Hello All,Let me start off by saying that, 99.9% of the info below was copied from existing threads on this board, I make no stake to claim any of it as my own, I simply compiled it, (some re-worded for clarity and edited for typos). That being said, I thought I would compile this info into one thread in for a better overall view of the information. Please read on and post with your comments, questions, concerns, and corrections. If you would like to be directly credited for any of your info I may have copied from one of your posts or add additional info, please PM me with the text. For now I credit everyone who has visited these boards and put in their P's & Q's. Thank you everyone Link to RoK Guide: http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...topic_id=402400 Zerker Worldwide Chat Channel: Antonia_Bayle.swberserker Primary StatsA zerk should focus on the following primary stats: Strength, Stamina, and Agility Stats and what they contribute towardsSTR- Melee Damage, Max Power STA- Total health AGI- Base Avoidance INT- Spell Damage (Procs) WIS- Spell Resists Mitigation, Avoidance & ResistsMitigationThe total amount of damage that will be deducted from the total physical damage dealt to you. Comprised of: Base Mitigation: Armor, Jewelry, Adornments, Buffs, etc. + Vs. Slashing + Vs. Crushing + Vs. Piercing AvoidanceThe total chance of you to avoid, deflect, dodge, or otherwise not be hit by a melee attack. Comprised of: Block Defense Parry Base avoidance: Agility ResistsCold, Heat, Divine, Mental, Magic, Disease, and Poison The chance to outright resist a spell, as well as the amount of damage that will be absorbed when damaged by a spell type of the given resist. These are key to have a good balance of, and most players have "resist" gear they keep in their bags for certain situations. Some good resist gear can be had from collection quests as well as treasured drops in EoF content. The best gear is going to have a great balance of both stats & resists. But you still may find your self swapping out an earring or ring for something with higher resists for the type of damage being done by the given encounter. Skills Slashing = How well you hit with a slashing weapon Piercing = How well you hit with a piercing weapon Crushing = How well you hit with a crushing weapon Aggression = Decreases taunt resistance. Defense = Adds to your base mitigation and avoidance. Block = Chance to Block an incoming attack Parry = Chance to turn a blow aside (to evade) Riposte = A quick deft thrust made after parrying the lunge of an opponent. TIP: Hover your mouse over these in game and they will show you a good description for each Diminishing ReturnsDiminishing returns means that when you reach certain level of any skill, (mitigation, slashing, defense, haste etc...) you will start to get minimal benefits from raising this current value. Like if you have 4500 mitigation, and you add 2000 more, you don't get much benefit from it anymore. With the basic attributes, there's not much point in going higher than 600 in each stat. The place where most people discuss diminishing returns is mitigation, because its fairly easy to hit the diminishing returns point with EoF legendary set gear alone. Once you can hit approx 55% mitigation self-buffed, adding additional mitigation does very little. So to improve "tankabilty", most zerkers turn to improving defensive melee skills (defense, parry, block, adornments) or hit points. Both the haste and DPS mod caps are set at 200. Having 200% haste means that you will actually swing only 125% faster, again because of diminishing returns. You definitely don't have to worry about this until you're raiding at level 70, and even then you'll only be capped in certain group setups. Things that diminish related to a Zerker Stats(ie, WIS, STR, STA etc) DPS mod Haste mod Mitigation(including spell resistance) Parry/Def/and overall Avoidance Possibly more, but those are the key ones Values like increased/decreased hate gain, symmetry etc don't have diminishing returns. Combat ArtsBerserker CA listhttp://eq2players.station.sony.com/...ction?classId=4 http://www.eq2ref.com/abilities/ind...class=Berserker CA Progression List http://www.eq2ref.com/abilities/ind...iew=Progression