Warrior weapon progression?

[Swiggity]

Currently have a lvl 27 warrior wielding Sword of Skyfire and Green Jade Broadsword. I find that I often have trouble holding aggro with rogues or monks in group. I was wondering if, at this level, my hate generation and thus ability to hold aggro would go up significantly if I were to buy, say, a Jade Mace or Lamentation. The problem is that I don't have a lot of money, and for the cost of a Jade Mace or Lamentation I could buy several armor upgrades instead. Should I aim for a Jade Mace/Lamentation or comparable weapon, or focus on armor upgrades until I can wield proc weapons?

[jijii]

at level 27 id probably recommend just focusing more on dps and less on agro via procs. id probably go staff of battle.

at this stage of the game you're going to have rogues and monks with massively better dps setups than you and the procs aren't really going to matter, so just join in on the dps fray

edit to add that, i wouldn't spend the money on armor upgrades. if you can't get aggro anyhow, not a lot of benefit to being tankier :)

[Jimjam]

I'm currently levelling a new warrior. He is actually 27 at the moment!

I've found you're simply not going to be able to keep aggro for more than a few seconds with just taunt/melee against an epic rogue at this weapon.

Grouped with an epic/fungi rogue sometimes I'll switch to double obsidian shards; if a proc lands I'll likely have aggro until the rest of the battle, allowing the rogue to get back stabs in. I'm not sure if the massive drop in warrior dps from green jade broad swords to obsidian shards to allow rogues to backstab / not tank is worth it though. The warrior, rogues and cleric will feel happier with the situation though.

Really, the ideal solution is to stick with the dps weapon set but just have someone root the target mob for you. If you make sure you are the one standing closest to the rooted mob then you will be the one it tries to attack (regardless of aggro). The massive boost in dps this will give to the group (letting the warrior use dps weapons and the rogue to backstab reliably) is well worth the 30 mana, so generally someone will do it for you if you ask nicely.

[williestargell]

Staff of Battle is dandy for if there are two warriors in the group and you want to avoid agro. Otherwise, regardless of level your only real duty is to keep agro. Agro weapons are a must.

Scimitar of Ykesha is no drop but you can very often get one for free by hanging out in Kithicor when guilds kill dark elves and do rogue epics. There's usually nobody there that needs it so it's rotting and they'll let you loot. This occurs several times a day so it's not unrealistic to be there at the right time.

Sarnak Warhammer is not very expensive

Those two will last you for life until you get rich, get an epic or velious comes out.

[Jimjam]

Good suggestions on weapons, Willie, but unfortunately not of immediate use to the op as he says he is 27.

[Swiggity]

Good suggestions on weapons, Willie, but unfortunately not of immediate use to the op as he says he is 27.

Aye, that's basically the thing. I know that at later levels proc weapons are where it's at, but I can't wield any (good) proc weapons at lvl 27. So my question is: would it be significantly or noticeably easier to hold aggro if I were to buy a Jade Mace/Lamentation level weapon?

[Jimjam]

I don't know, the best pure melee weapon I've used is a green jade broadsword and an iksar berserker club at 27. It doesn't have a hope of keeping aggro against monk/rogue twinks. Maybe jade mace or lamentations could but I doubt it.

As I said before the best is just to have someone root the mob you are fighting to control who it is hitting.

[williestargell]

Get the lower level yaks that proc at 20 then.

[Jimjam]

Do you mean obsidian shards?

[williestargell]

I was thinking SSoY proc'd at 20, but I see it's listed as 37.

[khanable]

Group with people who can root, use dps weapons

At 37/40 switch to yaks/yak clubs

Mobs die too quickly at the lower levels to rely on procs

And depending on gear, those monk twinks will probably out tank you

[Jimjam]

The frustrating thing is players consider rooting the main mob a waste of mana, and would rather spend the mana on a nuke, even though that 30 mana root improves the dps/tanking of a group by so much :(.

[Snagglepuss]

Echoing what others have said, stick with DPS weapons until 37. Then move to Ykesha proccing weapons. At 46 you can switch to Sarnak Hammer MH and Snare Whip OH. This will take you until epics, blade of the blade dragon eye, or VP weapons. Trochilic's Skean is an amazing offhand for holding aggro at higher levels when mobs don't die as fast. It's easily the greatest hate generated outside of VP, epics, and botbde. If it were a MH weapon, the aggro gear gap of Kunark would be solved.

Also, hate is generated per swing which is why it's better to have a faster weapon that has a decent ratio than wielding slower weapons as you wait for procs to go off and do no damage. Mobs tend to die fast at lower levels so it's really not worth it.

Here was my set up:

1-37 - Lammy x2, Staff of Battle (DPS) Remember fastest in MH, best ratio in off hand. Jade mace and fist of zek are a great cheap alternative.
START GEARING FOR DEX
37 Sword Sword of the Ykesha x2
40 Ykeshan Club x2 and Scimitar
46+ Sarnak Warhammer and Silken Whip of Ensnaring, and Trochilic's Skean.
Bonus Points: Blade of the Blade Dragon Eye and Ringed Mace of the Ykesha

[khanable]

Yak scimitar mh + warhammer offhand is what I generally recommend on the ride to 60

[Jimjam]

Is Trochilic's Skean easy enough to acquire? Obviously the DoT component can cause problems in some situations, but otherwise it seems like a decent off hander.

Might as well scrounge two weapons from rogues doing their epic, right?

[khanable]

Fairly easy, yes. Loot rights are cheap, if not free (ymmv)

[Pheno]

I've been using 2 Obsidian Shards at level 25 and they've been awful!

So what you guys are saying is that 2 Lamentations are the best until 37? Those are gonna run somewhere between 4-6k plat for two.

Looks like I'm gonna be using a Staff of Battle instead, unless there's any better options. Does anyone know?

[Yumyums Inmahtumtums]

2 Skorpikus impalers should work well at 30.

http://i.imgur.com/Ea6f33M.jpg

[williestargell]

2x Lamentation would be a good combo until you're high enough to get procs.

On live fast weapons were better than procs for agro. P99's never been able to tune hate generation to work quite like it did on live but absent procs low delay dual wield are your best bet for agro. Also pretty good DPS.

[Swiggity]

2 Skorpikus impalers should work well at 30.

http://i.imgur.com/Ea6f33M.jpg

Surprised nobody else mentioned this. Apparently the hate generation is great, and it starts to proc at lvl 30. Might pick one up later to test it out.

[radda]

idk, i went aggro and dex from the start gear wise and i've held my ground. dont expect 100% all the time but its better then 0% all of the time