I recently purchased a DragonSlayer pretty cheap with the intention of selling for more. However, I've been running around hunting and pvping with it, and doing pretty **** well.
Would I be hurting myself to continue doing this? I was thinking a Health SA might offset extra damage I'd be taking vs. using a clean DLE and a NM shield. And if I did decide to go in a DD direction, would tallum be better armor to go with DS than my NM armor? Opinions?
If you're not using a shield as a tank class with shield masteries you're a failure. Might as well roll a class that has 2-hand masteries. o_O
Especially fighting archers a shield makes a huge difference. Besides you can put health also on a DLE, i don't quite understand how you compare a DS w/SA vs. a clean DLE.
The point of having a tank in your party is his ability to lure enemies towards him and surviving the experience. The twohanded sword is an option for when you want to solo because then damage output counts a lot. However in a party you are better of with a shield. Your pdef will be higher thanks to the shieldmasteries and that is something you need to help your party best.
It's generally pretty hard for me to find parties at all these days, so I solo alot, or duo with a BD or archer. Even when I did party alot 52-61, tanks were not in high demand.
Obviously I'm not going to tank a raid boss with a 2hand sword. However, both 2hand sword and 1hand/shield seem viable options for an SwS (who is still technically a knight class) and I'm not seeing an incredibly significant increase in damage taken when not using a shield, with the exception of pvping archers.