Tips: Upgrade Destruction & Open Wounds to Master 1. These two combat arts basically define the berserker. Violent Pledge at Master 1 with enhancement from the EoF AA tree becomes our best single target taunt. Upgrade your offensive stance to Master 1 as soon as possible. Why? Your offensive stance boosts your ability to hit a mob, resulting in more damage, in turn more hate. Tanking in offensive stance makes a huge difference in aggro control. If you're taking a lot of damage and you feel like you have to go defensive use a lower level defensive stance so you don't take such a big hit in offensive skills. You'll get the same mitigation bonus as the higher level version, but not quite as much avoidance. Special Combat Art's:From the Bloodline Chronicles Adventure Pack.Unyielding Will - Emergency Heal with a death effect A vampire specific attack - Decrease STR and AGI From The Splitpaw Saga Adventure PackGoad - Increases threat by X amount, with a 10% chance to increase by X CA's Not Upgraded25 - Rescue 34 - Intercede 35 - Unyielding Will 55 - Vision of Madness 58 - Open Wounds 60 - Guarded Vehemence 65 - Juggernaut Recast & RecoveryRecast = The time it takes for a CA/Spell timer to refresh i.e. if a spell has a recast of 30 seconds, that means you can cast that spell every 30 seconds. Recovery = The time in which you cannot cast between casting CA/Spells. Often quite short, 0.5 secs, if you cast a CA/Spell you cannot cast another (different) CA/Spell until the recovery timer has passed. This is in place to compensate for latency factors. Critical Damage and You.. A guide to exactly how much damage Crits add.http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...topic_id=353709 Tips by Nitz: Crit Adjusted DR = (crit% * 1.09 (max - min) + max + min) / delay. Base crit% at 8 ranks of STR3 = 23%. To see your crit% enter /dynamicdata stats.Melee_Crit_Chance (caps matter). You can hotkey this. Weapon DelayToo take full advantage of the +Crits and the timing of CA's between swings, you need a longer Delay and a Wide damage range (Crit = 100-130% max damage). A long delay weapon has both of those qualities. Under Haste effects the realistic delay of it is around 2.0 allowing for 2 fast CA's or 1 AE CA followed by a immediate Auto Attack swing, no time lost. The Actual CA downtime between spamming CA's is 1sec, .5Cast + .5Recovery = 1sec. Auto Attack queues until next immediate opening (like instantly between CA's), IF u have a .7Delay w/Haste and cast a 2s AE CA, u will loose 2 Auto Attacks. Auto Attack --> 2s AE Casting > Queued Auto @.7s > Missed Auto @1.4s > Missed Auto @2.1s > AE Finishes Casting + .5s Recovery = 2.5s > #1 Queued Auto Attack instantly happens. A weapon too fast will hamper your DPS due to loosing auto attack swings during useing CAs. and the damage range is small so +Crits will suffer. Longer delay = better chance for any procs that say "on a successful attack" or "on a successful melee attack". The way procs are set up, it is normalized to a 3 seconds delay. So a longer delay ends up having a higher proc % chance. Long delay and big damage range are very important. Long delay indeed reduces amount of ripostes mob can do, and also you will benefit more from using combat arts, if you have fast delay you will miss some auto attacks when you use CA's, with slow weapon when you cast CA, you won't miss auto attacks if you don't spam arts. Big damage range comes to play when crits arrive. 50-200 is better than 80-160 damage. Long delay one-handers are ideal for the endgame, because with 200% haste a 2.5 delay weapon drops down to exactly 1.0 delay. This is the optimal delay for any weapon to have, because our CAs have 0.5s casting time and 0.5s recovery time. If you can haste your weapon down to 1.0 delay or slightly lower, you can spam your CAs and not lose any dps from the weapon. If your hasted delay is too low or too high, you risk losing dps if you spam your CAs. Another reason why long delay one-handers are good is because they have high max damage values. Because the way that crits work, you will get more *additional* damage from crits from a really long delay weapon versus a short delay weapon, even if they both have the same damage rating. Continued---
