KoS Rogue Achievements Analysis (No information on Brigand-specific EoF Achievements)

[Rokjin]

<P><STRONG>Change History:</STRONG></P> <P><SPAN class=time_text>30/07/06 - edit1: Removed sticky requests since Starry Eyed Elf has already sticked it (Thanks again!), Clarified Torporous strike to make it clear that while it debuffs crit chance by 4.2%, it only works out to less then 2% debuff in the target's dps/hps.</SPAN></P> <P><SPAN class=time_text>31/07/06 - edit2: Updated Stamina line information for Formation and Conditioning. Mistakenly had written up Formation as requiring a round shield to be equipped. Made it explicitly clear both of those abilities are active whether you have a round shield equipped or not. Thanks go to Gnef for pointing this out. Also updated damage boost comparisons to reflect Agility being good for soloing if you can get behind the opponent consistently.</SPAN></P> <P><SPAN class=time_text>03/08/06 - edit3: Updated Formation information to note that the taunt proc may only go off when in defensive stance (unconfirmed, going by aa description). Updated Boot Dagger info to reflect it's ~20 DPS increase IF you are spamming the out-of-stealth attack.</SPAN></P> <P><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text>06/08/06 - edit4: Noted that Walk the Plank works on stun-immune mobs. Thanks go to </SPAN></SPAN><SPAN class=time_text>Damari for pointing this out.</SPAN></P> <P><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text>14/08/06 - edit5: Updated Evasiveness and Thief's Prowess to note they have no effect in PvP as of the time of writing. Thanks go to Wing for pointing this out.</SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></P> <P><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text>09/10/06 - edit6: Updated information for Torporous Strike. Updated Blackguard's Luck to reflect CAs doing a straight 30% bonus damage on crits.</SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></P> <P><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text>29/11/06 - edit7: Updated title to reflect this only applies to the KoS Rogue achievements. I will not be doing an EoF Brigand achivements version as my Brigand is retired and thus I would be unable to test any of them. I will still keep this post up to date and will be updating it in the next month or two with how things have changed once I have explored the new combat system changes and mechanics thoroughly.</SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></P> <P><STRONG>Preface:</STRONG></P> <P>Hello there. I play a level 70 Swashbuckler on Venekor, and played a Brigand up to level 60 on Antonia Bayle. I have done quite a bit of information gathering, parsing and calculations for Rogue AAs, and this post is intended to compile all of that into a single location. I am posting it in both the Brigand and Swashbuckler forums, as both classes will find it equally useful. A thank you goes to Starry Eyed Elf for making this sticky on both forums.</P> <P>This is intended to be based both of my own and my guild mate's experiences with AA's and the mathematical analysis and breakdown of each skill. I have tested the majority of the effects, but if you see wrong numbers anywhere, please let me know. I would like to thank Schism for respecing to let me know the numbers for Commandeer, Evasiveness and Thief's Prowess, as my own two respecs were used to test all the lines CAs. All effects listed are at level 70. One hand weapon damage is taken to be as 70% of equivalent quality dual wield (see 1H vs DW damage comparison later on for the related numbers).</P> <DIV>First, for those of you who do not wish to read much, have no interest in the mathematics or how I arrived at my conclusions here is a quick summary of each tree and its tiers. Each tier requires four points in the previous to unlock. The damage numbers listed are taken at Strength cap due to group buffs (544 STR to be exact, verified to be well past STR cap), and are thus the MAXIMUM numbers you will see.</DIV> <DIV>I have also assumed that the average person will be have their damage split into 30% damage from auto attack, and 70% from combat arts.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> <HR> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ccff33>AA Opener:</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ccff33>Pickpocket: This is a 30 second recast CA that steals money from the mob. It does not impact dropped coin in any way. From my testing, Level 60-70 mobs drop about 5-25 silver. Doing averaging and assuming you are using it every fight, this will net approximately 5-10 gold per hour of fighting. An easy way to do keep using this every fight is to make a macro with Pickpocket and one of our rear attacks. Then just use the macro instead of using the rear attack directly. Note: when you queue up abilities, only the second ability in the macro will get used. So if you queue up both at the same time (by hitting the macro while casting something), the 2nd skill is the last one used and thus it will skip over the 1st skill in the macro.</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033>-------------------</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033>Blackguard (Strength) Tree Summary: The STR tree is a good general utility tree, useful in pretty much every situation. It provides a balance of offense, defense and utility without making any sacrifices.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033>Tier 1) Blackguard's Strength: Increases strength by 4 per point.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033>Tier 2) Torporous Strike: This is a 30 second recast CA which requires a sword to be equipped in your main hand (whips count), and debuffs your opponents cast and recovery time. At rank 4 it does 239-398 damage and debuffs cast time by 26% and recovery time by 52%. At rank 8 it does 375-625 damage, and 75% recovery time and 38% cast time. It's effect at rank 4 essentially means that when used on an opponent, it will take them almost 30-40% longer to get off their CAs. Sorcerer spells would take 1-2 more seconds to cast. A noticeable effect, decent for soloing and for caster mobs. Helps a little bit in PvP as well. As far as can be determined, has no effect in Raids due to many Epic monsters having 0 cast time. Rank 8 would cause roughly 50-60% longer to get off a CAs/Spells. Could be worth taking to rank 8 if you are having problems timing interrupts/stuns to stop spells or CAs.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033>Tier 3) Blackguard's Defense: Passive increase to your defense. Each point is roughly equivalent to 0.8-1% avoidance, and thus survivability. Good for soloing, PvPing and tanking, but of very little use in raiding or grouping where you are not getting hit.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033>Tier 4) Blackguard's Luck: Increase to critical hit chance. Each point of this ability will essentially raise your overall damage by about 0.8-1%. Fully maxed out, it will raise your overall damage by about 5-7% and scale with your equipment, CAs and buffs. Good in any situation.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033>Tier 5) Traumatic Swipe: A 30 second recast, 300-500 damage attack that puts a debuff on the target for 30 seconds. Any spell/CA cast while they are under the effect of this debuff will have a 50% longer cool down. Primarily used in Raiding situations to increase the time in-between AoEs, it does not have much use in most other situations. Possible PvP usage would be to use it on a healer, which would decrease their overall healing ability by 20% or so due to longer recast timers.</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff>-------------------</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff>Pirate (Agility) Tree Summary: The agility tree provides a mix of offense and utility, aimed more towards soloing and PvP then other situations.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff>Tier 1) Pirate's Agility: Increases agility by 5 per point.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff>Tier 2) Walk the Plank: This is a 30 second recast CA requiring a rapier equipped in the main hand, which changes the direction your opponent is facing and roots them. Duration increases with ranks. At rank 4 it does 210-350 damage and its duration (2.1 seconds) is long enough to get off two positional CAs. At rank 8 it does 300-500 damage and lasts for 3 seconds. Great for soloing or PvP where it is hard to get behind the opponent consistently. Decreases melee damage you take as well by 10-20%, depending on the length of the fight, due to the mob not facing you. Decent in grouping for slight damage reduction for the tank. It also comes in useful when fighting stun immune mobs, as Walk the Plank still works on those, allowing for back attacks and damage decrease. No effect on epic mobs, thus useless in raiding. Taking it past rank 4 has a fairly small effect due to lag/delay considerations. IE: You need more then 3 seconds to get off 3 attacks. When combined with Sailwind though, rank 8 allows you to get off 3 attacks.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff>Tier 3) Commandeer: Increases in-combat movement speed. Rank 4 gives 5%, rank 8 10%. Fairly limited in utility unless you are doing lots of chasing/running away in PvP battles. Can be used to aid in kiting mobs.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff>Tier 4) Avast Ye: Chance to proc for 500-834 damage when behind or flanking an opponent. At rank 4 it is an 8% proc chance, at rank 8, 16%. Damage does not increase. This breaks down to pretty much a straight 40-50 DPS increase, assuming you are spending 90% of your time in behind/flanking. Not very good for soloing as you do not spend nearly as much time in behind or flanking the mob. Best for grouping or raiding, though it suffers from not scaling with your equipment, falling behind Blackguard's Luck and Unencumbrance for damage increase in raiding situations.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff>Tier 5) Sailwind: Decreases cast and recovery times by 25%. NOTE, IT DOES NOT DECREASE RECAST TIMES. This means that a CA that had a 0.5 second cast and recovery time, now has a 0.4 second cast and recovery time. Good for decreasing the time it takes to whip out our 10-14 CAs by a second or two. Slight increase in damage since CAs will interfere with auto-attack less, at best about 5% increase in auto-attack damage. Good for soloing and PvP where you need to kill the mob as soon as possible, but has little effect in longer fights.</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00>-------------------</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00>Mercenary (Stamina) Tree Summary: The stamina line focuses entirely on defense, but requires a round shield to be equipped for almost all of its effects. It also has an offensive buff design to make up for the damage lost due to using a shield. It is ideal for those of us who tank or solo heavily.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00>Tier 1) Mercenary's Stamina: Increases stamina by 6 per point.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00>Tier 2) Swear: This combat art requires a round shield to be equipped, and is essentially an AoE taunt equivalent to what most Fighter classes get. At rank 4 it gives 764-933 threat and at rank 8, 1091-1334. Higher ranks are also harder to resist, which is very important for taunts. It has no other effects. Higher ranks are more useful for Brigands then Swashbucklers due to the Swashbucklers higher AoE damage. Useless for soloing, but absolutely essential when tanking for a group.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00>Tier 3) Conditioning: Straight health increase, does NOT require a roundshield to be equipped. 4% at rank 4, 8% at rank 8. Equally useful for soloing and grouping, particularly when taking high level instances where surviving burst damage is key. Slight use in raiding for surviving AoE hits.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00>Tier 4) Opportunistic Cover: This passive ability requires a round shield to be equipped. At rank 4 it increases your DPS% mod by 28%, and at rank 8 by 56%. This allows you to recuperate the damage lost from using a shield and a one-handed weapon instead of two dual wields. The break even point is at 6 points. At rank 8, you will do ~9% more auto-attack damage then dual wielding.  Total damage increase, assuming a 30/70 auto-attack to CA damage split, will be ~2-3%.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00>Tier 5) Formation: Passive ability, does NOT require a roundshield to be equipped. It gives you an all-around boost, giving approximately 3% avoidance, 5% mitigation, 5% more health and a taunt for 392 threat that goes off 50% of the time when you are hit IF you are in defensive stance (going by skill description, unconfirmed). This is one of the best defensive boosts a Rogue can get period. Great for increasing your survivability for soloing and tanking.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc0099></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc>-------------------</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc>Fencer (Wisdom) Tree Summary: The Wisdom line is a mixed bag of offense and defense with uses in all aspects, but has the strictest requirements. Every ability except the last requires your off-hand to be empty and a DW or 1H weapon to be in your main hand. It is both good for raiding and soloing.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc>Tier 1) Fencer's Wisdom: Increases Wisdom by 8 per point.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc>Tier 2) Lunge Reversal: This is a low-mid damage passive CA which requires your offhand to be empty. It is toggled on and off as a buff, and automatically refreshes itself every 20 seconds. Whenever your opponent parries/deflects/ripostes/blocks an attack, or whenever YOU parry/riposte/block an attack, it will do 315-525 damage at rank 4. At rank 8 it will do 409-682 damage. It will not trigger damage again until it is automatically refreshed. This is essentially time-free, power-free DPS, and will on average give you about 20-30 DPS at rank 4. Going up to rank 8 increases this to about 30-40 DPS, and is most likely not worth it unless you do a lot of soloing. Obviously this is best used when you or your opponent are parrying/etc. a lot, which will happen most often in Soloing and PvP. Not very useful for grouping or raiding where you are not getting hit and have good accuracy.