Draw Steel Fury Guide

Introduction

The Fury channels the primordial energy that underlies the Timescape into their martial prowess. This aspect of chaos manifests as their Ferocity, and the Primordial Aspect that shapes many of the features they will gain as they progress.

Beyond just the Primordial Aspect, Stormwight Fury's in particular can branch out into separate builds based on the animal form they choose as each encourages you to be good at different things

For each choice I've assigned a star rating based on how powerful I think the option is and how often it will be useful, as well as a short explanation.

Base Features

The heroic resource Ferocity fuels the Fury's abilities, and how you gain more of it is centred around taking damage. As a melee focused character it shouldn't be a problem taking damage every round, and there are ways to damage yourself just in case. Becoming winded for your first 1d3 bonus Ferocity is basically guaranteed in any given combat, while becoming dying is quite a lot riskier.

Because of how centred around rolling d3's Ferocity is, the amount you can expect to have available for a given combat is quite variable. One of the main mechanics for the Fury is collecting enough Ferocity to keep your "Growing Ferocity" benefits active until the combat nears its end, which might require you to skip out on using some heroic abilities if you roll too low.

Instead of their own maneuver, the Fury gains features to improve the Knockback or Grab maneuvers that everyone has access to. This is unfortunate for most of the Stormwight Aspect kits which give fewer benefits to the Knockback maneuver than other Aspects, and the maneuver to shapeshift into an animal doesn't do anything extra to make up for it.

Stormwight Kits

The Stormwight has access to fewer kits than the other Aspects, but they are more significant for determining your build and how the character plays. The signature ability granted by the kit can trigger the surge gain, but any other abilities that also do so will automatically be slightly better.

The Berserker and Reaver Aspects have much more basic Growing Ferocity tables focused on forced movement, so won't be analysed.

Boren

Aspect Benefits ★★☆☆☆ Becoming size 2 is technically helpful for using Big Versus Little rules to add push distance, but being a Berserker or Reaver does this much better. Choosing to pull creatures instead of pushing can miss out on a lot of damage, and with only an average might potency check you're not even likely to grab the target if it does happen.

Kit Bonuses ★★★☆☆ Basically the Mountain kit, which is one of the better ones, but with a less interesting signature ability. "Bear Claws" is almost exactly the same as "Impaled!", just able to target any size target. I think it's normally better to grab as your maneuver to trigger both of the surge gain options you have in one turn, so there's an unfortunate amount of redundancy here. Not gaining a speed bonus as a completely melee character can leave you in tricky situations.

Growing Ferocity ★★★☆☆ Grabbing extra targets isn't very useful, but 2 surges a round is nice. The 10th level benefit makes all of your potencies automatic against any creature you've grabbed which is amazing, but you can just use a respite to switch to Boren if that ever becomes important.

Overall ★★★☆☆ Grabbed isn't a great condition on its own, and I think there are better ways to build a Grab focused Fury than being a Boren.

Corven

Aspect Benefits ★★★★★ Immunity to fall damage is an amazing benefit, and the free hide maneuver is also a bit of automatic value if you can somehow break line of sight sufficiently. Flight has a lot of utility both in and out of combat.

Kit Bonuses ★★★★☆ The stamina bonus is pretty unfortunate, but such a large speed bonus is great to make sure you can always be where you need to be. Wing Buffet is a unique signature ability that is great for small groups and lets you shift into better position, but the 3 Ferocity ability "Back!" could serve a similar purpose.

Growing Ferocity ★★☆☆☆ Getting such a large disengage is hilarious, but not often useful. There aren't a lot of abilities that shift so the surge gain can be hard to trigger. The 10th level potency resistance is fine but won't be enough to make your lower characteristics resist potencies on its own.

Overall ★★★★☆ Flight is a good enough bonus to take this kit just on its own, especially once you reach level 4 and can fight while flying.

Raden

Aspect Benefits ★★★☆☆ Similar but compares poorly to the Corven benefits. Climbing and ignoring difficult terrain is worse than just flying.

Kit Bonuses ★★★☆☆ "Driving Pounce" is like "Fancy Footwork" from the Swashbuckler kit, just with slightly less damage and more versatility in how you're allowed to shift. Same as the Corven kit but with a worse signature ability.

Growing Ferocity ★★☆☆☆ Exactly the same as the Corven.

Overall ★★☆☆☆ There is very little reason to take this over the Corven kit.

Vuken

Aspect Benefits ★★★★☆ Size 1L is enough to start outsizing a lot more enemies, and the speed bonus paired with ignoring difficult terrain will give plenty of mobility. The Aid Attack bonus is phrased strangely, because once you knock the enemy back, they're then too far away to be a valid target. Assuming the bonus works as intended it's a fine addition.