AATIP: AA abilities Scale with your levelRight now buckler spec is the best spec for berserkers (and maybe even warriors in general) period. Guardians can spec defensively and still hold aggro because they have tools besides just DPS to hold aggro. As a berserker if you want to be able to hold aggro you're better off maximizing your DPS and right now that means buckler spec. You may be able to come close in the DPS department with a 2h/DW setup, but you won't have the survivability of the buckler spec, which of course means you die. Recommended AA BuildsBuckler Specs: 448 STR, 448 STA, 448 INT This is a pure DPS build. You sacrifice the 8% riposte rate for about 17.6 haste over the other builds. This is the ideal build if you plan on doing little tanking at all on raids. 448 STR, 44882 STA, 43 INT This is the best tanking build. You have the final STA ability which reduces power cost by 10%. 448 STR, 4888 STA, 45 INT This is the second best tanking build. Instead of the final STA ability, you have a slightly longer-lasting Accelerated Strike. Tower Shield Specs:For a Tower Shield build, there just aren't really that many great Achievement options. Tower Shield tanking is more the territory of Guardians, and a Berserker is going to have problems holding aggro if he can't deal as much damage. Having said that, there are a couple options that stand out in my eyes. AGI 4-4-4-8 INT 4-4-6-8-2 - Pure defensive build. Not exactly recommended, due to the very little damage you put out outside of an AE encounter. Leaves 5 points to spend how you want. STR 4-4-8 INT 4-4-8-8-2 - You gain the crits from the STR tree, with maximum haste and Parry from the INT tree. A very defensive build. This also leves you with 7 points extra to spend how you want. I'd say this is probably a strong Tower Shield build. WIS 4-4-6-8-2 INT 4-4-6-8-2 - Perhaps the weakest of all the Tower Shield builds, but you do have the added benefit of no penalties in your Offense and Defense stance. Dual Wielding The best build that stands out to me is:STR 4-4-8 WIS 4-4-8 INT 4-4-8.Just like the pure DPS Stamina/Buckler line, only you change double attack with +DPS. Warrior Achievement FAQ and Analysis (a little outdated, but still quite useful) http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...?topic_id=83897 Concerning the Warrior AA Wisdom LineBelly Smash is not very desirable for a raid; the mob has to be knocked down to use it (this doesn't happen often vs. epic mobs). This can be useful in group, solo, and PvP situations. The mitigation bonus ability is, for the most part relatively useless these days, (depending on your gear, fabled kits, high end legendary) since mitigation is no longer our number one factor for survivability (see Diminishing Returns below). One may find the +DPS ability useful however it can be easy to get that from other sources- adornments and buffs (Inquisitor, Coercer and Dirge being the best sources for these). With adornments, berserk and the right buffs it's very easy to push +DPS well into diminishing returns territory. The +DPS isn't worth wasting points on the other undesirable abilities though, (belly smash, mitigation, & wisdom points). You're better off with either the passive haste bonus and acceleration strike, or the AE auto-attack, which is situational, but can boost DPS quite a bit in big AE fights between Open Wounds uses. Agility also gives you a third out of encounter AE to help out the AE DPS some more. I'm still a big advocate of the old STA-STR-INT build though; it gives you the best bang for your buck DPS-wise without sacrificing hardly anything in survivability. Concerning Acceleration Strike- Acceleration Strike is actually in 2 Parts and buffs. #1 is a Blue buff by activating the hotkey Icon. This has 3 "counters" on it and lasts 2 mins (?). This actually does nothing to your haste .. it just sits there until you connect with 3 damage CA's ,, not in a row .. just 3 within the time limit. Also AE CA's will trigger multiple times. AE CA hitting 3 mobs will also triggers counter off it. #2 Once all 3 counters have been removed, the Blue buff will disappear to be replaced with a Yellow Buff. the Yellow Buff = actual % haste to be added to your own. the Yellow buff lasts