So You Want To Make An Avenger, Huh?

This is the first in a series I plan to do on the new classes offered in the Player's Handbook 2. We're going to start with one of my favorites, and the first class in the book: The Avenger.

Just What Is An Avenger?

Avengers are the dedicated servants of various churches, who instead of being defenders of the faith like paladins, or healers and priests like clerics, are weapons of their divine masters. They are meant to strike quick against their god's enemies, and they need no armor to protect them.

In game terms, the Avenger is the divine power source's striker. They are built to attack with two handed weapons and single out targets. Their features makes their chief strategy a personal war of attrition, choosing a vital part of the enemy force and fully eliminating it before they move on. This obviously frees up their allies to take on the larger forces. They can only wear cloth armor at first, but they get a +3 bonus to Armor Class when not wearing heavy armor or using a shield.

They also get a class-defining encounter power called Oath of Enmity. It is kind of like a warlock's curse or a ranger's quarry, but at the same time its very different. Once you have targeted an enemy with your Oath of Enmity, you are able to make two attack rolls with any attack you make against it, as long as you are not adjacent to any other enemies. This obviously increases their accuracy quite a bit. Even though it is an encounter power, Oath of Enmity recharges when its target is reduced to zero hit points.

They also get Channel Divinity, like all divine classes and start with two uses of it. Abjure Undead is a single target radiant damage spell that targets an undead creature within close burst 5. Despite the name it actually pulls the undead closer and immobilizes them until the end of your next turn. This works better for avengers than turn undead would, since they need to close to melee and isolate their targets from groups. They also get Divine Guidance which gives a second attack roll to an ally when they attack your oath of enmity target.

Avengers use wisdom as the ability for all of their attacks, and then intelligence or dexterity as their secondary scores depending on their build. More on that in the following sections, but lets start at the beginning of building an Avenger.

Isolating vs. Pursuing

Your definitive character building choice as an Avenger is which Avenger's Censure you choose. Censure of Pursuit gives you a damage bonus equal to two plus your dexterity modifier each time your oath of enmity target willing moves away from you. The bonus lasts until the end of your next turn, and increases to four plus the modifier at eleventh level, and six plus the modifier at 21st level.

Censure of Retribution gives you a bonus to your damage rolls equal to your intelligence modifier each time an enemy other than your oath target hits you. The bonus lasts until the end of your next turn, and doesn't get anymore effective as you level, but it is cumulative for every time you are attacked.

Each ability also upgrades various powers along the way. Pursuit powers focus on mobility and not letting your target escape while isolating powers focus on separating your target from its allies and keeping them away. I have seen people proclaim that either pursuing or isolating are just flat out better than the other option, but I think they are both equally useful.

Censure of Pursuit makes it very hard for your target to get away from you, especially on low levels where plus five or six to the damage of your next attack is a big deal. In all likelihood, targets aren't going to move away unless they know you absolutely cannot get to them next round. However, this does nothing to ensure that other creatures will not attack you, and it may be harder to maintain your Oath of Enmity rolls sometimes because of this. I recommend picking some defensive powers and feats early if you choose pursuit, since you are more likely to take enemy attacks than an isolating Avenger would.

Censure of Retribution is totally different. Its bonuses will often keep other enemies out of melee, and make it easy to maintain Oath of Enmity's conditions. However, to get any damage bonus against your target you yourself will have to take damage. This won't happen that often because of your high defenses, and besides the point, I don't like banking on taking damage. In reality, you may not get the damage bonus that often, but it does serve to keep other monsters from even attacking you once they realize it will only bring pain to their allies.

Ability Scores

As I said Wisdom is the ability that all Avengers use for their powers, whether implement or weapon. Starting with at least a 16 in this stat is a good idea, and if you are a race that gets a bonus to wisdom, it would be in your favor to buy an 18. After that your next choice depends on whether you want to be a pursuing avenger, or an isolating avenger. I will go over these more in a few paragraphs, but for now we'll simplify it to the ability scores. Pursuing Avengers use dexterity as a secondary ability, while isolating avengers use intelligence. You definitely want to put your second highest score here.

The real question is what to do with the rest of your points. As a default, constitution is a good score since in all likelihood fortitude will be your weakest defense and this will help boost it, as well as give you a few extra hit points. Even though avengers use weapons to deal most of their damage, it is hard for them to make the ability score requirements for things like Deadly Axe or Hammer Rhythm although if you want to make Strength your tertiary score it puts Heavy Blade Opportunity within reach and the Avenger has some great at-wills to use as opportunity attacks. The other option is to drop it into whichever secondary ability score your build doesn't use, just to make it viable to take some powers from the other build. Many optimizers will warn against this regardless of the class, but there are times this may be appropriate, usually to meet the flavor of the character.

