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Dancing Shield gear

manipulosmanipulos Member Posts: 235 Arc User
What belts should I be working towards for tanking for my dancing shield? The Illusionist Gambit skirmish is terrible, last several times I completed gold I received green +1 gear. I see the purple companion gear on the AH for millions. The jewelcrafted personalized belts don't look that good for stats. What am I missing?

Comments

  • dread4moordread4moor Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 1,154 Arc User
    edited May 2017
    Like any companion gear, choose based on what stats your build needs.
    Assuming you want tankiness...
    If you need Defense and/or deflect the consider adorable rolls.
    For defense and (yuck) regeneration, Girdle of the Loyal Defender.

    Edit: And many artifact belts have defense and are pretty cheap like the.
    Greater Plated Band of Constitution
    JrUzbQw.jpg?1
    I am Took.
    "Full plate and packing steel" in NW since 2013.
  • kacezetkacezet Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 199 Arc User

    Edit: And many artifact belts have defense and are pretty cheap like the.
    Greater Plated Band of Constitution

    You can't put artifact gear on companion :d
  • dread4moordread4moor Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 1,154 Arc User
    edited May 2017
    > @kacezet said:
    > Edit: And many artifact belts have defense and are pretty cheap like the.
    > Greater Plated Band of Constitution
    >
    > You can't put artifact gear on companion :d

    True... slipped into thoughts if random cheap defense belts in general. Brain <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font>.

    My point for OP is all that matters is stats that match his needs, doesn't have to be expensive or BiS. Choose on stats tankiness (defense/deflect), lifesteal (adorable chomps), threat (loyal defender)
    Etc.

    Edit: The flatulence word gets censored? Really?
    JrUzbQw.jpg?1
    I am Took.
    "Full plate and packing steel" in NW since 2013.
  • manipulosmanipulos Member Posts: 235 Arc User
    edited May 2017
    Adorable chomps and loyal gear are so expensive, was hoping for something affordable. I did mention for tanking, so defensive stats and slots are priority. Was curious what people are using because I've seen this companion mentioned many times in posts and builds as best for tanking and I'm having a hard time finding affordable options.

    EDIT: Adorable Chomps has HPs and they don't transfer from companion correct?
  • dread4moordread4moor Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 1,154 Arc User
    No, HP do not transfer. Just for the pet. Lifesteal stat does transfer, however. That was what I needed, waste to use dark 12 in a defensive slot so I chose chomps. Mix and match to fit your build is the point.

    On a budget just can use any of the Alliance Belts with Defense. They drop in a bunch of T2s for free.

    In the AH can buy defense belts dirt cheap, like belt of the forest or Ancient Necromancer's Belt of Undead.
    Tons of them like those have defense and deflect. Cheap. 5-60K AD.

    Those work on companions and will serve you well until you can farm up to afford loyal or adorable.

    Last option, when you have a handful of high value items, consider trading for it on the LTT channels.
    Often we get stuck with high value unbound gear we have no use for.
    Instead of selling on AH, someone might be willing to trade their belt for a few rare items of similar total value.
    ( i've got a dozen adorables/loyals I don't need).
    JrUzbQw.jpg?1
    I am Took.
    "Full plate and packing steel" in NW since 2013.
  • santralafaxsantralafax Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 2,896 Arc User
    Currently, I'm using personalized belts I made with jewelcrafting. Not BIS, but they are double-slotted.
  • lantern22lantern22 Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 1,111 Arc User

    Currently, I'm using personalized belts I made with jewelcrafting. Not BIS, but they are double-slotted.

    Yeah this is what I have done. After getting pwned in mSP, I've decided to set up a more tanky build with a Dancning shield. It has 3 defence slots, so there is extra defence with bondings.

    I've opted for personalised belts for the two slots (3 or which will be defence slots) and selected the belts with ArP cause that is always handy for a tank at end game.

