STR/STA AA Lines

[thorn6]

<p>I've been having a heck of a time trying to do Unrest. I can do it, but only with two healers, while others with equally legendary or even half xegonite can do it with one, or so I hear.</p><p>Anyway, I currently have STR 4488 STA 5488, the old school recommendation that everyone had, but now-a-days it seems like everyone has wierd lines with like INT/WIS and STA. Uhm, should I change my line?</p><p>Also, what's the best tanking setup for the EOF AA?</p><p>Thanks! <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Schmalex23]

depends on preference, i have nearly that smame build and i tank avatars while using my buckler, so you can surley tank unrest with it.

[Dimgl]

<span style="color: #00cc99">I run Unrest with a single healer (Templar) in around 90 minutes, sometimes less with a STA/STR/INT build. Your healer may not be using appropriate tactics for Unrest, the DPS in the zone isn't far from manageable. It's tons of single targets, you should have them stunlocked more than half the fight in any decent group. </span>

[Legiax]

<p>Quickest i've done it was in about 1 hour 45 mins. As kemt said, a lot of the mobs end up stun locked for most of the fight, and the AoE encounters generally are few and far between so u can pop timers.</p><p>One thing i really notice in Unrest is the belly smash AA I have with my buckler spec... it stuffs up the final mobs <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Anjin]

hehe, it's one of those zones which is perfect for brawlers to tank.  In the final section, pulling and training with FD is a godsend.

[Godwin]

<cite>thorn6 wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>I've been having a heck of a time trying to do Unrest. I can do it, but only with two healers, while others with equally legendary or even half xegonite can do it with one, or so I hear.</p><p>Anyway, I currently have STR 4488 STA 5488, the old school recommendation that everyone had, but now-a-days it seems like everyone has wierd lines with like INT/WIS and STA. Uhm, should I change my line?</p><p>Also, what's the best tanking setup for the EOF AA?</p><p>Thanks! <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p></blockquote> If you're having a difficult time in Unrest, and your gear is at least Legendary, then you may want to look at either bad pulls, social aggro, or an incompetent healer. As for your AA choices, the buckler line equals less survivability, but better aggro control, as does the STR line. If you wish to avoid as many hits as possible, then consider an INT/AGI build w/ at least a nice kite or tower shield. However, if you're having the slightest bit of difficulty with aggro, then keep your current spec until you either form the correct groups (ones that can give hate) and/or upgrade your gear further. In terms of EoF AA builds with "tanking" in mind... Berserkers got the shaft indeed. The only saving grace to EoF AA would be: 1. Gut Roar: A very nice ability to counter a mob's spell/abilities. However, considering the fact that you have a <b>very</b> small window for this to be used correctly, without someone calling out timers, it will be with the luck of the Irish that you counter more often than waste it. Also, factoring in the amount of points that you need to spend down the appropriate line to get the ability sucks... the CA increases aren't that noticeable. 2. I don't remember the name now (I'm at work), but the other final ability that allows you a slightly increased attack/ability radius and a small chance to hinder the mob's ability to resist your taunts is nice. Luckily, you can get the reuse timers on open wounds and destruction shortened in the process. The rest of it though is pure trash and a very nice way of SoE telling the world that zerkers are NOT meant to be raid main tanks... as Guardians actually got <b>tanking</b> improvements that actually matter, while we get two "OK" abilities and a bunch of crap to sink the rest of our AAs into. Lame.

[Schmalex23]

Godwin@Kithicor wrote: <blockquote>If you're having a difficult time in Unrest, and your gear is at least Legendary, then you may want to look at either bad pulls, social aggro, or an incompetent healer. As for your AA choices, the buckler line equals less survivability, but better aggro control, as does the STR line. If you wish to avoid as many hits as possible, then consider an INT/AGI build w/ at least a nice kite or tower shield. However, if you're having the slightest bit of difficulty with aggro, then keep your current spec until you either form the correct groups (ones that can give hate) and/or upgrade your gear further. In terms of EoF AA builds with "tanking" in mind... Berserkers got the shaft indeed. The only saving grace to EoF AA would be: 1. Gut Roar: A very nice ability to counter a mob's spell/abilities. However, considering the fact that you have a <b>very</b> small window for this to be used correctly, without someone calling out timers, it will be with the luck of the Irish that you counter more often than waste it. Also, factoring in the amount of points that you need to spend down the appropriate line to get the ability sucks... the CA increases aren't that noticeable. 2. I don't remember the name now (I'm at work), but the other final ability that allows you a slightly increased attack/ability radius and a small chance to hinder the mob's ability to resist your taunts is nice. Luckily, you can get the reuse timers on open wounds and destruction shortened in the process. The rest of it though is pure trash and a very nice way of SoE telling the world that zerkers are NOT meant to be raid main tanks... as Guardians actually got <b>tanking</b> improvements that actually matter, while we get two "OK" abilities and a bunch of crap to sink the rest of our AAs into. Lame. </blockquote>I would have to disagree on a few points =]  Everyone has this misconception that if you use a buckler, you take more damage.  But people dont factor in that with a buckler, you are increasing your DPS alot. Most people would say "Well who cares about tank DPS, we are ment to take hits not do alot of damage."  This is somewhat true, except that the total amount of damage you take is equal to the how long the fight lasts.  Below i have posted some parses to give an idea of what i mean.  These were vs lvl 69 ^ mobs, but the idea remains the same, even though it scales down for harder mobs. <img src="http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t2/alex_schmalex/skel-noshield.jpg" border="0"> This is me with no shield on at all, i took 3200 in 12 hits over 45 seconds. <img src="http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t2/alex_schmalex/skel-tower.jpg" border="0"> This is me with a tower shield on, i clearly took less damage and avoided quite a few hits still right around 45 seconds.  As you can see my dps remained about the same too. <img src="http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t2/alex_schmalex/skel-buckler.jpg" border="0"> This is me with a buckler, i took even less then with the tower on and got hit much less.  Reason is i increased my dps x2 with the sta line, therefore taking half the time to kill something and half the damage.  Yes the results will not be this drastic with ^^^ mobs, but they will die faster which will result in less hits and less damage taken.  Also you will be holding more agro which means your DPS can button mash more killing the mobs even faster as well. My second point, is that gutroar totally owns anything a guardian gets in thier EoF tree, you have the ability to stop thousands of damage every 60 seconds or less.  I will however agree that everything besides gutroar is rather bland and not charater changing, but thats pretty much the same for any class. Overall if you cant tank unrest with 1 healer and your group setup is fine (aka not 4 figher classes and 2 healers) and you are not agroing adds, i would say the problem rests in your healer.  

