WAR (Warhammer Online)

Been puzzeling this out since I started to play the game. Is a two handed weapon better than a one hander and sheild for PvP?

What got me thinking is that up until now I have always managed to beat an opponent with my 2 hander in one to one combat regardless of if they are higher than me in level and rank or lower. Today I met an Elf Swordmaster on the battle feild and we went at it hammer and tongs. The fight went one way and another for ages, sometimes I had the upper hand some times he did. But after a while I noticed my health was going down quicker than his. We were the same level (17) and eventually he dropped me ( hat off to the guy he fought a good fight and won fair and square )

So im thinking is my choice of weapon the right one or was I beaten by a better man on the day? Opinions welcome

check this out for some basic pointers...

www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/202076

If you want to be of any service to your healers and ranged attack guys you better take a sword and board and start blocking those freaks trying to chop down your most valuable asset in PvP: The healers.

If you just want to chop down people with your DPS numbers that will never match those of a dedicated DPS class, then you are free to choose a two-handed weapon and jump into the fray.

This is just my personal view and it is how I play my class. You are certainly free to choose your own play style. I just wanted to point out what a tank class was actually meant for. Though no one is forcing you to follow that recommendation.

Regards

An Ironbreaker

Personally I think its a matter of choice. my level 20 chosen (chaos rules) for Pve i go two hander for the most part unless i'm going against a champ then i go sword and board. PVP i prefer to stick with a board and sword since I seem to find myself going 5 on 1 a lot of times, I have only been in a hand full of fights that are one on one, chosen tend to scare the hell out of order players and I'm one of hte first to go down after they beat on me for a while. (Could be that i'm always going after their healers first!!) the only two classes that truely annoy me is an ironbreaker (the damn knock down is hard on a fellow even with juggernot) and the one class that i truely fear and find highly annoying are bright wizards. With a sword and board though i do have a small chance at blocking a fireball tossed at me as well. Generally if your going solo pvp I would say sword and board, if you have a GOOD group and at least one healer on your side its safe to go two hander and whail away on something.

But for survivablity sword and board rules in pvp

Generally it is better to go sword and board since blocking all damage at a rate of 20% or more depending on level is better than taking damage even if your DPS is a bit lower. There is however a build that is very viable even for tanking but requires work to get the armor pieces and jewels that fit.

Greatweapon Parry/Evade Tank:

Weaponskill (Increases your chance to Parry attacks, Increases Armor Penetration)
Strength (Increases Melee Ability Damage, Increases Melee Autoattack Damage, Reduces Chance that your Melee attacks will be Blocked or Parried)

Initiative (Increases your chance to evade attacks, Alters your chance of being critically hit)
Toughness (Reduces all Damage taken)

The idea behind this build is to penetrate their armor and ignore block/parry to get them down as quick as possible. Weaponskill will increase your parry and compensates slightly for the missing shield. Initiative will help to dodge ranged attacks and reduce criticals on you while toughness mitigates melee damage. This build is actually quite similar to a sword and board tank where toughness is simply switched with strength on the priority list (eg. 1. Weaponskill, 2. Toughness, 3. Initiative, 4. Strength)

Of cause a real Tank with plenty of toughness and weaponskill wielding a sword and a borad will always survive much longer and is recommended for dungeons and Hero/Lord fights.

Enjoy

depends on the class as well. 

Black Orcs are more capable with a 2h weapon than a Chosen.  Chosen is extremely powerful with a 1h weapon and a shield.

One thing to keep in mind though when using a sword and board is that you're a tank.  Forget about making 1v1 your primary objective.  Crash into the lines, take swings at as many people as possible.  You'll be able to handle it and oddly enough each person you attack will in turn attack back and try to single you out.  Big mistake.  Meanwhile your higher DPS classes can pick them apart as you tank their damage an distract them.

I cant give much feedback on 1v1 because I dont single players out when I tank.  I try to get the attention of multiple people and leave singling out opponents to people who do higher DPS.  With my Black Orc its different.  I use a 2h weapon and single out targets and use higher burst damage to help take them out quicker.

Originally posted by Rayx0r

depends on the class as well. 

Black Orcs are more capable with a 2h weapon than a Chosen.  Chosen is extremely powerful with a 1h weapon and a shield.

One thing to keep in mind though when using a sword and board is that you're a tank.  Forget about making 1v1 your primary objective.  Crash into the lines, take swings at as many people as possible.  You'll be able to handle it and oddly enough each person you attack will in turn attack back and try to single you out.  Big mistake.  Meanwhile your higher DPS classes can pick them apart as you tank their damage an distract them.

I cant give much feedback on 1v1 because I dont single players out when I tank.  I try to get the attention of multiple people and leave singling out opponents to people who do higher DPS.  With my Black Orc its different.  I use a 2h weapon and single out targets and use higher burst damage to help take them out quicker.

This is actually the tactic that works best on my black orc.  If I have a couple of heals thrown my way during the fray I can bring some pain.  It suprises me how often I find that 4 or 5 people will focus on me alone if crash into their lines.  It's even better if I start targetting healers as generally the whole team will turn on me.  If I have someone throwing heals it gives the dps time to wreck some people.

I have a sword and board on my Black Orc and I'd like to see how a 2hander stands but my SnB hasn't let me down yet in a fight when i have good healers to back me. I think i went through the entire Order side before dying because the healers had ran back to the flag. and it was just me and 12 orders of asskicking coming my way.

Originally posted by Goldknyght

I have a sword and board on my Black Orc and I'd like to see how a 2hander stands but my SnB hasn't let me down yet in a fight when i have good healers to back me. I think i went through the entire Order side before dying because the healers had ran back to the flag. and it was just me and 12 orders of asskicking coming my way.

It could just be my server but I have yet to find a really good 2h for my black orc.  I check the AH from time to time and there's just nothing.  The chosen have a pretty nice selection of dps 2h from what I can see but I haven't run across many for the orc.  Having said that I am like you Goldknyght, I do just as well dps wise with my 1h/shield and I survive much longer that way.  If I find a really good 2h I may work on my gear to up my parry/dodge skills but right now it's not worth trading for the 2h.