Pole-specced Armsman END question.

[sendar]

Im thinking of speccing my current lvl 35 armsman, with an aim for it to look like this:

Slash: 36
sheild:42
pole:45
parry:25

What do you think?
Im planning on a Slam, Crip-blow then mangle combo... anyone had a go at combining sheild tactics with poles? does this work of does the massive end drain of slam mean there is not alot left for the pole-moves?
Im basically after a few opinions from anyone thats been a high-lvl pole char.
Thanks in advance!

Sendar Silvershadow

 

[Khalen]

Very good template. I noticed that shield in PvE is awesome to have (especially for soloing), but figured that one a bit late

But Slam and Cripple Mangle combo is worth it.

 

[Draylor]

Yes shield to 42 is an option with the current duration of stun that slam gives, but before you do this its worth knowing that in 1.51 (latest US patch) the duration of the stun from the Slam style has been reduced (halfed or worse if the whining is to be believed)

At 44 I currently have 44 polearm, 34 slash, 26 parry (or close to those numbers - not 100% sure)

At 50 I intend to continue the pattern: 50 polearm, 40ish (44?) slash, rest parry.

Polearm works nicely in a group with guard from a sword/shield armsman - why spec shield yourself when you can hide behind someone elses?

Your template is one thats very popular on the IGN boards, but I was never conviced by it for some reason. Ive trained shield high enough for it to be useful to me in PvE, and it seems to be working out ok.

Well apart from the fact that armsmen cant solo anything, and that I didnt know the benefits of slash/crush/thrust when I started, but its too late for that now

 

[-Light-]

Stop being so hard on yaself Dray ur a great armsman! WOO

 

[sendar]

slash to pole

The reason for this spec is I already have 30 in sheild. At the moment im a sword and board armsman (35 slash, 30 sheild), and im thinking of moving across to being a pole armsman. Being that this is the last chance I have without starting to gimp myself.
I can still solo well (can take yellows easy) however I miss the big dmg in rvr, and after my first few nights in the BG I notice that over about an hour, i blocked only a few times! So I dont really see the point in staying as sword n board. I like protecting my fellow guildies (shout out to all the D.E.I.) however I feel ill be more effecitve with more dam.
If they do nerf the slam style, I dont mind, as long as I got time for that crip+mangle afterwards (8-9 secs I think for these 2?).
plus, itl be a change in my style of play and almost like starting a new char Shame the standard slash pole animation looks more like "prod".

Sendar Silvershadow

 

[Solid]

Keep one eye on the US as respec is in the works, remember Mythic have said when respec is in, it will let you respec 2 complete lines down to zero and allocate their points as you please.

Sword/Board Armsman are best for PvE but aitn all that bad in Rvr either, sure you wont do massive damage, bout 130-150 a swing on a chain wearing level 50 tank (hehe Chavez's damage to me)

Changing to a polearmsman spec but with 42 Shield means at any one time a whole spec line will be going unused, ie when using Sword/board you points in Polearms will be usless, and when you switch to the 2H your points in Shield will be useless.

RvR is about mass skirmishes or at the very least group Skirmishes and very rarely about 1v1 fights, so swapping between 1h and Shield to polearm is gonan be niggly in most fights.

I dont play armsman as you can see from my sig, but it you will be sacrificing damage anyway with only having a weapon at 34 spec. On top of that Sanya has recently now claimed (some of what she spouts needs to be taken with a pinch of salt) that all thrust/slash polearms are 75% Str and 25% Dex based (opposed to her previous claim that they were all Str based

Chavez or anotehr Sword/bord Armsman may be better placed to advise you.

 

[Bodzilla]

slash/crush polearms are 100% str
thrust polearms are 75% str, 25% dex

 

[Arlone]

I would have gone thrust instead of slash if you're aiming to RvR a bit later. But if you already have points in slash that will be hard of course.

My guess is that after respeccing patch kicks in all lvl 50ish guys with slash will respecc to thrust/crush (except infils mayhaps).

 

[Arlone]

Regarding Solids reply...

Switching between shield/sword and a two-handed weap is actually very easy if you have quickbars for it. Only problem for me is that the quickbars are kind of small (why the hell can't we use number 9 and/or 0 in quickbars?!) but when I'm in trouble i switch to sword/shield with 2 quickbar-presses and then try to defend. Of course both polearm and crossbow are also in quickbar .. eek.

 

[listepik]

Quickbars is best used with keyboard. Ive seen a few players being notoriously slow, with their quickbar, and later discovered, its because they point and click.


My infil, has 5 bars in use, atm. shift + 1-5 change it, 1-8 use it.

(only saying this, because, apparently, alot of people didnt know this)

i stab with a big sword, then imediately change to a smaller one, for faster combo strikes, since the damage from the big one, is not worth the wait.

What i am saying is, that with training, and proper quick-bars, you can change weapons between two styles thats linked, and STILL use em...

a matter of training, so go with your sword/pole specc Seems alot more fun, than either one of them.

 

[kr0n]

Well, in this patch that should be ok spec. But id rather go 44pole 44(slash/crush/thrust) 42 shield and rest parry. But in 1.49-1.50 cant remember, polers get stun style. Which equals to slam. Then 50 pole 50slash/crush/thrust rest parry (enuff shield for engage ofc, or you will be archer food) is good, huge damage and good styles.

 

[Fightersuntzu]

IMHO i dont dump so many points into parry - with 20 skill i've successfully parried 4 times in RvR, ever. When an opponent uses an attack with a high "to-hit" bonus apparently it negates most all defending factors, thats parry, block......at least thats what ive heard. I dumped my extra parry points into xbow - most RvR is at a range anyway(well, big RvR ) so might as well put some dmg into it while you're at it.

As to polearm style - in 1.49 or 1.50 they change the Defender's Rage(level...35? style) from after a fumble(one of those uber rare occurences unless someones throwing dirt in their eyes ) to when a style is used on you. This move Chains into.....uhh....Defenders revenge? which has a 8 or 9 second stun inclusive to it.

and as a note:

ALL POLEARMS ARE STR BASED.

Yeah, when there was a 75% str 25% dex they were speaking about 2h weapons, ie, those picks and hammers and big swords, NOT polearms.