Climbing the steelwall (Guardian AA question) - Page 5

Herme · 08-25-2008, 11:39 PM

At lvl 80 on my guard I played around with tower spec and buckler spec for about 2 months, now I'm strictly buckler specc'ed 448 str, 5488 sta 4888 int. What I found is that it is extremely gear dependant. When I went tower spec (don't remember what my specific spec was) I had huge hate issues if I didn't have both a dirge and a chanter in group. Running t8 instances that is. I was used to running buckler spec and telling the dirge not to put up hate song and to run all offensive or more defensive buffs and would clear content like it was cool.

Then I started specc'ing my gear for straight DPS, got up to 57% melee crit, 82% DA self buffed, but lost a ton of survivability because I didn't have the +parry, +def, +deflect gear that I now have. So I experimented with tower shield, my survivability went up significantly and healers loved me, but I couldn't hold aggro worth a damn, seemed I was popping reinforcement as soon as it was up.

Now I run as much +(avoidance) gear as possible with as much DPS bonuses and after a few raids am sitting on 54% melee crit 58% avoidance. I'm now pumping out as much DPS as I was before, but with my survivability up to where it was in legendary gear. The raids btw so far are just PR(that I've gotten loot from)

Moral of the story, spec DPS, gear defensively first, and get offensive when you can spare it. You'll hold your aggro while maintaining survivability.

I know this is an AA thread, but your gear is extremely important on how you can spec and survive the content. I hope this helps some, and I'm sorry for all those that went and got the ravaged onslaught set pieces, but I personally think they are garbage, you can get more DPS and survivability out of quest items and common drop pieces instances. I think I had the 3 piece set bonus for all of 2 days before I trashed it and got items with better stats and effects.

keldo · 08-26-2008, 01:15 AM

I think you may be the first person to ever spec INT with enough points to get the end ability, but for some unexplainable reason I hope is a typo, failed to get it.

Anap KaSplat · 08-26-2008, 01:36 AM

I spec int all the way to the end.

Herme · 08-26-2008, 02:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by keldo

I think you may be the first person to ever spec INT with enough points to get the end ability, but for some unexplainable reason I hope is a typo, failed to get it.

I made a mistake in counting my AA points while I was doing it and just haven't changed back. I actually forgot I had done it until someone asked me what my spec was, and then I forgot about it again, but yeah, I had thought it was full int until last night.

But amazing how you can read all that and only have that to say about it.

Anap KaSplat · 08-26-2008, 04:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Herme

you can get more DPS and survivability out of quest items and common drop pieces instances.

I tried to tell someone this once upon a time....

Mohare · 08-28-2008, 10:59 AM

I think Anap keeps his posts short so his avatar will point at his sig

Anap KaSplat · 08-28-2008, 06:17 PM

Herme · 08-28-2008, 08:07 PM

Just out of curiosity, do we have a class leader like some of the other classes do? I've taken a lot of good info from anap, and a few others, but there doesn't seem to be a definitive person to go to for advice, we seem to pool it all together.

Not saying that's a bad thing, 2 heads are better than 1, right?

Anap KaSplat · 08-28-2008, 11:18 PM

Keldo

keldo · 08-29-2008, 03:00 AM

But don't come to me as an authority. I'm not Pinski-level super tech here. I just mod the forum because Grind passed the duties on to me.