Character Creation: Armsman

[Tenko]

Ok, maybe Im hedging my bets here but I was thinking of this for an Armsman Spec.

2h-Weapons = 39
Parry = 39
Slash = 31
Shield = 42

Why (Is he mad or something I here you say) :uhoh:


2-handed and Parry are for doing that big opening damage (Doubler at 39) in RvR with some level of defence (parry), with slash at approx 75% of 2-H.

Shield is for when I want to really stun someone in RvR (Slam) and when you are simply guarding the mages and clerics in PvE.

I want to be useful in PvE AND RvR.

Apart from the choice of slash over thust/crush, what do you think?

Balanced or Gimped :uhoh:

 

[old.Hendrick]

I would go for less parry. If you want to be balanced and already have a good shield spec (essential!) then you should not worry too much about parry. I have 20 points there at lvl 40, and it really is enough for me.

In RvR, you will want to slam with the shield, then use the 2-hand weapon fro big damage dealing. I think it is wiser to go higher in 2-hand, maybe slash too, so you get another style in that line.

Also: Keep in mind that there are thrusting weapons for 2-handed combat too (don't know the name right now, but they do exist!), so to better hurt the middie scum, you may want to go for thrust instead. But then, that big claymore sword is just so nice...

 

[Shike]

In my opinion, 2hander is a very bad choice for an armsman, let the pallys handle those, since they cant use poles. Parry is not working well at all, and poles do more damage, simple as that.

There are 2 ways to walk the path as an armsman i think.

Defensive: Shield/parry/1hander (preferrably thrust or crush)
Offensive: Pole/parry/thrust or crush

why not slash? well, it is great in PvE, BUT it sux in RvR against mids, and mids are the mainenenmy atm, i'd guess 95% of the mids wear chain, and slash is not to good vs chain. Thrust on the other hand has bonuses vs chain and is neutral vs cloth, and crush has neither penalty or bonus vs any armor. so the optimal should be 50pole/50crush/28parry vs any enemy to get maximum damageoutput. Yes i know u get itembonuses so u reach 50 from 44 in skill, but then u dont do as much damage as possible, PURE 50 is better.

I have a 2hander armsman at lvl42, he sux badly, with 36 in 2hander, i consider those skillpoints thrown away, i never even used it with him, cuz i found out 1hander/shield to be a better combo even for him. And that is with lower skills in slash/shield/parry since i wasted some points on the 36 in 2hander.

Now i have a lvl39 pole/thrust/parrier and he works fookin great. Poles simply rawk. And he will be able do do a shitload of damage on practically any mid. He is not the perfect one in PvE, but still, the rawdamage he can do even with penaltys vs the most mobs he works well, both as aggroer and pure damagedealer in groups.

For soloing i simply go for the ones i know i have no penalty against.

I hope this helps somewhat, a good tip is: Use IRC, #daoc.prydwen is the mainchannel for Prydwen, there are lots of ppl there u can ask, and most of the time u get a motivated good answer.

 

[old.Hendrick]

An armsman can still be good with 2-handed weapons. It's just a question of personal preferences and style. Going the hybrid way seems very reasonable to me, as I don't think you get that much more bonus from going the last 5 steps in skilling. Another interesting thread about this is the hero-discussion in the Excal/Hibbie board. Will post link later.

The general question is: what do you want?
Well rounded and versatile? – Go hybrid as above
Damage a lot but not much other options? – Go pole all the way

 

[Tenko]

Ok... I like this

More questions:

1) How much better are The Polearms to the 2-handed swords/axes?

2) How common are magical THRUSTING polearms (remember going Slash and/or 2-handed You've got loads of good sword drops)

3) If going Polearms route would:

Thrust = 44
Polearms = 44
Shield = 42

be ok or should I dump something into Parry?

I do want to kill Middies (and Hibs as well I suppose) before they kill me but I want to be helpful to any group in PvE.

 

[Pixie.Pebr]

From lvl1-35ish you wont see many Thrusting Poles drop of note (at least I didnt), but after that there are a few nice drops.

Your lvl40 epic one got a nice Heat Damage procc, Grim Impaler found in Barrows (Cold dam procc), Raven Clan giants drop one too (not proccing, but with good stats). Those three will last you to lvl50, in that order.

In the meantime, get a high qua crafted one and enchant it.
Only reason Im not using crafted now is that the qua on the the ones mentioned is good enough + the procc/stat enhances.
--
You might also want to consider throwing some points into Crossbow.
I have found the points I put into it to be extremly useful.
For pulling you dont need it, even a miss gets a mob aggro, but when defending keeps it has been well worth the points, taken down some green/blue cons solo and helped in killing yellow and up.

To see my final char, click here

Note that I have 0 points in shield.
Instead they are splitted between Parry/Crossbow and I have maxed Pole and taken Thrust a bit higher than you.
Poles are offensive, Im there do deal as much damage as I can before I get killed (I get killed a lot, should I stop being the first to rush down in a charge?).
The Parry have only been useful in PvE and as soon as I am lvl50 and we can respecc, those points are gone and put into Thrust and Crossbow, leaving me with Maxed Pole and Thrust, 28 in Crossbow and a whooping 26 leftovers, spend them as you wish

 

[Gimly]

Originally posted by shike

why not slash? well, it is great in PvE, BUT it sux in RvR against mids, and mids are the mainenenmy atm, i'd guess 95% of the mids wear chain, and slash is not to good vs chain.