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc>Tier 3) Freehand Reversal: This is a passive buff that requires your offhand to be empty. The first point gives 20% Double attack, which I will be including in the analysis of Encumberance instead. Every point in this skill gives you a 1% chance to riposte in front of you, and 1% chance to parry on your flank/behind. This is essentially 0.8-1% avoidance increase per point, with a bit of damage added in due to the chance to riposte in the front.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc>Tier 4) Unencumbrance: This is a passive buff that requires your offhand to be empty. Each point raises your chance to trigger a second auto-attack whenever you swing by 6.5%. You do not have to hit with the first swing to proc the second one. The second swing does not trigger any procs EXCEPT for those that are 'on melee hit'. IE: It will proc Inspired Daring, but not our offensive stance proc. This ability is designed to offset, and boost the auto-attack damage lost by using a 1H instead of two DW weapons. The break even point is at 3 points, and at rank 8, you will be doing about 20% more auto-attack damage. This is particularly powerful as it scales with haste, DPS% mod and equipment. The actual increase in overall damage will depend on how much time you spend auto-attacking. For soloing where the mob is dead by the time you finish using your CAs, it will make very little difference. For raiding situations, where long periods of time are spent auto-attacking and you are heavily buffed, you will do considerably more damage. Assuming a 30/70 auto-attack to CA damage split, you will get ~5-8% more overall damage from this ability.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc>Tier 5) Coule: This is a passive buff that raises your combat skills. It is the only ability in the Wisdom tree (other then the stat increase) that does NOT require your offhand to be empty. The buff increases your Slashing, Piercing, Ranged, Parry and Defense skills by 16.8 at level 70. This will give you approximately 7-8% avoidance, and about the same amount of to-hit. If your accuracy is already at or very near 100%, you won't see any damage increase from this ability. If your accuracy is lower though, it will increase your damage 7-8% by increasing your hit rate the same amount. It is also useful in offsetting the penalties of our Offensive and Defensive stances. Great for Soloing, PvP or tanking, but of limited use in raiding situations where there are no accuracy problems.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#33cc66></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>-------------------</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>Thief (Intelligence) Tree Summary: This line is unique from the others, in that it is pretty much entirely focused on decreasing your hate, and thus has the most use in raiding situations. It is much more focused towards Brigands then Swashbucklers, due to the Swashbuckler's hate transfer making the benefits of most of this line unneeded.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>Tier 1) Thief's Intelligence: Increases your intelligence by 7 per point.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>Tier 2) Boot Dagger: A 30 second recast CA requiring a dagger in the main hand. It places the user into stealth and does 157-262 damage at rank 4, 225-375 at rank 8. The only real use of this CA is to get into stealth faster (0.5 second cast time, compared to 2 seconds for Sneak), allowing for more use of our one out-of-stealth attack. If you are spamming the out-of-stealth attack, then this will add some 20 DPS or so due to time saved. Unfortunately in raiding situations this will not have much of an effect since your auto-attack DPS output is likely to be higher then what you can get from spamming the out-of-stealth attack. However can still be quite useful for soloing and grouping. Not worth taking past rank 4 due to only change being the tiny increase in damage.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>Tier 3) Thief's Prowess: Passive buff that at rank 4 gives you a 12% chance to drop 2 hate positions when getting hit. At rank 8 it is a 24% chance. This is great for shaking aggro, unfortunately in most raiding situations if you are getting hit, you have a good chance of being dead before this procs. On average it will proc once every 8 hits at rank 4, or one out of every four at rank 8. A good ability, but the whole point of the Int line is to avoid getting hit, meaning this ability will not get much use if you spec Int. This ability currently has no effect in PvP.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>Tier 4) Evasiveness: Passive buff that directly decreases the amount of threat you generate. At rank 4 it decreases hate gain by 5% and at rank 8 by 10%. There isn't really anything that needs to be explained here, so take as many points in this as you feel you need. This ability also currently has no effect in PvP.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>Tier 5) Feign: A three minute recast, 30 second duration feign death. Prevents AOE as well. While this would be ideally useful for soloing and grouping situations to prevent death and to aid in wipe recovery, the abilities leading up to this focus on raiding situations where you are likely to already have another class with Feign death. A nice bonus to reduce repair bills and help with wipes, but not ultimately not worth going down the entire Int line for this ability if you do not need the hate reduction from the previous abilities.</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> <HR> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#99ffcc></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><STRONG><FONT color=#99ffcc>Comparison of Strength/Agility/Wisdom Boosting Abilities:</FONT></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><STRONG><FONT color=#99ffcc></FONT></STRONG> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#99ffcc>Since Rogues are primarily a DPS class, the DPS increasing abilities of our AAs are the most interesting. SoE has built the trees to be fairly equal in terms of tradeoff, though each tree shines in its own situations. Stamina's damage increasing ability only offsets and increases the damage done by about 3-4%, and thus is dead last in any of these situations.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#99ffcc></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#99ffcc>First, let's look again at the damage increases from each tree at rank 8: Strength: +13.9% crit chance, which works out to roughly 5-7% damage increase, based on your weapons and auto-attack to CA damage proportions.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#99ffcc>Agility: 16% chance to proc 500-834 damage when behind/flanking an opponent. Works out to about 40-50 DPS increase if you spend 90% of your time behind/flanking the opponent. If you parse about 1000 DPS, this is about a 4-5% increase. If you parse about 500 DPS, this is a 8-10% damage increase.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#99ffcc>Stamina: 56% DPS Mod, which gives you 56% more damage when auto-attacking. Works out to ~9-10% more damage when auto-attacking in comparison to dual wielding, given an equivalent quality 1H weapon, which gives ~2-3% more overall damage.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#99ffcc>Wisdom: 72% chance to double attack, which works out to ~20% more auto-attack damage in comparison to dual wielding, given an equivalent quality 1H weapon. Which gives ~5-8% more overall damage.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#99ffcc></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#99ffcc>Now, let's take a look at the main situations: Soloing/Solo PvP: In this case, Strength and Agility (if you can get consistently behind/to the side of the mob) are the clear winners. Wisdom line damage boost loses out due to the majority of damage in this situation coming from CAs. Agility will help more if your weapon/CAs are not fully upgraded, otherwise Strength will put out more average damage overall.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#99ffcc></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#99ffcc>Grouping/Group PvP: In this case, auto-attack plays much more of a role in damage. Agility is about on par with Strength and Wisdom. If you parse below 600-700 DPS, then Agility wins out. If you parse above that, Strength and Wisdom win out.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#99ffcc></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#99ffcc>Raiding: In this case, auto-attack will contribute to the majority of your damage output, and a good group setup will also heavily boost Haste and DPS%. Agility will be about third from the top, with Strength and Wisdom being clear winners. Strength will most likely win out as the average raider will tend to have heavily upgraded CAs, which will do even more damage thanks to the crit chance from Strength line.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#99ffcc></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#99ffcc>Note: This does not cover every situation and there will be situations where what I have written above is incorrect. Overall though, I feel this is a good comparison, with Strength and Wisdom winning out in raid situations, Agility in lower-end grouping, Strength or Wisdom for high-end grouping, and Strength and Agility helping out the most when soloing. Feel free to discuss this in replies to this post, as it is quite possible I may have overlooked some factors.</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> <HR> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><STRONG><FONT color=#ffffff>Tree Compatibility:</FONT></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><STRONG><FONT color=#ffffff></FONT></STRONG> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffffff>Rogue AAs allow for a variety of specializations, and due to having 50 AA points, people will be taking combinations of trees. Below I list good and bad combinations of the trees, and roughly what each combination would be good at.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffffff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffffff><STRONG>GOOD MATCHES:</STRONG></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffffff>Strength + Agility: Well-rounded dual-wielding build. Decent offensive and defensive abilities, excels at soloing and grouping.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffffff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffffff>Strength + Wisdom: End game one-handed sword build, scales better offensively and defensively then STR + AGI, but requires good equipment. Excels at grouping and raiding.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffffff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffffff>Strength + Stamina: Defensive one-handed sword and round shield build, lots of defensive ability with a bit of offense. Excels at Soloing, PvPing and Tanking.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffffff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffffff>Strength + Intelligence: Hate minimizing dual-wielding build. Trade off offensive/defensive abilities for reduced hate gain. Suited to raiding where you need to minimize your hate.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffffff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffffff>Agility + Wisdom: PvP/Soloing one-handed rapier build, doesn't scale as well offensively or defensively as Strength + Wisdom but provides more utility and soloing ability.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffffff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffffff>Agility + Intelligence: Similar to Strength + Intelligence, however deals more damage if your equipment isn't quite up to par.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffffff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffffff>Agility + Stamina: Defensive and utility rapier + round shield build, trades off some defense for utility, good for PvPing and soloing.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffffff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffffff>Wisdom + Intelligence: Hate minimizing one-handed build. Trade off offense/defense for reduced hate gain, similar to Strength + Intelligence.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffffff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffffff><STRONG>BAD MATCHES:</STRONG></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffffff>Wisdom + Stamina: Using a round shield cancels out the bonuses from Wisdom line, while having an empty offhand, cancels out a few of the abilities of the Stamina line. It can sort of work, the main benefit being increased defense and hitpoints from Conditioning and Formation being active at all times.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffffff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffffff>Stamina + Intelligence: The defensive bonuses of the Stamina line go to waste due to the Intelligence lines hate down abilities. You can't tank, but at least you'll be hard to kill in PvP, sort of.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffffff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV> <HR> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><STRONG><U><FONT color=#99ff00>Summary:</FONT></U></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#99ff00>This is the end of the summary section of this analysis. If you are not interested in the math behind this and more details of each skill, feel free to skip the next post. I hope you have found this information useful, and will atleast take some peeks at the second post.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#99ff00></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#99ff00>Feel free to make suggestions or corrections below, and I will incorporate them into this post.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#99ff00></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#99ff00>I have continued the mathematical analysis in the next post.</FONT></DIV> <P>Message Edited by Rokjin on <SPAN class=date_text>10-10-2006</SPAN> <SPAN class=time_text>08:30 PM</SPAN></P><p>Message Edited by Rokjin on <span class=date_text>11-29-2006</span> <span class=time_text>12:29 PM</span>

