Return of Reckoning

Illuminati wrote: ↑Thu Apr 24, 2025 3:23 pm They gave Doks the ability to transmog Chalice with a sword (so stupid imo) so give tanks the ability to transmog shield for swords, etc.

Battlefield wrote: ↑Thu Apr 24, 2025 10:11 am I played my Chosen last night before bed and in the scenario we did Vramir several times (he plays 2h BIS Knight) and I felt sorry for him, It seems he still couldn't kill anyone from Destruction

reynor007 wrote: ↑Mon Apr 08, 2024 1:12 pmthe weakest of all 2h tanks simply does not have the right to solo I think kotbs should not leave the WC without a party at all thanks to the patches that completely killed him and kicked off the corpse

Farrul wrote: ↑Fri Apr 25, 2025 12:31 pm Oh dear.

No please don't continue when you missinterpret what is being written( or perhaps do it on purpose for whatever bias you may have).

Modifiers being refered here are crit chance, % damage increase, no armor shred( i.e IB Stone breaker, BG equivalent). I was very clear on that in a previous post to this one,


The shame is all on you.

nocturnalguest wrote: ↑Thu Apr 24, 2025 12:46 pmAlso lowest modifiers are actually on IB (on abilities tied to mechanic, rest modifiers are similar all around for all tank classes), thats balanced because its the only tank class that has its damage tied into career mechanics by big margins.

IB 2H has great burst damage, the only tank with bad dps is Kotbs. Your point is irrelevant.

nocturnalguest wrote: ↑Thu Apr 24, 2025 12:46 pm once again calling out to you guys, please stop shaming yourselves... You only do harm with all the whining you write here. Like Rapzel mentioned

If we continue down the path of "knight lacks DPS in an unfair way". No it does not, that is a pure skill issue.

The only one shaming himself is you, the rest was having a mature discussion with valid points being made.

Modifiers being refered here are crit chance, % damage increase, no armor shred

Battlefield wrote: ↑Tue Apr 22, 2025 5:05 pm I guess it's mostly aoe damage from the All Out Assault aura and Staggering Impact ability spam aoe damage, when you want to see big damage numbers or maybe the Destruction had a lot of melee dps and Kotbs with On Your Guard. Also maybe some Knights with Invader set the last bonus of wich deals damage on every block about 200.

Farrul wrote: ↑Fri Apr 25, 2025 2:07 pm Knights 2H mostly do fluff dps compared to other 2H tanks( in case of scenario numbers). You can use reflect aura, aoe aura and that aoe dot ability to get a little on the scoreboard and if skilled try stacking blazing blades and maintain vs different targets , but he isn't directly a threat to anyone prepared at higher levels in terms of personal dps, That's the whole point, '' it sucks'' ( everything is relative).

IB 2H has great burst damage, the only tank with bad dps is Kotbs. Your point is irrelevant.

the rest was having a mature discussion with valid points being made

sharpblader wrote: ↑Sat Apr 26, 2025 4:22 am

Spoiler:

nocturnalguest wrote: ↑Fri Apr 25, 2025 8:37 pm

Farrul wrote: ↑Fri Apr 25, 2025 12:31 pm Oh dear.

No please don't continue when you missinterpret what is being written( or perhaps do it on purpose for whatever bias you may have).

Modifiers being refered here are crit chance, % damage increase, no armor shred( i.e IB Stone breaker, BG equivalent). I was very clear on that in a previous post to this one,


The shame is all on you.


IB 2H has great burst damage, the only tank with bad dps is Kotbs. Your point is irrelevant.



The only one shaming himself is you, the rest was having a mature discussion with valid points being made.

Rolling over in a mere second? Such childish, pathetic, miserable act. You have said yourself "not a single solid dps ability" and now trying to get away with crit chance, armor shred and other crap (ill comment those too further)? You were very clear indeed haha. However tho it generally fits your style, previous post history and no culture of discussion. Not even mentioning an important thing of taking a hit like a man when getting cornered.

Regardless. However tho, now as for details:
1. Funny to hear about bias. You guys here have an incredibly huge bias in terms of SOLO capabilities of kotbs. While you bring no arguments, no data, no hypotheses, no modeling. All you do in this thread is just shaking the air. And there is a clear answer to that, pretty hard one but i'd phrase it as - "you are lacking knowledge and experience to prove and formulate your points". You cant describe whole picture, nor you can justify you emotional feelings of wanting to hit big numbers with a stick in SOLO mode. Why i mention solo? Because outside of it whole discussion has absolutely no sense, it can only go around that one minor part of the game.
2. Now the quote

Modifiers being refered here are crit chance, % damage increase, no armor shred

Im pretty embarrased i have to do that, but well (i understand, people need to learn, they dont like to analyze and read, i get it, i really do), it literally takes me few minutes to just go few pages back and spend a little bit of time to poke you into this post (viewtopic.php?t=55825&start=60#p573979). I really was hoping that its so easy and actually all the answers are already there (thanks killboard), but well repeat actions make perfection, so here we go:

https://killboard.returnofreckoning.com ... 90c7687465
Kotbs is 3rd on dmg done. Your soulmate guess is the following:

Battlefield wrote: ↑Tue Apr 22, 2025 5:05 pm I guess it's mostly aoe damage from the All Out Assault aura and Staggering Impact ability spam aoe damage, when you want to see big damage numbers or maybe the Destruction had a lot of melee dps and Kotbs with On Your Guard. Also maybe some Knights with Invader set the last bonus of wich deals damage on every block about 200.

