Post#22 » Thu Feb 06, 2020 6:36 pm
I feel 2H choppa is in with a few other classes that are tactic starved. The point (to me) of 2H is to hit those big finishers, which of course drops rage. So we can either use Wot Rules or Pent Up Rage. Assuming Brute Force and Don't Wanna Live Forever, choose one of the above and we have really one tactic to choose. If we want to hit big, that choice is then either Flanking or Stab You Gooder. What this all means is that we have effectively no defenses. Armor and resists are cut in half, no I'm Da Biggest buffer, no utility other than to hit things. But we have to get close. We have to commit. 2H has to do all this because we don't have other options. Drop any one of these tactics and our dps is gimped hard enough that we become a group liability, where it takes more resources to keep us up than is worth it.
Compared to 2H tanks we have chosen with their spirit damage and passive auras, they can focus on dps; 2H BG have great group support with wound debuff and crit chance for others + super punt, 2H BO ... I hear bring a lot but I honestly don't know much about them - stat steal? All with good wound pools and armor. Compare to other melee dps, MSQ has great survival (pounce, KD, armor, taste like stunties, maybe share damage with pet) and lets not talk about how they are a ranged class too!; mara has to stance dance a bit but doesn't have nearly the penalties choppa has, good threat up front instead of waiting 3-7 seconds to improve (and lose it all when using Finisher). They can pull as a class core ability as well.; WE can choose battles, stun+jump away a good distance, usually have anti-magic for 7 seconds with Elixir of the Cauldron. They only seem limited in how often they can ignore armor from any position with Feinted Positions, and they have a 1-hit toughness debuff (mara also has this, choppa has to stack ours x3); who's next, healers gone dps? They ignore armor (use magic), if they debuff toughness (shaman, dok) they again do it in one use of an ability, but we'll keep them separate for now because they use magic.
I get how each class has its own thing, and choppas is more_damge=less_defense. But for 2H choppa especially, we are too limited. Wot Rules or Pent Up Rage try to give some options but we become too pigeon-holed to do that. From my first statement about tactics, perhaps this will change with further and better gear sets, so that we can drop perhaps Brute Force or DWLF and get another option. But for now, and for the near foreseeable future, 2H is not a viable option. This saddens me because I love it so.
What arguments are there against this? Get a group, get better gear or rank, learn your class and how it interacts with other (order) classes? This hold true in solo roaming. DW has Charge! and increased speed+pull from GTDC, all choppa get KD but exhausts rage. Using Wot Rules or Pent Up Rage to bypass this just cements us in the glass-cannon role. 3 or 6man groups? Sure, here we could expect a dedicated tank and healer, but consider the worst killer, KD when full red. What other class has this added penalty? Say Sorcerer with backlash, well that doesn't effect them when they're KDd, just their HP pool and paper-thin armor. That applies to WE, and all casters. We only have a wound pool, which we can't build up with I'm Da Biggest so we would have to mix some armor sets for 3pc Wound bonus or slot Wound talis, which just takes from our purpose as a dps. How about in a full warband? We should expect a guard and heals, but now we must assume that the tank will follow us+challenge and the heal can get to us fast enough. With a good guard and heals, sure we can do well but that is every class. So we hope we don't get focused because even with Guard our defenses are halved and then we become a resource drain as it takes 3+ heals focus healing to keep us up and we can't rage-dump.
And all this is before we start talking about 2H finishers, or finishers in general. They are suppose to be some good ... well finisher. Perhaps big damage or some added effect, but as is are some minor extra thing we may fit in a rotation to dump rage as a survival mechanism, not to actually put pressure and finish them off. What are the options, Wild Choppin is the best by far. AOE with good variable damage range, but most importantly, no target needed. We can use it as a rage dump, as a defense mechanism instead of an ability they may be worried about. The only other option is Weaklin' Killa. Nice, be up close and do some damage like choppa suppose to do. 40 AP and only slightly more damage the the positional Go Fer Da Soft Spot (30 AP). We could consider Reckless Blow, but that definitely needs Wot Rules.
On finishers from Path of Da Hitta, Tired Already? isn't going to swing any fight with its low damage and long CD. My favorite, No More Helpin' is good damage wise, but really, when will you ever use it on a healer? You will never, ever, even with a great tank and 3+ healers, push to the back line where the heals are. If you would use it on a healer then you have definitely already broken their WB and they are in flight mode. Oh, perhaps you can use it on a slayer, melee WP, or regen knight before they self-heal. yeah, that's a great use of the bonus heal-debuff. As a side note, No More Helpin' needs something, anything, to help it. I think an interrupt would be a solid start, but that's moving off topic.
So there, my very long and hopefully not too wall-of-texty look at how to use Wot Rules (or even Pent Up Rage) and how they are not really usable.