Friars - fun! But how to specc?

[Arlone]

I started a new alt a few days ago, Arlonie the Battle-friar. Now, by battle-friar I mean no points in rejuv at all (even if all groups think I'm a healer .. gah!).

I was thinking about going 47 enchant and 44 stick, but now I got my parry-skill at level 10 and I can't decide what path to choose.

With evade 5 (next patch or current?), high parry and nice buffs I would be a defence-dream But I also want to do some nice damage with the stick ... hum *ponder*

Any experienced friars that can advice in this, or just comment. Stick/Enchant, Parry/Enchant/low stick or alittle of everything (not too fond of multispeccing too much and loose in all areas).

Thanks,

 

[Addlcove]

44 staff, the 50 style sucks anyway
all the rest in enhance, and if anything is left after that throw it in parry

thats a battle friar

 

[1234Taz]

Can do it like this


39 staff /44 style isnt worth it because its a part of a 4 style chain which is impossble to do it RvR

45 Ench /For the last dex quick buff and last but 1 haste

15 reju /For 10% rez

23 parry /That will use every spec point you get all the way to lvl 50

 

[Arlone]

Originally posted by 1234Taz
Can do it like this


39 staff /44 style isnt worth it because its a part of a 4 style chain which is impossble to do it RvR

45 Ench /For the last dex quick buff and last but 1 haste

15 reju /For 10% rez

23 parry /That will use every spec point you get all the way to lvl 50

sounds like a plan, specially if that level 44 stick-style is chained after 3 other styles I know mythic are working to resolve such issues now (with alot of melee-styles that are useless) so hopefully they WON'T change the friar line then (I would go bananas if I stayed at 39 and missed a killer-style at 44).

Wonder if I miss alot on that last haste-buff and maybe should trade those few parry-points into 47 enchant ... *ponder again*

Thanks tho ... you have given me even more to think about *evil grin*

[EDIT]
I think I've decided for this template:
stick 39
ench 47
parry 19
reju 15
problem is that I will not spend points into parry or rejuv until I can afford it - that will be half-levels in the 40's. Groups will hate me for this

 

[old.LandShark]

Without wishing to impose my own views on you here, you ARE a healer. You are a hybrid healer, and as such you join a group with them expecting that you are at least able to drop out of a fight and heal a little.
That said; i may spec my own friar with very very little rejuv. I'll just feel guilty about it.

I would say that a maximum level for rejuv is 18. This gives you the 2nd rezz and a respectable specced heal, which will beat your baseline heals until you get the lvl 42 one. Even then it'll be more power efficient.
I would say minimum level for staff is 34, to get holy staff. Friar's boon at 29 does the best dmg our line has to offer, but has a strong taunt. Holy boon is the same style but without the taunt.
Minimum for enhance, well i suggest 44 for the last absorbtion buff. All my templates go for 47 enhance simply because i *WANT* that final haste. I would suggest that you do NOT go to 48 or 49 (or 50...) in enhance; matter resist at 49 is useless because only shamans use matter attacks (outside of albion), and 48 for the third cold resist buff is also not really necessary since next patch, leather armor becomes 10% resistant to cold.

As to speccing to 44 in staff for Stunning Wrath.... well, possibly worth it, but the benefit would be improved staff dmg rather than the style. A long stun style is great, but it's the third in a chain that starts from the side of the target. That's in 1.51 btw - atm the first style in that chain has a medium stun already, so in RvR you can't ever get the effect of the spec44 long stun. (1minute timer before target can be stunned again)


I r ramble
Bwaha

 

[1234Taz]

I did from level 1 to 10 kept staff one of my lvl and put the rest in Ench at lvl 10 I had 9 staff / 7 ench(1st dex/qui buff) 2 rej. Then after level 10 I still kept staff 1 of my level till level 14 and added the extra into rej and at level 14 I had 13 staff 7ench 7rej(for cure poison/disease) 0 parry.

Now I could pump Ench all the way till level 45 but at level 20 I had staff at level 18 2 of my level and kept it like that all the way till I got it to lvl 39.

So i did

Level 10

staff 9 / Ench 7 / Rej 2 / 0 Parry

Level 14

staff 13 / Ench 7 / Rej 7 / 0 Parry

Level 30

staff 28 / Ench 21 / Rej 7 / 0 Parry

Level 40

staff 38 / Ench 29 / rej 7 / 0 Parry

Level 45

staff 39 / Ench 38 / rej 15 / 9 Parry


edit to reply to LS! (this is LBU|Taz btw )

Alb Reju spec is crap even with the new fix's in 1.50 and 1.51 its still crap I wouldnt spec past 15/16 Rej and you can still heal quite good even tho sometimes its quite random

 

[old.Nim]

Might be worth going to 45 enhance so that in 1.51 you can get the new highest dex/qui buff that makes up for staff damage being based on dex not strength...

Best place to look at all the templates is http://www.drunkenfriar.com

Personally I have more rejuv, up to 25 because often my role is a healing one, and I didn't want to neglect that, but most stop at 15 or 18.

