I've been thinking of putting an SA on my orcish Poleaxe, so my Warlord can use it. But I haven't yet grasped the difference between Towering Blow and Wide blow.
What exactly is the difference, and how would it work against mobs? Which one would you say it's the best choice?
I have tried both of these with both my Warlord and my Warsmith.
Towering Blow STINKS. It's an utter waste. It MIGHT help in reaching mobs to agro them, but it has no effect on even your 360-degree attacks you can feel.
Wide Blow is VERY nice for non-Warlords. It compensates for some of the lack of pole skills. My Warsmith was very happy with Wide Blow.
You are a Warlord. You get skills that let you do multiple-360 attacks and even a skill that does Wide Blow - kinda. I honestly suggest you look again at Critical Stun. It works very very well for Warlords combined with your other skills.
Particularly with the new VR suckage, wide blow will regen you less HP than it used to. but if you can crit even a few more mobs, that can just give you the survive time you need to get them down before you go.
I wasn't thinking about crit stun because warlords get a AoE stun skill, which is Thunderstorm. I don't remember the landing rate on that, but still, the crit stun is 25% chance anyway. The main thing that I've been seeing is that from the last time I've done AoE, the mobs AI changed, and I was looking for a SA that would allow me to hit more mobs even if they don't like up perfectly.
The skills you're talking about won't come for a while, if I'm not wrong, that's until B grade. Until then, I don't think there's any 360 skills or wide blow skills either.
I can't remember who authored the posts, but there was an unbelievably detailed series of tests and subsequent observations that one Warlord did on those two SA's. I found them to be very helpful.
It is the same question, but since mine is a Warlord, I thought I'd ask for opinions here.
But I'm gonna read that thread. I got Thunder Storm which is a nice thing, I'm just not so sure I crit that much to justify a crit stun of a 25% chance.
That's kinda what I was wondering, Roder. The Stun rate isn't that good and I don't crit that often to actually trigger a stun, besides the Thunder Storm does a pretty decent job (I don't have shock stomp on my Warlord yet, she's only 43 at the moment).
If I do put an SA, I think I'll go with Wide Blow. Thank you all for the advice.
Wide Blow is definitely a good choice. It is a lot more forgiving if you get a sloppy pull.
For my warlord I just want maximum stun all I can possibly get. Shock Stomp is awesome, and Thunder Storm does have an OK land rate. But keep in mind a few things regarding Critical Stun (before we close out the discussion):
1. You are pulling a whole bunch of mobs. So even if the chances are low, that chance gets tested across a lot more mobs at once than if you were 1v1'ing mobs.
2. My Lance has a +16 Critical augment on it, which definitely helps make that SA more useful. +Critical is a reasonably common augment to get in my experience, so might lean the figuring a bit.
IMO Wide Blow is also a good SA choice for resale. It will be popular with the ersatz polers like Dwarves.
IMHO +crit on WL still sux... crit rate is 1 per 5-6 hits usually and 13% on Lance chance so real chance is not big.... if u train 20 mobs -1-2 stuned not change much...
Mobs AI is much better now an they always run from normal pole arc..
I try get passive CHANCE STUN / SLEEP when mob hit me :) no luck with augments