Stamina DK - Master at Arms question

Brantleyx · November 2017

How significant is master at arms for stamina dk in pve? Because I've searched through several videos where some people have like 48 points into the tree and others have 0. The extra points would instead be put into Physical weapons expert. How beneficial is that over MaA?

jkolb2030 · November 2017

You really don't need that many points into MaA.. I'm not entirely sure what all MaA affects, but it seems to be that it only affects the initial dmg of each skill you would cast. With all of the DKs skills being DoTs, you get more dmg output by putting those points elsewhere - for example, Thaumaturge.

I usually only have ~16 points(the leftovers from hitting the jump spots in other stars) into MaA, and the rest is split between Mighty, Thaum, Precise Strike etc... I've been posting a 37k solo parse, and I've watched others post above a 40k with the same CP set up.

GreenhaloX · November 2017

Well, it does give a bit more juice to the Wrecking Blow and Executioner. I have it somewhat balanced out for MaA and Thaurma being 10% for MaA and about 12% for Thauma. I can't whack out 30 to 40k Wrecking Blows anymore as pre-Morrowind, but still fine being the 20-to-mid20ks whack, nowadays. Also, I believe the Endless Hail gets both DoT and physical damage, so the MaA should benefit that as well. Same with Poison Injection. You get that initial physical damage, but also DoT for the rest of the time. I use Lightweight Beast Trap as well, which also pops the initial physical damage and the DoT the rest. Likewise, for Burning Embers or Venomous Claws. So, essentially, for DK, it can be beneficial to have both MaA and Thauma up there, like I have mine. It does seem to benefit the skillset and abilities that has both initial physical damage and DoT effect. Maybe I'm wrong or right, but I like the juices my dps Stam and Mag DK are putting out (even though, it's not as good as pre-Morrowind. Stupid nerfs; son of a beach!)

jkolb2030 · November 2017

GreenhaloX wrote: »

Well, it does give a bit more juice to the Wrecking Blow and Executioner. I have it somewhat balanced out for MaA and Thaurma being 10% for MaA and about 12% for Thauma. I can't whack out 30 to 40k Wrecking Blows anymore as pre-Morrowind, but still fine being the 20-to-mid20ks whack, nowadays. Also, I believe the Endless Hail gets both DoT and physical damage, so the MaA should benefit that as well. Same with Poison Injection. You get that initial physical damage, but also DoT for the rest of the time. I use Lightweight Beast Trap as well, which also pops the initial physical damage and the DoT the rest. Likewise, for Burning Embers or Venomous Claws. So, essentially, for DK, it can be beneficial to have both MaA and Thauma up there, like I have mine. It does seem to benefit the skillset and abilities that has both initial physical damage and DoT effect. Maybe I'm wrong or right, but I like the juices my dps Stam and Mag DK are putting out (even though, it's not as good as pre-Morrowind. Stupid nerfs; son of a beach!)

That would make sense for a 2h build - you're utilizing MaA a lot more on the wrecking blow and reverse slice than you would on a build that uses DW skills - which are all ~10s DoTs essentially.

That 2h build would seem likes its more oriented around burst than an actual parse - which is fine, two different styles. In which case, i believe you will definitely benefit more from MaA because of it's boost to your wrecking blow(spammable) and then your Reverse slice execute.

Kanar · November 2017

I use 2h for dungeons and some parts of trials. For certain bosses I switch to DW. So I split points between MaA and Thauma. MaA improves reverse slice, which is the key skill for 2h PvE.