I have had a lot of people ask me for my earth build and how I play and rational for such, so I decided to post about it. This is more of a very basic reasoning behind my build and why I think it works well so others can give it a shot if they wish. Of course it may not be for everyone, but respecs are cheap so here goes: Gemstone Shield (or light shield if I go both bottom rows of iconics) Phase Shift (or Sandblast for better trollers) Brick Damage Shift Whirling Dervish Reinforce (or light shield if really under geared healers or tank who has trouble with holding agro) Note: you can always replace sandblast with rumble crush / tectonic break / debris field etc. depending on preference. Base mods: Weapon: Absorption Adapter IV Neck: Escalating Might IV, Back: Breakout Regeneration Feet: Dashing Combos Chest: Reserve Tank… or Core Strength if good troll… I bring a few of each to swap out Hands: Regenerative Shielding… or Empowered Channeling if using sandblast Weapon: personally, I use 2h, mainly for the skins, but 1h, staff, etc. can be as good perhaps better. Attack chain: Well I always start with damage shift for the buff, if not buffed. Two hand all the way to mega smash then clip mega smash little over half way through charge (with practice you will see when) so as to clip it but still get full mega smash dmg. If learning trollers I might clip every 3rd rotation with damage shift to save power) Clip 1: Whirling Dervish clipped with Reinforce. Note 1: If I have a group that is weak on healing I will replace reinforce with light shield then also clip light shield with damage shift for the 50% damage bonus. Clip 2: Whirling Dervish clipped with Phase Shift followed by melee tap for dashing combo Note 1: If you have good trollers and want to use more power for more dps, replace Phase Shift with Sandblast. Note 2: I really love dashing combo, not so much for damage but it allows me to “jump to target” quickly, as mega smash will almost always kill adds so you then quickly jump to the next and not skip a beat. Clip 3: Gemstone Shield then tap melee 1x for a total of 2 stones Note 1: I use as soon as feel I need it, usually my 2nd or 3rd rotation of above Note 2: If I use hard light shield instead or either gemstone shield or reinforce, I clip hard light shield with dmg shift to leave the 50% dmg bonus for weapon combo Rationale/Problem 1: I like to pug, I enjoy the variety and challenge, but a lot of pug groups have new players who are learning; this means my build has to have a great deal of self sustainability. Solution 1: For group play I can have learning healers and trollers and still do fine, because I can take a great deal of damage and still rock out great damage for little power. For better troller teams I can simply replace phase shift with sandblast and clip more and with better healer teams I can also replace gemstone with a SC or another power . On great teams I can do both and my damage is awesome and still take 25% less damage with brick, which really adds up. Rationale/Problem 2: I like to sustain melee dps, especially due to whirling dervish, which means taking damage, or not being able to sustain without awesome healers & trollers (see #1) Solution: Brick w/ dmg shift gives 25% absorption at all times. Gemstone with 1 melee tap gives me another 67% until it breaks. So by taking 92% less damage as normal, I can survive about anything and not have any fear of those wipes I see so many dps take. Why only 1 melee tap for gemstone? Well any more seems wasted as it eats the shield faster then necessary and leaves me open to take 75% of damage more often. This way, with even a decent healer, I maintain the shield and 75% absorbtion just about its entire duration, so there are very small pockets of not absorbing 92% of possible damage and for those I am just a little more careful with blocking and rolling. Now I have played without using gemstone by not even going in seismic tree, giving me the whole two bottom row of iconics which has its advantages so then i use hard light shield instead. Well if you have specific questions let me know and I will answer them as this is way longer then I thought already... have fun.
Correction. Damage absorption for a single gemstone shard is 50%, and 12.5% for subsequent shards. In other words, you have 75% damage absorption with a non-aftershocked Gemstone Shield and Damage Shift.
Yep your right I messed up, wrote it quickly and right before bed. Fixed it, thanks. From tool tip 1 shard (0 aftershocks) = 50% absorb 2 shards (1 aftershock) = 67% absorb 3 shards (2 aftershocks) = 83% absorb 4 shards (3 aftershocks) = 100% absorb Now if gemstone was not currently bugged I would not aftershock it. But right now without an aftershock the shield breaks after only 10 dmg. With 1 or more aftershocks, 2 or more shards, it will take 10 dmg + your resto and dom. I put in a bug report on this and hope it gets fixed.
