Black Orc – SnB City

Role :

Melee blob guard,  buffer/debuffer.

Goal :

Provide good buffs/debuffs (Stats steal, single target CoolDown Increase and AP drain) while being extremely tanky (relative to warband vs warband fights).

These are unbuffed stats (and without event slot item). I use Liniment of Quickened Blades and armor potion. Use Wounds liniment if you played pre morale drop nerf and you think 10k hp isn’t enough.

Gear :

Helm : Sov Main
Shoulders : Sov Main
Body : Sov Main
Gloves : Sov Main
Belt : Sov Main
Boots : Sov Main
Cloak : Sov Main
Jewelry 1 : Genesis Everlasting Fragment
Jewelry 2 : Genesis Everlasting Aspect
Jewelry 3 : Rough Gunbad Diamond
Jewelry 4 : Invader (or Sov Main)
Main Hand : Sentry’s Cutta of Anathema
Off Hand : Fortress Chopstoppa
Talismans : 4 Toughness/1 Initiative/3 Wounds

Professor Cake :
Jewelry 4 : Invader is the best in the vast majority of cases.
Sov is good when you have to catch up to a tunnel vision DPS (99% of them yes, I know), but I don’t like itemizing to make up for somebody else’s mistakes, if you get punted away they should see it, back off for 2sec and everything is fine again.
If you are the MA best friend, and guarding him most of the time, then do equip full Sov because even 2sec of him backing off will be bad for your wb effectiveness.
Fortress shield : As you can see (and read below) I choose to ignore parry that is irrelevant vs slayers, in favor of other forms of mitigation that do work vs them. In that case : the absorb proc.

Tactics : 

1 – Youz see me blok’ dat’ ?!
2 – Rugged
3 – Big Brawlin’
4 – Stop Hittin Da Runts

Professor Cake :
Rugged : helps with survavibility, most certainly less than 10%block but it works vs Rampage so I pick it over block, I do have enough block as it is.
Many do not like Rugged, but 160 stats is the equivalent of 6.66 talismans which is MASSIVE, toughness works very well when stacked high enough, do not underestimate it.
To me morale on block is a no brainer.
Big Brawlin’ aoe snare (okayish, destro got no problem with aoe snaring with BG and covenants) and disorient (VERY good) add another debuff to my arsenal.
For the last one I pick the AP “regen” one because it kills 3 birds with 1 stone!
It makes it easy to use Big Swing over and over without ever waiting for regen ticks, it allows me to channel my +50% block as long as I’m not interrupted (read forever, order tanks don’t have taunt), and it allows me not to use the AP on hit proc weapon from BB/BE in favor of the scenario one that provide minus crit and minus armor pen, both useful vs slayers.

Renown :

• Wounds :
  10k hp with the amount of tankiness this build provides is more than enough in a city warband, you don’t need any more.
• Avoidance : “No parry and no Dodge/Disrupt ?! Are you crazy?!”
  I may be crazy, but this is my reasoning :
• Dodge Disrupt :
  Deft Defender provides 18% D/D for 20renown points. 15% will be taken off due to Pierce Defense most of the time, so you are left with 3% from RR and some on your gear. Any competent rDPS will have more strikethrough than what you will have accounting for your gear +3% from RR.
  Versus any competent people, you are paying 20Renown for nothing, you get ZERO value out of it (or very little accounting for Sov defensive proc).
  Versus incompetent people, you don’t need dodge/disrupt anyways, you should win.
  One more thing, with 31% base block +10% from sov proc and +50% on demand with Can’t Hit Me you are already “immune” to ranged damage, and even when they do hit you, you have good armor (vs rSW/some Engis) AND you reduce damage by 15% with Hardy Concession.
• Parry : As with every destruction tank, we have access to a lot of “free” avoidance. For BO it’s Can’t Hit Me!, +50% block chance while channeling the ability. This makes us almost unkillable on demand, and helps to relieve pressure from our healers anytime we want. The counter to this is Rampage, an ability pesky Slayers have that totally bypass all our avoidance.
  If we stack too much avoidance, then this ability alone can be our demise.
  On the other hand, block works vs any dps but rampaged Slayers.
  Block is so good, it is still worth stacking. Parry on the other hand, does work vs guard damage which is a big plus, but doesn’t work vs range damage, nor rampaged Slayers.
  I chose to ignore parry and focus on some other forms of damage mitigation, that will help more vs Slayers.
  Versus any other dps (and guard damage), I can channel Can’t Hit Me! and ignore them anyways, the only threats are the Slayers.
• Trivial Blows : To me, TB has one big upside, avoiding to be “one shotted”. Since as a very tough tank  that should never happen to you, TB isn’t needed.

Masteries : (need sov+2 :

This gives you :
an AP drain, the best tool vs Slayers.
a disorient and CDincreaser vs healers.
a 93 stats steal, pretty good.
all the survivability tools, for you and your party.

Playstyle :

Usual defense tank in the blob, mainly target slayers to drain their AP.
When the blob is moving (in city follow your guardee, in scs initiate the push when you think it’s appropriate) towards order backline, you are VERY good vs healers, with disorient and CDincrease you can really mess with them.
Remember guard range is 30feet, if you can reach a Warrior Priest while staying in range of your guardee, do it and mess him up!
You do not need to hold your dps hand at all time, being at 20f is fine.
Especially since you are destro and less at risk of being displaced (or your guardee) by a random skill.

Bosscake facing a Slayer before researching on Rampage.

Note on Reduce Armor Penetration : One of the best stats for BO, maybe even the best one. 3% on stuff plus 5% from liniment = 8%. Low, but not zero either and I’ve fought many cities scenarios by now and never had a hard time surviving, at all. If your experience differs, consider trying to stack more of this, you can have 10 more percent “easily” with jewelry : 6 from sentinel talisman (yes, it’s better than block for BO), and 2 times 2 from fleshrender (you can use toughness/AP ones, they are far cheaper than some others and as effective in warband play).

Bosscake dealing with Slayers after his Rampage PhD

Cake’s Thoughts :

Annoying Slayers and Warrior Priests is my passion when playing destruction.
This build does it pretty well so I’m happy about it.
I wanted to wait a bit longer before posting it to test it more, but I decided to retire Bosscake because with the NB ban I do not have enough playtime to get a good muscle memory on several characters.
Definitly a weaker build than the WAAAGH! one but one you can be successfull with.