Playstyle & Rotation Tariq Fellowship Hero Guide

Playstyle Overview

Tariq is a melee DPS built around Swing Timers and his main resource, Fury.

Fury is a spend-and-build resource generated by your core abilities and spent on big hitters like Hammer Storm and Skull Crusher. His swing timer is the thick bar with a moving line that shows when you want to use your Heavy Strike, with the changes for Early Access Season 2 it is no longer a queued ability and is instant cast off the global cooldown. Very important to press Heavy Strike when it is in the red zone, do not press unless it is in the red zone or it incurs a 9 second cooldown and does 80% less damage.

Heavy Strike is primarily a Fury builder. With the patch changes, it is now off the global cooldown and no longer queued so whenever the swing timer is in the red you should use it between abilities.

Do not let Heavy Strike delay Hammer Storm or Skull Crusher or over cap your fury. Your priority is still to use your main damage abilities as much as possible while banking Fury for upcoming Thunder Call or Ultimate windows.

DO NOT OVERCAP FURY!

Because of this, the spec now plays as a priority system rather than a fixed rotation:

• Build Fury with Heavy Strike and generators when you’re low. Heavy Strike was changed in this last patch to no longer be a queued ability, it is now an instant cast off the global cooldown that you must press when in the red otherwise it deals 80% reduced damage and goes on a 9 second cooldown. Do not press outside of the red and incur a cooldown, same thing with Face Breaker only using it when it's procced.
• If you're not spending, absolutely maximize Wild Swing + Face Breaker, Left Hand Path adds quite a lot of dps to Tariq. Tip: If permitted and no mobs that cleave or backstab, stand in front of the mobs with the tank to get more Face Breaker procs. DO NOT USE Face Breaker WITHOUT A PROC! This is very important as without a proc it will go on cooldown, reset your swing timer, and not do the additional +400% damage.
• Spend Fury on your big hitters whenever you’re not prepping for major cooldowns. (Hammer Storm on AOE, Skull Crusher on single target as a general rule)
• Pool Fury briefly if Thunder Call or your ultimate is about to come off cooldown so you can front-load damage.

Ideally, you want to enter each pull with a Schism proc ready, allowing you to open with a juiced Hammer Storm or Skull Crusher inside your cooldowns early in the pull, setting the tempo for the rest of the pull.

Rotation (Priority)

This priority looks like this:

1. Raging Tempest - Thunder Call - Focused Wrath (Focused Wrath can be used anytime in any Thunder Call window, but ideally you will use it on a Schism procced Skull Crusher or Hammer Storm, if you have it up in your ultimate, try and wait for your expertise to stack up before using it to maximize the damage).
2. Fated Strike (Fateful Basher ability) - Press this off cd as much as possible, can hold for a few seconds if you have a cooldown coming up so you can maximize the CDR with your damage amps. Each Fated Strike usage gives +10 Spirit when using Visions of Grandeur, great for increasing the number of Ults you can get in.
3. Leap Smash - Try to line it up with your cooldown windows and use two during each window with Fateful Basher
4. Hammer Storm or Skull Crusher depending on AoE or single target (or when trying to fish Schism)
5. Chain Lightning - Has less of a priority when running Schism build, more of a priority when running Lightning Build
6. Heavy Strike + Face Breaker - Face Breaker is off GCD, I am pressing the button after every Heavy Strike and Wild Swing if it's up.
7. Wild Swing + Face Breaker - When not spending, maximize as many Wild Swing Face Breaker as possible as Left Hand Path does a LOT of damage. Especially after pre season 2 patch.
8. Culling Strike (Putting Culling Strike at the bottom since it's only useable at 30% and really only great to press in single target, but you can throw some in in AOE on the priority mob if you wish)

You have a handful of ways to generate Fury, but only a select few finishers to use what you build. These finishers include Hammer Storm, Skull Crusher and Culling Strike. Hammer Storm can be considered your multi target spender, Skull Crusher single target, and Culling Strike is a single target execute type ability for when your target is below 30% health. Culling Strike is not worth using when multiple targets are present unless you’re wanting to focus down a priority mob.

One thing to be aware of is taking advantage of your off global cooldown abilities and using them as much as possible. (Left Hand Path, Face Breaker, Heavy Strike)

Outside of your rotational abilities, we have a handful of cooldowns and interactions worth noting. Thunder Call empowers your spenders to deal Lightning damage, Focused Wrath is a buff to 2 of our spenders, making them deal more damage and have a reduced fury cost. This should be used on cooldown.

Then we have Tariq’s ultimate: Raging Tempest. Raging Tempest doesn’t change the way we play but it further empowers our Thunder Call for its duration, dealing more damage and increasing expertise by 1% stacking up to 20 times. You also gain 30% haste for 20 seconds.

To talk about Leap Smash and the importance of it a bit more, you must hit the mobs with the damage in order for them to take the 15% increased damage from your legendary, so absolutely make sure to hit as many mobs with it as possible, and use Leap Smash as much as possible ensuring you have it in your cooldowns at least once per cooldown or twice when using fated strike.

Schism Rotation

The Schism priority looks like this:

1. Thunder Call
2. Fated Strike (from Fateful BasherBasher)
3. Leap Smash
4. Chain Lightning (if you need the Fury, do not use if you are capped)
5. Hammer Storm (with Schism proc - combine with Leap Smash if using legendary cloak)
6. Face Breaker
7. Heavy Strike when you need the Fury and it lines up well with your swing when already wild swinging and face breaking.
8. Wild Swing + Face Breaker
9. Skull Crusher to fish.