for 1min (?). The recast on Acceleration strike is 30s (?) so actually u can keep Acceleration strike active 100% of the time. Cast Blue buff between pulls and CA to trigger the Yellow. While yellow is counting down, it refreshes before Yellow expires. rinse and repeat. Concerning the final Str abilityThe final STR ability is lacking. You are not below 50% health that often or for very long. As some have said, if you your healers allow you to run below 50% health constantly this can be benifical. This also may be useful for solo builds. The Tower ShieldThe consensus: Tower shield vs. Buckler = 1.5% to 2% difference in avoidance. This gain very minimal considering diminishing returns and is not worth the loss of the mass amounts of DPS you would have running a buckler spec. However using a tower sheild can increase you block % chance by a good amount. Tower shield spec with high defensive AAs: It was a nightmare. Yes, I had more avoidance, but I could NOT hold aggro no matter what I did. Crusaders (Paladins in particular) can get away with a more defensive approach since they can pull hate off someone else with amends and siphon hate. The ONLY way a berserker holds aggro is with DPS. Buckler vs. DW/2hBuckler spec still appears to be the way to go instead of dual wielding/2h. Dual wield had a very slight increase in DPS over buckler, not enough to account for variations in the RNG. The 2h is around that of a buckler spec in regards to DPS but however, losing buckler in favor of dual wield or 2h loses you a lot of avoidance, especially if you spec for riposte in the Stamina line. Riposte does nothing in a raid if you're not tanking, but if you are it's 8% uncontested avoidance which has the side effect of increasing your DPS. In short, yes dual wield is a viable option now, but the benefits do not outweigh what you lose from re-specing out of the buckler line and the DPS increase is modest at best. Buckler still has the best versatility as far as that goes as it has survivability for main tanking, great DPS for off tanking and is good for solo builds as well. The best DPS and versatility, currently, is with a buckler build. With the Dual Wield changes in LU 38 the DPS gap between Buckler and DW is pretty slim, but you lose a ton of avoidance by being DW spec rather then buckler, especially if you take the full stamina line with the +8% riposte which only works when you have a buckler equipped. Generally 55-60% of damage is auto attack and another 10-15% is from outside sources like CoB, app poison, etc. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't be casting all your CA's. They are just added damage in-between auto attacks keep in mind you need a good amount of haste/DPS modifiers and a good slow delay weapon to have that high auto attack damage. EOF AA TipsIn short, the EoF tree leaves much to be desired, basically you really can't go wrong, but there are some better choices among the botchery. The cyclone tree is a good choice, upgrading your aoe ca's and the zerk's two primary abilities, Destruction and Open Wounds. The Debilitation line is also a good choice for Enhance Disfigure among other increases to your de-buff melee ca's. As well as the bulking line being a good choice. The Eof tree will really depend on your flavor of play style. Of the four lines the one that most find the least usefull is the Perserverence line, however there could be ways to build some of these into your existing builds adding some surviveability to your setup. Although it may not be worth the points that could be spent elsewhere for a more benefical gain. EquipmentBucklers Fabled Buckler of the Howler (T7) Aegis of Scorn (T6) Legendary (T7) Festering Flesh Buckler Badge of Service Azjeroths Guard - HoF Iron Plate of Shielding - drops off IronFang in PoA Cloister - Achedschism (62) Treasured Bloodreign Buckler Buckler of Blyze - one of the rewards from Qeynos Claymore (early in the quest series) Beerstained Buckler - Collection quest reward - Dwarven Steins Thexian Dinnerplate - drops in Nek 3 (triblulation) in a dinning room off trash mobs If your in a lower Teir the SBS HQ can be turned into a buckler at the Shaddy Swashbuckler and also the Rare Woodworker Crafted Bucklers will get you throug