tawek21 wrote:
Licit wrote:
to get the proc effect of your rank 5 STA ability you need to have a round shield equiped and be in defensive stance, you therefore not only loose some DPS, but also loose your interrupt and damage proc, plus 75 odd points to your slash and pierce skills. [I presume you mean 25 each for piercing, slashing and crushing]
Lukia,
Your general point is worth making: to get the benefit of a really good aggro buff, plus more hit points and mitigation, you need to be in defensive stance, and so lose dps from dual wield, the offensive stance interrupt proc, and some points in your melee skills.
However, the penalty to slashing and piercing isn't as severe as you make it sound. For the level 60 defensive stance, Agile Slashing, you lose 23 points of slashing and piercing if it's adept 3.
It'll be a higher penalty if you have say an adept 1 for your level 60 defensive stance, less if you use a level 46, 32, or lower defensive stance.
If you are level 60+, one tactic might be to buy a master 1 version of the level 32 stance, smirking defense. The defensive benefits will be less than the level 60 level stance, but the offensive penalties are also less, and level 32 masters aren't too expensive on the broker.
I don't do anything like enough tanking to justify the stamina line, but if you do, the final skill must be quite attractive.
Message Edited by tawek21 on 04-13-2006 03:38 PM
you are forgetting something here, the offensive stance gives you (at the level 55 master) 40 points to your offensive skills, thus an overall loss of around 75 points, this would be higher for level 69 adept 3 and master.
also I recently respeced away from the STA line, I had some fun with it to grind to 70, even tanked the Vault off Barren Sky at 69, only lost aggro to a 70 assassin once, and that was also without the rank 5 ability, its a nice variance for some to look at, however for me, the added DPS and higher overall proc rates from the WIS line is too valuable for raiding, add to that the crits from the STR line.