Neverwinter Heart of Fire Guardian Fighter and Oathbound Paladin Balancing Changes

The upcoming Neverwinter Heart of Fire update comes with a full balancing pass that affects all classes to some extent. We’ll be going over all relevant aspects and tackle the most important points related to the current meta and builds within our extensive preview series. Today we analyze both tank classes, which will only receive minor tweaks in selected areas.

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Guardian Fighter

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The balancing pass doesn’t have any major changes in store for Guardian Fighters, which can be good or bad depending on where you stand. DPS builds will remain endgame viable and still be able to one-shot bosses (now featuring even more Griffon’s Wrath charges in one rotation!). I’m actually a little surprised because the devs stated that Guardian Fighters are not supposed to hit like trucks. So I fully expected some type of adjustment there and still do, but it’ll probably happen in Mod 16 now. Maybe the devs also didn’t want to take away the damage roles of GFs without helping them on the tank front. Because OPs currently are largely those that offer more utility in the tank slot and the Heart of Fire changes do nothing to change that fact.

One minor improvement that shouldn’t go unnoticed is that you can now mark targets without interrupting other powers. Meaning you can mark out of guard and such, which can be super nice in some situations. Other than that, no important powers for current builds got changed.

Oathbound Paladin

The list of changes for the other tank class is more than twice as long, but overall has equally little impact on the state of the class. Many activation times have been reduced to make the often stagnant OPs a little more “responsive”. Also a lot of powers can no longer be interrupted by other powers, making it easier to chain stuff without the risk of accidentally cancelling. Other changes are also mostly of the “quality of life improvement” variety. Most notable are a nerf to “Sacred Weapon”, some minor improvements to Justice buff feats, and that Divine Call can now be activated while blocking.

Additionally solo players will certainly profit from an overall damage increase of 14% and a fix to Aura of Solitude, which no longer considers companions as allies and hence should correctly dish out it’s damage buff. Mod 15 will also fix a way to queue into randoms with two OPs. Paladins without a Paragon Path will queue as a Tank, rather than DPS.

Overall Protection and Devotion Paladins both will continue to be a welcomed guest in all sorts of parties. Devotion might have even received a little buff, but it’s not significant.


What’s your take on the changes for the tank classes? Share your thoughts and experience on our social channels, in the comments below, or visit our message board!

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4 thoughts on “Neverwinter Heart of Fire Guardian Fighter and Oathbound Paladin Balancing Changes

  • November 3, 2018 at 2:41 pm
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    OP will continue to be the go to tank especially with the new hard mode. Welcome back bubble pally.

  • November 3, 2018 at 3:03 pm
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    “the devs stated that Guardian Fighters are not supposed to hit like trucks.

    Really?

    When did they say that? GFs have been hitting like trucks since about Mod 6.

    • November 4, 2018 at 1:57 am
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      It was on one of the livestreams. Thomas Foss said he likes his tank to be “tanky” and not a DPS.

  • November 5, 2018 at 5:57 pm
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    And they buffed GW, and increased the damage of Paladin for a 14% making them strongest dps than a dps class like….Warlock
    . GG

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