SWF or THF ????

[rezo]

I am planning on TR'ing in to a pally but I don't like the S&B builds. So, should I go SWF or THF??? I'm not a fan of TWF and I'm not in to maxing dps. I'm just looking for a fun fighting style that I like. Beside TWF means I need to craft and get more weapons. My plan build is 2 monk, 4 warlock, 14 pally Warforged str build ( kind of like the old monster build). Thx for your input.

P.S. this is my finial life.

[unbongwah]

Why 4 warlock? I'd understand war 5 for T5 ES, but war 4 seems strange.

Either style is fine, but SWF benefits more from doublestrike bonuses; so if you're giving up Zeal, I'd probably go THF. This presumes you actually have good 2H weapons banked, ofc.

[CrackedIce]

Either style is fine, but SWF benefits more from doublestrike bonuses; so if you're giving up Zeal, I'd probably go THF. This presumes you actually have good 2H weapons banked, ofc.

Maybe I'm crazy, but I seriously think it depends if you want to emphasize doublestrike or aoe damage since they are mutually exclusive. If you want to take tier 5 chalice tree, you have three cleaves right there. If you pick up cleave feat you can go for LD Momentum swing. In this context, thf will serve you well. But if want to focus on doublestrike, you can emphasize this with swf and divine crusader destiny.

And yes you can still take AOE damage with swf since you cleave, but you lose doublestrike when cleaving as well as don't have glancing blows.

And yes, you can still focus on doublestrike on thf and get additional damage with glancing blows, but can only really take advantage of doublestrike against single enemies like bosses (only if your not cleaving) but then you lose out on speed bonus (and orb offhand) with your main weapon.

[rezo]

I do have a lot of 2handed weapons and a lot of Bastard Swords and Dwarven Axes in the bank. Was thinking of Khopesh also for SWF too. as for the 5T, I was looking at Holy Retribution and Avenging Cleave for the KoTC 5T.

Edited- I was thinking of the Spiritual Retribution for melee becuz it's only T4 in the Enlightened Spirit Tree. That's why only 4 lvl's of warlock.

[unbongwah]

And yes you can still take AOE damage with swf since you cleave, but you lose doublestrike when cleaving as well as don't have glancing blows.
2H weapons have better AoE DPS due to larger base dmg mod, glancing blows, etc. SWF builds have higher single-target DPS due to higher atk speed with regular atks. Doublestrike bonuses only affect regular atks. Ergo, SWF builds benefit more from doublestrike than 2H builds do, because it improves what they're already better at.

That's pretty much all I was saying.

Edited- I was thinking of the Spiritual Retribution for melee becuz it's only T4 in the Enlightened Spirit Tree. That's why only 4 lvl's of warlock.
Spiritual Retribution is +3d6 light dmg per hit which is boosted by Light Spellpower. So let's be generous and presume you hit 300 Light Spellpower by endgame; that's about +45 light dmg per hit. Plus some passive DPS from your auras.

But bear in mind if you played pure pally, your KotC light dmg would go from 3d6 to 7d6; you'd also gain +10 Melee Power, which boosts both light & physical dmg on this build. Not to mention the +10% doublestrike you're giving up from losing pal 15.

Then there's the question of APs: on a pure BF pally, I think the optimal spread is 16 APs racial (max Recon SLA + Power of the Forge), 41 APs KotC (T5s + capstone), 23 APs Sacred D (T4). Going for max Spiritual Retribution costs 23 APs; so what are you dropping to get it? EDIT: I presume it would be from Sacred D & KotC, particularly since you won't benefit from Gtr Defensive Stance bonuses.

There are other reasons for going war 4; and if you've already decided you want Evasion from monk 2, that dilutes KotC already. I just don't think Spiritual Retribution by itself is sufficient.