Skald spec..

[korhal]

Hello everyone..
lately i joined you guys and having real fun in mid as a norse skald
problem i dont know what should my final spec.. i mean
44axe/44battle/rest to parry (21 i think) sounds great and all
but does the 44dd shout really worth it ?

becuase 50axe sounds nasty
and mabye i should do 46/46/rest to parry ?

really need your help
thanks.

 

[old.Max Payne]

44 weapon, 46 BS, rest parry.

 

[Meatballs]

50 parry 50 stealth

 

[old.Mousah]

agree with max, 46 bs/44 weapon,17 parry is propobly the best combination

 

[korhal]

hmm

so...
last dmg chant

and havoc is a good style ?

 

[SilverHood]

havoc is ace

usable in front of the enemy: get them to stick on you and walk backwards....

 

[Wend]

I had 48 axe and 44 battlesongs, and after some testing this weekend decided to respec to 50 axe and 43 battlesongs.

My testing, on mobs, reveals that Tyr's does about 25% more damage than Havoc, on average. The styles I use most (aside from Plague) are Havoc and Evernight so I'm really enjoying having the followup to Havoc. However, I seek out small skirmishes more than big rvr battles and find I often have to tank hybrids or even tanks where melee output plays a greater role than shout damage. If weaponskill plays a factor in defensive rolls as Sanya stated than it would also be marginally better to spec high in your weapon choice. Your mileage may vary.

However, Battle Howl does a lot more damage than Battle Scream. List values for Howl is 69 (cost 31) and for Scream it is 114 (cost 55). I'm getting actual differences of 60-100 between those two shouts, which translates to 120-200 damage if the fight lasts long enough for you to recycle your shout timer. That's a pretty good reason to get the last shout. Unfortunately many folks have high body resist, presumedly because healer mez is based on body.

I'm not even considering 46 battlesongs. The difference is 1.7 dps and in real world numbers that's not a whole lot. The biggest problem though is the short range of 700 on the chant. Also, I'm under the impression many Skalds do not even turn on the chant in rvr (yet they spec to 46). Even assuming all of your tanks are in range (unlikely) the difference between the 35 chant and 46 chant will at most be ~100 damage per round for the whole group, and that's a generous estimate.

As for parry, well some Skalds report good parry rates with a spec leaning towards parry, RA's and 1.53, so things might change a bit next patch.

Going 50 axe and 43 battlesongs fills a niche and is probably not the optimal spec in most circumstances, but on the other hand it's very fulfilling to have relatively high melee hits. If you just zerg in Emain, you should not go as high as 50 axe but instead get the last DD. On the other hand, if you're often in small fights, group vs group, then you could consider 50 axe.

You can take a look at the Skald TL boards http://pub36.ezboard.com/fteamskaldfrm1 for more info though. They've been debating the issue for aeons.

Styles- Evernight and Arctic Rift damage is comparable to Havoc and Tyr's but eat a lot less end, and are pretty easy to pull off too.

 

[Ragnarok1978]

Problem with debates on more weaponskills is that the results are so easily manipulated or based on luck ect.

Stick with the cookiecutter 44 weap, 46 songs, 17 parry.

Generally it is true chant of blood is not really usedin groups in rvr unless 2 skalds, but in pve it still has a decent benifit, at least that the opinion most I've spoken with have.

I recommend staying cookiecutter for versality, but you will probably get as many opinions as there are different templates

 

[dakeyras]

I respecced from Hammer 44/46/17 to Axe 50/43/2.

After having run with this for a week I found that I love Axe (will be much better with Shaman End buffs) but regretted going to 50.
I would love axe even more if there were more Hibbies about.

I disagree with Wend here. After trying it and reading the TL reports and TeamSkald site I lean towards 50 Axe being the 'zerg' spec and 44-46 weapon being the small group/solo/skirmish spec.

50 Axe does give some very satisfying results. Landing a Havoc/Tyr's (together with increased chance of critting from MoP2) can be awesome. My best to date with a 99% Arcanium Warcleaver was a chain of Havoc 376 + 37 dmg add followed by Tyr's 423 +37+ 192 crit on Saxif

Having said that, I have found that the chain cannot be used that often. To achieve optimal results you need to be head-to-head with a Hibbie scale wearer, and of the 4 scale wearing classes:

2 classes you don't want to stand toe to toe with.
1 class you don't want to be using a 2 hander against
1 class will most likely be running from you hence Evernight/Arctic Rift is better.

In fact, the only classes that are going to stand and face you all hit harder and have better defense...so for that reason I don't think the 50 style is worth losing 15 parry, the last damage add and the last DD, particulary when with Realm Rank and Spellcrafting weapon can be raised way above 50 anyway.

Both specs are viable but I now feel that respeccing to 50 Axe was a mistake and with 1.53 will probably be more so bearing in mind all other tanks/hybrids will get defensive boosts (as we will all have 50+ in weapon with items anyway the chance of having the 50 style blocked/parried/evaded is very high)