This guide will give some bad ideas to new players
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It let me basically add .2 to an extra class talent tree,
It is a waste of category point no matter what bullwark tree you improved. Bulwarks have too many nice trees to unlock to do that.
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Shield Offense Category:
- Shield Pummel (5/5) - This is one of your 3 top damage abilities.
- Riposte (4/5) - - - - - This increases the damage you do on targets that you block, going past 4 is up to you, but nothing really improves for the point.
- Shield Slam (5/5) - - - Great damage and reset your block buff.
- Assault (5/5) - - - - - Best damage ability you have.
IMO too much class points spent on minor damage increase.
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Shield Defense Category:
- Shield Wall (5/5) - - - I didn't use this much. Turned on when i was being knocked back. Some people love this, i felt more than tanky, so the damage reduction wasn't worth it.
- Repulsion (1/5) - - - - Never used. I didn't want to knock stuff away. I wanted it close so i could kill it.
- Shield Expertise (5/5) - Buffs your defense and offense, what's not to like?
- Last Stand (0/5) - - - Waste of talent imo.
I agree here
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Combat Techniques:
- Rush (5/5) - - - - - - - -Gap closer + a root. Essential.
- Precise Strikes (5/5) - - Love this! Nothing ticks me off more than missing. This adds lots of accuracy and crit (like 30+ %), but at the cost of 10% speed. I was at 96% crit chance.
Set up is my rush for bullwarks and I need no low cooldown, 3/5 for decent range is enough, 1/5 is an option, too. Precise strikes are matter of taste... not mentioning two other talents from this tree is weird for me
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Superiority:
- Juggernaut (1/5)
- Onslaught (1/5)
- Battle Call (1/5)
- Shattering Impact (5/5) - - -The sole reason i go here is Shattering Impact.
The ability to lay down 3k crits, then have that hit everything around your target, its the only aoe Bulwark has and its AMAZING! Its semi hard to flush out till max level, but once it is, you block and attack once to kill almost all mobs around you.
Shattering impact is nice, but it is not true, bullwark has shaterring impact as an alternative area damage
Not taking battle tactics is weird for me. The tree has great mobility talent and great damage multipler
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Generic Talents:
These seem pretty self explanatory, and you will end up with way way way more of these points than you could ever need. If you have good racials, get them. Heighten Senses and Piercing Sight are decent enough. The must haves are:
- Vitality (5/5)
- Unflinching Resolve (5/5)
- Thick Skin (5/5)
- Combat Accuracy (5/5)
- Dagger/Weapon Mastery (5/5)
IMO, Vitality gains little from maxing.
5th talent in unflinching resolve is excessive,
Dagger.... why anyone will use dagger as bullwark if not for challenge?
Evasion and charm mastery are omitted while both are interesting options.
And why armor mastery isn't listed?
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Life Regen: This is really amazing for bulwark. Having upwards of 100 regen per turn makes you really hard to kill. Most deaths, if they happen, need to be a 1 shot. So all items with + Life Regen, and +% Healing Bonus are fantastic.
Resistances: Resistances are never bad, and early game prior to Spectral Shield are the only thing stopping spells from 1 shotting you. Early game you probably want to balance resists with Life Regen. Once you have Spectral Shield, go all Life Regen to the max.
How about stuff that give mobility, escape options, status removal and so on?
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Prodigies: Unless you want to get cute, there are really only 2 you need.
- Eternal Guard - - - - Lets you block to your hearts content. Including applying the blocking damage buff.
- Spectral Shield - - - Normally, the only thing a shield can block is based on the element of the shield you use. This blocks it all, and with eternal block, that means you really just don't take damage.
Those are logical choices but bulwarks can benefit from many others.
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Stats: ("Max out" at 60 point)
I maxed Str and Con fairly evenly. I didn't touch anything else until that point.
IMO. Dexterity>Constitution for early game because it gives accuracy, defence, armor, +to stunning enemies chance, crit shrug off and lets to delay spending generics on accuracy. Constitution gives hit points, minor improvement of conditioning tree effectiveness, minor physical save buff and earlier thick skin (but hoarding +con items will give it anyway)
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I almost always get all 5 slots for the bulwark. 1 Straight heal, 2 heal over times, 1 damage shield, and 1 teleport.
No status removal infusions... I don't advice it to newbies. Just NO. Teleport runes can be silenced
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- Disarmed! Fear this. This is how you will get 1 shot. Disarmed, you cannot block, you cannot attack, you can just die. I'm sure you can see the danger. The first time you are fighting a big boss and you are disarmed, suddenly it chunks out half your hp and you still have 8 turns left on it. You. Are. Dead. Do everything you can to build Disarm Immunity to 100%. Shalore was great without this immunity, as i could just "Timeless" or "Relentless Pursuit" most of the disarms off. That being said, a lot of times you will be disarmed and take tons of damage that turn with no time to respond. It is the most dangerous thing you will encounter.
Sure, if you have no physical effects removal tools disarmed becomes rather unpleasant. Yet I see little problem here. Disarm doesn't slow you down, disarm doesn't stop you from using inscriptions, disarm doesn't stop you from using items.
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If you happen to find it, The Untouchable chest piece is RIDICULOUS good. Anytime you are hit for more than 20% of your max HP in damage, it throws up a shield for 130% of that. So if you are hit for 700, you instantly get a 910 shield following the hit. It comes with a down side tho. The best life regen stuff also comes on chest pieces. A Troll chestpeice of Eyal can almost raise you up to 100 healing per turn on its own. Choose carefully.
Ehm.... Now I know why you need block to survive. Never ever use any light armor as bullwark. Even if it is as good as untouchable. Armor saves you from being killed in melee and reduces chance of being critically hit. Of eyal is not a bad brand but the game is full of good armors.
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if you have more category talents than you want to use, you can improve one of your main trees by .2. Sometimes there just aren't great things to put them in, and on your main class trees, sometimes that .2 can make big differences.
As I said before - it is a bad idea. Care to provide some example of big difference? Hell, even if you are absolutely short of class\generic points with your build, spending a category point and a single class point for a dirty fighting is better than spending category point on existing tree