Defensive warrior questions

[Cynaidh]

Hoping to pick Oedi or Prinny's brains here a bit or anyone else that would like to help.

I am debating if i want to go primarily str based or agility based weapons/gear on my defensive warrior.

At first i was 100% sure i wanted to go agility for the extra defensive agility gives you.

But then i started looking at the warrior skills that i wanted.

Several of the defensive skills for warriors don't have agility listed at all:

Shield weapon skill
Grim Determination
Armour Movement
Never Say Die
Create Distance
Armored Fortress

There are no skills for the warrior tree that take agility and not strength, so it seems the tree is set up to be strength orientated.

So in theory having a higher strength will make these skills work better. So the question is will have these skills at a higher effectiveness be better then having the defense you get from having a high agility? I just have no idea and wondering if anyone has any thoughts on it.

[Pit Lord]

I'm also wondering the same things. Even more interesting what is the purpose of the high speed shields .

[Cynaidh]

Well i guess no one has any suggestions for us Pit Lord

I am going to go ahead and try it with Behemoth, going to try sinking as many points as i can into just Str and Stam and use agility as my 3rd stat and see how it goes with a heavy axe and large shield. Still debating on staying Dunder for the knockdown protection or going Trug for more hit points. Should have all his skills moved around in a week or 2 (21 points to go) and will let ya know how it goes then.

[Kreegan]

Go for 1 primary weapon type, not really important what + Master of Arms. This way you'll cover the shield and will be able to switch between weapons if the current one doesn't suit you. The rest is individual I guess. 1122 and Asatsuo are the best tanks right now so I guess they make the best scouting material too.

[Cynaidh]

Yup have taken a look at them Kreegan and am doing the master of arms thing (just keeping his 2h weapon skill plus master of arms), they are both agility based, since all those defensive warriors skills i listed above don't take agility at all, i am still just wonder if you did a very high strength defensive warrior if the extra strength would increase the effectiveness of those skills enough to compensate for not having a high agility for the defense that agility gives you. You'd also get the extra hit points from the strength like Pit Lord pointed out in the other thread.

My goal for Behemoth is to try and gear him to something like

str 200+
int 100
agi 130
stam 150+
size 117
pre 80
chi 80

Needless to say will take Legendaries to try this.

And then I just want to see just how tanky he is with that strength score boosting those warrior skills and using a heavy shield (which is strength based also) and full heavy plate armor.

[Adoede]

Hi Cynaidh,

I'd like to know how your strength-based tank does as well. I was going to go strength on my tank, but recently switched to agility since it is supposedly better for defense. If I do switch back to strength, I'd probably put points in strength and chi and make him a parry/bash type tank.

[Pit Lord]

I don't see Master of Arms just as "shield covering skill". With Master of Arms all available weapon skills are considered lvl 10 (if one is lvl 10). There is no need to specify any stats or spec because with time a lot of gear will be obtained (10-15+ weapons 20-30+ armour pieces). The end result will be a gladiator who can come in any possible form.

[Cynaidh]

With a final burst of trophie sponsored arena fights the skill swap is done! Ended up moving around a total of 35 points of skills, his new more defensive build is:

10 two-handed weapon, 10 Battle Hardened, 10 DFA, 10 Master of Arms, 10 Armour Movement, 10 Never Say Die, 10 Intercepting Guard, 10 Light as a Feather, 10 Create Distance, 10 Armoured Fortress

His gear is all over the place, i have a feeling it will take many seasons to get it where i want it:

+ 57 Strength
+ 26 Agility
+ 53 Stamina
+ 30 Size
+ 10 Chi
+ 32 Attack Power
+ 49 Defense
+ 600 Health
+ 8 Endurance
• Block Rank: 183/1000
• Extra Damage Rank: 130/1000
• Kill Rank: 27/1000
• Life Protection Rank: 113/1000
• Crit Protection Rank: 98/1000
• Extra Bleeding Rank: 96/1000
• Bleeding Protection Rank: 21/1000

For end stats of:
149-88-114-147-127-76-89
Health: 3004
Endurance: 155

Using mainly 196 Armor, a 1.4 speed Axe and a 335 Defense Shield (34% Encumbrance).

Right now i think his Str and Endurance are low, want to increase both of those with better gear, will keep the gauntlet and conquests rolling i think to see if i can get some upgrades for him while waiting to see how he does in this new season starting next week.

[Cynaidh]

Just had a tank-off battle!

E N D O F M I N U T E 17
THE BEHEMOTH is the favorite right now!
R O U N D 106
THE BEHEMOTH makes a rookie attack with his PRIMEVAL WALL SHIELD OF THE BLOOD GODS.
The attack to the hand proves to be very ineffective. (+18 Damage)
THE BEHEMOTH howls as BELTANK drops to the ground from exhaustion and looks to the Enforcer for mercy...who grants it.
The fight lasted 17 minutes & 35 seconds!

[Adoede]

Hahahahaha