Which stance at 44?

[Vexil]

<p>Just hit 44 and have fire stance.  I solo about 90% of the time.  Which stance do you guys recommend?</p><p> I tried using search on this forum, but everything comes up dated 2005 & 2006.</p><p> Thanks</p>

[evilgamer]

<cite>Vexil wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Just hit 44 and have fire stance.  I solo about 90% of the time.  Which stance do you guys recommend?</p><p> I tried using search on this forum, but everything comes up dated 2005 & 2006.</p><p> Thanks</p></blockquote><p>I toggle between the two, if my hps get low i use the mid stance, if my power gets low i use offensive stance</p><p>Heroics i generally always use mid stance or even defensive stance if knockout is up, but you wont get that till level 65</p>

[Aull]

<p>I use offensive stance exclusively when I am soloing cause I can hit better when using it. When in defensive stance my hit rates are at rock bottom and if I can't hit the mob then it will die much slower which in turns allows it to hit me more often as well.</p><p>I am sure each situation is different as well. But I use offensive stance all the way. My bruiser is lvl 80 and I was fighting a lvl 83 ^ named heroic and thought I need to use my mid stance and that proved fruitless. I recharged and tried again with the same results. Recharged again and I used my offensive stance and beat the mob but I did almost loose my life doing it.</p><p>Better hit rates = more success for my bruiser, but again I am sure this is totally situational but I hardly ever use any other stance so I know I have missed  huge amounts of fights that I cannot comment on. </p><p>Thanks</p>

[Pnaxx]

<cite>evilgamer wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Vexil wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Just hit 44 and have fire stance.  I solo about 90% of the time.  Which stance do you guys recommend?</p><p> I tried using search on this forum, but everything comes up dated 2005 & 2006.</p><p> Thanks</p></blockquote><p>I toggle between the two, if my hps get low i use the mid stance, if my power gets low i use offensive stance</p><p>Heroics i generally always use mid stance or even defensive stance if knockout is up, but you wont get that till level 65</p></blockquote><p>Evil, to me, and this is just my opinion........with KO up, you should definatly be in offensive stance all the way. Here is why.</p><p>1. KO only has use if you hit the mob with a CA. Defensive stance drops our land rate to pretty low, thus you are getting the worst possible use of KO Combo....you need to land.</p><p>2. In Offensive stance with KO up, the mob will not be hitting you very much, if at all, so the fact that you would normally take more damage is not the case with KO up.....it stuns the mob with each hit. You should be burning the muthers down mate!</p><p>To the OP, most of the time use Offensive stance. Our strengths are in our CA's landing. Period. Burn through the muthers with glee. If you want to get fancy and toggle into def stance while the CA's are refreshing, then toggle back to Offensive again, thats fine. But really, just blast away with all out fire power. MAxx out the Agi line for great defensive abilities and you will be pretty well off anyway. But thats another story.</p>

[evilgamer]

<cite>Pnaxx wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>evilgamer wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Vexil wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Just hit 44 and have fire stance.  I solo about 90% of the time.  Which stance do you guys recommend?</p><p> I tried using search on this forum, but everything comes up dated 2005 & 2006.</p><p> Thanks</p></blockquote><p>I toggle between the two, if my hps get low i use the mid stance, if my power gets low i use offensive stance</p><p>Heroics i generally always use mid stance or even defensive stance if knockout is up, but you wont get that till level 65</p></blockquote><p>Evil, to me, and this is just my opinion........with KO up, you should definatly be in offensive stance all the way. Here is why.</p><p>1. KO only has use if you hit the mob with a CA. Defensive stance drops our land rate to pretty low, thus you are getting the worst possible use of KO Combo....you need to land.</p><p>2. In Offensive stance with KO up, the mob will not be hitting you very much, if at all, so the fact that you would normally take more damage is not the case with KO up.....it stuns the mob with each hit. You should be burning the muthers down mate!</p><p>To the OP, most of the time use Offensive stance. Our strengths are in our CA's landing. Period. Burn through the muthers with glee. If you want to get fancy and toggle into def stance while the CA's are refreshing, then toggle back to Offensive again, thats fine. But really, just blast away with all out fire power. MAxx out the Agi line for great defensive abilities and you will be pretty well off anyway. But thats another story.</p></blockquote><p>Stance does not effect CA hit rates to my knowledge, just auto attack.</p><p>CA hit rates are generally predicted by its innate hit rate and  the quality of the spell , App4, Ad1, Ad3, etc.</p>

