How important is crushing skill?

[Soefje]

I have been using a sword or axe for most of my fighter/crusader life.  I recently got a  flail and realized that my crushing skill was very low.  I have been using the flail exclusively recently to get the skill up, but was wondering how useful is it for a Shadowknight to have a maxed out crushing skill.  My orginal intent was to use swords (or axes) as much as possible.  I would like to use a 2-handed sword/axe whenever I solo and a sword/axe and board combo when I am main tank.  Is this a reasonable thing to do?  Are there important crushing type weapons later in the game that would make me want to get this skill up? Thanks for the comments. <div></div>

[far]

<DIV>This is entirely based on how you plan on playing the game. If you never really intend to get to 50 and want to putter around lower levels and you are fine with that, then its not very important, if you want to kill EVERY big mob in game at some point crushing is critical.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>There are a massive number of epic raid mobs that 100% resistant to certain weapon types Zalak resists slash, Drayek resists Crush, overlord Oxuilous (sp?) is crush resistant while his buddy no vowels is slash resistant (there are pierce resistant guys too but i dont own a piercing weapon. Usually on these mobs they have a weak against, a strong against, and immune against mentality so a wide array of weapons is a good idea. (let alone mobs like symbiants and temblar that damage weapons with a proc). Remembering that high treasured, legendary, fabled and mythical are the only items that will touch these mobs (read as no basic crafted, only rare crafted).</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>In my tiny little weapons satchel i carry around the following</DIV> <DIV>Prismatic Long Sword of Scale (1 handed slash)</DIV> <DIV>Screaming Mace (1 handed crush)</DIV> <DIV>Strange Metal Hammer (1 handed crush)</DIV> <DIV>Widdershins Totem (1 handed crush debuff proc)</DIV> <DIV>imbued ebon long sword (got upgraded but cant seem to throw the guy away)</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>As you might of noticed i went all one handed because i consider myself a tank (and was helped by some nice guys to get my prismatic) even tho events dont always ferret their way out to be so.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>If I had it all over to pick again I would have went</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>1 handed crush -- Screaming Mace its high dps rating (40 i think) and a 5% proc that is very appealing</DIV> <DIV>1 handed slash -- Prismatic</DIV> <DIV>2 handed Slash -- Sorrowwind or some such haste 2 hander from heart of fear </DIV> <DIV>2 handed crush -- Pristine Imbued Ebon warhammer or some such thing </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Just stuff to think about</DIV> <DIV> </DIV>

[AstarothMM]

<div></div>I'll deviate from the previous poster as follows: 1hb - same screaming mace. 1hs - imbued ebon assult axe 2hb - Royal great fail (great dps with great proc and its slow so procs often) 2hs - Prismatic The rational is that I do not really group anymore.  Most of my time in spent in raids where I am not the MT so using a 2h for dps is more advantagous than a 1h + sheild.  In fact <a href="http://www.phippsbowling.com/images/eq/zal_shld2.jpg" target=_blank>the sheild I have</a> is really quite good I wish I could convince myself to use it more often. <div></div><p>Message Edited by AstarothMM on <span class=date_text>06-06-2005</span> <span class=time_text>07:18 PM</span>

[pyroglyph]

Now that I think about it, I haven't used crushing weapons since axes were allowed. Always using a big 2H slasher, even when grouping...healers have no trouble keeping me alive. I'll probably max it later, but for right now I need to chop things. <div></div>

[far]

<DIV>Yes but im thinking there will be a grind when the next expansion comes out to the next max level and as i said for some reason i still consider myself a tank.. I know its silly but ya know. BTW nice shield.</DIV>

[Toogel]

That is a nice shield... out of curiousity, does it make it so you get your 44+ skills one level earlier if you equip it at 43?  Determined Zeal is the stat that determines when you can use an ability, so I would assume it would make you get your 50 abilities at 49 and such.

[AstarothMM]