Race Choices

Depending on your build there are three races that have the ideal attribute bonuses to make an Avenger: Elves, Razorclaw Shifters, and Devas. These are by no means the only races that make good Avengers though. I also like Dwarves, Eladrin, Drow, Half-Orcs, Genasi and Humans. The other races could all be Avengers, and there may be some great flavor reasons you could make one (a Dragonborn Avenger of Bahamut or Tiamat for instance), but their mechanics don't work out in favor of choosing this class. Let me go over the options you have.

Elves are my personal favorite race for avengers. They have the perfect ability scores for a the pursuing build, gain even more accuracy with their racial power, and have a seven speed. In addition, they can shift over difficult terrain. This mobility is great for avengers since they need to close to melee to take advantage of their oath of enmity. There really aren't any substantial downsides for this racial choice.

Both Shifter races have good attributes for the Avenger class. Razorclaws have perfect ability score bonuses for pursuing avengers. They also get a +2 bonus to stealth if you want to make your Avenger stealthy, which is definitely an option. Their racial power is good, but only activates when you are bloodied, and that may not happen to you in every fight with your above average defenses, good hit point progression, and tendency to face off against a single foe. They also don't have the 7 movement that elves do. However, they may be an ideal choice flavor-wise if you want your avenger to worship a god of nature, or a more warlike deity like Kord or Tempus. Longtooth Shifters get a bonus to wisdom, but not dexterity or intelligence, however their bonus to strength can be useful. If you choose to spend your points on both a sixteen wisdom (increased to 18 with your bonus) and sixteen dexterity or intelligence, you can still buy a twelve or thirteen strength and with your bonus you would get access to heavy blade opportunity in paragon tier without having to spend any ability points on it at fourth or eighth level. Unfortunately, their ability also only activates when bloodied, and while the +2 damage is nice, the regeneration is a pretty insubstantial amount if you are already taking enough damage to become bloodied.

Devas are the only race with the ideal ability score bonuses to make an isolating Avenger. Their racial ability is also incredibly useful because it not only helps with accuracy like the elf ability does, but it can be used to help save against any debilitating status effect you come under, or even help with a skill check. The flavor of the Deva race also lends itself well to Avengers, since they are divine beings, and it even points out that they are not shy about violence in the name of what they believe is right. They also get two types of resistances and their defenses go up against bloodied creatures, which is also a decent compliment to the avenger class. However, other than Auspicious Lineage in Heroic, and the other lineage feats in paragon and epic, none of their racial feats synergize particularly well with Avengers. They have the ability to make a power attack type trade off with their implement powers with Radiant Power, but the real meat of your powers are going to be weapon attacks, and I can think of many better feats.

Dwarves get bonuses to wisdom and constitution. They are harder to push away from their oath targets, and they can second wind as a minor action. Even though they can't easily start with an 18 in their secondary ability, Dwarves can play well as either type of avenger. Also, in a class that uses two handed weapons, Dwarven Weapon Training is a great feat choice, allowing your avenger to take up a Mordenkrad or Executioner's Axe and get +2 damage with them in a single feat. The downside is that you have only a 5 speed, which is going to hurt your ability to close to melee easily. If you choose dwarf as your race, I recommend grabbing more than just the at-will ranged attack, because there will be fights where it takes more than a single round to close to melee range in all likelihood.

In the D&D/Penny-Arcade podcast that is up right now on the wizards website, Wil Wheaton is playing an Eladrin Avenger. Although I find his build questionable, it is not an inherently poor choice. Eladrin get a bonus to Intelligence and Dexterity, and can thus make good Avengers of either build. You are probably only going to start with a 16 wisdom this way though, so make sure to either take Weapon Expertise, use weapons with +3 proficiency, or both to help out your accuracy. The real reason that I like Eladrin as Avengers though, is Fey Step. If by chance you do get in a situation where you can't get to your oath of enmity target, you now have a built in solution to use once per encounter. Eladrin also get a +1 bonus to will, to increase their already high defense in that department. In my opinion this is the best race if you want to make an avenger that uses both pursuit and isolating type powers since you can have decent scores in both abilities.

