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I switched from DW to 2H and my survivability went through the roof
EramTheLiar
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Keep in mind that I am not a top-tier player. I know what weaving is, but I'm not great at it. I know what rotations are, but when I get deep into the middle of a fight I wind up losing my place, finding myself on the wrong skill bar and wondering why I keep firing endless hail over and over and over again instead of the spammable. So this is definitely not a "2H is better than DW" post because even if my build was meta I haven't developed the skills/manual dexterity/reflexive knowledge of rotation and weaving in order to call anything I do "optimal."
Anyway, I've been playing a stamina necromancer for a while. Most of the stamcro builds I see tend to focus on DW/Bow, and I'd always hit a wall when playing them. I'd do fine with the majority of the overland content. Public Dungeons were ok. I could squeak through Maelstrom Arena on normal mode, but forget veteran. I was able to do a few of the normal dungeons, but they were tough going... and I'd _always_ die on world bosses.
I was pretty sure the main reason for this was that I'm just not that good a player, and that's probably still the main reason. But also, these online builds that reach their peak efficency when you have perfect arms of relequen and a monster set and amulet and rings with the bloodthirsty trait and a perfected maelstrom bow and gold food and anyway the point is my gear isn't that. I was occasionally able to replicate the "if you can't find that stuff, this might also work" tier. But I kept dying...
And it would happen one of two ways: I'd run out of stamina, and be unable to get that stamina back, or I'd get freaking stunned and be unable to break free because I'd run out of stamin--OK, essentially it always happened one way. I'd run out of stamina. Heavy DW attacks aren't terribly effective at getting stamina back, even when you put CP into it.
So two days ago while I was in Craglorn I got so frustrated dying from the overland bosses (since defeating the overland bosses are actually PART OF THE QUESTS, argh) that I thought I'd give 2H a try. I'd played around with it enough to level it to 50, and spent a little time just fighting random stuff to morph to Cleave to Brawler and Momentum to Rally. And then I set off to challenge the Craglorn world bosses...
...and I didn't die.
Well, I died occasionally, when I did my classic "hey I seem to have forgotten what bar I'm on" self-finishing move, but when I kept my head I wasn't even close to dying. I then went around the old neighborhoods and took on every overland boss that had ever killed me as a DW and I managed to defeat them, too. I even managed to mostly hold my own against that stupid gargoyle and his minions in Rivenspire, who usually killed me in the first 10 seconds of the fight (I didn't solo that one, a few other players jumped in when I was about a minute in). And also I have Stampede as my closer, which is really nice when I find myself snared/slowed by some stupid minion.
Basically I'm using Stampede, Brawler, and Rally, spamming Brawler when I can't fire off Blastbones. Brawler isn't one of the bigger damage attacks but it's AOE cone, and the damage shield isn't large to start, but it can get decently high if you attack a crowd and it refreshes when you attack again so it's providing consistent mitigation while I deal out consistent damage. Also the stamina regen passives in the skill line (and from Rally) noticeably prolong the gaps between heavy attacks -- and the heavy attacks return much more stamina than the DW ones do, and they don't seem to be any slower.
I've also found that Ravenous Goliath is great to use when I finally do run out of stamina and need to heavy attack a few times to get my bar filled again. And despite the fact that it prevents you from regaining ultimate while it's active, using blastbones and siphon a few times will bring the bar up pretty quickly I've been playing with a 2h sword with the Decisive trait out of curiosity, to see if it helps bring bar up faster. Jury is still out.)
Oh, and I find Rally a much more useful heal than Vigor.
I also play a stamsorc who uses DW without any issues, but stamsorcs get Dark Deal, pets, Critical Surge, and the new Crystal morph which I find really useful.
The only downside to it is that since switching to 2H I don't use Ruinous Scythe or Blastbones any more. They're fun powers, but Blastbones just gives you damage with no defense and Ruinous Scythe has a decent heal if you hit enough people, but the combination of Brawler's shield then switching to Rally for the heal and to refresh your damage boost generally seems to work better.
Anyway. I'm still not going to be carving out any leaderboard spots in the near future, but it looks like I'll be able to finish these Craglorn quests!
Anyway, I've been playing a stamina necromancer for a while. Most of the stamcro builds I see tend to focus on DW/Bow, and I'd always hit a wall when playing them. I'd do fine with the majority of the overland content. Public Dungeons were ok. I could squeak through Maelstrom Arena on normal mode, but forget veteran. I was able to do a few of the normal dungeons, but they were tough going... and I'd _always_ die on world bosses.
I was pretty sure the main reason for this was that I'm just not that good a player, and that's probably still the main reason. But also, these online builds that reach their peak efficency when you have perfect arms of relequen and a monster set and amulet and rings with the bloodthirsty trait and a perfected maelstrom bow and gold food and anyway the point is my gear isn't that. I was occasionally able to replicate the "if you can't find that stuff, this might also work" tier. But I kept dying...
And it would happen one of two ways: I'd run out of stamina, and be unable to get that stamina back, or I'd get freaking stunned and be unable to break free because I'd run out of stamin--OK, essentially it always happened one way. I'd run out of stamina. Heavy DW attacks aren't terribly effective at getting stamina back, even when you put CP into it.
So two days ago while I was in Craglorn I got so frustrated dying from the overland bosses (since defeating the overland bosses are actually PART OF THE QUESTS, argh) that I thought I'd give 2H a try. I'd played around with it enough to level it to 50, and spent a little time just fighting random stuff to morph to Cleave to Brawler and Momentum to Rally. And then I set off to challenge the Craglorn world bosses...
...and I didn't die.