Your own guess is actually the same:

Farrul wrote: ↑Fri Apr 25, 2025 2:07 pm Knights 2H mostly do fluff dps compared to other 2H tanks( in case of scenario numbers). You can use reflect aura, aoe aura and that aoe dot ability to get a little on the scoreboard and if skilled try stacking blazing blades and maintain vs different targets , but he isn't directly a threat to anyone prepared at higher levels in terms of personal dps, That's the whole point, '' it sucks'' ( everything is relative).

You both tho, cant grasp a simple idea that there are way more skilled and knowledgeable people who know how to manage their GCDs. You both are better off just start those asking people how to improve yourselves, instead of just whining on forums.
Its pretty easy to follow killboard further, click on involved deaths and figure there was no a) AoA b) SI c) OYG d) BB whatsoever. Take a look here:
https://killboard.returnofreckoning.com/kill/35305703
https://killboard.returnofreckoning.com/kill/35305977
https://killboard.returnofreckoning.com/kill/35305901

Ok, i do understand both of you have no relevant experience to grasp it, but yes, kotbs can do damage. In your sad solo bubble you may call it "fluff", but in reality thats called "assist damage pressure".
More examples of no AoA, SI, OYG, BB etc that i actually linked few pages ago but they dont fit your narratives so you just ignore them:

https://killboard.returnofreckoning.com ... 9e2b4d8181
Kills:
https://killboard.returnofreckoning.com/kill/33274865
https://killboard.returnofreckoning.com/kill/33274640
https://killboard.returnofreckoning.com/kill/33274565

https://killboard.returnofreckoning.com ... db7576c251
Kills:
https://killboard.returnofreckoning.com/kill/33271402
https://killboard.returnofreckoning.com/kill/33271563

https://killboard.returnofreckoning.com ... e04f1f6995
Kills:
https://killboard.returnofreckoning.com/kill/36932947
https://killboard.returnofreckoning.com/kill/36932404

Funny facts from those are:
a) kotbs specced Myrmidias Fury
b) destroy confidence
c) no BB stacking (oh what a surprise, Farrul, isnt it?)

3. Ok, so now into so called "armor shred". There is literally only 1 situation in whole game where it is worth even thinking about this unique utility - SOLO. You both, of course, cant believe me, because your own experience (but you have no rights to generalize your povs as you are actually obviously lacking solid competetive exp) is absolutely denying it but! - kotbs with its toolkit and what it brings plus with proper GCD management makes up by huge margins for not having a mechanics to kill something on its own. Yes, there were old times when kotbs has been a solo roaming monster plus has been incredibly powerful in small scale too. Now they are gone. Deal with it (or act like e.g. Dill did). Or argument why those have to go back (no, "fairness" "devs" "just because" cant count as arguments, whataboutism is not an argument as well FYI). I would wish them to be back too on emotional level, but i dont have any (not even mentioning "solid" or as you said "valid") arguments for that and hence i just stay silent on a matter and dont create threads.

Now into "% dmg". Give me math to prove that Runefang is worse than % dmg increase in typical gear setup. And a hint! Ive linked 2024 cause no proper examples found in 2025 so its full warlord. Taking a challenge or another roll over?

4.

IB 2H has great burst damage, the only tank with bad dps is Kotbs. Your point is irrelevant.

IB has great burst only then its not solo but in proper group with decent composition to support its burst thru GBF, thats toptier stuff and rarely people can pull it off properly (e.g. on Trolar&Bejkon(Oathmeal) levels). It has no great burst damage outside of that (weaving and rest cant be called great i note). You are simply not educated enough on a matter. Nor you have ever done 6v6 as offensive IB nor you have ever even done decent warfronts being in a group of 6 as GBF IB. Nor you actually know a thing of how to properly play IB (no, copycats of Second's&others solo clips aint counting along with your other, mostly likely not so succesful, solo experience).

5. Literally, an honest and friendly advice (no sarcasm, thats exactly what ive been doing and even now still do myself) - just contact toptier players (kotbs for a matter), ask them advices, think before you disturb/bother them, formulate your questions and then just L2P. Ideally try to join some good groups and learn from there. Examples of good questions are something along those lines:
"Hey, ive seen your 6v6/12v12/18v18/24v24/roaming/orvr performace and cant grasp how you managed to do X, Y, Z? In similiar situations [from your pov, if you be cool you may get explanations of why those situations are not similar] i just barely manage to do Xn, Yn, Zn [send the links so person can check out]. I was trying to do your X, Y, Z [you vision, be maximum honest and dont lie] but somehow it aint working. Any advice? How to fix it?"

