I just started a Dirge (level 13 right now), and I'm working on my early AAs. I've seen differing advice about where to go with these. Right now I'm in the Agility line, but I've heard a lot of people recommend the Stamina line for Double Attacks. Of course, then I have to equip a round shield. but do all the Double Attacks make up for the loss of the second weapon? Thanks.
Solo I would Sword and board IF YOU CAN FILL MOST THE STAMINA TREE the DA and stun and higher defence should help. Group dual weild attack if you dont plan on getting hit. or to support tnk with stuns and shield stick with board. raiding shield are useless after lvl 80 there is only 1 shield in game for so sword and board is broken per Design and DEV
Except MAYBE for some solo situations, using a shield as a dirge can be, I think, considered as a major FAIL Terrible loss of DPS, and not that much of a survivability gain in exchange. You will lose the "benefits" from the 8 first AAs in that line by not wearing a shield, thats right. But thats no big deal, the 10 points after that are extremely good. And the more melee players in your group, the more useful it will be. Auto-attack damages are by far the biggest source of dps of any non-mage (and even for most healers), so everything that applies to auto-attack should be considered with great interest, first goal probably being 100% crit chance then 100% double attack chance So for early AAs I'd go for the last AA in 4th column (+7,5% crit chance) and 10 points in Fortissimo (3rd column). You might want to look at AAs for our two lifetaps in the dirge tree (middle right column) and "Chain links" in second line of Shadow tree asap
Well since you are level 13 I wouldn't worry about trying to cap any stat (crit, DA, whatever) as it's just not going to happen. If you plan to primarily solo then yeah I would go sword and board. If you are going to group I would go dual wield.
So the concensus is that Dual Wield is better DPS wise than Sword and Board with Maxed out Double Attack because of the STA line?
I carried a roundshield for a couple of levels. But I soon just transmuted it. I don't have any trouble just dual wielding. I tanked Crypt of Valdoon and Obelisk of Blight last night with a coercer and a warden. Was spur of the moment so no shield and we did fine. Only the warden died a couple of times and I rezzed him between my autoattacks.
Just as a test I went S&B against a training dummy only hitting CoB when it came up and then tried the same Dual Wielding with CoB. Just auto attack. Using this method, dual wield did beat out S&B by about 15% on auto attack alone. Guess I need to take a look at the STA line and reduce the DA ability. Right now I have 10/10 in it. If I'm going dual wield there's no point in maxing it out.
Just curious why you would want to lower DA in your AA setup based on using two weapons vs. one? Are you over capped on DA right now? Or is that AA ability you are referring to require a Round Shield?
Kulanae@Blackburrow wrote: It's the one that requires a round shield. Nowhere near the caps, still working on getting my T3 shard armor. Mostly level 70-79 crappy equipment as far as bonuses.
Yes Dual wield is more DPS but lower avoidance which dirges normally have much lower then scout classes. I run sword and board for the defence and off set the lower DPS with DA I have managed to go head to head with fighter classes in battlegrounds with blocking shard jewelry and t1 t2 mix with our debuffs and AAs. the board helps also to stop the AOE melee flurry attacks
Raahl wrote: Perhaps I missed something but it sounds as if you are referring to Fortissimo which to the best of my knowledge works on dual wield as well as sword and board. It not only gives you up to an extra 10% DA but everyone else in your group as well.
Aery_Blue wrote: No he doesnt. He refers to the AA prior to Fortissimo, which gives you DA bonus when you wear a roundshield. Every dirge should have 4-10 in the 3rd column EDIT : 4-4-10 was what I meant
kell_the_kyuss wrote: Since changing to the new AA spec I have yet to use my shield. It's working out very well just to dual wield. But I admit I'm not trying to solo heroics.
I've been playing a dirge for about 3 months now, level 70 with 101 AA's I've found while soloing that sword and board is useful. I'm able to cope with adds better and solo harder content, however this is with 4 10 10 in Sta line not to mention that when kiting duel wield does nothing for you as your fighting at ranged anyway. That said, if you are raiding or grouping on a regular basis duel wield is the way to go double attack does not make up the loss of the second weapon. Your doing the right thing buy doing AGI line first as you really need to max AA's in Sta line (4 - 10 - 10) before you get the benifit from them, then respec from agi to Sta when you have enough AA's to do so and start working on the Agi line again if you choose to go this route. If you are still undecided then go duel wield, you can't really go wrong with it and sword and board is a very specalised setup and really only for soloing.
Dual wield weapons are no longer different to one-handed ones, so carry two weapons and shield, switch between them whenever you feel you might gain from it, and find the answer that suits you.
May be a old thread but do you still require a shield for the 2'de line in stamina? At work right now but i seem to remember it giving me DA without it?
