Fury/def template

[Oblivion]

Hi everyone,

Another template I was thinking about:



-Arms Talents (0 points)


None

-Fury Talents (30 points)


Cruelty - 5/5 points
Increases your chance to get a critical strike with melee weapons by 5%.


Improved Demoralizing Shout - 5/5 points
Increases the attack power reduction of your Demoralizing Shout by 25%.


Unbridled Wrath - 5/5 points
Gives you a 40% chance to generate an additional Rage point when you deal melee damage.


Piercing Howl - 1/1 point
Causes all enemies near the warrior to be dazed for 6 seconds.


Improved Battle Shout - 4/5 points
Increases the Attack Power bonus of your Battle Shout by 20%.


Enrage - 5/5 points
Gives you a 40% melee damage bonus for 4 swings any time you are the victim of a critical strike.


Flurry - 5/5 points
Increases your attack speed by 30% for your next 3 swings after dealing a critical strike.



-Protection Talents (21 points)


Anticipation - 5/5 points
Increases your Defense skill by 10.


Toughness - 2/5 points
Increases your armor value from items by 4%.


Iron Will - 5/5 points
Increases your chance to resist stun and charm effects by 15%.


Improved Revenge - 3/3 points
Gives your Revenge ability a 40% chance to stun the target for 3 seconds.


Improved Disarm - 2/3 points
Increases the duration of your Disarm ability by 2 seconds.


Improved Sunder Armor - 3/3 points
Increases the armor reduction of your Sunder Armor by 30%.


Concussion Blow - 1/1 point
A brutal strike that deals weapon damage and stuns the opponent for 5 seconds.



Major flaws i see with this template:
-No tact mastery, but i hope unbrindled wrath with DW could lessen this one by building my rage fast when i change stances
-No imp overpower, but using DW crits will tend to happen more often, although this flaw is a big one, i admit it


In fact this template is all about stun/crits/hit rate, plus some resists and debuff benefits (on sunder/disarm) from the protection line. Concussion blow is usable in all stances, so this template would find itself playing mostly between zerk and def stance, using recklessness over retaliation for tough encounters.


Do you think this can be a viable spec ?

PS: as it stands now, i personally thinks this template is less effective than the 31 arms/20 fury or the 30(31) fury/21(20) arms, but if the devs happens to change the rage loss on stance switching and the DW miss rate this template could become very solid.

[Manorien]

i think that tactical is a must have ability.

i also love improved overpower.

once i have 12 points invested, i think for the points MS is worth it. all of the points spent in the arms tree are on GOOD stuff.

moving up the prot tree you have crap that really doesnt help you alot, or is too circumstancial.

Arms has the money talents. from there i think the decision is on how much value do you place on piercing howl. for pvp, you'lll probably want that, so you'd go at least 11 into fury, and how much value can you get in prot with the remaining 9 points? might as well go into fury.

[Firecrak]

So what, you are thinking of duel wielding while in def stance? Why? Where is your 1hd spec then? Level 50+ mobs will rip you a new asshole.

[Oblivion]

So what, you are thinking of duel wielding while in def stance? Why? Where is your 1hd spec then? Level 50+ mobs will rip you a new asshole.


No way, just switch to def stance to disarm/revenge.
Concussion blow is usable in all stances, +15% stun resist is good, more armor/defense is always welcome.

I can still use the improved sunder armor in zerk and battle stance for a quick huge debuff of the target's ac, so i don't see why i would be DW in def stance all the time, def stance is not made to do dmg, to me that's more of an utility stance.

As it stands now the lack of tact. mastery is a big flaw because this template still have to switch stances, but let's hope they'll change this soon...

[Olon97]

I have been working on a warrior with this general theme (p. howl, flurry, & conc blow) since retail release. I'm toying with losing a couple points of Flurry in exchange for Imp Shield bash in addition to concussion blow. I also think the one point on death wish is worth slipping into the fury points (for the immunity as well as a damage booster for grinding). I have a point in imp. shield block, points in defiance and improved blood rage eand none in disarm, sunder, or iron will (more PvE focus in those choices). Imp. blood rage seems like an obvious point allocation for someone without TM.

Not having tactical mastery loses you some time in PvP settings, there's no doubt. Whether it's mandatory totally depends on what you expect out of your game experience (nothing's mandatory if you like extra challenge).

The way I adapt to not having TM PvE is dumping as much rage as possible before a switch (spammed sunders or whatever) and then holding bloodrage in reserve for use right after the switch (if it's a situation I can anticipate). I also have a homebrew script to easily switch between dual wield / 2h / weapon-shield (next step is a "best for the situation" button that does dual weild any time rage is low, 2h when enrage/flurry is active, and shield otherwise) and a couple seconds of dual wield after a stance switch gets me back in business quickly.

I may yet be ripped a new one in my 50s, but to this point (mid 40s) I've found the build quite viable. I can dish it out well in battle and zerk stances (zerk for solo farming lower level instances), and my survivability in def stance is excellent - I can fight a war of attrition with a couple same level elites and come out on top thanks to frequent stuns and great mitigation from shield block. In group PvP concussion blow and piercing howl make a nice addition. 1v1 PvP I am feeling a little gimp.

If you try the spec, I hope you keep writing about it. Straying from the cookie cutter every once and a while can be fun.