Author: Zharay
Published under authorization of Zharay
Know Your Role - Building a DT
Just what is the role of a DT? Guardians have trees that make them natural tanks. Conquerers have trees full of group and self buffs. I know comparing these classes seems like comparing apples and oranges, but DTs in this case would seem more like a pineapple.
A DT is really just a very self-reliant soldier. Most of our feats center only on ourselves. Because of this, our feats are mostly about being able to deal damage, take hits, and get stronger in various alternative ways.
A DT,s role usually runs down to 3 categories: Solo DPS, Group DPS, and Tank. As a Solo DPS, you tend to find the best ways to deal heavy amounts of damage for yourself. Our class excels at doing this in as many means as you could think of, from pure combos to unholy proccing spells and covenants. As a Group DPS, you take that thought a step further, sacrificing solo feats for the few feats that would highly benefit a group. A tank is just as the name says. Unlike a guardian or conquerer, we have no means to increase our invulnerabilities, we instead take damage and use them in alternative ways. We may not be a natural tank, but we are still capable of performing the role when done correctly.
When you build a DT, try to keep yourself focused on the role you want to play to make your grind a smooth one. If you want to be a tank, stick to feats that will benefit you on mitigating damage you take. If you want to be a DPS type, go for builds that would ensure your good at dealing damage. From there you can fine tune your role; whether that would be to solo, group, raid, or PvP.
For this guide, I,ll focus on PvE, as that is what I,m more familiar with. PvP in general is not recommended for a DT. I know there are a lot of you guys on PvP servers, but you have to admit that we start off at a huge disadvantage. Generally though, you can make a PvP build by taking points off for better crowd control, debuffs, or survivability.
TL;DR: Focus on what you want. PvE featured on my guide.
Stances - Which to Use
This is something I feel needs to be addressed. Like any soldier class we get 2 stances. Defensive and Frenzy Stance.
Defensive Stance
You gain +4.2% invuls in all 3 melee damage types (slashing, piercing, and crushing). You gain +15% hate in this stance, making grabbing and maintain aggro a breeze. Your DPS is lowered by around 15%, the only crux in this stance. With Consuming Bulwark, your stance can generate a life tap proc that heals you. General Soldier feats can increase the invuls of the stance, give it even more heals, and even give you a skill that adds a proc for damage while in the stance (potential AoE damage).
For tanking its essential. You generate a ton of hate easily. For soloing its dismal. Your dps takes a nose dive and in most cases, the increase mitigation isn,t even needed. In the group aspect, its mainly good for when you gain aggro and know you wont be killed quickly.
As a cool side note: With 10 points of Sadism (+10% dps) and Blood for Aid (+5% slashing/blunt), you can even out the -15% dps.
Frenzy Stance
This makes you a glass canon. You obtain a 50% increase in damage, while taking in 100% or 2x damage from all melee and magical attacks. This stance can be augmented to add life leeching abilities (stacks with other life taps), increase their damage % (to 60%) and reduce the impact of negative invuls (to -70%).
This stance was not designed to level in, but the bonus damage should not be ignored. In groups where you are not tanking, this will increase your dps by a ton, but as soon as your grab aggro, change stance so you can survive. You can do a form of "stance dancing," switching between stances at the right moments to increase your damage such as right before and right after you complete a combo. I for one don,t do this as its just too tedious. You not only have to do a combo, but switch a stance while in the middle of 5 button presses, then immediately switch back so as to not die. Overall its just an increased work load.
No Stance - Balanced
Remember before you got any stance you had no stance at all? Well what if I told you that you don,t have to choose any of the above to play a DT? With this you are set to no bonus to attack or defense. Your DPS is actually quite fine in this stance, and so is your passive tanking ability. I found in most cases the only time I have to switch stance is when I,m taking on much more than I should.
This is the perfect stance for leveling. You have the ability to keep fighting in this stance, even during instances when you gain aggro of an elite. With this stance, you can easily take out any foe and live to fight for even more. I suggest every DT stick to this stance when leveling. The speed at being able to level in this stance far outweighs being able to survive large mobs or being 1 or 2 shotted by equal leveled foes.
