Dueling question

[laker34one]

40th zerker here and not a big pvp person but I dueled a Pally yesterday, several levels lower and absolutely owned him in defensive mode. He switched to offensive and IO was barely able to kill him. Like I said, not a big pvp person so not sure exactly what startegy to use in pvp. I was basically just hammering my off keys :/ My gear is pretty good, 4 pieces of legendary and using one master11 and all adept1's. Im thining I should have turned him into hammered dog [Removed for Content] both times. <div></div>

[Kaberu]

<P>Some random points:</P> <P>You can deal more damage than a Pally, but he can take more damage than you. Sounds like a fair balance. Why you think you should stomp him hands down is beyond me.</P> <P>Several levels of difference might not matter compared to the gear worn. A 36 in fabled gear is likely to beat a 40 with common crafted or outdated gear.</P> <P>When you are in defensive mode, your attack goes down making it a little harder to hit him. Thus, some of your attacks (including important stuns) can miss more frequently. If he is in defensive mode too, your lowered attack is trying to hit against his raised defense... that means it's even harder to hit him and your damage advantage is pretty much gone. </P> <P>Offensive mode gives a bigger attack bonus than it detracts. You probably won't have a hard time hitting him because he's lower than you but he can now easily hit you if he is in offensive mode.</P> <P>What levels are your CAs? If you have mostly Apprentice levels against his Adept 3's, it gives him more of an edge.</P> <P>The best I've done against a Pally was with no stance and with 1hand/shield for the extra stun.</P> <P>If your spell effects are off, you are hindering yourself against classes that cast (like a paladin who can cast heals). You won't see the spell unless you read your combat text carefully (taking attention away from the fight) or until it's too late (the green heal text pops over his head).</P> <P>Spamming your attacks is going to lower your effiecency than if you carefully timed certain abilities (like stuns/interrupts).</P> <P>Paladins have spell damage which doesn't take into consideration your defense.</P> <P> </P><p>Message Edited by Kaberu on <span class=date_text>09-25-2005</span> <span class=time_text>10:22 AM</span>

[laker34one]

our stun/interrupt line is mostly shield based which means Im pretty much hindered to sword/board correct? <div></div>

[GurgTheBash]

<DIV>Speaking from my (admittedly limited, but reasonably spread out for statistic sampling) experiences, the shield stuns don't seem to interfere with much other than casting, when launched by a 'zerker, guardian, or SK.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>When duelling other 'Zerkers, Guards, or SKs, only the knockdowns halt my melee attacks and movement...pallies, on the other hand, seem to consistantly stop me from moving around and "flailing my blades".</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>It may be something to do with the fact that pallies tend to be better balanced, stats-wise, and therefore I resist some of the effects of the stuns from other classes, when I don't manage to resist as well against pally stuns...I dunno.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Either way, what I'm saying is that if I face a 'Zerker doing the sword-and-board routine, he's been dead meat every time, if he was within 3-4 levels of me, so far, including having taken down one with a prismatic and tower combo 3 out of 3 times, with a WORST case of having 27% HP and 3% power left at the end of it, while I was still in the pristine feysteel and pristine imbued feysteel gearing. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>For a stun to be an effective attack in PVP against a melee DPS, it has to stop him from meleeing, or be there consistantly enough to prevent his from launching ANY CA...and this isn't the case with the 'Zerker, SK, or Guard shield stuns...all they seem to be good for is interrupting the slow casts like cold retribution, whirwind, berzerker assault, and stunning cry...which you can then recast before they have their shield stun available again, IF they manage to land it in time to begin with. When you add the fact that being hit by the shield STILL results in proccing the countering attacks that some buffs afford us, so they take "responsive damage" for hitting us with it, AND they still proc our haste and such with it...</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Well...from what I've experienced so far, I'll just say the 2H or DW path is the way to go for PVP against three of four other tanking classes, and on the fourth,  haven't seen ANY 'Zerker handling them easily...and, below 45-50, I'm a BIG proponent of DW for 'Zerkers, if they can't afford/aquire the BEST 2H for the tier...I strongly support the idea of dual imbueds, under those circumstances.</DIV>

[Kaberu]

<P>The primary advantage to the shield is that it increases your avoidance rate without a significant drop in offense compared to your defensive stance (unless you are trying to use a dual as a 1hander). The shield stun DOES help against Pally's whenever they try to cast a heal spell on themselves (aside from the instant LoH). The stun is fast casting and it's easy to spot the glowing ring that forms before the Pally's heal is cast. It also recycles faster than Vanquish and is a seperate skill line. The shield stun is also your second longest stun followed by stunning roar, then whirlwind.</P> <P>Stun effects now show in your maintained spells. Watching that can give you an advantage as you can time your shield stun, stunning roar and even whirwind plus your vanquish to create a huge chunk of time that your target cannot react. It might be a waste against certain classes but it might just demoralize him enough to make him panic which is one of the greatest advantages you can have.</P> <P>Practice on an easy mob. Watch the timers on your bar. Try to time the abilities so that a new stun goes into effect just before the first one wears out. It's also a good way to buy time against a mob that is giving you problems. Both Stunning Roar and Whirlwind have a couple second cast time, whirlwind only lasts a second maybe but since Vanquish casts nearly instantly, use that after whirlwind. Using your shield stun first gives it enough time to recycle sooner rather than later once your opponent is freed from the stun chain. Hopefully you can use it to throw a wrench into any post-stun rally he attempts to make. So the order I recommend is basically: Raging Blows (shield), Stunning Roar, Whirlwind, Vanquish.</P> <P>Against Pallys, you'll want to use it after they are low in health (around half). It catches them off guard, gets their health in the danger zone and usually puts them into heal mode which you can interrupt (also, if they are trying to heal, they aren't using CAs).</P> <P> </P>