[Ironbreaker] The Crucible: Class discussion and guides

[LiveWaaaaagh]

I was playing with this build for SnB and I'm curious as to thoughts and critiques:

http://www.ror.builders/career/ironbrea ... 81,3779&t=

The idea behind is to be a Crowd control tank with AoE slow, AoE knockback, and single target knockdown and knockdown. Clearly and obviously, this tank would suffer from 0 point in path of stone, but with some alternatives in the bubble and self-heal.

I imagine this tank would be better at WB, SC or 6 Man as an OT, or buffer tank/healer protector.

Pluses? Minuses?

[CountTalabecland]

It seems that most SnB builds are not doable anymore (missing 1 mastery point for all of them) since I came back (haven't played in a year).

1. What is the go to mastery spec for SnB IB these days?
2. What should I spend renown on?
3. What gear should I get and where do I get it?

1: Check earlier in this forum for more details on the variety of builds. Generally you cannot go wrong with shield mastery and oathbound from the path of stone. Otherwise the heal debuff, runic shield, and Grumble and Mutter are all good things to grab. More or less the mastery points dont make or break your ability to guard so for SnB it doesn't really matter so long as your don't waste too many in vengeance (or any at all imo).

2: Renown is all bout avoidance and crit reduction. So I would say you want at least the first two levels of defender, deft defender, and parry (especially if you don't have the parry buff (oathbound)). If you still have renown points left over, start putting them into futile strikes to lower crit and maybe a few into initiative to keep your initiative above 200 if you don't want to use talis for that.

3: Armor is going to come from orvr and Beast Lord (BL) lairs. Ruin is the starting point obviously because it is easy to get. After that you are going to want to get Annihilator from orvr because it is cheap and combine that with your ruin set. After that you may want to look into getting at least three pieces of BL from the cloak, pocket item, and jewel. After that, you are going to want to pick up conqueror armor from orvr and gold bags. You will also be able to buy genesis jewelry from orvr bags as well. Though good luck on ever getting a gold bag, more or less impossible to say when you will get one ( been here a year and haven't gotten even a purple). Otherwise you just grind in orvr to get conq armor.Set bonuses are the best thing about the variety of gear sets now. I combine bonuses from BL, conq, and anni on my IB. This will help you get your toughness in the 700+ range unbuffed as well as anni providing a, imo, necessary buff to spirit resists.

There is a forum link to T4 jewelry you can get in the meantime. This is the "winds impervious set" and it is arguably the best jewel set for a SnB because of its buffs to initiative and resists, highly recommend getting these.

As far as weapons go, I would say get the scenario weapons. The axe has crit reduction and the shield has + block%. After that you will again be waiting for orvr bags to get subjagator weapons from. Again I am salty here because I have never gotten one so good luck. Also there are the epic quests which give out a good starter set of T4 weapons if you don't want to do the scens right away. Also the Orvr influence weapons and shields aren't too bad, so if you've been in the lakes since lvl 18 now you can probably get those pretty easily.

Am I forgetting anything? Oh yeah, in general the SnB IB is very viable, don't listen to the all the complaints. As a guard you are extremely tanky and you have enough cc to cause a lot of issues. In orvr Grumble and Mutter and Hold the Line make you extremely valuable/survivable in protecting wbs from missiles and pushing against the enemy. They key is that you are meant to make your oathfriend very powerful, so throw that and guard on a mdps and follow them while buffing, CCing, and assisting as needed. SnB tanks generally and IB generally require some skill so that is why I say mastery points are less important than your ability to be a good guard/oath buddy.

[zwerrie]

I play with 422 toughness snb ib. Mostly die from bodyblock. Ppl mostly ignore shieldtank 40/61

[Dutchpower]

Thanks for the tips. I did go back and try the older builds but for some reason most of them had 26/28 pts spend even though you only get 25 at 40. I did assign the renown pts like you said. I'll ORvR for some anni gear then. I don't understand how SnB IB is considered bad? Is 2H really better or is SnB in general just bad?

[peterthepan3]

SNB isn't bad. Most people just go 2h for aesthetics.

[Aehnur]

You get extra mastery points at rr 40 and each +10. Also you can get 1 from set bonus.
And snb ib is certainly not a bad tank in wb fights.

[CountTalabecland]

Thanks for the tips. I did go back and try the older builds but for some reason most of them had 26/28 pts spend even though you only get 25 at 40. I did assign the renown pts like you said. I'll ORvR for some anni gear then. I don't understand how SnB IB is considered bad? Is 2H really better or is SnB in general just bad?

SnB IB is as good as it gets for tankyness on order. Knights are arguably better in grp meta bc of a couple grp tactics they have and constant auras but that is getting changed soon. Also you get additional mastery points at rr 50,60,70, 80.

But SnB IB is better at tanking than any 2h because of block, hold the line, mastery trees, and set bonuses. 2h is an off-tank (or just a mdps wannabe according to some) and can be helpful but it definitely does not replace the role of a SnB tank.

[Dutchpower]

Life is funny sometimes. I ask about SnB and then I get a really nice 2H hammer out of a loot bag a moment ago. I'm not giving up on SnB. But since that hammer is now the best piece of gear I have (I haven't really played since may last year) I'm going to give 2H an honest go.

[GodlessCrom]

Anyone know how Oathstone interacts with Guard now? I remember it used to proc off guard, but since you deal Guard damage to yourself, the Oathstone damage would hit you. Vaguely remember this getting fixed.

Was it actually fixed? And how does it work now? Proc off guard but deal no damage? Doesnt proc off guard at all? Something else?

[Crenshaw]

It blocks guard damage but since you are source of damage, it doesn't backlash to attacker.