Drow are a bit harder to form into an avenger, but they are by no means bad at it. With bonuses to dexterity and charisma, so you would definitely be more inclined to the pursuing build. Drow have darkvision which is always useful, but the real reason I like them is Cloud of Darkness. Against a creature without darkvision, it allows you to force a creature you have targeted with Oath of Enmity to move if they want any real chance of hitting you, which activates your Censure of Pursuit class feature and gives you a damage bonus next turn, which would be a great turn to use an action point and attack twice to grab 10 bonus damage. It also can be used to deter ranged units from pestering you while you attempt to kill your oath of enmity target, plus in an evil campaign a drow avenger of Lolth would be a great character to roleplay.

Half-Orcs are another good choice if you want to use a two-handed sword and grab Heavy Blade Opportunity in paragon tier since they get a +2 to strength, and their dexterity bonus makes them great for the pursuing build. In addition, they get a damage enhancing racial and can charge farther. Since Avengers aren't the heaviest hitting strikers, and charging is something they do a lot if played optimally, both of these bonuses work out well. They even have decent racial feats, especially Thirst for Battle. Overall this is another less obvious, but great choice for Avengers.

Genasi are another race that can grab Heavy Blade Opportunity with their strength bonus, but unlike Half-Orcs they are inclined towars the Isolating Avenger build. Plus, what's better than a fire and brimstone spirited avenger who looks like they are made of actual fire and brimstone. Any manifestation you choose except stormsoul works pretty well for Avengers, but the watersoul power Swiftcurrent, and the earthsoul +1 bonus to fortitude and saving throws are the standouts for me. Again you probably are only going to have a 16 wisdom, so use +3 proficiency weapons or feats to improve your accuracy.

The reason I like humans as a race for avengers is largely because of their extra at-will power. Avengers are one of a handful of classes that have such great at-wills that I really want to have more than two of them, and only with a human is that really possible. Besides that you get bonuses to your already great defenses, a racial feat to improve saving throws, and an extra feat at first level. There are a lot of good feats for Avengers, so this bonus doesn't go to waste like it does on some classes.

Skills

You start with religion, which will help you make monster knowledge checks on undead creatures, as well as be a boon in many skill challenges, and you have a pretty good selection of other skills to choose three from. But you need to make sure you have some bases covered.

Take either acrobatics or athletics. You need to be mobile, and leaping across pits or hazards might come into play in getting to your opponent and locking them down, and it gives you a method to realistically escape a grab.

Perception is something you want at least two people in your party to be really good at. With a high wisdom score you should think about being one of these people, especially since you'll be out in front a lot of the times.

The other skills are probably dependent on how you see your character. Does he stare down his enemies with an icy-cold glare while threatening them with his god's damnation? Take intimidate. Does he look to help his allies when they fall to an enemy's blades? Take heal. Does he sneak around the battlefield to stick his blade in an enemy's back? Take stealth.

Feats

There are a lot of feats that are great choices for Avengers. I'm going to stick to only your first few choices in this article, and if people want an article on the full progression later, I can do that too.

Leather Armor Proficiency is a good feat for Avengers, granting two AC for a single feat. If you took this feat at first level you could be looking at an eighteen or nineteen AC right off the bat. In the same vein, I recommend picking up Improved Armor of Faith which increases the AC granted by Armor of Faith by one for each tier. I would say this feat is pretty much a no-brainer at some point, regardless of your avenger build. Other good defensive options include Defensive Mobility or Toughness, though they might be overkill. You could also go up to Hide Armor which may become worth it when you get into masterwork armors, but the requirements might take valuable ability score points away from your main abilities.

On a more offensive tip, my chief suggestion is to take Weapon Expertise. The Avenger's damage isn't done in bursts, its done by consistently hitting their target, and ruling out misses as much as possible will definitely help. Righteous Rage of Tempus probably won't work for everyone, unless your DM allows you to reskin it for another deity, but its automatic critical hit is an amazing ability for Avengers. They get a 9[W] damage attack at 29th level, if they could auto-critical with that, the damage would be insane. Weapon Focus can also help them deal more damage, as can some racial damage enhancing feats. However, there are two feats which are must-haves for an Avenger to aid in their damage dealing. The first is some kind of superior weapon proficiency. You'll be hitting with your weapon on most of your attacks, so this feat is largely a necessity if you want to be really effective. The Mordenkrad and Executioner's Axe both deal a lot of damage, especially if you pair the axe with Righteous Rage of Tempus, giving you a high crit d12 weapon that gets a surefire critical once an encounter. The Fullblade is also an excellent choice, especially if you are able to get heavy blade opportunity later on. Reach weapons are not as good on avengers as most other classes because you have to be adjacent to get your two rolls with oath of enmity anyway. The other really necessary feat is Melee Training so that you can key your opportunity attacks to wisdom instead of strength.

