Dragon's Maw Shield Advice

[Skie Nightfall]

Hi,

 

I'm running my PoTD team with Eder and Maneha as weapon and shield tanks.

I can't decide which of them should carry the Maw shield. Any advice for a tie breaker?

[Boeroer]

Maneha 100%. That's because Taste of the Hunt works correctly with carnage and also Heart of Fury and Vengeful Defeat. When you do a HoF attack against 6 enemies you will generate 36 hits with Dragon's Maw, 25% of them will trigger Taste of the Hunt - that is 9 times Taste of the Hunt on avarage - healing you and also doing good raw damage. Also: Savage Defiance 1/encounter when endurance drops below 50% is great. If you took Savage Defiance as a talent you will have two very strong self heals 2/encounter.

If you decide differently: Badgradr's Barricade also works with carnage and - more importantly - with HoF and Vengeful Defeat. If you have a priest you could think about giving Spelltongue to Maneha. Priest casts Shields & Crowns for the Faithful on her (+50 deflection, +6 INT and so on) and she does HoF with Spelltongue + Dragon's Maw then: results in great damage that will end most trahmob fights + unbelievable long durations for all the buffs on her, including Shields + Crowns. Another really nice late game weapon for her will be that hatchet that causes Fatigue on hit (also with carnage). Also give her Glittering Gauntlets for carnage-dazing. With yell, fatigue and dazing she will stack a -30 ACC debuff on all foes she hits. It's aweseome (tested it on bounties: awesome tank with good offensive potential).

 

On a fighter bash is not so great because he only has Knockdown as Full Attack - besides that bash will most likely lower his dps - because that's what bash normally does with auto attacks. The fear aura is nice of course, but if you play Maneha as tank she should use Barbaric Yell anyway. And you can always put on the Executionier's Hood which is very nice and also has a fear aura - plus some other nice stuff. You can get it before Dragon's Maw I think.

For me a fighter with not too low INT is better off with Little Savior.

 

If you add a paladin with Outworn Buckler this would be an awesome tanking frontline: +10 to all defenses from the two small shields, -30 to enemies' ACC from frightened, fatigue and daze. Somebody also could wear the Redfield shield for another -3 ACC aura.

 

I also did test a fighter with powerful self heal + Take the Hit. It's actually not as bad as I thought. Actually it's quite great. The self healing from Constant Recovery and stuff, combined with healing bonus from camping and very high deflection lowers overall party damage a lot while the fighter can balance things out with Unbending if he needs to.

 

I will have to test how chanters' 30pt damage shield and Take the Hit work together...  

Edited August 12, 2016 by Boeroer

[Skie Nightfall]

Always with the quick answers
My Maneha uses a hatchet and yell indeed, and I try to have an accurate Eder for disengagements and overbearing. But, I know understand Bash better and how it would hurt a Fighter's DPS.

 

Thanks for the help

[Loren Tyr]

One issue to keep in mind with Barbarian Bashing though: there is a bug with Carnage + Bash, which results in a Barbarian's (auto-)attack with a Bashing shield (with subsequent Carnage) resulting in a second Bash attack right after (with subsequent Carnage) on one of the victims of the initial Carnage. Every Bash thus basically hits twice, making it rather more powerful than it's supposed to be.

[Boeroer]

Cool. My fighter with Take the Hit also uses Defender and Overbearing Guard. But he lurks in the back row with a pike instead and normally doesn't get hit by enemies lot - he only soaks up damage for his friedns.

If you're using Defender with Edér: Take the Hit works together with Defender - they don't cancel each other.

[Boeroer]

One issue to keep in mind with Barbarian Bashing though: there is a bug with Carnage + Bash, which results in a Barbarian's (auto-)attack with a Bashing shield (with subsequent Carnage) resulting in a second Bash attack right after (with subsequent Carnage) on one of the victims of the initial Carnage. Every Bash thus basically hits twice, making it rather more powerful than it's supposed to be.

But that's a good thing, right?

 

One more argument for Maneha I guess. But I don't need many auto attacks once I got HoF, hehe...

[Loren Tyr]

Depends on your point of view, I suppose . Personally I don't like to use things like BashCarnage or Confident Aim that are unbalanced like this, others might. I thought I'd point it out though, so people can make an informed decision. 

[rheingold]

So do shields with bash benefit from dual wielding (the speed bonus) or the sword and shield talent (bonus to deflection and reflex)?

Can never remember the correct names....

[Loren Tyr]

Sword and Shield talent only. It does not count as dual wielding, so it doesn't get the inherent DW speed up nor does it benefit from the dual wielding talent.

[Boeroer]

It's only advantage is when you execute Full Attacks - especially if the bash can proc an effect like with Dragon's Maw and Badgradr's Barricade. For primary Attacke it doesn't matter and for auto attacks it normaly lowers your damage output compared to a normal shield.

 

Bash is good for monks with shields: Torment's Reach is a Full Attack and the cone AoE damage is a seperate thing which is not determined by the somewhat whimpy bash damage.

Edited August 12, 2016 by Boeroer

[rheingold]

Ok, thanks guys