[Pnaxx]

<cite>evilgamer wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Pnaxx wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>evilgamer wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Vexil wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Just hit 44 and have fire stance.  I solo about 90% of the time.  Which stance do you guys recommend?</p><p> I tried using search on this forum, but everything comes up dated 2005 & 2006.</p><p> Thanks</p></blockquote><p>I toggle between the two, if my hps get low i use the mid stance, if my power gets low i use offensive stance</p><p>Heroics i generally always use mid stance or even defensive stance if knockout is up, but you wont get that till level 65</p></blockquote><p>Evil, to me, and this is just my opinion........with KO up, you should definatly be in offensive stance all the way. Here is why.</p><p>1. KO only has use if you hit the mob with a CA. Defensive stance drops our land rate to pretty low, thus you are getting the worst possible use of KO Combo....you need to land.</p><p>2. In Offensive stance with KO up, the mob will not be hitting you very much, if at all, so the fact that you would normally take more damage is not the case with KO up.....it stuns the mob with each hit. You should be burning the muthers down mate!</p><p>To the OP, most of the time use Offensive stance. Our strengths are in our CA's landing. Period. Burn through the muthers with glee. If you want to get fancy and toggle into def stance while the CA's are refreshing, then toggle back to Offensive again, thats fine. But really, just blast away with all out fire power. MAxx out the Agi line for great defensive abilities and you will be pretty well off anyway. But thats another story.</p></blockquote><p>Stance does not effect CA hit rates to my knowledge, just auto attack.</p><p>CA hit rates are generally predicted by its innate hit rate and  the quality of the spell , App4, Ad1, Ad3, etc.</p></blockquote>In def stance, ur CA's don't land as much either. Not sure if it's a bug or not, but is is a reality. Thats why agro control from Def stance can be so tough. If the CA's were landing in DEf stance, we would be fine with Agro control, but because they don't land as often, we are not damaging the mob as much and thus not building hate.

[evilgamer]

<cite>Pnaxx wrote:</cite><blockquote>In def stance, ur CA's don't land as much either. Not sure if it's a bug or not, but is is a reality. Thats why agro control from Def stance can be so tough. If the CA's were landing in DEf stance, we would be fine with Agro control, but because they don't land as often, we are not damaging the mob as much and thus not building hate.</blockquote><p>I have not noticed my CA landing less in defensive, my auto attack defineatly lands less, but that is to be expected. </p><p>Bodyguard:</p><p><i>Effects</i></p><ul><li><i>Caster will deflect 9.5% of incoming attacks </i></li><li><i>Decreases Slashing, Piercing and Crushing of caster by 22 </i></li><li><i>Increases Aggression of caster by 10.4 </i></li><li><i>Increases Defense and Deflection of caster by 21 </i></li><li><i>Increases Mitigation of caster vs poison damage by 1436 </i></li><li><i>Increases the casters effectiveness of worn armor vs all physical damage by 25%</i> </li></ul><p>The only thing it decreases is s/p/c which does not affect your combat art hit rate.  If you add a +4 crushing item it does not affect your CA's.</p><p>Hammer:</p><p>Hit bonus = 25% easier.</p><p>That is what effects your combat arts, the quality of the spell.</p><p>Your aggro drops off in defensive because even though we are a CA heavy class, my auto attack is still always between 30-40% of my total dps.  That drops off signficantly with the defensive stance.</p>

