Pahakukka wrote: Tue Aug 26, 2025 1:30 pmThanks, 2h IB is fun, but a bit challenging to get to work right, unless played 100% through the dots.
Im afraid of the day GnM comes back. I wish they reintorduce it as something else than direct regen ability.
I try to stay clear of these full defensive builds, as now i think they are extremely bad for overall health of the solo niche. Builds play themself and there really is no counter to fully defensive builds other than having 1 even more defensive yourself. Soon everyone will be roaming with snb blorks and just casting blockchannel at eachother and will only die to the old age.
2h IB kinda can get decent burst, but only to the very soft targets, which you burst a ton even with naked r1 elf. When speccing i would rather take in account classes my character is weak against, rather than over doing it against classes my character has upper hand (like speccing against mdps as ib) It evens out from both ends, occasionally you die to good mdps, promoting skillfull gameplay, but on the other hand you stand a chance against casters)
IB 2H is the only tank i could roam with for extended periods of time ( back in days) without getting bored, the difference between an average IB just pressing buttons and an experienced one that knows how to play the IB ''piano'' and use the right ability at the correct time is quite large. Whereas roaming on a Chosen is braindead in comparison, even SM. Hence players quit these tanks after a while, but 2H IB was a passion of the veterans.
As for GnM. One has to look at the overall class or spec. IB 2H doesn't get stuff like Wods on the SM or the passive auras of a Chosen( and better itemization of magic tanks). With the spec in mind GnM was just fine. SnB roaming IB's afaik wouldn't spec it since the build would be rather bad missing too many important abilities. It even got nerfed prior to the removal which gave it a practically longer CD.
GnM also drained grudges so it had a downside and a mechanic to handle, also irrc vulnerable to healing debuffs. Stuff like the Keg of the engineer is worse since it's cast and forget.
Imho the biggest concern with regen builds aren't really tanks, but dps classes that go regen, since they get stuff like detaunts, better escape cooldowns. Witch elf being the greatest offender. A tank must tank it, they're slow on the battlefield and get ganked easily by more mobile or ranged classes. The loss of GnM had a huge impact on the 2H solo roaming IB performance, so the solo IB meta has been SnB since then.