50 skalds, your input please

[Ragnarok1978]

Well,

Since 50 isn't far away now, I have a few things to ask those skalds that are level 50 and participate in RvR alot.

I know I am not a tank by any means, but still I am a bit worried with just how low my damage output is, especially if I don't have my shouts ready. This could ofcourse be linked to the fact that most frontier people con orange to me still, but just how do you level 50 skalds feel about your RvR capeabilites aside from the song of travel? (I know speed kills, and I love my skald and all his versality but am quite honestly a little worried with my hitting for 1/3rd of what opponents usually do, hehe.)

 

[Henry-Vee]

1st up, when you are in the frontiers, always have your shouts ready! You might look at setting yourself a special RvR quick bar, with the main skills (mezz shouts & snare) all together.

When in RvR i like to go for the casters when at all possible. They hate Skalds the most. Your speed and good initial damage output is nice, and of course your ability to get stuck in quickly can go a long way to interupting them before they get a chance to offload thier goodies on you.

A lot of folks say Skald mezz only serves to provide an opponent with immunity to mezz once its been purged, and that considering the level of resists out there, and the relativly short duration of the shout its not worth doing.

I'm not so sure about that. If you get the chance, try and get a mezz off to an enemy tank before closing with a caster. RvR combat lasts longer than it used to, but not all that much longer

One good tip is to learn your frontiers as soon as you are able. Because you are the one with the speed song, you will often (although certainly not always) be expected to drive. I love this as it allows you the opportunity to dictate the target a bit more than if you are meerly /stuck on someone.

If you havn't done so before, using mouse look on the frontiers is a good idea. See your enemy 1st! Although always have a digit hovering over the 'm' key to allow you to target quickly!

Skald is a fun fun class to play in RvR. Owned by many, but certainly not all. Stick me on your friends list, and shout on me when we are online, and I'll show you what i know (which admitedly isn't much)

PS

The game is about to get a lot more fun so stick in there on those last few levels!

Your humble servant

Henryvee

 

[old.Hellskor]

Henry said about everything already, just a few more things ...
Get your resists up !
Especially Slash-Resist helps alot with Albs, Crush Resist helps with them Hibbies, just hard to get in Midgard.
Heat and Cold resist will help also.

Got 27% Slash resist on my (Norse)Skald, and got to say, you live far longer in bigger fights than without them.

Good items for Slash-resist are :

Agile Defender Bracer : 4% Slash +3 Parry some dex/str
Svart. Crafted Ring : 4% Slash +12hits +7str
Jade Moonshone Cloak : 4% Slash 12%Cold some other stuff
Frigid Glacier Skin (?) : 10% Slash 10%Crush +5parry (hard to get though)
Belt from DF : 4% Slash/Crush/Thrust
WoW Belt : 6% Slash/Crush

 

[Ragnarok1978]

Thanks for the info on what items to go for, I really do need to work on my resists badly, as they are pretty crap.

I got a pretty good idea of what RAs to go for and RR3L3 ain't far away being R2L9

What I mean about not having shouts ready is in regards to their timers. If I go head to head melee w/o shouts timer having run out, that's when I feel my damage output is too low.

I used to play a berserker on US back when they recieved their first buffs (More LAxe hits landing, berzerk being uber evil), but sometimes I seem to forget how far the game has developed since then

I am however, really looking forward to 50 when I get some decent armor (Epic, OoO), now I just need to look into those resist items and a good 2h hammer (Any suggestions welcome, hehe, use hammer of black ice atm, and crafted arcanium 1h hammer + reinforced chitin shield).

 

[Ottar]

I have a good news and a bad news.

Bad news is, you beginning your career as a RvR skald means you missed out the good old times when highest albs out there conned blue and hibs were the creatures of myth rather than clear and present danger.

Good news is, you are less likely to develop self destructive combat habits unsuitable in todays RvR environment.

In todays RvR, skald has 2 things going for him:

1. We have the most distinctive looking epic armor.

2. We are prettly low on peoples target priority lists.

This means if you are wise not to rush in first, you are likely to survive for long enough to get some RP’s.

Tactically, skald has 3 roles. Taxi, Fast Interceptor and GT (Gimped Tank).

Fast interceptor is actually the only in-combat role we are the best class in game for. Interceptor role is called for when the enemy is running from you and you are running after. Groups with minstrel RA Speed of Sound can get away from us but not all alb groups have this.