Well, I died occasionally, when I did my classic "hey I seem to have forgotten what bar I'm on" self-finishing move, but when I kept my head I wasn't even close to dying. I then went around the old neighborhoods and took on every overland boss that had ever killed me as a DW and I managed to defeat them, too. I even managed to mostly hold my own against that stupid gargoyle and his minions in Rivenspire, who usually killed me in the first 10 seconds of the fight (I didn't solo that one, a few other players jumped in when I was about a minute in). And also I have Stampede as my closer, which is really nice when I find myself snared/slowed by some stupid minion.
Basically I'm using Stampede, Brawler, and Rally, spamming Brawler when I can't fire off Blastbones. Brawler isn't one of the bigger damage attacks but it's AOE cone, and the damage shield isn't large to start, but it can get decently high if you attack a crowd and it refreshes when you attack again so it's providing consistent mitigation while I deal out consistent damage. Also the stamina regen passives in the skill line (and from Rally) noticeably prolong the gaps between heavy attacks -- and the heavy attacks return much more stamina than the DW ones do, and they don't seem to be any slower.
I've also found that Ravenous Goliath is great to use when I finally do run out of stamina and need to heavy attack a few times to get my bar filled again. And despite the fact that it prevents you from regaining ultimate while it's active, using blastbones and siphon a few times will bring the bar up pretty quickly I've been playing with a 2h sword with the Decisive trait out of curiosity, to see if it helps bring bar up faster. Jury is still out.)
Oh, and I find Rally a much more useful heal than Vigor.
I also play a stamsorc who uses DW without any issues, but stamsorcs get Dark Deal, pets, Critical Surge, and the new Crystal morph which I find really useful.
The only downside to it is that since switching to 2H I don't use Ruinous Scythe or Blastbones any more. They're fun powers, but Blastbones just gives you damage with no defense and Ruinous Scythe has a decent heal if you hit enough people, but the combination of Brawler's shield then switching to Rally for the heal and to refresh your damage boost generally seems to work better.
Anyway. I'm still not going to be carving out any leaderboard spots in the near future, but it looks like I'll be able to finish these Craglorn quests!
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Goregrinder✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭Yeah it's not just a coincidence that everyone is running 2H on their builds. It's just THAT good for most stam builds.1 -
Nord_Raseri✭✭✭✭✭
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He's talking about pve. Most run dw in pve.Goregrinder wrote: »Yeah it's not just a coincidence that everyone is running 2H on their builds. It's just THAT good for most stam builds.
Veit ég aðég hékk vindga meiði á nætr allar níu, geiri undaðr og gefinn Oðni, sjálfr sjálfum mér, á þeim meiði er manngi veit hvers hann af rótum rennr.0 -
EramTheLiar✭✭✭✭Nord_Raseri wrote: »
He's talking about pve. Most run dw in pve.Goregrinder wrote: »Yeah it's not just a coincidence that everyone is running 2H on their builds. It's just THAT good for most stam builds.
I was, but I wonder if soloing in pve has more in common with pvp, build-wise, than it does with team play.0 -
Everest_Lionheart✭✭✭✭✭My solo stam toons are both DW and run whirling blades most of the time and with Briarheart it’s always returning health to me.
That’s on top of green lotus on my warden giving me a constant head over time when combined with expansive frost cloak it’s practically immortality when soloing most content.
When I’m on my stamblade keeping leeching strikes up keeps the health and stam pretty much topped off. Mirage gives me major evasion and minor resolve and dark shade gives the enemy minor maim reducing their damage done to me. Throw in a swallow soul and I’m basically immortal in fact running Briarheart is probably overkill on stamblade I should probably change to AY and kill everything faster!Edited by Everest_Lionheart on October 29, 2020 12:17AM1 -
Nord_Raseri✭✭✭✭✭
✭Everest_Lionheart wrote: »My solo stam toons are both DW and run whirling blades most of the time and with Briarheart it’s always returning health to me.
That’s on top of green lotus on my warden giving me a constant head over time when combined with expansive frost cloak it’s practically immortality when soloing most content.
If you're running solo you'd get more out of Ice Fortress than Expansive. Minor protection vs farther reach(group utility).Veit ég aðég hékk vindga meiði á nætr allar níu, geiri undaðr og gefinn Oðni, sjálfr sjálfum mér, á þeim meiði er manngi veit hvers hann af rótum rennr.0 -
doomette✭✭✭✭✭
✭EramTheLiar wrote: »I know what rotations are, but when I get deep into the middle of a fight I wind up losing my place, finding myself on the wrong skill bar and wondering why I keep firing endless hail over and over and over again instead of the spammable.
Ah, the sound of multiple hails going off in rapid succession. I know that sound well 😬
I get so discombobulated after a bar swap fail lol1 -
Everest_Lionheart✭✭✭✭✭Nord_Raseri wrote: »Everest_Lionheart wrote: »My solo stam toons are both DW and run whirling blades most of the time and with Briarheart it’s always returning health to me.
That’s on top of green lotus on my warden giving me a constant head over time when combined with expansive frost cloak it’s practically immortality when soloing most content.
If you're running solo you'd get more out of Ice Fortress than Expansive. Minor protection vs farther reach(group utility).
I do bring it to groups often actually and when there is no warden healer I provide the shield. I’ve got the free slot on the backbar for it. Also I like expansive for the cheap cost. I’m running gripping shards and soul consuming trap as well so with green lotus that makes 4 mag abilities on a stam build. Sustain works better for my this way. I like the idea of ice fortress though, just hate the cost!0 -
MudcrabAttack✭✭✭✭✭Damage shields definitely make a huge difference. Like all the times I would fail in vMA years ago, when I finally decided to slot the damage shield on a mage. It was the size of my entire health bar and I was able to breeze through it all of a sudden.
Now shields take on your physical and spell resistances, which are kind of higher already if you wear medium armor.Edited by MudcrabAttack on October 29, 2020 11:23PM0