all other defensive stats in terms of survivability.

Considering these facts, it is still recommended in mod 28 to take Hit Points on important slots (like Kits, Insignias) that slightly change the stat distribution and then fine tune stats on a higher Item Level. In short:

1. Awareness, Defense and Hit Points by Item Level

2. Critical Avoidance

3. Even more Hit Points and Deflect and Deflect Severity

If there is a choice between offense stats, the answer to this is easy for tanks:

1. Power, Combat Advantage: Focus on the stat that is lower. Example: If Power stat is 50% and Combat Advantage 55%, then increase the Power stat.

2. Critical Strike, Critical Severity, Accuracy if one really wants to go the hybrid route! Otherwise they should be neglected. Whenever there is a choice to choose from them, reconsider taking different gear. There should always be a better gear choice!

Until which point one wants to prioritize defensive stats over offensive stats is up to the reader.