Solid Shield

Lunk_Warleg - Sanctuary
Lunk_Warleg - Sanctuary Posts: 93 Arc User
edited January 2010 in Barbarian
Hello Guys,

I studied all of the topics I could get my eyes on regrading which genie skill is better for a tank oriented barbarian. The top list seems to include :

-Tree of Protection
-Alpha Male
-Tangling Mire
-Occult Ice
-Solid Shield

Since I started to play a barbarian recently so I am low leveled, same goes for my genie. Still I wanted to start learning a skill, and since Tree of Protection is a bit far, I was thinking Solid Shield is good starter.

My dilemma is if is worth it or not because I have read that this skill was nerfed. I don't know how powerful was back then, I don't know how powerful is now, but I am interested if is worth spending those 2 affinity points.

Thanks,
~Lun
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Post edited by Lunk_Warleg - Sanctuary on

Comments

  • Akai_Akuma - Heavens Tear
    Akai_Akuma - Heavens Tear Posts: 43 Arc User
    edited January 2010
    i still use it ^^

    on lvl 10 it stops 35% of the dmg, but if you use a STR build for your genie, it even blocks more. I got 60 STR for ToP, so atm it lowers the dmg by half, which is a real lifesaver ^^
  • Bardolph - Harshlands
    Bardolph - Harshlands Posts: 111 Arc User
    edited January 2010
    I advise against picking Occult Ice or Alpha Male. Occult Ice will really mess up your affinities (7 water for 30% chance at freezing?). Alpha Male is good, but it's also possible to use Tangling Mire as an AoE aggro skill when the situation calls for it. We've got Roar, Frighten, Sunder and Sunder as tiger AoE skills too so there really shouldn't be a problem. Tangling Mire is actually an AoE debuff so it's awesome for pk too.

    Solid Shield is good, hands down. ToP also heals a nice amount of HP as long as you have decent points in Str and Dex.
  • Lunk_Warleg - Sanctuary
    Lunk_Warleg - Sanctuary Posts: 93 Arc User
    edited January 2010
    Bardolph - Harshlands wrote: »
    I advise against picking Occult Ice or Alpha Male. Occult Ice will really mess up your affinities (7 water for 30% chance at freezing?).
    That is really worth taking into consideration. I didn't thought at it this way, but then again, these are information that I found over forums and I didn't research much into the genie skill table myself; I would have probably noticed this problem too, and 30 % is a little low in my opinion ( I am used with archer's skill which have a "bit" more chances of success). And it seems more PvP oriented skill actually.
    Thanks for the input I got so far!
    Anymore information than this will only help, so if you still have some opinions, be my guest!
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  • Lulznotwar - Lost City
    Lulznotwar - Lost City Posts: 239 Arc User
    edited January 2010
    I personally use:

    -ToP
    -Tangling Mire
    -Extreme poison
    -Alpha Male
    -Solid Shield

    The EP is for extra perdition help, although i have never really tested its effectiveness vs Tangling mire.

    Another thought is to replace Extreme poison with true emptiness or Thunderbolt/another high dmg magic skill
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  • XylolyX - Heavens Tear
    XylolyX - Heavens Tear Posts: 1,097 Arc User
    edited January 2010
    Maybe it's just me, but alpha male on the genie seems to be super important. It's a squad saver in certain dungeons, or situations. Imagine this: one of your squad accidentally aggros some weavers of ruin in fb79, he doesn't attack but cleric sees HP going down and heals squad member.

    Cleric pulls aggro, barb is busy fighting another mob(s) notices what's happening, tries to hit ROAR, but it's still in cooldown. Alpha Male will pull the mob off of your cleric, and immediately.

    So yeah, I'm a huge fan of alpha male genie skill.
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  • Hazardus - Heavens Tear
    Hazardus - Heavens Tear Posts: 937 Arc User
    edited January 2010
    Bardolph - Harshlands wrote: »
    I advise against picking Occult Ice or Alpha Male. Occult Ice will really mess up your affinities (7 water for 30% chance at freezing?). Alpha Male is good, but it's also possible to use Tangling Mire as an AoE aggro skill when the situation calls for it. We've got Roar, Frighten, Sunder and Sunder as tiger AoE skills too so there really shouldn't be a problem. Tangling Mire is actually an AoE debuff so it's awesome for pk too.

