Can't decide on WS....

So my human-only WS finally hit 45. It's about time to buy him some sets.

I was planning builds in Mids. Originally I wanted to go full force on +recharge so I can summon pet quicker and use Eclipse quicker.

But during double exp event, I realized that I need "defense" and "mez protection" the most. Having capped resistance is nice but it truly sucks when I get stunned/held. I am already carrying a lot of break frees.


What's your opinions on this? I figure by having higher defense from sets, it also reduces the chance of me getting mezzed.

Should I focus full force on +recharge or +defense from set bonuses? Do you take Weave? I don't need Tough but I can find some use in Weave.

And also, is Eclipse auto-hit? I know this is a silly question because at first I thought it isn't but now I think it is?

Eclipse is not auto-hit, I suggest at least one accuracy IO. As for mez... Yeah, it happens. If you don't want to take Dwarf, break frees are your best bet unless you hold or stun the mezzers first. That's assuming you don't plan to take the Clarion Incarnate ability, which is invaluable to a Warshade.

I think the minimum global recharge you'll need is 150% to keep Eclipse perma, but you can still fit plenty of defense in there with toggles and set bonuses.

You can perma Eclipse with 120% recharge if you have Spiritual Core Paragon (i.e. the tier 4). This means that with five LotGs and efficient set bonusing you can permaclipse without Hasten.

Bling bling gold and moody goth purple? Ick.

I hate shifting delays that I don't want Dwarf form. lol

Oh, Eclipse is not auto-hit... I see.

I did plan on using Spiritual alpha but looks like Clarion is more useful to me because my biggest downfall is mez. If I don't get mezzed, I can withstand a lot of situations.

Not sure if I am going to be that dedicated to WS so maybe no Luck of Gambler. hehe

So in other words, you feel it's worth gimping your build and overbuilding for a minimal amount of recharge... Just because you don't like how hasten looks? o.o

I would personally rather build for the extra recharge than try to push all positions to the 30% mark. I find that getting s/l around 30% on its own can make a huge difference in survivability... Everything else is just gravy. I would rather sit comfortably on a high recharge build than barely have my Eclipse perma'd. I always keep my global recharge around at least the 170% mark on my builds, but that's just a matter of personal preference.

As for the idea that "defense doesn't matter," that just isn't true. There's definitely a strong case for being able to do without it (see: Dechs Kaison) but even he acknowledges the huge difference it can make in survivability. Of course, stygian return recharges so fast that you can let it be part of your attack chain, but you better be playing tri-form if that's your plan. I would hate to have stygian return be a part of my philosophy when I have to turn all my toggles back on every time I die... Ick.

[QUOTE=TwoHeadedBoy;3826897]generally, non issue= irrelevant = doesn't matter.

If you prefer to build for more utility that's totally understandable. Like I said, Dechs does the same. He also acknowledges how big of a difference defense makes for survivability.
[quote] that post was referencing my own play experience. I wasn't speaking generally.

Defense as a whole jumped the shark about two years ago. The Golden Age of "OMGz0rz must cap def" was 2007-2008. I recall seeing experiments around that time in capped Warshades. After that of course, the devs caught up and released I12 in May of '08, which introduced Cimerora. Since then danged near all mobs introduced have had some degree of def debuff which can handily shut down that hard won couple of billion's worth of set bonuses. Isn't going to matter much farming CoT, but Malta, Praetorians, Cimerorans, etc., yeah.

Now - and bracing myself for the howling - there is a way at 50 of achieving at least a degree of the survivability being sought in defense and that is using the Diamagnetic Interface for the foe tohit debuff. Yes, everyone uses Reactive. I have Reactive: in fact I have both.

Just for giggles I ran an experiment the other night: I went to RWZ and ran four rounds of Borea missions - two with Diamagnetic Total Core and two with Reactive Total Core (i.e. the comparable t3s). I used a middling farm setting of +1x8. My current build has 15% ranged and melee defense. The result with Diamagnetic was a very noticeable difference in toughness. A debuff of foe -5% tohit does NOT translate to -5% incoming damage. It's more - much more, on the order of 20%. And unlike defense, tohit debuff won't be immediately negated by unresistable foe def debuffs. An interesting experiment would be to reproduce the same four runs on Cim maps and see what difference the Interface variations make with def-debuffing mobs.