[Aull]

<p>I am no wiz at any of this but I will say that I miss more in defensive stance using either combat arts or auto attack. Don't matter if I am right or wrong but I will not ever use knock out while in defensive stance just to eliminate any possible doubts. I just feel confident using offensive stance.</p><p>Thanks </p>

[evilgamer]

<cite>Aull wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>I am no wiz at any of this but I will say that I miss more in defensive stance using either combat arts or auto attack. Don't matter if I am right or wrong but I will not ever use knock out while in defensive stance just to eliminate any possible doubts. I just feel confident using offensive stance.</p><p>Thanks </p></blockquote><ul><li><i>On a successful melee attack this spell has a chance to cast Engulf on target of attack. This effect will trigger an average of 2.0 times per minute. If a melee attack is used, only the primary weapon can trigger this effect. Inflicts 294-491 heat damage on target </i></li><li></li><li><i>Decreases Defense of caster by 23 </i></li><li><i>Increases Slashing, Piercing, Crushing, and Ranged of caster by 33</i></li></ul><p>It doesnt work like that,  the bonus from th offensive stance is only to your melee attack and the proc.</p><p>If + c/s/p made your combat arts hit more frequently, it woudl be by far the most important stat we have.</p><p>I have parsed it, tanking in defensive and not tanking in offensive, it doesnt matter your CA hit rates are always the same, they are based on spell quality.</p><p>+ c/s/p only affects your melee attack, which is a signficant part of your dps, usually 30-40% of it.</p>

[Aull]

<p>Evil I love ya. I enjoy reading all your posts and comments. Again I am not saying you are wrong nor am I saying that I am right, but I personally feel I do miss even with my combat arts more often when in defensive stance. Kinda like you think fear is useful where I don't even have it hotbarred anymore hehe. It is just personal perferance is all.</p><p> I quit using the defensive stance while soloing well over a year ago if not 3 months after I created my bruiser since it takes longer to down the mob while using it. I will die in offensive before I use defensive while soloing. Tanking is another issue, but again I am tanking in offensive 98% of the time.</p><p>Again I enjoy your posts Evil and please do not take this as a smite at you cause it isn't.</p><p>Thanks again!</p>

[evilgamer]

<cite>Aull wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Evil I love ya. I enjoy reading all your posts and comments. Again I am not saying you are wrong nor am I saying that I am right, but I personally<u><b><span style="color: #ff0000;"> feel</span></b></u> I do miss even with my combat arts more often when in defensive stance. Kinda like you think fear is useful where I don't even have it hotbarred anymore hehe. It is just personal perferance is all.</p><p><i><span style="color: #ff0000;">That is the problem, you "feel" you miss more on your CA.  But do you really?  Have you parsed it?  Maybee what you "feel" is the loss in dps due to missing with your auto attacks.</span></i> </p><p>  I quit using the defensive stance while soloing well over a year ago if not 3 months after I created my bruiser since it takes longer to down the mob while using it. I will die in offensive before I use defensive while soloing. Tanking is another issue, but again I am tanking in offensive 98% of the time.</p><p><span style="color: #ff0000;"><span style="color: #ff0000;">First of all I only use defensive when soloing, when KO's up and I am soloing a hard mob.  After knockout is down I toggle back to off/mid stance.   I always solo in either offensive/mid stance when I am fighting "normal" solo mobs.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #ff0000;"><span style="color: #ff0000;">Tanking in offensive? Meh you must have some good gear or do some easy content, cause I always tank in defensive or mid stance if the content is easy or I got two healers.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #ff0000;"><span style="color: #ff0000;">I have tanked every instance in the game save RE 2, with a single healer with no raid gear at all.  No way would I be able to tank the harder ones in offensive stance.</span></span></p><p>Again I enjoy your posts Evil and please do not take this as a smite at you cause it isn't.</p><p>Thanks again!</p></blockquote>

[Aull]

