Disarm Skill - Useful, but is it worth the trouble?

[Ashimar]

As a Warrior in my perspective. This skill takes a very long time to up. Right now its at 32, and i've been working on it ever since it became available. Most of the time it never works, and you can only do it to mobs who are using a weapon. When you do try it, it will usually fail, and it never seems to get better.
At this rate, i dont think the skill will ever be maxed unless every mob encountered is using a weapon.

Is this the same for everyone else who uses this Skill?

[stormlord]

As a Warrior in my perspective. This skill takes a very long time to up. Right now its at 32, and i've been working on it ever since it became available. Most of the time it never works, and you can only do it to mobs who are using a weapon. When you do try it, it will usually fail, and it never seems to get better.
At this rate, i dont think the skill will ever be maxed unless every mob encountered is using a weapon.

Is this the same for everyone else who uses this Skill?You know, this is hte kind of stuff I wish EQ would have developed more. That's what the skill is so why ignore it? Were they concerned that players wouldn't want to click a disarm button? I've never in all my time playing this game felt like I needed to click the disarm button so it's a skill I never used. I did see it used on the pvp server, but only once or twice on live and that was at least a decade ago.

Anything to make the game more interesting. Too often one just hits auto-attack and kills it or runs... I know people don't like button mashing, but combat needs to be more tactical than this. I realize people don't like to think when they're in combat because that's too much to ask, but come on.

Is this the difference between a guy that likes turn-based games and somebody who likes real-time? I don't like to watch what happens, I like to be tied in with it. In a slower game you got time to think over things and to make the right choice. Maybe in real-time guys we get caught up in the moment and forget what we need to do and that leads to frustration. But I'd like to think that real-time games could be made in such a way that they're similar to turn-based in their depth of play. Maybe it's wishful thinking. I love turn-based. I wish...

Bottom line, if it took longer to die we'd have longer to think clearly and make good choices. But if a game is so simplistic that the thinking doesn't produce anything then it's wasted time better spent elsewhere.

[Kika Maslyaka]

You know, this is hte kind of stuff I wish EQ would have developed more. That's what the skill is so why ignore it? Were they concerned that players wouldn't want to click a disarm button? I've never in all my time playing this game felt like I needed to click the disarm button so it's a skill I never used. I did see it used on the pvp server, but only once or twice on live and that was at least a decade ago.

What I would have liked to see is more strategy or tactics employed in the design of a dungeon or spawn arrangement. Done in such a way that PLAYER skill, not character stats or skills, is the defining factor. Knowledge about what a mob does and what you can do to counter it. Things like that. In EQ, there's not a lot of that. It sometimes happens in raids, but in those everything pretty much has to be known beforehand or you lose. What I'd like is something that is slower but with more details going on underneath. Something that happens during group-play and solo-play just as well in raid-play. I mean, the game should start at level 1, not at level 50 or 100.

+1

[Messianic]

As a Warrior in my perspective.

[Kassel]

Macro it to your kick or bash and have it level and go off all the time.

[falkun]

Think of it this way:

What is the drawback to failing a disarm?
None.

You have nothing to lose, so practice the skill. You can combine abilities so you aren't mashing a whole keyboard - just 1 button.

[Rais]

As a warrior or a tank, it should always be used. It causes hate on the agro list. So every little bit helps.

As a 60 monk, my disarm goes off all the time. Mobs that were duel welding, or even quadding, once my disarm goes off. Makes them solo attack. IMO thats better than shaman slow.

You can bind the key with auto attack button, to kick, or taunt. It has a different timer than some skills. Once you get past 100 skill, it goes so much faster leveling up.

[Dantes]

falkun has a good point. It doesn't hurt to use it. Practice while hunting guards, you'll get lots of skillups, most guards have weapons and shields you can disarm.

