respect to the Arms

[geeza]

This may be old news, but watched kagato,s film, and well impressed, nice 1 m8, never thought id see a pole do well in RvR, But that's because i was brain washed by other so called more informed experienced playes, when i made my first ever char, ( Arms ) was advised to go hybrid pole / shield
and to see Parry ftw in RvR was nice, why peeps say its crap, seeing u parry so much, in ur fights well that goes against the in crowd lol.
My spec is 48 +12 pole 34 i think ) +12 crush 42 +somit sheild but only 27 + 3 parry because peeps say parry's crap ( oh well )

ok this is a ok spec for Pve with slam n guard etc, but to witness a full pole kick butt was awesome, I can only imagine this has taken time n dedication, to reach a lvl of ubberness, and a lot of frustration along the way.

How do u fair against ranged attks, archers n caster's , have u spent points on sheild for engage ?

are u ml 10 ? and what RR ? 8 + i should imagine,

i wont go down the Arti rd, but would love to see ur template , non arti temps especially arms, was it expensive ?

Any way m8, seeing that has made me consider dusting down my sluggy

ps. ny know if a friar can fare as good , heheh love my friar, maddison

ps. plz do not use this to flame ny old threads thnx..

 

[Fellavader]

Agree, I was prompted by my friends to watch Kagatos movie after I rolled my arms, and I can only say that it really inspired and motivated me.

I think it is best to let Kagato answer your questions himself, but what I *can* say, is that he is RR8 in the movie..

As I have been struggling with my template for many long and frustrating hours now, I would also love to take a look at his template, however I think I recall him stating in another post that he did not want to show it because it was specially geared towards his spec and playing style.

However, my reasons for wanting to see his template are not to make a copy of it for my own arms, but rather to

a) Get some ideas as to what items give the bonuses that are needed in a non-arti template (which I am going to use), and

b) to see what parts of ones template are the most vital and should thus be ones first priority when making one..

(and btw seeing his movie, his playing style reminds me of my own )

Well, enjoy your armsman mate, I certainly am enjoying mine, even though he is still only lvl 43

 

[Bracken]

How you spec is dependant on how you intend to play. Personally, hybrid 50 2H/ 42 shield / 39 thrust has served me very well over the years as it's a good versatile spec that is nice for both offence and defence in groups, though is limited for soloing. Some prefer to play with low shield and higher parry, which is particularly nice if soloing as well as in offence in groups. I would say the first thing to do is decide how you want to play, then work out how to go from there.

 

[Belomar]

Enough stroking of Kagato's ego tbh!

 

[knighthood]

Enough stroking of Kagato's ego tbh!

Stroke Jimmytheposts instead hehe

Gotta say though he's right for an arms Kagato is amazing, I think Lazza is also uber

 

[Flimgoblin]

don't spec 50 crossbow (unless you're insane - then it's great spec).

 

[geeza]

hehe, stroke were stroke is due, this guy has dedicated much pain to reach this lvl, with an old skool class,that every one run away from, to play the more realm point friendly casters, ;p . imo this guy needs much stroking ;p

as does ny body struggling to keep the realism of medevil fantssy battle,alive.

i just wish more peeps embraced the pole user into there RvR set ups, tbh.

#Keep old skool alive, embrace a polemen # :worthy:

 

[Belomar]

There are 11 other classes which are just as "old skool", though.

 

[Legaen]

Get ur fecking merc done, then i'll let u play ya arms!

 

[Kagato]

Ok a few things to go through here and a few points to make, so in no paticular order i'll work through them.

Thanks for the comments on the video, to be honest, I did not think the fights were that good compared to some that I have had, but you never get the ones you really wanted on video, and most of my fond ones were in OF. I wont make another video till after next patch if at all, but i'll spend more time on it if I do, this one I rushed as I was expecting cluster to happen alot sooner and I wanted to have it finished before all the names
changed and the new faces arrived.

But don't expect the music to get any better I was tempted to use chesney hawks and I still might if pushed.