6. Also this one i cant restrain from commenting

the rest was having a mature discussion with valid points being made

No dude, kotbs lore and "fire" nature are not valid points, nor it may count as mature discussion taking into account all those false claims you and others made. That is not flying

P.S. Also Farrul, please stop missquoting Second, omg... Or at least read twice (or more if need and (or) if even when its too hard to grasp just ask for help, ill gladly help you out and explain in details) what exactly did he say...
I do get your strategy of trying to summon him to help out but, again, he talks things about solo play, he specifically mentions "party". Being a solo roam legend he would be of little help in teamplay discussion. And i note nobody argues in regards to solo play.

Save your breath. Posting a full 1v1 class guide with respect to solo play 3 years ago was not enough.

Spoiler:

sharpblader wrote: ↑Mon Feb 21, 2022 9:35 pm

zulnam wrote: ↑Fri Feb 18, 2022 8:27 am

Can you walk us through your rotation?

There is no fixed rotation per say. The abilities you use are very situational.

Generally you need to keep up 3x stacks of BB up as much as possible and let melee opponents hit you for reflect damage.

Here's my Build again: RoR.builders - Knight of the Blazing Sun

RR Build: Futile Strike III, Reflexes IV, Deft Defender III and Might IV

Gear: 5 Warlord, 2 Off Sov, 3 x Strength Flesh Render, 1 x 3% parry ring (Off Sov Ring and Sentinel Ring are better but im too lazy to farm anymore)

Weapon: Nightless. Can use Fate of Tolya in certain situations.

Talis: All WS

Auras:

1. SS, GYR, OYG - Against most melee
2. SS, GYR, NOC - Against ranged dps healer
3. SS, OYG, NOC - Against Healing Black Guard
4. SS, GYR, AOA - Against Magus
5. SS, GYR, SF -Against Sorcerer and Squig Herder

Tactic Sets:

1. Emp Ward, Rugged, Runefang, Bellow Commands - mostly against Chosen
2. Emp Ward, Rugged, Runefang, Suns Blessing - Against many melee
3. Emp Ward, Rugged, Focused Offense, Bellow Commands - Against Shamans, and other ranged magic dealers. Can switch Bellow Commands for Spirit resist.
4. Emp Ward, Rugged, Suns Blessing, Unstoppable Juggernaut - Against ranged Squig Herders


Sorry for the delay. Real life has been keeping me busy also forgot to save draft and had to rewrite a lot of the content.

Disclaimer: This is based purely on my experience in solo roaming. No way is this a commandment to play a solo 2h knight.

Against each class:

Spoiler:

Tanks


Chosen

I usually start the fight with snare because it becomes easier to flank Chosens which is very important. You need to be able to shatter their Suppression as soon as they get it up, and it is best to do so from behind since they can easily parry Shatter Confidence with their Suppression up. If they cover it up with Baneshield, one thing I like to do is to use Shackle and get behind them to shatter it and snare so that it becomes easier to shatter Suppression on your next shatter confidence CD. Its risky bcz your immobilize might break early due to your DoTs so timing is important. In the time between shatter CDs I use Perseverance then Shield of the Sun.

Secondly, keep a look out for Touch of Palsy. Move as little as possible, for if you keep moving for its full duration, you will take a lot of damage which will completely negate your regen.

For max damage: Keep 3 stacks of blazing blade and make sure he doesn't have Suppression up -> Taunt -> flank and Smashing Counter -> Vicious Slash -> Refresh BB -> Refresh Snare. Always try to hit from the back because everyone can still defend attacks from front even if stunned.

I usually dont interrupt their Relentless because I want them to take max reflect damage from OYG and SotS.

I use Emperor's Champ for its huge stat buff and free heal if Im taking too much damage pressure. If I know I can survive without M2 I wait till M3 for the 1200 morale burst.

I avoid using Precision Strike because it costs a lot of AP and most Chosens run the AP drain Aura and have a base AP removal ability which can leave you severely AP starved. Hence, I always use Bellow Commands tactic against them.

Chosen is the hardest 2h tank to kill as a 2h Knight. Making a few mistakes will no doubt result in your death.

Black Guard

In my opinion it's hard for BGs to do a lot of damage to knight. They have nice armor debuffs but because of 800+ toughness with runefang up knights can usually brush it off.

If they are using a crimson death crit build, they are usually squishy and you can survive their damage pressure.

If they are using Bolstering Anger regen build, the fight might just end up in a tie or they can mega punt you away if things start looking bad for them. However, you can slightly counter Bolstering Anger by using Nows Our Chance Aura which will reduce their heal by 25%. Once Bolstering anger is over you can switch aura back to GYR for debuffing their Elemental resistance. Aura switching in combat is....clunky. Sometimes I feel it's not worth doing.