[uux]

IMHO, 4488 STR and 4588 STA fits a zerker very well.  We end up with decent DPS, very nice aggro management,  and avoidance that is not to be overlooked.  Defense and parry can cap.  Those lines are also contested avoidance (checked against a mob's offensive skills).  The avoidance in the STA line is uncontested.  You get additional block, and a proc-like riposte ability with a fixed uncontested rate.  My overall avoidance isn't even 1% higher with a Draconic Deflector (kite) vs a Buckler of the Howler.  My uncontested avoidance is about 1.5% higher with the kite if you consider the fixed riposte rate.  Hardly noticeable.  Just keep in mind 1% is on average 1 out of 100.  If taking that 1 extra hit out of all those breaks your group or raid, you're just playing with pure luck to begin with.  Also keep in mind that block is checked against a mob's level, the fixed riposte rate doesn't appear to be. The haste from the INT line is nice, but once you're able to already get close to 100% with items and procs, it's almost a waste of points.  You're also easily capped in a group or raid setting as well. There are only a few unique abilities in the warrior AA tree that other classes most likely won't be buffing (especially in pick up groups), excluding end abilities.   Hate gain (I certainly don't wait around for a hate buffer to show up to run an instance or two), uncontested avoidance, increased crit chance, and the frontal autoattack AE proc from the AGI line. The EoF achievements are a bit underwhelming.  Nothing really stands out as a must have ability.  Even so, I wouldn't call them crap.  Many people are simply overlooking the value of the debuffs, and the extra hate gain from both them and the Cyclone line.  Sure, other classes will debuff better, etc, etc.  How many times during a raid or group do you see someone debuffing your off targets?  I almost never see it.  That's where I see value in ours.  We can stun, stifle, knockdown, and debuff our off targets and take considerably less damage than some other classes.  Also, since parry and defense are contested, you gain extra avoidance by simply using our Persistent Battering line.

[thorn6]

<p>For more info I've included a screenshot of my current eof aa build.</p><p><img src="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w60/thorny_03/eof_aa.jpg" border="0"></p><p>I didn't think of the debuffing from the debilitation line, it is helpful. I'm currently set up for buffs tho, is that wrong?</p>

[Bremer]

Hp regen is crap, you should take 5 points from it and spend it on Weapon Aegis. Anyway, for survivalbility (or anything) the EoF tree plays no role. No offfend, but my best guess would be your healers/group suck.

[Igixnasii]

<p>The combat regen stuff is awsome for survivabiliity, basically like having 200 more hps every tick or 400 more when below 30% .. This amounts to a ton of HP's over time. Even better when combined with Troubie, Illusionist and Fury in combat health regens.</p><p>Gut Roar is a raid ability only, when I took it, I ended up using it as an AE taunt instead of a counter. The effect taunts an area larger then insolent gibe .. all mobs including non-aggro ones, which is great if that's what you want to do.. but it's supposed to be a damage counter. This makes the ability useless in most grouping areas as the mobs tend to be close together and this so called counter will end up instead drawing the ire of all surrounding mobs.</p><p>I prefer the STA/AGI or STA/INT lines to STR .. Agi is nice because it dragoons cyclone helps with off mob aggro, even non-encounter. The defense boost is so so .. to much gear already boosts defense by huge margins. The 100% parry is quite pleasent and can be used far more often then any of the zerker deathsaves the only downside is the good chance your gonna lose aggro while unable to do... anything.</p><p>The INT line offers a large parry boost something more difficult to achieve then defense, and I've found parry to be the far more useful skill. The haste in the line kinda sucks since it becomes really deminishing after 100, but the parry more then makes up with survivability. Plus the 6% reuse timer reduction does provide for more combat art DPS and hate gain from taunts.</p><p>Point of Note: I tank unrest in offensive stance with a fury healer with little difficulty and I have mostly legendary with a lil fabled, if your having problems here it's probably in your healer. But if you really think it's you, try STA 4-4-8-8 INT 4-?-?-8-2.</p>

[Hardain]

Hp regen is good for soloing, or when you don't have healers near, but otherwise it's pretty pointless.

[Schmalex23]

you do know hp regen has a cap, just like power regen, so no, its not really that great when paired with a troub, etc

[Igixnasii]

<p>Troubie does increase the total, I have no idea what the cap is, but it's certainly not within reach of a zerker/troubie combo, survivability is outstanding. </p><p>In combat health regen is almost as if you were adding hps to your total health, always useful no matter the situation, only a fool would think otherwise.</p>

[Schmalex23]

doesnt do jack for you with spike damage, if you have 14k hp and you take 2 7k hits back to back your regen was usless.  And yes a zerker torub can hit the regen cap, and even a solo zerker with the right AA setup/gear can hit the regen cap.