<div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div>For the grind - yah I was thinking about that too.  Here is my reasoning -- In full ebon/fabled gear I can tank just about any encounter (like 50nek which is probably the types of mooks we will be seeing in the expansion) with a two hander and no sheild and I get no complains from my healers.  So currently I dont even use a sheild unless I am tanking say Lord Everling (ie: Epic ++/+++ Boss) or something similar.  The great thing about a 2hander is that I have an assassin in the group, and the second I stop doing DPS on par with his I loose aggro and he hits the floor (usually from me FDing him).  Now since this assassin is in my static he knows what he can and cannot do when I am using a sheild (let me have a few seconds to acquire and do some HOs before he does big DPS) but we have found if I use a 2hander (such as the royal great flail) this issue just goes away.  Of course this can all be rendered useless the second the combat patch or expansion comes out, who knows [expletive ninja'd by Faarbot] SOE will do.As to the sheild changing level -- Unsure.  I got the sheild at 50 so no way to know.  The one test I did do was to see if spell cons change and they did not.  My guess is that the spell system checks agains your effective level first and then your skill level but *shrug* who knows.  The cool thing is all classes get a sheild like this so maybe some of them have done some more testing than me and can give you better info.<center>Astaroth InfernusGuk"Damnit Dunn I wanted to put MY pet on that mob."  -- Astaroth every night</center><div></div><p>Message Edited by AstarothMM on <span class=date_text>06-07-2005</span> <span class=time_text>07:49 AM</span>

[Exmortis_MT]

<DIV>Ask King Zalak the ancient how importasnt crushing is.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV>

[Nocifer Deathblade]

Astar... It's extremely easy to test.. Just mentor someone and check if you can use lvl 1 higher spell than your mentored level. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> Let us know of the result. <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Braell]

<DIV>I remember ages ago people equiping weapons by buffing there skills up - then not unequiping the weapon etc - that i know doesnt work now.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>If you gain skills while haveing buffs on, say crushing it's not uncommon to see the same skill gained repeated on screen, but i seem to remember a message while trying to equip/do something and got a message saying i needed to meet the requirement unbuffed.. i just cant remember what it was that brought the message up.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Braellar</DIV>

[AstarothMM]

Ok tested the mentoring.  When I mentored to 49 my level 50 stuff did indeed change con from red to orange but I still could not use the spells. <div></div>

[Nocifer Deathblade]

Ok, can't use spells that was confirmed by you but your lvl 49 spells are effectively lvl 50 for power damage? Look at your spell description saying Mastery (255 or more). Remove shield and add it, does the damage on one spell like, hmm, your lvl 50 dot spell change? I suspect that shield helps to increase potent of your spell by 1 level as long as you are not at mastery level yet.

[DUNN]

<DIV>Crushing is just as important as slashing so kill both up.  I also focus on 2h weapons like Astaroth i switch to 1h when i know i am going to tank or it is beggining to look ugly for the MT.<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> AstarothMM wrote:<BR> For the grind - yah I was thinking about that too.  Here is my reasoning -- In full ebon/fabled gear I can tank just about any encounter (like 50nek which is probably the types of mooks we will be seeing in the expansion) with a two hander and no sheild and I get no complains from my healers.  So currently I dont even use a sheild unless I am tanking say Lord Everling (ie: Epic ++/+++ Boss) or something similar.  The great thing about a 2hander is that I have an assassin in the group, and the second I stop doing DPS on par with his I loose aggro and he hits the floor (usually from me FDing him).  Now since this assassin is in my static he knows what he can and cannot do when I am using a sheild (let me have a few seconds to acquire and do some HOs before he does big DPS) but we have found if I use a 2hander (such as the royal great flail) this issue just goes away.  Of course this can all be rendered useless the second the combat patch or expansion comes out, who knows [expletive ninja'd by Faarbot] SOE will do.<BR><BR>As to the sheild changing level -- Unsure.  I got the sheild at 50 so no way to know.  The one test I did do was to see if spell cons change and they did not.  My guess is that the spell system checks agains your effective level first and then your skill level but *shrug* who knows.  The cool thing is all classes get a sheild like this so maybe some of them have done some more testing than me and can give you better info.<BR><BR> <CENTER><BR>Astaroth Infernus<BR><BR>Guk<BR>"Damnit Dunn I wanted to put MY pet on that mob."  -- Astaroth every night</CENTER> <P>Message Edited by AstarothMM on <SPAN class=date_text>06-07-2005</SPAN> <SPAN class=time_text>07:49 AM</SPAN><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR>You still have a static <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> Mine all quit or don't log anymore <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> Some SK have all the luck heheh.  </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <P>Message Edited by DUNN on <SPAN class=date_text>06-08-2005</SPAN> <SPAN class=time_text>10:10 AM</SPAN></P><p>Message Edited by DUNN on <span class=date_text>06-09-2005</span> <span class=time_text>08:58 AM</span>

[AstarothMM]

Noc - Yes spell damage does increase when using the sheild if mastery is based off of determined zeal.  Many of my lvl 48+ spells I looked at use something dumb and unreleated (like ordination) for Mastery; these spells are uneffected.  Things like Pariah's Mark however are slightly higher damage with the sheild. <div></div>