Why is Man at Arms loved?

[M.o.U.]

I constantly see people fawn over this guy and I just don't see why. Can anyone explain? What skills and items should I use on him and in what position? I basically only use him if I have no other 1 or 2 laners to fight

[BeastofBones]

Overall:
Good HP
Good guaranteed stun
Can stack prot, hits 80% prot cap without trinket support.
Guard is one of the best bailout mechanisms for a hero being focused
Good movement + Rampart means hero is resistant to shuffles

FilthyRobot's How Good is Man-at-Arms (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dtYXglqyw0) covers most of the main points. There's some inaccuracies due to changes, Rampart no longer hits row 3, Bellow no longer does damage, but most of the information provided is relevant. What's listed below mostly matches the opinion presented in the video.

Short skill rundown:

Crush:
Damage is nothing special, but it can hit row 3, unlike most other basic frontline attacks.

Rampart:
Good trinket support, guarantees the stun/knockback on most regular mooks. Stun + knockback means you can 2 for 1 certain enemy types (e.g. cultist brawler / fungal scratcher, anything that suffers from being pushed back from row 2 to 3)

Guard:
1) One of the best answers to saving a hero being focused. Think 4x spiders, 4x groupers, etc.
2) Prot bonus from guard stacks, up to 80%. Useful answer to certain bosses, giants, etc.

Bellow:
Useful tool. Not guaranteed to proc, but if it resolves guarantees move order for the team before enemies. For spiders, groupers, dogs, if no one got focused hard round one, bellow instead of stun means you get 3 extra actions before enemy round 2. Most cases that's enough to guarantee 2 dead enemies, with 1 of the 2 remaining stunned. Or in the case of fast stress dealers and limited heroes that can hit rank 3/4, you've got 2 actions to kill the back row before they move a 2nd time.

Retribution:
I don't use this skill much, but it has it's uses. -75% is a much bigger penalty to pay than HWM's -20%, so you really need the skill to activate multiple times to get value from the skill

Command:
ACC + Crit buff is nice if you need it, but most regular hallway fights don't need it. Most fights it's not worth giving up the turn to cast it.

Bolster:
Specific use. Good for dodge comps. Stack with Tactics for +20 party dodge that lasts all fight.

Simplest bar would be:
Crush, Rampart, Bellow, Guard.

Mostly Rampart, Crush if you can get a kill, Bellow for specific comps. Guard if someone gets rushed or eats a bad crit. Most likely skills to drop would be either Bellow or Crush, Rampart and Guard pretty much always stay on the bar.

[Panfilo]

Guard+Retribution is super useful, especially if the MaA has decent amounts of dodge. The worse stats are balanced by the fact that you can guard and riposte which means it'll proc more. It's usually strong enough to finish off near dead units so you don't have to waste an action finishing them off.

Rampart being able to move forward and stun can be clutch when you are shuffled and need to reposition. It gives some synergy with other move skills.

Bellow gives a crit bonus VS marked, so works well with other mark heroes.

All his camp skills are very useful, all buffs you can blow all 12 respite to roid out your team for 4 battles.

[No One]

Hits row 3. Has guard. Not lacking a stun. He's easily the best frontliner.

[Neonivek]

If your having problems making the Man At Arms work, it usually means you haven't given him a good partner.

When talking about him it is almost just as important to talk about who you could pair with him.

[Smuckem]

- versatile for someone who, on the surface, is strictly a tank
- if you aren't going for gimmicky tank parties like "The Wall", he is pretty much the only tank you'll ever need outside of Ruins or Weald
- building off of the above point and Neonivek's post, one of the best classes to support squishier frontliners like Blackjack HM, HEL in general, and single SBs who aren't part of a chaingun setup
- because of the aforementioned good movement, along with his support skills being usable in any position, means that he is fairly shuffle-resistant even without Rampart equipped, unless you go full offensive powerhouse with him
- the degree of the Bolster buff means it has some utility even outside of Dodge squads (also personal bias since I practically always start off with Bolster, no matter the party, and on average get one-two Dodges/combat that I LIKE to think I would not gotten otherwise)
- bulding off of Panfilo's point, his Camping Skills are awesome: Tactics might legit be the best Camping Skill in the game, Tactics+Weapons Practice can give teammates a total +13% CRIT--which is nuts--and the RP costs of the set feel just about right for what they offer (I personally like CRU and HWM's skills more, but most feel slightly overpriced and aren't as universal for what they offer)
- hardly ever use Crush, never use Rampart...but the benefits of both are so obvious from watching other Estates use them that I can still recommend including both in your kit whenever possible
-.............Guardian Shield is best trinket, fite me

[Gin-chan]

He's pretty much the go to tanker in the game Imo

[Bokifly]

Only learned to use him recently.

Give him trinkets that maximize his PROT and HP, then add his Defender skill, and he gets ridiculous damage reduction, and the one he guards can't be hit by single target attacks. This is basically his main duty.

Activate the Retribution skill and enemies get counter attacked each time they try to hit him or the hero he guards. Awesome.

Your Leper can't hit anything ... buff the groups' accuracy or debuff the enemy's dodge.

Equip the stun, so although he can't do much damage, he can make an opponent miss an attack turn. Maybe just enough for a blight or bleed to finish the job.