<p>Evil stated:</p><p>"Tanking in offensive? Meh you must have some good gear or do some easy content, cause I always tank in defensive or mid stance if the content is easy or I got two healers".</p><p>My gear isn't great and I am running the same zones/instances most every lvl 80 toon runs no matter what the class. I do run with a mystic and she the best healer I have seen by far and wide. I most of the time I am running with another mystic and warden as my healers and they to do well. I am only as good as my group set up no matter what.</p><p>If defensive stance works for your play style I am glad it does, but it doen't work for me at all. You are correct about the auto attack missing I will not argue that at all so that is a loss in dps. I am not gonna tank in defensive stance since I am doing well in offensive is all I am saying. Yes my healers make this possible. I do get one shotted many times when I can get on a raid but that is a whole nother playing field.  By the way most of our combats are based on crushing damage if my mind serves me correctly.</p><p>Thanks again!</p>

[evilgamer]

<cite>Aull wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Evil stated:</p><p>"Tanking in offensive? Meh you must have some good gear or do some easy content, cause I always tank in defensive or mid stance if the content is easy or I got two healers".</p><p>My gear isn't great and I am running the same zones/instances most every lvl 80 toon runs no matter what the class. I do run with a mystic and she the best healer I have seen by far and wide. I most of the time I am running with another mystic and warden as my healers and they to do well. I am only as good as my group set up no matter what.</p><p>If defensive stance works for your play style I am glad it does, but it doen't work for me at all. You are correct about the auto attack missing I will not argue that at all so that is a loss in dps. I am not gonna tank in defensive stance since I am doing well in offensive is all I am saying. Yes my healers make this possible. I do get one shotted many times when I can get on a raid but that is a whole nother playing field.  By the way most of our combats are based on crushing damage if my mind serves me correctly.</p><p>Thanks again!</p></blockquote><p>Well if I had that set up I would still probably run in midstance.</p><p>But if it works for you, whatever.</p><p>I just do to many pick up groups with wizury's healing, lol, so I run defensive.</p>

[Sphiriah]

I've noticed that I absolutely DO miss more with combat arts while defensive stance is up. I honestly can't find a good use for defensive.I use offensive only when I'm fighting mobs higher level than me, because it greatly increase your weapon skills .. allowing you a better chance to hit them.I use balanced for two reasons. One, if I'm fighting mobs that are lower level than me (This is because I don't really need the weapon skill increase against them, and also I take less damage). And two when I'm tanking so I'll be able to deal enough damage to keep agro and not have to miss every single attack while also taking less damage.I can't find a use for defensive at all. Whenever I'm tanking for a group and I use defensive, I end up losing agro because I cannot get enough hits off to keep the mob on me.So, yeah...

[evilgamer]

<cite>Sphiriah wrote:</cite><blockquote>I've noticed that I absolutely DO miss more with combat arts while defensive stance is up. I honestly can't find a good use for defensive.I use offensive only when I'm fighting mobs higher level than me, because it greatly increase your weapon skills .. allowing you a better chance to hit them.I use balanced for two reasons. One, if I'm fighting mobs that are lower level than me (This is because I don't really need the weapon skill increase against them, and also I take less damage). And two when I'm tanking so I'll be able to deal enough damage to keep agro and not have to miss every single attack while also taking less damage.I can't find a use for defensive at all. Whenever I'm tanking for a group and I use defensive, I end up losing agro because I cannot get enough hits off to keep the mob on me.So, yeah...</blockquote><p>I tank exclusively in defensive unless the content is super easy or we have two healers, then I use mid stance.</p><p>I rarely lose aggro.</p><p>And if I do, I can use control hate, rescue, D & C, or drag to get it right back.</p><p>I pull with both enc and single target taunt.</p><p>I have zero raid gear, really i dont know what you guys are doing to lose aggro so much.</p>

[Vexil]

Thanks all for the responses.  I think I will just try both the middle stance and offensive stance and see what I like better.