[Rokjin]

<DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Warning, large amounts of math below this line...</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> <HR> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><STRONG><FONT color=#ff00ff>1H vs DW Damage Comparison:</FONT></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff00ff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff00ff>All right, now we can get into the meaty math and details. First of all, I will justify my assumption that an equivalent 1H weapon does 70% the damage of two DW weapons.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff00ff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff00ff>Just looking at the damage ratings of weapons, 1H is about 75% lower then 2H weapons, and 66% lower then two DW weapons. 2H weapons are designed to be equivalent to DW weapons, so why do DW weapons have higher DR ratings? I have done parses of only auto-attack, 1000 hits of 1H and 2000 hits of equivalent DW on the same mobs. The results of that clearly verified the 66% relationship. However the developers have stated that the damage rating of dual wield weapons is inflated due to the increased impact of CA usage on their auto attack. Since dual wield weapons swing faster then 1H, you lose more auto-attack time due to waiting for cast and recovery timers.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff00ff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff00ff>Results from my auto-attack test were:</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff00ff>Results from 1H (31.9 DR, 1.6 delay, 1000 hits)</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff00ff>Total damage: 70,394</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff00ff>Average Hit: 70.39 </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff00ff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff00ff>This gives almost exactly 44.0 DPS.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff00ff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff00ff>Results from DW(23.9*2 DR (47.<img src="/smilies/b2eb59423fbf5fa39342041237025880.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />, 1.6 delay, 2000 hits)</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff00ff>Total damage: 105,204</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff00ff>Average Hit: 52.51</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff00ff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff00ff>This gives 65.6 DPS.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff00ff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff00ff>Comparing these DPS numbers, it verifies that purely auto-attacking, an equivalent 1H weapon does ~66% the damage of two DW weapons.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff00ff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff00ff>Now recently, I did a similar parse, using the same weapons in two Nest runs. The party makeup was the same and the zone was cleared in the same way. Here are the results from that:</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff00ff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff00ff>Results from 1H:</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff00ff>Total damage: 417,578</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff00ff>Auto-attack damage: 84,389</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff00ff>CA damage: 333,189</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff00ff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff00ff>Results from DW:</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff00ff>Total damage: 431,027</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff00ff>Auto-attack damage: 113,770</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff00ff>CA damage: 317,257</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff00ff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff00ff>The overall damage done numbers are fairly similar, and comparing the total auto-attack damage for the run, I arrive at 1H doing ~74% of DW damage, even though both setups have exactly the same delay.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff00ff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff00ff>So, we arrive at two numbers for the comparison, ~66% and ~74%. These come from two extremes, one in which I am purely auto-attacking, and the other where I am using CAs whenever they are up. So it seems the ratio of damage depends on how much auto attacking you are doing in relation to how many CAs you are using.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff00ff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><STRONG><FONT color=#ff00ff>So for purposes of this analysis, I took the middle point of this data, and am assuming 1H does about 70% the damage of DW in most situations. This will vary up/down by +-4% or so dependent on how long the fights last in relation to how many CAs you use, and other factors, but should give a pretty good idea of the damage gains/losses from going one way or the other.</FONT></STRONG></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> <HR> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><STRONG>Critical Damage:</STRONG></DIV> <DIV><STRONG></STRONG> </DIV> <DIV>I have completed a rather length and through analysis of the effects of Critical damage (with graphs!) here <A href="http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=combat&message.id=103589" target=_blank>http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=combat&message.id=103589</A> , I will only summarize it.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>For Spells and auto-attacks, a critical hit multiplies the damage you did with an attack by 1.3. If after the multiplier, the resulting hit is below the max damage of the attack, it is boosted up to the max damage. So all crits hit for max damage to max damage * 1.3.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Combat Arts just get a straight 1.3 damage multiplier.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Attacks that have a big damage range, benefit more from critical hits, since the damage will be boosted up to the max damage more often. Most melee weapons are 1:3 ratio, which works out to ~58% damage increase at 100% crit. Other weapons exist with bigger ratios, such as the Bow of Bylze, which has a huge 1:9 ratio, and gets a huge ~87% damage increase from 100% crit chance.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Thus the amount of damage you gain from crit chance varies depending on what weapons you are using. This will be used in the Blackguard's Luck analysis.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> <HR> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><STRONG><FONT color=#cc6600>Haste, DPS% and Weapon Upgrades Scaling:</FONT></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc6600></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc6600>I mentioned earlier about the damage increasing abilities in each line scaling with Haste and DPS%. I will explain that in more detail here.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc6600></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc6600>Avast Ye is the weakest of the damage increasing abilities because it only scales with Haste and STR. Getting a new weapon with higher DR will not increase the damage you gain from that ability. It is also quite easy to reach the STR cap, meaning there is not much room for improvement there either.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc6600></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc6600>This leaves Haste. Haste lowers your swing timer, so at 100% Haste you are swinging your weapon twice as fast. This also means that you will proc things twice as often (proc chance is calculated before Haste), since you swing twice as much. So the damage bonus from Avast Ye, Opportunistic Cover, Blackguard's Luck and Unencumbrance all get doubled when you raise your Haste. Unfortunately that is the only way to raise Avast Ye damage.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc6600></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc6600>The other 3 damage raising abilities, Opportunistic Cover, Blackguard's Luck and Unencumbrance all also benefit from weapon upgrades. So if you upgrade to a weapon that has 10% more DR, the extra damage from those abilities will also be boosted by 10%.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc6600></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc6600>Then there is DPS%. DPS% raises the damage you do with each auto-attack, so at 100% DPS%, you do double the normal damage. The previous three all also benefit from that, except for Opportunistic Cover, which can only benefit from 44% DPS, due to the 100% DPS increase cap.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc6600></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc6600>Finally there are CAs. The only thing that boosts CA damage is Blackguard's Luck. So if you upgrade one of your CAs so it does more damage, that extra damage will be multiplied ONLY through Blackguard's Luck.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc6600></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc6600>Let's look at two examples then:</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc6600></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc6600>1) Unbuffed person, fighting at 0% Haste and 0% DPS, doing 600 base DPS.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc6600>Avast Ye raises his damage by 40-50 DPS, giving a total ~650 DPS.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc6600>Opportunistic Cover raises his damage by 3%, giving a total of ~618 DPS.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc6600>Unencumbrance raises his damage by ~6%, giving a total of ~636 DPS</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc6600>Blackguard's Luck raises his damage by ~6%, giving a total of ~636 DPS.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc6600></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc6600>2) Buffed person, fighting at 100% Haste and 100% DPS, doing the same 600 base DPS.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc6600>Avast Ye raises his damage by 40-50 DPS, times 2 for 100% Haste, giving a total of ~700 DPS.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc6600>Opportunistic Cover raises his damage by 3%, times 2 for 100% haste, times 1.44 for 44% DPS before he caps at 100%, giving a total of ~651 DPS.</FONT></DIV> <DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc6600>Unencumbrance raises his damage by ~6%, times 2 for 100% haste, times 2 for 100% DPS, giving a total of ~744 DPS</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc6600>Blackguard's Luck raises his damage by ~6%, times 2 for 100% haste, times 2 for 100% DPS, giving a total of ~744 DPS.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc6600></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc6600>As we can see, with 100% Haste and 100% DPS buffs, Blackguard's Luck and Unencumbrance suddenly add four times more DPS then they did previously, while Opportunistic Cover adds almost three times more DPS, and Avast Ye only two times more. Upgrading the person's weapon would further multiply Opportunistic Cover, Blackguard's Luck and Unencumbrance, while upgrading CAs would further multiply Blackguard's Luck.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc6600></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc6600>This makes Blackguard's Luck in particular and Unencumbrance also, particuarly strong, since they multiply through every single buff you can get. Opportunistic cover does this to a lesser extent, and Avast Ye only benefits from higher Haste and STR up to the cap.</FONT></DIV></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> <HR> </DIV> <DIV><STRONG><FONT color=#99ff00>Detailed AA information:</FONT></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><STRONG><FONT color=#99ff00></FONT></STRONG> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#99ff00>Here I will cover the nitty gritty details of each AA, and how I came up with the numbers I did in the previous sections. I will skip the first tier of each tree, since it only gives stats, and the math behind those is extremely simple and covered elsewhere. Note again, all effects are at level 70, taken at above STR cap.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#009900></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033>--------------------</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033>Strength line:</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033>--</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033>Torporous Strike: Combat Art</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033>Power cost: 71</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033>Cast time: 0.5 seconds</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033>Recovery time: 0.5 seconds</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033>Recast: 30 seconds</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033>Duration: 30 seconds</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033>Requires a sword (or whip) to be equipped in main hand.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033>Rank 4: 239-398 damage, 52% debuff to target recovery speed, 26% debuff to target cast speed</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033>Rank 8: 375-625 damage, 75% debuff to recovery, 38% debuff to cast speed</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033>Progression is non-linear, Rank 1 starts at 44% recovery debuff and 22% cast speed debuff, then increases by about 3% recovery, 1-1.5% cast per rank. Past rank 4 it increases to 5% recovery debuff and 3% cast speed per rank</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033></FONT><FONT color=#ff0033></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033>This is a mid damage ability, that has a decent effect. Most CAs are 0.5 second cast and 0.5 second recovery time. So at Rank 4, this would turn a 0.5 cast/recovery time CA into a 0.63 cast and 0.76 recovery time CA. The cumulative effect seems to be roughly 30-40% more time to get off a CA or spell. This adds a good 1-2 seconds to longer cast spells, allowing for time to interrupt/stun to prevent the spell going off. It helps a bit in PvP, though the exact amount will depend on your opponent, their weapons and how many CAs/Spells they are using. Could be useful in prevent Evacs since it extends the cast time of those by almost a second for the scout, and more then a second for the other classes evacs. Rank 8 will increase this roughly to 40-60% more time to get off a CA or Spell. This may be worth taking past rank 4 if you are having problems interrupting spells, especially since the returns per point increase past rank 4. As far as has been tested, has NO effect in Raids due to Epic mobs having 0 cast/recovery times.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033>--</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033>Blackguard's Defense: Permanent Passive Buff</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033>No equipment requirements.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033>Increases defense by ~3.4 points per rank.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033>Rank 4: +13.7 Defense</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033>Rank 8: +27.1 Defense</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033>Each point of defense raises base avoidance by approximately 0.26%. So each point of this AA gives ~0.9 base avoidance. Since your total avoidance takes Parry and also Block into effect, your actual avoidance increase from this will be closer to about 0.7 or 0.8% per AA point. Note that once you reach 420 Defense, increasing your defense no longer gives any more avoidance. This is quite easy to reach in Defensive Stance if you have Coule, or lots of +defense equipment from KoS.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033>--</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033>Blackguard's Luck: Permanent Passive Buff</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033>No equipment requirements.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033>Increases Critical by ~1.75% per rank.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033>Rank 4: +7% Crit chance</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033>Rank 8: +13.9% Crit chance</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033>As stated in my critical damage analysis, each point of crit chance will raise your damage based on the ratios of your attacks. Assuming a 40/60 split between 1:3 damage auto attack and 3:5 damage CAs, we arrive at ~0.41% damage increase per 1% of Crit. This works out to ~6% damage increase at rank 8. The nice thing about this is this is a boost to all damage, including CAs and auto attacks. So this scales perfectly with your equipment and buffs, and will always give you the same damage increase in ANY situation. If you have a bigger ratio weapon also, it will increase damage much more then 6%. See my critical damage analysis post(linked above in the critical damage section) for details on this.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033>--</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033>Traumatic Swipe: Combat Art</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033>Power cost: 95</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033>Cast time: 0.5 seconds</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033>Recovery time: 0.5 seconds</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033>Recast: 30 seconds</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033>Duration: 30 seconds</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033>No equipment requirements.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033>Rank 1 (costs 8 AA points): 300-500 damage, Decreases reuse speed of target by 50%.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0033>While dealing medium damage, this CA increases the recast timers of ANY abilities used WHILE THE DEBUFF IS ACTIVE. This means it has to be on the target when they use an ability for its recast timer to be increased. This means a raid boss that normally AoEs every 30 seconds, will now AoE every 45 seconds, assuming the debuff is active when he uses the AoE. This is extremely useful in raids, but care must be taken, as if the person using this dies, or has not refreshed the debuff when the ability is cast, then the AoE will go back to its normal timer. Obviously this is bad, as much of raiding involves timing the AoEs. Other then raiding this skill has fairly little use in PvP, soloing or grouping, as most opponents die in those situations before they cast their abilities a second time. Longer boss fights though this will have a good effect, and possibly in PvP situations when used on a healer, it will decrease their effectiveness by some 20-30% due to them not being able to recast their heals as often.</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff>--------------------</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff>Agility line: </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff>--</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff>Walk the Plank: Combat Art</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff>Power cost: 71</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff>Cast time: 0.5 seconds</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff>Recovery time: 0.5 seconds</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff>Recast: 30 seconds</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff>Duration: 1.8 seconds at Rank 1, 2.1s at Rank 4, 3s at Rank 8.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff>Requires a rapier to be equipped in main hand.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff>Rank 4: 210-350 damage, for 2.1 seconds, Roots opponent, turns them so their back is facing you and prevents them from changing direction. Does not affect epic opponents.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff>Rank 8: 300-500 damage, for 3 seconds, same effect as Rank 4.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff>Other then the damage, this ability is perfect for soloing, PvPing or any situation where you cannot get off your rear attacks due to the facing of the mob. Rank 4 of the ability is enough time to get off 2 rear attacks if you are quick, while Rank 8 will still only allow 2 rear attacks. This is due to lag/delays in casting, since 3 rear attacks will take more time to cast then 3 seconds (unless you have Sailwind). In PvP, where the opponent does not automatically face you as soon as the skill breaks, it may be possible to get off 3 attacks within the 3 seconds. Other then allowing you to get off your rear attacks without having to use a stun, this ability also prevents the target from hitting you with melee attacks for the duration, thus reducing the damage you take. In a short fight, this may well provide up to a 20% damage taken reduction, while in longer fights it drops down to 10% or so. In grouping this ability is not as useful, though it can still provide damage reduction by spinning the opponent around. It also does work on stun-immune mobs, allowing you to get off back attacks and decrease damage taken by the tank where you would normally not be able to.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff>--</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff>Commandeer: Permanent Passive Buff</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff>No equipment requirements.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff>Increases In-Combat Movement Speed by 1.25% per rank.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff>Rank 4: +5% In-Combat Movement Speed</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff>Rank 8: +10% In-Combat Movement Speed</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff>Has no effect outside of combat, but in combat allows you to move faster. This can help with kiting opponents, or when chasing/running away in PvP combat, but does not really have enough effect to make a big difference.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff>--</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff>Avast Ye: Permanent Passive Buff</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff>No equipment requirements.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff>When flanking or behind an opponent, has a 2% chance per rank to proc 500-834 damage.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff>Rank 4: 8% chance</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff>Rank 8: 16% chance</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff>This ability can be quantified by figuring out the average number of procs per second. All procs are normalized to 3 second delay, so at 16% chance per 3 seconds, we get 1 proc per 18.75 seconds. With an average damage of 667 damage, this gives us an additional ~36 DPS when auto-attacking. In addition to that though we have to take consider CAs. Most CAs are 0.5 second cast time, meaning it has a 2.67% chance to proc per CA. This means on average it will add about 18 damage per CA used, which works out to another ~9 DPS while you are using CAs. In total then Avast Ye at rank 8 will generate ~40-50 DPS. This will not scale with equipment though, and is only increased by your own Haste. It will also vary, since it will only do that damage while you are flanking or behind an opponent. Thus you only get the max boost when raiding or grouping, not while soloing.