Guys I need ur advice on Man at arms skills

[swordfish]

So I have a melee at level 11, and man at arms level 4, i think I v got all the great skills. The question is... Is it worth it to max Man at arms from 4 to 5??
I really do not see the point? even there are not a must-get talents that are connected to Man at arms. I think as my dude levels up, I could use high level skills- Man at arm without the need to level it up? Is it not? Even increasing Man at arms skill does not lower the AP cost of using them.... :/

[King Pepper]

No you don't really NEED to max Man at Arms Lv.5. This is because most of the skills are pretty redundant, and there are some that clearly outperform others.

However, a fifth point could be worth investing in if you want extra skills to use while your better ones are on cooldown or for extra situational variety:
- Like Phoenix Dive when Battering Ram is on CD or to unfreeze an ally character with high fire-resist
- Dust Devil when Whirlwind is on cooldown.
- Lower Resistances when Nullify Resistances is on cooldown.
- Eroding Strike on an enemy with high physical damage
- Divine Light for a panic unfreeze.
- etc.

[swordfish]

Originally posted by Mr.Pepper:

No you don't really NEED to max Man at Arms Lv.5. This is because most of the skills are pretty redundant, and there are some that clearly outperform others.

However, a fifth point could be worth investing in if you want extra skills to use while your better ones are on cooldown or for extra situational variety:
- Like Phoenix Dive when Battering Ram is on CD or to unfreeze an ally character with high fire-resist
- Dust Devil when Whirlwind is on cooldown.
- Lower Resistances when Nullify Resistances is on cooldown.
- Eroding Strike on an enemy with high physical damage
- Divine Light for a panic unfreeze.

So increasing Man at arms, only allow u to use higher skills? no good stuff like lower AP use or anything or increased damage ?

[King Pepper]

Well from what I read off the wiki-page, if your Man-At-Arms level is too low for a certain skill, then it will take additional AP for the skill to be cast. However, since you're at Man-At-Arms 4, I don't think this would affect you.

So, no it wouldn't lower any AP in your case, nor would it increase damage.

Damage on Man-At-Arms skills are affected by STR I think.

[swordfish]

Originally posted by Mr.Pepper:

Well from what I read off the wiki-page, if your Man-At-Arms level is too low for a certain skill, then it will take additional AP for the skill to be cast. However, since you're at Man-At-Arms 4, I don't think this would affect you.

So, no it wouldn't lower any AP in your case, nor would it increase damage.

Damage on Man-At-Arms skills are affected by STR I think.

thanks dude, ;) keep it up :)

[RestarttGaming]

Man at arms level 5 lets you take a talent that gives +25% magic resist, which is pretty solid. Also lets you take a talent that ignores being flanked.

[King Pepper]

Yeah I forgot, Man-At-Arms Lv.5 lets you take "Weather the Storm" (25% to all resists except poison and tenebrium) and "Sidewinder" (Cannot be flanked). However, with the recent resistance cap changes, "Weather the Storm" has become pretty useless because by that time it should be EXTREMELY easy to get 80% resistances via loot and crafting (dem rubies).
Sidewinder also isn't THAT great.

[Nivrax]

Originally posted by Restartt:

Man at arms level 5 lets you take a talent that gives +25% magic resist, which is pretty solid. Also lets you take a talent that ignores being flanked.

Iirc Flanked debuff only reduces change to dodge which is governed by Dex, your Str Warrior won't really dodge in first place so it's pointless.
Resist All was nice pre-hardcap, but now it's rather on weak side, with plate armor coming with plenty all res and Rubies going into both body and head armor.
Health increase talent isn't terrible, but you're looking at +20 vs +25% hp difference.

5th hard point of Men at Arms is like Mr.Pepper said, only good if you want to learn more than 9 moves. It's not bad choice, but it's also quite big investment and I wouldn't have much problem choosing the good 9.

[wendigo211]

Let's see:

Flurry
Cure Wounds
Battering Ram
Crushing Fist
Dust Devil
Whirlwind
Rage
Divine Light
Crippling Blow (For when you want to activate Bully and the target is immune to knockdown)
Helping Hand
Nullify Resistances
Lower Resistances
Terror (The only CC a Man-At-Arms build has that isn't a knockdown)

Man-At-Arms, Witchcraft, Scoundrel, Marksman and Aerotheurge (maybe) are the only skill abilities worth taking to rank 5.

The level 5 Man-At-Arms talents aren't great but if you are playing on hard and using Glass Cannon, Picture of Health will double your hitpoints.

[Nivrax]

Does Terror actually ever works? I only seen enemies use it, and the chance didn't impress me (only Jahan isn't immune and out of like 10 fear casts I saw it worked once).
If you cut it, Light, Helping hand (as single tank I never have friendly in range), Lower Res (waste of AP for effect) you end up with 9 I would take.

What does Scoundrel 5 gives btw?

[wendigo211]

Originally posted by Nivrax:

Does Terror actually ever works? I only seen enemies use it, and the chance didn't impress me (only Jahan isn't immune and out of like 10 fear casts I saw it worked once).
If you cut it, Light, Helping hand (as single tank I never have friendly in range), Lower Res (waste of AP for effect) you end up with 9 I would take.

It does work, the chance is on the low side, however most of the mass CC effects don't have great chances. It's the same chance as Blitz Bolt or Chain Lightning and with a high strength you won't have any difficulty gettting it over 100. The enemies are less resistant to fear than the player characters. You can always soften a few targets up with Divine Light first as well (It might not be as good as Drain Willpower, but there are no other AOE willpower draining abilities in the game).

What does Scoundrel 5 gives btw?

Yeah you can stop Scoundrel at 4. You don't need Daggers Drawn, Wind up Toy, Venemous Strike, Precise Incision or Lacerate and that leaves 8 abilities.

[swordfish]

Originally posted by Mr.Pepper:

Yeah I forgot, Man-At-Arms Lv.5 lets you take "Weather the Storm" (25% to all resists except poison and tenebrium) and "Sidewinder" (Cannot be flanked). However, with the recent resistance cap changes, "Weather the Storm" has become pretty useless because by that time it should be EXTREMELY easy to get 80% resistances via loot and crafting (dem rubies).
Sidewinder also isn't THAT great.

it does not give u 25% resist for everything, it just gives u 5% resist for each

[King Pepper]

It gives you 25% Resist to everything because it gives 5% resistances PER Man-At-Arms point invested. BUT, to unlock the trait you HAVE to have Man-At-Arms Lv.5.

[verum.amo]

speaking of level 5 skills and their talents...does Weatherproof negate the function of Elemental Affinity? If not, it seems like Geo 5 would be solid if only for the talent.

[King Pepper]

http://steamcommunity.com/app/230230/discussions/4/45350244948344710/
There's a discussion about the uses of Elemental affinity in this link and the second post in this page basically states that Weatherproof would not cancel the functionality of Elemental affinty.

However, I don't really know if that piece of advice still holds up or is true at all. But it most likely is since nobody has corrected him. If anything, just save before you add the talent, then test it.