What would you do?

[Cymikod]

I am at level 73, mostly solo & off-tank, almost never have to heal others.My AAs are STR 6,8,8,0,2     STA 4,4,8    INT 4,4,8  Paladin wraths are maxed out, have "smite evil".so with regard to the next AA investment, would you suggest:- invest the next 5 AGI AAs to get Joust (damage & teleport to target)OR- start working on the Paladin hero lineOR - beef up either 'hammer ground" (at 4 now), OR "Legionaire's Smite" (at 4 now) OR both of themDo you have other suggestions?thank you!

[Mantell]

<p>You didn't say what level you are. </p><p>It sounds like you're trying to spec for max DPS. So don't put lots of points into Hammer Ground or Legionnaire's Smite. Both of those are decent but they use the same timer as the Swift Attack (Str) that you have 8 points in. If you have a good weapon, IMO Swift Attack is better, and you don't want it to be down when you hit it because you just used one of the others.</p><p>I tried AGI but didn't like it, saw a big drop in DPS. I would put the next points into INT line for heal crits. I know you say you don't heal others much, but you heal yourself, right? At least I do. </p><p>Also putting points in the Paladin line under the two proc buffs makes them go off more often and proc more damage. </p>

[Jeffmaster]

<cite>Mantell wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>You didn't say what level you are. </p><p>It sounds like you're trying to spec for max DPS. So don't put lots of points into Hammer Ground or Legionnaire's Smite. Both of those are decent but they use the same timer as the Swift Attack (Str) that you have 8 points in. If you have a good weapon, IMO Swift Attack is better, and you don't want it to be down when you hit it because you just used one of the others.</p><p>I tried AGI but didn't like it, saw a big drop in DPS. I would put the next points into INT line for heal crits. I know you say you don't heal others much, but you heal yourself, right? At least I do. </p><p>Also putting points in the Paladin line under the two proc buffs makes them go off more often and proc more damage. </p></blockquote>Umm....did I miss something or the AA tree attacks are not on the same timer anymore...

[Arkinon]

I stayed away from the Agil line since I find myself tanking instances a lot. (most you have to be mounted to use) I went 4/8/8 str - maxed out crit and got the 10 second defense buff in the stam line (saved my butz tons) and went 4/3 in int for the spell crit. I use a 2hd weapon with high damage and a 4.5 speed. Other wise I trade off with a mid damage 2.5 or 3.0 wep. Offen stance 90% of the time. I went down the defen line for the 25% block value while tanking and put the rest in Wraths (about 8 pts so far.) I generally have no problem with a orange or yellow 1 up old world. In RoK i can stand my ground against a yellow single mob. and multiple 2 downs. (at lvl 66) I will usually switch to sword and board for tanking in def stance. This is just what I have found worked well for me solo. 

[Rast]

<p>They do not share timers, but I'd still avoid putting more than the base 4 points in them.</p><p>If you have a good dirge and illusionist in your group, I'd drop the STR line too.  Haste is pretty cheap through group set ups, having it in your AAs is overkill and won't do you much good.  This is assuming you are raiding (which I gather from your OT comment).</p><p>The wisdom line has gotten a significant boost in this XPak.  Lots of mobs fear and that end line ability now looks alot better.  I can tank CoA and never have to worry about being feared (I've been told that this trend continues in the raid arena as well).  Plus the skill boosts will let you tank in defensive, something I'd never have considered prior to having the line as I needed to be in offensive to hit a thing.  Yah, I lose a little strength, but when learning encounters or on the harder hitting mobs, it is kinda nice to be able to do that, plus that is a group wide boost to skills.</p><p>Also, with the XPak, AGI has taken a beating, very little need for an AoE chance when there are very few AoE encounters.  Might actually have to get a reflective mirror just to swap between EoF and RoK templates...</p><p>But right now, I'm set up to MT/OT</p><p>STA 4/4/8/8/2, WIS 4/4/8/8/2, INT 4/4/8</p><p>Hero, Wrath and Support (filling out to get cure)</p>

[Rast]

