Curse

BadKarma Delivery · Nov 27, 2008, 06:03 PM // 18:03

Player since inception of GW, first post ever.

Question: I really like the idea of using Bison's Cup instead of a shield for my warrior's offhand. I lose 11 armor (from a 16 shield), but get 6 energy in the bar. (Health +30 is stays the same) Seems like a good trade-off?

Also, I am really thinking about maxing Armor Penetration with a build that utilizes Judge's insight and my 20% Sundering axe. Since these stack with strength (say 14 base AP) one should see an average of 38% (14+20+(.2*20)) AP. (Assuming one could keep up Judge's going every 10 seconds which I have doubts about in the alliance battles I play in.) Also Judge's converts damage from Sundering Axe to Holy, so physical and elemental armor bonus is negated. Further lowering armor and increasing DPS.

Update: Initial testing on Isle of Nameless (100AC Dummy) moved damage (critical hit/max axe) from 36 (str AP only) to 51 (str + Judge's) and finally to 72 (when 20% weapon mod Sundering kicked in).

Thoughts?

Mr Emu · Nov 27, 2008, 06:13 PM // 18:13

well, you're probably better off with [conjure] or [strength of Honor] for a physical DPS buff, that two second cast is just too long

moriz · Nov 27, 2008, 06:25 PM // 18:25

i use it as my zealous/energy swap, but beyond that, shield > bison cup.

Rhamia Darigaz · Nov 27, 2008, 06:32 PM // 18:32

there's pretty much no reason to lose armor for higher max energy.
if you really need energy for something have a high energy set and switch to it when you need to cast whatever, but definitely don't run around with a bison cup over a shield.

also going for huge armor penetration isn't really worth it, you're better off with regular dmg buffs. and vampiric axe>sundering axe.

wind fire and ice · Nov 27, 2008, 06:33 PM // 18:33

use[strength of honor] instead of judges.

dilan155 · Nov 27, 2008, 06:43 PM // 18:43

aye use [strength and honor] instead of judges, normally i would prefer a shield instead of energy.

Owik Gall · Nov 27, 2008, 07:10 PM // 19:10

SoH, hands down. If you have a q8 sword with armor penetration (or maybe vamp) mod you're good to go. If there was any more you could do you'd make godly damage, and that's not good for the pvp aspect of the game.

Molock · Nov 27, 2008, 08:02 PM // 20:02

I agree with pretty much everyone else, SoH>Judge's Insight. The Bison Cup isn't a good replacement for a shield, I say weapon swap if you really need to cast or w\e.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Owik Gall

SoH, hands down. If you have a q8 sword with armor penetration (or maybe vamp) mod you're good to go. If there was any more you could do you'd make godly damage, and that's not good for the pvp aspect of the game.

How is the use of a q8 sword important? And imo Vamp> Sundering, especially on a sword.

Edit:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mesmer in Need

It isn't, it's a fallacy that lower req swords do more damage because they're farther away from your attribute.

Imo vamp on axe and sword, sundering on hammer, zealous set if you need more energy.

I thought that theory was debunked ages ago. I guess some people are still uninformed

Mesmer in Need · Nov 27, 2008, 08:09 PM // 20:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by Molock

How is the use of a q8 sword important?

It isn't, it's a fallacy that lower req swords do more damage because they're farther away from your attribute.

Imo vamp on axe and sword, sundering on hammer, zealous set if you need more energy.

_Nihilist_ · Nov 28, 2008, 12:41 AM // 00:41

@BadKarma Delivery:

If you need energy, swap to a Zealous-modded weapon. It should bring your energy pool up to full in little time at all. If you are maintaining [[Strength of Honor] this is going to reduce you to 0 energy regen though, hope your hits get through.

@Owik Gall:

The only thing that having a req 8 weapon does is allow you to get max base damage from the weapon with less investment in the weapon attribute.

Go ahead if you want. Use a req 8 max damage (6-28) Axe with 8 Axe Mastery. Say hello to ~-6% crit chance, as well as -8*dmg increment from whatever Axe skill you are using. You'll do max base damage, but crap skill damage. No thanks.

A req 8 max dmg weapon is good for 3 things:

1) A farming build where you need 8 or less ranks in your Weapon attribute due to needing more points in another attribute

2) inflating your e-peen, as req 8 max dmg gold weapons don't drop anymore, so the best a newer player can obtain aside from powertrading to get the funds necessary to get a perfect req8 is going to be a req9 drop/collector/green

3) deflating your e-peen, as req 7 max dmg gold weapons don't drop anymore, but can be bought for ludicrous amounts of GW plat/ectos

**Marty Silverblade** · Nov 28, 2008, 09:53 AM // 09:53

@Tyrael, If you've got a req 8 axe then;

Less than 8 means your weapon essentially has the same damage range as a starter axe.
Between 8 and 11 (inclusive) means your damage range will be relative to the damage range of the axe, but it will be scaled down.
Only when you get to 12 Axe Mastery will the axe be doing 6-28/whatever the damage range is.

Basically once you attain the required amount of mastery points, the damage range scales. 100% (of the damage range) is at 12 mastery points.

Tyla · Nov 28, 2008, 03:48 PM // 15:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by wind fire and ice

use[strength of honor] instead of judges.

Or just take it on a caster based on buffing damage, so you get usage on other professions efficiently too.

Take the shield and swap to a zealous weapon if you want energy.

_Nihilist_ · Nov 28, 2008, 09:27 PM // 21:27

Interessant...

I was under the impression that as long as your rank in weapon mastery matched the reqirement for the weapon it did the full base damage of the weapon (6-28 for Axe, example). I know that with 12 in Mastery he would have +4% chance to critical above 8 in Mastery, which does influence damage potential, as well as 4*dmg increment for any Axe Mastery Skills. Seems a bit bugged if you meet the weapon requirement but still don't get the damage, outside of critical % and skill bonus dmg... is there a link to researh for that in your sticky, Marty?

Going to search and see what I can pull...

[ EDIT ]

I don't run with less than a base 12 in my Weapon Mastery w/o Runes (14 usually w/ Runes; used to run 16 w/ Runes when I first started in January '06), so I've never noticed this.