in a pinch. Weapons Fabled Cudgel of Pain - LoA Shadow Axe - HOS Vilucidae's Sword of Shielding - LoA 1 hander - drop from Venekor HoS boss Axe of the Bloodbeast - HOS Ascendant - DT - 1H: 31-92, 1.6 delay, +625 hate proc. Base DR < Shadow Axe; but Crit DR > Shadow Axe at crit% > 5%. by Nitz SoD Weapon Legendary Battlehammer of Might is a 2.5 delay Legendary SoD Weapon (Legendary Version) Modinthalis - Legendary - Unrest Treasured Staff of Direction, 29-165 dmg 3.0 dly. treasured 1-hander club Droag Kukri - reward from a KoS collection quest Medium Droag Claws Some items to help you along the way: Quest: T3 Charm <NEED NAME> - quest line in BB (Sarnak Sympathizer). Starts with Sarnak at dock Quest: The Handcrafted Music Box for a +5 to all stats, +25 hp/power charm slot music box. Must do The Master's Museum quest first. Quest: At level 60 start your Claymore quest series. You will get good rewards if you stick with it, both for leveling to 70 and for level 70. Crafted: Get two level 62 mastercrafted imbued acrylia rings - one STR, the other AGI for dps and haste procs. Quest: Grizzfazzle's Errands for the tower shield Quest: Blood of the Brood for your Hoo'Loh class helm Den of the Devourer: Dark/Light Chitin rings Halls of Fate: V'jaza't Spaulders; Breastplate of the Doomflight; Death Trance earring; Dark Majestic Sabatons from Sothis in HoF. They are the highest MIT Legendary plate shoes you can get for any KoS single group instance. Palace of the Awakened: Awakened Scalelord plate from the dragons, and the Ironplate Shielding buckler from Ironfang (Berserkers/Guardians only) The Acadechism: Crushbone Wartooth earring Broker: Velium weapons from the broker are a good dps upgrade for you if cheap enough Nek3: Szatch's Vambraces (forearm armor) Obelisk of Blight: Signet of Light from Darkness (Paladin/Shadowknight ring only), EoF legendary set class boots Kaladim: EoF legendary set class gloves Crypt of Valdoon: Legplates of the Bloodhowler, Cuirass of the Trueblood, EoF legendary set class forearms Mistmoore Catacombs: EoF legendary set class shoulders from the butler. Mistmoore Castle: EoF legendary set class leggings from the sage. Unrest: Modinthalis (one handed sword), Festering Flesh Buckler, Bulwark of the Veteran (tower shield), Jagged Band of the Cursed (ring), Battleworn Canteen (+18 STR charm), EoF legendary set class helm and chest EoF collections have very solid jewelery rewards for level 70. Quest: Mark of the Awakened for the fabled neck reward MoA trial drop: Gauntlets of Glorious Speed (23% haste) Quest: Deathtoll access for the Amulet of the Foresworn (23% haste neck/wrist item) Quest: Marr or Rallos Zek deity quest for a dps cloak Quest: Cloak of Flames HQ for a haste cloak AdornmentsAdornment Listingshttp://ironfingers.outlands.com/adorn.htm Note: Raw health is usually better than +sta. The amount of health that STA increases varies and depends on how much STA you already have (see Diminishing Returns). As you get more, it increases your health pool less. The raw health bonus never diminishes like that. Some suggested adornments to benefit role types: General (for any role): Head: +100 power Chest: +6 str +6 sta +6 agi +6wis +6 int Waist: Increase attack speed of caster by 2.0 Ranged: Increase Damage Per Second of caster by 10.0 Rings: +70 health Ears: +14 int Why INT? Intelligence affects our proc damage. More INT = more magical proc damage = more dps Neck: Increase Damage Per Second of caster by 10.0 DPS: Buckler (if you're spec'd that way): +1.0% melee crit chance +str on any slot you can get it OT/MT: Wrists: 2.0% chance to parry incoming attacks Buckler: +1% chance to block, or damage shield Shoulders: +100 health, or damage shield Forearms: +7 parry, or +67 mitigation Gloves: +14 agi Pants: +14 sta Boots: +14 sta Deity ChoicesEQ2.wikia.com - Category: Gods Good Deities Mithaniel Marr Offers: Pet buff is STR/WIS Valor of Marr (Blessing): Increased parry and damage proc Valorus Service(Miracle): ward (5000), intercept and group heal. Marrs barrier(Miracle): All attacks absorbed 10 times The Cloak of Valor is a good cloak for tanking. Tunare Offers: Pet buffs AGI/WIS. Earthmother's Aegis (Blessing): Reactive Heal vs. Spells, plus a Mitigation buff Tunare's