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff>--</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff>Sailwind: Permanent Passive Buff</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff>No equipment requirements.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff>Rank 1 (costs 8 AA points): Increases Casting Speed and Recovery Speed of Caster by 25%</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0066ff>This ability does NOT decrease recast timers. All it does is turn a 0.5 cast time and recovery time, into 0.4 seconds respectively. So in a normal 15 or so second long string of CAs, you will be able to complete the string in 1-2 less time. This increases burst damage by a small amount, but does not have much effect on overall damage from CAs. At best one can consider that you will get 1 more auto attack every 10-20 or so CAs, since each one will free up 0.2 seconds of auto attack time. Thus this AA MAY increase auto attack damage by up to 5% or so, though results will depend on the timing of your CAs and the delay of your weapons. Thus this ability will have the greatest effect when Soloing or PvPing, where the fight is almost over by the time you finish your first burst of CAs.</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00>--------------------</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00>Stamina line:</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00> --</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00>Swear: Combat Art</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00>Power cost: 88</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00>Cast time: 0.2 seconds</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00>Recovery time: 0.5 seconds</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00>Recast: 20 seconds</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00>Effect Radius: 15 meters</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00>Requires a round shield to be equipped in off hand.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00>Increases threat to target encounter (AoE taunt)</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00>Rank 4: 764-933 threat, 29% harder resistibility</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00>Rank 8: 1091-1334 threat, 44% harder resistibility</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00>All fighters have a basic AoE taunt to help them hold AoE aggro. Swear is the equivalent, having the same recast time, cast time and approximately the same amounts of threat. For the tanking rogue this ability is a god send, as it helps us secure and hold AoE aggro. While not as important for Swashbucklers, tanking Brigands probably will want to take this all the way to rank 8 to help them hold and secure AoE aggro. I have not tested this ability in PvP but assume that it will behave the same way as other taunts in PvP, forcing a target change and hold for a few seconds.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00>--</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00>Conditioning: Permanent Passive Buff</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00>No equipment requirements.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00>Increases Max Health of caster by 1.0% per rank.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00>Rank 4: +4% Max Health</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00>Rank 8: +8% Max Health</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00>Just a straight health increase. Great for both PvP, soloing and tanking, it makes you flat out live longer. Tanking high end instances also requires being able to take large amounts of burst damage and this ability helps you do just that.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00>--</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00>Opportunistic Cover: Permanent Passive Buff</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00>Requires a round shield to be equipped in off hand.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00>Increases DPS% of caster by 7.0% per rank</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00>Rank 4: +28% DPS Increase</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00>Rank 8: +56% DPS Increase</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00>The idea behind this buff is to offset the auto-attack damage lost due to using a 1H weapon with a round shield, as opposed to dual wielding. Taking our 70% 1H damage of DW, the break even point is at 42% DPS mod, which corresponds to 6 ranks. At rank 8, you will be doing ~9% damage more with auto attack then with equivalent dual wields. Unfortunately, total DPS% is capped at 100%, so just using one of our DPS% buffs will put you near the cap. Any other buffs then will have little or no effect on your auto attack damage. Thus this ability gives the most benefits when soloing, when not stacking our DPS% buffs, or when grouping with people that do not buff DPS%. So for total damage increase, assuming a standard 40/60 split, you will be doing up to 3.7% more damage then the equivalent DW weapons. Not really a damage increase, but at least it offsets the damage lost from using a shield.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00>--</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00>Formation: Permanent Passive Buff</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00>No equipment requirements.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00>Rank 1 (costs 8 AA points): Increases block chance by 4.0%, Max Health by 5.0%, Mitigation vs all Physical Damage by 420, and gives a 50% chance when caster is damaged to proc a taunt for 392 threat.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00>By far, this is the best defensive ability in the Rogue AA trees. Overall, it gives about 3% more total avoidance, 5% more mitigation and 5% more health. The 50% chance reactive taunt helps for tanking as well. If you are going down the Sta line to increase your survivability, this ability increases it by more per point then any other. This needs testing, but it is likely that the taunt proc will also force target holds in PvP, protecting the more squishy members of your group. In short, if you want all-out-survivability out of your AAs, make sure to get this ability, as it is active even without a roundshield equipped.. Further testing is also required on whether the taunt proc only goes off in defensive stance (as indicated by the aa description) or at all times.</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc>--------------------</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc>Wisdom line: SPECIAL NOTE: This is the only line that requires you do not use a piece of equipment in your off-hand, thus you will be losing any bonuses from the shield/DW weapon you would be using in the offhand normally, including procs. Thus it is a bit more effective then the other trees at what it does, due to this built-in penalty. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc>--</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc>Lunge Reversal: </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc>Toggle able Buff Combat Art</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc>Power cost: 0</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc>Cast time: 1.0 seconds</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc>Recovery time: 0.5 seconds</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc>Recast: 20 seconds</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc>Duration: Until Cancelled</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc>Requires your off-hand to be empty, and a 1H or DW weapon equipped in your mainhand.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc>When your opponent parries/blocks/ripostes/deflects an attack, or you parry/riposte/block an attack, this CA will deal damage to your opponent, until it is refreshed. The buff automatically refreshes itself every 20 seconds.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc>Rank 4: 315-525 damage</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc>Rank 8: 409-682 damage</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc>Essentially every time your opponent somehow avoids your attack (other then you missing), and every time you parry/block/riposte, this buff will deal damage to the opponent. Then it will wait until it refreshes itself, and deal damage again if the situation happens again. (Example Scenario: You attack a person, and they parry your attack, Lunge Reversal does 315-525 damage to them. Ten seconds later its self refresh kicks in, and shortly after you parry your opponents attack. Lunge Reversal hits them again.) So while over long fights, you only deal damage once every 20 seconds (if one of the conditions above occurs), over a short fight, the refresh timer may be almost ready to tick just before the ability goes off, giving you two procs of the ability in a time of much less then 20 seconds. Quantifying this, with an average 420 damage, you get about 20-30 DPS in longer fights at rank 4. At rank 8 that rises to about 30-40 DPS. Obviously this ability is best when you and your opponent are doing lots of blocking/parrying/etc, so it gets the most use when you are tanking, soloing or PvPing. In grouping and raiding situations where your accuracy is good and you are not getting hit, the ability will not proc much. I recommend then, unless you are tanking or soloing a lot, to only raise this to rank 4, as the other 4 points will only net a 10 or so DPS increase, and are better spent elsewhere.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc>--</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc>Freehand Reversal:</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc>Permanent Passive Buff</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc>Requires your off-hand to be empty, and a 1H or DW weapon equipped in your mainhand.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc>Increases double attack by 20%, Riposte in the front quadrant by 1% per rank, and parry in flanking/behind quadrants by 1% per rank.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc>Rank 4: +4% Riposte frontal, Parry sides/behind</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc>Rank 8: +8% Riposte frontal, Parry sides/behind</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc>The 20% increase in Double Attack from this ability will be analyzed in the Unencumbrance ability, since this ability is required for Unencumbrance, and there is no point in going down the Wisdom tree unless you plan to max out Unencumbrance. So looking only at the Riposte/Parry effects of this ability, it gives pretty much the same increase as Blackguard's Luck. Roughly a 0.8-1% increase in avoidance per point. This ability is worth a little bit more though, as Defense is much easier to cap then parry, and thanks to the Riposte, you atleast will be doing a bit of additional damage while being attacked.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc>--</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc>Unencumbrance:</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc>Permanent Passive Buff</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc>Requires your off-hand to be empty, and a 1H or DW weapon equipped in your mainhand.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc>Increases Double Attack chance of caster by 6.5% per rank.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc>Rank 4: +26% Double Attack</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc>Rank 8: +52% Double Attack</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc>This essentially once again, offsets the damage lost from using a 1H compared to a DW, but is much more effective then Opportunistic Cover. I am counting in the +20% Double attack from Freehand Reversal in this, to give a total of +72% double attack at rank 8. Essentially, every time you swing, you have a 72% chance to make another swing with its own damage roll right after the first one. The first one does not have to hit for this to occur. The break even point, assuming 70% 1H damage again, is halfway between rank 3 and rank 4. At rank 8, you will be doing ~20% more auto-attack damage then dual wields. Using again the 30/70 ratio, this gives ~6-8% damage increase overall. This is multiplied through by Haste and DPS% buffs. Double attacks however do not give additional procs, except for guaranteed ones. IE: A double attack cannot proc our Offensive Stance Interrupt, but it will proc things that are guaranteed to proc, like Inspired Daring. The damage bonus from Unencumbrance will be greatest in raid situations, where most of the time is spent auto-attacking, and you are heavily buffed with Haste and DPS%.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc>--</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc>Coule:</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc>Permanent Passive Buff</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc>No requirements.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc>Rank 1 (costs 8 AA points): Increases Slashing, Piercing, Ranged, Parry and Defense by 16.8.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cc00cc>This final ability will vary based on your situation. Raising your Defense and Parry by 16.8 will approximately raise your overall avoidance by some ~6-8%, but will also make it easy to cap your defense at 420 when in defensive stance, particularly when combined with Blackguard's Defense. The Slashing, Piercing and Ranged skill will directly increase damage by roughly the same amount, IF your accuracy is not already at or very close to 100%. Of note though, this is one of the few +Ranged skill abilities you can get, so if you regularly use ranged weapons, this will increase your damage with them. It is best suited for soloing or PvP, where you need good amounts of both offensive and defensive skills. It is also a pretty good ability for tanking, and going fully into the Wisdom line will make a pretty decent off tank, however full tanks will get more benefit from the Stamina line.</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>--------------------</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>Intelligence line:</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>--</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>Boot Dagger:</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>Combat Art</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>Power cost: 47</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>Cast time: 0.5</FONT><FONT color=#66ff33> seconds</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>Recovery time: 0.5 seconds</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>Recast: 30 seconds</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>Duration: 0.1 seconds</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>Requires a dagger to be equipped in main hand.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>Deals damage to target, and applies Shroud on termination, putting caster into stealth for 36 seconds.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>Rank 4: 157-262 damage</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>Rank 8: 225-375 damage</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>A low damage attack, that puts you into stealth. The only reason use for this is to get into stealth in 1 second, instead of using Sneak, which has a 2.0 second cast time. This allows you to use our one out-of-stealth attack with less of a delay of getting into stealth. The difference though is only ~1 second, and thus the DPS gain IF you are spamming your out-of-stealth attack will only be about 20 DPS or so. See math here: (<A href="http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=33&message.id=13614#M13614" target=_blank>http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=33&message.id=13614#M13614</A>) This may make a slight difference in soloing, but will be negligible for group and raid situations, which is where the Intelligence line focuses. Particularly in raiding situations it is possible to do more auto-attack DPS then you get from going into stealth and using the out-of-stealth attack. Taking this past rank 4 is fairly pointless, as the only return for your extra four points will be ~100 more average damage when using this ability.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>--</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>Thief's Prowess:</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>Toggle able Buff</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>Cast time: 2.0 seconds</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>Recovery time: 0.5 seconds</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>Recast: 5.0 seconds</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>Duration: Until Cancelled</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>No Requirements.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>When you are damaged, there is a 3% per rank chance that you will drop 2 threat positions.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>Rank 4: 12% chance</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>Rank 8: 24% chance</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>Every 8th hit on average at rank 4, or 4th hit at rank 8 will cause you to drop 2 positions in the hate list. This is a pretty quick way of getting aggro off, but unfortunately most raid mobs should be able to kill you in less then 4 hits. Most people going down Intelligence tree will also be taking the next tier ability, Evasiveness, which is designed to not make you steal aggro at all, meaning this ability will not get much use. Has no effect in PvP.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>--</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>Evasiveness:</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>Toggle able Buff</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>Cast time: 2.0 seconds</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>Recovery time: 0.5 seconds</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>Recast: 5.0 seconds</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>Duration: Until Cancelled</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>No Requirements.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>Decreases Hate Gain of caster by 1.25% per rank </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>Rank 4: 5% decrease in hate gain</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>Rank 8: 10% decrease in hate gain</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>A straight up hate decrease. Threat is directly proportional to damage done, so at rank 8 you will be generating hate as though you were doing 10% less DPS. Has no effect in PvP.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>--</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>Feign Death:</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>Combat Art</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>Cast time: </FONT><FONT color=#66ff33>Instant</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>Recovery time: 0.5 seconds</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>Recast: 3 minutes</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>Duration: 30 seconds</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>No requirements.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>Rank 1 (costs 8 AA points): Feigns Death, prevents AOE (except when you are direct target)</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff33>When soloing this will save your life if you get into trouble and also allow you to bypass monsters by training and then feigning. Unfortunately most people going into Int line will be doing so for raiding situations, where those uses don't have as much impact. It will save a few repair bills, but with 24 members in a raid, odds are there will be a Brawler that can feign death as well to help with wipe recovery. It is a situational ability, but could have been better placed within the AAs.</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> <HR> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><STRONG><FONT color=#009966>Conclusions:</FONT></STRONG></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#009966>SoE has created a very flexible set of AAs for Rogues, allowing us to pretty much pick and choose which aspects of our characters we wish to emphasize. Stamina line is indisputably best for Tanking, and the Intelligence line for reducing hate, while the other lines provide a nice mix of offense, defense and utility. The damage increases from Strength, Agility and Wisdom are fairly close, but each one has a niche where it excels.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#009966></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#009966>I will close here and thank you for taking the time to read this. Feel free to ask questions/make comments/suggest corrections/etc...</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#009966></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#009966>This will be posted on both the Swashbuckler and Brigand forums, as there is no single Rogue forum anymore, and this covers both classes equally.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#009966></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=time_text>30/07/06 - edit1: Removed sticky requests since Starry Eyed Elf has already sticked it (Thanks again!)</SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=time_text></SPAN> </DIV><SPAN class=time_text> <DIV><SPAN class=time_text>31/07/06 - edit2: Updated Formation to reflect that it does not require a round shield to be equipped to be in effect.</SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=time_text></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV></SPAN><SPAN class=time_text>03/08/06 - edit3: Updated Formation to state that taunt proc may only go off in defensive stance (unverified). Also updated Boot Dagger description, along with a link to some math I did indicating it will increase DPS by about 20 when spamming out-of-stealth attack.</SPAN></DIV> <P><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text>06/08/06 - edit4: Noted that Walk the Plank works on stun-immune mobs. Thanks go to </SPAN></SPAN><SPAN class=time_text>Damari for pointing this out.</SPAN></P> <P><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text>14/08/06 - edit5: Updated Evasiveness and Thief's Prowess to note they have no effect in PvP as of the time of writing. Thanks go to Wing for potining this out.</SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></P> <P><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text>09/10/06 - edit6: Updated information for Torporous Strike. Updated Blackguard's Luck to reflect CAs doing a straight 30% bonus damage on crits.</SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></P> <P><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text><SPAN class=time_text>29/11/06 - edit7: Updated title to reflect this only applies to the KoS Rogue achievements. I will not be doing an EoF Brigand achivements version as my Brigand is retired and thus I would be unable to test any of them. I will still keep this post up to date and will be updating it in the next month or two with how things have changed once I have explored the new combat system changes and mechanics thoroughly.</SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></P> <P>Message Edited by Rokjin on <SPAN class=date_text>10-10-2006</SPAN> <SPAN class=time_text>08:36 PM</SPAN></P><p>Message Edited by Rokjin on <span class=date_text>11-29-2006</span> <span class=time_text>12:30 PM</span>

