Title says its all I use 2hb but with new shield block aa's was wondering if its as good as staff block. Andarriel
I think the question is to vague. Do you want to know from an incomming damage standpoint? Player DPS standpoint? Ability to survive spells / melee?
I could have only guessed that he meant from an incoming damage standpoint. Could you please explain how the other things could be relevant? Are you saying one of them affects player dps and/or mitigates incoming spell damage?
It's multifaceted. You'll get better proc DPS from a 2h. Having a 1h or 2h will have no effect on incoming spell damage but there will be a difference in melee damage, etc. I think that was kindof his point in saying the question was too "vague". However, my assumption would be that the OP meant in terms of defense, which happens to be staff block as mentioned, and conveniently is also the best for caster dps. I still run with 1h/Shield myself but I wonder if that's purely due to indoctrination or lack of 2h that have been available/appealing to me.
Typicaly 2hb's have three aug slots( two type 7/8's and a type 3) and a high damage spell proc. This allows a caster DPS to have 3 cast procs, 4 with shawl 3. As such the % chance for one of the procs to go off is something like 90% (I'm sure beimeith knows the acutual numbers) as such it is the ideal set up for caster DPS. Additionaly Staff Block has a higher % chance to block a single Hit however you lose on the sheild AC. Sheild block has a lower % chance to block a single hit but you gain the Sheild AC which helps reduce DI value thus droping the incomming damage for every hit (in theroy). Dzarn spoiled the calculations a while back, and Tanks tend to use sheilds over 2 1h or a 2hs for survability. One set up has more Raw HPs on it, i forget which, which would allow the user to take more damage from spells or melee to live.
Group 2h aug slots: 3, 4, 7 Group 1h + Shield aug slots: 3, 4, 7 Raid 2h aug slots: 3, 8, 8 Raid 1h + Shield aug slots: 3, 8, 8 Group Necro aug slots: 3, 4, 7, 8 Raid Necro aug slots: 3, 4, 8, 8 Enc/Mage/Wiz most 1h are Symp Mana and most 2h are Symp DD, that's generally the main reason to pick especially for Mage/Wiz. 2h is slightly more frontal melee survival, Shield is slightly more non-frontal melee survival, this can be considered most commonly by Enc when it is.
Personally, I always use a 1h and shield for the benefit of shield ac combined with shield block. I know some casters prefer to use 2h simply because it has more hint and sd than the combo of 1h/shield. It's all really a matter of preference and/or benefits.
Staff block also fires more often than shield block....I'm not sure how much better shield block is with new ranks but I think staff block is still better.
Thats the thing though. The addional AC from the sheild takes off an (unknown) amount of damage from each hit (in theroy) due to the higher soft cap on AC. Due to this if the sheild block were to activate as much as staff block it would undoubtably be better. It amounts to this; Players who belive that the extra AC & sheild block AAs reduce more damage than staff block use sheilds. Players who belive that staff block AAs reduce more damage than sheild block use 2 handers. Players who only care about damage use 2 handers. There is no hard calculated formulas to figure out the effect on combat damage and (as seen with tanks discussion) parsing can be argued that it is relative to the mob only. Specialy since the ones discussing this are silk users and long parses from relevent mobs are almost unobtainable.
I used 2hb for a goodwhile and then I went to 1hb with shield but saw I was barely surviving so I went to 2hb again. Then I saw the shield block had more aa's so I was just curious. I usually burn my lotd on scarecrows in tainted ether and most of then summon so I chain nuke and have to take hits. Still decent aa xp so I still kill there around 80-90% per kill. So I will stick with 2hb thanks for the info. Andarriel Ps Off topic but any place in new expansion to kill and get good xp for a wizard or sticking with the older expansion the way to go if your going solo usually just play with wiz and merc.
2handers have a better proc and more mana and you'll take less melee dmg. Wizards and magicians are better off with a 2hander most of the time. I *think* enchanters are better off with a shield because of their runes and other defensive stuff, couldn't say for sure. Necromancers use their epic and a shield.