<cite>Arkinon wrote:</cite><blockquote>I stayed away from the Agil line since I find myself tanking instances a lot. (most you have to be mounted to use) I went 4/8/8 str - maxed out crit and got the 10 second defense buff in the stam line (saved my butz tons) and went 4/3 in int for the spell crit. I use a 2hd weapon with high damage and a 4.5 speed. Other wise I trade off with a mid damage 2.5 or 3.0 wep. Offen stance 90% of the time. I went down the defen line for the 25% block value while tanking and put the rest in Wraths (about 8 pts so far.) I generally have no problem with a orange or yellow 1 up old world. In RoK i can stand my ground against a yellow single mob. and multiple 2 downs. (at lvl 66) I will usually switch to sword and board for tanking in def stance. This is just what I have found worked well for me solo. </blockquote>The whole needing to me mounted thing has been gone for months.  The reason AGI is now out of favor is because RoK has very few AoE type encounters so no need for an AoE proc chance.

[Vulkan_NTooki]

Str line also has 10% reduction thingy + 10% more base aggro..

[Rast]

<cite>Vulkan_NTooki wrote:</cite><blockquote>Str line also has 10% reduction thingy + 10% more base aggro.. </blockquote>Yes, the end line in STR is ok, but it isn't worth the points to get there and the agro thing, I don't like hate I can't turn off.  If it were a togglable ability, that would be nice, but I don't always tank and I don't want that extra hate, yet you can't turn it off.  If all you do is tank then it is fine, but I've found there are times you don't need or even want that extra 10% hate.

[Arkinon]

So why does the tooltip still say while mounted?<div></div><div>Also I was refering more to solo then group. Haste seems to make a big difference while soloing. Mainly because I know I will never MT/OT a raid. HOWEVER I have yet to do any tanking in RoK instances and when I reach 80 will more likely change my spec to be more tank based.</div>

[Rast]

<cite>Arkinon wrote:</cite><blockquote>So why does the tooltip still say while mounted? <div></div><div>Also I was refering more to solo then group. Haste seems to make a big difference while soloing. Mainly because I know I will never MT/OT a raid. HOWEVER I have yet to do any tanking in RoK instances and when I reach 80 will more likely change my spec to be more tank based.</div></blockquote><p>I don't know, but it isn't required anymore.  That was changed at the same time as they took the tier 2 abilities off of the same timer and did some other revamps as well.</p><p>Even solo, I don't care for the STR line.  The haste thing is nice, but I didn't notice a big difference with it and without it.  I tried it at the start of RoK and I wasnt' impressed and respec'd out of it and AGI for full STA and full WIS lines.  The wis line is great for group tanking zones like CoA where it is a fear heavy zone.</p><p>Edit:</p><p>Now that I'm thinking about it, the 4th tier of that line may still require the horse, but honestly a +def buff isn't that good and certainly not worth the points to get to it.</p>

[OrcSlayer96]

<cite>Jalathan@Lucan DLere wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Arkinon wrote:</cite><blockquote>So why does the tooltip still say while mounted? <div></div><div>Also I was refering more to solo then group. Haste seems to make a big difference while soloing. Mainly because I know I will never MT/OT a raid. HOWEVER I have yet to do any tanking in RoK instances and when I reach 80 will more likely change my spec to be more tank based.</div></blockquote><p>I don't know, but it isn't required anymore.  That was changed at the same time as they took the tier 2 abilities off of the same timer and did some other revamps as well.</p><p>Even solo, I don't care for the STR line.  The haste thing is nice, but I didn't notice a big difference with it and without it.  I tried it at the start of RoK and I wasnt' impressed and respec'd out of it and AGI for full STA and full WIS lines.  The wis line is great for group tanking zones like CoA where it is a fear heavy zone.</p><p>Edit:</p><p>Now that I'm thinking about it, the 4th tier of that line may still require the horse, but honestly a +def buff isn't that good and certainly not worth the points to get to it.</p></blockquote>Just to help clarify on the AGI line, after the horse changes were removed off of trample, they left it on part of the 4th and 5th lines options in AGI.  With a horse/mount active on the 4th line you have XX% chance to proc a immunity to most knockbacks for a small duration, the defense is there regardless of the mounted or not.  Itested it and unless you need the defense it is lackluster, the mount requirement should have been removed as the proc is not overpowered and they do not allow you to cast your mount in a majority of the dungeon/instances.  On the 5th line Lance ability you do over double damage if mounted versus not have your mount.  It seems like these 2 components were intentially left in place, making me wonder why the devs would think they needed to be there after all of the other changes in AA's.