For more general utility, Improved Initiative makes a great feat, allowing you to get out and separate your target from its allies before they make it difficult for you. Another Channel Divinity feat, Mielikki's Fleetness, from the Forgotten Realms Player's Guide, can really help you close the distance to an enemy when heading over difficult terrain.

Both Censure of Pursuit and Censure of Retribution have a feat to improve them in heroic tier. Guaranteed Retribution gives you a +1 feat bonus to attack rolls whenever a monster other than your oath target hits you. This is definitely good, but I'm not sure its a must-have. If around eighth level you are out of obvious feats to take, than this is definitely a good option, but otherwise I'd consider skipping it. Invigorating Pursuit on the other hand, is much better. Whenever you charge your oath of enmity target, something that you will probably do often, you gain plus two to both damage and armor class until the end of your next turn. There are many Avenger attacks that you can use in place of a melee basic attack with a charge, so charging is something you will do often. Eventually you will probably charge almost every target you use Oath of Enmity on once. Its still not as urgent as Melee Training or a superior weapon proficiency, but its something to add to the roster around level six or eight.

Power Selection

I will be going over all of your options for level one and two powers. If you want something farther than that, let me know and I will do a sequel to this article in the near future. Here though, we will cover only the very beginning of your journey as a weapon of the gods.

Your first choice of powers is your at-wills, and it will be one of the toughest. Avengers at-will powers are all really good, which cannot be said for some classes. The only power you can probably eliminate straight away is either Bond of Pursuit or Bond of Retribution, depending on which build you chose for your character. You probably just won't have the ability scores to make the opposite ability really useful.

Overwhelming Strike is excellent for pulling the enemy away and making sure your Oath of Enmity is paying out in hits. Technically it is really the same power as Footwork Lure, but that was a good power for fighters and its a great power for Avengers.

The last power is Radiant Vengeance, which is a ranged 10 single target bolt that deals 1d8 plus wisdom modifier damage and grants temporary hit points equal to your wisdom modifier. This power is really great on low levels as something you fire off before closing to melee, giving yourself a shield of temporary hit points for the next round when you'll be in the fray. The downside of this power is eventually the amount of temporary hit points will be negligible, but you can always retrain out of it. It also isn't as good for a pursuing avenger, since you are more likely to use a charge and close the gap faster than sling a bolt from range in many situations. If you are a human, it is definitely a valuable addition as your third at-will, otherwise I would say that the Bond attack aligned with your build, and Overwhelming Strike are probably your best bets for being an effective Avenger.

Your next choice is going to be your level one encounter power. I'll be honest, I'm not thrilled about the options here for isolating avengers, but lets start at the top of the order with Angelic Alacrity. This power allows you to shift two squares before the attack and deals 2[W] plus wisdom modifier damage. However, if you chose Censure of Pursuit, you can instead shift one plus your dexterity modifier squares before the attack. This bonus makes the power a pretty obvious choice to me, giving you a safer alternative than charging to get to your opponent. As a pursuit avenger, this would be my number one choice.

Avenging Echo is really great if there are enemies that you absolutely know are going to move next to you and/or attack you. However, if using this ability means that your Dungeon Master is just not going to move any enemies near you, it becomes less useful. It deals just as much damage as Bond of Retribution, and if Avenging Echo would deter your DM from attacking you, it's likely that Bond of Retribution would as well. You could get some nice damage out of it, but I'd probably choose a different power.

Shared Madness is a ranged implement attack power. If you hit one target it automatically deals identical damage to a second creature you can see. This makes it a decent situational ability, but I think the opportunity to make use of it is going to be rare and it won't be as accurate since your Oath only affects melee attacks. One thing to point out though, is that this is the only attack Avengers can get that targets the Will defense, which is the most commonly low defense, until level thirteen without multiclassing.

