Presentation
I’ve been playing this game for a long time, very close to 1 year already. Almost in every game I’ve played I have always shared a guide about one or two classes but in this game I just can’t stop playing the GWF because is the class that I’ve always wanted to play: It’s a very strong warrior, high damage, high critical chance, you really feel like if you are playing some kind of berserker warrior, you get hurt and you get stronger or the more you attack stronger you become, it’s awesome.

The class
The Great Weapon Fighter is a class that depends a lot in his equipment and the correct distribution of the stats, don’t forget that there’s something called Diminishing Return the more you invest in a stat, less you will gain and we have to keep an eye on that always, in the very end game, even a 1% makes a huge difference.
You can choose among 3 different paths: Instigator (should be reworked sooner or later) Destroyer (Damage dealer) and Sentinel (Some kind of two-handed sword tank that doesn’t really make sense in PvE or in proper words isn’t optimal).
When you are playing a GWF, a very important thing is that you have to focus on your mechanics, you have to work a lot for your DPS, our class features and paragon feats increase a lot our damage but we have to attack, we need: to be fast, to keep the pace of the whole party, to mantain our stacks/buffs as much as possible, ready for every fight, specially clearing trash, so if you are a lazy player you won’t see good results with your character.

The High Crit build
Previous guides were based in a GWF focused on Power/STR which were very nice, every hit deal much more damage but have lower critical chance, resulting in a screen full of “strong” yellow hits and sometimes you were able to see some orange hits (critical strikes), the build that I would like to share now is based in a very high critical % chance plus a very high critical severity, our goal is to reach above 51% total critical chance (including self-buffs) which means that we would have more hits taking benefit of the critical severity and critical stat becomes more important than power while below that number, power is more important because most of our hits are going to be normal ones.
Race
The most optimal choice is the Half-Orc = 2 STR / 2 DEX + 5% Critical Severity, it’s perfect. Another good option: Human, less STR but 1% more chance crit and more defense thanks to the extra points. Dragoborn isn’t a good choice due to how the Power stat behaves at high level, please refer to this amazing guide made by @theosymphany for further details: Crit, Power and DPS guide. It’s a total must-read if you consider yourself a serious gamer in Neverwinter.
Starting rolls
18 STR – 18 DEX – 12 CON, including racial +2 STR + 2DEX, Then each 10 lvl we will add points to STR-DEX. Our priority is DEX as much as possible. Low CON means low HP and more need of Armor Penetration stat but we can solve this.
Paragon: What should I choose Swordmaster or Iron Vanguard?
Swordmaster is stronger in DPS than Iron Vanguard, thanks to the Weapon Master’s Strike and Crescendo have higher base damage than Indomitable Strike. IV used to be good when we had frontline surge in our encounters but it got nerfed + the high CD made it a not very good one, threating rush is a good At-will, the Mark will grant you with 20% more damage to you and 8% to your allies, good for single target fights but not for clearing trash.
One thing to consider is that Weapon Master’s Strike buff our at-wills for 30% damage including itself (after the first hit), when WMS is buffed deals the same damage than Wicked Strike so there’s not really difference between these skills, the good part is if you use WMS to buff the other at-wills you will deal higher damage, buffing wicked strike for clearing or buffing Sure Strike for even higher single target damage. Either using Threatening Rush or Weapon Master’s Strike in order to boost your At-Wills (20% and 30% respectively) works great but WMS is also an AoE attack + you can also apply mark with Daring Shout which is a very useful encounter, being IV means you are 30% below Swordmaster regarding to the damage of the At-Wills. It is correct that the mark also affects the damage done by every skill, not only at-wills, but these are the main source of our damage not the encounters nor the dailies, that’s why I’m more focused in mentioning the effect on them.
Powers
Basically, you will need the following:
PvE Dungeon/Skirmish where single target spec is required:
  • Class features: Destroyer + Weapon Master.
  • Encounters: Indomitable Battle Strike + Flourish + Restoring Strike.
  • Daily: Crescendo – Spinning Strike.
PvE Dungeon/Skirmish with tons of mob (like CN):
  • Class features: Destroyer + Steel Blitz.
  • Encounters: Indomitable Battle Strike + Mighty leap, then here comes a choice: you can either use Daring Shout for building determination ASAP + extra damage resistance + apply mark to the enemies which will increase the overall damage of the group, specially if there’s no a GF but you can also change to Restoring Strike if you feel squishy otherwise Not so Fast is another good option for DPS.
  • Daily: Crescendo – Spinning Strike.
Mechanics 
One of the most important things that you have to master when you play with the GWF class: the mechanic, which I refer to the way how you play the character under specific situations, this class is not really easy to play in PvE, pushing 2 or 3 buttons won’t make you Top DPS and whoever says the contrary means poor knowledge about the class or clearly bad performance.
  • We have very slow at-wills unless we are in Unstoppable, so we have to use only our encounters/dailies when we don’t have unstoppable ready yet and spam our At-wills as soon as we can press the TAB button and use Indomitable Battle Strike as finisher when there’s only 1 or 2 seconds before it’s over.
  • Always keep an eye in the mob with lower HP and aim your IBS to him, this encounter will help us to get tons of Action Points if you use it properly, it should be always ready everytime you charge against a new pack of mobs.
  • Use Weapon Master’s Strike properly, it buffs a lot your Sure Strike, do as follows: Considering that your TAB is ready, press it and inmediately press WMS once then follow up spamming Sure Strike.
  • If you are playing with a CW (that should be using Arcane Singularity often) prepare to use your Spinning Strike in the exact point where the mob are being gathered, it is better if you use it before they land because they will spread out after that.
  • Mighty Leap can save your life: first it doesn’t have a max of targets, you can avoid damage so if you are against a group of adds, you can recover tons of HP thanks to the life steal stat, use it with strategy, not just like a damage dealer encounter.
  • In the same idea than Mighty Leap, Restoring Strike have the same function, don’t use it as soon as you can, learn the attacks of your enemies, sometimes we will get hit for a lot of damage and we need to recover our HP to full in less than a second like when we’re tanking the final boss in The Shores of Tuern or the Beholder, you receive the damage then strike back with Restoring Strike, full HP again, remember you are useless as DPSer if you are dead.
  • There are many more, remember just don’t smash buttons, be smart and you will have success, one single encounter can make a difference for your group and you.
Stats points
  • Our main stat will be critical Strike up to 3.5k for 18%, that’s like the hard cap, after it you need 1k more for an extra 2%.
  • 2nd more important stat is Life Steal, try to have anything between 600 and 1k.
  • Recovery between 1.4k and 1.6k, thanks to the Avatar of War bonus set “Onslaught”, we receive an extra 1,350 taking us up to 3k recovery which is more than enough.
  • Our CON is low (14) and we receive only 4% resistance ignored, we will need to get our Armor Penetration up to 1.8k – 2k, depends i.e if you use potions of heroism, just aim for a max of 24% resistance ignored.
  • Combat Advantage bonus up to 8.8% = Icewind Dale feat + Kessell’s Spheres+Lantern of Revelation (250+450+450 = 1150).
  • Defense between 2.4k and 2.7k.
  • Regen is useless for PvE.
  • Run speed bonus is a very nice one, you will run fast when you sprint and helps you to stay in front marking the pace of the group.
  • Power is the dump stat, just throw in everything there if you don’t need anything else.