For damage rotation, it's the same against Chosen.

Things to watch out for: Elite Training if you want to stun them. Choking Fury can leave you AP starved so best to use Perseverance here. Bolstering Anger to make sure to switch to heal debuff aura against them. Banish Weakness M1 which cleanses all debuffs on them.

You can be liberal with your buffs as they cannot dispel them like the Chosen.


Black Orc

The biggest bad boy of them all. They can do a lot of damage but your high defenses can take it. Your rotation will be the same against Black Orcs as well. You can use SotS right at the start as they cant dispel it. I slot the tactic Suns Blessing for lower SotS CD.

Things to look out for: Big Damage when they use You Wot!?!!!. I usually dont mind it much but this is ideally the best time to use Perseverance.

Its a pretty straight forward fight. Always face your opponent as much as possible and flank when using cc skill.



Healers

Note: Unless they are dps specced it will be impossible for you to kill healers. In fact avoid a 1vX whenever theres an enemy healer as you will not be able to kill anyone with the tools you have.

Zealot

Dps Zealots are not as good as dps Shamans when it comes to 1v1. Their ST damage is relatively low and they cannot kite as well as dps Runepriests.

When they are kiting, try to get close enough to use Heavens Fury. Once they are staggered, use BB -> Crippling Blow. This way they cannot cleanse your snare immediately. They will usually use their knock back and use Storm of Ravens to slow you. This is where you need to use Juggernaut and get back in melee range. If they are standing still and channeling Storm of Ravens, its best to taunt it before you use Juggernaut.

After this, the only way they can create distance between you and them for one minute is if they use Aethyric Shock and have no DoTs on you which is highly improbable. Their Storm of Ravens snare has a 11 second cooldown so you need to keep your snare up on them while covering it with your other debuffs. If they manage to get out of your grasp you can use Shackle to get close again.

You cannot shatter their HoTs so you need to rely on Nows Our Chance to debuff their healing. Goes without saying that you dont need Runefang or OYG for this fight. Using the general dps rotation 3xBB, Unbalancing Attack, while keeping snare up is going to bring the zealot down eventually.

Using Focused Offense for this fight is highly recommended.


Disciple of Khaine

This can be a hard fight if you're not paying attention. Dual wield DoKs will be easier to face against SnB DoKs. Flanking them is going to be important because they will have high defenses. Interrupting their Rend Soul is going to be your highest priority. You can do this with your Smashing Counter, Taunt, Vicious Slash and even Repel Darkness (unadvisable to punt them away though). Remember, only taunt is going to guarantee an interrupt, your other abilities they can parry or block, so save it only for their Rend Soul.

Once they use Rend Soul it becomes a rhythm game. They can use it every 8 seconds so keep the count in your head and get ready to interrupt their next Rend Soul. It is a telegraphed move where it seems like they are swinging a lot. Best to learn the animation. If you fail to interrupt and not parry its hits, they will be back to full HP.

The good news is that they cannot cleanse your debuffs.

What I really like to do is use Guardian of Light offensively. Because of the absorb they cannot lifesteal from you as long as its up.

Its good to use Bellow Commands against SnB Doks because they can AP drain you. You can use Suns blessing for lower SotS cd especially if they are dual wield.

Shaman

At first this seems like an impossible fight but you can win. No doubt, this is possibly the hardest match up you will face but if you manage to keep coming back in melee range you can actually kill them.

We will be using Nows our Chance, GYR and SS auras. For tactics always use Focused Offense and Bellow Commands. You will be kited a lot so you need to use all your resources to get back to them.

It will be a much easier fight if they are full DPS spec and not running Sticky Feetz. Hybrid Shamans are the hardest for you to defeat.

We will use Heavens Fury to catch up and use BB -> Crippling Blow so that they cannot cleanse your snare immediately. The moment they knock you back with Eeeek!, try to use juggernaut while in the air. This way you are not snared when running back to them. Their knock back is a one minute CD and so is your juggernaut, hence always save it for their knockback.

Now when youre in melee range, Blazing Blade, Shatter Confidence and Crippling Blow will be your main abilities. They will cleanse your BB now and then but it will not be hard to reapply it on them. Its best to use Crippling Blow on cooldown, if you do this right they will only be able to cleanse your BB instead and remain snared:

Rotation to keep in melee: You use 1 stack BB -> then Crippling Blow. The shaman cleanses and your snare is still up. Their next cleanse cd will be up in 5 seconds, this is the window where you use Shatter Confidence to shatter their Morks Buffer -> Start stacking BB and then before the 5 seconds are up, use Crippling Blow again. This way they will cleanse BB again and your snare will still be up. Their RUN AWAY! will not be effective when you have snare up on them and you yourself are not snared. This tactic is the most important to keep in melee range with them. Keep using Shatter Confidence on CD.

