[X] My Assistant

Does anyone still use the 1h + shield style?

I have a great shield but it just doesn't seem to be up to par as a style compared to 2h or dual, especially after overstrike got nerfed.

I still use 1H with Shield, but with a high-% Parry weapon like a Dagger (my STR is very, very high so I can make those little pigstickers really hurt The Enemy in battle).
Usually, though, I use a Rapier instead because they have Penetrated Armor and a somewhat lesser Parry Rate compared to the Daggers.

Actually, with the frequency with which Overstrike appears, that extra (temporary) +10% to parry really helps out a lot.

Using a good set of weapons dual wielding you could get 30-40+ parry though. And still be able to get both pen armor and another proc, as well as higher damage and acc.

I'm still sword-and-boarding, but I've got a good Block shield (I block a good number of attacks and spells). Not to mention I'm a plate tank, so DW isn't exactly meant for my build. Since Plate doesn't come with Resist, I'd have to switch in some light to bump it up and with the recent credit nerfs, buying new equipment is a bit tricky.

I've got a 34% block buckler, and 1h+shield still isn't worth it for me. DW works fine with plate, I know hito is a full plate dualer.

What do you need resist for?

I've got a 34% block buckler, and 1h+shield still isn't worth it for me. DW works fine with plate, I know hito is a full plate dualer.

What do you need resist for?

Magic hurts like a bitch and when you're wearing plate, its hard to get out of the way. As far as the Overstrike nerf goes and how it makes Shield use shitty, I haven't really felt any differences from it, but whatever.

It doesn't make it worse really, it's about the same although slightly weaker defensively and slightly stronger offensively. It's just the other two styles got boosted, DW in a significant boost to defensive capability and 2h in raw power. It's not that shields got worse, they're just comparatively weaker now. I actually take more damage using a shield and 1h than I do using a 2h due to the extra time it takes to make a kill.

Since I rotate between all the styles, its just something I've noticed. If you were using 1h+shield exclusively you wouldn't have seen much of a change at all.

Do you not use absorb? I very rarely get hit by spells, maybe 1/10 cast at the most after factoring in absorb, base miss, evade and my stat based resist (I get all of 3 from equipment).

Using a good set of weapons dual wielding you could get 30-40+ parry though. And still be able to get both pen armor and another proc, as well as higher damage and acc.

Waaaaay ahead of you.

Only problem is, the highest Parry item that I have is a 13% Parry Dagger; the best one after that is "only" a 10-percenter, and I've been scouring the dungeons for literally months to find something even better, but to no avail.

Yes, if I had a set of Weps with a combined 30-40% Parry I would've switched over to DW a long, long time ago over Shield -especially since Interference/Burden is greatly reduced...and since we can now, somehow reliably Parry bolts of magical energy. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)

I use Absorb pretty sparingly, usually only when minibosses and things show up. Its just not worth the mana casting for the shit mobs when I could block the spell a good chunk of the time.

Once I figure out what weapons I've got in stock that are DW-able, I'll switch out for a few levels and see what happens. Not like it takes long for my 1H to cap and Shield is stuck at -5 anyway.

My best dagger for parry

Average Ruby Dagger of the Nimble
Weapon Damage Type Slashing
Attack Damage Multiplier 16.4 (8.8)
Attack Accuracy Bonus 28.7 (27.0)
Parry Chance 17.2 (13.4)
Burden 4.3
Interference 6.7
Primary Attribute Bonuses
Dexterity 5.5 (1.7) Agility 5.5 (1.7)
Level 173 / Slot: 1handed / Type: One-handed weapon

DW is very good now =D. More parry = Nimble weapow

Too bad only see the daggers with high bonus.

Shield can protect any kind of skill? Or type magic through it as with parry?

This post has been edited by Charkan: Oct 25 2009, 07:03

Hmm, I net -13 to +3 mana per absorb, overall statistically it only costs 5 mana to cast, and usually only have to cast it once every couple rounds until minibosses show up anyways.

I use it even when I'm using my shield. 34% is not reliable enough or me. Did you find some epic 50+ block shield?

Most of the time, I can run Absorb out before it catches anything. Either I block that shit, Absorb fails, or nothing gets a spell off.

I'm also wearing mostly Warding armor, so I've got some decent magic mit.

And my shield has a big STR and DEX bonus; I don't have any 1H with similar bonuses.

This post has been edited by cmal: Oct 25 2009, 07:08

Shield can protect any kind of skill? Or type magic through it as with parry?

Shield can block magic.

This post has been edited by Eutopia: Oct 25 2009, 08:45

Shield can block magic.

So it is presumed that better armor for DW would be light armor since parry does not work against magic. Resist is the same as the shield for that.

And heavy armor, the shield since this type of armor has no resistance against spells.

Two-handed weapon would be better to combine heavy and light.

This post has been edited by Charkan: Oct 25 2009, 09:01

I'm still using 1H+Shield. But then I don't have Absorb yet, nor am I lucky enough to have picked up a weapon with high enough Parry to compare with my shield's Block. Having said that, I was just thinking of trying today's Arenas with DW. I've been Montaging up my proficiency for about two weeks, so it might be at a semi-useful level by now. Wish me luck...

Good luck haha.

Ya know, I think my biggest problem with the 1h+shield style is the style bonus is a fixed additive bonus, while 2h and dual scale with your level and equipment as they are multiplicative. It makes 1h-s solid for low level characters and high level characters with mediocre equipment, but it's not nearly as good for min/maxing as the effect itself doesn't have any multipliers so it does the same thing regardless of your equipment.

If I have a +10% damage sword and I upgrade to a +50% damage sword, the only increase I see is the +40% damage. Overstrike always gives the same additional 15%. Lets say my base damage is 100. Overstrike is pretty much permanently active at 200 so I'll give the full 15% boost as permanent.

I go from 125 to 165 (+40)

If I do the same with dualwield, lets say I have two +5% and upgrade to two +25%, with a 50% offstrike (this is what you'll have at level 200). This is also assuming I'm ussing much weaker weapons than my 1h example just for easy number.

I go from avg 165 to 225 (+60)

Not only is the damage significantly higher (even with weaker individual weapons), but you see a bigger change from equipment and you can easily get parry as high or higher than you could get block.

D:

I like my 1h + shield but so far it just doesn't pay out statistics-wise. If overstrike gave a 1.5x multiplier to block or damage that'd pan out much more favorably end game, although it'd be weaker early game.

edit: cleaned for epic typing fail.

This post has been edited by marcho: Oct 25 2009, 21:00

Good point, marcho. Hopefully Tenboro takes notice and does something about it, if he hasn't already got something on the books.

Well, I tried DW... and I felt like I was having a harder time than usual. Maybe it would be a different story with higher proficiency, or a better offhand weapon, but for now I think I'll stick with 1H.

Yeah, unless you've got decent proficiency and nice weapons, the defense you lose from swapping out a good shield can hurt you a bit. At 28 DW swinging my shortie and a Nimble dagger, I'm taking about 10% more hits and damage, and doing about the same average damage output and accuracy. I'll take a few more days and get it up to about 80% cap and look at the difference.

DW is much more heavily tied to proficiency and equipment. It was kinda my point actually. 1h-s will show very little change except the raw difference in upgrading your equipment. DW reflects your proficiency and equipment to a much greater extent. At low proficiency with poor to decent equipment 1h-s will be better. Late game when you're really min/maxing your character it is a very different story. Because the bonus from 1h-s is "set" it can't keep up.

This post has been edited by marcho: Oct 25 2009, 22:35

dual good.
sometime can do 2 hit!