Hello everyone. Whenever I log on to these forums I see tons of questions about general knowledge, viability of characters, specs, setups etc.
I don't really have the time to read through all of these threads which is the reason I made this one.
To myself : I have been playing daoc since probably a good 10 years with some breaks inbetween, putting most of my time into RvR. I have always been leading or been part of the top 5 RvR grps on the servers I played. Im sure some of you still have unanswered questions and look for opinions.

Questions I'm not going to answer
anything pve related
anything related to assasins or archers

I got a better app for all of my questions, even PvE is allowed

https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... talo&hl=de

Should I post in this thread?
The voices from beyond the grave say: Yes

Should I roll a ranger?
My sources from beyond the grave say: No

Made this thread to help out people, offtopic will be reported & ignored (not Celteens one because I had to laugh) so just don't bother

What was the hardest of the characters you've played in RvR to handle? (You have to pick one and you don't get to argue for the 2nd hardest)

Which one was the most fun for you? (Same procedure as above)

How annoying is a lurikeen hero to have around as friend? As enemy? (Give me the low-down on the viability here - assume the player is skilled)

And finally: How should I spec my ranger?

Equade wrote:What was the hardest of the characters you've played in RvR to handle? (You have to pick one and you don't get to argue for the 2nd hardest)

Which one was the most fun for you? (Same procedure as above)

How annoying is a lurikeen hero to have around as friend? As enemy? (Give me the low-down on the viability here - assume the player is skilled)

And finally: How should I spec my ranger?

1. Hardest Character
The hardest of all characters to play on a high level is definitely Minstrel, aslong as you play in a grp, while using a pet. (Pet mechanics have always been bugged on Uth but that's another topic)
If you're a mechanical god you can do infight mezzes, run ablative, split dds, manage stun timings when someone's using a quickcast or by stunning a healer while there's burst damage on any target. If you can do all of that while melee rupting and controlling a pet at the same time there's no character in the game that requires the same amount of skill.

2. funniest Char
Bard & Pac Healer were the characters that I have always enjoyed the most. Probably also the two hardest characters to play after Minstrel, but not as stressful. It simply gives you the possibility to outplay your enemies by being smarter and position correctly infight. They are also quite challenging when it comes to mechanics. You'll need fast fingers and alot of qbinds

3. Lurikeen Hero
I personally don't like Lurikeen Heros, allthough they have fairly high quick & dex. If Uthgard 2.0 has the correct weaponskill influence on defense Penetration values there's no Reason for not going Bolg hero with 15start strength. You always want to make sure that you time your shield switch according to the enemy swingspeed while Guarding so you can switch to your 2 handed weapon after their swing to land one 2h hit to get the maximum amount of damage. Damage is the best way to pressure your enemy, offtanks will most likely have to run back to their healer or atleast stay in its range after taking 2-3 lw swings. Lurikeens might be annoying, a bit harder to target, able to backsnare faster because of their high quick value and block a bit better, but that's it.
You want DMG

4. Ranger
I don't like stealthers

Since I can not decide, can you give me a rundown on how viable ench and menta will be with old RAs? Thx

1.) light tanks tended to run splitspec. does anything concerning that change in 1.65?
2.) Whats ur opinion about slam-spec on mercs/bm´s ? yes/no? why (not)?
3.) Several Genesisvideos showed albs running without theurgists. is that genesis-only (bugged?) or do theurgists suffer more than other casters with old ra´s ?

Pyat wrote:Since I can not decide, can you give me a rundown on how viable ench and menta will be with old RAs? Thx

Both Characters will be viable. I think that you pretty much always want a second demezzer in a hib grp with old ra's, let it be a 2nd bard or the Mentalist. Enchanter is more versatile than a Mentalist, because you'll pretty much only run a Mentalist if you already have an Eld and an Enchanter in the grp. You always want to have an eld in a hib grp, no matter what Setup evolves around it, simply because of how powerful nearsight becomes with 30min Purge.
I would stick to the Enchanter, it actually recieves a buff through old ra's, especially with old BAOD which is the #1 RA against caster grps. The problem I see for Mentalists is that they will only evolve their full potential in a grp with 3+ Casters. It's quite suboptimal to run Mentalists in Tank/Hybrid grps, but it's definitely a strong character.

Rudi wrote:1.) light tanks tended to run splitspec. does anything concerning that change in 1.65?
2.) Whats ur opinion about slam-spec on mercs/bm´s ? yes/no? why (not)?
3.) Several Genesisvideos showed albs running without theurgists. is that genesis-only (bugged?) or do theurgists suffer more than other casters with old ra´s ?

