Hopefully I finish my subclass quest in the next week or two so I'm beginning to drool in anticipation of playing a Destroyer.
Good Job, i also play a lvl 65 Destroyer, love him to Death. My wife also plays a 65 SE, she has played her since C1, ive also played my Destroyer since C1 and have done nothing but Polearm, not just with a Destroyer, but my alt WS / BH combo that is also 62 each.
I will focus on primarily PvE until at least level 58, so I plan to build tattoos, armor, and weapons for PvE.
Good idea focusing on PvP until 58, but id more or less go until you hit A grade to start focusing on PvP, stick with PvE until 62 or so.
Ill get into armor setups and dyes further down.
I will have my SE available for buffs and healing, out-of-party. I will probably have VR4 by then.
VR4 is amazing, it really makes a Destroyer shine, especially when using a Polearm.
I plan to pole primarily in the catacombs on 4X HP mobs with groups of 4 to 8 mobs per pull (similar to how I ran my dwarves).
For tattoos I was thinking of +4 STR, +4 DEX, -8 CON. I might add +4 WIT to speed up seeding. Any comments?[Remember I'm going for a PvE build].
Ok, ill get into gear here.
You have two choices for Heavy Armor imho, Zubei or Doom, i personally dont like BW heavy because i dont like to reduce my Dex, Dex effects multiple things, not just one like STR does.
In your 40's, stick with Full Plate set, you cant go wrong here, set your dyes up so they will benefit you later on in your 50's when you hit B grade, ie:
Zubei Set + Dex +4 Tattoo = +294 HP, +5.64% to P.Def plus all the effects of the Dex tatt which is mainly, faster run speed, faster attack speed, more evasion and more accuracy, something you badly need as a Polearm weidler is accuracy. Also keep in mind, you take no stat hit here, except from the tattoo of course.
or
Doom set + Dex +4 Tattoo = +320 HP, Con +3 Str -3, same effects as above for Dex tattoo, but your soaking up the negative to Con at the price of STR, which in a Orc Destroyers case, wont matter when you factor in Rage + Frenzy which you can easily alternate between.
Why only one Tattoo?
Orc Destroyers get enough skills to be able to putout alot of damage without having to touch many stats, you take away too much Con, you will have alot less HP and get stunned a hell of alot easier, especially when you take a -8 hit to Con.
If you think you can handle the damage and keep it healed with VR4 plus SE healing, which you most likely will be able too, then take the -8 hit to Con and go +4STR and +4DEX tatts, your damage output will be high enough for VR4 to probally keep you healed, but leaves not much room for error in the event somethings goes wrong ie: bad postioning of train, someone else trains you, you start to get PK'ed in the middle of fighting a train.
For weapon I will purchase the best OE orcish poleaxe I can afford (probably around +6 or so) with Crit Stun SA. I will also probably get a Berserker Blade with Focus SA as a backup weapon.
Ok, here comes the heated topic, your on the right track with Polearm, seeing there is only two your going to need to worry about which is Orchish Polexe and Lance at 52.
This is my experience with 65 levels of poling under my belt, Crit Stun far outweighs any other SA if you know how to bunch the trains your pulling correctly, thats all there is too it.
If you can succesfully 95% of the time get all 8 mobs from each catacomb room into the 120 degree arc from just the normal angle of the pole attack, you wont regret going Crit Stun. If you cant do this, then i dont suggest getting Crit Stun, but you will be healing alot more.
Keep in mind, Polearms get the same crit bonus of a sword, so what ever your crit is with a sword, without Focus SA, is going to be the same as a Polearm with Focus buff. Only difference is atk speed and accuracy take a dip, but no biggie when your hitting 8 mobs at once.
One more thing, keep in mind you can succesfully hit 16 mobs, 2 cat rooms, and you can succesfully get them all bunched nicely using catacomb corners.
The trick is practice makes perfect when poling, Crit Stun is almost a must, anything else is for lazy people.
For armor I will use FPA set (probably nothing OE). I am considering trying out PL set too. Any comments from anyone on whether the Pdef loss for PL can be overcome with VR4 (think 4 to 8 green mobs with 4X HP)?
Once I get to level 52 the only change I plan to make is to switch to BW Heavy armor and maybe exchange the orcish poleaxe for a lance with equal or better Patk, sticking with the Crit Stun SA.
Refer to what i said above about armor set ups, but ill mention one thing here, if you are planning to take the -8 hit to CON, dont go with Plate Leather, big no no.
As for BW heavy, well i pointed out about that also.
As far as skill use goes I will run Rage and Guts as often as I can. What is the most effective way to use Frenzy? I also plan to use Viscious Stance passive on the initial pull based on some experiments I ran with an Orc Raider.
Most effective way to use Frenzy is just use it normaly like you will be using Guts and Rage.
Use Guts + Rage in conjunction with each other, and Frenzy on its own. Alternate between the two of them.
Best way to use these abilities is to increase your killing time, not see how many mobs you can take down at once, because if i remeber correctly, Destroyer can hit a max of 16 mobs and Warlords 18 or 20, cant remember exactally.
So pulling any more then 16 is a waste as the rest arent going to be taking damage until you reduce the numbers, the more you pull, the more downtime you take waiting for repops.
Stick to pulling 2 rooms, 8 mobs at a time, kill those move to the other room, the faster you kill them the faster they start there respawn time, with Frenzy, you will have to wait for a respawn unless you have a 3rd room you can pull from quickly to take full benefit of Frenzy.
EDIT - Quick word on Vicious Stance, use it when your stationary, with your train postioned where you want it, no real need to use it on the intial pull.
Rest is upto you, postioning is the key to succesfully poling, if you dont, its hard work and gets very frustrating.