Kit Bonuses ★★★★★ The closest comparison for the bonuses the Vuken gets is the Dual Wielder kit. For some reason Vuken get 3 more stamina than the baseline rate, and it's a great mix of speed and stamina to be the mobile melee character Fury's are meant to be.
The signature ability is also amazing. Prone is a fine condition to be added onto an already good amount of damage, and Agility is an easier potency to target than Might is.

Growing Ferocity ★★★★☆ Adding an extra target to a Knockback is less consistently useful than adding extra distance but is still a great upgrade when you can make use of it. The surge gain is also easy to achieve.

Overall ★★★★★ Less utility than some of the other kits, but consistently the strongest. It's reasonable to become a Stormwight just for access to this kit, as +9 stamina, +4 speed, and one of the best signature abilities is a lot of benefits over the other options.

Ancestries & (other) Kits

I'm not going to run through every option you can take for these categories, just point out any that are interesting for the Fury for some specific reason.

There are so many viable ways to build your character that it's hard to give an objective star rating to these options, so most of these get a high rating for being any good at all.

Ancestries

Devil ★★★★★ The triggered action is good for the Stormwight to give them a better option, and flight is necessary if you want to try a fall damage build. The increase to speed or the Barbed Tail are both very relevant for the melee centric Fury.

Dragon Knight ★★★★☆ Can also take Wings, but the triggered action isn't substantially better than what the Stormwight gets. The Fury really lacks ranged options so suffers more from conditions such as frightened, restrained, or slowed than other classes. "Remember Your Oath" can help your luck in not suffering from these conditions for too long.

Hakaan ★★★★★ Helps the Fury get maximum use out of the Knockback maneuver that will often be their best option, and there are plenty of other force movement options that it also helps. Less useful for Boren or Vuken Stormwight who should be spending most of their time in their size 2 or 1L animal form anyway.

Human ★★★★☆ Being able to end the frightened or slowed condition is helpful to make sure you can get in melee where you need to be, and the triggered action is a good option as long as you're not a Reaver who already gets a better option.

Memonek ★★★★☆ Speed 7 is a great baseline for making sure you can reach melee, and starting with a surge paired with Growing Ferocity means you can swiftly afford a potency increase.

Orc ★★★★☆ There's something interesting you can do with Relentless if you let yourself become dying so you can claim the bonus Ferocity, and then come out of dying safely by free striking a nearby minion down.

Time Raider ★★★★★ In group combats "Four-Armed Martial Arts" doubles the effectiveness of your main maneuver as long as you can find a good position for knocking people around. Pretty effective considering how far Berserkers and Reavers can Knockback.

Kits

Battlemind ★★★★☆ The signature ability is good for setting up a Knockback, but generally I'd prefer a little more stamina at level 1, and the 2nd level features make the speed bonus less important. The Fury signature abilities are comparably useful anyway.

Dual Wielder ★★★★★ The best mix of stamina and speed for level 1 to make sure you can close to melee and then survive being there. Once you get your mobility feature at level 2 it's good to switch to something more stamina focused.

Mountain ★★★★☆ If you're not taking any of the better 5 Ferocity abilities, "Make Peace With Your God!" can make sure you get a tier 3 result for the damage bonus. The signature ability is good damage, but the Fury signature abilities are comparably strong.

Shining Armor ★★★★★ Having the maximum stamina bonus available is good for the risky playstyle that the Fury encourages, and taunting the enemy encourages them to give you your bonus Ferocity.

Sword and Board ★★★★☆ The Fury signature ability "To the Death!" is generally better to attack minions or finish off enemies, so the Sword and Board kit pairs well as its signature ability could apply a condition to sturdier enemies.

Primordial Aspect

Each Aspect gives a different triggered action, features at 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 8th level, as well as your choice between two heroic abilities at 2nd, 6th, and 9th level. The Growing Ferocity benefits change between the Aspects as well, but I've talked about most of them under Stormwight Kits and the Berserker/Reaver benefits differ in function very little.

Berserker

Triggered Action - Lines of Force ★★★★☆ Amazing if you can redirect incoming forced movement back into an enemy, but still good if you're just using it as a way to boost your own plentiful push abilities.

1st Level Feature - Primordial Strength ★★★☆☆ Between Knockback and your main action, it's possible to get the damage bonus twice a turn which is an okay bonus. 

2nd Level Feature - Unstoppable Force ★★★★☆ Effectively doubles your speed in a lot of situations. Not having to worry as much about mobility lets you take better kits.

