Bigjunk wrote on Dec 19^th, 2012 at 3:56pm:



Yup.  I abandoned my 12/6/2 monk/fighter/pal for this
reason and turned him into a regular DPS.

Sadly for big stuff my garbage can stalwart is better.

When/if the enhancement pass happens and racial
defenders kick in things may well change.

Wipe wrote on Dec 20^th, 2012 at 7:29am:


See . . . the glancing blows and 30% double-strike is just insanely good. 

We've tested it, my guildy on his S&B fighter 20 stalwart and my TWFing 12/6/2 timed how long it took for us to beat-down the portal in the Frost giant valley in Reavers refuge. Same ED, set gear so we were pretty much identical.  My two Holy+smiting Khopeshes versus his Holy+Smiting Dorf-axe.

My TWFer killed it faster, but only by a few seconds.  it was really so close that I cannot say my slightly better DPS was worth it compared to the PRR/AC he was able to field. 

Another thing about the S&B builds in heavy armor can put out enough threat and have enough defense on an offensive ED like dreadnaught, TWFer might as well be a kensai in and offensive ED.  To hold aggro and not get torn apart I need to be in sentinel, pure fighters can do in as a dread.

Though evasion at times was really, really nice.  With a 23% dodge, evasion, etc . . . for stuff like EE Chrono and EE CiTW (not sure what tactics the rest of you use, but we've found intimate and tanking to be the most reliable crowd-control in that quest on EE) he's perfect.  Have a bad EIN pull and have to fight 4 mistresses at once?  Intim 3 of them and run off to a corner while the party beats on the other one.  Same with EE Lailat, just laugh as she cometfalls nothing.

I just TR'd Meathelmet last night.  Going 18 fighter and 2 monk (feats over UMD, still be able to get healscrolls at cap).  I need that Tier III PRE for defender as Tier II just doesn't cut it anymore.  Sticking with TWFing and khopeshes for now but I might change it.  I just don't want to scrap a whole bunch of greensteel, crafted, and tier III Alchemical weapons.  I think I'll still be able to break 100 PRR while TWFing in light armor, I'm hunting a pair of Nightmare bastard swords as even in a defensive ED those things are amazing. 

I'm also hoping Tempest will be available as a Human racial PRE, but that's extremely wishful thinking.

The thing about S&Bs now is they're not really "tanks", they can do as much DPS as the majority of other melee and "tank" when really needed.

My S&Ber is using earth/earth alchemical for trash, and I'd love to get a Nightmare also. As far as raiding, using Epic Templar for demons/devils and a AML20 +5 HB of GCB for LOB.

Brawn's only matters for EE DQ, pretty much. I wouldn't mind trying it once for fun, but there's no point to EE LOB and no one runs it.

Was thinking of Nightmare in terms of bosses, not trash but didn't say that.  Yeah for trash it's a fine weapon.

It just kills me that Turdbine adds "weapons great for killing trash" as a raid reward.  Why the fuck can't we get "weapons great for killing raid bosses" as a raid reward instead?  I guess I can't expect much from a team that thought creating Anna to be the hero instead of a player was a good idea.

Epoch wrote on Dec 22^nd, 2012 at 8:54pm:

Agreed.  U15's items sucked -- all that druid shit should have been release with U14.  U16 has some decent BoE items like the ward at least, but god damned, I'm tired of ransacking that fucking chest and going home empty handed week after week.

Whisperchain is amazing for the "don't have aggro" types.  Those quests are fun, but the drop rates are TERRIBLE.