When they use Sticky Feetz: First, always turn your graphic settings to show all spell effects or you will not be able to see their puddle. Once they use sticky feetz, for the love of god please dont blow your juggernaut. It will be useless. Instead you should use Shackle. This way you have a better chance to position yourself and prevent the Shaman from creating distance from you. Good shamans will kite you back in the puddle and even if you have snare up on them they will be able to create distance from you since puddle snare slows more than your snare. This is the main reason why hybrid shamans using Sticky Feetz are the hardest to play against. One thing you can do is use Champions Challenge Morale 1 to counter this, but since the cd on Stick Feetz is only 20 seconds, you are bound to be kited by it sooner or later.

When they use their Morale 1 Gork Sez Stop:: Its basically a simon says game. As the tooltip says you literally have to stop moving for 2 seconds. This is the time when I just mount up. Since the mount up is a 2 second cast it not only causes Gork Sez Stops to drop off, but with good RNG also gives you a chance to bum rush the Shaman if you don't get dismounted immediately.

Preventing their Big Damage: If they are only kiting continuously and dotting you up, your regen and defense can usually take it and you will survive. What becomes dangerous is when they have distance on you and they stand and cast Bunch o Waaagh! You will see them raising their stick and shoot a green lazer at you. This is where you need to taunt. BiS Dps shamans can eat 30-40% of your hp if you let them cast the full duration. Always try to interrupt this.

Keep AP Pots handy at all times for you will be AP Drained alot. In the event you have to use flee to close distance, NEVER use AP pot immediately for they will just drain it all before you can reach them. Imagine working hard to get back in the Shaman's melee range only to find out that you cant use any ability.

Usually, if you do everything right, it will be a long fight. Enough for you to reach M3. Remember the melee rotation above? Once within that window, if you manage to get shaman below 25% to 30%, you can use M3 No Escape in the rotation for big burst damage to finish them off. If they survive, it usually scares them and they start using hard cast heals which you can interrupt with Vicious Slash and then finish them off.

Sometimes during the time im trying to close the distance, I use SotS for some reflect damage but its not needed nor is it effective.

Some shamans use Mork's Touch which will give them a chance to dispell your buffs which is not very critical since you will not need to rely on your buffs to win. It used to be an issue when they could sever Vigilance if you did not cover it up.

Be wary of their M2 Focused Mind and instead of Nightless you should use Fate of Tolya for the HP Steal and AP Regen.

Lastly, be careful of your DoTs. You do not want your Heavens Fury to break before you reach in melee range.

Melee DPS

Against all MDPS always look out for M1 Confusing Movements. This is the best time to use shackle -> flank and Smashing Counter. But remember all MDPS also have movement freedom ability. Its best to track them on Buffhead. Side note: Even though they will be immune to the snare, the debuff can still be applied on them and they will be slowed once their immunity wears off.

Tip: 2 out of 3 mdps have a disarm which you can cleanse with Juggernaut.

Marauder

Most solo marauders you will encounter will be Gift of Monstrosity defensive regen maras. They will not do too much direct damage but if their Gift of Monstrosity procs, neither will you. You will rely mostly on SotS elemental reflect and 3 stack BB to inflict damage on them. I recommend using Suns Blessing tactic against them.

Most of these maras use Riposte so flanking is critical. Hence, you must keep them slowed as much as possible to avoid getting parried too much.
Use your juggernaut if they disarm you.

If you are trying to reposition away from them and they are trying to pull you, you can taunt interrupt them if you see a purplish black tether on you.

Look out for Touch of Rot, it will do damage every time you use a melee ability. I like to use my SoTS and Perseverance when I have Touch of Rot to avoid taking 2 GCDs of damage. Its not critical to do so though thanks to your high Corp resist.

It can be a long and drawn out fight so be careful of their M2 and M3 morale damage burst.

Witch Elf


WEs and WHs are one of the strongest Solo classes. If they do not wish to engage you, there is almost nothing you can do to fight them unless you get lucky and spot them in stealth and even then they have tools to disengage.

You will generally fight two types of WEs: Offensive and Defensive

All WE specs usually open with Enfeebling Strike. So whenever possible try not to move too much.

Most also use Elixir of Shadows mid fight. In this case, when they do, try to anticipate where they will be and position in a way that you can parry their opener. Yes it can be parried, and they dont have too much time to land it on you because elixir stealth only lasts 2 seconds (Because of this kiting away also helps sometimes).

WEs rely on 50% less AP cost buff on their openers to keep firing abilities. Unbalancing Attack helps to exploit their AP starvation especially once their opener buff is over.
One of the biggest weaknesses is that they cannot slow you in melee unless they use a specific weapon that procs slow. Because of this, you can have a positional advantage if you keep up snare on them.

Your main damage sources will be reflect damage, BB 3x stack, Unbalancing Attack and Shatter Confidence.

