Diplomacy or Bluff? which is more useful?

[Bolo_Grubb]

Diplomacy or Bluff? which is more useful?


If you could only buff up one of them? Which is generally more useful and why?

[Livmo]

Diplomacy or Bluff? which is more useful?


If you could only buff up one of them? Which is generally more useful and why?

I play a ranged toon and the BLUFF can cause charging baddies to turn away and slow their advance.

[bsquishwizzy]

Diplomacy or Bluff? which is more useful?


If you could only buff up one of them? Which is generally more useful and why?

Tactically: bluff. You can (or at least at one time you could) bluff-pull mobs and take them out one-by-one. Not to mention you could use it for SA damage on a rogue.

Oh my God I'm going to die, so make this mob go away: Diplo.

[brian14]

Tactically: bluff. You can (or at least at one time you could) bluff-pull mobs and take them out one-by-one.

You still can. However, if I am not mistaken, you must position yourself so that only the intended target can see you.

[bsquishwizzy]

You still can. However, if I am not mistaken, you must position yourself so that only the intended target can see you.

I always try to write qualifiers in stuff I haven't tried using in a while because you never know what's changed.

And you never know when some fully nerdraged Internet warrior is looking for his or her next conquest.





It's been a rough day...

[cdbd3rd]

Diplomacy or Bluff? which is more useful?


If you could only buff up one of them? Which is generally more useful and why?

One consideration to take into account is whether you're mainly soloing, or usually grouped up with others.

Diplo tries to redirect a mob's agro onto someone else. If there's no one else around (like even a summon/pet/hireling), Diplo becomes kinda useless.

[Bolo_Grubb]

Good information, thanks

What about quests optionals that require either bluff or Diplo? Like in Chains of flame to save the dwarf or in Von 1. Are there more Diplo or more Bluff situations like that? Are they even worth considering?

[Annex]

I play a solo thief and use both Bluff and Diplomacy regularly--Bluff to pull a monster or turn one around for a sneak attack; Diplomacy to drop some threat onto my hire or summoned monster. Bluff seems to come up more often as a dialog option but I have no data to support that claim. Golden Guile and Epic Golden Guile work well for both.

[Ralmeth]

I always try to write qualifiers in stuff I haven't tried using in a while because you never know what's changed.

Yes, bluff pulling still works. Out of pure coincidence, I tried it the other day just to see if it still did, and it worked fine.

[Enoach]

Just my 2cps

Bluff works best if you:

Use it to pull a single mob to you
Utilize sneak attack but can't always be the one without the agro
You need to stop a charging mob


Diplomacy works best if you:


Need an entire room of mobs to stop beating on you
Have agro but need to drop it on someone else - Say like a tank or a person that has been piking :)

[unbongwah]

The short answer is: Bluff is more useful if you solo, particularly if you have lots of sneak atk dmg; Diplomacy is more useful if you group and need to dump aggro onto somebody else. ;) Diplo's also better if you're a Shiradi build for Audience with the Queen.

What about quests optionals that require either bluff or Diplo? Like in Chains of flame to save the dwarf or in Von 1. Are there more Diplo or more Bluff situations like that? Are they even worth considering?
If you actually care about those optionals, you ought to play a toon which can max out all three (Bluff / Diplo / Intim) as well as Haggle; because some situations only work with one of those skills. Typically only, say, INT-based rogues have enough skill pts to spare for that, though; and it's never a requirement for quest completion, just something for a little RP flavor.

[Uska]

Depends on situation and if you are solo or not

[LeadHero5]

I' m in a lot of static groups that give us the time to use bluff to pull individuals out of a group, and they can be very close to each other. Our favorite saying as the last melee walks away from the caster is "where did George go?" In the middle of fighting a group, I can focus on the caster and as he starts to cast, bluff him, he turns around and the spell goes off away from us. I can bluff a foe fighting someone else, and he'll spin around not hit for a second, while he gets hammered with that sweet sneak attack.

As the levels go up, the turnaround time does go down and they save more, but useful enough. Disclaimer, I am not an elite, cutting edge player, I don't know how effective this is in LE or raids. In heroic, if you have high CHA and invest in bluff, with ranks and gear, it works a lot.

[Memnir]

What about quests optionals that require either bluff or Diplo? Like in Chains of flame to save the dwarf or in Von 1. Are there more Diplo or more Bluff situations like that? Are they even worth considering?Very few, but they are out there. If you don't want to pay the NPC for information in the last part of Delara's it's a Bluff check. There are also three bluff checks at the end of Party Crashers to deal with the Tieflings before you confront the main bad guy. I'm sure there are a couple more examples, but it's early and the coffee hasn't kicked in yet.