AA's on a PvP server

[Stew2782]

<DIV>I've been away from the game for a while, but been tempted back by PvP. I've a Swashie who's just about to hit lvl 30 and loving him so far, great DPS without being too restricted on positional attacks. I'm wondering though if I've made the right decision on spending my achievement points so far. On reading the descriptions the Agil line with increased burst damage and Walk The Plank seem great choices for fighting players, yet everyone talks about going Str and Wis.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I like the idea of a rapier wielding char, not too bothered about dual weild or single, but looking for that edge in combat (like everyone else) and wondered what people would reccomend for PvP as opposed to PvE.</DIV>

[Severed Ha]

<DIV>On the PvP aspect from what I have seen and heard from others you really want that burst DPS going to kill the person quickly as possible.  There are I would say about 3 or 4 different specs you can go with..  Str + Wis,  Str + Sta, Str + Int, Wis + Int  Looking at each line you basically get alittlebit of everything in each one that can help you out.</DIV> <DIV>Str + Wis.  Double Attack, Crit increase, Hit and Defense Increase(if you go all the way to Coule).  Str + Sta Crit Increase, Increased Hit Points, More Mitigation(if you take last spec in Sta line).  Str + Int Crit Increase, Hate reduction(drops you from there target) Defense. And finally Wis + Int.  Dble attack, Hate reduction and increased to  Hit and Defense.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>From those 4 different specs I would probly go with the Wis + Int line over the others.  Getting the Dble attack helps out some along with being able to reduce your Hate(thus haveing your target drop you from there targeting window)  I would Defenatly go all the way up to Coule in the Wisdom line for the added Hit chance and also Defense though.</DIV>

[uberspo]

<div></div>I'd mostly agree with this. Personally, I'd probably take the STR/WIS lines, but taking the final skill in the STR line, rather than Coule. The extra hit and defence is nice, aye... but in my opinion, traumatic swipe (or is it torporous? I get them mixed up all the time) is the way to go; making their combat arts take longer to recharge is just nice.Of course, this could totally backfire if you were up against a scout with a maxed WIS line.. heh.Another possible route I would consider would be STR 4-4-4-8-0, WIS  4-4-4-8-0, and  put the  last points into  AGI for Walk the Plank. You'd lose the ability to use that attack in the STR line, if you use a rapier for Walk the Plank, but you could get the DA, crit, and still be able to turn them around. I don't think there's one set AA combination that'd make you superior to everyone else... it all depends on personal preference, like Severed alluded to.edit: of course, I'm just a silly newbie, so I might be way wrong :<<div></div><p>Message Edited by uberspoon on <span class=date_text>05-14-2006</span> <span class=time_text>10:00 AM</span>

[Teaff]

walk the plank doesnt work in pvp. It does the damage it just doesnt spin the person around.<div></div>

[overfloat]