1. Light tanks/split spec

Zerker - Will surely be running splitspec, you absolutely want the Backsnare, plus dmg against bards with crush & plus against druids with slash, which is also neutral to all alb armors in the game. There is absolutely no reason to not go splitspec as a Zerker

Blademaster - Doesn't benefit as much from the splitspec, you will be hitting casters&Healers most of the time, which is why Pierce is extremely good for bms. This can change depending on the playstyle of your grp, it can be very powerful to use Slash if your grp is kiting or if you want to peel tanks with the old prevent flight. Slash weapons against zerkers are pretty efficient.

Mercenary - Benefits more from Splitspec than a Blademaster, but less than a zerker. Crush weapons against Bards are extremely powerful - you always want to have one offtank stuck to the Bard unless he's cc'd or has pets. You'll need Slash against Druids or if your grp plans to kill zerkers first which can be a legit goal sometimes. More details in the 2nd Answer

2. Shield for Lighttanks
Absolutely, Yes. You always want to have the slam, Which is why I would always recommend both Shield & Splitspec at higher ranks. You just need 26 points (with items and rr) in your weaponline to deal more dmg hitting vulnerable armors than you would deal with 51 weapon hitting resistant armors. Which basically means that you just have to drop a few points into the other weaponline to dish out significantly more dps. You can even run splitspec+Shield on lower ranks, but I would not recommend it since you want to have like 20+ parry to avoid slams&snares.
There are tons of Reasons for going Shieldspec, it just offers so much, and the extra dmg you'd have without Shield is totally not worth it. You can run Crush mercs without Shield and use the anytimer followup but that's still quite bad compared to Slam. If you want to run pure splitspec without Shield, make sure your 2nd Bm/Merc has a Slam atleast.
A few notes on how slam can be used :
Slam one healer, assist the other one
Go to your Offtank partner, slam the deftank that guards his target and assist.
Disrupt a quickcast by slamming - This is sooo good and so often a win in an 8v8 simply because of one Slam. E.g Clerics get mezzed with Purge down, sorcs trying to QC demezz but get's slammed since the BM saved his slam timer for their qc. Won tons of fights just by doing this over and over.

3. No Theurgists
I personally did not play Genesis which is why I don't know if there were any bugs that led to this. Theurgist recieved a huge buff through New Ras. Their rr5 is arguably one of the best in the whole game, additionally Theurgist was one of the characters that gained a HUGE edge with concentration3. That's pretty much it, Theurgs will be weaker than they have been with new ra's but they are still very strong. My prediction is that we will see grps running double cab, one being matter spec, one spirit just because of how powerful red nearsight is with 30min purge. These Caster heavy grps will probably run without Theurgists. There will surely always be room for a theurgist in Tank/Hybrid grps, but less theurgists in Caster grps.

Assuming weaponskill/defense penetration/etc. is fixed, would you go Celt or Firbolg for BM?

Austerim wrote:Assuming weaponskill/defense penetration/etc. is fixed, would you go Celt or Firbolg for BM?

Celt. Firbolg offers 30 more strength, while having 20 less dex and quick. If you go for the standard shield/pierce spec go for celt. If you plan to spec crush/slash as your main weaponline firby for sure.

33 regrowth or 47 music for bard?

specter424 wrote:33 regrowth or 47 music for bard?

Both are reasonable specs. The lvl 47 Instant Mezz can win a fight right on inc, especially against caster heavy grps & with high cooldown on purge. You will never catch as many people with the lower instant mezz, because it has a lower radius. The Red AoE mezz is also great to have and you won't find yourself healing that much in 8vX situations.

On the other hand, 33 regrowth offers a powerful heal, which is especially great in duo/smallmen and you'll have less benefits from the red instant and aoe mezzes when fighting a small number of enemies.

There's also the option to go 44music & 20ish healing, gives you a tiny better heal and you only miss the red instant mezz.

In a Nutshell : 33Regrowth for smallmen/allround, 47 Music for 8vX

Down to yellow ae mezz since for longer competetiv 8vs8 fights mana is the biggest issue and bard can only use their highest spells

Foneb wrote:Down to yellow ae mezz since for longer competetiv 8vs8 fights mana is the biggest issue and bard can only use their highest spells

Power is not really an issue for bards if you use your first pot at ~70% power and keep them on a 1 minute timer.
And the powercost difference is like 5 which is quite marginal