Return of Reckoning

Click here to watch on YouTube
for those who are into these, build shown at end of the video.

rock-paper-scissors-dotcaster

I wouldnt mind if IB mechanic would be changed to generate from hit to dmg received. Atm you can literally die to 4 dots and still not have enough grudge to cast even a single runic shield solo

I do know its not a solo game tho.

Pahakukka wrote: Sun Sep 06, 2026 3:33 pm I wouldnt mind if IB mechanic would be changed to generate from hit to dmg received. Atm you can literally die to 4 dots and still not have enough grudge to cast even a single runic shield solo

I do know its not a solo game tho.

I have no idea how you still solo 2H on IB tbh( but respect ). I will quote the player who was once known as ''Gilgam'' ( i suspect he is playing a Runepriest now *Whistles*).

''The greatest weapon of the IB, is its shield''. I remember i told you this once, but now with all the Magus spam, zealot etc maybe its time to pick up a shield, in fact i challenge you to make a video about it !

P.S. IB shield spec solo: 4 WL, 3 off sov , 2 victor. Around 800 str self buffed, 600(700) WS selfbuff, 40% block. The funny thing is that SnB IB burst is actually higher than 2H during OAthstone cycles. The New sc shield ( 90 wound proc) is insanely good for all SnB tanks in solo.

It is probably true, you would imagine that IB gets good burst from channel, but it falls short. unless you are exactly at 100 grudge and even then you would likely do nearly the same thing just with stackind dots. I dont see IB getting much from 2h weapon but as wonky as block is as stat I will not gonna do it. I did brief clip with SNB bo and thats enough of that for my solo roaming adventures.

For sure you could make thorukk-style snb build and be very succesfull, even without stacking block, but as it comes on top of whatever other defensses you have its oddly strong for its value in solo contest (it has to be, if you want tanks to tank in larger scale) I think 30ish block and 30ish disrupt alone with oathstone would make you super annoying to kill, and leave lots of stats open to buff up your dot dmg.

some mathguy can check the actual numbers but if you have 30% parry+block and 30% disrupt isnt your chance to defend against attack with no strikethrough 50ish%? then factory in 100% block whenever oathstone is up and have fun.

but then I also believe than as its niche content in niche game we should really look further than the killboard when roaming around. Farming those kills is actually quite easy if you put your mind into it, and gank away every single bolster you find preferably in relatively safe spot.

I think the channel is a trap for solo IB. Like you said you would be better of timestamping with max grudge binding grudge, cave in, heavy blow and earth shatter, all taunted and buff/debuff around that, being more versatile with the mastery points available.
The channel might be good in smallscale and had its peak back when BW/WP procs were meta (if it was available yet at that point).

Nice video, thank you for the efforts man. Perfect, as always!

As for discussion main wise words id mention are this cite:
"Farming those kills is actually quite easy if you put your mind into it, and gank away every single bolster you find preferably in relatively safe spot."
So true

Channel is indeed a group thingy, it was awesome to solo roam with it before warlord nerf and then GnM existed. Gank unit has amazing video clips in 13-0-13 spec in 7p warlord, literally most skill demanding setup that is also very potent in 1vX situations of solo roaming. Nowdays its just for spamming regular SCs solo, you close your eyes, press q button and live a dream. I can find and link one if someone is generally interested.

13-5-5 was awesome solo ranked spec tho, especially for lower MMR bracket because you never know what kind of DPS player you will be in team with. Its great in group ranked too, but discussing IB abilities or even specs outside of discussion for whole group performance is the height of stupidity so it depends

As for solo roaming there is just not enough grudge generation for you to pull off a rotation. You are obliged to have dwarven riposte to make it work and you cant do that in solo, in solo roaming you are better off with rising anger.

Current solo roaming meta spec for IB is definitely offensive snb, other options are just suboptimal and not effective enough to bother unless you like pointless suffering or in strong love with 2h hammerer aesthetics

fatelvis wrote: Mon Sep 07, 2026 8:53 pm I think the channel is a trap for solo IB. Like you said you would be better of timestamping with max grudge binding grudge, cave in, heavy blow and earth shatter, all taunted and buff/debuff around that, being more versatile with the mastery points available.
The channel might be good in smallscale and had its peak back when BW/WP procs were meta (if it was available yet at that point).

I haven't touched my IB in a long long time, but IIRC the channels main point would be to generate Grudges fast with Tactic( rising anger). Second could be to proc within a group.

2H IB does not needs it for dps in a solo setting, the real thing which pains me so much about solo 2H IB is how the removal of GnM destroyed the build, to illustrate the point:
RoR.builders - Ironbreaker

That was the typical solo ( or variation with GAM). The IB 2H today may do ok in melee fights by stacking parry chance(boring) but simply cannot compete vs real meta classes which are all ranged casters with heavy dot stacking and kite mechanics.

By taking a build like this:
RoR.builders - Ironbreaker

You simply lost all the utility and sustain IB 2H demanded to compete( except in melee duels). Hence going 2H in the lakes solo is asking for trouble, it won't compete at all with a SnB IB unfortunately ( i too prefer the 2H aesthetics, but those days are long gone).

Channel is good for grudgebuilding, but isnt it bottlenecked by amount of grudge you can get. I mean that it hits faster than rising anger allows you to proc grudges. Spacing it with mechanic would make singular hits stronger, and perhaps help with grudge build up woth not wasting attacks.


It does feel like IB does good against classes tanks naturally do well against, but cant turn the bad matchups.

I would be careful with gnm now, as even if its valid for 2h, it would boost snb build a bit too much. Tho we habe magiis/engies with their huge kiting kits and very strong dmg and zeal/rp with their 10s 50%dmg mitigation on demand on top of everything else healers get, boosting 1 snb spec will not hurt the solo niche any more so why not

For Snb if GnM would return its not really convenient to take anyway, check the builder, even with +2 sov bonus( gimp spec) you would sacrifice too many goodies for GnM along the way.

So i wouldn't worry about SnB balance with GnM, there is a fair trade-off and IIRC no SnB needed it back in the days. It was mainly a tool for 2H or for group utility to generat AP with Told Ya So!

P.S. although most likely the devs lied to us and wont keep their promise of restoring it, has it been 4 years now since they claimed it could return ''one day''?