Return of Reckoning

So, I recently hit 40 on my Blackguard with the double XP week and have a few assorted questions I was hoping I could get some help with. For reference, I’m playing 2H and prefer to do scenarios/small group oRvR rather than keep sieges etc. I’m currently running Malice/Loathing, links to my build and gear below:
Career build: https://officialrorbuilder.herokuapp.co ... 11,913,897
Renown: http://waronlinebuilder.org/#renown;000 ... 3000000000
Gear: https://www.returnofreckoning.com/armor ... chadrezzar

I’m running Rugged rather than Terrifying Foe since they’re currently about the same effect for me

1 – Regarding gear, what stat levels should I be aiming for? I’m wondering in terms of strength, toughness, wounds, incoming crit and melee crit? I’m currently sitting at 540 strength, 470 toughness, 790 wounds, 10% incoming crit and 5% melee crit. Those numbers are with Rugged, but without pots or buffs.
I feel like I’m in a bit of a weird place…I don’t do a ton of damage, but I also don’t feel like I’m particularly tanky. Where about should I be looking to hit statwise? The two friends I play with are a Marauder and a shield DoK, and it currently feels like we lack damage, so I think I need to lean a little towards that

2 – How much armour should I be hitting? I would have thought that the 3k/70% I have on the paper doll would be decent, but in reality I’m only seeing about 50% incoming mitigation in my combat log and up to 75% mitigation on my outgoing damage, even against supposedly squishy WLs

3 – I see everybody recommending speccing renown for –incoming crit. Is there any sort of math behind needing to take that, or is it just “common wisdom”? At a 75% average crit magnitude across classes, -15% incoming crit is only an 11% reduction in incoming damage, which doesn't seem like a ton
I ask because it’s currently seeming like aside from renown, there aren’t a ton of other ways for me to find melee crit to be able to proc Hastened Doom and help supplement my group’s DPS, and I realistically can’t see myself ever hitting high renown ranks to be able to get both

4 – Regarding shatter enchantment, what determines what enchantment it removes? Is it FILO, FIFO, or just random? I surprisingly haven’t been able to find this despite the fact that basically every class has one of these skills

5 – What is up with SMs? I just feel like I get absolutely destroyed by them in a few of their rotations by big Ether Dance crits and all the spirit damage DoTs. I’ve thought about it and I know there’s some potential counterplay like holding on to taunt to interrupt, watching for their bubble to kite/shatter etc, but it just feels like a total uphill battle. Is there something I’m missing or is this just the way she goes with them?

1. Decent spec for sub-rr70: once you hit rr70, you want to take the AoE snare, so your spec will look like this.

2. As a 2h tank, you'll want to have anywhere between 4.2 - 4.5+ for general smallscale play.

3. You want to max out parry first, and then futile strikes (flat evasion is always gonna be your priority). FS is very important for 2h tanks as you will be focused occasionally, so ensuring fewest amount of critical hits as possible (because you won't evade everything) is vital in staying afloat.

4. With low resistances, a Swordmaster will eat you alive. To counter SM, it is advised that you use the spirit tactic, use a spirit pot, and spec for the heal ability from Anguish: if you are running a squishy Malice offensive spec, then chances are that they'll win you because they are only having to contend with spiritual resistances.

If you spec accordingly, however, you can not die to a SM (and the best he can hope for is a stalemate).

5. I strongly suggest that you acquire the Winds Impervious 3-piece jewelry set, and 4-piece Beastlord. Once you have the emblems, you can start to use 5 or 6-piece Dominator.

A few points, if I were to lvl a bg today:

1. At rr50, I would probably go for the following build:
https://officialrorbuilder.herokuapp.co ... 20,897,899
Enraged Beating- you don't hit with autoattacks while channeling, so using it you might actually even be loosing dmg- it is only useful to build hate really.
Also, one issue bg has is with mobility- ranged snare and 20 sec CD Juggernaut help alot with it.

2. Get pve unlock jewelry- see link below. Get the 2 autoattack haste ones, and 2 parry ones- the aa ones add lot of dmg, when combined with aa haste from Hastened Doom and with slow hitting 2h weapon. And 4% extra parry will help as well.
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=13566

3. Get the epic quest 2h with 10% defenses proc- would be using it over subj one even probably.

peterthepan3 wrote: Sat Mar 30, 2019 12:51 am 1. Decent spec for sub-rr70: once you hit rr70, you want to take the AoE snare, so your spec will look like this.

2. As a 2h tank, you'll want to have anywhere between 4.2 - 4.5+ for general smallscale play.

3. You want to max out parry first, and then futile strikes (flat evasion is always gonna be your priority). FS is very important for 2h tanks as you will be focused occasionally, so ensuring fewest amount of critical hits as possible (because you won't evade everything) is vital in staying afloat.

4. With low resistances, a Swordmaster will eat you alive. To counter SM, it is advised that you use the spirit tactic, use a spirit pot, and spec for the heal ability from Anguish: if you are running a squishy Malice offensive spec, then chances are that they'll win you because they are only having to contend with spiritual resistances.

If you spec accordingly, however, you can not die to a SM (and the best he can hope for is a stalemate).

5. I strongly suggest that you acquire the Winds Impervious 3-piece jewelry set, and 4-piece Beastlord. Once you have the emblems, you can start to use 5 or 6-piece Dominator.

yup all good and correct. especially 5. 3 winds imper, are great , the dom set is debatable tho .
its depends what he wants , i know on my IB when im 2H i run the 3 winds imper and bst lord ring along with hat and cloak + pocket for 4 set bonus , and 5 Conq for the def stats along with 5 red chance to be crit, and the proc heal .

if im S+B i swap out 1 winds imper and slot the genesis ring with block either way stats are fairly good
buffed , 620 str , 520 weapon skill, 65% parry, 25 % block, over 8k wound, 700 toughness, 265 intiv, 0 % chance to be crit, with ancestor fury and sweet revenge , its easy to have 25 % chance to crit

or later on he could look at 5 conq, and 2 piece redeye isnt bad either

Thanks for the input guys. I was aware of the Winds Impervious, but thought that the stat hit would be pretty big relative to the Genesis jewelry. I've kind of realized that I'm not going to be getting that any time soon though, so it probably is better for me to pick up the Winds now. I also wasn't aware of the Beastlord pocket item...that changes things.

I think I'm going to go for Winds with 3 piece Dominator, 4 piece Beastlord and 2 piece Conq. I also totally did not notice the defensive proc on that epic quest weapon...I stupidly took the shield just to have one and have been running the weapon with the speed proc. That would definitely be a better pick, or at least it'd be good to have both

My question re: Shatter Enchantment still stands though. Is there any sort of logic to what it removes or is it just random?

Nebuchadnezzar wrote: Sat Mar 30, 2019 5:04 am Thanks for the input guys. I was aware of the Winds Impervious, but thought that the stat hit would be pretty big relative to the Genesis jewelry. I've kind of realized that I'm not going to be getting that any time soon though, so it probably is better for me to pick up the Winds now. I also wasn't aware of the Beastlord pocket item...that changes things.

I think I'm going to go for Winds with 3 piece Dominator, 4 piece Beastlord and 2 piece Conq. I also totally did not notice the defensive proc on that epic quest weapon...I stupidly took the shield just to have one and have been running the weapon with the speed proc. That would definitely be a better pick, or at least it'd be good to have both

My question re: Shatter Enchantment still stands though. Is there any sort of logic to what it removes or is it just random?

It removes 1st ench in line. So often good players have some trash enchantements up just to "hide" from disabling the better ones.