Help me decide SM vs BO

[Aurandilaz]

SM, even with only one Spirit debuff instead of old double-stack is still the better choice.
WODS is amazing for 2hander and you can mostly ignore WS since large portion of your dmg is Spiritual, so you can just max for Str when you want them max deeps.
BO is okay, maybe higher crits and maybe you can find more mdps in scs to guard and assist, but with 2h it lacks WODS for surviving and with SNB it just doesn't burst like a SM does.

BO is solid choice still, IMO SM is just the juicier pick for now. Especially with all the WLs and melee SWs you have also providing frontline burst, throw in a SM with spirit dots and BS+ED and those gobbos explode before they know what hit them.
Wings of Heaven is amazing too.

[Charon]

simply
2h SM>2h BO
snb BO > snb SM however, both can perform quite well (smb SM is strongly limited to being a WW bot)
for sc/solo play i will take SM
in rvr/mass pvp BO seems to be better choice, considering it place in wb setup

[peterthepan3]

SM is a better solo tank due to: bubbles, bubbles & bubbles; more self-healing potential; better defensive morales (M3 is amazing); spirit damage bypassing armor; WODS.

[shaggyboomboom]

I mean as a 2h offtank (i.e. including both tanking and damage), the SM performs better because he has better survivability via WODS.

SNB BO is perfectly viable, as you said you can use those 2 abilities to help you out when needed. Iirc, Xarrox (one of top SNB DPS BOs) used CHM in his THC spec?

dont think he did cuz at the time of him being active CHM was a 13 point ability and KD was 9 points

[Valarion]

Both classes have very viable, potent solo builds (on live I solo'd using self heals, bubbles and extreme damage mitigation builds) while leaving enough dps to kill everything but healers. This was the secret sauce for soloing tanks on live and is still viable here.

While you can go 2H SM, Id stay away from 2H BO. The loss of the extra dps is not worth the huge hit to defense. Truthfully, Id stay away from 2H SM for the same reason, but it largely comes down to preference and what classes you like to engage. Some thoughts:

[*]Id give a slight self healing advantage to BOs
[*]SMs have a morale 2 pounce which is great for soloing SHs
[*]BO has hands down some of the best quests (so if you go BO level him in the greenskin racial area).

One last thing: According to the devs, SMs are doing too much damage and its likely because of their double resistence debuff stacking Wrath of Hoeth with the sword proc. If they havent already been nerfed this last week, they will be nerfed soon. This is a huge hit to their dps.

[Valfaros]

One last thing: According to the devs, SMs are doing too much damage and its likely because of their double resistence debuff stacking Wrath of Hoeth with the sword proc. If they havent already been nerfed this last week, they will be nerfed soon. This is a huge hit to their dps.

Seems to be already fixed/removed no conformation from a dev for this but fairly sure that it's the case.

So then to SnB BO and 2h SM. For soloing 2h SM for sure. SnB BO brings less dmg but more support to a group compared to 2h SM. 2h SM is still a very good pick for groups due to it's dmg and thanks to WoDS still very capabale to guard any meele dps. Since group support is not worth much when running around solo 2h SM should be the pick for you.

[CytheX]

Both are very good, sm lil better at dpsing single target, Bo better at supporting (now even better cuZ cd increaser+cd decreaser plus thc.usable.with shield)
Imho go SM cuz is my main since day 0

[Bozzax]

2h SM

[michela89]

Thanks everybody for the info.

as it seems SM might be the best choice for what I am looking for.


Now it's up to me, I will keep playing a bit of both (BO/SM) until I made up my mind.

[DokB]

2h SM is better in almost every way in my opinion.

The only thing BO has going for it over the SM is aesthetics and higher crit damage from SYG tactic which can only be utilized effectively when you are a 2h BO yourself but like others said you sacrifice a lot of defense as a tank by going 2h BO and you can easily be melted by anyone with half a brain who know to focus you first.