Vanguard vs KoTC

[Tobril]

I've made a short video to illustrate the difference in DPS between Vanguard and KoTC.

The character is using equivalent weapons, identical body equipment, the same amount of double strike, and zero filigrees.




(Vanguard - 43 seconds && KoTC - 38 seconds)


Notice how much the Vanguard picks up speed as vulnerability stacks add up. During a raid your KoTC will see a similar benefit as debuffers and/or popular weapons apply this same debuff.

The 5 seconds longer on an R1 boss doesn't seem like much, and it isn't. When you compare the ~150k HP of this boss vs ~5 million of a LH Baba...that's over 30 times the HP. The loss of DPS adds up even more at higher difficulties and can mean the difference between a fast clear, rough recovery, or even a wipe in some raids.

Vanguard is a fun tree and what you do while leveling generally doesn't matter. When raiding please consider showing up with a more DPS oriented configuration for the sake your 11 team members and yourself.


Two Handed Weapons vs Hand-and-a-half Weapons

• Base damage on Hand-and-a-half tends to be ~2/3 of a Two Handed equivalent
• Hand-and-a-half gets 1.6x damage of your main stat vs Two Handed granting 3x.

Vanguard Pros

• Built-in vulnerability stacks - Somewhat limited in application due to this property being available on many popular raid weapons. Debuffer characters also nullify this benefit. New and/or solo players will get some value out of these.
• Fancy Stuns
• Sword and Board looks/feels awesome
• Attack speed is high and feels like you're winning a slap-fight

KoTC Pros

• Instead of stunning something every 30 seconds, you delete an entire pack at low levels and 33% of a pack at high levels
• Lots of healing amplification
• Vastly higher DPS vs Evil Outsiders and Undead
• More Enhancement Points are available to spend in Defender+Racial trees, due to the need to get Divine Might on either Vanguard or KoTC. These points can be spent to get more dodge, AC, and PRR/MRR that will grant more overall defensive gains than simply strapping on a shield.