    Not sure if that is the best combo though.
  • odinguard#3346 odinguard Member Posts: 29 Arc User
    If you still need defence stats the Dancing Shield is very good to gain defensive stats. ( Mainly because of 3 Defence slots for Bonding stones)

    Personally I prefer Con Artist because of the 3 ring slots.

    At a certain point in the game you will have enough defensive stats and you can actually use your companion to go for more Recovery Power Crit Armor Pen or whatever from your Companion.

    I don't like relying on a companions to get our main stats to the preferred caps. I feel it is a waste.

    As tanks we are in a sense lucky to have a defence cap and relatively easy soft caps that we can reach with boons, mount insignia stats, enchantments, Armor kits, Artifacts and Gear stats without needing to rely on companions.

    Also the +4 rings drop relatively good for Msva and FBI and you can use it for Defence Deflect Armor Pen and Recovery.
    Because of the 1 offence and 1 Defence on the +4 rings. The rings also have decent stats. You can check them out in Collections.

    Con Artist for the win.
  • mitty#8178 mitty Member Posts: 30 Arc User
    Using con artist, you and your party are losing out on a 10% defense debuff - 20% from the shield vs. 10% for con artist/sellsword/rebel merc. One advantage we have as tanks is that we can summon the best uncapped companion debuff in the game precisely because we can make use of the defensive bondings slots.

    I am on PS4 so I use the Recovery JC belts. OP, you just need to figure out what is the best you can afford, or are willing to farm for. Use that, and balance your remaining stats.
  • manipulosmanipulos Member Posts: 235 Arc User
    Thanks for the tips, I'm currently making JC belts but the RNG has not been kind to me, 3 fails in a row over the weekend. I'm making the one with recovery and the one with armpen, whichever task comes up first, because I'm so far from soft caps that anything works for me right now.
  • odinguard#3346 odinguard Member Posts: 29 Arc User
    > @mitty#8178 said:
    > Using con artist, you and your party are losing out on a 10% defense debuff - 20% from the shield vs. 10% for con artist/sellsword/rebel merc. One advantage we have as tanks is that we can summon the best uncapped companion debuff in the game precisely because we can make use of the defensive bondings slots.
    >
    > I am on PS4 so I use the Recovery JC belts. OP, you just need to figure out what is the best you can afford, or are willing to farm for. Use that, and balance your remaining stats.

    I Agree that we would lose some % defense debuff.

    Still not that good a debuff to make me change my mind to stop using 3 rings slots and using more defense slots that i dont need with DR cap.


    Please don't get me wrong,
    Dancing Shield is a really good companion. I do have a legendary one myself.

    But

    You just start losing out on stats when you reach DR Cap. I will take power rather than unusable defence stats.

    The other ++++ to Con Artist =it's Cheap and we WILL always get better rings in future so you can upgrade it regularly.
  • remfdtremfdt Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 83 Arc User
    I'm using loyal defender belts (got em from the old dice game long ago), but I seem to remember that a moderately decent belt drops from stronghold BHEs, tho I don't remember the name (orcish something maybe? I'll look it up tonight). I think it had a companion overload slot instead of a second enchant, but some of those overloads are situationally pretty decent.

    On a side note, anyone happen to remember which armor reinforcement kits work on companion gear?
  • pitshadepitshade Member Posts: 5,665 Arc User
    edited May 2017
    Only the Jewelcrafting kits and of those, only Regen transfers. Pets have neither Action Points nor Stamina. In other words, don't bother
    "We have always been at war with Dread Vault" ~ Little Brother
  • artifleurartifleur Member Posts: 642 Arc User
    From what I've read (I never tried it) only the regeneration reinforcement jewel work on companion gear.

    However, isn't using a defender companion a bad idea for a GF? I believe, from what I've been told and from what I've seen, that if the companion steals aggro and you get it back right before an attack your shield block won't count and you'll get the full damage, which, in case of a really heavy attack (Orcus or some other epic dungeon boss) might kill you outright. The blue dragon of dragonflight also seems to have a bad interaction with defender pets.
  • rjc9000rjc9000 Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 2,405 Arc User
    artifleur said:

    From what I've read (I never tried it) only the regeneration reinforcement jewel work on companion gear.