Hybrid is probably the cookie-cutter spec at moment but as already mentioned, its all about what works for your playstyle. Personally im not willing to spend hours yelling LFG when I know I can go out and look for trouble myself, I do group, but only if I invited and I feel like it, or if its a siege. And my spec allows me to do this, before hybrid was the better for grouping.

That at least is the old arguement, personally I think with the way RvR has evolved that theres less point in hybrid then there used to be. Guard is nice but heavily overshadowed now by Bodyguard, and you can Bodyguard just as well with a crossbow in your hands as you can with a shield, cause the enemy will be hitting you, not the person your protecting. With this in mind your only point in that situration is to stay alive, you do want high defense, but parry will serve just as well as shield, if not better as the majority of 'damage' biased tanks are dual weilders and Parry suffers no penalty vs them, unlike shield. My point here is even as a BG bot you do not need to be hybrid.

That leaves only 2 advantages to using a shield, blocking arrows, (always a nice thing) and Slam, Slam is and probably always will be an issue, but with purge being on a shorter timer in NF and with stun feedback etc, its still not as effective as it used to be in OF, Blocking on the other hand with fotm archers is still nice, but I havent met an archer yet that could do much harm before I can close the distance.

Now, im not saying people shouldn't still spec hybrid, it does have good points, and its alot easier to make a template for, but I think its in black and white that it is less of an advantage then it used to be since BG was introduced, and I certainly wouldn't encourage anyone to change spec if there happy as hybrid, play how you feel comfortable, I hate changing spec's myself as well.

Now to answer some questions.

As mentioned above, against archers, its never really been a problem, a lone archer wont do much harm before you can close distance, and if I remember I will switch to shield on the off-chance i'll block something with about 3+7 shield, but 9 times out of 10 I wont remember or bother too, and then 1 of 3 things will happen, he/she will run away, and you can just Snapshot them until they have to either dye or face you and die, or they will stand ground (and probably FZ) and fight until low and then run away and be snapshot killed, or more often then not their SB/NS buddy will pop up half way there, and Vanish before dyeing so you can finish of the archer if they havent run yet.

Next patch i'll change to Snapshotting as I close the distance, seeing as it becomes uninterruptable, so I can start the damage out-put earlier.

Only time archers can be a pain is if they are ontop of a bridge tower, and the only issue there is it being easier for them to escape, and of cause some rangers seem to be favouring melee spec now, which is just lovely for us

Spellcasters are far to varied to talk generally about, a MOC caster with an army of brittle guards who catches you at clip-range is trouble, if you get the drop on them with no brittle guards in melee, there dead, theres alot of If's & But's inbetween, most of the time I call it 50/50 depending on class and how flighty they are, flighty ones are good for snapshot.

I am ML10, and Warlord spec, which again comes down to play style, if you group then BG will make you more versatile to the group, if you want to survive without support then Warlord is essential, it comes down to Warguard and Bodyguard basically, both powerful abilities but you have to make a choice. I treat Warguard as old-school Soldiers Barricade for free.

So much of it comes down to how you want to play, it took me a couples of years to see how I wanted to be and Kagato evolved around this idea, tweaking him as it went, once I identified my playstyle I adjusted him to suite with RA's and templates to support that idea, and quite accidently the spec turned out almost best for this, the only change I made was going from 50/50/28 to what I have now which was simply to take advantage of RR to boost my active defenses.
And again parry just so happens to be the best option for solo, which worked out nicely for me, seeing as most enemies you are likely to encounter solo are dual weilders, with the exception of Skalds who are not as fotm for solo as they used to be.

You can solo as hybrid but your either going to be trying to do damage with no active defense, or defending with your main damage spec wasted, and no stealther will attack a shield tank unless purge is up regardless.

Ahhh templates,

I have never, and probably never will, post my template on a public forum, the few templates i've put on guild forums I havent even used either, for many reasons.

1) Enemies, its not really wise to flaunt your advantages and weaknesses in forums all three realms can read, specially when some people carry a variety of LGW's to pick from. This is the exact same reason I did not include my RA's in the movie, I wasn't even going to include my spec originally.

2) RR, my template is designed around my spec, which is designed around my RR, you cannot copy and be effective with my spec unless your RR8+, of which theres only about 2 other active Armsmen around, both of whom are hybrids anyway.