[kyth]

    Your posts are always very informative.  Thank you for taking the time to do this!  I am sure this will get sticky'd soon!!<div></div>

[EscapedGo]

Great job! Thanks for taking the time to do this, it will be usefull to everyone. Now, let's hope they are smart enough to sticky this, because it surely deserves to be.<div></div>

[arabprin]

Thank you mate for adding something most people who visit this forum will find useful.  You're work is well appreciated.  Now can we get this stickied please?

[StarryEyedElf]

<P>Best way to get a sticky... PM a mod... as someone clearly did!</P> <P>We don't read every thread!</P> <P> </P> <P>Nice work with this one. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></P>

[Crimson Dragon]

great job as always rokjin. thanks for putting the time into this. <span>:smileyhappy:</span>(one little correction: torporous strike at rank 4 is a 4.2% decrease to crits.)<div></div>

[Rokjin]

<P>Thank you very much for the sticky Starry.</P> <P>And Kyros, that is what I have in my detailed section, but I figured in the summary I'd just give the direct effects it has.. which is about a 2% debuff in effectiveness due to the lost crit. I will clear that section up though to make it explicit that's what I'm stating.</P> <P> </P>

[Crimson Dragon]

ah, you're right. i was tired... didn't realize that was the analysis data not the numbers from the ability description.carry on! /bow<div></div>

[Suffering]

I have a question reguarding the Avaste ye info. Under it you use .5 as the delay of combat abiltiies in trying to calculate the % chance to crit when I thought your combat abilities use the same % as your weapon. So it would be more dps increase than you listed. As a brigand when i solo a single mobs i am behind mobs 90% of the fight because off all the stuns and roots we have, walk the plant and the 6 second root skill one after another is an excellent way to wail away at them.<div></div>

[Rokjin]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Suffering wrote:<BR>I have a question reguarding the Avaste ye info. Under it you use .5 as the delay of combat abiltiies in trying to calculate the % chance to crit when I thought your combat abilities use the same % as your weapon. So it would be more dps increase than you listed. <BR><BR>As a brigand when i solo a single mobs i am behind mobs 90% of the fight because off all the stuns and roots we have, walk the plant and the 6 second root skill one after another is an excellent way to wail away at them.<BR> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>All spells and combat arts are proc normalized to their cast times. Otherwise someone who uses the 4.0 delay DW weapon would have a large advantage in proc damage compared to someone that uses a 2.0 delay DW weapon. What you state may have been the case in the past, but now CAs and spells are definitely normalized proc wise.</P> <P>*nod* The amount of time people spend behind the mob will vary on what mobs they fight, etc, which is why in the analysis I used the 90% figure. When looking at soloing I also considered fighting nameds and single ups which are considerably harder to stay behind.</P> <P>As always, these are just general guidelines and everybody's situation will vary.</P>

[kyth]

<div><blockquote><hr>StarryEyedElf wrote:<div></div> <p>Best way to get a sticky... PM a mod... as someone clearly did!</p> <p>We don't read every thread!</p> <p>Nice work with this one. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><hr></blockquote>Thank you starry, fast response on the PM I barely did it this morning =p</div>

[Riversideblues]

<div><blockquote><hr>StarryEyedElf wrote:<div></div> <p>Best way to get a sticky... PM a mod... as someone clearly did!</p> <p><b><i><u>We don't read every thread!</u></i></b></p> <p>Nice work with this one. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><hr></blockquote>did you read my nedm thread?</div>

[skidmark]

<div></div>Great job.<p>Message Edited by skidmark on <span class=date_text>08-03-2006</span> <span class=time_text>10:11 AM</span>

[Jeffmaster]

If I get this right....agl and wis stack up when behind the target? or when soloing I'm better off with str/wis

[Gn]

<DIV>I have been playing with the stamina line.  It appears that the round shield does not need to be equipped for Formation mitigation bonus to work.  It's that or it does nothing at all to my mitigation.  Removing the round shield has no effect on my mitigation values.  Dual wielding also leaves the mitigation unchanged.  I also get no icon for the ability in my spell effects list. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Working as intended ?  I haven't wasted a respec to find out if my mitigation drops when I remove it, but so far, removing the roundshield does nothing.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Health value is also unchanged (I assume the minimal health change is due to the stats on the round shield and not the actual buff since it states it increases max health by 5% (which at 6000 health is 300 and I'm not gaining that much).</DIV> <DIV> </DIV><p>Message Edited by Gnef on <span class=date_text>07-31-2006</span> <span class=time_text>02:12 PM</span>

[Rokjin]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Jeffmaster wrote:<BR> If I get this right....agl and wis stack up when behind the target? or when soloing I'm better off with str/wis<BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P>Avast Ye is the only damage boost that depends on whether you are flanking/behind the opponent. For soloing it depends on your equipment and what your fighting. If you have a Legendary or better weapon that isn't outdated and enough AA points, I'd say STR/WIS is better. If your gear isn't really up to par or you fight stuff that is easily stunnable and dies by the time you finish using your CAs, AGI/STR is probably best.</P> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Gnef wrote:<BR> <DIV>I have been playing with the stamina line.  It appears that the round shield does not need to be equipped for Formation mitigation bonus to work.  It's that or it does nothing at all to my mitigation.  Removing the round shield has no effect on my mitigation values.  Dual wielding also leaves the mitigation unchanged.  I also get no icon for the ability in my spell effects list. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Working as intended ?  I haven't wasted a respec to find out if my mitigation drops when I remove it, but so far, removing the roundshield does nothing.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Health value is also unchanged (I assume the minimal health change is due to the stats on the round shield and not the actual buff since it states it increases max health by 5% (which at 6000 health is 300 and I'm not gaining that much).</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <P>Message Edited by Gnef on <SPAN class=date_text>07-31-2006</SPAN> <SPAN class=time_text>02:12 PM</SPAN><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV>You are correct, Formation does not require a round shield. It's an always on passive buff like Coule. I noted that in my notes but it looks like I forgot about it when writing up the post.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Thanks for pointing that out, I'll fix it right now.<BR></DIV>

[quasigenx]

<div><blockquote><hr>Rokjin wrote: <div><font color="#ffff00">Tier 5) Formation: Passive ability... a taunt for 392 threat that goes off 50% of the time when you are hit. </font></div><hr></blockquote>So, you can't turn off the hate proc? If I'm grouping with a real tank and want to go all out DPS, if a mob aggros me this would make it harder for the tank to get it off, right? Simple solution would be to make it passive but require a shield, or only proc if you are in defensive stance.Anyway, great post.</div>

[Rokjin]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> quasigenx wrote:<BR> <DIV><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Rokjin wrote:<BR><BR> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00>Tier 5) Formation: Passive ability... a taunt for 392 threat that goes off 50% of the time when you are hit. </FONT><BR></DIV> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE>So, you can't turn off the hate proc? If I'm grouping with a real tank and want to go all out DPS, if a mob aggros me this would make it harder for the tank to get it off, right? Simple solution would be to make it passive but require a shield, or only proc if you are in defensive stance.<BR><BR>Anyway, great post.<BR></DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P>It's a passive ability, not toggle able on/off, so yes, you can't turn off the hate gain from that, and yes, it would mean if something starts hitting you it will make it harder to get it off of you. <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></P> <P>As for changing it, well, that's up to devs and the /feedback command.</P>

[ibeo]

<DIV>agil wis with a good 1 hander, raid haste and raid dps is still one of the best ways to go period</DIV>

[Rokjin]

<DIV>I'd argue that Agility isn't the best choice for raiding because it only scales with Haste. If you count in DPS% Mod, and that Double Attacks can't proc Pirate Stab but CAN Crit, then Blackguard's Luck gives the best returns for high-end raiding damage increase. Especially when paired with Wisdom line.</DIV>

[Suffering]

<div><blockquote><hr>Rokjin wrote:<div></div> <blockquote> <hr> quasigenx wrote: <div> <blockquote> <hr> Rokjin wrote: <div><font color="#ffff00">Tier 5) Formation: Passive ability... a taunt for 392 threat that goes off 50% of the time when you are hit. </font></div> <hr> </blockquote>So, you can't turn off the hate proc? If I'm grouping with a real tank and want to go all out DPS, if a mob aggros me this would make it harder for the tank to get it off, right? Simple solution would be to make it passive but require a shield, or only proc if you are in defensive stance.Anyway, great post.</div> <hr> </blockquote> <p>It's a passive ability, not toggle able on/off, so yes, you can't turn off the hate gain from that, and yes, it would mean if something starts hitting you it will make it harder to get it off of you. <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p> <p>As for changing it, well, that's up to devs and the /feedback command.</p><hr></blockquote>Actually the hate proc on getting hit only goes off when your in defensive stance. Read the deciption of the ablitiy in game very carefully.</div>

[Rokjin]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Suffering wrote: <DIV>Actually the hate proc on getting hit only goes off when your in defensive stance. Read the deciption of the ablitiy in game very carefully.<BR> <HR> </DIV></BLOCKQUOTE><BR>Ah, good catch. I didn't notice that. The spell effects don't state that though.. Anyone out there with Formation that can verify whether the proc only goes off when your in defensive stance?

[MaestroX]

<DIV>Very nice work on this thread.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>As an admitted walk the plank and FD  junkie, I wlll probably stay with Agi/Int as a raiding brigand even though my gear is speced out to do more dps with Str/Int. So as far as staying in the Agi line to the end, could you run some math on the effects of Sailwind on Avast Ye and auto attacks as far as expected dps gains from the three or four extra auto attacks per minute?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>It would be much appeciated.</DIV>

[Rokjin]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> MaestroX wrote:<BR> <DIV>Very nice work on this thread.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>As an admitted walk the plank and FD  junkie, I wlll probably stay with Agi/Int as a raiding brigand even though my gear is speced out to do more dps with Str/Int. So as far as staying in the Agi line to the end, could you run some math on the effects of Sailwind on Avast Ye and auto attacks as far as expected dps gains from the three or four extra auto attacks per minute?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>It would be much appeciated.</DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>It will be negligible. Sailwind won't really make any difference with Avast Ye. CAs are normalized, so decreasing cast time will decrease the Avast Ye proc chance, meaning you end up with the same average. And the possible extra auto-attacks from Sailwind, well, ~4 seconds saved over a 60 second period is ~5% increase in auto-attack damage, IF your auto-attack was waiting on your CAs. For example if you have a 2.0 delay weapon, even at 100% haste, CAs will not really interfere with it, since the delay inbetween swings allows you to perfectly fit a CA in there.</P> <P>I stated the about maximum 5% increase in auto-attack damage from Sailwind in the write up, so nothing really new here..</P>

[skidmark]

<blockquote><hr><div><font color="#0066ff">Pirate (Agility) Tree Summary: The agility tree provides a mix of offense and utility, aimed more towards soloing and PvP then other situations.</font></div> <div><font color="#0066ff"></font> </div> <div><font color="#0066ff">Tier 1) Pirate's Agility: Increases agility by 5 per point.</font></div> <div><font color="#0066ff"></font> </div> <div><font color="#0066ff">Tier 2) Walk the Plank: This is a 30 second recast CA requiring a rapier equipped in the main hand, which changes the direction your opponent is facing and roots them. Duration increases with ranks. At rank 4 it does 210-350 damage and its duration (2.1 seconds) is long enough to get off two positional CAs. At rank 8 it does 300-500 damage and lasts for 3 seconds. Great for soloing or PvP where it is hard to get behind the opponent consistently. Decreases melee damage you take as well by 10-20%, depending on the length of the fight, due to the mob not facing you. Fairly limited usage in grouping other than slight damage reduction for the tank. No effect on epic mobs, thus useless in raiding. Taking it past rank 4 has a fairly small effect due to lag/delay considerations. IE: You need more then 3 seconds to get off 3 attacks. When combined with Sailwind though, rank 8 allows you to get off 3 attacks.</font></div> <div><font color="#0066ff"></font> </div><hr></blockquote>I would like to add that as a Brigand, I can use Wallk The Plank-->Sap-->Craven Delight-->Bum Rush-->Vicious Rake-->Shank-->Trickery at 40 bascially unloading on the target all of my most vicious attacks. I think this ability benefits Brigands more than Swashbucklers due to Blackjack/Sap alone.At 58 a Brigand could: Wallk The Plank-->Subdue-->Murderous Rake-->Dispatch-->Double Up-->Debilitate-->Bum Rush-->Deceitful Blow-->Spine Ripper-->Shiv-->DeceptionThe mob would have it's back turned to the Brigand for 11 seconds and he would have had a significant amount of damage done. Just as he turns around to lay into the brigand, he gets a surprise attack.Great post too Rokjin.