Lifeshield (Miracle): Mirrors spells and wards vs. physical damage Other various healing abilities to add to your tank set. The Ivory Shroud of Tunare is useless for a zerk. Evil Deities Rallos Zek Offers: Pet buffs STR Battlerage (Blessing): +10% Melee Crit, +15 DPS Tactical Formation (Blessing): Hate gain +10%, AE group hate gain -5%, -defense of caster. AE group +defense Rallos' Devastartion (Miracle): Massive AOE divine nuke The War Mantle of Rallos Zek is great for zerks. Neutral Deities Solusek-Ro Offers: Pet buffs INT Incinerate (Miracle): Single target massive heat damage on target if it is under 50% HP Blessing of Solusek (Blessing): Increases heat mitigation, and if you take heat damage, heals you Spear of the Sun (Miracle): Summons a pet that reduces the casting time, recast time, and power cost of heat-based spells. The Cloak of the Burning Prince is useless for a zerk. (+65 spell dmg) Brell Serilis Offers: Pet buffs STA/WIS Stature of Serilis (Blessing): buff against physical, heat and cold (1050) - shrinks caster 50% Protection of Brell (Miracle): A physical mitigation Buff/Group Heal for 30% Forgehammer (Miracle): Single target stun w/ divine damage Rift from Below (Miracle): An AE damage/AE DOT/ Knockback Miracle. The Cloak of the Underfoot may be useful in some situations\styles. Tips: If you're an OT, Rallos Devastation is an awesome, very quick casting AE that is almost guaranteed to get you snap agro. Best cloak all around is Zek. Best defensive tanking deity is Tunare (see lifeshield and aegis) Best agro grabber would be debatable, but Sol-Ro for single target, and Zek for AoE. Mithanial Marr is the most popular choice for good aligned tanks, and the Marr cloak isn't bad for a MT. Tunare has a miracle that blocks 10 hits with a cast time of 0.5 seconds, and also reflects back 50% of the damage. You can stop worshipping a deity and still retain the cloak. It really all depends on what you do with your character, whether you group tank, DPS, raid MT/OT, etc. Different gods are going to offer different abilities to suit your play style.
Edit 10.07.07: Fixed a couple of spelling typos. Buckler specs corrected. Additional info added for buckler and tower specs, thanks to Xalmat for the input. Edit 10.08.07: Added some formating for ease of reading and a couple more links for CA's. Added a section on Deities Edit 10.10.07: Added Crit tips by Nitz and DT 1h. Added notes from Aonein regarding tower sheild and STR final. Thank you guys for the input.
Recommended AA BuildsBuckler Specs:448 STR, 448 STA, 448 INT 448 STR, 44882 STA, 43 INT 448 STR, 4888 STA, 45 INT Corrected for ya. Would help if you added an explanation between them. 448 STR, 448 STA, 448 INT This is a pure DPS build. You sacrifice the 8% riposte rate for about 17.6 haste over the other builds. This is the ideal build if you plan on doing little tanking at all on raids. 448 STR, 44882 STA, 43 INT This is the best tanking build. You have the final STA ability which reduces power cost by 10%. 448 STR, 4888 STA, 45 INT This is the second best tanking build. Instead of the final STA ability, you have a slightly longer-lasting Accelerated Strike.
For a Tower Shield build, there just aren't really that many great Achievement options. Tower Shield tanking is more the territory of Guardians, and a Berserker is going to have problems holding aggro if he can't deal as much damage. Having said that, there are a couple options that stand out in my eyes. AGI 4-4-4-8 INT 4-4-6-8-2 - Pure defensive build. Not exactly recommended, due to the very little damage you put out outside of an AE encounter. Leaves 5 points to spend how you want. STR 4-4-8 INT 4-4-8-8-2 - You gain the crits from the STR tree, with maximum haste and Parry from the INT tree. A very defensive build. This also leves you with 7 points extra to spend how you want. I'd say this is probably a strong Tower Shield build. WIS 4-4-6-8-2 INT 4-4-6-8-2 - Perhaps the weakest of all the Tower Shield builds, but you do have the added benefit of no penalties in your Offense and Defense stance. Dual Wielding, the best build that stands out to me is: STR 4-4-8 WIS 4-4-8 INT 4-4-8. Just like the pure DPS Stamina/Buckler line, only you change double attack with +DPS.
