New dirge seeks advice

Shadowdrummer · 07-19-2009, 02:13 PM

Hi everyone

I am a new dirge and have a few questions.

Actually my dirge is lvl 40 with 42 AA's. I solo only for the moment.

Here is my solo template :

AGI : 4 - 4 - 4 - 8
STA : 4 - 4 - 4 -8

Should I respec to get Fortissimo and the wis end DKtM ?

Is DKtM better than poison, DPS wise ? With ACT my poison is between 8 and 10 % of my total DPS.

And I lose bump until I put 5 points in AGI again ... great deal ?

And what is the best tree in the dirge line for solo ?

Stuff question :

I actually have 2 lvl 32 Mastercrafted weapons with a delay of 6.0.
Is it better to just une one of these weapons with a goold shield or just DW ?

And when I hit 42, do I need to upgrade those weapons or is it maybe better to focus on the Mastercrafted armor ?

Thanks

Laromir · 07-19-2009, 05:37 PM

As for Bard tree spec. I'd probably drop the Stamina line for now. Keep Agility as you have it, but go down Wisdom 4-4-6-8-2 (wait until you have enough points). Reason for taking DKtM over Fortissimo is that crits will benefit you more than double attack while you are still leveling up. As soon as you get your epic (fabled or mythical), then that will change in favor of double attack. You should still be able to keep Bump in this setup (with 50 AAs).
Once you are able to put 70 AAs into the Bard tree, then obviously go down Stamina once again and get Fortissimo.

As for the best solo Dirge tree. I'd try to ensure that once I hit level 58 and got Cacophony of Blades, then I'd enhance that. Until then, I'd probably just go for whatever helps me solo better. The two lifetaps arent from Life and Death arent bad. If you kite alot, then Enhance: Dael's Dreadful Deprivation is a good choice too. The Dirge tree does not have any must haves for soloing in my opinion, although many of them are nice to have.

Your choice of weapons etc. Will answer the last first. Definitely upgrade your weapons at 42. The more damage you do, the less you actually need your armor. Obviously you should also upgrade your armor, but imo the weapons are more important.
Dont swap one weapon for a shield. You will lose more than you gain, atleast that is my experience. And if you do end up ditching the Stamina line as I suggested, then the loss by using a shield will be even greater.
One thing you may consider is you get 2x 4 sec delay weapons, so that you can get into the swing of things. The epic is 4 sec delay and it may not be a bad idea to already now learn the casting order. Just a suggestion anyway.

Have fun with it... and enjoy being a dirge

Shadowdrummer · 07-20-2009, 07:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Laromir

As for Bard tree spec. I'd probably drop the Stamina line for now. Keep Agility as you have it, but go down Wisdom 4-4-6-8-2 (wait until you have enough points). Reason for taking DKtM over Fortissimo is that crits will benefit you more than double attack while you are still leveling up. As soon as you get your epic (fabled or mythical), then that will change in favor of double attack. You should still be able to keep Bump in this setup (with 50 AAs).
Once you are able to put 70 AAs into the Bard tree, then obviously go down Stamina once again and get Fortissimo.

As for the best solo Dirge tree. I'd try to ensure that once I hit level 58 and got Cacophony of Blades, then I'd enhance that. Until then, I'd probably just go for whatever helps me solo better. The two lifetaps arent from Life and Death arent bad. If you kite alot, then Enhance: Dael's Dreadful Deprivation is a good choice too. The Dirge tree does not have any must haves for soloing in my opinion, although many of them are nice to have.

Your choice of weapons etc. Will answer the last first. Definitely upgrade your weapons at 42. The more damage you do, the less you actually need your armor. Obviously you should also upgrade your armor, but imo the weapons are more important.
Dont swap one weapon for a shield. You will lose more than you gain, atleast that is my experience. And if you do end up ditching the Stamina line as I suggested, then the loss by using a shield will be even greater.
One thing you may consider is you get 2x 4 sec delay weapons, so that you can get into the swing of things. The epic is 4 sec delay and it may not be a bad idea to already now learn the casting order. Just a suggestion anyway.

Have fun with it... and enjoy being a dirge

Thanks. I will compare parses between my previous template and the one you suggested me.

About the weapons. I only saw 5.0 delay and 6.0 delay MC weapons. No 4.0. What's the best to pick between those two delay's ?

And you suggested me a 4.0 delay weapon to learn the casting order.
Is that to learn to "time" the autoattacks ? Do you time them ?

Thanks for your input

Searle · 07-20-2009, 07:55 AM

I personally wouldn't worry about any AA build until you get to 80.

The time you spend considering your AA set ups etc you might as well just power level, but make sure that you are soaking up all of the AA from the different zones.

Before you know it it you'll be 80 and you can check out the info in this forum on the best set ups at that point.

Shadowdrummer · 07-20-2009, 08:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Searle

I personally wouldn't worry about any AA build until you get to 80.

The time you spend considering your AA set ups etc you might as well just power level, but make sure that you are soaking up all of the AA from the different zones.

Before you know it it you'll be 80 and you can check out the info in this forum on the best set ups at that point.

I post on the forum when I can't play so that's not a problem :p

I just bought 2 lvl 42 MC weapons with a delay of 5.0.
I don't have enough plat to buy a lvl 42 MC armor.

How do you guys make enough play in the lower levels ? Is it by selling the adept's we loot (like I did) or harvesting and selling rares ? Other places to farm plat ?

Thanks

Searle · 07-20-2009, 08:22 AM

Kill every named you see, loot M1 chests and sell for some gold - you won't get much as M1s sub 80 are 99% replaced.

Again, get to 80 and you can start making some decent plats.

Laromir · 07-20-2009, 11:37 AM

I recently leveled a monk without any twinkage other than a stack of boxes for the bank. At level 50 he had 100p banked... all from shinies. So dont let those ? pass you by... harvest every single of them and broker them.

And yes, that was what I meant. Timing autoattacks... not learning the casting order.

Irthos · 07-20-2009, 03:40 PM

One trick I did as I leveled, and even partially while I was 80 and grouping, was to make a macro for the shield bash AA ability (From the Sta line)

Just make a macro that equips a roundshield in the secondary slot, use ability. I also made another macro (I tied this one to the Def debuff, was Rhyming Curse but I can't remember the new name) to re-equip my normal secondary offhand.

Works well for giving you a secondary stun/knockback, for getting behind the monster when you're soloing.

Doesn't work once you get Marrow's Song though, cause it cancels 2 of your buffs if you remove the weapon

Vuetee · 07-24-2009, 08:45 PM

AA spec can help, just go fortissimo -> DKTM first and then probably DPS mod, once you hit 70 AA go for some crap in TSO tree or the Luck line in Dirge. Maybe some points in your disease debuff, as it makes ur dmg increase a lot when thats up. Unfortunately, a lot of playing a dirge well is also about gear, my dad plays with dirges that parse 500 @ lv 80 with mediocre gear and then I parse anywhere up to 8.9k atm, probably more if I try hard... I never parse under 2k usually... all due to gear (and a bit of sense).

For a brawler, gear may not be as needed as they are a good solo class to begin with, but for a dirge, it will be needed. I got stuck @ lv 71 on my dirge and then raped the levels as soon as I hit lv 72 and got my new MC armour.

Shadowdrummer · 08-25-2009, 06:37 AM

I once again need advice on AA points. I don't own TSO expansion yet but will in a week.

Where should I put my next AA's ? I have 6 points yet to distribute.

Here is my spec :