[Rokjin]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> skidmark wrote:<BR><BR>I would like to add that as a Brigand, I can use Wallk The Plank-->Sap-->Craven Delight-->Bum Rush-->Vicious Rake-->Shank-->Trickery at 40 bascially unloading on the target all of my most vicious attacks. I think this ability benefits Brigands more than Swashbucklers due to Blackjack/Sap alone.<BR><BR>At 58 a Brigand could: Wallk The Plank-->Subdue-->Murderous Rake-->Dispatch-->Double Up-->Debilitate-->Bum Rush-->Deceitful Blow-->Spine Ripper-->Shiv-->Deception<BR><BR>The mob would have it's back turned to the Brigand for 11 seconds and he would have had a significant amount of damage done. Just as he turns around to lay into the brigand, he gets a surprise attack.<BR><BR>Great post too Rokjin.<BR><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE>Hmm, I just noticed the Subdue line didn't change facing, just forced the facing of whatever way the target is already facing. Yes, though then again Swashbucklers only have 3 ablities that require rear-facing, Plunder, Lunge Reversal (which can also be flanked) and Guile (also flanked), so a Walk the Plank + Cheap Shot is enough to get off every back attack as well. So it really is of equal use to both classes. Yes I know the Brigands can keep the mob turned around longer with stuns, but they could do that before Walk the Plank as well.. It just saves a second or so of moving around <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /><BR>

[Damari]

<P>Rokjin,</P> <P>Great post.  Just wanted to mention a small bonus to 'walk the plank' is that it will work on stun immune mobs.  </P> <P>D.</P>

[Rokjin]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Damari wrote:<BR> <P>Rokjin,</P> <P>Great post.  Just wanted to mention a small bonus to 'walk the plank' is that it will work on stun immune mobs.  </P> <P>D.</P><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR>Good point. Adding this.

[Sete Soujiro]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Rokjin wrote:<BR> <BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> skidmark wrote:<BR><BR>I would like to add that as a Brigand, I can use Wallk The Plank-->Sap-->Craven Delight-->Bum Rush-->Vicious Rake-->Shank-->Trickery at 40 bascially unloading on the target all of my most vicious attacks. I think this ability benefits Brigands more than Swashbucklers due to Blackjack/Sap alone.<BR><BR>At 58 a Brigand could: Wallk The Plank-->Subdue-->Murderous Rake-->Dispatch-->Double Up-->Debilitate-->Bum Rush-->Deceitful Blow-->Spine Ripper-->Shiv-->Deception<BR><BR>The mob would have it's back turned to the Brigand for 11 seconds and he would have had a significant amount of damage done. Just as he turns around to lay into the brigand, he gets a surprise attack.<BR><BR>Great post too Rokjin.<BR><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE>Hmm, I just noticed the Subdue line didn't change facing, just forced the facing of whatever way the target is already facing. Yes, though then again Swashbucklers only have 3 ablities that require rear-facing, Plunder, Lunge Reversal (which can also be flanked) and Guile (also flanked), so a Walk the Plank + Cheap Shot is enough to get off every back attack as well. So it really is of equal use to both classes. Yes I know the Brigands can keep the mob turned around longer with stuns, but they could do that before Walk the Plank as well.. It just saves a second or so of moving around <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /><BR><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR>Cheap shot doesn't work on the mobs i solo <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Crimson Dragon]

cheap shot always lands. it's a 2 second stun on anything with an up arrow on it. 4 seconds on anything else.unless you're soloing epics, it will do something. it's just getting behind the mob and getting a hit in within those 2 seconds that is the challenge. <span>:smileywink:</span><div></div>

[Trollb]

<DIV>wow, very nice indeed. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>So like, the agi/stam line.... gives brigand a really adjustable rapier/shield build. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Even DW with stance up I do alright tanking esp with good gear, but with an aoe taunt and high CA dps, well by golly, it will be quite interesting to see. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>AGI imo is just a must for pvp server. I get sick of peoples running away. 10% boost to run plus firing off quicker specials at the end of the road is basically all i can expect. Plus AGI being a tankish stat anyhow, makes up alot for the fact that I am a big dumb ogre to begin with. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>If it werent for the running thing, I woulda prolly gone str... str/stamina... guy can tank, and slow up the healer while stunning him. But [Removed for Content] run, and they more often than not make the zone with a few hps left since our snares seem to be kinda... eh, dont work well? </DIV>

[Kru]

<div></div><div></div><div></div>Rokjin,I have a few questions for you if you don't mind.  Take the following considerations into mind: I'm a level 58 brigand, on a PVP server.  Most of the time, I'm solo PVP'ing, and solo'ing quests and/or HQ'S.  I will also be joining a high end raiding guild soon, so I will be involved with raiding as well.  But when I'm not raiding, I'm usually solo'ing, and I'm big on PVP.1. Regarding riposte.  Do all characters have a natural chance to riposte, or only if you have a special item and/or shield equipped?  How can you find out what your riposte percentage is?2. When talking about the "Coule" skill in the Wisdom line, you say "<font color="#ccffcc">...</font><font color="#cc00cc"><font color="#ccffcc">but will also make it easy to cap your defense at 420 when in defensive stance."  What number is 420 referring to?  For example, my defensive stance currently increases my defense by 22.  Is this 22 part of the 420 cap you're talking about?  Also, how can you tell what your current "defense" level is at?  I use ThorUI and when I hover my mouse over avoidance, or mitigation, it shows percentages on block, parry, deflection, etc..but no defense number.3.  Is it better to get the last skill in each particular line?  Or are there some builds that are better off forgoing the last skill in a line, in order to add more points to a particularly useful skill like "Blackguards luck."?  Because if you want to get the last skill in both Str and Wis, for example, you can only max blackguards luck to 4 (or 5 if you choose this as the skill to put your last point into), instead of raising it to 8 like many people would love to do.4.  </font></font><font color="#cc00cc"><font color="#ccffcc">What's the build with the highest possible DPS in raiding?</font></font><font color="#cc00cc"><font color="#ccffcc">5.  What's the build with the highest possible DPS in solo PVP?6.  </font></font><font color="#cc00cc"><font color="#ccffcc"> currently have 24 points in the agility line.  I don't mind respeccing, but I need advice on which two lines to go down.  I was thinking Str+Agi, but my problem with that, is two skills conflict with eachother.  You either lose walk the plank, or you lose torporous strike.  I don't like missing out on a major skill, but you say it "..excelts at soloing and grouping", and I do find myself soloing a lot.  I also thought about Agi+Sta, because you say it's "good for pvping and soloing" which describes me well, but I always thought maximizing your dps was the best for pvp.  The quicker you can take down someone, the better.  If you're more focussed on defense, and the person wants to flee instead of fight, you're going to have a hard time killing them since you gave up some of your dps for defense, and they will probably escape.  On the other hand, if you maximize your dps, you'll kill them a lot quicker and they might not have a chance to get away.  In addition, defense is worthless in raiding situations since you shouldn't be getting hit by anything but AOE anyways.  You could say that defense is good for when the person chooses to stay and fight, but I'll tell you right now, with my reputation and Dreadnaught title, not a lot of people stick around to fight.  Then I started thinking about Str+Wis.  This seemed especially fitting because A) I have excellent equipment, and B) You seem to think it has the best offensive and defensive potential.  On the other hand, you say it "excels at grouping and raiding."  Although I will be raiding some, I also want to have good solo pvp abilities.  So, help me choose, please!</font></font><font color="#cc00cc"><font color="#ccffcc">So needless to say, I'm having a hard time picking a build, and the above questions are just adding to my confusion.  Any help would be appreciated.  Thank you!</font></font><p>Message Edited by Kruhl on <span class=date_text>08-13-2006</span> <span class=time_text>01:36 PM</span>

[Rokjin]

<P>Kruhl, to answer your questions.</P> <P>1. You do not have an innate chance to Riposte I think. I have not looked deeply into it, but it seems only can be gained from aa's. The normal in-game UI does not show Riposte Percentage, same with Crit percentage. Since some custom UIs show crit percentage, there may be one that shows riposte, but I am not aware of it.</P> <P>2. Take a look at your skills window. Same place as your Slashing/Piercing/Ranged skill are listed, also lists your Parry and Defense. All skills are capped at 420 at level 70. (level * 6). So any Defense, Parry, Slashing, etc. skill past 420 has no effect (except for providing a cushion against debuffs).</P> <P>3. This is really up to the individual person's play style. Since your soloing and PVPing, I'd say Coule is very useful. Then when you get into high end raiding you can always respec to get the final STR ability or shift your spec to match your playstyle. You'll have to just weigh, whether the avoidance and + to hit is worth the 8 point investement, and what those 8 points can get you elsewhere (which is why I wrote this guide, so you can determine what those 8 points can get you).</P> <P>4. In my opinion that is WIS with 8 points in Unencumberance, STR with 8 points in Blackguard's Luck and a fabled 1-hander. No parses to back this up since I do not really raid or have 2 high-end DWs to compare, but the WIS and STR abilities scale with any damage increasing buffs, skills and equipment, while Avast Ye only scales with Haste.</P> <P>5. Depends on your equipment and what your fighting. Solo PvP though especially since your a Brigand I'd highly reccomend getting Walk the Plank. The rest of the AGI line lends itself pretty well to PvPing utility and burst damage. Wisdom is also a pretty good choice for PvP since it gives you a good mix of defense and offense (Lunge Reversal goes off lots in PvP too).</P> <P>6. Take my 'excels at' lines with a grain of salt. They are very general guidelines for those who really do not want look at the skills in detail and see what fits them the best. Honestly, in my experience Torporous Strike is very nearly useless, so if your deciding between using it or Walk the Plank, go for Walk the Plank.. The defensive bonuses of WIS line again though are nearly useless if people do not fight you. Then again Coule will help you hit people better. There is no straight answer of A is better then B. Take a look in detail at my write up, and try and decide based on that and how often you are actually getting hit, etc. AGI + WIS for example will probably lose out to AGI + STR for short fights where you don't get much auto-attacking off. If 90%+ of your fights consist of you trying to gank someone before they get away, AGI + STR is best burst damage. If you actually end up fighting people though, then AGI + WIS will give almost as good DPS and more survivability.</P> <P>-edit: fixed 8 points in Freehand Reversal to 8 points in Unencumberance, since I had confused the two when writing the post. Sorry Kruhl.</P><p>Message Edited by Rokjin on <span class=date_text>08-17-2006</span> <span class=time_text>08:08 AM</span>

[Crimson Dragon]

we don't have an innate chance to riposte? that can't be right.i remember out-of-group tanking for a friend while he was leveling up his skills on mobs that were gray to me... i had to turn around and not face the mob so that i wouldn't kill it with ripostes.maybe they've changed this, but i'm pretty sure that we've got the ability to riposte without the achievement buffs.freehand reversal says that it increases the chance to riposte, not that it gives a chance to riposte, so i'm pretty sure we had something to begin with.<div></div>

[Rokjin]

<DIV>It is possible we have something similar to a 1% Riposte chance vs even level mobs, with it going up fairly high with level difference, much like critical chance. Would have to parse it vs even level mobs while soloing... Anyone know of a good spot with solo level 70 mobs?</DIV>

[Keleran]

The only place that comes to mind offhand would be the monk trial instances.

[Dragonslayer810]

<P>Leanan for the int line in pvp, Thief's Prowress and Evasivness, do not work at all.</P> <P>For Thief's Prowress i have seen countless time people and pets wailing on me, getting the message saying thier anger subsides to the thief and yet they continue to wail on me. </P> <P>When you inspect these buffs and click the pvp box all the effects of this spell disappear. So basically these buffs are useless in pvp. </P> <P>I do not know if they were meant to not have an effect or it is bugged but, it would be really cool if they did work.</P>

[Rokjin]

Thanks for the information. I'll update the guide to reflect they do not have any effect currently in PvP.