Corrected and updated with the new info, ty Xalmat for the input. Glad this got sticked too hopefully some folks will find this of some good use.
Some really good info here, some biased and not throughly tested, but none the less, a good read. I'd like to add some stuff. In reguards to your Buckler vs DW/2h, I often get the picture that alot of Berserkers are simply stuck in the mind frame that Buckler is still superiour for DPS, it isn't. Bucklers days are numbered as being the number 1 uno nemro line to go now that LU38 is here. We have our Zerkers on raids pushing past 2500 DPS consistantly and in groups set up correctly also now. Dont get me wrong here, Buckler still is good, maybe more so for tanking, but from a DPS point of view which is what I am refering to from that part of your post, Buckler falls behind. The rest of your points are true in reguards to tanking while dual weilding etc. In reguards to your Tower vs Buckler, the overall avoidance percentage your losing doesn't mean anything, it's the massive amount of Block chance you are losing that matters. With Buckler + Soulfire, I'm a little over 10% chance to block 11.8% to be exact, with a Tower + Soulfire, I'm pushing towards 26% chance to block. In the right group set up, there is no way you would be losing agro reguardless of wether you were Tower or Buckler spec'd and providing people know thier limits well. Obviously, in some group set ups the same can be reversed and no matter what you do, Buckler or Tower, you wont hold agro, it simply falls to how your group is set up and how well your group mates know thier classes, as there is no sure way to keep 100% agro no matter what anyone tries to tell you. Block > Riposte, as Block you take 0 damage. Riposte on the other hand, you take damage and strike back. Now if it was 8% chance to Parry, that would be a totally different ball game, which is why it isnt 8% to parry and Riposte instead. In reguards to your Final STR line, I am currently spec'd STR/WIS line with the final in both, because I like to tank and DPS when not tanking, both give me the flexibility to do so. Both increase my DPS quite substantialy, but only because I play with guildies and they allow me to run under 50% HP constantly or it wouldnt be worth it. The problem here is people look at it as, well, your only ever under 50% HP for spilt seconds at a time, well obviosuly your not going to be under 50% HP constantly raiding, but at the same time, your not going to be constantly raiding 24/7 ethier and majority of your time played is in groups. At the end of the day, depending on how your people are versed at playing thier characters, there really is no better way now, all are quite compareable to the next, it just depends how much interaction and attention you want to spend playing the class. Some ways allow you to be more lacks on button clicking or timing of CA's across your auto attack timers, while on the other hand, some require you to be starring at the screen on a constant basis using skills and CA's that generally most will tell you are waste of time etc, but at the end of the day will net you the same output, just alot more concentration envolved, more then most will admit too.
Before this guide breaks down into yet another thread on DW vs Buckler, let me remind people that there's already a bajillion threads on the subject.
"Block > Riposte, as Block you take 0 damage. Riposte on the other hand, you take damage and strike back. Now if it was 8% chance to Parry, that would be a totally different ball game, which is why it isnt 8% to parry and Riposte instead." Agreed, lets keep this factual also. This is from GU 29 ( EOF ): - Parry Check: (Base 5%, Chance increases with additional parry skill.) The chance to parry an incoming attack is modified by level and offense skill of the mob you are fighting. Note: A base 20% of parries turn into ripostes. (Modified by certain achievements) You don't take damage when you riposte, it is a counter-attack after a successful parry. This is actually the definition of a riposte in fencing also.
-Aonein- wrote: It has been stated that a DW spec will out dps the buckler spec (a modest increase at best 100-200), however it is also stated you will lose a ton of survivability dropping the buckler... Now i have heard accounts of the 2h matching the dps of the buckler spec, with the correct aa build of course, but nothing concrete. Curiously, which sheilds are you comparing here? And for each, what is your total avoidance? You do not take damage when you riposte... you parry then riposte in one execution, in game you'll only see the Riposte blip pop up and not the parry blip before hand, it should show both in the combat log. Running below 50% health is asking alot from your healer(s)... if you have a good warder this could work.