 

[Flimgoblin]

Once you've sorted out your destination..

get the rejuv first! it'll make getting there a heck of a lot easier..

if by level 30 you're still on 1 rejuv you're going to find it as hard to find groups as a smite cleric... (basically you'll be a damage dealing tank that can't tank in most peoples eyes... and a lot of people are too short sighted to see that 2 defensive tanks + 2 damage dealers (merc/two handed/polearm/friar/infil/scout) is far better than 4 defensive tanks)

 

[Arlone]

Originally posted by Fingoniel
(basically you'll be a damage dealing tank that can't tank in most peoples eyes...

Thing is though, that a friar with absorbation-buffs will have about the same absorb as chain, parry AND with the extra bonus of Evade 4 (or 5 depending on level and patch). They have less HP but with selfbuffs it's not that big diffrance - specially not since they won't get hit as much.

An armsman fully specced in shield and parry will ofcourse be the better tank, but then he'll not do the same damage.

Oh well...

It's really annoying that all groups I join automatically think I'm there as a healer. I will prove them wrong on this tho cause my heals suck and when things get tight I can't keep up and people die. LET ME FIGHT YOU APES!

 

[Flimgoblin]

You'll be like a merc I mean

cept less hp and I think slightly less damage over time (well definitely if you all have earth buffs or paladin chants or both)

get that little bit of healing, handy when yer in a tight spot.

 

[inqy]

filthy albs.

 

[Addlcove]

my friar has 14 rejuv, gives a nice steady heal of 170hp not enough for main but could for backup/panic

 

[kr0n]

45enh 11reju 39staves 25parry.

Tanks loose in melee.

 

[-faith-]

Post patch I specced as follows....

Staff-39
This gives the follow to counter evade which is invaluable when soloing and as friars shine at soloing its a shame not to !

Rejuvination-10
Mostly to get the cure poison and disease casts, was going to take it to 14 but at lvl 49 thought most of my healing days in PvE are over anyways Even so, I managed pretty well! Was sometimes dicey at a full trees pull as main healer but I hardly had deaths! Just a lot of close calls....not for the faint hearted

Enhance-47
This gives me the best haste buff, i think 38%(?) to attack spd, not positive it is worth it as I never tried out the haste below this one...I can say I dont regret it tho!All I miss from this line is the last 2 resist buff, which has been said before was hardly worth going 50 in enh. The endurance saver buff is magic! I never run out of end now, saves end by 25% and with end regen ticking... a tanks dream!

Now I had lots of points left after I had achieved what I wanted/needed in staff and enhance so I dumped the rest into parry.

Parry-26
In PvE I parry quite a bit...proud momment when I drew Afancs agro parried twice then evaded....before I had nice dirt dessert!

Dont regret this path....and with this you will use every single point so none will go to waste!

 

[deadparrot]

I was thinking about making a friar as my next char, was gonna go for :
47 Enhance, last haste
7 rejuve, cure poison etc.
44 staves, for extra damage
12 parry

I was wondering how good parry is in rvr?

 

[-faith-]

Originally posted by deadparrot

I was wondering how good parry is in rvr?

Giggles uncontrolably!
Lets just say I can count on me pair of hands, but I really think duelling will be a different story as most RvR squrmishes are to fast to land a parry..hell most of the time your lucky to land one style before getting mezzed/nuked to death! I had 10 in parry my whole "lvling" life, only really specced 26 once I was 49. But I read that they have fixed 2-hand parry, mistake in the codes where 2-hand parry was working off the enermies weapon rather than your own....cant remember which patch...my guess is 1.49 where all the goodies seem to be

 

[SFXman]

Originally posted by 1234Taz
Can do it like this


39 staff /44 style isnt worth it because its a part of a 4 style chain which is impossble to do it RvR

45 Ench /For the last dex quick buff and last but 1 haste

15 reju /For 10% rez

23 parry /That will use every spec point you get all the way to lvl 50

Exactly my plan... or was it... hmm... sure you get a 10% rez? If so I will go for that... only difference for the template I am heading for.

 

[Kagato.]

Erm, parry DOESN'T work in rvr, at all.

Its bugged, basically as it stands it does not let you parry styled attacks, and naturally with how brief most rvr encounters are, styled attacks are nearly all you ever encounter so parry is effectively useless in rvr no matter how good your chances to parry are !

I have heard however that this is meant to be fixed in the next patch, though im pretty sure I heard that last patch too so who knows.

But yes, the using two handed weapons doubling chances to parry in pve and normal attacks is fixed now at least so we're getting there.

Point though, with Evade 5 to look forward to is a high level of parry really that important to a friar ? Considering he is neither main tank nor main healer i'd rather get Rej up to 15 / 18 and only have the left over points in parry, specially now that parry is double for 2-handed users.


Just my thoughts on the subject, my alt is a low level friar too.

 

[Flimgoblin]

Styled attacks get parried...
(there's a whole hosts of logs to prove it on the (wh)ign(e) boards)

I'm a crazy fool so I'm going

50 dual 40 slash 40 parry when I hit 50

Parry and Rejuv will be more useful in lower level PvE rather than between 40-50 so if you get your parry and rejuv up higher to begin with then ignore them till 50 you'll probably benefit more from them...