[jint]

ok i have a question for you <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />, i am a raiding brigand with 50 AA's currently using WIS/STR with a 1h DR 79-80i was wondering if i would get higher dps using good fabled DW weapon and STR/AGI AA line or whether im best to stick with what im using for high DPS <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />?<div></div>

[Rokjin]

<P>Well, 79-80 DR 1H is roughly equivalent to having DW weapons that add up to 113-115 DR. So if you do switch over to DW, you'd need atleast a combined 115 DR rating to see any potential benefit.</P> <P>STR line benefits both 1H and DW the same, so I'm leaving it out. Only way you'll really know is parse a raid and look at your average auto-attack DPS during it. WIS line adds about 20% to that. AGI line adds about a straight 40-50 DPS to that. So if your pure auto-attack DPS is greater then 350 or so, you'll get more out of WIS + 1H  then AGI + DW. From about 350-250 or so it will depend on circumstances, while below 250 auto-attack DPS, AGI + DWs wins out.</P> <P>These are again just very rough ballpark figures. The only real way to know is to try it out and parse the difference (given same mobs/situations/buffs/group build).</P>

[Crimson Dragon]

so to be totally honest and blunt. some combinations are better than others, but the real purpse of the achievement abilities is to give you new ways to customize your character, not to give you builds that will just make you the best dps.play whatever you like. in the end, they're not that much different, and group construction and buffs are far more important than specific weapons and achievement lines. just enjoy whatever you choose. it's a game, have fun. <span>:smileyvery-happy:</span><div></div>

[ag]

<blockquote><hr>Crimson Dragon wrote:we don't have an innate chance to riposte? that can't be right.i remember out-of-group tanking for a friend while he was leveling up his skills on mobs that were gray to me... i had to turn around and not face the mob so that i wouldn't kill it with ripostes.maybe they've changed this, but i'm pretty sure that we've got the ability to riposte without the achievement buffs.freehand reversal says that it increases the chance to riposte, not that it gives a chance to riposte, so i'm pretty sure we had something to begin with.<div></div><hr></blockquote>Yes we do. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /><pre>(1155605147)[Mon Aug 14 19:25:47 2006] a Truth guard tries to crush YOU with Raging Blow, but YOU riposte.(1155605149)[Mon Aug 14 19:25:49 2006] a Truth guard tries to crush YOU, but YOU riposte.(1155605151)[Mon Aug 14 19:25:51 2006] a Truth guard tries to crush YOU, but YOU riposte.(1155605152)[Mon Aug 14 19:25:52 2006] a Truth guard tries to crush YOU, but YOU riposte.(1155605153)[Mon Aug 14 19:25:53 2006] a Truth jailor tries to crush YOU, but YOU riposte.(1155605154)[Mon Aug 14 19:25:54 2006] a Truth guard tries to crush YOU, but YOU riposte.(1155605157)[Mon Aug 14 19:25:57 2006] a Truth jailor tries to crush YOU, but YOU riposte.(115560515<img src="/smilies/b2eb59423fbf5fa39342041237025880.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />[Mon Aug 14 19:25:58 2006] a Truth guard tries to crush YOU, but YOU riposte.(1155605159)[Mon Aug 14 19:25:59 2006] a Truth guard tries to crush YOU, but YOU riposte.(1155605161)[Mon Aug 14 19:26:01 2006] a Truth guard tries to crush YOU, but YOU riposte.(1155605161)[Mon Aug 14 19:26:01 2006] a Truth guard tries to crush YOU, but YOU riposte.(1155605164)[Mon Aug 14 19:26:04 2006] a Truth guard tries to crush YOU, but YOU riposte.(1155605166)[Mon Aug 14 19:26:06 2006] a Truth guard tries to crush YOU, but YOU riposte.(1155605167)[Mon Aug 14 19:26:07 2006] a Truth guard tries to crush YOU, but YOU riposte.(1155605169)[Mon Aug 14 19:26:09 2006] a Truth jailor tries to crush YOU with Guard shoulder thrust, but YOU riposte.(1155605169)[Mon Aug 14 19:26:09 2006] a Truth guard tries to crush YOU, but YOU riposte.(1155605170)[Mon Aug 14 19:26:10 2006] a Truth guard tries to crush YOU, but YOU riposte.(1155605171)[Mon Aug 14 19:26:11 2006] a Truth guard tries to crush YOU, but YOU riposte.(1155605172)[Mon Aug 14 19:26:12 2006] a Truth guard tries to crush YOU, but YOU riposte.(1155605172)[Mon Aug 14 19:26:12 2006] a Truth guard tries to crush YOU, but YOU riposte.(1155605173)[Mon Aug 14 19:26:13 2006] a Truth guard tries to crush YOU, but YOU riposte.(1155605174)[Mon Aug 14 19:26:14 2006] a Truth guard tries to crush YOU, but YOU riposte.(1155605176)[Mon Aug 14 19:26:16 2006] a Truth jailor tries to crush YOU, but YOU riposte.(1155605176)[Mon Aug 14 19:26:16 2006] a Truth guard tries to crush YOU with Mangle, but YOU riposte.(1155605179)[Mon Aug 14 19:26:19 2006] a Truth guard tries to crush YOU, but YOU riposte.(1155605179)[Mon Aug 14 19:26:19 2006] a Truth guard tries to crush YOU, but YOU riposte.(1155605183)[Mon Aug 14 19:26:23 2006] a Truth guard tries to crush YOU, but YOU riposte.(1155605184)[Mon Aug 14 19:26:24 2006] a Truth guard tries to crush YOU, but YOU riposte.(1155605184)[Mon Aug 14 19:26:24 2006] a Truth guard tries to crush YOU, but YOU riposte.(1155605186)[Mon Aug 14 19:26:26 2006] a Truth guard tries to crush YOU with Guard shoulder thrust, but YOU riposte.(1155605192)[Mon Aug 14 19:26:32 2006] a Truth guard tries to crush YOU, but YOU riposte.(1155605192)[Mon Aug 14 19:26:32 2006] a Truth guard tries to crush YOU, but YOU riposte.(1155605200)[Mon Aug 14 19:26:40 2006] a Truth guard tries to crush YOU, but YOU riposte.(1155605202)[Mon Aug 14 19:26:42 2006] a Truth guard tries to crush YOU, but YOU riposte.(1155605207)[Mon Aug 14 19:26:47 2006] a Truth guard tries to crush YOU, but YOU riposte.(1155605207)[Mon Aug 14 19:26:47 2006] a Truth guard tries to crush YOU, but YOU riposte.(115560520<img src="/smilies/b2eb59423fbf5fa39342041237025880.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />[Mon Aug 14 19:26:48 2006] a Truth guard tries to crush YOU, but YOU riposte.(1155605211)[Mon Aug 14 19:26:51 2006] a Truth guard tries to crush YOU, but YOU riposte.(1155605213)[Mon Aug 14 19:26:53 2006] a Truth guard tries to crush YOU with Raging Blow, but YOU riposte.(1155605213)[Mon Aug 14 19:26:53 2006] a Truth guard tries to crush YOU, but YOU riposte.(1155605214)[Mon Aug 14 19:26:54 2006] a Truth guard tries to crush YOU, but YOU riposte.(1155605215)[Mon Aug 14 19:26:55 2006] a Truth guard tries to crush YOU, but YOU riposte.(1155605220)[Mon Aug 14 19:27:00 2006] a Truth guard tries to crush YOU, but YOU riposte.(1155605226)[Mon Aug 14 19:27:06 2006] a Truth guard tries to crush YOU, but YOU riposte.(115560522<img src="/smilies/b2eb59423fbf5fa39342041237025880.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />[Mon Aug 14 19:27:08 2006] a Truth guard tries to crush YOU, but YOU riposte.(1155605236)[Mon Aug 14 19:27:16 2006] a Truth guard tries to crush YOU, but YOU riposte.(115560523<img src="/smilies/b2eb59423fbf5fa39342041237025880.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />[Mon Aug 14 19:27:18 2006] a Truth guard tries to crush YOU with Surround, but YOU riposte.(1155605239)[Mon Aug 14 19:27:19 2006] a Truth guard tries to crush YOU, but YOU riposte.(1155605246)[Mon Aug 14 19:27:26 2006] a Truth guard tries to crush YOU with Surround, but YOU riposte.(1155605251)[Mon Aug 14 19:27:31 2006] a Truth guard tries to crush YOU, but YOU riposte.</pre>I am STR/INT spec'd, so there's no riposte related AA's affecting that.

[Kru]

Ok, solo pvp and raiding again:Plan on doing 4-4-4-8-0 in STR line and full WIS line 4-4-4-4-1.  This leaves me with 5 points.  What should I do with the remaining 5?  Max out freehand reversal, and stick the last point in unencumbrance?  Or max out unencumbrance and stick the last point in freehand reversal?<div></div>

[Crimson Dragon]

max out the double attack (unencumberance, i believe)then float the other point in the riposte chance (freehand reversal, i believe), str line defense, or lunge reversal.<div></div>

[Rokjin]

Max out Unencumbrance. There's no point in going into WIS line unless you max out Unencumberance. Last point goes wherever you feel like. Freehand Reversal is good for a bit more avoidance.. or more into Lunge Reversal for a tiny bit more damage..

[Kru]

Didn't you say earlier to max out freehand reversal if you wanted the maximum dps possible?<div></div>

[Jida]

<div><blockquote><hr>Kruhl wrote:Didn't you say earlier to max out freehand reversal if you wanted the maximum dps possible?<div></div><hr></blockquote>I maxed that skill.. went off a bit, only in solo mode.. in pickup groups/raids it was worthless... =(</div>

[Kru]

"In my opinion that is WIS with 8 points in Freehand Reversal, STR with 8 points in Blackguard's Luck and a fabled 1-hander." ??<div></div>

[Wardyn]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Kruhl wrote:<BR>Ok, solo pvp and raiding again:<BR><BR>Plan on doing 4-4-4-8-0 in STR line and full WIS line 4-4-4-4-1.  This leaves me with 5 points.  What should I do with the remaining 5?  Max out freehand reversal, and stick the last point in unencumbrance?  Or max out unencumbrance and stick the last point in freehand reversal?<BR><BR> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>I started earler and Im now 57. I focused mainly on soloing (but will adjust when the raiding begins. </P> <P>For mainly soloing. I went:</P> <P>4-4-4-8 STR  --  4-4-5-8-8 WIS</P> <P>For raiding i'll respect to:</P> <P>4-4-4-8-8 STR -- 4-4-5-8 WIS</P> <P>Like the AGI line, wis will make you a better soloer (heck they all do I imagine) Unlike the AGI line, I think you really need a fabled weapon. With AGI I think you can get away with a mastercrafted weapon or two since it is based so largely on your CA's. However, wisdom doesn't have that luxury. So start saving your pennies. If you work hard, you can have your AA's maxed by your mid 50's. Once you get Unencumbrance to 4, you'll want to have one.</P>

[Rokjin]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Kruhl wrote:<BR>"In my opinion that is WIS with 8 points in Freehand Reversal, STR with 8 points in Blackguard's Luck and a fabled 1-hander." ??<BR><BR> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR>Sorry, my bad. In the original analysis everything is fine, but I did slip up when typing that reply. Sorry about that. Meant to say Unencumberance.

[Crimson Dragon]

<div></div>uh oh..... /target Rokjin/usea Clobberall better now.<span>:smileywink:</span><div></div><p>Message Edited by Crimson Dragon on <span class=date_text>08-17-2006</span> <span class=time_text>08:24 AM</span>

[GoatSlave]

If I may say so this is the MOST AMAZING not ot mention detailed post on AAs that I have ever had the pleasure to read !I THANK you so much for taking the time to allow us to make a more educated decision and feel more confortable in choosing our AA pairs!Great job!<div></div>

[Duster_68]

<div></div>Great job Rokjin, thanks for the effort.<a href="http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/view_profile?user.id=226225" target="_blank"><span></span></a>

[Oldlore]

Assuming 8 points in unencumbrance, what DR 1H do you need to surpass 2 DW wpns.  My brigand can probably get a hold of 2 Turadramin fangs (53 DR each) when she hits 64 but the best 1H I've seen on broker is just 65DR, as the only thing higher I've seen is an ancient velium rod that scouts can't use.  Is 1H still higher DPS in that scenario or should I wait until I can get a fabled 1H in the future? <div></div>

[Rokjin]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Oldlore wrote:<BR>Assuming 8 points in unencumbrance, what DR 1H do you need to surpass 2 DW wpns.  My brigand can probably get a hold of 2 Turadramin fangs (53 DR each) when she hits 64 but the best 1H I've seen on broker is just 65DR, as the only thing higher I've seen is an ancient velium rod that scouts can't use.  Is 1H still higher DPS in that scenario or should I wait until I can get a fabled 1H in the future? <BR> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>That will depend on a lot of factors, but I can tell you atleast that a 65 DR one hander is roughly equivalent to about 92.9 or so DW DRs. Or the 2 Turadramin Fangs are roughly equivalent to about a 74 DR 1H. So, they are roughly 15% better damage wise, and since 8 Unencumberance increases auto-attack damage by about 20%, then comitting to the WIS line would only give you about a 5% damage improvement. The key strength (and weakness) of Wisdom line is it scales with your equipment and buffs. Having a weaker weapon hurts it quite a bit more then the other AA lines.</P> <P>Interestingly the Turadramin Fangs seem to have a 5-49 damage range (if EQ2IDB is right), which gives them a rather large 1:10 damage ratio. So if you go with those, you'll definitely want Blackguard's Luck for the crit increase, since they get a ~0.9% damage increase per point of crit (see my critical damage post on Combat Discussion forum).</P> <P>So Blackguard's Luck will increase your auto-attack damage by a good 12-13% (with Turadramin Fangs), in addition to the roughly 4-5% increase in CA damage.</P> <P>This is actually a good point of illustration for the value of large damage range weapons. The Turadramin Fang gains almost twice as much damage per point of crit then something with a 1:3 ratio.. (About a 0.9% increase compared to 0.55% per point of crit)</P><p>Message Edited by Rokjin on <span class=date_text>08-23-2006</span> <span class=time_text>08:12 PM</span>

[mui]

<div></div>Ok for the strength line is it always a sword/slashing? Or does it matter ie any sword or any slashing? I am still confused on this part. I am just looking for a better definition of what types of weapons will work or are good to use as I lvl up. I currently have Str/wis AA setup and am using a cobalt imbued longsword.<div></div><p>Message Edited by muiir on <span class=date_text>08-24-2006</span> <span class=time_text>10:19 AM</span>