<P>From what I've heard, Walk The Plank does work in PvP but the animation doesn't display the target changing direction.</P> <P>I have a baby PvP brigand and I'm planning to take STR and AGI; STR right down the line, AGI possibly to include Sailwind (or I might dump the points elsewhere). I've actually even considered going with STA, except the sword & board style never appealed, plus I'd have to give up useful utility elsewhere. STA is actually a pretty solid choice, though, if you regularly regularly find yourself grouped with mages and priests with no fighters. Depends on your regular group, if you have one. I definitely wouldn't take INT past Boot Dagger and I wouldn't even consider WIS.</P> <P>PvP is all about burst damage from CAs , plus utility. WIS gets its extra damage from autoattack, which constitutes a minimal proportion of PvP damage. Double attacks are fine for increasing sustained DPS in PvE encounters, where your target stands still and focuses on the tank. But in PvP your target will be moving around, running away, dying too fast for sustained DPS to matter, and you will be getting stunned/pacified/rooted off. I don't have any numbers to back it up, but personally I wouldn't waste my time even thinking about the WIS line. Coule might be nice for landing hits against higher level players, but once you hit level 70 you wouldn't be fighting anyone higher than white con anyway. Freehand Reversal wouldn't be too bad, but it's buried in the middle of the branch and the other skills just wouldn't be worth the investment.</P> <P>Rogues shine in PvP <EM>because</EM> of their great mix of utility and burst DPS. Your innate burst DPS capability is very good anyway and WIS will really do nothing to enhance that, so I'd say it's far better to focus on broadening your utility.</P> <P> </P> <P>STR pretty much has everything you want: crit debuffs <FONT size=1>(both attacks and heals)</FONT>, defensive buff <FONT size=1>(defensive abilities are critical to PvP, survival is key)</FONT>, crit buff <FONT size=1>(while not necessarily a huge DPS increase overall, this affects CAs too)</FONT>, and a recast debuff <FONT size=1>(which could cripple a healer and put a major dent on other classes -- dying to get this!)</FONT>.</P> <P>AGI has some nice utility. Walk the Plank should be very handy for messing with melee opponents. The combat movement speed of Commandeer could actually be useful too: I'm sure you already know how many fights end with a locked-in-combat chase. Avast Ye could be vaguely useful though it's positional <EM>and</EM>, like WIS, it's autoattack-based. Having cast unadulterated derision at Sailwind for PvE, it could actually come in quite handy in PvP where burst DPS and chaining CAs can be critical.</P> <P>STA ... again, useful if you regularly group without a fighter, or with lots of mages where the AE taunt would help. It would also improve your surviveability without massacreing your DPS <EM>too</EM> much (given that so little relies on autoattack), and surviving incoming attacks is everyone's major problem!</P> <P>WIS ... see above. <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></P> <P>INT has some great aggro utilities for PvE, but utterly useless for PvP. Thief's Prowess has such a small proc rate as to make it useless in PvP, especially considering how easy it is for PCs to retarget you. The way Evasiveness works, as an innate hate generation reducer, it should have no effect on PvP combat whatsoever. Feign -- the only real use of this in PvP would be to avoid AEs or to dump mobs that aggro while you are chasing/fleeing from an opponent. Other than that, if you've ever seen a brawler try to FD in PvP, you'll know how useless it is! My only exception for the INT branch is Boot Dagger -- the insta-stealth allows you to use your stealth attack more-or-less on demand. This wouldn't be so important for my brigand, who only has a WIS debuff on the stealth attack, but swashbucklers have a pretty major stun attached to Brazening. The ability to fire this on demand would be even more useful in PvP than it already is in PvE.</P> <P> </P> <P>Personally I think STR is a must for PvP, all the way to the end. AGI has some great tools, though I'm still in doubt about Avast Ye and Sailwind. STA has some great utility if you have spare points, and just the first rank of Boot Dagger from INT would be a very good investment for any swashbuckler. (Yes, you'd have to get used to a lot of hotswapping, but the added utility could be very useful.) WIS is a non-starter, in my opinion.</P><p>Message Edited by overfloater on <span class=date_text>05-16-2006</span> <span class=time_text>09:52 AM</span>

[Rokjin]

<P>My current build is 4-4-4-8 STR and 4-8-8-8 WIS, and speaking for the WIS line, you are really underestimating it.</P> <P>Most PVP Encounters with the WIS line, a good 1/3rd of my DPS is from auto-attack. Using Swathe followed by Hurricane + Inspired Daring + Double attack combo does ridicoulous amounts of AoE damage. Not to mention with the extra swings from double attacks on Inspired Daring, I can just quite literally run up to any priest, kick off Finesse and Inspired Daring and burn them down. With my 1.4 speed weapon I can self-haste to 100% haste easily with a Bravado proc and Finesse running, which means a hit every 0.7 seconds, combined with 72% double attack, it means that I'm hitting at ~0.4 speed. Assuming 200 average damage for Inspired Daring, at ~32 procs if I stay at 100% haste, that's 6.4k damage in 13 seconds, with practically no power use. If they are not dead by that point, then it's easy to finish them off with a barrage of CA's that are waiting.</P> <P>Wisdom line definitely maximizes the amount of damage you can get from the Inspired Daring. I just hit 70 yesterday night and am currently waiting on a jeweler to make my Inspiration Adept 3.. can't wait on that.</P> <P>In addition, Lunge Reversal goes off quite often in PvP. At 8 points it's 400-700 power free damage every 20 seconds (a bit more often then that actually since it seems it currently goess off more often), which helps a lot versus tanks particularly. Finally Freehand Reversal's 8% riposte and 360 degree parry is amazing for PvP. It is quite literally practically 8% avoidance, plus extra damage if they are in front of you.</P> <P>For maximizing your DPS, STR and WIS is where it is at without doubt. STR and AGI offers abit more utility but you lose both offense and defense with that line. AGI and WIS offers a mix of utility, but finding a good 1H rapier is extremely hard.</P> <P>I used to have Coule up until two days ago, when I did the crit analysis. Coule seems to be worth ~5% avoidance, and a bit less to-hit, but since I group with a Paladin who has the offensive skills group buff, it's wasted since I can cap my skills out with just him in the group and adept 3 O stance (which I do not yet have, but will shortly). Took the points from it and put it into Blackguard's Luck, which has raised my average dungeon group DPS from ~550-700 to ~600-800. Using Inspired Daring and En Garde I used to top out at some 900-1100, and can now hit 1000 quite easily and hit up to 1200.. Can't wait to get Inspiration, since it will pretty much double my Insired Daring damage.</P>

[Rokjin]

BTW, as an addition, comparing the defensive bonuses of Freehand Reversal vs Blackguard's Defense, the Reversal is a bit better, offering 360 degree avoidance, more of it(by ~1%) and extra damage due to the riposte.