[Arkinon]

OK that answered my question then.. probably should have looked a little closer... still dont think ill go down the agil line any time soon.

[DiotrumFGK]

<cite>Jalathan@Lucan DLere wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>But right now, I'm set up to MT/OT</p><p>STA 4/4/8/8/2, WIS 4/4/8/8/2, INT 4/4/8</p><p>Hero, Wrath and Support (filling out to get cure)</p></blockquote><p>I would have to assume your raidwide DPS is low.  I can't imagine holding aggro in raids without the STR line.  It isn't the haste or hate gain either (which are great), it's the 10% reduction in abilities.  It just makes you that much faster to respond to everything.  Scouts/Mages parsing 5k+ makes str a requirement for me in raid, but even if not raiding at all I would be str for the reuse.</p>

[Rast]

<p>I'm in a highly casual raid force, our highest parsing person (at the moment) is a 76 ranger who gets around 2.2k zone wide.  I get right around 1k zone wide right now and I'm in some pretty pathetic gear for a MT (mainly KoS fabled with a mix of RoK quested legendary).  For our purposes I really don't need it.  Heck, I've barely upgraded any of my skills in the past 8 levels, relying more on my 60ish M1s rather than 70ish AD3s.</p><p>Maybe 3 months down the road (if I'm still playing), that might change, but for right now, the abilities in the WIS line are more beneficial to me.</p>

[OrcSlayer96]

<cite>DiotrumFGK wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Jalathan@Lucan DLere wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>But right now, I'm set up to MT/OT</p><p>STA 4/4/8/8/2, WIS 4/4/8/8/2, INT 4/4/8</p><p>Hero, Wrath and Support (filling out to get cure)</p></blockquote><p>I would have to assume your raidwide DPS is low.  I can't imagine holding aggro in raids without the STR line.  It isn't the haste or hate gain either (which are great), it's the 10% reduction in abilities.  It just makes you that much faster to respond to everything.  Scouts/Mages parsing 5k+ makes str a requirement for me in raid, but even if not raiding at all I would be str for the reuse.</p></blockquote>I have a similar build to Jalathan, and i hold agro just fine without the STR line.  Too many paladins out there think inside the warrior box on agro.  With Holy Ground, Sigil of Heriosm, Amends on a target that knows how to generate dps/agro, we are good without the need of 10% hate.  My current build i have been testing since ROK came out has been AGI 4-1 for some avoidance and joust for those pesky teleports or knockbacks. STA 4-4-6-8-2 for max health, divine aura, melee crits i take a 2 point hit on as everything seems to have extra melee crit anymore and health is still king in this expansion.  WIS 4-4-8-6-2 For battle skills increase of 38 to all in group(when you have to tank in defense no penalties on hitting the mob and when in offense it is close to  97% hit rate on melee).  The health regen is a wash compared to adding more to wisdom or single proc slash attack, the fearless morale has been one less worry against the plethora of fear mobs and 2% bonus to heals/wards/melee/spells has helped some too.  INT 4-4-8 for max spell crits on my spells and procs is pretty much a no brainer to help either tanking or dpsing...On EOF it is Hero maxed for Blocking Mastery, Support and Wrath filled out for Cure Spells(awesome cure/aoe agro ability), and Smite Evil(my favorite aoe spell, hits like a truck with no power cost).  I have 7 points in Healing line for quicker casting/power use single target heals and quicker recast on wards(most used heal spell with me for prewards and such).

[Vulkan_NTooki]

<cite>Jalathan@Lucan DLere wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Vulkan_NTooki wrote:</cite><blockquote>Str line also has 10% reduction thingy + 10% more base aggro.. </blockquote>Yes, the end line in STR is ok, but it isn't worth the points to get there and the agro thing, I don't like hate I can't turn off.  If it were a togglable ability, that would be nice, but I don't always tank and I don't want that extra hate, yet you can't turn it off.  If all you do is tank then it is fine, but I've found there are times you don't need or even want that extra 10% hate.</blockquote>Umm.. have u tried str 6,8,8,0,2? <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> no hate..

[Rast]

nope and probably won't either...  I think my days in EQ2 are about over.  This expansion has absolutely killed my desire to play. <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />