Advice for a Guardian ((Stats, AAs, Skills)) [Archive]

SisterTheresa

04-19-2011, 03:59 PM

I have a level 90 guardian who is going to be the MT for the guild he is in. The guild isn't a raiding guild, though they are interested in visiting the DoV zones (ToFS especially). I am looking for some advice as I just hit my 200 AA mark.Now, I have a good amount of questions, and alas I must rely on my guardian homies to help answer them as alot of the posts here are either very old or the information isn't correct.Stats:1. If I recall, STR and STA are my main stats now. Is there a cap? I believe I read a post from February that the STA cap was removed and each 1 STA point gives 10hp. Is this still correct?2. When it comes to defending, what order should I look into doing first with Mitigation, Critical Mitigation, Avoidance, Block Chance?~ I do have all but 2 pieces of the DoV Woe gear (helm and boots) ATM, so my Crit Mit is 91.2% (-2% from adornment on chest).~ Overall my Avoidance is 11.083 with over 50% chance to avoid a level 90s attack.~ My block chance is 60.9% right now. How does that differ from Block in general (under Avoidance)?~ When it comes to Parry and Ripotse, should I worry about raising either or just stick with Block? With regards to this, I found a post from 2007 (not much else yet) but does this still apply?<blockquote><blockquote>With regards to survivability, 30 mitigation is 30 mitigation. I think there were several topics in combat discussion that explained "survivability" depends linearly on mitigation. But could be wrong .. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></blockquote>You aren't wrong. These forums are full of the hype, but I have 1) done the math myself, and 2) parsed our four weekly raids every since EoF came out, so I have been able to draw my own conclusions.X raw mitigation adds an almost constant bonus to your survivability. If you add 100 points of mit to 6000, you gain almost the same improvement in staying power as you would if you had added those 100 points to 5000. That doesn't meant you get the same improvement in your mitigation percentage, but that is neither here nor there. Value isn't expressed in numbers; it is expressed in the impact those numbers have.At any rate, your best bet is still to balance mitigation, HP, and uncontested avoidance.By uncontested avoidance, I mean anything which adds to your block chance as well as any percentile bonuses to parry, dodge, or riposte. Having a percentile bonus to normally contested avoidance skills is, according to my own experiments, uncontested avoidance. For instance, you will always riposte an average of 2% of all frontal attacks if you add a 2% riposte adornment to your weapon, even vs mobs which normally completely ignore parry/riposte.Having a +20 bonus to parry, conversely, is still subject to a contested parry roll vs the mob's offensive skills, and vs certain mobs, such as Vilucidae, it still results in absolutely zero chance of parrying.</blockquote>3. For the next abilities, I am not sure if I should focus on all or just a specific few. Keep in mind, I am a MT focused on defense (eprsonal choice) for my guild which does not regularly raid.~ Crit Chance and Crit Bonus - are these overly important?~ Potency, Ability Mod, Hate Mod - What does Potency and Ability Mod do and how does it affect my taunts, buffs, and abilities? Found this post from March 2010. Is this still correct?<blockquote><blockquote>The way I understand it is:1,000dmg spell + 2% potency would result in 1020dmg. Then if it criticals x 1.5 it'll do 1530dmg.1,000dmg spell + 2% crit bonus would result in 1000dmg. If it criticals x 1.52 (crit bonus is added, not multiplied vs the base crit right?) it'll do 1520dmg.No matter the percentage it seems potency is better than crit bonus. Since potency isn't capped, why would anyone pick Ethereal Adornment of Increased Criticals over Ethereal Adornment of Raw Power? They're the same percentage, same slots, but it seems potency would always be better? The same follows for any items - always pick the one with higher potency if two items are similar in other stats but one is potency and one is crit bonus, if I'm correct in this math.</blockquote>Crit Bonus is definitely better. Potency = base damage increase, so certain spells may be capped well below a potency of 100 due to AAs or Set affects. Potency also only affects base damage. Crit Bonus however is the last thing applied and is uncapped so you can get a greater increase.Realistically you want both, but in the end Crit Bonus is going to do more for you, especially if you play a scout, fighter or melee priest (as it affects auto attack as well).</blockquote> ~ Reuse Speed, Casting Speed, Recovery Speed - Does Casting speed affect a guardian? And which of these should I bring up first?~ What is the difference between Reuse and Recovery? Found the answer4. In the last category, is DPS important? I remember it used to be in regards to gaining hate, but since I have been mainly working on my taunts (I can get about 12K+ hate every few moments from what I recall) would I need to focus on these things too?~ What is Multi Attack and Melee AE and are they important to a Guardian? Adding here, is that I mainly work with at least one Enchanter in the group. Would these abilities then always awaken the mezzed mobs unintentionally since my auto attack would have a chance of hitting more than one mob around me?~ Strike through and Accuracy - I have never heard of these before and I know Guardians get a skill that is supposed to assist with Strikethrough. What exactly are they both and are they useful to a Guardian? I found this from a post in Nov 2010, is it still accurate?<blockquote>Way to much inaccurate info on this page. The below is based on the post by Xelgad above."What are the Blue Stats I'll see on my items and what do they do?"Way to much inaccurate info here. Per Xelgad's post on the top of this forum.<ul><li>Accuracy: Accuracy increases your chance to hit the target when you normally would have missed. It does not help you against parries, blocks or ripostes.</li><li>Strikethrough: Strikethrough grants a percentage based chance to ignore the target's riposte, parry or block.</li></ul>"Can Uncontested Avoidance fail to avoid an attack?"<ul><li>The blue stat "Strikethrough" is a percentage based chance to attack through any Parry, Block or Riposte. </li><li>Certain melee attacks cannot be avoided even if the avoidance is uncontested.</li></ul>Parry comes in contested and uncontested forms. Dodge comes uncontested and contested forms. Strikethrough will go through uncontested parry, riposte or block. Accuracy will not go through uncontested dodge. So you should not be hit with 100% dodge abilites active. NPC's can have 360 parry but not all classes have parry. Particularly mages/priests do not parry naturally unless they have special buffs. </blockquote>Thanks for the assistance. I will continue to look, but any help even if links will be great.

thial

04-20-2011, 05:32 PM

<cite>SisterTheresa wrote:</cite><blockquote>I have a level 90 guardian who is going to be the MT for the guild he is in. The guild isn't a raiding guild, though they are interested in visiting the DoV zones (ToFS especially). I am looking for some advice as I just hit my 200 AA mark.Now, I have a good amount of questions, and alas I must rely on my guardian homies to help answer them as alot of the posts here are either very old or the information isn't correct.Stats:1. If I recall, STR and STA are my main stats now. Is there a cap? I believe I read a post from February that the STA cap was removed and each 1 STA point gives 10hp. Is this still correct?Correct2. When it comes to defending, what order should I look into doing first with Mitigation, Critical Mitigation, Avoidance, Block Chance?~ I do have all but 2 pieces of the DoV Woe gear (helm and boots) ATM, so my Crit Mit is 91.2% (-2% from adornment on chest).~ Overall my Avoidance is 11.083 with over 50% chance to avoid a level 90s attack.~ My block chance is 60.9% right now. How does that differ from Block in general (under Avoidance)?~ When it comes to Parry and Ripotse, should I worry about raising either or just stick with Block? With regards to this, I found a post from 2007 (not much else yet) but does this still apply?<blockquote><blockquote>With regards to survivability, 30 mitigation is 30 mitigation. I think there were several topics in combat discussion that explained "survivability" depends linearly on mitigation. But could be wrong .. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></blockquote>You aren't wrong. These forums are full of the hype, but I have 1) done the math myself, and 2) parsed our four weekly raids every since EoF came out, so I have been able to draw my own conclusions.X raw mitigation adds an almost constant bonus to your survivability. If you add 100 points of mit to 6000, you gain almost the same improvement in staying power as you would if you had added those 100 points to 5000. That doesn't meant you get the same improvement in your mitigation percentage, but that is neither here nor there. Value isn't expressed in numbers; it is expressed in the impact those numbers have.At any rate, your best bet is still to balance mitigation, HP, and uncontested avoidance.By uncontested avoidance, I mean anything which adds to your block chance as well as any percentile bonuses to parry, dodge, or riposte. Having a percentile bonus to normally contested avoidance skills is, according to my own experiments, uncontested avoidance. For instance, you will always riposte an average of 2% of all frontal attacks if you add a 2% riposte adornment to your weapon, even vs mobs which normally completely ignore parry/riposte.Having a +20 bonus to parry, conversely, is still subject to a contested parry roll vs the mob's offensive skills, and vs certain mobs, such as Vilucidae, it still results in absolutely zero chance of parrying.</blockquote>I think the number for raids guards is 10-11k mit buffed you want to remember that even if your persona says 70% for a lvl 90 mob that is not 70% for a lvl 97 mob. I don't recall the exact numbers you need but im sure someone will post and can clerify.For crit mit you will want to look at the mob you are killing it will have a crit bonus buff this is the amount(or more) of crit mit you want for that mobAs for Avoidance when it comes to raiding your uncontested avoidance is all that matters raid mobs ignore everything else. + block adorns and gear and a good shield are what you need. When you mouse over the avoidance it will show you the uncontested block.3. For the next abilities, I am not sure if I should focus on all or just a specific few. Keep in mind, I am a MT focused on defense (eprsonal choice) for my guild which does not regularly raid.~ Crit Chance and Crit Bonus - are these overly important?~ Potency, Ability Mod, Hate Mod - What does Potency and Ability Mod do and how does it affect my taunts, buffs, and abilities? Found this post from March 2010. Is this still correct?