2nd Level Heroic Ability - Special Delivery ★★☆☆☆ Spending 5 Ferocity on a free strike+ isn't very good, but helping your ally into position can be helpful and it's only a maneuver.

2nd Level Heroic Ability - Wrecking Ball ★★☆☆☆ This is somehow an even less efficient use of Ferocity than your other option. It gets some points for having out of combat applications, or if you really want to get speed out of your maneuver as with fall damage builds or for certain combat objectives.

3rd Level Feature - Immovable Object ★★★★☆ If nothing else the stability increase is welcome, but the effective size increase is also good for your forced movement abilities, or dragging grabbed creatures around at full speed, potentially straight up into the air if you have a fly speed.

5th Level Feature - Bounder ★★★☆☆ Extra jump distance can help with troublesome terrain features, and the fall damage reduction is relevant for enemies with vertical forced movement.

6th Level Heroic Ability - Avalanche Impact ★★☆☆☆ Good for travelling far distances quickly, but "Wrecking Ball" does so for cheaper, and there's better things to spend Ferocity on than an expensive "Back!" ability.

6th Level Heroic Ability - Force of Storms ★★☆☆☆ The intended use here is to start damaging a stronger enemy while sending it into a group of minions as a little aoe. The problem is that the area damage is going to be too small and the single target damage is just average.

8th Level Feature - Strongest There Is ★★★★☆ Together with your Growing Ferocity benefits this makes Knockback push at least 9 squares, and being really good at Might skills is useful.

9th Level Heroic Ability - Death Comes for You All! ★★★☆☆ Pretty good as a top end area ability, though pushing enemies through objects is sometimes pretty hard to achieve. "Relentless Death" is a lot better for clearing out minions, but you might not have taken it, and this usually does the job.

9th Level Heroic Ability - Primordial Vortex ★☆☆☆☆ Loses so much damage compared to the other option that the "easier" way to deal extra damage with forced movement is entirely eaten up by the egregiously low damage.

Overall ★★★☆☆ The heroic ability options the Berserker gets are all very unfortunate, but it's fine at its Knockback focused build, or it can use "Immovable Object" and "Wrecking Ball" with a flying speed to carry even large enemies very high into the sky for a fall damage build.

Reaver

Triggered Action - Unearthly Reflexes ★★★★☆ Damage reduction is always good, and if you can prevent a condition even more so. The shift is usually pretty minor.

1st Level Feature - Primordial Cunning ★★★★☆ Immunity to surprise is good to make sure your team gets a chance to go first, and slide is a good step up in usefulness from push.

2nd Level Feature - Inescapable Wrath ★★★★☆ More speed means you're less reliant on kits to make sure you have enough mobility. If you have a way to fly there's a funny grab-based build where you stack as much speed as possible and use the Charge action to take an enemy as high as possible before dropping them.

2nd Level Heroic Ability - Death... Death! ★★★★☆ This would be an easy 5-star ability in any other Aspect as a good amount of damage that cripples an enemy, but "Phalanx-Breaker" doesn't do much less damage and dazes 3 targets at once so is just better in a lot of situations.

2nd Level Heroic Ability - Phalanx-Breaker ★★★★★ Dazed is the best condition to apply to an enemy, and this can make a lot of scary encounters much more manageable.

3rd Level Feature - See Through Their Tricks ★★★☆☆ Depends how often these activities come up in your campaign, but it does make you very good at them.

5th Level Feature - Unfettered ★★★☆☆ Restrained is a bad condition to suffer from as a melee character, but it's not the only one, and most ways to resist the restrained condition will be Might or Agility, so this really doesn't save you from much.

6th Level Heroic Ability - Death Strike ★☆☆☆☆ Too hard to make even okay use of. Copying a signature ability is far too low value, and to copy a decent enough ability will require an unreasonably large amount of Ferocity. Apart from "To the Uttermost End" most abilities are quite wasteful to spend this much effort copying from a dead enemy.

6th Level Heroic Ability - Seek and Destroy ★☆☆☆☆ Really similar to the Censor ability "Censored", which is also a terrible instant kill ability that only works if it perfectly causes the enemy to become winded. This is even worse as it costs more, and is compared to the infinitely better ability "You Are Already Dead".

8th Level Feature - A Step Ahead ★★★☆☆ It can be nice tactically to disengage such a long distance, and being really good at Agility skills is useful.

