Haruspex or warden ??

[sachatara]

hi guys want to make a spear toon but cant decide between the 2 ? who would make the most dps ?

[Brown]

They are both good builds. It depends more on your playstyle than anything else. I'd say for pure DPS, Haruspex is better, because Dream has better offensive abilities. If you prefer better survivability, i would say Warden.

[sachatara]

ok haruspex survival is not soo good ? event with the trance that give protection ?

[slayor3000]

Haruspex for DPS. Warden can be one hell of a tank, if you build it right.
But if you want DPS go Haruspex, it has good survivability, especially with the extra DA from Wood Lore and mob control with Distort Reality.
Start with Trance of Empathy and convert to Trance of Wrath when a high enough level and can put enough points in. Its ability to reduce resistances at higher levels is invaluable to a melee toon.

[sachatara]

ok empathy is better that conva for survability ?

[sarcastic_godot]

Both Warden and Haruspex are fine to play, robust, and survival is fine with either. It's anyway more a gear thing than a build thing, or rather, the gear contribution is numerically somewhat bigger, especially with resistances..


Warden has the advantage of having even more DA and the extra HP from the ladder don't hurt either. On the other hand, you'll have to get some more OA from gear to effectively fight late Legendary mobs.

Drawbacks are that with a slow weapon as the spear, shield procs happen less often, so the shield's damage isn't applied that often. And the AoE from those isn't that great. So you might, after your shield charge, end up having to stab-stab-stab the wounded one by one... Lastly, all that DA doesn't help against ranged attacks, so you still might have some breathtaking experiences involving archers. Or non-elemental spellcasters. Or both.


Haruspex is IMHO more fun, Dream is nice mix between active magick-y skills and the Trance and passive buffs. And Psionic Touch is a decent LMB skill (which Defense lacks) giving your spear jabs some AoE, which does increase your clearing speed. Best protection Trance is IMHO the offensive Trance of Wrath. Why? It has Skill Disruption -> melee mobs can't do their special, hard-hitting moves.

Otherwise, all the CC Dream brings along is really handy. And CC is a surprisingly effective defense. Don't worry about having to invest into INT - that only ups damage and Energy Regen, for the CC effects this is not relevant. Nice melee-supportive debuffs on Distortion Wave and Resistance Reduction from Trance of Wrath to round off the bundle.


In comparison, Haruspex is faster to run, and more versatile, while pretty robust. Warden is very tanky. Both have great mobility thanks to dual dash attacks (though the Hunter one is rather meh).

If you have Ragnarök, I'd suggest starting an Accomplished Hero of either and just plod on for a bit to try them out.


TL;DR:

Warden - Turtle. NIgh unkillable in melee.
Haruspex - Main Battle Tank... ...also, way better light show! :D

[sachatara]

ok thx suicidal ive chosen haruspex seem very fun but not sure what trance to pick for survivability ??

[slayor3000]

Hi

You start with the lowest trance Trance of Empathy, gives some nice AdctH and reflect. When you have enough points/ high enough in masteries, respec your build and put all the points into ToW.
I love Dream builds for melee characters, great fun.
Hunter takes care of ranged, Dream obliterates mobs. By this I am actually saying equip a good bow in your secondary weapon slot. The bow takes care of all the annoying monsters who run away (hate Nixies) it also agroes them to attack. Change weapon, distort reality, and finish them.
Do not forget to check out Sands of Sleep when you have enough points. Put monsters to sleep and walk around with ToW , does not wake them up just melts them away.

[sarcastic_godot]

As mentioned above, Trance of Wrath. Makes stuff around you die faster (direct 360° damage, ResReduction) while they're locked out from their hard hits (in melee).

Convalescence is absolutely great for a petmancer. Empathy is nice if you start at Lvl 1 - best low level leech heal. And as stopgap, should you lack a leech weapon. The damage reflection sounds good, but from late Epic onwards it's mostly irrelevant.

(I concede that regen-tank is a viable option, and that Convalescence ofc is super helpful there.).


I normally keep one point in the lower two trances - with the +AllSkills points that's Lvl 5 plus - the AttDmg2Health from Empathy is the same all the way, while the damage reflection is not that graet, and the regen from Convalescence takes a wee longer. And then I max Trance of Wrath.

Also, skills can be respecced at every Mystic for a moderate fee, so you can just try all three of them side by side, with "borrowed" max skill level, then respec after you've chosen.

[sachatara]

ok thx guys for all the great info :)

[slayor3000]

Have fun whichever you choose.