For effective pursuit, you switch on Sprint and rush after the fleeing opposition. You do not go after single targets. Loners you simply run past and let others (who are also following you n sprint) pick up those. If you catch up with two fleeing opponents, get really close to them. Then mez 1st one and snare 2nd. Speed drops but you will be most likely to catch the snared one. Then you pray the rest of your group will come and hel you finish off your catch.

Interceptor missions most commonly occur after enemy is fleeing from milegate camps.

Keyword here is Sprint. You and your group must make good use for it. Next patch Midgard will get shammy end regen buff. That with Long Wind RA will make the whole group sprint endlessly. Sprint + skald speed will become the normal tactical RvR speed.

As for taxi role, skalds do not make best drivers. Healers with their insta CC make best drivers. Skalds make best tailrunners. This means you do not stick to your driver but rather maneuver on your own when the group starts to move. Then you get stick on the last person in the running group (making you the last). That way group will stay together. Only people who can lose speed are those in front of you, they will slow and the tail will automatically catch up.

Solo RvR is for non-stealthers practically nonexistant. However, should you encounter a soloable enemy, the standar kiting technique still occasionally works. DD+DD+style, mezz, wait 20 sec, DD+DD+style, snare, run around for 20 sec, finish off your opponent. Problem is, it takes ages. Chances are his buddies will be on you with full group before you get halfway done with it.

In group combat, you can go after casters and be moderately successful in it. Best if you have good real tanks tho and can assist them on their targets (they should go for casters first too). People under attack are unlikely to switch their targets to you and your low hp and defense don’t come into play that much. Thing to do with casters is not to use your DD’s in pairs. Rather, use them 1 at a time. You have 4 instas you can inyterrupt a caster in addition to your weapon swings. Using DD’s in pairs means you only have 3 and mez / snare are on longer timer and may be better used for other purposes.

Good luck and may ya never lose yer voice

Ottar

 

[Jupitus]

<waves at Ragger (tm)>

<thinks it is time to recall Professor Ottar (tm) from active duty>

Get back to Albion for a de-briefing (Bodzilla will do that part) from our agents, Ottar....

 

[Solid]

Update on items mentioned by Hellsk

Accursed Belt of Might - DF - 4% Slash/Crush/Body +10 Str
Frigid Glacier Skin - +10% Slash/Cold +10 Con +5 Parry
Jade Moonshone Cloak - 4% Slash/Crush 6 Con 12% COld
WoW Belt - +13 Str +15 Con 6% Slash/Crush
shimmering Hauberk of Forlorn Souls - 12 Str 24 Con 10% Crush/Body

Also your Epic armour is great for Str and on and +hits which when capped on a troll Skald makes a massive dofference. You will hit bloody hard, especially when you get yourself a 99-100% Arcanium Great weapon.

 

[Ottar]

> <thinks it is time to recall Professor Ottar (tm) from active duty>

Don’t listen to him! He’s just trying to dirscredit me in the eyes of my employers in Hibernian Secret Service

> Jade Moonshone Cloak - 4% Slash/Crush 6 Con 12% COld

At first glance, this is one hell of a cloak. Playin around with various equipment will show you that if there’s one resist Midgard has in abundance, it’s cold. Been playing around with optimizing equipment and decided that of easily available cloaks, the Infernal Pyre Walker's Cloak (DF) is actually easier than to throw out other useful items just to get your cold resist down to 26%

Btw, a most useful utility to play with equipment:
http://theharms.org/daoc/sc-calc.html

Fairly limited selection of Midgard items atm but it aint tooo much trouble to key in the relevant ones oneself.

Ottar

 

[Jupitus]

<thinks TPT is trying to grab the Professor's title>

 

[old.Hellskor]

Originally posted by Ottar

> Jade Moonshone Cloak - 4% Slash/Crush 6 Con 12% COld

At first glance, this is one hell of a cloak. Playin around with various equipment will show you that if there’s one resist Midgard has in abundance, it’s cold. Been playing around with optimizing equipment and decided that of easily available cloaks, the Infernal Pyre Walker's Cloak (DF) is actually easier than to throw out other useful items just to get your cold resist down to 26%

it's not for the Cold Resist or the Con ... it's for the slash and Crush resist

I would prefer the Frigid Glacier Skin for the +10% resists and parry ... but consider the chance to get one of those rather dim.

 

[Solid]

I made this spreadsheet to help me optimise my items, you can subsititute your base stats and specs and skills for mine, add in Skald epic armour and your Realm Rank and Realm Abilities and voila.

