Shield or no?

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Vaklen
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Shield or no?

Post by Vaklen »

This came up a little bit in guild chat. I carry both a great weapon and sword/shield to swap out depending on the need at this time.

At my current level of 26, my base DPS with a 2 hander is about 25-ish % higher. My block increase with the shield is at 19%. So, in RvR, I tend to always use the greatweapon as dps is king, unless I am running with the ball and want to stay alive.

Shields only block from the front, and there is a total cap of RvR to I think 75% max, regardless of what the percentage says it is.

I have not done any studies on it or researched much online yet for finding out what some others may have found, so I thought I would start a discussion here on it.

Do you carry both sets?

What advantages/disadvantages do you see using one or the other in your experience?
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Denauticus
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Re: Shield or no?

Post by Denauticus »

Vaklen,

This is a great question. Just this past weekend Elneiros and I were having the same discussion. Now, there are some aspects of the game which neither of us understand but with some testing we found some interesting results.

El was actively using a 2H weapon while I was using a 1H and shield yet in 85% of the games I was out dps'ing him. Now, of course this was in Tor Anroc and every game you play can vary.

So a few things to consider here. Your Renown build, (dps based) or (armor based) a lot of my renown points are in toughness and in strength adding both to my DPS as well as my armor base and damage mitigation. So far I have found this to be the best build with my career path being in Dread. Most people believe Dread is for 2H, which some of the points are but you can pick and choose were you spend you points. You can also consider a hybrid spec.

All and All, I have found that your select combat moves, the order in which you execute them in and with twisting two selected chants I have been successful from a DPS standpoint in PVP. If there was a single, hard hitting move like Execute (wow based move) that might change my perspective. For now, I am sticking with S/S.
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Vaklen
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Re: Shield or no?

Post by Vaklen »

Yeah. without a true DPS parser like I used in EQ2, it is hard to tell in a live arena such as the scenarios.

In your case above, there are way too many factors to deal with in considering why Play X did more damage than player Y. More D on the target, lag, I got batted into the lava, ect. In some cases I am usually top of the food chain in damage when not ball carrying.

My build is full Discord spec'd. My Renown points are in str and weapons skill. I use a blue lvl 25 2-hander. My normal for the initial charge into a group is to have the toughness aura going, then change to discordant aura after target selection, go in and Blast Wave, then Seeping Wound. Next is taunt and Ravage till they die or the blastwave expires. I rarely will redo a twist after that one wears off. Once I get the free twist, I will pickup the 25% lesser healing for enemies aura and twist that with corrupting and discordant.

I think I will test out the damages I do against a same level mob 20 + times. The average of that should give me a better look into what the percentage difference at my level is. I will go out tonight and get a coupel weapons with even stats and try them.
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Vaklen
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Re: Shield or no?

Post by Vaklen »

Using same level/stats (lvl 27 axe 1H and 2H). here is my results against a lvl 23 mob over the course of 10 atacks per:

1H weapon did 317 dmg per swing
2H weapon did 362 dmg per swing

2H has a base DPS of 49.3
1H has a base DPS of 34.0

Anyone else got any figures to prove out the differences in the post 30 arena?
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Re: Shield or no?

Post by Rythok »

Unless you are specced dread, I highly suggest fighting with a shield. Block is the best way to defend against attacks and it makes a huge difference. Also, the longer you stay alive, the more damage you can do.

Also, Vaklen, I suggest you switch your weapon skill for toughness (from renown), as your main damage skill (Ravage) does not do physical damage and so already ignores your target's armor. Toughness will allow you to stay alive longer and deal more damage.

Last thing, if you got the Tainted Wound tactic, I suggest you try and hit everyone with a Seeping Wound. That way, no matter who the enemy healers will heal, they will take damage, which forces them to eventually heal themselves and that in turn gives us all some more time to take out whoever we were hitting.

Hope this helps, and keep in mind these are only suggestions. I in no way want to force you to play my way.
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Vaklen
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Re: Shield or no?

Post by Vaklen »

Yeah, I have since respec'd to toughness since changing over. Using 2handed over shield is still situational to me though. It really depends if they gun for me or the squishies. Also, I got my own personal healer :twisted:

I have started using seeping wound every enemy I can when I run by as I get into their backfield, figured the tactic will hit the healers more as they try to keep them up and help me kill them once I get there.
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