Hey Malky

[Hammer]

Hero questions for ya. I'll start with spec questions.

Specs
Up to now I've been going merrily along toward a cookie cutter 44/44/44 (blades/shields/parry) template. That is a natural template, no bonus points. I've pretty much convinced my self that the upper level styles are crap and aren't worth the training points to get there. 50th blade in particular. I'm leaning towards stopping blades at 39, shields at 42(slam looks great), parry at 30. According to the character builder I should have enough point to train another skill up to 39 with the choices being blunts, large weapons, or celtic spear. This is looking really attractive because fights don't have much variety any more and I'm just 34.

Blunts: If I train blunts I should be able to select the best weapon for a given mob. Many mobs seem to have resist to blades.

Large Weapons: Wooot no more penis... er big weapon envy;) Would allow me to play an offensive hero in the frontier or be a damage doing backup tank in PVE.

Celtic Spear: This is supposed to be the defining skill for a hero and have the best damage. Apparently it's good against all types of armor.

Now, the big question I have is am I really missing out on something by not training blades/shields past the last style I care about. Is it really better to have natural 44 in shields as opposed to a 42? Even at 34 I can say that I haven't noticed any difference in training until I get a new style. Damage seems to be weapon/str/style based?

Also putting a lot into shields and parry for RvR seem to be a waste. I have read many post from people who have trained shields and parry very high, and never get a block in RvR. I must say I never block or parry unless I'm "engaged" but I don't have enough RvR experience to make an informed judgement. The battles just don't last long enough for the defense code to work. My gut is telling me I'll gimp my char if I don't train the skills I started with as high as possible, but I sure would like a little variety. What do you think? Or anybody for that matter?

Some general advice for RvR would be good. Do you sprint to target or run normally and conserve end? I'm under the impression that if I don't have something targeted and I get shot, I can press /face and I will face the guy who shot me, then press engage and run at them. Is that correct? Do you stand back by the ranged guys or charge ahead? How good is the slam style? Does it land frequently and have a good duration stun? What's that glowing/flaming sword I see the really high level guys use? I have heard guys say they pull with engage, so they can get their blocking styles off early in the fight. How is that accomplished? That should keep you busy for a while;)

[siledre]

The answer to all your questions is..... Yes

hehe

I have a hero that im going to put all my points into celtic spear and parry and split the rest for blunt and sheild

so... max spear and parry should be interesting

[Mulletious]

ive discovered this

you play same level things or higher level things of course you wont be blocking as much, but when you go back to the things you were killing 2 levels ago, they will NOT be able to hit you, i think the same goes for rvr, you play someone say lvl 37 and you are lvl 33, you of course wont block as much, but if you are 37 and they are 33 the difference will be huge and youll prolly block tons more

[Hammer]

****** BUMP *******

[malkovich]

i am going 50-50-29parry , i have seen posts saying to go 44-44-44 but the actual people i talked to that play level 50 shield/blade heroes say 50-50-29 is the way to go , but i agree with you that having a heavy damage dealing weapon option is attractive ... if you want to go that way then i would go CS , i have no facts or formulas to backup that choice , its just that the people i see kicking ass in rvr with the big weapons are always CS wielders ...

i block and parry all the time in rvr , it seems to me that just like a caster or a mezzer getting resisted never against blues/greens and tons against red/purple , we get blocks and parries in the same ratios , there is a HUGE difference in my defense just from moving from yellow cons up to orange ... low to mid level yellow cons can barely even hit me now , with orange cons its 50/50 whether or not i can take them without moosing up ...

