Hello all! Putting this here bc the earth oracle thread seems to be pretty dead. Finally getting around to my earth alt. I understand that the aftershocks absorption got turned into a Def buff but brick still absorbs a portion of damage. Do the two stack? I've seen several earth tanks using both brick and jackhammer. Also is there any reason to spec for dom past meeting minimum requirements for endgame?
They don't stack it's one or the other There will be others that sweet they stack ...the real Answer is they no they don't People are using jackhammer with brick cause they are doing great dmg with jack hammer while brick absorbs some of your in coming damage A battle tank if you will
Why not just go with the Def buff and leave brick out? Or is brick that much better than the stone skin?
Personally I'd just do stone skin but people are doing the brick way for battle tanking I'm not sure why
I prefer brick over stone skin but both are viable tanking mechanics. Jackhammer is just a good damage move and also good for CC. Also with brick you have to decide if you're going to use totem and fortify golem which ties up a lot of loadout slots.
Does that work with either mechanic? Really leaning towards the aftershocks as brick seems kind of restrictive loadout wise.
I like aftershocks tanking more than brick because I LOVE aftershock animation,and I find aftershock more fun.
Yes that is a general trait for Earth when in tank stance. The description for stone skin is pretty straightforward but the description for damage absorption using brick is a bit more vague. I'm not a huge number crunched but I believe both methods provide equitable results as far as the amount of damage they mitigate. It really comes down to preference and gameplay aesthetic. Brick tanking is fun since he will draw aggro and be the tank at times. If you play him traditionally you will use fortify golem and totem plus brick himself. That ties up 3 loadout spots and requires part if your attention to be focused on supporting your pet as opposed to stone skin tanking where it's all you all the time. As I said they both provide about the same amount of protection to you the tank but have differing playstyles. I would suggest using jackhammer with either tanking style since it is so good. If you are new to tanking and have specific questions on how to use brick or the stone skin tanking methods I'm more than happy to explain my rotations and general approach to either.
I think for a low / mid? tier player (t1 up to t5) pet tanking is better for surviability ,the problem is that the defense buff you got with aftershocks dont pays enought unless you have a really high amount of defense . Right after the last game update i tested the mitigation against grundy in the open world and with t4 (cr84) char, pet tanking givme way less damage in that aftershocks. Its like the aftershocks def buff scale better at higher gear ,thats my opinion . Another think is that this GU nerf us alot : OLD : 100% dom to def NOW : 65% dom to def OLD : you could block adding alot of defense on top of you chossen tanking way (pet/aftershocks) NOW : if you block ,you lose all your buff (pet/aftershocks)
