Arms in hand to hand combat action...

[Osri]

Any room for one at group rvr at 1.81?

[Kagato]

The 1.81 changes are not actually that great for making Armsmen any more group friendly. A couple of nice things but nothing that will make you more wanted then a merc or pally.

[Bubble]

Yeah Pbaoe Purge sucks

[Righthandof]

id rather swap 1 merc for 1 armsman after 1.81.. aoe purge, very good resists, boosted det5+stoicism+capped resists = no need for charge.. and warlord line is a nice extra also.
(deffinately wouldnt pick out the pally for an arms tho)

[Arethir]

I'd trade a merc for the arms any day, slam and 2h in assist train is evil. Pala im not to sure, more depending on the player really. But if i first was going to remove the pala from group i would rather replace it with friar for resists and heals imo. However, i'd rather have Osri than some random friar at trial, knowing he would play it decent and dedicated.

[Turran]

Merc has banelord which is pretty nice for interupting the oppositions casting

[Arethir]

Originally Posted by Turran

Merc has banelord which is pretty nice for interupting the oppositions casting

Ye but you only need one if it's decent enough!

[Bubble]

I guess this would be a pretyy funky setup to try if all are good players-

Merc
Armsman
Friar
Cabbie
Theurgist
Sorcerer
Cleric
Cleric

[Argyle_Avendale]

Originally Posted by Arethir

Ye but you only need one if it's decent enough!

Yeah if you fight random grps, vs gg's you need more than 1 bl imo.

And fighting gg's >> random grps.

[Arethir]

Originally Posted by Argyle_Avendale

Yeah if you fight random grps, vs gg's you need more than 1 bl imo.

And fighting gg's >> random grps.

Right! That must be why guilds like PE and Maelstrom etc only run with 1 BL in grp!

And Bubble, that setup would be ace tbh If you have the dedicated and opted people ofc I'd also consider removing the BG totally for reaver, merc or third caster though! And having 2 x Warlord (cleric and arms) in the group could be very nice aswell.

[Osri]

Farming so Raterik rdy at 1.81

Will see how he performs then...

[scarloc]

Originally Posted by Bubble

I guess this would be a pretyy funky setup to try if all are good players-

Merc
Armsman
Friar
Cabbie
Theurgist
Sorcerer
Cleric
Cleric

Nice setup, one thats been discussed a lot

[Righthandof]

Originally Posted by scarloc

Nice setup, one thats been discussed a lot

merc+armsman is weak imo. if you go for tank group, get 3 mercs or 2*merc + armsman, otherwise it won't work. if you're going for caster group, 1 merc is enough. we tried hybrid setup with Punishment, and it didnt work too good.

[Manisch Depressiv]

Originally Posted by Righthandof

merc+armsman is weak imo. if you go for tank group, get 3 mercs or 2*merc + armsman, otherwise it won't work. if you're going for caster group, 1 merc is enough. we tried hybrid setup with Punishment, and it didnt work too good.

Why would anyone on earth want to gimp the group with 3 Mercs please?

[Manisch Depressiv]

Let me check for grouping in comparison with Merc at 1.81:

- 2-3 shoting casters with 2H Malice, in my opinion the damage is very good, at RR5 I ran Det4, AugQuickness3, MoPain3 with 401 strength it was nice, all this wank Merc >> Arms dmg wise is utter bullshit, go take a haste from a Theurg and an alacritous weapon and you will make every Merc jealous, my Arms has 101str/101con, 80 quick, 9/9/6 ToA without main weapon so it's pretty easy to build in and sick, you swing a 5.6+ speed weapon faster than a Merc his weapons,
- slam, 2H utility, crush artifact utility, also good vs Hibs, if you want to be an ass go Pole and perma snare someone with anytime style,
- massive hitpoints, good passive magic resists and shouts to increase that,
- CC deflection, semi-group purge (Purge2/Det4/Stoicism so does the job) make it up for charge I think,
- good new RR5 ability.

ML choice would depend on group setup. Throw weapon with 2H is quite funny to insta-kill casters that just just got freshly rezzed, BG works like a charm and will be even better in 1.81 with new RR5 and so on and Warlord ML10 is nice as well.