Whirlwind Charge is the only other power that deals 2[W] damage in this bunch and it would be my first choice for isolating avengers since it allows you to use it in place of a basic melee attack during a charge, giving them a good initial strike when they head into battle. In addition, you get plus four to your defenses against any opportunity attacks you incur, which is a mixed blessing truthfully. Its good because you are safe, but it would be nice to get the extra damage from your Censure of Retribution if you are hit on the way. If you do get hit on the way to your enemy more than once with this ability, this would be an excellent round to use an action point and take advantage of the damage bonus.

As for level one daily powers, we'll start with Aspect of Might. The first thing I notice when looking at it is that its the only level one daily to hit for 3[W] damage (half on a miss). On a striker, this alone makes it a solid choice. The fact that it also gives you plus two to speed and damage as well as a plus five bonus to athletics checks until the end of the encounter makes it a very real option. If you are really enjoying the idea of instant critical hits with Righteous Rage of Tempus that I pointed out earlier, then this is probably the power for you. I am trying to keep walls of equations out of my thread because I think they're myopic and intimidating, but let's get into the numbers for just a second. If you were a level one human avenger using this daily combined with righteous rage of tempus, you would be dealing 1d12+40 damage without any magical items. This is assuming that you are using an executioner's axe and eighteen wisdom, but that's entirely possible. Even if you are not doing that particular character build, this is a good power for either build, but probably shines for pursuing Avengers a bit more thanks to the speed bonus.

Oath of the Final Duel is a great power for keeping yourself next to a particularly mobile enemy. It deals 2[W] plus wisdom modifier damage (half on a miss) and until the end of the encounter or until you end a turn more than three squares away from it, you may use a minor action at the start of your turn to teleport within three squares of it. Pursuing Avengers probably don't need this power, as they have an at-will that should function fine at keeping them within melee range, but isolating Avengers may find their prey escaping from time to time, and this power could come in handy during those situations. The fact that its movement is teleportation should definitely not be overlooked in considering your options. However, there are monsters which have reactions that allow them to move away from you after being attacked or approached. This can make for a premature end to your effect and essentially waste your daily power.

Renewing Strike is a good power to introduce a point I will make on this blog over and over again. And that point is that Dungeons and Dragons is a team game. The party is the entity that has to succeed not an individual player. A lot of optimizers don't understand this very well and instead just build really narrowly focused builds that excel at one thing and one thing only. In a party setting, these builds often fail. This daily power is a ranged attack that targets reflex and deals 2d10+wisdom modifier lightning damage, half damage on a miss, and grants you a healing surge use regardless of whether it hits or not. Most people aren't going to want to waste a daily power on a ranged attack for a primarily melee class, but this power can be useful as both a novelty retrain or to shore up the weaknesses of a group. Not every group has a perfect balance of roles, and if your group doesn't have a leader to heal, this is probably an excellent choice for you. It deals lightning damage, which is not a common enemy vulnerability, but its nice to have a way to deal multiple types of damage anyway. It also targets reflex rather than armor class. Even if your group does have a leader, it may be worth retraining into this later once you have better daily melee powers open to you just so you have a good ranged attack and a way to heal yourself.

The last level one daily power option is Temple of Light. It is a very decent power, but it has its downsides as well. It deals 2[W] plus wisdom modifier damage and creates a zone in a burst 2 centered on the target. The zone moves with the target, and anytime you hit a creature in the zone with an attack you deal an extra 1d6 radiant damage. First off, the flavor of this power is really cool, and the mechanics are neat and pretty unique especially amongst striker classes. Even if I don't think this is the most optimal power, it sure makes for some fun tactical situations. The one immediately noticeable downside is that its the only level one daily Avengers have that doesn't deal damage on a miss, but it does create the zone regardless. Even though the zone is burst 2 though, it isn't too likely that you're going to get to use its 1d6 damage bonus for attacks on other creatures since that would mean taking your attention off of your Oath of Enmity target. Regardless 1d6 damage per attack isn't a bad bonus at level one, and its also radiant damage, which will be great if you know you're going up against some undead early on since most of them are vulnerable to radiant damage.

Once you've hit level two, you can get a utility power. This is another time to make a good point about building a character. When choosing utility powers, don't forget the weight of an encounter power versus the weight of a daily power. You'll likely be using the encounter powers at least three times as often as the dailies. Take this into consideration, because getting to use cool powers more often is not only a way to make a better character overall, its also going to help you have more fun playing your character.

That being said the first power is Blessing of Vengeance, a daily power that is a free action. It is triggered when your Oath of Enmity target drops to zero hit points, and it allows you to gain temporary hit points equal to your healing surge value. It is very good, and scales pretty well even up into high levels, but the fact that it is a daily keeps me from endorsing it as the best choice.