<blockquote><blockquote>The way I understand it is:1,000dmg spell + 2% potency would result in 1020dmg. Then if it criticals x 1.5 it'll do 1530dmg.1,000dmg spell + 2% crit bonus would result in 1000dmg. If it criticals x 1.52 (crit bonus is added, not multiplied vs the base crit right?) it'll do 1520dmg.No matter the percentage it seems potency is better than crit bonus. Since potency isn't capped, why would anyone pick Ethereal Adornment of Increased Criticals over Ethereal Adornment of Raw Power? They're the same percentage, same slots, but it seems potency would always be better? The same follows for any items - always pick the one with higher potency if two items are similar in other stats but one is potency and one is crit bonus, if I'm correct in this math.</blockquote>Crit Bonus is definitely better. Potency = base damage increase, so certain spells may be capped well below a potency of 100 due to AAs or Set affects. Potency also only affects base damage. Crit Bonus however is the last thing applied and is uncapped so you can get a greater increase.Realistically you want both, but in the end Crit Bonus is going to do more for you, especially if you play a scout, fighter or melee priest (as it affects auto attack as well).</blockquote> ~ Reuse Speed, Casting Speed, Recovery Speed - Does Casting speed affect a guardian? And which of these should I bring up first?~ What is the difference between Reuse and Recovery? Found the answerYou want enough crit based on the mob. Raid mobs or mobs in general will have a critical reduction you need that amount of reduction + 100 to crit 100% of the time...So for a mob that has 100% crit reduction you need 200% to have 100% crit. Crit bonus is great it increases a crit's base so with almost 100% crit bonus a 5k hit crits for around 30khate was uncapped to 100% so in raid you should be able to get close to 50% from the right group setup and another 30% from gear and AA's which should be more than enough hate. Potency adds to the base damage of a Ca/taunt and I belive is uncapped where as Ability Mod adds to base but can only equal half of the abilitys base. Soo with 500 base only 250 would be added to a 500 damage making the CA do 750.4. In the last category, is DPS important? I remember it used to be in regards to gaining hate, but since I have been mainly working on my taunts (I can get about 12K+ hate every few moments from what I recall) would I need to focus on these things too?~ What is Multi Attack and Melee AE and are they important to a Guardian? Adding here, is that I mainly work with at least one Enchanter in the group. Would these abilities then always awaken the mezzed mobs unintentionally since my auto attack would have a chance of hitting more than one mob around me?~ Strike through and Accuracy - I have never heard of these before and I know Guardians get a skill that is supposed to assist with Strikethrough. What exactly are they both and are they useful to a Guardian? I found this from a post in Nov 2010, is it still accurate?<blockquote>Way to much inaccurate info on this page. The below is based on the post by Xelgad above."What are the Blue Stats I'll see on my items and what do they do?"Way to much inaccurate info here. Per Xelgad's post on the top of this forum.<ul><li>Accuracy: Accuracy increases your chance to hit the target when you normally would have missed. It does not help you against parries, blocks or ripostes.</li><li>Strikethrough: Strikethrough grants a percentage based chance to ignore the target's riposte, parry or block.</li></ul>"Can Uncontested Avoidance fail to avoid an attack?"<ul><li>The blue stat "Strikethrough" is a percentage based chance to attack through any Parry, Block or Riposte. </li><li>Certain melee attacks cannot be avoided even if the avoidance is uncontested.</li></ul>Parry comes in contested and uncontested forms. Dodge comes uncontested and contested forms. Strikethrough will go through uncontested parry, riposte or block. Accuracy will not go through uncontested dodge. So you should not be hit with 100% dodge abilites active. NPC's can have 360 parry but not all classes have parry. Particularly mages/priests do not parry naturally unless they have special buffs. </blockquote>MA gives you a chance to hit the mob again. At or over 100% you can double attack at or over 200% you can triple attack and so on. Melle AE is the chance your auto attacks will hit another mob around you. Not really needed on raids ( thats what the ae tanks are for) but is great for groups. Thanks for the assistance. I will continue to look, but any help even if links will be great.</blockquote>Oh and yes DPS is important 1 dps = 1 hate.