Because of that recommendation, you actually gain more feat points for not focusing on the other two stances in your build. I see Frenzy and Defensive stance more as a means to do group content rather than a means to level, but they still have their benefits depending on your play style. The feat builds in this guide generally stick to not focusing on any single stance except for tank-like builds. You can do amazing things with improved Frenzy stance, but I myself have yet to try it to give my input on such builds 
TL;DR: Stick to no stance for leveling. Free up the feat build by not focusing on any stance. Use the other stances when you need to group/survive/trash mob.
Sadism - ,Cause Tossing A Kitty Isn,t Enough
Sadism is a DT special ability that normally occurs when someone else in your group takes damage by chance. By default, you yourself cannot generate this ability like with the Guardian,s special ability. It stacks up to 10 points, each point gradually increasing multiple stats to nearly godlike levels. At 10 points, we gain the following:
- +12% Damage Mods (Melee & Magic)
- +10% Tap Health (Magic & Melee)
- Sadistic Soul - 4m radius - 24-63 unholy per 2 sec
It makes us a a DPS and life tapping god. You generally generate 1% bonus to each of the above buffs, gaining Sadistic Soul at 5 levels. We can self generate sadism in 3 ways: Masochism, Sadistic Vengeance + Covenant of Vengeance, and Ritualistic Bloodshed. Being able to utilize sadism is the key to unlocking a DTs true potential. Whether you use them or not is totally up to you and your build. But in my opinion, there is no reason not to. Every build can benefit from sadism, in some cases, being able to without requiring too much investment.
The Feats - Rated For the Lazy
As people continue to complain and moan about our trees, I for one just got used to the problems and have moved on. In this section, I,ll list everything you need to know about our trees... As briefly as I can.
Rating System:
***** = Must have
**** = Recommended
*** = So-so / Depends
** = Not Recommended
* = Ignore
Depravity [81]
Our primary tree that augments our combos and damage directly. This includes Sadism, which also augments our damage directly.
Tier 1
Blighted Touch [5] ***
A chance to for your swings to deal unholy damage. Mainly used to get further down the Depravity Tree.
Tier 2
Blighted Soul [5] ***
Adds an AoE DoT for several seconds when Blighted Touch is in effect. Deals around 50 per tick. Usually used to get down further. Can be given up for the other feat, depending on build.
Crystallized Ether [5] ***
Adds a huge bonus in natural mana regeneration. Use this only if your are relying on Ritualistic Bloodshed, Soul Barrier, or CoInvulnerability.
Tier 3
Dark Hand [5] ***
Adds a bonus to one-handed edged/blunt weapons. At 5 points, thats around 4.5 or so. Use this if you don,t like Malacodor.
Devouring Blood Frenzy [3] **
Adds a chance for your attack to leech life while in Frenzy Stance. Not needed at all while leveling. Will only see this being useful if you somehow survive a hit.
Consuming Bulwark [3] **
Adds a chance for healing yourself when you are attacked. The amount it heals adds up overtime but mainly it is only needed if you are a dedicated tank build.
Pact of Malacodor [5] ****
You gain a moderate amount of unholy damage per swing in return of placing a DoT on yourself. An awesome dps tool for when you are not worried about healing yourself. The DoT can be easily overcome with your base leeching and combos. At 5 points, you can deal around 50-60 extra damage per swing.
Tier 4
Devourer,s Might [5] *****
Required. Makes two of your most damaging combos (Soul for a Feast and Leech Life) deal more damage.
Dark Burden [2] PvE: * | PvP: ****
A mainly PvP only feat. Slows your target down for several seconds. Has no use in PvE.
Dissipate Ether [3] ***
Increases the amount of mana taken when using Mystic Bane. Mainly only feated when getting the next feat...
Incinerate Ether [1] ****
Turns the mana you take off using Mystic Bane into additional unholy damage. Makes the combo one of our highest damaging combos. Highly recommended on any DPS build in both PvE and PvP.
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