You can use Suns Blessing for lower SoTS Cooldown but it is critical to cover it up with Perseverance as WEs can Sever blessings. Some of their buffs like Pierce Armor can be shattered and I've noticed that even their Taste of Blood and Sacrifices Rewarded can be shattered (But I need to test this more).

You should try to save your Taunt for their re-stealth attempts which is very critical. There are two indicators that they are re-stealthing:
a) They will start to fade visually and have a whitish waving aura around them, but at times this is hard to notice it.
b) They will make a 'wooshing' air sound when they use the ability.

If you kept up snare, excellent you can get back in melee easily. If not, then you can use Heavens Fury if they don't have stun immunity. Note: Other ways to interrupt stealth is to spam Throw Blades but sometimes it is not very reliable.

Against offensive WEs: If they get the opener and stun you, they can inflict a lot of burst damage but dont worry, you can stabilize against them once your defenses from Runefang and Nightless start proccing after the stun duration.

The most common offensive spec Ive fought is the Carnage WE where they have a lot of armour penetration and can inflict a lot of direct damage on you. Some WEs play in a "guerilla style" where after they stun you -> they rack up 5 Bloodlust and start semi kiting you a to use a 5 Bloodlust Ruthless Assault from range (within 30 feet). Their idea is that once you start chasing after them, you take a lot of damage not only from RA, but also from Enfeebling Strikes, and whatever other Dots that they have up on you. The simplest counter here is to taunt them during their RA channel while not moving. This will force the WE to come in melee range again. Side note: I think its a bug that the WH equivalent of RA, Trial By Pain cannot be taunt interrupted. Another option is to kite away from them when they do this. I know it is counter intuitive but it works as it will interrupt their channel and once again they will be forced to come to you in melee.

Apart from the opening RA with all the debuffs on you, you ideally dont want to interrupt it anymore so that they can take max reflect damage. You should if you are low hp and are playing defensively. Otherwise just save taunt for their re-stealth attempt.

Against defensive WEs: Their opener acts like a set up for their main damage source through Witchbrew. Most of the time they will open with Enfeebling Strike -> Wracking Pain -> Stun -> Envenomed Blade -> Witchbrew -> follow up with stacking Envenomed Blade once at 3x stacks -> flank with Agonizing Wounds. Sometimes they save their stun for later and then spam AW with WB. Their direct damage is low however and they rely heavily on Corporeal DoTs to keep inflicting damage on you outside of WB. The 10 second cooldown on WB makes it so that they have it up often and it is hard to counter it (except through absorb).

Some Def WEs like to kite while throwing daggers but sooner or later they will have to come in melee range to get the Bloodlust for their next WB. This is the time you will need to keep our own DoTs and snare up on them and make sure they take as much reflect damage as possible. Heavens Fury can be used to catch them earlier, but I usually prefer to use Smashing Counter instead.

A BiS Def WE that prioritizes toughness, armour , and regen will have around 590 strength through gear (Without Strength Talismans, Buffs or Pots). Its not much but with around 750 WS, with Runefang, will give you an additional 9.5% chance to parry them. With Nightless defense proc, this will give you upto 41.5% hard parry.

What I like to do is if I see them stealth and about to open on me, I spam Smashing Counter so that they get stunned right as they use their opener -> Snare -> BB till I get stunned -> Perseverance -> SotS. This makes it so that I have reflect and DoTs up when they start hitting me with Witchbrew. Suns Blessing tactic is highly recommended.

Since this will be a longer matchup compared to offensive WEs, I like to save my Morale till Emperor's Champion instead of using it at Morale 1 Guardian of Light.

My build has 0% crit chance which helps in reducing their Sacrifices Rewarded procs.

This is going to be a hard match but with your constant toughness aura debuff, armor penetration, constant DoT and Reflect damage, you stand some chance to win.


Choppa

Choppas can be a dangerous opponent. They tend to have high crit, weaponskill and strength which makes it easier for them to inflict a lot of damage on you.

Once again I use SotS often with Suns Blessing tactic.

Things to look out for:
a) Furious Choppin - This is their heal channel with needs to be interrupted ASAP. It is best to use taunt as your other interrupts can be parried. Luckily it doesnt heal as much as the DoK heal channel and has a longer cooldown.
b) Chop Fasta - This reduces all of their CDs so this should be shattered. All Choppa buffs can and should be shattered whenever possible.
c) Drop da Basha - This is like a semi Rampage debuff which greatly reduces your parry chance. Defensive cooldown might be needed here for you will definitely take a lot of damage during its duration. A little kiting might also help.
d) Git to Da Choppa - This can be a slightly annoying ability as it tends to move your camera when you get pulled so you might lose a second or two while you orient yourself to the screen.
e) Dat Tickles - This is their M1 absorb which mirrors your own. You can just power through it really.

