Hey guys.

I think I've read pretty much everything you can find on this board + postcount + random DAoC guides but I still have a few savage questions.

I rolled kobold and have been keeping H2H max or near max + rest in savage, per most guides. One guy suggested actually skipping H2H for leveling and using sword-- would that be worth exploring when I hit 20 for first respect? Then back to H2H at 40? Sounds like you can still trip and quad without actually using h2h weapons, would the other weap specs be more efficient for leveling?

2nd question, can someone give me a rundown on the self buff usage? At first for leveling/tasking I was spamming them all until I realized it was chunking my HPs down so now I just pick and chose. It's hard to tell which buffs are efficient for grinding. I assume I want to put up the dmg and haste for sure, and then maybe the evade buff once I have the evade conditional H2H style? Or should I be using the + Crush resist too against mobs? Doesn't seem like a lot of them return their value for just fighting mobs (ie: 3% of my hp every 15 sec PER buff used). Obviously if I was in a group with a HoT class I could use them more liberally?

Lastly, on the official live website it shows savage selfbuffs lasting 30 sec but they're 15 sec on uthgard. When did that get changed? Or do they eventually last longer as I level up?

Thanks!

Hello,

Uthgard is my first experience with the savage so I don't know if my advice is good. Actually I play H2H troll because when you compare the racial stats Troll is the best for DPS however in small level you miss often ...

My savage deals with H2H because I would the behind skill to stun in assist and multi-hit. To be honest, that's a hard way because few monster drop the weapons claws and you haven't an OTD so you must buy it at the merchants I think to respec for 2H hammer or sword when I can do it.

Concerning self-buff, in PvE I use only the taunt to pull a monster, add dommage and attack speed. I think that the evade and parry bonus is correct with 36/37 points in savagery because the balance between %hp lost and bonus is benefit. Sometimes you can use too the endurance self but with a shaman you can forget it ^^ The resistance is nice only in RvR if you arrive to determinate the weapon of your opponent.

Good luck

Stay H2H while leveling. The other weapon skills have lower growth rates by a great distance, and despite some of the inaccurate info out there you cannot double and triple swing with 2h weapons. Your damage is better staying H2H by a decent margin, not to mention endurance usage is superior with H2H as well.

I leveled up a Savage on Uths beta last year, I also struggled with the self buffs and finding what felt more efficient. In the end I settled on using only haste or dps (and never both unless I was fighting a mob that was HARD and required more), and stopped using Evade/Parry unless absolutely neccessary. The reasoning in my mind was the scores of times when I ate 10% of my own HP with evade/parry and didnt dodge or parry in the fight at all. The defense buffs were % based and had a CHANCE to not benefit me at all in the fight causing more downtime between pulls.

However, Haste and DPS boosts will benefit you during the fight no matter what. You have to decide if those fights where the evade/parry buff cause you to dodge everything is worthwhile vs the times where they fail to give you any avoided damage at all. For PvE purposes when soloing I decided I preferred a completely predictable and completely stable/reliable buff as opposed to a chance based buff that may or may not benefit me fight to fight. You may feel differently. (Also please keep in mind this logic doesn't work in PvP. Use your buffs in PvP, but PvE is more controllable and predictable so its a little different)


Third. Virn is right, Swords and Hammers and the like are more plentiful in terms of drops than H2H weapons, so its harder to find claws, but do-able. I leveled in beta so let me show you some mobs/drops you should hunt as soon as you can to keep you with good usable claws that dont cost you money:

Silverscale Drakelings are Yellow at level 9 and drop level ~12 Claws at an INSANELY high drop rate.
http://camelot.allakhazam.com/db/search.html?cmob=830

The claw they drop is: http://camelot.allakhazam.com/item.html?citem=8515
Put one on both hands and that will last you several levels.

Next would be Bone Handled Claw from Cursed Tomb: http://camelot.allakhazam.com/item.html?citem=9751
You will probably have to use a vendor claw or get a crafted claw to bridge the gap between the previous claw and this one however. Anyways, Next:

Njessis Carved claw (you only get one of these. Its a level 22 quest reward from a questline): http://camelot.allakhazam.com/item.html?citem=5656

Shiny Fang from Muspelheim: http://camelot.allakhazam.com/item.html?citem=18696
Just like the others get 2 of these.

The the Fang of Courage and Fan of Might: http://camelot.allakhazam.com/item.html?citem=22234 and http://camelot.allakhazam.com/item.html?citem=8816 in Muspelheim again

Then Petrified Fangs: http://camelot.allakhazam.com/item.html?citem=13303
Also Muspelheim


Basically after this point in the beta I started to rely on crafted claws and Claws from Darkness Falls seals until I got the Claw from the level 40 epic quest which was a spectacular weapon for quite a few levels. Then at late 40's you'll want to move strictly to crafted Claws. But by then you will be earning money at a great rate and will be able to afford some crafted weapons with procs etc

Oh ! Thanks guy for your smart list of drop

I had listen that a named lvl 15 drop a sword and claw automaticaly, have you a news on it ?

Thanks guys, that helps me a ton. That list is exactly what I was looking for! I'm 14 and just bought a store-bought weap since the Fang of Skills are about to go blue to me. Next upgrade looks like Cursed Tomb, then.

I too kind of figured out that right now the haste buff is the only one worth doing at the moment. I'm not sure how good the other weapon styles are, but I'm loving the back position H2H style when I'm duo'd with my skald friend.

I few gear issues. The studded Noble Suppel armor drops near Gna from the werewolves, are NOT wearable by a savage. I think this may be a bug? Because they are wearable by nearly every other class in the game (it lists them).

Also, I farmed cursed tomb for around 3 hours and never got a claw to drop. We got bows, swords, axes, gloves, etc. , but no claws.

Skeleton mobs in Uppland drop a nice h2h weapon also. The mobs were oj and purple (2 camps) to me at level 23. The weapon was oj con.