What is a good 1h build?

[Spawny]

Thank you Spawny and Sean, I'll take your advice into consideration!

I'm an armor whore, so I'll see that I get some ironflesh up in the mix.

Wrt Athletics:
With my current Athletics   5 on 2h and wearing Transitional while carrying 3 weapons + shield, I still outrun most people with light armor. 
Running speed with shield up is set by Shield skill, right?


However, my attack speed is mediocre with 154wpf, and I thought that depended on the wpf, hence going for 8 WM?

Some information posted not too long ago by WaltF4 about running speed and the effects of weight:
Click me!!

Weight also decreases your effective wpf. That's why you feel so slow with 154 wpf in heavy armour. Try it with a gambeson and you'll feel the difference.

[bosco]

That looks like a quality read, thanks!

That makes sense, however I thought I may be able to counter the weight effect by going for a high WPF, hehe.

[Michael]

The build that works best for my playstyle is strength 21 and agility 18. I dont use armor with this char. But the shield makes her very very slow so that a 2h/polearm tincan is as fast as my shieldmaiden.

When you want to use armor, well, good luck against crushthroughers, unarmored 2h/polearms and with catching archers.

Do you play NA? EU, the best (or at least most of them) shielders dont use armor. No armor means you can compensate the less athletics and the shield extra weight you have to deal and live with. But the power strike 7 is necessary. Keep in mind, your shield cant take many hits. With only 3 power strike you would have to hit a tincan 5,6,7 or more times perfectly to kill him while he needs 1 lucky hit on you to insta kill you.

[Phazey]

Great thread. Some good advice in here.

On armor for shielders: i often switch between the leather and the chain armors. After going back and forth between Sarranid leather armor (weight 4,5) and Heralic chain (weight 13,5) a lot, i still prefer the chainmail most of the time. It all kinda depends on how likely it is i'm gonna get shot.
The bigger, chaotic battles warrant medium to heavy armor for me. Smaller battles and duel type fights are easier with the leather armor.

[Dualhammers]

Great thread.  I do have one more question.

What is the difference in playstyle on a 1h if you go strength focus vs agility focus?  Is it vastly different in how many 1-hit kills you get vs your defensive mobility?

[Cyclopsided]

The playstyle is completely different between strength shielders and agility shielders. High Strength shielders are like main battle tanks that two hit everyone but can't chase people down and are Forced to fight it out, while High Agiility shielders take targets of opportunity and have shields that can soak up tons of damage.

Oh, and if you are using a shield don't put on heavy armor please. If you are a strength build, enjoy being molasses. If you are agility then you are destroying your speed advantage. Besides, THE SHIELD IS YOUR ARMOR!
All these people talking about glances don't use footwork to enhance their damage properly. Also, if a weapon is side-swinging at you, if you run in the direction it is traveling it can hit you in the back and glance off even a dress if you get out of the way of the sweet spot.

[Sean_Drew]

@ Dualhammers :

Marathon explained it very good.

Another thing : Agi Builds can counterattack most fast spammers. If your slow , you may have problems with fast spammers who hit your shield like crazy. If you want to hit and drop your shield, a fast spammer is able to hit you before you can hit him ( spam style ). As agi build in light armor , your fast enough ( fast means : about 160wpf+ , fast 1h weapon 98+ spd and fast shield ) to counterattack , before his second hit comes in ... ... most of the time .... ;-)

On the other side, without great armor , 1 or 2hits can kill you. But who cares ? We die anyway ;-) Try not to be hit ;-)

[bosco]

Taking my habit of ending up in the middle of multiple enemies by myself into account, I'm gonna go for 21/15 this time.

Heirloomed a Knightly Arming Sword, seems to work quite well so far. Gonna try out the steel pick later on.

PS:
This is the impression I'm going for. 

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[Sean_Drew]

Nice picture Bosco !

I know what you mean.

If 3-5 enemies are needed to kill you , and you make them problems to do that , even if they try to surround you , it´s fun every second , you survive that , and every one you take with you. But it´s even more fun if your fast enough to dodge their attacks a little more ;-)