Did that work? It was supposed to be a play on the whole Marauder crab claw thing…
*snap snap*
Aaaanyway… Up until recently, I’d been focused almost entirely on Brutality spec; the single target burst dps mutation. This was due to two main reasons:
1. The mutations looks cool (the most important factor)
2. Front loaded burst dps usually serves well in pvp
Entering Mourkadin (I have no idea how to spell that) Temple recently, it occurred to me that this scenario is mainly one big zerg. There’s no splitting of team members towards control points, or people coming from all different directions; its basically like taking two bin liners full of rubbish and slamming them together for 15mins. In this metaphor, orders bin bag would be full of organic food packages and banana peels, whereas destructions would be full of rotten meat and dog excrement. Anyway, I digress.
I therefore decided to try out Monstrosity stance, as I figured I’d be able to up the damage I did a bit with all the targets there are crammed into one space. The extra toughness wasn’t going to hurt my survivability either. Not that Brutality hadn’t been serving me well, but managing to get yourself onto the back of a squishie without 3 people healing them and 3 others pounding on you is nigh on impossible in scenarios. Also, the fact that Dan has recently leveled a sorceress, which is very hard to keep up with damage wise, had nothing at all to do with my desire to increase my damage… yes, it’s very much an ego thing. Man-pride is delicate.
From what I’ve done so far, I’m extremely impressed. my position on the damage charts has switched from being “sometimes high sometimes low”, to “consistently high” (if not top). This is without respeccing my mastery points out of Brutality, so it should only get better if I respec too. These are the following advantages I see for Monstrosity spec, bearing in mind these only really apply in group zerg conditions.
My points will be interspersed randomly with screen shots of damage charts from scenarios I’ve done. It’ll subliminally start to make you think I’m a really good player.
(It’s a trick, I’m actually not)
(or was that false modesty?)
1. My survivability is much increased – The extra toughness helps, and the play-style is less prone to getting ganked, as you don’t feel the need to get to the back lines and eviscerate mage classes 100% of the time. I can stick to the front lines, lay down damage across as many targets as possible, and if we happen to be on the retreat I can back-pedal whilst continuing to spam my damage moves.
(See, you’re already thinking “Wow that Schozie must be good, look at those numbers!”)
2. Damage is consistently higher – Mainly due to the fact I’m hitting 5-6 targets at once. I’ve debated with myself to what extent I am genuinely helping the team, and how far this is just a big ego boost for me when looking at the charts; however the number of killing blows is usually pretty high too. In situations where kills counts, I think the damage spread across the team (and thus distracting/straining healers) makes up for the loss of any burst single target dps.
3. Targeting – I have big problems targeting in this game. Tab targeting (my preferred choice, clicking people is hard in big groups) seems to randomly scroll through enemy targets; presumably from left to right. However there’s no easy way to automatically target the enemy right in front of you. Either I click them (=anger) or I hit escape and then tab, which will take me to the target in front of me most of the time (also =anger). With the frontal aoe move, I just need to point myself in the right direction and I’m good.
4. Frontal attacking – no need to get behind people, makes things infinitely easier. Nuff said.
5. Fontal aoe disrupt - Great for when we push through their front line and I see a group of Rune Priests and Bright Wizards in front of me. Hit them with the interrupt, then spam the normal aoe move and they’ll usually start to scatter. Its hard to know which way to go when I’m manically running in circles round your group though eh? This also leaves any remaining order front line fighters exposed and with less (or no) healing on them.
(Sorceress damage in these is insane. Clearly the class for IWIN noobs)
6. It has that nice attack which causes people to do damage to themselves whenever they perform a melee attack. This is great for slapping onto tanks or…. well any melee class come to think of it!
Downsides:
1. I chew through my action points like an American at McDonalds
2. Single target dps is a bit low. There’s no massive burst when you manage to get behind a Bright Wizard (I hate Bright Wizards, and their stupid fire cages, gtfo)
3. The mutations don’t look quite as cool (though still cooler than Savagery ones).
4. It’s too easy, sometimes I end up spamming aoe and not really being strategic in any way.
My latest move has been to set some nice key bindings for the different stances/mutations. I’m starting to try and switch between Brutality and Monstrosity mid fight (only when necessarily or appropriate) and it seems to be working out really well so far. I can’t say I’ve noticed many other Marauders trying this so far to be honest. Spam the crap out of the squishes, when only one is left or their start to rout switch to Brutality and stab ‘em in the kidneys.
As far as mastery points go, I’m currently one point away from Guillotine, which is a big damage move in the Brutality tree that requires the target to be below 50% HP (execute anyone?). I’ve been really looking forward to trying this, so that’s next. I was considering speccing entirely into Monstrosity, but Brutality is nice for single targets and pve questing, so I’m going to leave my points there for the time being. After Guillotine I will start putting my next points into Monstrosity, for a while at least. I’m going to see how a dual spec suits me.
*snip snip*