At times I like to save my stun for when they become Berserk. This way they tend to take a lot more damage both from direct attacks and elemental DoTs. Usually, it doesnt happen because most cautious Choppas will immediately use their undefendable stun the moment they become Berserk. However, one play you can try is to stun them exactly 12 seconds from when they get into combat. Since they get rage at a fixed rate, they always Berserk on the 13 th second provided they dont use any rage dump ability. This way they go Berserk at the same time when you stun them.

You can be liberal with your buffs as they cannot dispel them.


Ranged DPS

At first, fights against ranged DPS can seem like an easy one. But in my opinion, they are the least forgivable 1v1s when it comes to making mistakes as a 2h tank. It is critical to judge when to engage or when to LoS. For example, if they start hitting you from maximum range in an open field, it is usually not a good idea to chase them down especially when you're dismounted. Your best bet to catch them is to Flee -> AP Pot -> Heavens Fury. If they flee as well its time to rethink Chase or LoS. Mounting from LoS and trying to close gap can also work if you dont get dismounted immediately.

Against all ranged DPS, be on the lookout for their M2 Focused Mind.

Magus

Finding a solo roaming magus is rare but they can be the hardest class to defeat as a 2h knight. They have high survivability, enough to withstand your damage and high damage, enough to break your defenses. The funniest part is that they don't even need to kite you. They start off by applying DoTs, Elemental and Spirit debuffs on you then make the best use of Close Quarters to cast their hard hitting spells quicker.

You can use Spirit Resist buff tactic to try and counter their spirit resist debuff but iirc their hardest hitting abilities are mostly Elemental hence sometimes they dont even bother debuffing spirit resist on their enemies.

Your survivability will depend on your ability to interrupt their hard hitting spells. Magus have many hard casts but the hardest hitting one is Bolt of Change. Look out for a light bluish hand animation. Interrupting this should be priority.

The next ability that needs to be interrupted is Indigo Fire of Change, their channeled nuke. The animation will be a wavy tentacle beam.

The third hard cast to look out for is Warping Blast which knocks you back a short distance. This will be hard to interrupt due to a shorter cast. The animation is same as Bolt of Change but instead of light bluish, I believe the hand colour will be a darker blue. Its not too bad if they knock you away because they will not try to kite you too much anyway and you can easily jump back in melee. However, save your taunt to be able to interrupt from range.

They have more abilities that require hard cast but again, due to Closed Quarters you probably wont be able to interrupt them on time.

Interrupt priority: Smashing Counter -> Vicious Slash -> Taunt (save for when knocked back) -> Repel Darkness

Your main source of damage will be the same as usual but your priority will be to shatter their two enchantments: Daemonic Armor and Daemonic Resistance in the beginning of the fight. What this does is that it gives you the ability to shatter their Aegis of Orange Fire the moment they use it provided they don't cover it with other enchants again. Aegis is their Wounds buff and can do strong reflect damage on you. Hence needs to be shattered ASAP.

You can use All out Assault aura against them without the fear of any important cc breaking.

Magus can disarm you so you can use juggernaut to dispel it, but usually they hard cast a hard hitting spell right after their disarm, so its probably better to use taunt here and eat the disarm.

Sorcerer

This fight will be relatively easier than Magus provided you can counter their kiting. Sorcs are heavy burst class and can do huge timestamp damage often but can do damage to themselves and are squishy. Watch out for Word of Pain debuff on you. This will give you an indicator when their burst is coming.

You should start the fight with snare but not use Blazing Blade or any DoT at all until a later stage. Instead, we will shatter their buffs and can also use Precision Strike or other direct damage abilities. Once you are in melee, they will try to immobilize you with Grip of Fear. Once you are immobilized try not to use Juggernaut to free yourself, instead counter it with your own immobilize, Shackle. The idea here is to save juggernaut against their disarm while not letting the Sorc create distance from you at the same time. Remember why we didnt use BB at all? Its because dots can break Shackle early and it might put you at a disadvantage. I dont like to use All out Assault against them for the same reason. After this exchange of immobilization, feel free to use BB and other DoTs.

Luckily, they cannot kite as well as Bright Wizards, nor cleanse your snare so it should not be hard to stay in melee range.

Once they've committed to cast in melee, it is important to dispel their disarm and interrupt some of their spells like hand of Ruin, a channeled damaging spell with a red black wavy animation, etc. Anything you interrupt will be helpful. You probably do not need to prioritize like you need to against magus.

Squig Herder

Probably the lowest margin for error fight of all classes. A well played ranged Squig Herder can keep you at bay indefinitely while plinking away all your health slowly. Your high armor and defense buys you a limited amount of time to try to get in their melee range.

It is critical to slot Unstoppable Juggernaut in this fight.

