Vengeance

I'm considering respeccing my paladin to 42 shield. However, reading the IGN boards, it seems that high shield doesn't help block anything in RvR.

How often do you get blocks against yellow con enemy? Blue?

archers, i block everything just about, in combat it varies, kind of random at times.
But, Ive been fighting 3 middies at once and almost taking 1 out because of blocks, they were oj/yellow at 49

Hmm thats an interestign proposition Axe.. i think however hat the reason that ppl spec to 42 in shield is for the Slam style which is soooo useful in Rvr.. Im speccing in 28 or soemthing shield right now, and i find that when im running af, ill block about 10+ times against a blue and pleanty against yellows/oranges.. i honestl;y as a pally dont think its worth it, unless you plan to gimp your meele, or your chants.. IMHO, the best spec for a pally would be full 1h melee, 46 chants, a few parry and the rest in shield.. this is obviously, IMHO, and i think that 2h pallies work really well, but they parry less than 1h block/parry..

I'm really, really on the fence here. One thing I could do is put all my slash points into thrust and go 2h to try it out, and see what happens. I was tossing around the diamond mattock last night with 1 thrust spec, whooping up on the mids. It worked about as well as my black ash soul slayer, though pretty inconsistent damage, of course.

Then if I don't like that route, I can take all my points out of 2h and put em in shield with my second respec. Only problem is that then I'll be thrust spec, and thrust styles are teh suq because they chain off evade quite a bit.

/em holds head in hands

What to do, what to do??!?

I grouped with Kulyeh last night in Emain, 50 pal. He stopped chants at 30 and still doesn't do much dmg... he was hitting this dwarf healer forever and he wouldn't go down, we all died. Me and this merc hit a yellow con dwarf healer, we each did about 1000 damage each, he used his instas and we STILL couldn't bring the guy down. He just waited for his stuns to come up and it was over. Sigh.

Well Kirin your opinion is obviously wrong.  :)  J/K

I'm 100% spec in shield and I block alot from Blue/Yellow/Orange.  When I was seeing Purple People I was blocking a bit but not much to make a difference.  

I don't know if my shield skill comes into play in using Guard but it sure does seem like I block shots at the person I'm guarding alot.  I recall once I had Axe on guard while we were beating on a door and it seemed that I blocked every archer shot against him.

But Kirin is right (OMG did I say that?  Don't tell Kirin) a paladins STR is his chants so I wouldn't spec Shield to much if it risks your chants.

I remember that raid where Tydd followed me around. Clunk, clunk, clunk. I had two archer guards and a 50 hunter on me... the guard does seem to fire more often than a block on yourself. So it may be worth going that route just for the guard.

I tend to stay home and guard casters when they're good nukers. They can do far more damage than I can, and it helps to keep them alive as long as possible.

Tydd, you ever coming back? We need your help, bud.

I responded to your email.

Basically I got burned out with looking at my xp bar after a few hours of play and not seeing a difference.

Finding good groups is a pain in the arse and IMO you need a good group at 40+ because if you die you lose hours of work and bad group get you killed.

I've canceled my account but I had paid for 6 months in advance so I'll try and log in tonight and see if I've still got some time left or not.

On a different note:

Looking at those Realm skill has me drooling over the Master of Blocking ability.  Anyone know what percent increase you get at the different levels?

I've played a thrusting armsman and a thrusting minstrel, so I might have a bit of insight for you on the 1h thrust styles...

As the armsman, I found that the puncture/bloody dance, and later the puncture/lunge combos worked fairly well, lack of an evade wasn't a huge deal.  The weapons are faster, so it's tougher to chain off an 'event' style anyway.  Also, Beartooth is pretty good after a block, and you'll be blocking a lot with that kind of spec.  The evade styles don't give you that much anyway...the stun on Ratfang is very short, you'll use the Slam style more.  Liontooth gives bonus to defense...but you have plate, an AF chant, more HP, and a shield spec, so don't expect infiltrators to exactly weep for you.  Thrusting polearms just flat out freekin' ROCK vs. trolls.  I mean R-O-C-K.  The way orange ones were running from me, I felt like Godzilla (thank you for the pike Jasleen).  I may have to whip Brian out some more to level just a tad and return to the BG's, I'm drooling just thinking about it.  I don't know what 2h thrusters there are out there, but I'd guess they are worth considering, or finding some comments on.

With the minstrel...granted, not much of a damage dealer to start with, but I can't really notice much difference in damage between the regular styles, and the 'evade event' styles damage-wise, although I'll never get the high-end ones. (Putting my 38 minstrel into perspective:  my 11 friar hits for more damage per melee strike--God bless DD's.)

Wyvernfang at 44 follows a Beartooth, which follows a block...I suspect that one smokes pretty good, but I'll probably never spec that high with either character.

Realm rank bonuses are 3% per level; so up to 15% more blocks. THey're looking into improving block and parry for RvR against styles, too, whatever that means.

Sorry to hear you've cancelled; we're going to miss you.

I think I will try 2h thrust to begin with, as I have a diamond mattock in the vault to use. Then I may decide to ditch 2h and go shield depending on how the 2h thrust works out. I have the option to try both.

they need to give arms (maybe pallies):P some styles off of parry.  Seems like Im wasting a good attack round when I parry, instead of block/riposite.

Hmm after much contemplation, im going to use my first respec to switch over from slash to thrust and see how it goes.. if well, im gouing touse the second one to bump down my parry a bit.. if it doesent go too well, just going use the 2nd respec to go back..

Tydd youre leaving? wtf? i was pretty sure you were only taking a break.. man thats sucks :(..

P. quick not.. family is heading to Cancun tomorrow in Mexico :P./ have fun playing Daoc while im out in the sun gettin a tan :P

Yup, we will all miss the Purple Monkey.  Hope you come back and visit us Tydd.  
Axe, Santy Mule has a  2H thruster.  It is an Ancient Ebony Mattock, 2H thrust Weopon, 89% quality, 25% bonus, 15.3 dps, 4.0 spd, parry 2, 2-handed 2, cold 2% and a proc of 88 direct cold dmg.  
I am thinking now of respeccing thrust to slash.  If i do that my specs would be 34 slash, 42 shield, 50 bow and 20 stealth.  I may need a uber slasher if I go with that template.  

Be like everyone and thier grandma's dog and get the 1h slash from DF

Reinn, dont bother buying any slashers, ill give you all of my uber ones when i get back.. The Callianor bastard sword, the DF longsword, i have a molten magma too, their yours..

Ahh I see how it is, lol