2h Balance Build Advice

[Angantyr]

Good day,

I'm looking for sound advise for my character build the next two levels. I'm mostly interested in the opinion of people who have experience with the same stats.

I'm a 2h balance build, with 18-21 on lvl 30. Because I prefer offense over defense I usually fight in light armor ( gambeson or scale ) and rely a lot on athletics, blocking and swing speed. My weapon of choice is the GS.

My question is whether I should go for STR og AGI with the 3 points I get for the next two levels ( I'm converting two skill points at lvl 32 ), making me either 18-24 or 21-21.
It's either one more athletics or 1 more WPM and a bit more proficiency or one more PS.
I usually swing for the head and as such take most players out in 1-2 hits though many of the really heavy armors and STR builds can take a lot of hurt before I take them down, and they usually one-shot me because of my lack of armor.

I know this is all a matter of preference, but there's no doubt I'd enjoy both 1 ath or 1 WPM aswell as 1 PS. The increase in WPM would probably be somewhat marginal and perhaps redundant ( I swing rather fast already with my light armor though I'd always be interested in being faster of course ) but I could definitely use the 1 athletics. What I'm really trying to figure out here is how much of a difference it would make going from 6 to 7 in Weapon Master if I buffed STR to 21 ? Will I need to hit enemies one less time or would it be less noticeable as I have a feeling it might be ?

Currently I'd like some more damage output and am leaning most towards going for STR, but I'd like some opinions before I make my choice.


Thank you for your time.

[Xant]

The difference in swing speed won't be noticeable, but wpf gives some damage as well. 18-24 2h build was the most fun 2h build I had, 8 athletics is really worth it. 1 PS = 8% more damage. If you kill most players in 1-2 swings, you'd likely be better off with 8 athletics.

[Angantyr]

The added damage from the weapon proficiency will hardly be very noticeable either ( I'm in the 160s ), I think I can rule out WPM; it was always more a question of ath or PS for me anyway.

Am I correct in my understanding that AGI do no longer add a 0.5 swing speed bonus in cRPG and that it's all up to wpf and armor weight now ? And if so did you use your 18-24 build when AGI had a greater advantage than it has now, Xant ?

Do anyone have any experience with how noticeable the 8% damage difference between PS 6 and 7 is when used on the mainstream armor user ( medium-heavy mail ) with end 30s dam 2handers ( for example when not counting head shot dam multiplier ) ? And what on plate armor, which I currently have to hit many, many times ? Do my dam output count against the glancing effect on these guys at all or is it only a question of a more narrow sweetspot ?

And yes, I'm not unmindful of how other variables affect it with sweetspots, held attack bonus and speed modifiers and even some kind of ( pretty ) random modifiers ( representing veins and arteries according to a TW dev, if they are still in cRPG ), I'm just looking for the average feel of it.

Your opinion on 8 athletics is noted, btw. Xant, it's actually what I strived for at first, and I will likely regret it if I don't get it, but sometimes when I for example sneak up on some archer or similar light-medium guy and give them a clean overhead they still survive the first hit which perhaps wouldn't happen if I had 7 PS, because I seem to kill them pretty fast after that ( if I kill them of course ) with a low dam swing.

And having to hit some turtle 4-6 times is just bothersome, though an 8% dam increase will probably not make that much of a difference there.

But there's also the 3 points of HP to consider from going STR, which is not to frown upon for a light armor user.

[Xant]

Yeah, agi doesn't add swing speed bonus anymore. And no, I used it not too long ago. My usual 2h build was 18-21 always, and the difference between 7 and 8 athletics was very noticeable to me. With 7 athletics you have 1-2 more athletics than the usual guy, and quite many people have 7 athletics too... but with 8 you're noticeably faster than 99.9% of the server. Plus I dunno, it's really fun being so fast.

Although, I think you have an unheirloomed weapon? A masterwork weapon basically adds 1 PS and 3 WM or so.. that's something to consider.

General consensus, I think, has been that in light armor extra HP is pretty much useless. It helps most in heavy armor, as in light you'll get 2-hit anyways almost all of the time. I don't completely agree, but 3 hp would be too little to affect my decision on a build..

[Leshma]

I'm 18/24 and it's great fun. Difference between 7 and 8 ath in my case (heavy armour) is massive. STR is better choice for many reasons but my playstyle is based on AGI so I wouldn't change it even if STR was even more OP than it already is.

With STR you get:

- possibility to increase Power Strike every 3 STR (damage bonus per level 8%)
- possibility to increase Iron Skin every 3 STR (HP bonus per level 2 HP)
- 1 HP every STR point

With AGI you get:

- possibility to increase Athletics every 3 AGI (speed movement bonus per level 5%)
- possibility to increase Weapon Mastery every 3 AGI (formula is 20 base wpp + 10 wpp per level)
- things you don't care about (shield, riding etc.)

Also it should be noted that due to swing arc which is nearly 180 degrees Ath, speed and good footwork aren't that useful because, even if you get behind someone he will hit you if he maniacally start to swing (I'm pretty sure this started to happen since "early active attacks" although cmp said nothing is changed in player vs enemy interaction).

So ath isn't much useful for dueling. What ath is really good for is:

- fighting cavalry using your greatsword (high ath will allow you to out maneuver and out stab heavy lance if you know how)
- catching ranged scum (but they have 7 and some of them 8 ath so you'll be on par with first guys and behind the second if you use anything heavier than kuyak)
- sometimes you'll be able to backpedal and attack dudes who are trying to catch you
- also with high ath you can fight groups of enemies (in case none of them has pike...)

[Leshma]

General consensus, I think, has been that in light armor extra HP is pretty much useless. It helps most in heavy armor, as in light you'll get 2-hit anyways almost all of the time. I don't completely agree, but 3 hp would be too little to affect my decision on a build..

There was one dude, heavy STR build I think, who survived held overhead from x3 DGS (43 cut) while wearing wool cap. HP is definitely very useful even if you're using light armour.

[Slamz]

I've been messing around with an 18/18 build with the extra points into 4 throwing and 1 shield.

I carry my sword and then two stacks of either throwing daggers or heavy throwing axes.  Archers that run from me get a throwing weapon in the back, which stuns them and helps me catch up.  If it's an "archer map" I can bring a crappy old round shield, which is plenty good enough to get me through the worst of the arrow storm.  100 throwing wpf was just enough to make 4 power throw work with the heavy kuyak, mail gauntlets, mail boots and nordic warlord helm.  If you're going plate you'd have to settle for less throwing or a lot more wpf.  But really, throwing daggers are all you need to stagger archers anyway.

[Vibe]

21/21 mate, more HP, more hitting power (7 ath is fast enough for most people anyway) and you get to use a Great Maul (OP in the hands of a decent player).

[Angantyr]

Alright, thank you all for the input.

As both things were almost equally viable I decided to go for what I found most fun which is being fast and thus AGI and 1 more athletics.


And ha ha no, Vibe, I'd never use that silly lolweapon.

[Vibe]

Good choice. AGI is more fun to play, atleast for me.

[Jarlek]

Just a quick note. Agility NEVER gave 0.5% to weapon speed. That was a leftover description from the original Mount & Blade. Warband took it away.

[Angantyr]

Very slacky of TW to leave it in the manual then