It is now very important to utilize the 3 seconds of +15% increased damage from Leap Smash with your legendary cloak, it was reduced from 20% increased damage for 5 seconds to 15% increased damage for 3 seconds, so I believe using fated strike before leaping is the right play to hopefully get two Hammer Storm's in or close to two.

The main idea behind the Schism build is to fish for Hammer Storm Schism procs by using Skull Crusher as priority in AoE. It takes a while of playing Schism to feel the way it works, there's no great way to explain when to skull crusher in aoe to get a hammer storm proc. It is important to also make use of every Face Breaker proc where possible to maximize Fury generation from it and damage from Left Hand Path. Do not over use Skull Crusher trying to fish, you will lose damage overall. A good tip for Schism build that's been working for me is in the first pull I just play it as usual, spending on Hammer Storm basically until you get a Skull Crusher Schism, and just not spending that Skull Crusher Schism for a while until you can somewhat know that pressing that empowered Skull Crusher will give you a Schism Hammer Storm. Do your best to go into every new pull with a Thunder Call and Schism ready to go, ESPECIALLY for your ult window this is very important.

Chain Lightning usage also becomes significantly less important with this build, but Heavy Strike becomes more significant, so I would recommend this build if you're comfortable with the swing timer.

Example Openers

Single-Target Opener

In single target, your standard opener (with all cooldowns available) looks like this:

Opener:

1. Heavy Strike as you reach the mob.
2. Fated Strike (from Fateful Basher)
3. Raging Tempest
4. Leap Smash
5. Chain Lightning or Skull Crusher (if you’re already full Fury)
6. Thunder Call after Raging Tempest ends
7. Heavy Strike when in the red in between abilities
8. Always Wild Swing + Face Breaker proc combos as much as possible outside of your fury spending abilities.
9. Culling Strike when enemy is below 30% and you ideally have 20 extra fury to increase the damage by up to 400%

After that:

• Weave Leap Smash on cooldown with Chain Lightning and Skull Crusher.
• Use your second Fated Strike when the first CDR buff falls off.
  • You get this second use because your Ultimate resets your Weapon Ability thanks to Visions of Grandeur.
• Continue building and spending Fury, pressing Schism procs as they appear.

Focused Wrath usage:

• Use Focused Wrath toward the end of your Ultimate to maximize damage, since it gives you Expertise.
• You can use Focused Wrath early with a guaranteed Schism Hammer Storm if you want, but the ideal case is using Focused Wrath + Schism proc later in the Ultimate for bigger value.

Schism Hammer Storm on bosses:

• Schism Hammer Storm is still worth pressing on bosses, especially if:
  • The boss has adds that need to die quickly, or
  • You need extra cleave without wasting damage.

AoE Opener

In AoE, the opener is very similar, you just swap Skull Crusher for Hammer Storm:

Opener:

1. Heavy Strike as you reach the pack.
2. Fated Strike (from Fateful Basher)
3. Raging Tempest
4. Leap Smash
5. Chain Lightning or Hammer Storm (if you’re already full Fury)
6. Thunder Call after Raging Tempest
7. Heavy Strike when in the red bar window
8. Wild Swing + Face Breaker proc combo's as much as possible

Then:

• Weave Leap Smash on cooldown with Chain Lightning and Hammer Storm.
• Build and spend Fury normally, and use Schism Hammer Storm when you successfully fish a proc with Skull Crusher on priority targets.

Schism Behavior & Tips

From testing, Schism often doesn’t proc in the first ~35–50 seconds of a Dungeon, sometimes you’ll see one proc at the end of your first Thunder Call, but it’s mostly RNG.

After the first pull, it tends to line up closer to its 3.2 PPM expectation. You’ll need to “feel out” when to fish with Skull Crusher. There’s no fixed rule, but a great habit is to try to fish a Schism Hammer Storm at the end of every pull when only 1–2 mobs are left. That way, you go into the next pull with a strong Schism Hammer Storm ready.

Starting with Heavy Strike

You open every pull with Heavy Strike because your weapon is always ready to swing as you run into a new pack. Getting that first Heavy Strike out sets your swing timer and Fury generation up cleanly before you start dumping cooldowns.

Openers Without Ultimate

When your Ultimate isn’t available, the structure is almost identical:

1. Heavy Strike
2. Thunder Call
3. Leap Smash
4. Spenders
5. Chain Lightning if you need rage
6. Heavy Strike in the red
7. Wild Swing + Face Breaker proc combo's as much as possible

Use Fated Strike before Leap Smash, then go straight into Hammer Storm and your normal rotation, Leap Smashing off cd.

The main difference is that you won’t get the extra Fated Strike usage from the Ult reset, so you just treat Fated Strike as a normal CDR + damage button and keep your usual build, spend, fish Schism flow.

Interface Options

One of the most basic, but important things you can do in Fellowship is mark specific targets or locations. In the Input Settings you will notice you have the ability to keybind “Mark Unit” and “Mark location”. These can be exceptionally useful for designating targets to kill or important stack points on bosses. I use mouseover mark for my kick as its easier to just mouse over a mob and mark it. Also I recommend using the "quick cast" option under targeting mode so you can just press your Leap Smash button over your mouse cursor to instantly Leap Smash and not have to press the button and then click to Leap Smash. Have a good keybind for setting your interrupt target, triggering interrupt target, and your regular kick.

Buffs and Debuffs

Fellowship has now made it way easier to keep track of your buffs and your debuffs, having an option for "important hero buffs" "hero buffs" and "hero debuffs" place these in spots that work best for you.

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