This needed to be moved over for any new conqs and even old ones, I don’t personally agree with everything 100% but it’s a great place to start and an outstanding guide on the class.
OP by Erock25.
How to PVE CONQ:
I see lots of new folks in global and nph looking for advice on builds and complaining about everything being outdated, so I figured I’d give my perspective on the class, builds, AAs, and rotations. Of course other people may have their own opinions but all of mine are coming from successfully tanking or topping the parse in T4.
Just a beginners tip for any new people out there … PLEASE KEY BIND YOUR ABILITES/COMBOS. It really helps a lot with this game because of the need to hit multiple abilities at once which is impossible if you are a clicker. I suggest a Razer Naga mouse if you need more room.
Alternate Advancement –
The short story here is get Battlefield Commander and never slot anything else. Tanking, DPS, PVP … Battlefield Commander seems to work best for me. Arguments can be made for Breakthrough/Assail for Carnage PVP and One Last Push (Punch?) for Brute PVP and I’ve tried using all combinations for quite a while since the revamp and Battlefield Commander really is the best option. With Battlefield Commander I’m looking at a constant +75% weapon damage just from my passive buffs. That is an insane number when compared to the 5 feat points people spend in general tree for +15% weapon damage from Sustained Rage in general tree. For a new Conq just starting out, Battlefield Commander is the only option for your first major AA.
As for the other AAs you’re going to want to max Pressing Strikes, Decisive Strikes, Elusive Nature, and Chromatic Warding. Standard format is always slotting Pressing/Decisive but if I need critigation or more protection I will slot them instead of Decisive Strikes (reason I replace Decisive instead of Pressing is because hit rating matters in T4). All the other AA stuff is standard … train your passive wards and combo improvements as you can and don’t be selfish and ignore read guard.
Tanking –
I’m not going to cover Carnage tanking here. Maybe later if people ask for it but in my opinion the DPS gap between Carnage tanking and Brute tanking shrunk too much to really justify the loss in survivability.
Physical damage spec http://goo.gl/HVg8w
Magic damage spec http://goo.gl/5p7xA
I’m Lazy and Want Everything in One Spec spec http://goo.gl/wsRPv
The whole key to the Conq revamp in my opinion is the change they made to 5/5 Improved Dancing Steel. With 5/5 your Guard of Dancing Steel procs have a chance of happening on any damage you do. This is why Scourge and Improved Throat Slash are feated and trust me, you would be surprised how often GoDS procs and how much overall damage it is on your parse (if using the proper combos). GoDS damage is usually #1 or #2 on my overall parse breakdown and this is a combo that is only used every 20 seconds. Another key to being a successful Brute tank that people seem to neglect is using Blood Bath combo for tanking. The synergy between GoDS proccing on your damage and Blood Bath hitting so many times is very very good. Being adapt at weapon swapping is absolutely worth it.
My general combo rotation is GoDS4, Feint Attack 8, Blood Bath 7 followed by dual wield Throat Slash (hits 3 times instead of 2 times using your two hander… thus more GoDS procs), and then FA9. At this point you can throw in a Batter Aside depending on how the bosses shields are stacked or Hail of Furious Strikes 5 before you start the whole thing over again. Don’t be afraid to throw in a Breach during your dual wield phase if the boss is missing the debuff. The real key to your rotation is keeping GoDS proc buff up, keeping Furious Strikes feat crit buff up from using FA, and keeping BB on cooldown. If you stick to that rotation and pop your Irritate + Retaliation while your FA9 is hitting you are almost guaranteed to pull aggro.
As for the timing of when you are using your buffs (Grant Technique, Grant Banner, Volcanic Rage, Heroic Call) there are a lot of conditions that change how you will use them. If I absolutely want aggro as early as possible and confident I can hold on to it without dying I will use both Volcanic and Heroic Call right before I land my BB7 finisher in my first rotation. Otherwise I rotate between Volcanic and Heroic to keep a more consistent weapon buff up. It doesn’t make much sense to me but I honestly find that running the tanking Disciplines/Formations which are Will of Mettle and The Fortifying Standard gives me more aggro than running the dps one which are Will of Onslaught and The Burning Standard. Maybe in content lower than T4, I would use the dps ones while tanking but in T4 the +hate from using technique and banners as well as the extra survivability really seems to work out better for me. I will generally start the fight using my Banner for Fortifying Standard to help out those DPSers that go too hard too fast and then rotate back and forth every 30 seconds activating my Technique and Banner. If I’m using the dps Disciplines/Formations I would only activate the Technique.
A big key for anyone not solo tanking (even solo tanking adjust your combos to hit unshielded sides like using Batter Aside if no shields are on left or skipping Throat Slash in your rotation if 2+ shields on the left) is to keep an eye on enemy shielding. It is absolutely beneficial to take a half second to swing around the boss and hit unshielded sides. A lot of times you can do this during the white hits of your combo with zero wasted time. As long as your raid doesn’t surround and lock you into one spot, keep on your toes and work the shields.
Another huge thing for conquerors that really separate the good and bad ones is when and how to use your bubbles. Prior to the conq revamp … when you had Overcome the Odds up and you got hit with physical damage, it would first subtract that damage from your HP (killing you if that brought you below 0) and then heal you afterwards. Now, Overcome the Odds can be activated with 1 HP left and as long as the next attack is a physical one, you will survive and heal up. You need to be smart with your OtO usage though and possibly try to call out when you will use it so other tanks aren’t Goading/Forced Engaging to try to save you. My general bubble rotation is starting with Blessed Conquest at around 70% HP and then going from there. If a boss fight lasts only so long that you can use two OtO if you start with OtO … use it first. If a boss has a lot of weak hits and one strong attack, use your bubbles accordingly. Don’t be afraid to burn your OtO for the extra AOE taunt if it is necessary to grab aggro and save a tank. Nothing beats grabbing multiple adds in memory cloud of T4 and all the guards/DTs crying when you pop OtO and save yourself just before death.
DPS-
Carnage DPS is extremely simple since the revamp. A few notes on the spec is that you don’t need Fierce Inspirations to get to a 10 stack before your next Technique/Banner usage, you don’t need 1 extra crit every 3 minutes, and yes… cunning D will save your life many times over.
All you need to do to top the parse as carnage is activate Bladeweave and make sure it is always up, use BB7 and activate Rend right before you land its finisher, Whirlwind, BH6 … rinse and repeat over and over and over again. Sure you should throw in a Breach if the boss needs that debuff but your overall DPS will be higher sticking to the rotation I listed. Your only decisions you need to make are do you run Onslaught with Fortifying Standard or with Burning Standard. If you’re running Onslaught/Burning you activate your Technique right before BB7 finisher and keep it on a 45 second cooldown. If you’re running Onslaught/Fortifying (choosing to run Fortifying for the –hate banner) you will want to alternate between Banners and Techniques so you can keep them on a 30 second cooldown. Work the boss shielding properly, keep ready to pop Cunning D, Defensive Stance, and/or Flashing Defense and you are now a pro DPS conq. Three combos in the same order over and over and some really easy to manage instant buffs and enjoy topping the parse.
Anyways… that’s all just my opinion and hope it helps someone out there.
Conq has a lot of openers hitting on the right side in 2h, and all combos except HoFS are 1step so in the end it makes a huge difference.