Level 32 1h/shielder build

[Spawny]

My current build is 21/15 with 7 ps, 7 if, 5 shield, 5 ath, 5 wm and 5 riding (and i'm lvl 32).
Of course, you don't need the 5 riding for siege and apparently you don't want wm (even if, in my opinion, it's very important, realy feel a difference between 120 and 150 wpf). So you could go for a 21/18 build or even a 21/21 build.

Actually, it depends of the weapon you want to use. I currently have a mw warhammer, i often one shot poeple and i need a maximum of 4 hit to kill str builds or full plate guys. It would be an awesome weapon if i had more ath to compensate the length, so if you want to use it, you should get more ath than me, at least 6 or even 7.

As far as ps is concerned, i think 7 is enough, i also had an elite scimitar (with the same build) and i have now a ncs, and i often 2 shot poeple and never (but for str builds and full plate) need like 5 or 6 hits to kill someone.
Ath is also very important (imo) when you are alone against 3/4/5 ennemies, so you can backpeddal until you find the right moment to attack the one who seems the most unprepared (don't know if it's correct english here :s) and then deal with the rest.

This is my first gen with a warhammer and I've used the 21/15 build most of the time in the past. I'm starting to find out 5 athletics just doesn't cut it with such a short weapon. I still find 18 strength to be sub par, so I need at least 7.

After some numberwork with the char calculator, the difference between 7 PS and full WM and 9 PS is just 2 damage a hit.
So I'm very much leaning towards this build:

Level 32 (17 784 806 xp)

    Strength: 21
    Agility: 18
    Hit points: 66

    Skills to attributes: 4

    Ironflesh: 5
    Power Strike: 7
    Shield: 5
    Athletics: 6
    Weapon Master: 6

    One Handed: 157

Loses 4 hp and 2 damage to gain 1 athletics and a bit faster swinging/feinting. Max out IF and shield skill at level 33.

[rustyspoon]

This is my first gen with a warhammer and I've used the 21/15 build most of the time in the past. I'm starting to find out 5 athletics just doesn't cut it with such a short weapon. I still find 18 strength to be sub par, so I need at least 7.

After some numberwork with the char calculator, the difference between 7 PS and full WM and 9 PS is just 2 damage a hit.
So I'm very much leaning towards this build:

Level 32 (17 784 806 xp)

    Strength: 21
    Agility: 18
    Hit points: 66

    Skills to attributes: 4

    Ironflesh: 5
    Power Strike: 7
    Shield: 5
    Athletics: 6
    Weapon Master: 6

    One Handed: 157

Loses 4 hp and 2 damage to gain 1 athletics and a bit faster swinging/feinting. Max out IF and shield skill at level 33.

You could easily drop some points in WM to increase IF and shield. Especially when you're using weapons with a high initial speed, WM does barely anything to increase swing speed.

[Spawny]

Thanks for all the feedback everyone.

After extensive playing around with the warhammer and other short/longer weapons, I've decided to go for the 21/18 build with 5 IF/Shield, 7 PS and 6 athletics/WM as an improved version of the 21/15 build.
The warhammer is just too short to use effectively with 5 athletics and a tad bit too slow without WM. This is not something you notice when fighting in the big blob, but as soon as you're in a short 1v1 fight with someone who knows his weaponrange and 6 or more athletics, you're in a severe disadvantage.
Kinda feels like fighting an agility build with a scimitar as a mauler in light armour.

[Kherr]

Spawny, are you happy with the 21/18 build?
I am still playing with 24/15. It seems the moving speed depends more on weight than agi/ath. I use usually medium/heavier armor.
So I am testing with a lighter equipment atm.
I fear my main problem is awareness, not speed.

Did you see a recognizeable speed advantage with 18 agi?

[Spawny]

I'm at 18/18 now and I definatly notice the agility difference. Much more than I had thought. I also dropped the warhammer, as it's short reach is a big disadvantage. Anyone with 6 or more athletics and a longer weapon can play the range game with you and you can hardly get hits in.
6 PS and a NCS Works like a charm so far, getting decent to good scores on both battle and siege.

[ZEE_BISHOP]

21/18 is for sure the way to go. 21/15 is a solid build, but you'll find you're having to shove your shield on your back / wear extremely light armour in order to attempt to keep up with the 2H sword AGIspammers (most people...). And advice would be, avoid them, but as mentioned -- they are the bulk of melee people. And you won't be able to out run them, you can't spend your whole time avoiding the bulk of people -- it's just not very viable. Adding more than 21 strength is just gluttony as a 1h shielder, the extra HP / hitting power is nice, but you're more than capable of killing people with 21 strength and you'd be better served keeping in range and getting a speed bonus for your hits with more AGI.

