2H weapon sucks?

[old.Galieran]

Hi all, Im an arms specced 50 polearm, 42 thrust, rest in parry.
Polearm/thrust does good damage on chain mail(+20). But still my arms is very gankable in RvR.
I am considering respeccing to a sword and shield tank, only so I can get the 6 sec shield stun.

Should I do that or will the shield be nerfed in later patches?
An by the way, un what patch can we respecc?

 

[-frostor-]

i heard 44pole 44slash/thrust and 42shield is a v good spec

 

[Flimgoblin]

in 1.50 shield is gimped in RvR

in 1.52 it's still gimped in RvR (you'll block once in a millenia)

in 1.53 it's decent you block about as much in RvR as you do in PvE (little bit less as you don't normally have 8 opponents hitting you at once in pve... but you'll block a lot more than you do now)

your damage will drop a lot though....

 

[Khalen]

Originally posted by Fingoniel
in 1.50 shield is gimped in RvR

in 1.52 it's still gimped in RvR (you'll block once in a millenia)

in 1.53 it's decent you block about as much in RvR as you do in PvE (little bit less as you don't normally have 8 opponents hitting you at once in pve... but you'll block a lot more than you do now)

your damage will drop a lot though....

I wouldn't say shield is gimped in this version. I've fought Terminus one on one and he blocked some styled attacks from me...

 

[Flimgoblin]

Guess I should qualify it

Shield/Parry are gimped if your opponent is in a group ... even if the other 7 members are the other end of the frontier.. you'll still have very little chance to block/parry. (bug bug bug! )

 

[old.Galieran]

I am not thinking about the block, but only the stun ability.

 

[Duryn]

Im currently using 44pole/42shield/39crush/24 parry template and when fighting against a group that doesn't have BT nothing beats a polearm.
I've been tempted to change to 1hand/shield myself as it was easily the best for pvp, but for rvr I'm definately sticking with this template.
The damage difference is just silly, kinda like:
You attack (some midgard chain bloke) with your mace and hit for 127(-31) damage!
You wield the Hammer of the Stonewatch in both hands.
You attack (same midgard bloke) with your hammer and hit for 404(-103) damage!

And thats with the resistance aswell, speed of mace =~3.4,polearm=5.6 but the damage can rarely be compared on a damage/time basis between the two weapons I use in rvr.

 

[Glottis_Xanadu]

I feel it is key to note that you can buy the ra's, much more efficient that spending points onto it (unless you are going for a style). You start with a base chance of 5% blocking with shield, and each lvl adds 0.5% to it. Lets say you take it to 42 (for slam) and get 50 with items, that would result in a chance of about 30% to block an attack. Now add 3 lvl's of Mastery of Blocking, and you add another 9% to the chance. 40% blocking is pretty good, and along with a lot in parry (can get that up to 40% also with ra's and items for sure) you will have long fights when one on one. Increase damage output by using ra's to get Mastery of Pain up to a good lvl. The faster hit rate means more criticals.
Problem with slam is the end it takes, but as sword/shield I guess you have enough end. Each style uses a lot less end than a 2-handed weapon. I also feel that due to pbt it is interesting to use a faster hitting weapon, as with some poor timing on your side, the hits will be absorbed by a pbt when using a 2-handed polearm.
Only problem really is that most of the time in rvr you are ganked by some caster while instant stunned, so shield and parry will have little effect.
A good compromise might be 2-handed slash weapon, I believe Kiarra crafts a nice 2-handed sword, spd 4.8, and with some Mastery of Arms you can cut down the spd by about 10%, along with a hasten buff, that means about 25% faster hit time.
Pretty decent for decent damage output.
Regards, Glottis

 

[Flimgoblin]

Polearms will do 40% more damage than a one handed...

and they're in bigger chunks, over longer delays.

If you run in and go 'whack' once, then move on, big one is best. 3 polearmers will take down the target about instantly (the 6s delay doesn't factor in)

However BT and bad luck are worse for the polearm user than the 1h ..

blocking/parry won't work in the zergfest yet, in duels yes, in zerg no

and as the man pointed out - won't save you from stun nuke nuke nuke (although it will reduce bolt damage)

slam is a nice ability, but it can miss
(no to-hit bonus... apparently the to-hit affecting block/parry/evade is balderdash just a rumour that was thought to explain the no blocking/parrying in RvR, when it was a group bug, all +to hit does is let you hit easier - i.e. no 'you miss' when it's not bladeturn...)
and it burns the endurance

 

[Jiggs]

RvR is damage, these one on one specs are a little academic imo

in 1.53 the fix will make parry/block specs more interesting but atm you want the most damage in the shortest possible time, at the expense of everything else well almost everything else

 

[gunner440]

2h > all

 

[**Aligro**]

just an idea

would this work, buy a dirk and 2-hand sword and set up hotbar like this

1.2-hander
2.dirk
3.style
4.style

after hitting with 2-hander switch to dirk then F6 quickly, thus getting rid of blade turn with the fast wepon the quickly swapping back to 2-hander, i dont know if this would work but it's worth a try.

 

[old.Galieran]

Thanks for the replies.

And LOL a Dirk, it sounds like something ½handed.

 

[**Aligro**]

tis the fastest weapon, can you complain?

 

[bishibosh]

poles are slow as a monkey... but hard as a chimp, dirks are fast as an ape, but as weak as a bush baby.

 

[old.Kulthas]

Sword and Shield in RvR is pretty weak tbh - It rocks in a PvE situation, but enemy players just run behind you and smack you anyway. Slam's ok, but seems to cause a delay in your next attack and really burns up End. Go for big damage in RvR every time.