Well I now have close to 8000 realm points... not many compaired to some but then again I am still in my 3X's and most of them came from trolls in chain oh apart from the hibbie caster that was lvl 50ish nice 565rps.

 

[Tenko]

Final choice

Ok, considering my other chars. (max fire specced wizard, max rejuve cleric) Im going to go for a max(ish) thrust, max polearm Armsman.

I think you must push a char to its obvious maximum capability, if you want to have much effect in RvR, and Theres always those MANY other shield using fighters to do the deffensive work.

Has anyone got a reason not too though?

 

[Arlone]

Originally posted by pebr
From lvl1-35ish you wont see many Thrusting Poles drop of note (at least I didnt), but after that there are a few nice drops.

There are 2-3 drops of thrusting poles at those levels. But quality from crafted is still better.

Your lvl40 epic one got a nice Heat Damage procc, Grim Impaler found in Barrows (Cold dam procc), Raven Clan giants drop one too (not proccing, but with good stats). Those three will last you to lvl50, in that order.

How can you forget the best one! Stonewatch bill random drop in DM. Proccing, nice flaming effects (visable in 1.48) and great damage. Too bad none of our rare drops gor high quality though

You might also want to consider throwing some points into Crossbow.

Must disagree. Either you pull lots of points in it, or none at all. Going half way is not really any use (I wasted 12SP's in crossbow ... not going to put any more in it though and wish I'd saved those points for something else). Going high crossbow might be good tho .. really wouldn't know until we get a chance to respecc

Note that I have 0 points in shield.

I would recommend anyone to spend some SP's here, so you reach level 7 in shield and get the engage ability (90-95% blockchance when activated ... great for those arrows!)

Anyway, we all like to play our chars diffrently. this was just my oppinion. I have gone for very high pole, high thrust, mid parry and low shield (again: for engage ability).

Arlone Hammerfist
Black Dragonarmy

 

[Tenko]

Final spec is gonna be...

Max Thrust
Max Polearm
Rest in shield

Thankyou Everyone

 

[Arlone]

sounds like a nice specc. Doing great damage on first hit (600-700 i would guess) then switching to sword and shield to finish 'em off Too bad the thrust-styles really suck at higher level ... evade openings and such.

Good luck with your new armsman!

Arlone Hammerfist

 

[old.Wels]

Originally posted by Arlone
sounds like a nice specc. Doing great damage on first hit (600-700 i would guess) then switching to sword and shield to finish 'em off Too bad the thrust-styles really suck at higher level ... evade openings and such.

Good luck with your new armsman!

Arlone Hammerfist

Thats why I am going crush (hardly any bonus, hardly any penalties)

 

[old.Whismerill]

About shield : you will block 1% of style attacks against you in RvR, so is a mini-stun usefull enough to spend 42 lvls ?

About 2H regarding pole : no you dont do FAR much dmg with pole (tested with my lvl 50 arms)

You will have a respec so you will be able to test various cfgs. But its an evidence that a crush/thrust is the best against Mids. So what would be wiser imo :

You are about to start a char, so your aim is to reach the golden 50 right ? In order to you will need XP, so get you shield max as much as poss (to 42 - slam for instance) with some slash, and what you want around ; at 50, you will be a flesh-shield against other realms. Wait then till respec and then go full thrust/crush+pole.

At lvl 40 you cant do almost anything at prime time in frontiers

 

[old.GeForce]

I'm a lvl 43 arms that uses 2h slash, and frankly its pretty good, but if I had the choice again, I'd probably of went with thrust polearm (good for middy and hibby chain and leather in RvR).

as for the sword and shield, get shield up to 7, for engage, u only need it when ur facing snipers for blocking shots.

2h and polearm have got stun in they're moves and they do enormous damage, so you won't need to use sword and shield if ur weapon speed is fast with ur polearm or 2h.

Thrusting/Slash/Crush skill is also important when using polearm or 2h as it raises minimum damage so it is important to keep it to at about 2/3 of your polearm/2h skill.

so, if I was you, here is what I'd do,

Organise your skills according to what you want, eg, for a thrust polearm for a lvl 50 u want roughly...

polearm - 50
thrust - 35-40
shield - 7

in this case you have great damage and you can stun and slow down your opponent. If you spread out your points too much over different skills from what ur targeting, it becomes a bit awkward, so have a long think about what your going to use

hope I've helped and good luck creating your armsman

GeForce - 43 Armsman - RvR Leader of Britains Elite Army

 

[old.HiredGoon]

for the record. thrust has penalties against EVERYTHING but chain and cloth. 15% bonus on chain, zip on cloth

 

[Shike]

how is it with scale? i have no idea how thrust perform vs scale, does anyone know? i have searched some forums, some ppl say thrust has bonus vs scale, but i am unsure.

 

[- Pathfinder -]

Scale functions as plate, as far as resistances go, though the absorb factor is that of chain.

 

[Shike]

Slash - 15% advantage to leather, 5% penalty to plate/scale (hibernian tanks), 15% penalty to chain (midgard everything almost), no advantage/penalty on studded

Crush - 10% advantage to plate/scale (again, hib tanks), 10% advantage to studded, no other advantages/penalties

Thrust - 15% advantage to chain (most midgard tanks plus healer, etc.), 5% penalty to plate/scale (hib tanks), 10% penalty to studded, 15% penalty to leather

these are the numbers i've found, and they seem correct.

so it seems either crush or thrust is the best atm for a poling armsman.