mjdoom,Mar 2 2005, 06:15 PM Wrote:1.) You mention going for Last Stand and Improved Shield Bash.
I'm still having trouble seeing exactly where I am going to use last stand a lot (probably my inexperience) It seems to me like this would most often be used if you are losing hps a bit quickly (or got unlucky with a string of critical hits) and you want to buy your healer more time to heal you. Because the benefit is temporary and goes away after the 20 seconds is up you must be healed in that time or you are going down. I can understand that sometimes that 20 seconds can buy enough time for the party to recover from When Things Go Wrong ™ and that if you use it in a situation where you are not dangerously low on life it will probably amount to "no harm no foul" but I'm not sure exactly how useful it would be. One of you high level warriors must have some insight into how to use this skill effectively and I'd really love to hear it. If I can understand how to use it properly I could be very easily swayed to pick it up.
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I half-remembered this post and wanted to comment on this point after the battles we just had tonight. Gnolack (protection spec'd), Aleri (holy spec priest), Sabramage and Littledude (two mages) did an assault on the ogre tower in the Arathi Highlands. IIRC, none of us had done it before so we didn't know about the spawning of the ogres after we open the boxes. We opened the second box first (missed the first one on the way up), got swarmed by the ogres, and towards the end of it Gnolack threw out shield wall and when it wore off, he threw up last stand and got a killing blow on one more ogre before dying. Because of last stand and shield wall, I got enough mana to throw out a prayer of healing that healed both mages and myself almost to full health, the mages unleashed, and the party didn't wipe. The next box at the top of the tower, we opened, got swarmed again (much sheepage by the mages), Gnolack had to last stand again which kept him alive again (and prevented a wipe because my desperate prayer had been burned in the surprising fight so I would have gone down quick without him tanking) because it was -just- enough time for me to get enough mana to give him a heal again.
So, while last stand and shield wall are situational, they can prevent wipes and I'm so very glad that Gnolack had them. :)
Edit: Typos.
Intolerant monkey.