 

[Kagato.]

Problem is stun is going to get less and less effective with purge/detirmination (ok, more detirmination really), And switching from s/s to pole in mid combat wont be easy for the hybrid build above.

S/S (sword / Shield) is ok for one on one duels, but those are rare and treasured moments in RvR these days. And as said above, if the person you fight is in a group, even if the group are miles away, then your are totally bugged for blocking and parrying so you want the greatest amount of damage in shortest possible time.

For example, last night I fought an orange con celt in one of those rare and treasured one-on-one fights, he was using a fast weapon, no idea what class he was, and was doing 90ish damage, rarely over 100, but was hitting me twice as often, Im using a 5.5 speed partizan (thankyou kiarra) and only hit him about 5 or 6 times (and he used IP, I don't even have it) and killed him, doing well over 300-400 damage per hit.

Fair enough he hit me twice as often maybe more, but it can't stop the huge damage out-put of a two-handed weapon, specially a polearm.

I do however completely agree with the statment above about bad luck and pbt effecting us far more drastically then faster weapon users, but everyone has to have some disadvantage.

Before trying to respec I suggest you roll up a similer armsman alt and go sword/shield, take him to 20 and try it out in Thidranki, see if you prefer it anymore, it will only take a week or so but at least you wont gimp your main character if you don't like it.

 

[K0nah]

Hybrid shield/pole spec is the best RvR spec for an armsman. Quick unstyled wiff with the one hander to break bubble > Slam > whip out pole and goto work for ur free 9seconds of dmg. Also while shield is up your guarding ur casters/healers, bonus.

I'd go 50pole 39slash/thrust 42shield 6parry. Last pole style is a kicker whereas the 44 slash/thrust styles r kinda pointless and with SC u can get +11 no problem.

 

[Kagato.]

The last pole style can only be used after Phalanx though which can only be used from behind though right?

 

[Duryn]

I dont think the 50 polearm move would be worth the use of points, and with the right weapon/rr its easy to get 50 anyway (i have 49(44+5) and i rarely rvr(rr2)).
Parry will become more worth while as far as rvr goes in the future, and its very useful to have for leveling/any pve(i parried the dragon last raid ) along with high shield.
Personally I'm very happy that I chose a hybrid template.

 

[Kagato.]

Anybody know if the mastery of parrying RA doubles in chance due to using two-handed weapons like normal parry does? I mean does the 3% add after or get doubled too? If it doubles then its a fair old boost.

 

[K0nah]

Originally posted by Kagato.
The last pole style can only be used after Phalanx though which can only be used from behind though right?

How often u find yourself chasing ppl? or /stuck on some moose going for our casters? that large movement reduction is gold. Phalanx has to be used from rear, the follow-up doesn't.

True it gimps parry spec somewhat. But MoParry adds 3% per level = 6 trains per lvl, 2-3lvls of that RA +11 from items/SC + RR and ur back in the "decent parry" spec range. And u dont need parry when they're stunned

 

[Kagato.]

Personally I was planning on 50 pole, 50 thrust and 28 parry anyway, and a level or two in Mastery of Parrying.

Slightly of topic though what do you use for opening style in RvR ? Defenders Rage/Revenge, arguebly our best RvR styles, can't be used till someone uses a style on us, for simplicities sake I use poleaxe as my back-up but im thinking Crippling Blow might be wiser now due to the to-hit bonus etc.

I do hope they fix Poleaxe soon to make it worthwhile

 

[Ialkarn]

I consider the template:44 pole 44 thrust/slash/crush 42 shield
the most interesting for an armsman
and probably the only one which require a bit of skill to be played.
but if you want do it go slash
thrust one hand for an armsman is a bad choice:
you have not enought dex and the only decent styles are evade based or positional.
I max my thrust when I use my rapier and I still do a crap damage.
Also I m not sure I ll go slam cause a large majority of albion's tanks ll do it(you sure we need 200 armsman whit the same template?) and whit a sensible cost reduction for Determination and Purge the stun ll lose importance.

 

[gunner440]

imo slam sux for tanks, in rvr 8/10 times when i used slam it said xxx cant have this affect again yet bla bla. and it costs a LOT of end... slam maybe for scouts as they need it v assasins

 

[Jarahl Valinor]

My final spec is 50 slash, 50 shield and 28 Parry, true defencive Armsman... Yes, I can beat almost everything (except Bezerkers and Skalds, using Hammers) however, that is only in those 1v1 situations (Which never happens).... HOWEVER, I do have one of the most important jobs, I protect my casters... I put guard on my caster (Block and Parry are still nerfed in RvR, but Guard seems to be alot more effeciant)... So I keep my caster alive, he kills off enemies, and I still get the RP's.... However, alot of Tanks thinks this is boring, and runs off to get ganked... U want RP's? Stay and help your caster!! U want fun? Go to Battle Grounds!

 

[K0nah]

Originally posted by Gunnerr
and it costs a LOT of end...

Pally end regen... coming soon

200 Armsmen/Pallys with Slam could well be the answer to Albions prayers in RvR.

Determination & resists dont affect duration of Slam afaik. At least not yet...

 

[Kagato.]

Determination & resists dont affect duration of Slam afaik. At least not yet...

Really ? I thought it effected Stun duration as well ? Can't remember where I read that but im sure I did somewhere.

 

[K0nah]

It affects casted stuns not melee stuns (for some reason?!)

 

[g0ldenbone]

Not too fussed about the reason just happy thats the case.

That makes it the only stun not affected by resistance AND with a small shield it doesnt take that much endurance.

I just want a proccing shield now