Bloodsail captain - Deflection
-
Based on the description, bloodsail captain does not benefit from the capstone of deflection for direct damage spells (as they do not wield 2h weapons). Now granted, blurred blade provides 8% magic mitigation but, could this be changed to include any single weapon user so that Bloodsail tanks could also benefit from it?
-
While I'm at it, other "2h only" parry abilities should also be looked at, like ghostly strike. They're important for a proper parry/dodge build.
-
If you are looking for more magic mitigation, the In the Zone enchant is your best bet.
What are you looking to get out of Ghostly Strike that a 2h gets that a swashbuckler does not? Swashbuckler gets dodge while 2h gets parry both can trigger Unfair Advantage. Swashbuckler makes better use of the combo points from the Setup talent.
-
I personally would prefer if when you learn ghostly strike you get ghostly strike(parry) and ghostly strike(dodge) and not that the effect is locked to the type of weapon and of course both would share the CD
-
@Ironcloak
The bloodsail captain RE seems to lean heavily towards parry as the main focus with the 20% agility conversion to parry rating. And it works nicely with the Matched blows RE for swashbuckling. The image behind this RE is of an epic sea captain deflecting every single blow that comes their way.Right now I run with Matched blows, emanating light, and Ghostly strike/earthborer acid.
How does In the zone scale? It doesn't really mention how much damage the bubble can eat. Is it just however much damage is dealt via unfair advantage? That would be noticeably lower when using a 1h vs 2h weapon.
I realize there are other RE's out there, but those RE's are available to all tanks. (I also don't want to dump 2 talent points into what is essentially a talent to increase damage unless its really great)
Ghostly Strike adds 10% to dodge when used, or parry if you're using a 2h weapon. 10% bonus parry would be much more useful than 10% dodge. Especially when paired up with the deflection capstone (which i dont believe should be limited to 2h weapons either).
Now, perhaps the 33% of parry chance reduction on direct spell damage combined with the 8% from flurry of blows would be OP. Fair, but that 8% is static while the deflection talent scales with gear.
Also, considering that shield tanks can use abilities like spell reflection and the shield cover talents to boost their spell mitigation by 30%. I dont think having 15% ish from gear is unbalanced.
@WiliemDemon
Honestly, i think most would choose parry, since in pvp, overpower makes having more dodge a liability. and tanks that would use it are either parry focused with 2h or swashbuckling, or are bears and unable to use ghostly strike in their forms. -
@Dreamthief The Adaptive Defense capstone makes dodge a better choice.
I do not know how In the Zone scales, obviously the free attack from unfair advantage is better with a slow 2 hander.
There is Balance of Power talent for 2% spell damage reduction and +2% to hit for 2 talent points in the Balance Druid tree and Arcane Shielding for another 2% reduction for 2 talents in arcane mage which is nice if you are running mana shield but otherwise not worth it. There is also magic absorption for 3% less for 3 talent points and 3% more magic damage which might be nice for an RF tank but doesn't seem to apply here as well as Spell Warding enchant for 1% reduction. So there are options to increase your spell damage reduction.
I think it would be OP to give swashbuckler tanks +8% and the parry rating conversion as well.
The question I have with swashbuckler tanks is that is it better to go AGL/INT mail or AGL leather? Mana Shield would be a ~700 damage shield each application and if you had mail armor, you would have a truckload of mana that you are not using for anything.
-
@Ironcloak
I've been doing pure agi at the moment because extra agility adds armour on its own, as well as dodge and parry which this RE focuses on. Parry blocks an entire attack, while armour just reduces the damage of those that get through. Which would make dodge/parry tanks quite spiky damage wise if not for the stagger talent.In terms of having excess mana. I generally find I have to depend on sanctuary, just to keep it up on trash pulls due to using consecrate and frost shock.
The benefit of the deflection talent is that it happens passively. If i was wielding a 2h weapon and all the rest of my gear was the same, i would have 30% parry which would convert to 10% spell damage reduction when ghostly strike is up (which is not hard to maintain with the ghostly blow RE) Vs an 8% that must be activated and consumes combo points and energy that may be better used on panache to reduce stagger damage. and yes, flurry does not require talent points, but you have to take deflection anyways because 1% parry, stamina, and crit resistance is hard to ignore.
Flurry of blows is situationally useful. I see it as similar to shield wall, or spell reflect. The added melee haste, although a nice flavour addition, and a bit more damage, doesn't really do much aside from its situational spell mitigation bonus.
If you are unable to sign in, please set your Display Name.