Melee Seraph Builds?

[comradequestion]

Couple of questions about building into seraph.

Is it worth it to take holy avenger and then refund it later?
is it still better to skip smite for bolster attack and then just take greater smite later?
are you better off just focusing on clockwork blade, or should i be smithing and enchanting weapons instead?

Thanks.

[Klapaucius]

Some thoughts from the gallery (don't have a Seraph):

Couple of questions about building into seraph.

Is it worth it to take holy avenger and then refund it later?
is it still better to skip smite for bolster attack and then just take greater smite later?
are you better off just focusing on clockwork blade, or should i be smithing and enchanting weapons instead?

Thanks.

Holy avenger then refund: yes unless your faction has given you an enchanted weapon for levelling. For instance, an accuracy enchanted sledgehammer is pretty nice and combos very well with bolster attack. There are times you might still want to use this after clockwork blade but before electrified blade (faction wards for instance).

Bolster attack: Its nice unless your faction has given you a damage enchanted weapon for levelling. This is almost certainly a refund though, since seraph has lots of supplemental options that are better than bolster.

Smite does have one long term advantage over greater smite - it only costs 1 AP instead of 2. But I think there's too much overlap to bother with it.

Clockwork blade is better than an enchanted sword and has a huge reduction in upkeep. However - if you want to go resource heavy I think that a damage enchanted chainsaw or battleaxe is very strong, provided you use clockwork precision to keep your accuracy high and keep it in good condition.

Numbers comparison:

Accuracy base: 65 (base) +10 (clockwork) = 75%

Clockwork blade: 8 base +6 supplemental +~4 paladin = 18
Accuracy bonus +5 (clockwork blade) +5 (electrified blade) = 85%

I've shown chainsaw assuming 2 points of damage -> accuracy sacrificed using clockwork precision
Chainsaw: 11 base + 6 supplemental +~4 paladin -2 clockwork precision = 19
Accuracy bonus: -20 (heavy) +5 (strength) +10 (pristine) +20 (clockwork precision) = 90%

Holy avenger: 6 base +4 supplemental (bolster) +~4 paladin +3 holy affinity = 17

BUT if you've got good advocate blessings, you can drop off clockwork precision for another +3 damage, which can be quite nice as an option if you're going the chainsaw/battleaxe route. Freeing up 90 cp (which you then have to dump into smithing probably) is worth consideration. Overall, I'd say its too annoying to bother with unless you're really min-maxing since the upkeep will be annoying, but make your own call there.

[comradequestion]

Awesome, thanks for the very descriptive analysis.

[Haweh]

Adding onto this - You can also take Smite over Greater Smite if the lower CP cost is appealing to you.

I have a high-rank Seraph that you could use as a melee seraph example. clash.php?op=character&id=3500

For defensive considerations, Helmet of Justice is a bit of a ribbon but it's not a bad ribbon at all. It can trigger against Shocked and Chilled stacks that elementalist pets apply when you are acting as a raid tank.

I would highly recommend Sense Morality as losing MO to "MO check" an enemy is bad for maintaining your soak due to losing Divine Investiture bonuses. Since Seraph is ostensibly a mainline tank, I felt it was an important pick up to have.