[DaLurk]

<div><blockquote><hr>Rokjin wrote:<p>That will depend on a lot of factors, but I can tell you atleast that a 65 DR one hander is roughly equivalent to about 92.9 or so DW DRs. Or the 2 Turadramin Fangs are roughly equivalent to about a 74 DR 1H. So, they are roughly 15% better damage wise, and since 8 Unencumberance increases auto-attack damage by about 20%, then comitting to the WIS line would only give you about a 5% damage improvement. The key strength (and weakness) of Wisdom line is it scales with your equipment and buffs. Having a weaker weapon hurts it quite a bit more then the other AA lines.</p> <p>Interestingly the Turadramin Fangs seem to have a 5-49 damage range (if EQ2IDB is right), which gives them a rather large 1:10 damage ratio. So if you go with those, you'll definitely want Blackguard's Luck for the crit increase, since they get a ~0.9% damage increase per point of crit (see my critical damage post on Combat Discussion forum).</p> <p>So Blackguard's Luck will increase your auto-attack damage by a good 12-13% (with Turadramin Fangs), in addition to the roughly 4-5% increase in CA damage.</p> <p>This is actually a good point of illustration for the value of large damage range weapons. The Turadramin Fang gains almost twice as much damage per point of crit then something with a 1:3 ratio.. (About a 0.9% increase compared to 0.55% per point of crit)</p><hr></blockquote>Can you please continue this analysis between those 2 Turadramins with STR (and 8 in Crits Line) vs. let's say ... an Ancient Velium Rapier and WIS (with 8 in Unencombrance) ? <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></div>

[Rokjin]

<DIV>Muiir: You need a weapon that says 'Sword' as the type. The damage type doesn't matter. If it says 'Sword' your good. Also, you only need it to use Torporous Strike and Traumatic Swipe. If you don't get Traumatic and don't want to use Torporous Strike (since it sucks in it's current incarnation), the other abilities in STR line work with any weapon.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>DaLurker:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Ookay.. Now your asking for a bit much. A lot of factors will come in when comparing two different sets of weapons with two different AA lines, but I can make a VERY rough attempt.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0000>DISCLAIMER: THIS IS VERY ROUGH MATH, SO DO NOT TAKE IT AS GOSPEL OR EVEN THE TRUTH, JUST AN EDUCATED GUESS.</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I can't find Ancient Velium Rapier in EQ2IDB, but I will assume it has same DR and damage range as Ancient Velium shortspear or Battlehammer.. ie, 71.2 DR and 23-69 range, giving a 1:3 ratio.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Looking ONLY at auto-attack damage.. The 71.2 DR turns into roughly 122.4 DR with 8 points of Unencumberance.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The two Turadramin Fangs on the other hand, have 106 DR which adjusted for auto-attack swings lost due to CAs (about 5%) comes out to roughly 101 DR. Then 8 points of Blackguard's Luck will increase that damage by about 12.5%, or roughly 114 DR.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>So pure auto-attack, you get approximately 122 DR from the Rapier, and about 114 DR from the Turadramin Fangs. (Assuming the DR scales equally for both, which it should, the rapier will do some 7% more auto-attack)</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>However, Blackguard's Luck will also increase the CA damage you do by about 4-5%, so honestly it seems to me they will be pretty even. Whether STR+AGI or STR+WIS is better damage will depend on your DPS numbers.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>It's impossible to do more detail without more information of DPS numbers, auto-attack to CA damage proportions, etc. I'm also working with DR, which is a fairly loose rating of how much actual DPS the weapon does. Your group makeup, fighting styles, buffs, equipment and CA skills will vary all of this quite a large amount.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>There really isn't a conclusion to all of this other then that my guess is they will be roughly equal. Figuring the rest of your AA points into it makes it much more complicated.</DIV><p>Message Edited by Rokjin on <span class=date_text>08-24-2006</span> <span class=time_text>12:10 PM</span>

[DaLurk]

<div><blockquote><hr>Rokjin wrote:<div></div> <div></div><div>DaLurker:</div><div> </div> <div><font color="#ff0000">DISCLAIMER: THIS IS VERY ROUGH MATH, SO DO NOT TAKE IT AS GOSPEL OR EVEN THE TRUTH, JUST AN EDUCATED GUESS.</font></div><hr></blockquote>Of course, I don't even take it as gospel or truth when I read Live Updates, just want some outside nerdy point of view cause I went totally with my feeling/desire/look on aa choice <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /><blockquote><hr>Rokjin wrote:<div></div> <div></div> <div>It's impossible to do more detail without more information of DPS numbers, auto-attack to CA damage proportions, etc. I'm also working with DR, which is a fairly loose rating of how much actual DPS the weapon does. Your group makeup, fighting styles, buffs, equipment and CA skills will vary all of this quite a large amount.</div><hr></blockquote>I susally solo/group, quite never raid.Common group makeup has usually someone to pump my dps : Coercer, Dirge, Troub. Sometimes (rarely) I'm tanking when there's no fighter.My soon-finished AA setup is :AGI : 4/8/4/8/0WIS : 4/8/4/8/0Btw, thank a ton Rokjin for your answers, patience and dedication <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></div>

[Rokjin]

<P>Well, then I'd say give STR+AGI a try possibly with the dual-wields. It may give you better DPS without losing much defense if you mostly just use CAs and don't auto-attack much. Coming out of a raid just now, my overall parse shows my auto-attack to be roughly half my damage.</P> <P>On light soloing, my auto-attack damage as part of my total damage drops significantly to about 35% or so. This is with STR 4-4-4-5 WIS 4-4-8-8-8. </P> <P>So Wisdom line raises my overall damage in Raiding by about 10%, but only by about 7% in Soloing, which puts it on par, or below STR for damage increase when Soloing.</P> <P>Since the proc on my weapon seems to add about 2-3% to my total damage, losing a second weapon proc due to not being able to DW would put WIS line below STR for damage increase when soloing.</P><p>Message Edited by Rokjin on <span class=date_text>08-24-2006</span> <span class=time_text>08:46 PM</span>

[Illaren]

<DIV>i picked up the Whip of Domnation from nek 3 the other day, DR 66.5 delay 1.6 no dmg proc on it..oh well can't get everything u want for free :-p.  anyway, useing the wis line would this fit into the senarios describe above? it looks like it would be about = to 2 duel wields..but i like the look of the whip so i just want to use and be able to know i'm not loseing out on alota dps :-p</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>thanks!</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV>

[Rokjin]

<DIV>Just take your 1H weapon DR and divide it by 0.66 or 0.7 to find the same quality DW DR. So a 66.5 DR 1H is roughly equivalent to 95-100 DR combined Dual wields.</DIV>

[Illaren]

ok cool thanks <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[TimidMou]

Walk the Plank works very well with Sap, giving you an extra 6 seconds to do rear attacks without having to reposition yourself.

[Rokjin]

<DIV>Updated post with the new Torporous strike information. Just do a find for Torporous to see the information.</DIV>

[Brigandy]

Awesome post, one of the best I've read yet.  I usually dont take the time to read long posts such as this one but it was very useful.  I wanted to ask you a question regarding the STA line.  I know there are probably no Brigs/Swashys that are going to go this route but with the upcoming EOF expansion and a complete nerf with AR I've really thought about trying this line out.  I'm a veteran player who has played almost every toon in game.  I've always loved to tank but got sucked into the dps rave.  rool a Bruiser/Monk you say?  My first toon pre-any expansion was a 50 monk and he was awesome.  However I have since retired him and I love my Brigand at lvl 70.  What I am wanting to know is if I decided to convert my Brigand to a tanking rogue, what line with which points would you recommend to be most effective?  This I thought would be the hardest piece to figure out, but then reality kicked in and trying to convice a group of lvl 70's to let me tank is a notch above=p.  Convincing my guild to let me off tank/MA raid mobs, well that should go down real well.  <div></div>

[Kegofbud]

<DIV><BR></DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Brigandy wrote:<BR>Awesome post, one of the best I've read yet.  I usually dont take the time to read long posts such as this one but it was very useful.  I wanted to ask you a question regarding the STA line.  I know there are probably no Brigs/Swashys that are going to go this route but with the upcoming EOF expansion and a complete nerf with AR I've really thought about trying this line out.  I'm a veteran player who has played almost every toon in game.  I've always loved to tank but got sucked into the dps rave.  rool a Bruiser/Monk you say?  My first toon pre-any expansion was a 50 monk and he was awesome.  However I have since retired him and I love my Brigand at lvl 70.  What I am wanting to know is if I decided to convert my Brigand to a tanking rogue, what line with which points would you recommend to be most effective?  This I thought would be the hardest piece to figure out, but then reality kicked in and trying to convice a group of lvl 70's to let me tank is a notch above=p.  Convincing my guild to let me off tank/MA raid mobs, well that should go down real well.  <BR> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV>Dudouz will never let you tank the epics. :smileywink:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Having said that, STR and STA line together for tankign rogues seems to work out well from what I've seen. I don't know if you know Varuna on our server Brigandy, but he has that setup and is apping with us. While that line isn't great for raiding, if it's what you want to do you could speak with him for his opinion. We tank plenty fine with a shield, 1 hander, and STR/WIS in def stance IMO. </DIV>

[Rokjin]

<DIV>Well, it depends on how you want to tank.. if you just want as many extra HP as you can get to help survive AOEs.. then the HP increasers, including the ultimate and DPS increase in STA line will help the most. Then probably STR for the extra defense and crit.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>STR/WIS in my opinion is best DPS, but STR/STA is not that far behind. AAs do only have some total 10-15% difference in damage. So with STR/WIS you may do 1100 DPS.. while with STR/STA you may do 1000-1050 or so. Depends on group buffs of course, since with the STA line DPS boost you'd want to be in a group that mostly buffs haste and DPS only a little..</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>There are a number of posts about good group tanking specs on both the Swashbuckler and Brigand boards from people that have gone that route and could provide experienced information. Keep in mind though, Rogue tanking will probably be slightly nerfed in EoF. If they kept it the way we were now, we'd be tanking as well as fighter classes, which should not be happening obviously.</DIV>

[Myrcul]

<DIV>See the other threads about EoF changes.  Tanking as a Brigand is going to be less of an option than it was before.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Sorry,  people were found to be enjoying their class so some modifications had to be made so as to better enforce our design decision and rock/paper/scissors cookie cutter gameplay design.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>M</DIV>

[Rokjin]

<DIV>I will most likely add the EoF information to this thread as well, a few weeks after EoF is released, once everything is finalized and the combat system changes have been finalized and their effects have been seen.</DIV>

[Crimson Dragon]

<div><blockquote><hr>Rokjin wrote:<div>I will most likely add the EoF information to this thread as well, a few weeks after EoF is released, once everything is finalized and the combat system changes have been finalized and their effects have been seen.</div><hr></blockquote>so... next year?</div>

[Isoline]

<DIV>amazing posts.</DIV> <DIV>excellent read.</DIV> <DIV>great info.</DIV>

[Rokjin]

<p>So, with the GU32 changes I will need to update this post.. Bad news is, They are too large for the current board format. Would have to be grandfathered in.. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p> Key things I am going to update it on is:</p><p>1. AGI's Avast Ye competing with STR and WIS for damage increase in some cases due to the Proc chance buffs.</p><p>2. That it is silly now NOT to get the Ultimate of a line if you go down it.</p><p>3. DPS Cap increase helping out STAs DPS increase, as well as the skill cap increases making Coule more valuable.</p><p>4. General changes all around to try and clean up some of my DPS calculations among other things</p><p>Does anyone else have any suggestions, or modifications they would like to see made to this post? Now is your chance.</p>

[Jida]

Make sure you take into account the probablity of the "extra" aa's people choose... Freehand reversal, Walk the plank, Torpous Strike. I know that Torporus strike refreshes every 30 seconds and is a substantial amount of damage if you invest 7 points into it. Personally I went STR + AGI STR = 4,7,4,8,2 AGI = 4,6,4,8,2 If i don't die, or pull aggro, my numbers are very respectable.

[Crimson Dragon]

how much damage?

[Rokjin]

<p>I've reposted the critical damage analysis on Combat Discussion, but can't fix the links in my post due to the silly size limit.</p><p>You can find it here:</p><p><a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/forums/show.m?forum_id=2587" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...m?forum_id=2587</a></p><p>Also Valix, can you elaborate?</p>

[Crimson Dragon]

yeah, johnathon had said that torporous strike with extra points was considerably higher damage. i was just wondering how much. sorry for being vague. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[5th-Gear]

<p>ive been trying to figure out alot of this myself. i have respected 2 times this week and cant decide...</p><p> i have the serated sword of retribution from chel... and my aa lines are str and wis..</p><p>i also have the claymore kilji and i figure with less delay and no need for all the crit agi and wis are best with it...</p><p>im trying to figure out which is best for max dps... i know if i have a ton of haste buffs in a raid i want the longer delay chel sword but if i have a coecer and dps mod is over 100 then i want claymore right?</p><p>not enough parses i guess to decide what do u all think?</p>

[Grimwell]

At the authors request, I'm removing the sticky from this thread as it is well out of date due to game changes.