Two questions.

Is there any reason to really keep 39 hammer after you have some realm rank as our 39 hammer ability isn't that great.

If I go kobold will I be shunned from groups for not going the other races?

Spec depends on what you are aiming for..

For 8v8 43 songs is fine, and then you can go 50 weapon if you like for styles like ragnarok and higher WS (which is important in PvE raids aswell...)

Small group RvR i guess 50 BS is not out of the question..

Solo i would go for a balanced setup of songs, weapon and parry..

And ofcoz, there's always the imba 50songs, rest parry spec, and run around with a staff


(I would go for either Norse or Troll for skald but that's just me..)

50 bs, 29 hammer, 31 parry is a good solo build, and it'll allow you to do groups as well. Race doesn't really matter a whole lot, but imho the 5% body resist from Dwarf > any stats you can possibly get with the other races. Virtually all non-Midgard CC is body, and it'll allow you to have 31% body resist.

Dwarves also are small which can help you avoid larger groups from time to time when solo. Extra body resist is good versus assassins since poisons are body. If you are soloing you will fight a lot of them. Plus, most importantly, the eye patch.

I soloed quite a bit on mine and loved the 50b.s., 34 hammer, 26 parry. The damage was fine (300 or so on casters) and he was a low strenth kobold. As Zeb said, use provoke style as anytime, then back it up with the parry chain and the 7 sec stun. Get mastery of parry 3 and you will be a load solo. Mastery of pain would be my next passive.

For group, 50b.s., rest weapon,first passives mastery of pain

If you want to use the 7 sec stun, you have to block and not parry :p

Pouli wrote:If you want to use the 7 sec stun, you have to block and not parry :p

Gah!!!!! They changed this to parry on a later patch, my bad. Solo, I would still go hammer, just make sure to hit them with an attack speed reduction style, when frontloading the damage out of mez, at the first of the fight. Thanks for pointing that out Pouli!

Bad news again, if you want to debuff attack speed, you have to block or use the level 50 after parry style.

You can check this site to see all the available style
http://genuapp.appspot.com/char/class/skald.html

Solo/smallman : 50bs 39hammer 18 parry
8v8 : if you play with trispec and no aug and if you know twist : 50 bs 43 hammer
8v8: with aug : 46bs 47 hammer

anyway you can play as 8 with a solo spec your job in 8v8 = Rupt rupt rupt try play with 3DD (rigid claw or a second shield with 10/10 dd charge)

so spec its a detail for a skald , if you know rupt and switch target every hit for rupt you can play any spec


RA : purge >lw2 > ip >aom3>pain3>str3>moa3

why Ip ? because you overextand in casterlane with 1hand for rupt many caster/healer and sometime you can get out of heal range and if you take a stun/debuff heat/cold and take caster assist purge/ip help you alot for come back in your healer Range

I was thinking 46 bs 44 hammer rest parry for solo/small and occasional 8v8. Is this viable or would i be better off with that 50 song 39 hammer?

mrmaxhole wrote:I was thinking 46 bs 44 hammer rest parry for solo/small and occasional 8v8. Is this viable or would i be better off with that 50 song 39 hammer?

50 bs 39 hammer 18 parry its better for solo (last dd/resists /heal song ) help you alot in solo/small anyway when you use conquer in group its better chain this style for perma snare you can just conquer a tank and switch target 23 sec slow no need use conquer chain because you loose 60% slow so yeah i recommand you 50 bs when you dont have a Aug in your group red resists help alot vs Nearsight duration (cold )

Guys, please remember that your main dmg outcome will come pretty much only from your weapon, so dont put 39 points in it and 50 in BS. You will gimp yourselves. Why would you put 50 into BS anyways. DDs on 50 are not big of a deal against ppl and you will find yourself using it only as interrupt. I speak from my own experience, playing my skald to RR5 mainly solo (Windys - Prydwen EU).

Does anyone have any hard numbers to back up their claim?

What is the difference between 39+11 and 50+11 in hammer if we disregard every style past 39?
Weapon skill? (To hit chance?)
Style damage?

Zocci wrote:Does anyone have any hard numbers to back up their claim?

What is the difference between 39+11 and 50+11 in hammer if we disregard every style past 39?
Weapon skill? (To hit chance?)
Style damage?

from my experience above 50 you get only a minor WS increase which doesn't worth the effort IMHO.
so unless you want the 50 style i wouldnt go 50 weapon.
especially for hammer.
i am 46 bs / 44 hammer myself, because i wanted the back snare follow up.
and i templated only +6 hammer on my cheap SC to be able to cap everything else.

My 2 coppers.

Zocci wrote:Does anyone have any hard numbers to back up their claim?

What is the difference between 39+11 and 50+11 in hammer if we disregard every style past 39?
Weapon skill? (To hit chance?)
Style damage?

Zebul1n wrote:from my experience above 50 you get only a minor WS increase which doesn't worth the effort IMHO.

From my experience, one point gives the exact same amount of weaponskill no matter what your spec is. This is confirmed by Charplan. The higher your weaponskill is, the more damage you do and the better you penetrate defenses, but it doesn't affect miss rate.

You obtain minimal variance at 51 (or 50), meaning that points above 51 contribute a little less to your overall damage than points below 51. Pretty much all melee classes should aim for at least 51 (RR included).

There's also a 2H damage bonus, it starts a x1.10 (10%) and is increased by 0.005 for each point in your weapon line (x1.35 at 39+11, x1.405 at 50+11).

Take all this with a grain of salt though.