The avenger is my favorite class out of the Player’s Handbook 2. A living tool for doling out divine justice, the avenger weaves through the battlefield to strike down his enemies, foe by oathsworn foe.
The avenger is a little confusing on paper. It’s a striker, but it has no damage add-on feature. No Hunter’s Quarry or Warlock’s Curse or Sneak Attack. It’s powers are pretty low damage for a striker as well. What it gets to replace all of this is accuracy. The avenger’s main feature, Oath of Enmity, lets you roll two attack rolls and take the highest. The avenger rarely misses it’s targeted enemy.
As choice a class feature as this is though, it comes with some pretty harsh restrictions. If there are enemies near you, you don’t get the extra attack roll! Further complicating matters for the divine punisher are it’s secondary features, the censures. Censure of Retribution gives you extra damage on your attack rolls if someone other than your oath target hits you. Censure of Pursuit gives you a damage bonus when the target moves away from you.
More confusion awaits. If you have Censure of Retribution, you get rewarded with more damage for getting hit, but one of the other perks of being an Avenger is high AC. So…you want to get hit but you are hard to hit. If you have the Censure of Retribution, you want to be near the opponent, but have him move away from you.
The surface of the avenger is full of these contradictions. These contradictions of the class are actually why I enjoy it so much. You must build an effective strategy and select skills wisely, coaxing out the classes’ power.
The first thing to keep in mind about the avenger is that it is all about position. It shares this with the rogue. What both classes want to do is to get into range with a target and then take further action after hitting to avoid retribution from the target. The easiest way to do this is to pair up with a defender on your foe. He marks it, you hit it. The Avenger adds an additional wrinkle in that it also needs to be at once clear of and near other enemies. Grab all the powers you can that let you move the opponent or shift him whenever you can. It’s worth sacrificing 1[W] to do, since where you are in relation to the enemy is linked to your chances of hitting the opponent and getting any damage at all.
The next most important thing for the Avenger to do is select targets wisely. You want to fell opponents as quickly as possible, so you can oath as many foes per battle as possible. your targeting priority would be:
Soldier > Artillery > Lurker > Skirmisher > Brute > Minion
You go after Soldiers first because they will typically be harder to hit but have few enough hit points that you, hitting more frequently than average, can take them out quickly. Artillery definitely wants to run from you, but you will be fast enough to catch them and punish them for it, taking out these high damage threats efficiently. Lurkers and Skirmishers want to move to get their powers going, but you can make them pay for that movement. Brutes are a waste of your oath. They are meant to be hit…a lot. You can hit them easily without the oath, and they’ll suck you in a slugging match. Save them and minions for absolute, dead last.
Powers
For this series, I’m only covering up to Paragon level, since this is what most people will be seeing. It lays down the foundation of what you can do the next 20 or so levels.
My top five Avenger powers:
- Angelic Alacrity -even if you don’t have Censure of Pursuit, the free 2 square shift is key. If you use Censure of Pursuit, don’t even think about another first level encounter power.
- Sequestering Strike -another power where you take it no matter what Censure you use. Teleport your target two squares and yourself to any square adjacent? Uh, yes please. Just take this one.
- Living Death Strike -this isn’t a must-have, but the capability for a big 4[W] burst is pretty nice. With a maul you are rolling 8d6 with this power. A nice closer.
- Aspect of Agility -shift 5 squares and get a +2 bonus to AC and Reflex. Great position management, and another must-have.
- Aspect of Speed -the only problem here is that it’s a daily. Otherwise, shifting 5 before the attack and five after is too good. Another must have regardless of build.
The Obvious Build
Heian ,Elven Avenger of Corellon(Censure of Pursuit)/Zealous Assassin
This build uses Censure of Pursuit seeks to hit it’s target and avoid punishment as much as possible with it’s high AC and lots of shifting. Pair up with a defender and keep your opponent on his heels.
The Interesting Build
Thotham, Goliath Avenger of the Raven Queen(Censure of Retribution)/Oathsworn
The Goliath does not seem suited for the hit-and-run striker motif at all, does it? It doesn’t even give bonuses to the main attributes! But the Goliath is actually pretty strong for a host of other reasons. We mix it with Censure of Retribution and a lower AC to abuse Stone’s Endurance (resist 10 damage for a turn), and to get easy access to a range of static bonuses. Power Attack normally sucks, but when you get two chances, it’s much better, giving us +6 damage on every shot we take. We take Goliath Greatweapon proficiency for another +3, and we end up with about +17 damage per attack. Not bad!
Plus: He is huge.
A Jack of All Trades ,or if you prefer, an extreme example of multi-classing, Gamefiend, a.k.a Quinn Murphy has been discussing, playing and designing games straight out of the womb. He is the owner and Editor-in-Chief of this site in addition to being an aspiring game designer. As you would assume, he is a huge fan of 4e.
By day he is a technologist.
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Avenger is definitely my favorite PH2 class as well.
Ditto, although the Invoker is a close, close second.
When you roll like I do (another 3, sigh) you’re grateful when you oath a brute.
It’s a shame you couldn’t have provided some consultation for Wil and his Eladrin Avenger build in the PennyArcade/PVP/WW podcasts – he had some struggles early on, though he did know to go after the Artillery in the first part of the final encounter.
Hello!
@Red Jason The Avenger is pure awesomeness.
@Scott Invoker is very cool as well, though I’d say my next favorite class is a toss-up between the bard and the warden.
@Freezer lol. I’m a notoriously bad roller, so that’s one of the reasons the avenger appeals so much to me.
@kingworks part of the reason I posted this (and will be posting more) was that I saw some frustration with the avenger and other classes. Hopefully this can help iron out some of those initial problems and the builds can help as a point of reference for where to start.