Do people play as Cavaliers? What's the tier ordering warrior specs nowadays?

Razenth

Pretty much what it says on the title.

Elanorwen

Tried it... found not enough hinder, although with the double swing, strike backs and mount obstruction, it kind of evens out to the point of delivering a fair amount of wounding without the hinder.

Still, in the end, with combat being so group-centric, you'll probably be relegated to pincharge and impales to prevent people from running off and possibly guarding (with the skill that is) a melder.

EDIT: Kind of missed the ordering part... but in my opinion, the order goes (from top to bottom) something like: Pureblade, Blademaster, Bonecrusher, Axelord, Cavalier

Rivius

People will have different opinions, so an ordering is hard to come up with, but most people agree pureblade is probably the best all around. I'd actually say bonecrusher, blademaster and axelord are all pretty darn solid now, though they each their own pitfalls.

Cavalier is definitely the worst in my eyes, though we really only have one (maybe two) active people who consistently play it so...who knows! But overall, I sometimes feel like that specialization needs to be looked at again by all the warrior envoys, because the afflictions given are lacking in good synergy and they don't really have a reliable lock. Also, most of their good afflictions are on swings only, which is a bit meh. Their insta is also not really worth pursuing. These are of course, just my own observations based on my limited encounters with it.

Elanorwen

@Rivius - good affs being on swing kind of works out, really... as you're likely hefting and doing double swinging on a relatively regular basis, so just have to aim the swing in a direction that has the best chance to cause the affliction you're looking for. There's still RNG in play of whether it will hit the proper part, but at least it's less of a hassle. The main problem I see with them really is that there's no real strategy involved, you just throw everything at the wall and see what sticks. The insta was quite viable, actually, and I've definitely pulled it off in arena situations, so it is possible. The thing that pains me the most about the spec is the reliance on beasts... in the demigod playing field, it is entirely possible that people will target your mount and without it, you're essentially useless.

Xenthos

I'm actually trying to get SeverTendon on it as a Heavy Jab affliction, which would hopefully help out a little bit; it is a fair bit too Swing-dependent, as Rivius says.  It could use a bit more to do with strikes.

It's not really meant to have 'locks' though I think, given its overall increased wounding and damage.

That said, it's superb for PvE.  Being able to choose between blunt and cutting makes a big difference.

Ushaara

Spurs are pretty much a must for it too, given how commonly separation from your mount occurs in combat.

Xenthos

Phoenix is pretty useful too; if your pet dies, you're out of luck for an hour otherwise.

Rivius

Xenthos said:

I'm actually trying to get SeverTendon on it as a Heavy Jab affliction, which would hopefully help out a little bit; it is a fair bit too Swing-dependent, as Rivius says.  It could use a bit more to do with strikes.

It's not really meant to have 'locks' though I think, given its overall increased wounding and damage.

That said, it's superb for PvE.  Being able to choose between blunt and cutting makes a big difference.

Yeah, I was thinking the same. Tendon wouldn't be a bad addition at all.

Razenth

Cool. Anyone have anything else to say about the second question?

Shuyin

PB > AL > BC = BM > CV

Veyrzhul

Yea, axelord should be pretty high up. I'd personally even vote it number 1, because having a non-rng and very feasible insta goes a long way.

Lillie

I always liked Pureblade best just because I think it's the coolest...never got into combat...
Though in one of my attempts at making a fighter, I went up against Kelly, who was a cavalier, and got mopped up pretty easily time and time again. But, y'know, that's just a novcom speaking.

Alacardael

With regards to Bashing, though, Cavs might be the best (choice between blunt swing and cutting jab).

Elanorwen

Bashing issues are actually easily solved. When I played a warrior... even as a cav, I carried around a set of rapiers and a set of hammers. Even without the spec, while using sharpness oil, the chance to miss is about 10%, which isn't too shabby... and the higher crits more than made up for it. Yes, someone will probably mention now that they don't really get a higher chance of crit, but simply attack more often and thus get crits more often, but I noticed that even with the increased chance to miss, it was much easier to beat things up with those weapons than it was with a bardiche.

Kaimanahi

Lillie said:

I always liked Pureblade best just because I think it's the coolest...never got into combat...
Though in one of my attempts at making a fighter, I went up against Kelly, who was a cavalier, and got mopped up pretty easily time and time again. But, y'know, that's just a novcom speaking.

I've never been anything but a Blademaster.

Raeri

Fun thing with Cavalier I found was that against people with static stance, you could use Recovery and just heft strike into stance for the 'missing' balance recovery time, but get hefted doubleswing out of it.

Lillie

Kelly said:

Lillie said:

I always liked Pureblade best just because I think it's the coolest...never got into combat...
Though in one of my attempts at making a fighter, I went up against Kelly, who was a cavalier, and got mopped up pretty easily time and time again. But, y'know, that's just a novcom speaking.

I've never been anything but a Blademaster.

Hmm...must have been someone else. This was quite a while ago, sorry about the slip!

Malayn

Wouldnt a strike-able tendon in a spec with heft being a bit.... easy?  Not only can it jab, it can strike to make it more likely, and heft for a further boost.  You could also easily knockdown then tendon. Feels like we are crossing into tendon rotations, with some advantages over PB.

Raeri

Malarious said:

Wouldnt a strike-able tendon in a spec with heft being a bit.... easy?  Not only can it jab, it can strike to make it more likely, and heft for a further boost.  You could also easily knockdown then tendon. Feels like we are crossing into tendon rotations, with some advantages over PB.

But if it's on a swing, they could doubletendon with heft

Xenthos

Malarious said:

Wouldnt a strike-able tendon in a spec with heft being a bit.... easy?  Not only can it jab, it can strike to make it more likely, and heft for a further boost.  You could also easily knockdown then tendon. Feels like we are crossing into tendon rotations, with some advantages over PB.

Hefted strike = parryable.

Pureblade assault = unparryable, plus it does far more wounding.

So, no.

You also can't knockdown except with a swing, which means RNG (most of Cavalier is swing-based and thus very heavily RNG dependent).

Xenthos

(Also, a hefted strike adds 25% to wounding and takes 1 second, so just mathematically doing it on a regular basis means you're worse off than if you just jabbed by itself)

Ushaara

Another thing to take into consideration is that since it'd be a jab, Cavalier Guard would have chance of passively landing it with a bit of leg wounding. 

Xenthos

That... would be an extraordinarily low chance. Guard itself has a pretty low proc rate, and then it would have to hit the correct leg (with over heavy wounding) above any other body part. It would be more of an oddity than a concern (there's no real way to push for it).