Coming Back - What Sentinel Spec?

Tavon

Basic question. Planning on coming back, what's the best Sentinel setup for combat (also for bashing to 100, I'm only 85 right now). Cavalier/Hunting? PB/Aeonics? Thanks.

Xenthos

Cavalier is the best bashing spec imo, but you are going to have to learn how to take care of a beast and train it up in order to be effective at all.

Cavalier isn't really the best for PvP though.  Blademaster is decent for that, as is Pureblade.  All of the other specs are about equivalent for bashing really, by the math; Cavalier beats them out due to being able to switch between cutting and blunt.

Hunting is a very niche skillset, so it's not really recommended for general use.  It doesn't add a lot to hunting at all, and PvP it can be very effective, but it requires that you be on top of things (have to know the area, have to have a lot of commodities, and have to be a bit of a risk taker).

Tavon

Yeah, the beast part is my biggest concern for Cavalier. Thanks for that. Which pairs better with Aeonics, Pureblade or Blademaster?

Majanishi

Morkarion suggested to me to stay bonecrusher instead of switching to cavalier for fast bashing as you have more chances to crit with two weapons. I'm curious if that's actually correct? I'm 84 myself currently and plan to switch to Cavalier once I get demi just because it looks so cool.

Qistrel

Ok, so you get half the amount of crits because you're using one weapon instead of two. But, surely a single two-handed weapon deals twice as much damage as a single one-handed weapon, so your crits deal twice as much damage, so it comes to the same thing?

Lerad

One handed warriors get higher chances of crits, because there is double the chance of critting per balance. However, the damage critted is halved, therefore, over a long period of time, the damage done is the same. This is the same in the past as it is now. In the past, what DID give one-handed warriors an advantage was the fact that their crits, when it killed a mob, will "waste" less damage. Without damage-shift, all the extra damage from critting will simply disappear. Over time, this translated to less damage dealt.

With damage-shift, that gap has been addressed. There IS still the chance of wasting crits for two-handed warriors, however, if you hit a large enough crit while bashing weak creatures. It's far less impactful. Overall, when you calculate damage done in the long term, they more or less even out.

That said, one-handed warriors can still bash "faster" than two-handed warriors. A one-handed warrior has the chance to kill 2 creatures in a single balance, if they crit large enough and damage-shift. Two-handed warriors, no matter how large their crit, will always kill at most 1 creature in a single balance. It boils down to luck, but a one-handed warrior has the distinct and very real potential to clear the same area as a two-handed warrior in a faster time, all other factors remaining equal. Over time, their dps doesn't have too huge a disparity thanks to damageshift, but for the purposes of short bursts of bashing, one-handed warriors can be "faster". (Obviously, if you don't have damage shift, then one-handed warriors will likely outstrip two-handed warriors in terms of dps as well.)

This is the same reason why Lusternian monks have never been the bashing powerhouses other IRE monks have been - Lusternian monks bash using "forms", which is basically a one-balance attack. If a creature dies mid way, the remaining hits do not go on to the next available creature - this means that a monk will only ever kill 1 creature in a single balance, same as two-handed warriors and casters.

Karlach

As Lerad said, the advantage for one handed warriors is that damage shift gained on the first swing can be triggered on the second swing. You're killing two mobs in a single balance tick.

Three if your beast is chewing on them as well.

Cyndarin

Geeze, Lerad is so long winded.

tl;dr: One handers are the kings of bashing simply because, at high levels, crit rate matters more than flat damage.

That being said, damage type means more than one or two hander, which is why Cavalier is best.

 

As for PK, I always suggest PB to those wanting to learn warrior combat. It's both the strongest and easiest to learn.

Majanishi

Celina said:

That being said, damage type means more than one or two hander, which is why Cavalier is best.

Can you elaborate more? I don't understand what you are saying here.

Xenthos

Majanishi said:

That being said, damage type means more than one or two hander, which is why Cavalier is best.

Can you elaborate more? I don't understand what you are saying here.

She means that being able to pick between blunt and cutting type is far more important for killing things.

Karlach

Outside of Icewynd, very few things will require Blunt over cutting.

And even in Icewynd, wielding two hammers out of spec is still fast.

Valen

I was told that using weapons out of spec (like rapiers for bonecrushers) didn't change accuracy or damage for bashing, only for PvP.  Is this not the case?

Karlach

Valen said:

I was told that using weapons out of spec (like rapiers for bonecrushers) didn't change accuracy or damage for bashing, only for PvP.  Is this not the case?

I've still never seen math eitherway on this, but from all the conversations I've had the majority consensus is that it does affect bashing.