Solid'sThane Setup

Tho I downloaded that Spellcrafting itemizer yesterday and was playing round with it, its truly cool, tho manually inputting all my accessories and stuff can be a pain, the maths engine is great and it does all the additions for me.

 

[old.Tbird]

Originally posted by Ragnarok1978
reinforced chitin shield

Dump that at once, for the times you need to go 1h get an Accursed Avernal Protector from DF for the extra 6% slash and 6% thrust.

 

[old.willowywicca]

Originally posted by Solid
I made this spreadsheet to help me optimise my items, you can subsititute your base stats and specs and skills for mine, add in Skald epic armour and your Realm Rank and Realm Abilities and voila.

Solid'sThane Setup

Tho I downloaded that Spellcrafting itemizer yesterday and was playing round with it, its truly cool, tho manually inputting all my accessories and stuff can be a pain, the maths engine is great and it does all the additions for me.

ooh someone get solid his optimal setup now.. he has less body and crush resists then

 

[Mr TNT]

dont want to make a big post but skalds r tanks great rvr players may be the best in my option.
er
dm output is good i do a good bit of dm with my axe.

 

[Ragnarok1978]

Once again thank you for all input. Will look more into all items mentioned here once I do get 50, 1.5 to go

EDIT: On a side note, I am a hammer user, and will most likely go pure 2h in RvR but am in doubt which hammer to use? Are there any semi-easy to get drop hammers, or should I go with a crafted arc. one?

 

[Solid]

Crafted Arcanium Great Hammer 99% Qua should set you back a cool 400 Gold. there is no better hammer unless you think you will be getting a Dragon drop anytime soon.

 

[Piffany]

Bad news is, you beginning your career as a RvR skald means you missed out the good old times when highest albs out there conned blue and hibs were the creatures of myth rather than clear and present danger.

I couldn't help chuckle at this, as a red/orange con Impact killed my cleric quite a few times back when the highest albs out there conned blue and hibs were the creatures of myth. In fact, Impact was one of the mids I learned to avoid first, as it's not hard to spot a brightly-dyed troll, especially not when he has a habit of chasing you like a dog on a car, only the dog being the faster

 

[Ottar]

> Crafted Arcanium Great Hammer 99% Qua should set
> you back a cool 400 Gold

Until you get that one, Black Ice is good enough. Its actually quite close to the 99% crafted one.

Ottar

 

[Ragnarok1978]

Hehe Piffany, those were the days

Will prolly use my HoBI till 50 then, and get a crafted for RvR.

 

[dakeyras]

Hehe

My first 'meeting' with Impact was back in the days I was Setanta. We heard a troll skald was terrorising the Gorge so Locomo, Usp, Tradolf and I summoned Devlin to provide speed and set off in pursuit.

Caught him by the curmudgeon camp and I got to try out my brand new mines drop spear

 

[Ragnarok1978]

You sure that was me mate?

I don't see you listed as having any hib chars, hehe Delete and switch realm, or?

 

[psychoid]

My thoughs of skald RvR versatility is.
Having a 6-7months old lvl50skald and about a year since i created it.

stats/eq.

Skald epic armour is very STR/CON based.
In fact my skald gets his STR capped by epic armour alone, he is a Norse skald btw.
The rest of my EQ has been to get resists QUI/CHA/DEX in that order aswell.
My skalds STR is gimped being capped at 173.
Thus i bet 3lvls in aug str now having 191str. the dmg output increase in noticable.
Thus starting off with a Troll skald isnt a bad idea.

Parry/dex.

This is what counters my tatement about troll skald.
Parry will make more difference in RvR.
In fact i have noticed more parrying in my skald.
That is also why i have bet more into it.
I have 46/44/17 BS/Axe/parry.
And having STR and almost CON capped.
I got the possibility to get EQ that boosted my DEX/QUI some.
I have aprox 153dex, near cap.
And 109 QUI.

I notice getting somewhat higher evade/parry count. parry especially.
EXTREMELY much more noticable in MOB fights.
And more noticable in RvR.

DMG output.
So.. what shall you do. Go crafted or lower quality dropped weapons.
I go against the stream somewhat in this.
I have a 99% Great Arcanium Cleaver by Jimli 99% 5.4 spd
And have compared to Ghastly axe numerous times.
And i keep slipping back to Ghastly over over again.

