{Sword Master} 2 Handed Sword Master Guide

[Fenris78]

hi i am new and i would like to know when should snb be favored at 2am and vice versa. I play in a 6men with knight, wl, slayer, rp and arc.

Salut !

You can't go wrong running 2H in 90% of situations ; you provide both very high protection to your team (group absorb and stats stealing) and very decent damage using 2H and Ether Dance + potent enchantments, plus a small healing support if you run either Bolstering Enchantment or Blessing of Heaven.

In small group play, 2H is the best you can have, because you need more DPS to assist you teammates dropping a target. Healers you can jump on (with M1) in the back will likely panick because ED + taunt will hurt them a lot, not to mention you can spam-debuff them (at least Shamans) while under WW buff, wich is uber nasty to them...

In 10% of engagments, like keeps/forts/cities content, you can get slightly more from SnB specs, but gain is marginal ; Crushing advance + Vaul's tempering are good buffs, and most middle tree tactics are very good to use, but you can do very fine in 2H using Wall of Darting Steel only (wich virtually buff your parry around 100%, and other avoidances to 75+%), and dropping left tree to get Vaul's Tempering and Vaul's buffer in middle tree (note that it's also valid for a SnB spec), like that : https://builder.returnofreckoning.com/c ... 9,503,9043

In the end, both specs are perfectly viable, but I find the 2H spec (with Crimsonwind from C&T) very much enjoyable, because it not makes you papermade using 2H weapon, while allowing you to do decent sustained damage.

[chookette]

what do you recommend as a build for rr40 and rr50 pls?

[Fenris78]

what do you recommend as a build for rr40 and rr50 pls?

Depends on what role you want to fulfill, as small group or wb are slightly different, but you can start here :
RoR.builders - Sword Master

You want to be very tanky :
Take crushing advance if you run SnB, or Vaul's buffer if 2H. Take both when 50+ renown rank.
Alternatively, you can use Blessing of Heaven for extra healing, especially if you are low on healing in party. Or just use Bolstering Enchantment instead (low efficiency, but helpful for healers in your group).

You want to deal more damage and steal more stats :
Take Phoenix Wing and/or Balanced accuracy (rr40/50) for extra AoE and crits, instead of going up middle tree.
After level 70, you can go take Ether Dance + Great Weapon Mastery (tactic is more efficient than Balanced Accuracy and gives you more defense).
Then with the +2 mastery points, you can go either Khaine or Vaul tree (see previous posts).

In all cases, the 3 Hoeth skills in the right tree are pretty much mantadory to any spec, since they got almost no equivalent, efficiency-wise ; you need WW for everyone, a reliable CC (the KD), and the group absorb + WW is just fantastic when it comes to protect your party.

[chookette]

Ok so for small grp go hoeth

[chookette]

what do you recommend as a build for rr40 and rr50 pls?

Depends on what role you want to fulfill, as small group or wb are slightly different, but you can start here :
RoR.builders - Sword Master

You want to be very tanky :
Take crushing advance if you run SnB, or Vaul's buffer if 2H. Take both when 50+ renown rank.
Alternatively, you can use Blessing of Heaven for extra healing, especially if you are low on healing in party. Or just use Bolstering Enchantment instead (low efficiency, but helpful for healers in your group).

You want to deal more damage and steal more stats :
Take Phoenix Wing and/or Balanced accuracy (rr40/50) for extra AoE and crits, instead of going up middle tree.
After level 70, you can go take Ether Dance + Great Weapon Mastery (tactic is more efficient than Balanced Accuracy and gives you more defense).
Then with the +2 mastery points, you can go either Khaine or Vaul tree (see previous posts).

In all cases, the 3 Hoeth skills in the right tree are pretty much mantadory to any spec, since they got almost no equivalent, efficiency-wise ; you need WW for everyone, a reliable CC (the KD), and the group absorb + WW is just fantastic when it comes to protect your party.

on the other hand I do not understand the link is for a snb spe and not 2h

[nocturnalguest]

He is not advising to go deep into Khaine before you are geared and have decent rr. So he proposes kinda universal group friendly spec for both snb&2h