Everyone's using high stress trinkets ... start the battle with the group battle -stress + dodge skill, to lessen the potential stress.

Gotta bring a couple of damage dealers, though, preferably one of whom can lessen stress, like the Crusader or Jester, to manage the stress from the powerful trinkets.

[Panfilo]

Guardian shield gives him bonus prot, dodge, and massive extra healing. It's meant to have guard active the whole battle. The only catch is he has to be in rank 4 for it to work. But that's not a problem:

The simplest solution is to have him be your tanky support. He's like a Jester that can survive getting hit. You give him guardian, command, bolster, and retribution. "But wait, Panfilo, he can't use retribution in rank 4!"which is why you give him a buddy who can scoot him back there: A hero with a move forward skill they can use in rank 4.the idea is to have the hero in rank 4 and the MaA in rank 3 initially. Begin with retribution, then have the other hero move themselves forward with a skill. Now your MaA will get the Guardian shield effect with riposte active. Following turn you cast guardian, then the buffs the rest of the battle.

This also necessitates the use of a front line healer, but you have several options here too - battle nun vestal, stun/pull /stab Occultist, flagellant, Crusader, and so on.

[strike478]

Buffs, Debuffs, protection, reach, stun. Man-Toolkit.

[yavuzmilar]

maa is op bc he can debuff entire enemy speed by 5. That's equal to stunning the backrow as you kill them next turn(you almost certainly go before them). Any other thing he does people cite here is secondary, his stun is only good in 2nd phase of the fight so not that important and being able to damage 3rd row is decent. You mainly use his first 4 skills and you use its debuff every first turn(without this skill he is very lackluster). He is a must in dd2 bc of his guard so you need a maa every dungeon run (houndmaster can only guard for 1 turn). he is good against shrieker as well bc of guard and redistribution(i would not advice to have this skill any other time). best items are those that give debuff skill chance.

[Panfilo]

The stun lets him move forward and knock back the target, it's better than you think. And alternating guard+riposite can be very effective, because while it isn't as strong as the Highwayman version it will proc way more. And assuming you have the CoM DLC crits will proc bonus prot which makes him even more effective since the effect stacks with itself.

[Heri]

Okay, I use Tough Ring+Barristan's Head on my MAA, the guy receives like 2-3 damage from most of the attacks, first round I buff the entire party with Bolster skill, 2nd round I use Retribution and make him a target(riposte works like magic) and third round I protect a popular target from my party and also receive a protection buff, with a vestal in the party, he is immortal.

And here is a story, I was on that Brigand 12 pounder mission, didn't know it was so strong and my Shieldbreaker at 1st line, Highwayman at 3rd* line and Vestal at 4th line died, my MAA was the only survivor against the %70 HP cannon, I also didn't have any attack skills so I kept using Rampart and Retribution one by one, in the end my legendary was on his feet while the cannon collapsed. Now think about this, that party was my MAIN party, best heros with a good synergy, vestal healing everyone +8 each round high attack highwayman etc. but in a fight which killed my best 3 heros, my MAA was victorious and standing on his feet without a scratch.

[RopeDrink]

Yes, you constantly see people fawn over the MAA - and I'm not one of them. In fact, I rarely ever recruit them or use them despite the fact he's sitting pretty on the top of the tier list.

He's essentially the only hero you can actually call a 'tank' and not get laughed at for doing so. Guard is the only tank-ability in the entire game, and while MAA isn't the only one to have it, he is certainly the tankiest with it, so-much-so that his prot-stack can cheese mechanics and even entire bosses.

Of course, that's not all. His overall kit is just extremely useful - a solid stun (always good) rolled into an answer to shuffle (double-good), abilities for pretty much every rank (always handy), high HP (always handy), optional Riposte (used in various strategies for even more cheese), party buffs, enemy debuffs, and solid camping skills.

In short, he's undoubtedly one of the best things you could have on the frontline in any zone.

[Skinny Pete]

Originally posted by HeriKuriKeri:

Okay, I use Tough Ring+Barristan's Head on my MAA, the guy receives like 2-3 damage from most of the attacks, first round I buff the entire party with Bolster skill, 2nd round I use Retribution and make him a target(riposte works like magic) and third round I protect a popular target from my party and also receive a protection buff, with a vestal in the party, he is immortal.

Until he loses his mind from +30% stress, +20% even with the Bolster bonus. I'd rather use one of his other trinkets like Rampart Shield and something else (if Stun is actually important to you). Or just +ACC and +DMG (my go-to). Or his CC trinket set if relying on Riposte (which I don't do so I don't do this).

I'd consider just using Tough Ring, since +10% is fairly minimal, but the +20% from Barristan's Head is just too brutal when combined with that.

Originally posted by RopeDrink:

Yes, you constantly see people fawn over the MAA - and I'm not one of them. In fact, I rarely ever recruit them or use them despite the fact he's sitting pretty on the top of the tier list.

I use him in boss fights routinely. And he's great in almost any DD final level.

Normal missions? Barely at all.

[No One]

The correct outfit for the MAA is something like ancestor's ring + candle. If you don't have unique trinkets, then focus ring + zerk charm.