Dragon's Maw Shield

[Natures Bounty]

Hi everybody,

 

I'm on my first playthrough (yeah, late starter!), and still figuring out some of the advanced mechanics (POTD). I recently found Dragon's Maw Shield (DMS). At first sight, it looked like a pretty strong item, and I thought about putting it on my fighter (no barb in party right now). But then I realized that it might just not fit with the way that fighter ist built:

He is a mixture of both, a high defense frontliner (doesn't get hit a lot, especially with a Paladin casting Reinforcing Exhortation) and medium but steady damage dealing. He does ok damage with edge of reason due to good accuracy. And he uses Into the Fray + Overbearing Guard to protect all my Squishies (pretty much everybody except him).

 

I seem to have no use for leeching with taste of the hunt, because the fighter rarely gets critted so the leech effect from edge of reason is sufficient. the fear aura from DMS also seems to be less reliable than the one from executioner's hood. Last but not least, DMS reduces the frequency of my attacks with edge of reason due to bashing. It just doesn't fit with that type of fighter, or am I missing something?

 

I understand that Dragon's Maw Shield might be a good choice for a Heart of Fury Barb who gets hit a lot and carries DMS in one weapon slot to use HoF for triggering taste of the hunt. But I wondered whether there are any other viable uses of DMS? Any viable uses on a fighter build?

 

thx a lot!

NB

[MaxQuest]

But I wondered whether there are any other viable uses of DMS? Any viable uses on a fighter build?

Well, you've already found a viable use on a fighter

Now lets think of the optimal one.

 

- Fear aura applies terrified effect, which results in -20acc, -8reflex, -6%action speed, -8will, -4def and -12concentration; so we really want to apply it, and need decent accuracy. (btw, terrified is double as powerful as Executioner's frightening effect)

- Taste of the Hunt has a 25% chance to proc on hit or crit only; so we'd want to eliminate misses and grazes.

- You use a battle axe, which deals bonus damage on crit. Again you want higher accuracy.

 

You mentioned that you don't have problems with your endurance/hp. So it's safe to drop resolve, and maybe even con a little, in favor of maxing Perception and if there is something left, than distribute between Dex and Mig.

Also you could try swapping Edge of Reason with We-Toki, as a prone target cannot hit and in the end it will be of the same benefit as draining, except that you will lose less of health. Or even better give Rimecutter or Spelltongue a try. That extra mile towards zero recovery makes a solid difference.

Edited January 31, 2017 by MaxQuest

[Kaylon]

The aura requires endurance below 26% which makes it pretty useless.

Taste of the hunt is more effective on a barbarian because of carnage. However DMS is pretty crappy for HoF because it can't trigger more than once per attack and the damage of the shield is weak compared to a normal weapon, resulting in low damage overall. 

[Boeroer]

My experience with DMS + HoF was that it clearly triggered more than once. Sometimes the stacked sound effects of all the Taste of the Hunt procs lasted several seconds after HoF was completed. Damage was good and healing too.

 

Look at my Golden Dragon build. I played it with DMS in a PotD playtrough. No issues with carnage or HoF.

 

Good on a barb, but I wouldn't put it on a fighter.

Edited January 31, 2017 by Boeroer

[Kaylon]

If it procs more than once it appears on the logs and when I tested HoF it never did more than once.

 

PS. With Badgradr's Barricade it's very easy to test - via the console increase PER to 100 (to ensure you have 100% crit chance against anything), go hit a few monsters and see how many times it procs...

Edited February 1, 2017 by Kaylon

[Boeroer]

I did a whole playtrough with that barb and rushed to get the shield as early a possible. I played with it for several hours (rest of WMII, Act III) and it always triggered Taste of the Hunt more than once with HoF. You didn't even need to look at the combat log. The barb got healed from low to full endurance a lot of times. Only possible with multiple procs. Also, as I said, the sound effect of TotH looped like crazy. Another hint it got triggered more often. Maybe there was a fix between our testings. Unlabored Blade now also procs correctly.

[Natures Bounty]

thank you all for the very informative replies. I might try out some respec as suggested by max quest and see whether it will lead to a more fun build than now. But maybe, it's just not there for the fighter.