Quote (BuLLsEyE-PwNaGe @ Wed, Apr 9 2008, 09:40am)

Tbh I think duress is a complete waste unless you're very poor :/ the only way it can be viable is if you have a complete ow switch of gear to make up for the loss of strength from un-equipping enigma. Only then would I ever talk about using a duress, this being said it's actually a viable switch of gear since you can gain a large amount of strength with an ow switch, but to me it wouldn't really be worth it since I never like to run away from my opponents with my bear.. It's just not my playstyle and I do it enough on my rabies druid :/

HOWEVER, I would recommend and OW belt 100%, but it's going to really be hard to find one that has all the str/fhr/life that is easily obtainable on a rare belt. Dracs are another story though, normally I would recommend them but in my experience when using dracs 60% of the people you duel will complain about lifetap, and that gets very annoying for me.

Basically OW to me just isn't worth it unless your going to be using a whole ow setup, I don't ever plan my duels to last long

~This isn't saying not to have an OW switch, hell I might incorporate one into my own build. but since it's my personal opinion :/

secondly

Prubies do add more than a jah but in shields Jah gives 50 life, Prubies give fire res AND prubies only give 38 life even when in helms so its a really good socket choice

Quote (feuzer @ Wed, Apr 9 2008, 06:21pm)

does't it matter if i use crystal sword instead of phase blade?

Quote (mantaphor @ Tue, Apr 8 2008, 09:17pm)

I didn't read anything about a 20-20 fire monarch vs. stormshield.

Vs. anything non-melee I have had great success with the monarch.

Quote (Pacoquerak @ Wed, Apr 9 2008, 09:56am)

oh yeah duh on p rubies. But the 20/20 armor doesn't have a strength bonus either, so if you plan on using that then no problem trading in duress. Also with the open wounds thing and running away, i wouldn't suggest running away because most of the time you will be chaising them lol. Other than that a whirlwind barb can easily be avoided without you running to far usualy. I have only ever heard of melee people calling draculs bm.

Quote (BuLLsEyE-PwNaGe @ Wed, Apr 9 2008, 03:35pm)

Yeah I guess your right, but I don't advocate the use of the 20/20 armor over enigma anyways but a lot of people love pure damage builds for some reason xD I'll try a full ow switch on my bear and let you know how it works out for me

As for dracs my first build used dracs and it was awesome vs characters with minions stack on them like ele druids since you can eat through the summons without losing life, but everytime I would start slapping them around with lifetap they just ran to akara and refused to duel me with dracs on.. Now normally I really don't care but this happened in a lot of duels and became really irritating so I switched to bloodfists

Quote (alia @ Wed, Apr 9 2008, 11:55pm)

I really don't see how any decent teleporting caster is easy...

Quote (kilika829 @ Wed, Apr 9 2008, 11:51pm)

My bear only has around 3.5k AR in bear form with Angelics jewelery on. (No charms)

I seem to have a hard time hitting people, is that common?

Quote (inkanddagger @ Wed, Apr 9 2008, 10:40pm)

the only downside to dmg builds is that you lose out on resistances and frw in some cases. 20/0 100 life armor can get you more life and dmg than an enigma build.