It all depends on your armor. I see you are in your 40's. So you are most likely wearing Full Plate. Do you have a buffer, if so what is it? I am a proponent of +4 Dex -4 Con. I like to cast judgment and shield stun faster. Also like the faster run speed and additional crit rate. Add a +4 Wit -4 Men tat also. You will cast your cat faster, almost in the same time that stun lasts. Make sure you are using a SLS with focus too.
Hmmm makes sense, I have mid 50's buffers-->SE,PP, & WC! I do solo a lot right now because we have brought our clan Burning out of retirement. So not many parties for the sub and I was thinking the extra damage from +4str would help... And it did make a big difference, I was surprised! Would you drop it for the other 2, becuase if I kept it that would be a lot of -con.
if you are with a buff party, don't worry about the -8 con. The only time it will be a pain is if you hunting stun mobs like silenos or in the Hot Springs.
It all depends on your armor. I see you are in your 40's. So you are most likely wearing Full Plate. Do you have a buffer, if so what is it? I am a proponent of +4 Dex -4 Con. I like to cast judgment and shield stun faster. Also like the faster run speed and additional crit rate. Add a +4 Wit -4 Men tat also. You will cast your cat faster, almost in the same time that stun lasts. Make sure you are using a SLS with focus too.
Looking at the dye's available for DA it doesn't look like you can +4wit/-4 men? I think you can only +4wit/-4int? Correct me if I wrong, but according to this site you can't. Not sure If I want to reduce my m.atk for drain and all that stuff...
I chickened out and didn't reduce any stat too much or increase any stat too much (so you could argue I didn't accomplish anything!).
I split the con and went +2 str and +2 dex. I'm solo a lot of the time so I wanted a bit more offense and not too much less hp.....sort of weak I know--but you adapt to reality rather than fantasy.
I'd like to go all-out offensive build but those few extra HP give me a small amount of piece of mind.
True--I don't hit quite as hard as I could but I also almost never get concerned solo PvE either.
One tiny advantage to this is that with the last slot open, I can duplicate either of the ones it turns out I like. If there is some small value in the +2/-2 dyes, I suppose that's it.
Just another thought.
I solo without buffs 80% of the time I play. I tank in a cata once a week for two hours--the rest of the time I'm a solo DD-wannabe.
I need patk and speed more than I need 200 hitpoints.
Tanks are not warriors. Warriors do better as HP sponges, Tanks do better with damage mitigation. Damage mitigation does not require HP. If your tanking a dangerous PvE zone you have a healer, have 6kHP or 10kHP makes no difference, you still Die at 0, just means your healer can screw up for a few seconds, just have a good healer.
Raiding, you should have a good supply of healers, and once again, more HP does nothing to keep you alive, only gives the healers more time, get better healers.
In PvP if something is doing enough damage to really crack your CP and hard, 4k HP is only going to buy you 5-8 seconds of life, in which you still wont do enough damage to kill them any more than you did as a -con build. However fighting class's that really cant crack your CP effectivley, having a more DPS build ends the fight faster and you still keep your CP since your poting up most their damage.
In olympiad which I have not partaken in, having the more HP for longevity in 1x1 may be the only situation where you want a +con build.
It took a long time for Maline to get it through my head that higher damage output HELPED a tank hold aggro! (I know it's a simple idea but I just couldn't seem to grasp it--lol).
Same toon, same dyes, same armor, same hitpoints---I had a borrowed Tallum sword and finally worked to get my own DLE. The offensive output of the DLE is about 10% more, all things being equal.
Using the DLE I will occasionally hold a mob better than with the Tallum.
Back to topic--I have a "moderate, weak sort of offensive build". Nightmare, DLE, +2str/+2dex/-4 con, majestic jewels.
Partly because I solo a lot. Partly because with unbuffed nearly 4k hp the 200 or so I loose with -4 con is no big deal. Partly because my clan has a full-defensive build DA for serious tanking who is a level higher than me and a bit more experienced.
If you think about it, the NM heavy adds to patk, decreases dex (so my tat essentially balances that out), and increases con (partially re-adding hp anyway).
At the same time, I can tank very well with my current build. We did the Ice Fairy raid a couple weeks back and it was no problem with my gear and set-up.
The game allows for a lot of customization. In different circumstances I wouldn't be in Nightmare--or perhaps have the weakish tats that I do.
I just tossed mine in for an alternate opinion to show another possible choice--not because I'm advocating it for anyone else.
Actually no. We had her down to less than 1/5 of her hitpoints and the two silenced minions became unsilenced. They heal the boss and themselves so it was more than we could overcome.
We came close but had to do a PR in the end.
Our after-action assessment was that we needed a bit more DD in the group.
I think with an adjustment or two we'll get her though. It was our first try and it went well--we just couldn't quite drop her.
We have gone in with a 64- melee team and a 79 doomcryer and have not been able to overcome the healer minions. Our build was the 79 doomcryer with CoV, 68 Bishop, 60's sword singer and blade dance, a 62 Tyrant, Treasure hunter, 2 hawk Eyes and a Silver Ranger, the healers still messed us up pretty bad, we get her down to about half before they respawn and it was just no go after they came back up.
RRawr, hi guys, I will be trolling the human fighter forums now since retiring my bd <3
For me, when xping, i go all out -11 con rofl. +5 str +4 dex -9 con, with tallum +2 str -2 con. Helped to me xp quite fast, ofc I would not use this set up once i hit 78 or recommend it while pvping. I notice, even though you seem to be fragile, its not the really the case. if you have VR and pp buffs, the additional dmg, paired with the high def of a human tank its really efficient in killing mobs. Its not very fragile either =]. I think the biggest difference is choice of armor. tallum is a great xp armor and will really improve your kill rate.
I actually notice this helps me stay alive longer as a solo xp-er because having a higher dps means you are killing the mobs faster. kill faster mobs and you will have less mobs to deal with. less mobs means the less dmg you are taking. higher kill rate increases the effects of VR. For example, an 8 spawn cata room, if you can kill the mobs fast enough where only 1 mob spawning at a time, you should be able to clear that room solo. The only way that is going to work is if you are killing the mobs fast enough. if 2-3 mobs are spawning, you will likely take too much dmg, and not output enough, so your chance of death is increased.
As far as ice queen, we killed it quite a few times on lionna. You have to kill the correct mobs before you go in. I remember killing 2 sets of mobs, and then go in with Death spike nukers to reduce the mp usage as well as a solid tank.
On that note, we still have 700 silver hemocites on Lionna that we cant use cause were all on bartz now, if someone wants to use them pm me! Our party setup was BD / PP / SE / EE / Necro / Necro / SH / SH / Pally. the heal mobs need to be stunned, then focus fired on all nukers. (i think they are the flooting ball looking ones ) cant remember, was a long time ago!
Hey rainday hows bartz treating you? I think we have upwards of 1k hemocytes, we havent made an attempt since we deicded we need to work on killing the healers in a different order, the melee party with CoV owned till the healers poped back up or droped silence though =/. Got anything else on lionna you may want to dump =D Also i think you guys still have beast farm o.O