Thread: 1 Hand+shield or Halbred/2hand sword?

I have been seeing captains on my server running with 1hand swords and a shield, is there any benefit to that over using 2hand weapons?

Typically, a shield will have stats designed to deal with incoming damage, i.e. Critical Defense, incoming healing, and so on. A 2-handed weapon obviously has the 'base stats' that a one-handed weapon doesn't (like +x morale, Might, etc.) so you would lose some stats as well. Also, if you use this so-called "sword&board" tanking but you use a 2-hander for all other type of gameplay, as most do, you'll want a maxed 1-handed weapon with all the legacies you'd prefer for tanking and relics and so on. As Captains we're used to having multiple LIs, so I guess it's not the worst thing in the world, but it shouldn't be overlooked either.

So far, I've not personally tanked content that was tough enough to warrant the sword&board setup, but that may change... I've started looking towards building a 1-hander in case I wanna create a build for that in the (near) future.

I made a one-hander so i could get more skills off in a shorter time period. Using the shield is just natural..

with a 2h i was feeling constrained trying to get battle shout, sure strike, db/pa, boe, and inspire into one cycle. (a cycle's about 10 seconds since thats when BS comes back off cooldown).
also throw cutting attack, grave wound, and defensive strike in there... there's a lot of #### to go through.

But since i have been 1h w/ a shield i've been tanking in HoH.
The shield offers marginal tanking benefits over LoM's bonus, but i'll take crit defense & extra armor where I can get it.

Originally Posted by DuneBug

I made a one-hander so i could get more skills off in a shorter time period. Using the shield is just natural..

with a 2h i was feeling constrained trying to get battle shout, sure strike, db/pa, boe, and inspire into one cycle. (a cycle's about 10 seconds since thats when BS comes back off cooldown).
also throw cutting attack, grave wound, and defensive strike in there... there's a lot of #### to go through.

But since i have been 1h w/ a shield i've been tanking in HoH.
The shield offers marginal tanking benefits over LoM's bonus, but i'll take crit defense & extra armor where I can get it.

Interesting, how's your power holding up? Would you mind sharing your max power & ICPR? A full rotation for me will burn through my power pool in 5 or so minutes, a bit sooner if I'm also throwing out WoC, and longer if I'm getting defeat responses every 15sec or so to keep popping RC. This is in group situations popping Blade Brother's Inspire every chance I get.

I don't have the Cry Power Cost legacy and only have about -7% on the skill power costs legacy, however.

Originally Posted by DuneBug

I made a one-hander so i could get more skills off in a shorter time period. Using the shield is just natural..

this will come back to haunt you as with a captain it is generally a bad idea to fire off as many skills in as short a timespan as possible; you will either run out of power or need tons of icpr which would be better spent on offensive stats

considering that with a 1 hander those skills will also deal less damage there really is no advantage to running solo with a shield
no one except minstrels really does that when solo because it's just silly.. and minstrels only do it because they can't dual wield/use 2 handed weapons

with a 2h i was feeling constrained trying to get battle shout, sure strike, db/pa, boe, and inspire into one cycle. (a cycle's about 10 seconds since thats when BS comes back off cooldown).

why do you bother getting inspire in there? inspire is expensive and deals little damage so unless your herald really needs it there's just no point using it in a general rotation

also see above: it's not important to get as many skills in there as possible... if you only need one sure strike per rotation instead of 2 (13s cooldown on battle shout instead of 11) that's fine.. you'll still deal much more damage than with a 1 hander and save a bunch of power in the process
you don't *have* to use your maximum number of skills each rotation

all in all what you're describing here is bound to result in rather slow soloing

Originally Posted by flyingcircus

this will come back to haunt you as with a captain it is generally a bad idea to fire off as many skills in as short a timespan as possible; you will either run out of power or need tons of icpr which would be better spent on offensive stats

considering that with a 1 hander those skills will also deal less damage there really is no advantage to running solo with a shield
no one except minstrels really does that when solo because it's just silly.. and minstrels only do it because they can't dual wield/use 2 handed weapons

Unless they're tanking, where:
Shield's Stats >>>>>>>>>>> Halberd's Built in stats.

Originally Posted by flyingcircus

this will come back to haunt you as with a captain it is generally a bad idea to fire off as many skills in as short a timespan as possible; you will either run out of power or need tons of icpr which would be better spent on offensive stats

also see above: it's not important to get as many skills in there as possible... if you only need one sure strike per rotation instead of 2 (13s cooldown on battle shout instead of 11) that's fine.. you'll still deal much more damage than with a 1 hander and save a bunch of power in the process
you don't *have* to use your maximum number of skills each rotation

all in all what you're describing here is bound to result in rather slow soloing

This isn't my first rodeo. i'm aware of the power cost issue.
And what does this thread have to do with soloing?

In HoH or MoW, you have FB. inspire which pretty much negates any power costs. In LoM I do have power problems. Victory banner helps.. In the moors I also run out of power unless i can get inspires off. I have the melee cost legacy, I would normally use cry costs but my 2nd age ended up with 5 majors so I left that one off.

If I get more sure strikes up, i get more battle shouts which means i get more db/pa's which means i get more rally cries. In turn I will do less damage than I would with a 2h.

Ask yourself if you can squeeze every skill we have into your rotation with a 2h, and I'm betting you can't. And depending on what you don't use in time, you might be sacrificing some DPS. BS, SS, DB, BoE, Inspire; Also every other rotation or so SL or VS, cutting attack/grave wound, defensive strike. Not including any time used to pop rally cry or war-cry.. Personally I found things pretty hectic.

Look OP asked why use a shield, and I answered. I am not advocating it as the best thing ever, 2h will still do more dps.

I think its all about how you play your Captain. Sword and Board is certainly workable. I actually prefer a shield, but use a 2H sword for the DPS. I am primarily in the Moors these days and spike DPS there is important. The higher crits/devs really put pressure on the creep healers and net you more kills IMO.

Cas

Originally Posted by DuneBug

This isn't my first rodeo. i'm aware of the power cost issue.
And what does this thread have to do with soloing?

the OP never specified whether he was referring to solo or to group play

Ask yourself if you can squeeze every skill we have into your rotation with a 2h, and I'm betting you can't. And depending on what you don't use in time

in fact i can because i don't have to use every skill we possess.. that was the old captain design that didn't have enough attack skills and had to use silly things like grave wound (which is now not so silly anymore on high morale enemies) or inspire to deal decent dps however i was under the misconception that you might have been referring to solo play
in group play of course a shield is viable tho not my playstile

regardless with the effects of war cry and maybe SoW (blade) on me i usually don't have any troubles getting all the effective/necessary skills into my rotation

Look OP asked why use a shield, and I answered. I am not advocating it as the best thing ever, 2h will still do more dps.

see above