9th Level Heroic Ability - Primordial Bane ★★★★☆ If you took "Elemental Ferocity" this is a good way to take advantage of it if you can gain enough Ferocity to use both. The damage weakness not being reliant on a potency means it's a great way to set up for your allies if they have a particular element they're fond of.

9th Level Heroic Ability - Shower of Blood ★★★★☆ This is a pretty cool area disruption ability, some triggered actions are very annoying to deal with, and making potency abilities easier to land is always helpful. A great ability to lead off the round with.

Overall ★★★★★ The early features of this Aspect are the most consistently powerful, and either of the 2nd level heroic abilities are amazing. The 6th level abilities aren't useful in most contexts, but the other Aspects don't get much better, and it has the best set of 9th level abilities to make up for it.

Stormwight

Triggered Action - Furious Change ★★★☆☆ As a triggered action it's not great, other triggered actions are much better at reducing damage. It's nice to not have to waste a maneuver switching forms, but it would be good to get another triggered action that is less minor.

1st Level Feature - Relentless Hunter ★★☆☆☆ An edge on a skill is fine if you can use it for montage tests, but it's really not much of a bonus.

2nd Level Feature - Tooth and Claw ★★★☆☆ It's easy to get this bonus damage, but it's pretty minor. It'll occasionally kill an extra minion if somehow no one had time to use an aoe on them.

2nd Level Heroic Ability - Apex Predator ★★☆☆☆ Pretty low damage just to apply the slowed condition. The extra effects are interesting but won't be useful very often.

2nd Level Heroic Ability - Visceral Roar ★★★★☆ The only thing preventing this being a 5-star ability is the Might potency being a difficult one to target. A 2-burst dazed applying ability is really good.

3rd Level Feature - Nature's Knight ★★★☆☆ If animals and elementals are an important part of your campaign this is good, but most of the time it will be pretty minor.

5th Level Feature - Stormborn ★★★☆☆ The Blessing has some utility, and being immune to weather conditions can help occasionally. Nothing special overall.

6th Level Heroic Ability - Pounce ★★★☆☆ Okay damage, but not a great effect. The extra damage happening at the start of your turn gives them time to break out and it isn't a large bonus anyway. I don't think it's that impressive even for Boren, but it's surprisingly useable for Corven to trigger their surge gain and also start to shift into the air for a fall damage build.

6th Level Heroic Ability - Riders on the Storm ★★★☆☆ Pretty expensive, but a teamwide flight ability can be very helpful in or out of combat, and the damage isn't terrible for dealing with minions or just as a value over time option.

8th Level Feature - Menagerie ★★☆☆☆ Kits aren't important enough that changing them easily is somehow a strong benefit, and being really good at specifically tracking is pretty niche.

9th Level Heroic Ability - Death Rattle ★★☆☆☆ Theoretically it's a fine ability to deal with a crowd of minions and also finish off an elite, but it's quite a strange situation to be in. Normally it's much better for somebody to aoe down the minions early, and the Fury has much better ways to do both of the things this ability does.

9th Level Heroic Ability - Deluge ★★☆☆☆ The Fury doesn't really need a ranged area ability, and Deluge doesn't do enough damage to consistently take out minion groups. Other classes do this better, and this ability doesn't come with anything special.

Overall ★★★☆☆ Most of the Stormwight is pretty unfortunate. The features are the least useful, and the Reaver has better abilities. The best part of this Aspect is the Vuken kit, but that's not really enough to make up for the weak features.

Ability Choices

Signature Abilities

Brutal Slam ★★★★☆ Only a little higher than the standard damage of signature abilities, the Sword and Board kit does basically the same thing but with the chance of applying a condition. It's a good default choice, especially for the Stormwight Aspect which might be getting something pretty situational out of their kit. The Fury has a lot of forced movement so you might not want to double dip at being bad against enemies with high stability.

Hit and Run ★★☆☆☆ This is the kiting ability of the Fury, but it only works for this purpose with a tier 3 result. Generally unimpressive even when it does what it intends to.

Impaled! ★★★☆☆ Grabbing an enemy can force them to focus on you for generating Ferocity or protecting allies. The damage is kind of low and Might is a hard potency to target. I think a grab focused build is normally better off just using the Grab maneuver.

To the Death! ★★★★★ Being able to bank 2 surges helps set up conditions later and is one of the best things you can do on low Ferocity turns. The opportunity attack is sometimes a good thing if you don't think you'll be damaged otherwise, or the downside can be ignored by targeting a minion or anyone that currently has a bane on strikes against you.

3-Ferocity Ability

Back! ★★★★☆ Hitting 2 enemies with this is already a lot of damage, and you should be able to hit more in larger combats. Interesting for the Boren Stormwight who can become size 2 to change the shape of the burst.

