Thread: Need help with understanding class traits

Hi,

I have a problem with my champion lvl 48. I have 4 traits equiped from tab called 'The Deadly Storm' obviously focusing on AoE attacks.I have trait called 'Swift to Anger' which makes my swift blade AoE, and it is effected with Ardour stance. But only the power cost changes, damage stays the same. Why ? Which skills are effected with Ardour stance ?

Swift Blade and Blade Wall are not technically AOE attacks, and thus may not be affected by the -% power consumption of the yellow trait line.

I really messed up some things, but now i get it. Still, my blade-wall dmg changes but swift blade doesn't, how so ?

It's been like that for a while. Even though it's an AoE, Swift Blade doesn't benefit from the AoE damage bonus from Ardour. This is probably a bug. I can't remember whether or not it's correctly benefiting from the legacy that increases AoE damage, either.

In any case, Swift to Anger is a very good trait as it greatly improves your damage when there's more than one thing to hit.

One more question, since I'm using Ardour now ( i am traited in that way ), I have the ability to parry or evade. Should that be my priority after might / vit. or should I go for critical hit ( I have a great LI which enpowers critical hit damage, so I though about lvling that one up). What do you think ?

As a champ i would not focus on p/e gear. You will get parry benefits from might which should be your main focus. Tanking champs generally focus more on self-bubbles, reflects, the parry bonus from hedge, and the +inc healing bonus from bracing attack then on gear that gives those bonuses.
For gear focus on might/vit, you will need some agility when you are level capped (not much). An ardour champ can be geared exactly the same as a fervour champ and be very viable. Although there isnt much room for ardour champs at the current end game imo.

And after all that you are still leveling, get the best gear you can get your hands on that focuses on might then vit. Once you get to level cap you can focus on gearing out. And for that matter gear doesnt really focus on the single-stat game we are in now until after lvl 65.

I dont use ardour and haven't found a reason to since i was taught how to actually play champ. But for either ardour or fervor build u need to max out your dps no matter what. Go with attack duration on your rune, might, vitality, physical mastery and crit rating/agility last
Glory would be totally different build and make sure u are using flurry buff.
but no offense intended try out fervor trait 4 and just kill everything before it kills you. With the right virtues for armour buffs and physical mitigation u will last longer than u think especially with bracing attack traited if u think the fight might draw out lol

Originally Posted by Gylve

In any case, Swift to Anger is a very good trait as it greatly improves your damage when there's more than one thing to hit.

Just to clarify for the OP, you will really only trait Swift to Anger if you are a 2H champ and not DW.

Originally Posted by Thorcar

Just to clarify for the OP, you will really only trait Swift to Anger if you are a 2H champ and not DW.

uh... why?

I DW and trait Blood-Lust, Stalwart Blade and Swift to Anger. I use Wild Attack and Stalwart as my staple pip-builders for single target, and Swift + Blade Wall for AoE. Even DW, Swift Blade will outdamage Wild in an AoE environment, not to mention it generates huge amounts of pips.

But yes, if you're traiting for just doing a single target fight, you wouldn't want to trait Swift to Anger if you're a DW champ.

Originally Posted by Gylve

But yes, if you're traiting for just doing a single target fight, you wouldn't want to trait Swift to Anger if you're a DW champ.

Why not? Regardless of 2H or DW it'll give you an extra pip on crit. Of course for single target it's not very good, but you're implying that you should trait it for single target 2Hing?

Originally Posted by Gylve

I DW and trait Blood-Lust, Stalwart Blade and Swift to Anger. I use Wild Attack and Stalwart as my staple pip-builders for single target, and Swift + Blade Wall for AoE. Even DW, Swift Blade will outdamage Wild in an AoE environment, not to mention it generates huge amounts of pips.

But yes, if you're traiting for just doing a single target fight, you wouldn't want to trait Swift to Anger if you're a DW champ.

IMO, I just feel that I get enough pip gen from Stalwart and Blood-lust and rather use the trait slot for something else. I have four majors on my sword with WA as one of the legacies so it does some nice damage.

From an Orthanc perspective when we have a bunch junk on the tank, I personally like to mix in the single target DPS of WA with the AoE attacks to get the TA target down faster. My DPS numbers for the pull might be lower than they could be at the end but it is just better for the raid to burn certain targets down faster (e.g. taskmasters).

Originally Posted by Nakiami

Why not? Regardless of 2H or DW it'll give you an extra pip on crit. Of course for single target it's not very good, but you're implying that you should trait it for single target 2Hing?

Cause you won't be using Swift Strike a whole lot in a DW setup - your staple pip builders are Wild Attack and Bladewall (as opposed to Swith and WA in a 2H setup). Additionally it leaves you with only 1 pip builder, when you cannot really AoE due to a CCed mob right next to you. Guess I wouldn't even slot it in a 2H setup.

Originally Posted by Nakiami

Why not? Regardless of 2H or DW it'll give you an extra pip on crit. Of course for single target it's not very good, but you're implying that you should trait it for single target 2Hing?

Because Wild Attack and Blade-wall both hit single targets much harder when DW, so I only ever hit Swift on single targets when I'm dual-wielding when I'm absolutely pip-starved.

Swift hits for about the same damage as Blade-wall when you're using a 2h, but is, well, Swifter and can generate possibly 2 pips instead of just 1, so I prefer to use Swift and Wild as my staple pip-builders when I use 2H (which is, admittedly, not very often). So yeah, I think Swift to Anger is a better trait choice than Stalwart Blade for 2H, single-target built champs, if you're choosing between the two anyway.

Originally Posted by Bennybo

... max out your dps no matter what. Go with attack duration on your rune, might, vitality, physical mastery and crit rating/agility last

Your ranking is quite a bit off. I don't see how gearing for vitality will do anything good for your DPS, so having that on second place in your priority list is kind of counter intuitive. Also having crit rating last is far from being advisable. At least when you reach the endgame crit is the thing to go for, if you already have a seizable amount of might/mastery. There comes a point when crit does more for your DPS than mastery. Just grabbing numbers out of thin air, but a build with lets say 31k mastery and 5k crit will do less DPS than a build with 28k mastery and 8.5k crit. So crit is quite important when gearing for DPS.

Originally Posted by Gylve

Swift hits for about the same damage as Blade-wall when you're using a 2h, but is, well, Swifter and can generate possibly 2 pips instead of just 1, so I prefer to use Swift and Wild as my staple pip-builders when I use 2H (which is, admittedly, not very often). So yeah, I think Swift to Anger is a better trait choice than Stalwart Blade for 2H, single-target built champs, if you're choosing between the two anyway.

^ this.

I am primarily a 2H single-target, and I use Swift Blade and WA for pip gen, with Swift to Anger traited. I do not use Stalwart Blade. Since Swift is a frontal-aoe, it is not too hard to avoid aoe on unintended targets... although honestly, I am usually happier to hit more bad guys at once. The best form of CC is death.