Distracting Flare is a move action that allows you to turn invisible and then move your speed, becoming visible again afterwards. This is a good way to escape from a bad situation, or to close the gap to your intended target, but honestly there are no shortage of ways to do that as an Avenger. If you don't have one yet, or feel that you need more help doing it, then taking this power might be a good option for you. If you are building a stealthy avenger, this choice is definitely a good decision flavor-wise.

Refocus Enmity is definitely useful, because there will be times when additional enemies join the fray and you want to change targets, or you will second guess your original oath choice. However, if I am needing to change my Oath of Enmity target every single encounter, than the problem is I need to rethink my initial oath choice, not that I need this power.

Resonant Escape is my favorite utility power choice for Avengers at this level, and the reasoning is simple. Teleporting 3 squares as an immediate reaction whether I'm hit or missed by an attack, can allow me to get adjacent to my oath target on the opposite side of it from the enemies. This means I can continue getting two attack rolls without having to use my own movement on my own turn or provoke any opportunity attacks. For the pursuing Avenger this is great since they don't have as many ways to keep foes away from them as isolating avengers do.

Multiclassing

The Avenger is definitely a class that can benefit from multiclassing just as well as sticking to its own powers and paragon paths. Some possibilities include Cleric, Fighter, Rogue, and Wizard from the original Player's Handbook, Swordmage from the Forgotten Realm Player's Guide, and the Invoker, the Druid or the Shaman from Player's Handbook 2. I am going to refrain from talking at length about multiclassing in these guides because there are so many different options that I could write another article just as long as this one only about multiclass choices for the Avenger. Also, choosing which class to multiclass into goes far beyond the lower levels and that is where this is centered.

In general though, choosing a class to multiclass into should be all about what you want your character to be good at and what your party needs. If you need more heals, consider taking Initiate of the Faith so you can grab a cleric utility power, as well as use Healing Word as a daily. If you need more crowd control or are having a hard time dealing with minions, consider Wizard, Invoker, or Druid as options. If you want to sneak around and add some burst damage, Rogue is a viable option as well.

Combat Strategies

By now you have a good idea of what the Avenger class does. It singles out an enemy, separates it from the main battle, and kills it. Wash, rinse, repeat. Your choice of build determines how you do this, but there are some specific strategies I wanted to point out.

Avoid enemies who can mark you, especially if those marks do something besides a simple minus two penalty to your attacks. These types of monsters will make it a nightmare for you, either forcing you to target them, and thus not getting to roll twice for each attack, or penalizing you for continuing to pursue your oath target with attack penalties or damage. While isolating avengers have some abilities to mitigate this type of enemy, pursuing avengers are very susceptible to them, and try to avoid being pulled off your main target by them.

Twice as many attack rolls mean twice as many critical hits. If you are the type that plans your character far ahead of time you might have realized that it is hard to get into the mastery feats on an Avenger in epic tier, and thus it will be hard to get critical hits as often. However, the fact that you will be rolling twice for most attacks means that natural twenties will come up twice as often right from the start.

Opportunity attacks are better for isolating avengers than regular attacks. If you are going to get attacked by targets other than your oath target as an isolating avenger, it is better to get hit by opportunity attacks than any other kind and the reason is simple. The bonus to damage that you get from being hit lasts until the end of your next turn, if you get hit with an attack during your turn for moving, you can use the bonus in that turn, and the next one. If an enemy hits you during his own turn, you only get the bonus through one turn of your own.

Avengers do not play the same as any other strikers. If you played another melee striker before you played an Avenger, it is an entirely different ballgame. You will not deal as much damage in bursts as you would with a two weapon ranger or a rogue. You will hit often though, and get more critical hits during heroic tier. You will be more resilient than any other damage dealer in your party.

Finally, Avengers are not a great beginner class. Avengers are a strategy-heavy class and are probably not something someone first playing the game should use to learn the workings of the game. Oath of Enmity is not easy to maintain if you are unfamiliar with the rules, and all the tactical movement and micromanagement that can be required to be a really effective party member are not something that usually comes to a new player right away. If a new player wants to play an up-close damage dealer, consider suggesting a two weapon ranger instead.

And that's it for the first one of these. Feedback would be appreciated, but I prefer the constructive kind to the destructive variety. If there's something you want to see me cover in future updates, go ahead and let me know.