Out of the Way! ★★☆☆☆ Not much better than "Brutal Slam" but costs 3 Ferocity. Your own stamina is more valuable than enemy stamina most of the time so making a direct trade like this is rough.

Tide of Death ★★☆☆☆ Has the same problem of trading stamina unfavorably, but this time tacked onto a strange, low damage area ability. Could be interesting for grab builds, but using the Charge action is better and easier for repositioning.

Your Entrails Are Your Extrails! ★★★★☆ Bleeding an enemy makes for good single target damage, and you have good surge gain to make it more likely that it lands. Amazing if any of your allies have applied damage weakness.

5-Ferocity Ability

Blood for Blood! ★★★★☆ I prefer "Your Entrails Are Your Extrails!" as a cheaper option with most of the effectiveness, but this is a fine choice depending on the other abilities you want, definitely not both.

Make Peace With Your God! ★★★☆☆ Quite expensive just to guarantee a tier 3 result but can be nice to make sure an ability works. I think if you have enough Ferocity around to make good use of this then "To the Uttermost End" will be much better.

Thunder Roar ★★★★☆ Useful in different situations than "Back!" but it's a similar high damage area ability. It's usually good to take one of them to have a strong aoe option.

To the Uttermost End ★★★★★ This is an amazing way to dump a lot of Ferocity to finish off a combat. 5 extra Ferocity while winded deals 17.5 damage on average which is already a good rate for a bonus that doesn't cost any actions. Makes it less of a worry "wasting" Ferocity by keeping it banked for Growing Ferocity benefits, and frees up your build to take more situational abilities as you'll always have an action efficient way to spend lots of Ferocity.

7-Ferocity Ability

Demon Unleashed ★★☆☆☆ Only applying a bane to incoming attacks from creatures adjacent to you isn't great, and they might just decide to attack someone else instead which would make this ability do approximately nothing.

Face the Storm! ★★★☆☆ The extra damage takes a while to pay off the high Ferocity cost. The potency increase is nice but some of the abilities that would most benefit from it aren't strikes, and the use of this ability at all is reliant on just an average potency.

Steelbreaker ★★★☆☆ 20 temporary stamina is still a relevant amount for preserving recoveries at this level, but will swiftly be outpaced by enemy damage, and it's often better to spend Ferocity to end the encounter quicker instead.

You Are Already Dead ★★★★★ Awful against leaders or solo enemies, but elites can reach at least 80 stamina even in the 1st echelon, meaning this ability can deal an insane amount of damage for the low cost of them hanging around for another turn that they almost certainly would have had enough health to reach anyway.

9-Ferocity Ability

Debilitating Strike ★★☆☆☆ The damage is fine, but slowed isn't a great condition, and the extra damage from forced movement is only helpful if there isn't anything to push the enemy into.

My Turn! ★★★★☆ This isn't a great amount of damage, but it doesn't require any actions and is a decent panic button to get you out of dying easily.

Rebounding Storm ★★★★☆ The Berserker Aspect likes pushing creatures into multiple objects a turn, while the Reaver Aspect can set up the bouncing easier by turning the push into a slide. In any case this deals good area damage in crowded combats, and is often fine just as a strong push ability that hits two targets.

To Stone! ★★☆☆☆ Abilities that apply slowed aren't normally very good, so you need a tier 3 result to get use out of this most of the time. Solo and most leader enemies can just automatically pass the saving throw against petrification, so really this ability is just "You Are Already Dead" but significantly worse.

11-Ferocity Ability

Elemental Ferocity ★★★★★ In a long combat this will trigger a lot of times, and because of the Fury's "Primordial Attunement" feature you will always know if the enemy has a weakness to one of these damage types that you can take advantage of. Strong in solo or group combats.

Overkill ★★☆☆☆ Killing a winded elite enemy with this is good, efficient value, but compared to "You Are Already Dead" it just deals less damage for a higher Ferocity cost.

Primordial Rage ★★★☆☆ Good for the same reasons as "Elemental Ferocity", but it just does it less well most of the time. The Berserker Aspect can pretty consistently trigger this 3 times with a main action, Knockback, and their triggered action as long as they don't need to Catch Breath. In group combats it can do notably less well, and even solo creatures could trigger Elemental Ferocity 4 times a round to be comparable.

Relentless Death ★★★★☆ This is enough damage to clear out minions, and if your speed is high enough can very easily clear out a large amount of them at once. Makes for a very cheap area ability with the refund, the main problem is getting enough Ferocity early in an encounter to make maximum use of it.