Offensive slots: Radiant enchantment.
Defensive slots: Azure enchantment.
Utility slots: Dark enchantment.
Note: you might need to switch radiants in order to get the other stats that you need or even an azure for a dark enchantment for extra life steal, do not hesitate, power is not so good as you think it is.
Gear
  • Set is Avatar of War T2, the set bonus will give you 1350 power and recovery, it’s the best set and we don’t really have another good one.
  • Belt: Twined Rope of Dexterity for extra dex = more crit %.
  • Main hand: Golden Dragon’s Ferocity: boost our main at-will Sure Strike and grant us extra crit stat. Meanwhile, if you can’t get this one, Corrupted Black Ice Great Hammer is an excellent choice.
  • Artifacts: Sigil of the Devoted Cleric, our dailies can deal much more damage than any other artifact. Kessell’s Spheres have very good stats: Power/ArPen/CA. You can use a lantern if you are unable to get one. Lantern of Revelation is also very useful for extra damage, unfortunately, Combat Advantage Stat have a very hard diminishing return after 700 points (boon+450 with the first artifact) 450 extra points represents only 1.6% more but still, it’s a good option if we want to increase our DPS and we don’t need any other stat. I’m keeping Thayan Book of the Dead, it’s a very good choice instead of the lantern but a bit more expensive.
  • Accesories: you can work with them, there’s not really jewelry that should be a must, try to get get the stats that you need accordingly. I’m using Ring of Pain are a very good option.
  • Weapon and Armor enchantments: Vorpal is a must for this build, if you don’t die you can use a Fireburst enchantment in your armor, it’s around 2% of your total damage, it can crit and is affected by flank too so there’s a chance to get interesting numbers, I’ve seen up to 30k in a Dragon i.e or 8k-10k in many mobs around you. However, if you are squishy keep using the Soulforged, meh.