You have to start the fight trying to get in melee range. SH has many tools to create distance if he feels you're coming in too close:

1. Not so Fast, a two second on the move KD which he can use every 20 seconds since the stun immunity duration for this ability is only 20 seconds.
2. Stop Runnin, a 10 second instant snare on a 20 second cd.
3. RUN AWAY! a passive movement speed increase tactic.
4. Run Away! an active movement speed increase ability.
5. Sticky Squigz, a self knock back and AoE snare.
6. Point Blank, a M1 knockback
7. KABOOM!, a Squig Armor knockback

It is important to know all of them and how to counter each one of them to be able to stay in melee.

Against KD, you cannot do much except hope that you dodge it. When they use Stop Runnin, use Juggernaut to cleanse it. Your Unstoppable Juggernaut will make sure that Juggernaut is a up whenever they can use Stop Runnin. Once they use KD and Slow, now is the best time to use Flee -> AP Pot -> Heavens Fury. Once you land your stagger and reach melee range you will use Crippling Blow to snare them but avoid using any DoTs whatsoever. This is the time they usually use Sticky Squigz. The best way you can tell they are going to use it is that most SHs start back pedaling a bit. You should anticipate this and be ready to use Shackle immediately. If you stay behind their back, you have a much greater chance to land your shackle while they are in mid air. Both Run Away abilities can be countered by refreshing your snare on them. After they get caught in shackle, feel free to apply any DoTs. We didnt earlier because we dont want shackle to break early. This is also why we will not use AoA aura.

If they use Point Blank which they usually dont slot, you might not be able to stop them from creating distance anymore. It will be easier to get back in melee range if you have snare up on the SH. If they do manage to create distance, use Perseverance and SotS for some extra armor and slight reflect damage while you try to make your way back.

Lastly, they can use KABOOM! to punt you away after getting in Squig Armor. I'm not sure if the attack takes the Squig Armor stat modifications in consideration because Ive found it to be easily parryable.

Anyway, once they do create distance, it is time to rinse and repeat the rotation. Avoid using M1 Guardian of light for I believe they can dispel it and do extra damage to you. Emperors Ward is ok because its a small absorb which will not be up for a long time for them to dispel unless they are looking specifically for it.

Priority is to be able to keep reapplying snare, not DoT them till they self punt and using juggernaut only when they use Stop Runnin.

If you fail to execute the above rotation properly it is probably time to start LoSing the SH and try to bum rush him on your mount or just wait it out for some regen to kick in and your tools are back from CD.

I tried to help them get better against a specific OYK WE 3 years ago, but some people just cannot be reasoned with. So let it be, it will save you time.

Farrul wrote: ↑Sat Apr 26, 2025 6:36 am A huge wall of text proving absolutely nothing , congrats, except someone being a little ego sensitive. .

As for the real discussion this topic went into before derailing spam.

The facts remain, Kotbs 2H has no dps compared to other 2H tanks. Lowest modifiers to amplify the damage, no armor shred etc etc. It had mighty soul and and few good stuff in the grace tree but it was all removed by the devs a long time ago, nothing to compensate in terms of dps. What remains is the lowest 2H tank dps in the game, by a fair margin.

Hence why the best players say this, e.g MDPV etc.

This is not even up to debate, it is known, the devs know it. The question is, do we accept it?

Some do some don't, it is the status quo. That's the only thing to argue about here. Save your breath indeed with pointless information, we're not newbies to convince, we all have played Kotbs and know what it is capable of. Some of us also have other BIS tanks, we also know how superior they are to the Kotbs in terms of 2h dps.

P.S.

As for ''skill', Ad hominem -esque comments, lol. Fyi I have a background in professional gaming, being adept at ''RTS'' and went far in tournaments during the blizzard era, rts which is considered the hardest genre to master with the highest micromanagement and macraomanagement skills required. Return of reckoning, well any MMO is very easy to play in comparison. What the kotbs can bring, i can utilize it to the fullest extent, it's just that the class per se just isn't competetive in terms of 2H damage thanks to all the nerfs made to it.

I don't feel like feeding a troll ( looking at your post history in this forum, you certainly do qualify) so this is likely my last reply to you

it's just that the class per se just isn't competetive in terms of 2H damage thanks to all the nerfs made to it

nocturnalguest wrote: ↑Sat Apr 26, 2025 7:24 amI read and understand what you type here. Hence my counter point was "kotbs with its toolkit and what it brings plus with proper GCD management makes up by huge margins for not having a mechanics to kill something on its own" which you do not comment.

nocturnalguest wrote: ↑Sat Apr 26, 2025 7:24 amYes, kotbs is not greatest solo roaming class. Its old glory days are gone. Long lost and sad forgotten. But its not solely kotbs being gutted, but alot of other things too, RoR aplies its own balance vision. Thats their right.
And now the important part:
After tank channels being equalized you now want to turn MF into elemental. Ive showed you extremes of kotbs being 3rd on damage done and others with it being higher than actual DPS class. If you do that it will be taking place #1 in both pug and organised environments. How is it justified (by what) and what sacrificies are you ready to make for it to happen?