Rais - that all sounds good in theory but I'd love to see logs that prove it. I've disarmed plenty of mobs, fought mobs with and without weapons and it really seems to make no difference for me. Any non-pet NPC seems to have the ability to hit for the same damage and the same amount of times no matter what weapon they have (unless it has a proc). The way you have explained it sounds like how it should work, and I hope it does... but I'll believe it when I see it.

Same goes for aggro generation. It may generate aggro, it may not. The skill didn't even work at all a few months ago. So I'm hesitant to assume it works. But again, can't hurt to use it.

[malroth69]

So how do you bind the key to auto-attack, kick, bash or taunt? Do you have to do some kind of /stopattack like you do for casting macro's?

[Messianic]

So how do you bind the key to auto-attack, kick, bash or taunt? Do you have to do some kind of /stopattack like you do for casting macro's?

Make a social macro that looks like this:

1: /doability 1
2: /doability 2
3: /doability 3

Where 1, 2, and 3 represent the top left, top right, and middle left buttons in your "ability selection" thingy on your UI (in the bottom right by default) - not your hotkeys that are by default in the bottom left. I used it to blend sense heading, taunt, and kick into the same button when I was soloing...

[malroth69]

Make a social macro that looks like this:

1: /doability 1
2: /doability 2
3: /doability 3

Where 1, 2, and 3 represent the top left, top right, and middle left buttons in your "ability selection" thingy on your UI (in the bottom right by default) - not your hotkeys that are by default in the bottom left. I used it to blend sense heading, taunt, and kick into the same button when I was soloing...

thanks

[Dr4z3r]

Most of the time it never works

Yeah, but 50% of the time, it works ever time.

But seriously, what's the cost to you of using Disarm?

If you macro it to the same button as kick, then it's effectively zero.

Why would you ever not use it?

[Mady]

This post by Brabble on The Steel Warriors board was compiled in 2005, it probably still has some validity:

http://www.thesteelwarrior.org/forum/showthread.php?t=13856

Some things increase your aggro, some do not. Beg does not. Disarm, as far as I know, will get you on a mob's hate list but not much else. Cyclone blade works well, though you have to be careful when to use it (around mobs the chanter is trying to mez, for example). Doing a /rude to the mob doesn't help. The "spirit of rage" discipline actually does add to your hate, though it is rarely used because of it's END cost, long refresh, and general lack of power. Sit may not add to your aggro, but you can re-position some mobs with it. I believe the general thinking is that /shield does not add to your hate, though it's still a good idea to use it in group settings when a caster draws aggro (or, you can use it on knights as a kind of insult, heh).

[Dravingar]

Disarm Protector when he has the stupid AE poison weapon. Other than that it's just to see ARGGGHHH my weapon.

[Dantes]

I suppose you don't want to use disarm when mobs have expensive weapons, unless you aren't concerned one of your group members won't quietly pick it up without saying anything and try to sneak off with it.

[Kika Maslyaka]

that only works with non magic weapons. magic weapons fall into mobs 'inventory' so to speak
Overall skill is only TRULY usefull in PvP.. or at least it was...

[Knuckle]

tag art

[Harm]

Beg does not.

Successful beg didn't add to hate, but a failed beg did. So warriors would strategically save their beg skill for key moments to not get unneeded skillups.

If you want more aggro, use every trick in the book that isn't costing you anything, disarm being one of them. Macroing it into a commonly used skill is a good way to raise anything, disarm and sense heading being prime examples.

Don't even put a point into beg and only use it when you really need some extra aggro. Hope for no skillups, because you want to fail, and don't beg needlessly when you're bored. Make a macro to turn off attack, beg, and turn attack back on.

[Ennoia]

At higher level Disarm can be helpful...unless the mob is wielding a magic weapon, because I don't think those can be Disarmed.

[beeshma_nameless]

find a mage or a necro pet in EC tunnel and practise disarm on it - if I recall right you get skill ups from that. With recent dual wield patch which needs pets to have weapons, this should be easier if it works)