21/18 allows you to keep up with them in armour that isn't paper thin, it also allows you to dodge around a lot more effectively when being gang banged by 2 - 8 people causing them to hit each other and you get free hits on the back people. 21/15 just doesn't give you the manoeuvrability / armour / acceleration to pull that off consistently. with 21/18 you can spring surprise forward attacks on people that want to keep you on the edge of their massive range advantage.

I also think not wearing paper thin armour is a big plus, you don't have to wear super heavy equipment, but medium tier body armour, decent gloves and a helmet that allows you the ability to still move fast (don't bother with legs). The mantra that your shield is your armour does not hold true in a group gang bang where you're going to catch a few hits occasionally no matter how good your footwork is. It's not possible to always avoid such a situation in Battle. It's nice to not die in 1 - 2 hits, which can mean you surviving til the end of the round and killing 1 - 5 more people.

[Vodner]

I've been playing around with a 27/15 one-hander build for a while now. The build really shines in packed group combat (it's amazing in strat), but 5 ath leads to some really painful deficiencies that you have to plan for.

In Nv1 scenarios, you're in a lot of trouble (assuming decent opponents who know how to work together). You don't have the ath to keep the bulk of the enemies out of reach, so you can easily find yourself surrounded and killed. With more ath, you are able to either fall back to your team, or dance around your opponents.

In 1v1 scenarios, 5 ath becomes very painful versus competent 7+ ath players with longer weapons. You have very small timing windows in which to attack, and your opponent will completely control the pace of the fight.

If I respec again (not sure if I want to), I'll probably go 24/18 or 21/21. That being said, this build is definitely solid.

[Spawny]

I've been playing around with a 27/15 one-hander build for a while now. The build really shines in packed group combat (it's amazing in strat), but 5 ath leads to some really painful deficiencies that you have to plan for.

In Nv1 scenarios, you're in a lot of trouble (assuming decent opponents who know how to work together). You don't have the ath to keep the bulk of the enemies out of reach, so you can easily find yourself surrounded and killed. With more ath, you are able to either fall back to your team, or dance around your opponents.

In 1v1 scenarios, 5 ath becomes very painful versus competent 7+ ath players with longer weapons. You have very small timing windows in which to attack, and your opponent will completely control the pace of the fight.

If I respec again (not sure if I want to), I'll probably go 24/18 or 21/21. That being said, this build is definitely solid.

If you have to choose between 24/18 and 21/21, I'd go for 21/21. I'm still at level 30 with 18/18, but more often than not I wished I had higher athletics instead of more damage.
The right weapons do the job and with 7 athletics you can use the short weapons very effectively and then the 38 cut from a +3 broad one handed battle axe, 35 pierce from the steel pick and 34 blunt from the warhammer look very appealing.

When looking at absolute numbers, 1h weapons in general benefit less from PS than 2h/polearms due to the lower base damage. Another reason to get a bit more athletics.

And really, 7 PS does the job perfectly.

[Kherr]

Spawny, I tried 21/18, but I was not satisfied with that build. I tested 18/21 and 15/24 with stf and the speed was cool.
So I did a respec and make a 21/21 char with WM 0 now. So far it looks very promising.
I wear lighter armor now, so the wpf penalty is not too high, WM 0 should work.

[Spawny]

Let me know how it goes.
I'm still 1.8 mil exp away from level 31 (slow leveler, I know...). I've been doing a lot of swashbucklin' lately with my 18/18 build and a regular espada eslavona (no shield).
Loads of fun and quite effective. It requires a different paystyle though.

Made an STF alt with 24/18 1h/no shield and using just that espada wearing a shirt, I could easily kill people and survive 2-3 hits. 1-2 stabs to kill most enemies and I didn't even have a MW espada. Didn't notice a speeddrop going from 154 wpf to 111. Now I'm kinda tempted to retire and use this build next gen.
Or actually use the champ destrier I have and go for 18/18 shield with 6 riding.

So many choices...

[hippy_with_a_scimi]

my own 1h build is 18\24  at 35 ( one day ) ill go for 18/27 with 9 ath ill kite thoses mofos !

[isatis]

what was your old crpg built again balb? like an astonishing 13 ath or so?

I can't wait for your 18/27 mania!

[hippy_with_a_scimi]

what was your old crpg built again balb? like an astonishing 13 ath or so?

I can't wait for your 18/27 mania!

if i remember i had like 11 ath or 12 , i wanted to squash the theory that past 10 there wasnt a difference ,

                                          man running at thoses archers was just too awesome and they had plate too before silly them !