as a War Mage who spent a lot of my youth casting Gar Zeng, i got out of the habit of using my shield since my spell needed one empty hand... so my parry (175) and my evasion (154) are far ahead of my shield (98)
that was fine for hunting small peccaries and swampies, but now that i'm trying my hand at fends, those thorns are wreaking havoc on me... so i clearly gotta backtrain shield

what stance should i try? i had some success in peccaries with shield 100 and 40+ each on the other two, but is there something else i should try?


the strong do what they want, the weak do what they must

I only use one of two stances for training.

Parry 100, Shield 0, Evasion 80+

or

Shield 100, Parry 0, Evasion 80+


________________________________________

I mean, if I drop a nuke on you, "Can't hit me I'm hiding!" isn't going to really get you very far.

- GM Dartenian

<<Or you could use an arm-worn shield and have both hands clear for casting.

You don't have to have a free hand for Gar Zeng anymore.

-Golgol

<<100 Evasion 79 Parry 1 Shield
<<100 Evasion 79 Shield 1 Parry

I've never understood the value in this. In the 1 point in the third defense. Can someone elaborate please?


- George, Player of Foresee

>I've never understood the value in this. In the 1 point in the third defense. Can someone elaborate please?

If you get hit, even a glancing hit that doesn't get through your armor, it will teach a bit of the skill with 1 point.

>>I've never understood the value in this. In the 1 point in the third defense. Can someone elaborate please?

At levels the game was designed for, it can even save your life! Parry/shield are not all-or-nothing defenses, though once you get into the mid levels the damage reduction from shield/parry gets too small to distinguish from noise. Or something.

---

"...I am inclined to think the focus of the [Warmage's] spellbook should be ways to make things explode, to help you make things explode, or to assist your victim in exploding." -Armifer

>I've never understood the value in this. In the 1 point in the third defense. Can someone elaborate please?

I always keep 100 evasion, 1 parry, 80+ (whatever is left) shield. I never use parry stance. Ever. That 1% plus the small bit you get for actually using the parry maneuver (Unless I just made that up... but I could swear I've gone off clear just from typing 'parry' with an enemy in the room)... Anyway, between that passive parry learning from the 1% and classes, I get my required ranks without ever leaving shield stance. Actually, in the old exp system, I occasionally locked parry with only 1% in parry stance, so it can be some worthwhile learning.

I've adjusted my stances to match this advice and it seems to work pretty well. Thank you all kindly!


- George, Player of Foresee

>> And it teaches a bit, and for 1 point.

I never parry. Then I read these posts. My new stance is 100 evasion, shield 79, parry 1.

Parry Ability: 31 81% mind lock (34/34)

34/34 in 1-2 minutes. Insanity. Free TDPS. My shield/evasion are 200+ ranks above parry.