3) RoG's, theres 2 high quality rog's in my template, my pole and my belt, those rogs cannot be copied or replaced, so the template is pretty useless without them.

4) Longevity, The next expansion comes out soon, anything you do now will probably have to be changed for that expansion anyway, and indeed my own template I am changing after next patch, so even if you could use it, you'd be using an out dated one.

5) Perfection, the template im using is a butched version regardless, I had a template done orginally for a different weapon and then found a better one, and did a quick-fix job in order to use it, the result is obviously useable, but far far from perfect. But the differance was not enough to warrent recrafting all armour for it when I already plan to change.

6) Personal, my template is me, I hate to seem selfish but I consider it part of my identity in game and that makes it personal

But to help you on your way, I will tell you im using Legs of the Subjugator, Hammered Metal Vest and Smoldering Vambracers, 3 crafted armour parts and a mix of Summoner Jewellery and ToA Jewellery.

The polearm is a MP Crush Alacritous Polearm, its not for sale

When making my templates I usually include the weapon and key armour first, then work around that with jewellery, my aim is always to reach strength cap first, gain my +11 to all 3 essential lines (pole/base damage/parry) and then get as much con/hits cap as possible being realistic as to how many slots are left for reaching those caps. If im not happy, I start again or switch items around some more. Dex I like to keep as close to normal cap as possible, quickness is lowest priority but still desireable. Im not happy with any resist being low, but spirit is least concern, to me at least, some may disagree.
As I mentioned in the other friend, +All Melee items are your friend, its much easier to cap your stats when you don't have to worry about both polearm spec and base damage spec, if you can gain +11 All Melee, your fixed up and off to a good start.

Its not essential to max your parry as a rule, but to me, I wont accept anything less in my template, but to bring that into perspective, my current template cost me probably 60-80 plat total, which is cheap by ToA standards, and its what I use in the video, and its got flaws in it for reasons I already mentioned, the next template im working is costing me 3 or 4 times as much already, and the differances between them are very very minor, hardly noticeable, so you do not have to go to such lengths.

Regarding your last question, im personally suprised theres so few friars around, given how powerful Static Tempest is and how useful matter resist buffs are now, i'd like to see more around personally.

 

[geeza]

ty very much for ur reply, my pole swinging friend, mny good good points, to help me, and im sure other's along the way : )

good to see u mention static tempest, for friars , this RA i have on my friar, along with iP . purge nxt, prolly, only in leirvik atm, so long way to go to reach the dizzy heights of rr8, my problem is i like to play to mny alts lol.
and as my fellow GM mentioned, not consentrate on my Main RvR templated char ( merc )

get me GoV leggy and templates done, ;p. apart from lvl'ing arti's n Ml's 6 to 10

 

[Golena]

2 points.

1) I know bodyguard doesn't work for scouts while shooting their bow, therefore i'd assume the same was true of armsmen weilding an x-bow. Resist the urge to impersonate flim while bodyguarding.
2) Stun feedback I don't believe works against melee stuns, only castable ones, so this isn't a reason for slam being less effective.

Very nice post tho

 

[Kagato]

1) I know bodyguard doesn't work for scouts while shooting their bow, therefore i'd assume the same was true of armsmen weilding an x-bow. Resist the urge to impersonate flim while bodyguarding.

My point was that BG is just as effective no matter what your spec, weapon or preferance, crossbow was just a wild example to illustrate this, im not seriously trying to convince anyone that using crossbow whilst bodyguarding is a good idea.
Having said that you can parry just as easily with a crossbow as you can any other weapon, silly but true.

 

[Flimgoblin]

crossbow bodyguards are uber! (honest)

Personally, I feel quite safe posting my template as I know there's not likely to be anyone mad enough to use it plus it's usually not the template I wear but the one I'd like to be wearing, so my resists are all over the place. (and if anyone changes thier playstyle to try and kill fingzor they're either insane or I'm honoured )

Obviously different if yer a high RR scary person

Charge might be what you're thinking of with the stun feedback kagato - so many vamps shrug off slam with charge