    Solid Shield is good, hands down. ToP also heals a nice amount of HP as long as you have decent points in Str and Dex.
    XylolyX - Heavens Tear wrote: »
    Maybe it's just me, but alpha male on the genie seems to be super important. It's a squad saver in certain dungeons, or situations. Imagine this: one of your squad accidentally aggros some weavers of ruin in fb79, he doesn't attack but cleric sees HP going down and heals squad member.

    Cleric pulls aggro, barb is busy fighting another mob(s) notices what's happening, tries to hit ROAR, but it's still in cooldown. Alpha Male will pull the mob off of your cleric, and immediately.

    So yeah, I'm a huge fan of alpha male genie skill.

    You wont need alpha male too often in dungeons (unless you doing something like FB 89 brimstone unwined). Alpha male really comes into its own in rebirth.
    When the going gets tough; Get a tank!
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  • Fenian_I - Dreamweaver
    Fenian_I - Dreamweaver Posts: 91 Arc User
    edited January 2010
    Personally, I think solid shield is one of the best skills for any barb. Between apothecary items, invoke, and solid shield, I had almost permanent dmg reduction. Occasionally I'd go 2-3 secs without dmg reduction because I couldn't get enough chi back in time, but that was very rare. I'd say that happened only once or twice per 5 minute interval.
  • Khalfani - Harshlands
    Khalfani - Harshlands Posts: 218 Arc User
    edited January 2010
    My set genie skills which I think would be extremely useful to any barbarian are as follows:

    - Solid Shield
    - Tree of Protection
    - Whirlwind
    - Venomous Swarm
    - Alpha Male

    My solid shield acts as a secondary "Invoke the Spirit". FOr instance, when fighting phys def debuffers like Jewelscalen, Krimson, and Polearm, I cast this skill whenever I get blasted with that debuff. It is a lifesaver as it gives low level clerics that are aiding me time to purify without me suffering major damage that would eventually kill me otherwise in 3 to 5 hits.

    Tree of Protection is a lifesaver. But in order for it to reach its best potential, you must concentrate on strength and dexterity. There are various strategies to this too. Since your max hp increase lasts 5 seconds, you may ask a cleric to heal you before you cast armageddon while casting Tree of Protection. The result is an increase of max hp (and ergo max damage) for the armageddon which takes 50% of hp and mp. (and that 50% hp will be restored with ToP)

    Whirlwind is a fun skill to use to stop kiters from getting too far like Archers and jumpy wizards. It has a long 18 meter range. Though the immobilize lasts only 1 second, it still lows your opponent by a considerable %age of their speed.

    Alpha Male is my party saving skill. In FC, I tend to lose aggro alot when zhening the joint to archers and wizards. But I could easily get it back when Roar is still cooling down by using Alpha Male, and therefore reducing the chances of a party wipe. It affects all enemies in a 20m range and casts deflect on you. (This overwrites your veno's deflect on you if it's casted).

    Finally, Venomous Swarm is one of my favourite genie skills.
    Let me just show you my genie stats and it's skills:
    Str: 45
    Dex: 57
    Vit: 20
    Mag: 41

    Level 10 Venomous Swarm
    Every dexterity point drains hp by 100, with a base damage of 125 (57 x 100 + 125 = 5,825 wood damage)
    Every Strength Point increases MP drain by 30, with a base drain of 30 (45 x 30 + 30 = 1,380 mp drained)
    Every Strength Point drains chi by 1, with a base drain of 20 (45 x 1 + 20 = 65 chi drained)

    The disadvantage to this skill is that these debuffs are random. You can either only cast chi drain, mp drain or hp drain per cast. But all effects are useful either way. I assure you that one mp drain on this on a barb will obliterate his mp. Also the chi drain, losing a little bit more than half a spark for the BM may cost him his sutra.
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    pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=459842

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