Dmg output is so slightly higher that i cant defend the loss of the stats on the ghastly axe.
+2 axe +2 parry and +7 dex, +7 str my str being capped though.
And 90-100dmg proc on a quite regulr basis. cold dmg.
effective dps 15.0 and a nice bonus to dmg.

The new crafting skills will fix this, and then you will notice great differences.

So RvR how do i do?

Well i do OK, even though i regret my choice of PURGE instead of IP.
I keep loosing fights to classes i shoudlnt loose so easily.
however on fair and on even turns staged duels.
Which btw is ended b4 killing blow.

I do fine, fine indeed. I have taken many classes, even Heavy tank classes.
Worst classes to face is Friar and merc. havent dont to much hib duels though.

In big zergs i also do fine, having such high maneuverability skills/speed.
Key is, stay close to the core of the grp if any, your speed is essential.
Turn on your dmg chant when clashed into fights, the extra dmg output equals 2 more members in team.

Spread out try not to stay in a big pile of easy mezzing crap.
Stay on edges, use your speed to your advantage.

If the clash is unavoidlable, you will be a great asset.
Get a interupting snare on the casters/mezzers and a mezz on another and kick the casters ass.

Use the DD STYLE 2-4sex DD STYLE tecnique.
This should make shure you dont get stunned/mezzed by that caster.
And by that round alone the caster should be dead.
Next assist fellow midgarders by hitting on the same target. as they.

Remember defensive skills are position based, if you stand behind a enemy that a fellow mid is fighting you are less likely to be evaded/blocked.
Save your DD you need it to interupt casters, only use to finish off dmged enemys.

When chasing the fleeing enemys, use the tactics descibed above.
Sprint past some snare one far away and mezz someone closer. and go for the snared one.

Well in short this is all.

Realm abilitys i think ill bet on is:
First aid 2
IP
Aug str 3
Tireless all i can get.
and possibly long wind 2-3 to sprint out of danger.


Skald however gets a bit monotomous in RvR.
Thats why i am lvling this char atm.

 

[Solid]

Really cant see the point in a skald worrying about Dex or Parry, you cant spec it anywhere near to a useful level, you dont train dex with levels, the best skalds dont have high Dex (aka Norse/Trolls) and tbh Parry is a poor defensive skill. chance to parry is halved with every additional opponent engaging you.

Base 5% chance to parry, 17 Parry = +8.5% from spec, at RR5 with approx +4 Parry from items (aka +8 total) thats still only 15.5% chance to parry. I would not be worried about boosting stats on a skill that is not very effective.

Skalds are all about Frontloading damage, their most important stat is Cha, it trains every level, it directly effects their power pool and damage, its a big chunk of their frontloaded damage.

I would only dump spare points into Parry, weapon skill is way more important imo.

Add to that the fact defeensive skills suffer in group based RvR combat because all offensive melee is granted a tohit bonus == normal x #in group and defence is not. ie fighting someon in a 8 man group you parry is 1/8th effective, 2 people attacking you means its 1/2 x 1/8th effective, so 1/16th.

I would cap heat, body, cold, energy as key resists, cap cha and Con and +hits, rest is a bonus and should not influence you item choices much.

 

[Sarnat]

You will only get the 1/8th of your parry when exactly 8 people are attacking you in melee. And if you get 8 on you, you are dead.

This was fixed in 1.53 or was it 1.54 on US. The parry and block rates are now exactly as they are in PvE (styles have some impact on this).

So parry DOES work. However I wouldnt put more than ~15 points into it as skald as you should spec 44 points into weapon or so.

Solid is right about the stats. I'd probably try max str/con/cha/qui and the resist he mentions. Qui is a tricky one tho.

 

[Wend]

Originally posted by Sarnat
This was fixed in 1.53 or was it 1.54 on US. The parry and block rates are now exactly as they are in PvE (styles have some impact on this).

Arguably. Unless you've tried this on the US servers and can confirm it yourself. By all accounts, the rates are still not as good as they are in pve, from what I've read. There were quite a few logs posted on the subject after 1.53 went live. Seems the group bug related to defensive rolls wasn't fixed either.

Of course I don't really know, only going by what is posted on various forums.

Also as far as I know it is still unclear how defensive rolls actually work. Sanya stated weaponskill plays a role here and Skalds do not typically have high weaponskill (I'd guess they have the lowest weapskill of all viking classes). Which would be even more of a reason not to spec parry.