A Few Hero Questions

[vladamyr]

well ive made my hero, hes only lv 5 not done any speccing yet as i aint had time with x-mas and all. However it seems alot of heroes have gone 50 CS/LW 42shield and 39parry, i was however thinking about a 50CS 50Parry hero which also seems good, the only bif i have with the first spec is it must be a nuisance switching from shield to weopon in fights etc and with all the zerging going on it must be a total nightmare.

so any feedback appreciated.

 

[old.Gromnir]

Shield slam *stuned* BOOM level 50 LW style *2 and you got yourself a every wounded ememy.

or atlest thats the way I see it, would never have come up with such an idear myself

 

[Cernos]

If you go Celtic Spear and don't take Shields to 42 for Slam (and the 9 second stun), then you will have no 'anytime' way to stun an opponent in combat. Nor will you have access to a long duration stun as the only spear style with a stun comes off a parry and is medium duration.

Without an easily accessible stun your 'crowd control' options in RvR are essentially non existant. You will have no method to stun an opponent who is trying to run or trying to pull a special move on you. More importantly, you will have no method for getting an opponent off of a healer / bard / caster in your group (the 9 second stun can stop an attacker in their tracks and buy valuable time to save a ream mate).

Large Weapons do have a rear positional long duration stun. So, if you're going for 50 weapon, 50 parry, you might want to consider LW rather than spear. But that rear positional whilst very useful still isn't an anytime stun, and so many LW users still take shield to 42.

It really isn't at all hard to swap between shield and spear in RvR anyway, I do it all the time. I like running with my shield equipped anyway as it helps with blocking arrows and surprise attacks and means my stun is always ready in an emergency.

Remember that stun (whether with shield or off a weapon style) is the ONLY form of limited crowd control a Hero has. Don't neglect it or you'll get very frustrated in RvR.

Cernos
50 Celt Hero, Raven Ardent, Hib Prydwen

 

[Euthanasia.]

Well said Cernos.

 

[vladamyr]

cheers for the help
your points are Valid so it is prolly best taking shield to 42, ive also decided im gonna use LW

 

[old.Fenixen]

Tanks and hybrids - Use LW or CS in the beginning and slam at 25 % = you got yourself a dead enemy.

Mages and other weak stuff - Slam+2 CS styles and you got a dead enemy.

 

[eccho]

I quite like the idea of a do or die pure CS and parry specced hero and was thinking of trying this spec with my alt .

In saying that Ive ended up speccing him as a hybrid like Cernos and Aranor because of the utility of that spec and I like having shield for guard and engage and shield stuns are nice too.

Im interested in how much better parry will work in the upcoming patches and if they will work much in RvR. My Warden currently has roughly half parry spec compared to weapon with master of parry 1 and he parries like a demon in PvE and a fair bit in RvR too .

 

[Cernos]

Well, bear in mind it's pretty easy to raise your parry with items and realm rank etc.

My parry is only 20, but is an effective 45 with realm rank, items and MoP 2.

So, if you went for 50 spear, 42 shield, 39 parry, 6 blades, you could get parry to 50 very easily indeed.

When 1.54 arrives I'm going to have some tough decisions between 20 parry, 34 blades and 39 parry, 6 blades - it might be that I fight more with sword & shield more, because of the improved blocking, and so will want to keep blade damge high. Will have to see how it pans out in the heat of battle.

Cernos