    However, isn't using a defender companion a bad idea for a GF? I believe, from what I've been told and from what I've seen, that if the companion steals aggro and you get it back right before an attack your shield block won't count and you'll get the full damage, which, in case of a really heavy attack (Orcus or some other epic dungeon boss) might kill you outright. The blue dragon of dragonflight also seems to have a bad interaction with defender pets.

    Dancing Shield ... well... I'd describe it as a debuffer which also happens to be fairly durable, rather than a replacement for a tank.

    It's not like your Dancing Shield knows when to move Drufti away from the ice, or knows how to position itself where it won't hit teammates, or when mitigation abilities will make a huge difference, or when to stand and fight versus getting out of dodge..

    It does know how to put a good debuff on target, and that's its primary use.

  • artifleurartifleur Member Posts: 642 Arc User
    I don't think you understood me.

    What I mean is that some defender companions, like the young yeti, can steal aggro, even from tanks actively building threat, which can have all kinds of negative effects for the team. For example when fighting the blue dragonflight dragon if his main target dies he launches his large lightning attack which kills everyone. In this case if the pet steals aggro the whole party wipes within seconds.

    What I do not know however is weither all defender companions can do that or only some of them. I suspect that all companions with the defender tag get some large undocumented threat boost but maybe not. If this holds true then using one of them in group content would be a bad idea in general and specially for a GF tank.
  • mitty#8178 mitty Member Posts: 30 Arc User

    > @odinguard#3346 said:

    You just start losing out on stats when you reach DR Cap. I will take power rather than unusable defence stats.

    The other ++++ to Con Artist =it's Cheap and we WILL always get better rings in future so you can upgrade it regularly.

    I understand your point; I just feel that defense stats are quite fluid. Having defense from my companion lets me use more offensive gear and enchants elsewhere, like a Greater Hellig ring and some offensive Armor Kits and Mount insignias, and lets me stack crit where I can, rather than just power.

    In summary, I feel like it's worth it to adjust my other gear to gain the Shield's debuff. That being said I don't know how to quantify the extra 10% debuff - I just know it's better. ;)
  • artifleurartifleur Member Posts: 642 Arc User
    I did some more research on the forums and it's worse than I thought.

    Apparently all defender companions have an unlisted taunt (hard taunt = instant aggro no matter how much threat they have) with a short cooldown (6s or so).

    So, in the end, the extra 10% damage from the shield is probably worth it but you had better pay attention to where your shield is during boss fights and position yourself next to it. And avoid the blue dragon.
  • manipulosmanipulos Member Posts: 235 Arc User
    artifleur said:

    I did some more research on the forums and it's worse than I thought.

    Apparently all defender companions have an unlisted taunt (hard taunt = instant aggro no matter how much threat they have) with a short cooldown (6s or so).

    So, in the end, the extra 10% damage from the shield is probably worth it but you had better pay attention to where your shield is during boss fights and position yourself next to it. And avoid the blue dragon.

    I've only been using it for about a week but I haven't noticed it stealing aggro from me except maybe once, not even sure about that.
  • wizardlvl80#5963 wizardlvl80 Member Posts: 519 Arc User
    I know it's offtopic but I heard some rumours about Dancing Shield being nerfed soon because of its "OP" debuff. Anyone aware of it or can confirm it?
  • rjc9000rjc9000 Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 2,405 Arc User

    I know it's offtopic but I heard some rumours about Dancing Shield being nerfed soon because of its "OP" debuff. Anyone aware of it or can confirm it?

    vaguely alluded to in the Weapon Enhancement Change Thread on preview back when Mod10 was upcoming. Terramak mentioned something about changing the uncapped debuffs.

    It should be around the time when the devs attempted to nerf Frost, and the community had to remind them that debuffers exist too. (Thankfully, the devs listened to us and didn't nerf Plague/Frost.)

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