RVR , im still learning for sure ... the biggest thing is keeping track of your group , thats the number one lesson to learn i think , get outside of heal/bubble/end song range and you are done ... and there is nothing worse than being too far away when your group is getting chopped down or your bard is getting sniped ...

if im solo or know there are snipers around and dont see any other enemy i will go to my sniper hotkeys , first off i will keep auto-run on , that way it saves you a step when you hit /face you will immediately be running in that direction , gives you an extra second to check the con of whats hitting you and check the distance to enemy and decide on sprint or engage or both , it goes like this ... i get sniped , button 1 - /face , check your health and con of enemy , 2 - engage if he is able to hurt you , 3 - sprint if you are close enough and have a realistic chance of getting him , i am usually reckless and just go for the little bastards everytime lol , but you will learn over time that certain people you just arent going to make it to solo , 4 - when you get within distance /stick , 5 - throw your best shield style on him that has a stun effect , doesnt matter if you have any end at this point , if you made it this far you almost certainly have him , 6 - chop him down ...

more likely , something along these lines will happen ... 1 - you get sniped while chatting with morety , 2 - you have the wrong hotkey bar up and start freaking out and hit the key to take out your bow , 3 - you try to type /face and type /gfabe , 4 - you just start looking around for the little prick and just as you see him he stealths or he gets off the killing blow on ya , 5 - blame it all on morety ... :P ...

seriously , if you are solo , taking on a good sniper is usually a bad idea , its just an exercise in frustration , that being said i am realizing that lately rangers want nothing to do with me , i never get sniped anymore unless its getting gangbanged by archers during a siege or they are plucking at me while im already melee'ing it up with their friend ... if any of you sneakypants guys wants to help me out with my strategy that would be cool , its the best i have come up with so far ...

gonna have to try and post some group rvr tips later , but again the most important thing if you want to stay alive and get some RPs and have some fun is to work as a team , communicate and stay together , running away together is more fun than dying alone hehe , hope some of that is helpful ...

... malkovich ...

[Allison]

I'll just chime in about the grouping issue Malk mentioned.

Rule #1: Don't leave group members behind.

Rule #2: See rule #1.

Of course, in the heat of battle, it's hard to stay together as you're chasing down stragglers, or running away ;) . But all too often I see group members do whatever they please in RvR. It's a bad tactic to split up, IMO, and it's frustrating for those people who are trying to stay together when 2 or 3 keep running off without warning. My opinion? If you're not going to work as a group, then don't bother grouping. It wastes the time of those who expect cooperation amongst group members.

And remember, if you are the group leader, the other group members don't have their eye on you every minute. If you move, you have to tell them. I always stop occasionally when travelling just to make sure everyone is together. And I say things like "Everyone with us?" and "Moving to Alb wall in 1 minute." and "Moving." It's a lot easier to do that than to go back and pick up stragglers, which I always do, btw, if they were left behind without warning.

[Hammer]

Thanks guys, it's a few more levels before I really have to worry about the decision. I saw a formula for training that basically said training goes like this

1/3 of level = 25%-125% of damage
2/3 of level = 75%-125% of damage
full level = 100%-125% of damage.

What I would like to know is if it's a sliding scale, or if you should really stop right at 2/3 of level? If your blades are at 34 of 35 are you getting the 2/3 benefit or just a shade under full level benefit? It's interesting to me that the ceiling on damage doesn't raise but the floor does.

[siledre]

here are a couple of my rules, in a RvE group situation - stick with malk.
in a RvR group situation- hide behind malk

[Hammer]

I have decided I'm gonna be a hybrid Hero. I have done more reading and I think that I'm gonna go LW. I like that LW allows you to use slash or crush weapons so you can pick your poison. The CS seems to rely on quickness which I don't have many points in. I guess that would be a better choice for a Celt. I don't think I can really start putting points into LW until 40. Until then it's good ole shield/blade hero. I do have one more question though, how much damage do you do on a regular swing to an even con mob/player (malky)?

[mcgruff]

hahaha just spelunking the forums a bit ...

sil was cool , so was pugs ... RIP ...

fu mOrety ...

"more likely , something along these lines will happen ... 1 - you get sniped while chatting with morety , 2 - you have the wrong hotkey bar up and start freaking out and hit the key to take out your bow , 3 - you try to type /face and type /gfabe , 4 - you just start looking around for the little prick and just as you see him he stealths or he gets off the killing blow on ya , 5 - blame it all on morety ... :P ..."