I believe this to be correct, (the no dmg from riposte) because if you read the skill, it says "8% chance to riposte attack from front arc, and the same % chance to parry from all other arcs" or something of that nature. I would highly doubt that SOE would set up the skill so you would be taking more dmg when actually facing an enemy.
Some more items of note: Crit Adjusted DR = (crit% * 1.09 (max - min) + max + min) / delay. Base crit% at 8 ranks of STR3 = 23%. To see your crit% enter /dynamicdata stats.Melee_Crit_Chance (caps matter). You can hotkey this. Ascendant (from first named in Deathtoll) is now a 1H: 31-92, 1.6dly with a +625 hate proc. Base DR < Shadow Axe but critDR > Shadow Axe at crit% > 5%. Great tank weappon. (sorry about no paragrpahs but this board will not recognize <Enter> for me for whatever reason.)
Cmos@Butcherblock wrote: Sorry my bad, your right, Riposte doesn't allow you to take damage, but it's only a chance to do a Riposte after a succesful Parry, therefor the 8% chance to Riposte that people try to percieve as some kind of avoidance buff bringing Buckler spec upto 20% is wrong, it simply just doesn't work that way, thats what I was aiming at. Its simple, You Parry, then you have a chance to riposte which is just you getting a chance in for a extra hit, just like the definition states for fencing, like someone else added. Riposte does not add to your avoidance one little bit. Shields I use is Festering Flesh and Howler for Bucklers, Vilucidae's and Qeynos for Tower, hoping to get the Tower from NT Mayong. Cant give you my avoidance numbers for Buckler because they are in my bank somewhere and I simply cant be bothered respecing to give you a accurate number, but tank spec'd the way I am with Vilucidae's/Qeynos + Soulfire is 7487 unbuffed, with a 24.8% chance to block. Running below 50% HP is alot to ask of your healers if they dont have +xx to heal adornments or the EoF Fabled sets that increase their triggers and heal proc chances for things like Druids, Clerics. 9 triggers instead of 5 for Glorious Intercession and having a druid in the party that is running 250+ extra per heal makes a massive difference. I can very easily be constantly under 50% HP all the time with no real danger of wiping, and even if I do get close, Unyeilding Will is always there as a emergency along with VoM. Add into this, Luck of the Dirge and Blessings and your procing like a mad man while Dual Weilding with 40% chance to Double Attack and Combat Glory going off, I have yet to be in any real danger while running under 50% hp. I look at it like this, people who use buckler sacrafice the STR final line to do the same job you can from dual weilding if not in some cases better, depending on group set up etc of course (try not to take this out of context) easier because of the amount of triggers etc from Buckler reversal etc, on the other hand, STR final while under 50% HP on a constant basis, while requires a much more switched on party, can out do Buckler by a large margin. Get some warders together for some well equipped healers and test it out. I'd even be interested in seeing some parses of Buckler reversal spec'd Zerkers with the final STR ability running under 50% HP constantly. Again, please do not misread this, as one other poster said, lets not derail this thread and I agree, alot of good info here, but at the end of the day, there simply is no end all be all line like there used to be, there is simply lazy people, smart people and people who are comfortable with certain ways of fighting that they have come a custom too over the past year and a half that it makes it seem like there is no other way.
Skel@Butcherblock wrote: 8% Riposte only from the front, all other mobs attacking from other postions ie; Flanking and behind you get their attacks thrown up against your parry which also in turn adds 8% to your chance to Parry. How many zerkers/guards do you know that tank a mob with their back turned to the mob for a extra 8% chance to parry?! In the correct group/gear set ups Skel, its not real hard to push 2k+ consistantly with Dual weilds now.
The way that I interpret this is as follows: you have an 8% chance to parry from all quadrants.. BUT.. those parries that occur in your front arc are ripostes... therefore if you are taking hits from the front, not only are you parrying that 8% of the time (not taking dmg) you are also dishing it back.
