What is your Manastone choice?

[Randgris]

I noticed the thing that almost everyone, who slotting for sb/hp - has much lower lvl than the ones who's slotting atk/crit. And everyone's fine with their gear and playstyle. BUT fact is - if you want lvling faster - go for atk/crit manastones + crit accessories if possible.

[diehard2222]

full crit till 50.

[gisborne]

I'm trying 80% Evasion 20% HP at 23 in my leather armor. Strictly group play.

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Originally Posted by Randgris

I noticed the thing that almost everyone, who slotting for sb/hp - has much lower lvl than the ones who's slotting atk/crit. And everyone's fine with their gear and playstyle. BUT fact is - if you want lvling faster - go for atk/crit manastones + crit accessories if possible.

That might be because ppl who have slotted crit/attk are willing to solo grind for 8 hours a day while the others just play 3-4 hours a day and try to group. Everyone knows that grouping is inferior xp to soloing so the higher level (ie, hardcore) players are min/maxing for solo play.

[Snoop62]

Mix of atk and crit. At lvl 40 with just sipus's shield from FT no SD stones, my shield skills are constantly on CD. Ran the research labs last night for the first time only died twice to the damn sorcs in there hitting for almost 3500 with large magic missle =(, damn magic users hurt period lol other than those mobs i have no problems tanking slotted atk/crit.

From some of the other threads ive seen putting any SD stones in your slots is a waste cuz the formula depends on the enemies accuracy and every mob/player has a differ amount of accuracy so personally im not even goin to touch SD stones and at 50 i will prolly still stack crit till 440 with accessories then rest HP. Still keeping crit cuz the more dmg you do will help you keep aggro as well as using your provokes

[Hydrus]

As soon as I actually get decent gear, going to just socket crit mainly.

[Gaijin]

Sword - 2 sockets > Att/Crit
Sword - 3 sockets > Att/Crit/Crit
Shield - 2 sockets > SBlock x2 (always green stones)
Shield - 3 sockets > SBlock x3 (always green stones)
Armor - 2 sockets > Att/Crit
Armor - 3 sockets > Att/Crit/Crit

[lucifear]

atm, crit everywhere except in my shield, but the shield socketing may be about to change...

just because im a templar doesnt mean i should gimp my damage stacking unecessary defensive stats all the time, templars do need to kill **** and level as well

but i supose if you actually like to be a tank all the time and mark targets ad infinitum, and always have a party waiting for you, then pure block/HP could be a viable choice

also, if you got enough money to have 2 well socketed blue sets, just go for boths and swap them depending on the ocasion

[falroid]

Originally Posted by Omertax

I am strict Shield Block and HP grinding hasn't been a problem i didn't see myself killing incredibly faster with Full Crit

the advantages of being harder to kill since i grind in the abyss is nice. i can venture out farther away from the tower than a lot of other people because i can get back if i start getting ganked.

I have played a tank in every game i have ever played and i have always went with defense over attack.. i don't think i could have tanked Fire Temple at lvl 30 if i had full crit stones in my gear.

that being said its an opinion thing whatever your play style is and what you think is the best. i know a lot of templars that are going Crit+Atk instead of Block+HP

well u could have tanked ft at 30.thats not an opinion, thats a fact we all have. i personally try to keep 50/50 atk /crt and tank pretty well anyway. maybe ill make some changes at 40+ for instances.
by the way, hp manastones dont factor for emp armor percentage.

[Cardingus]

After reading up on the above posts, a question popped in this new templar's mind:

Does Shield Block manastones affect physical damage reduction value when you block? or just the percentage of blocking?

[Snoop62]

Originally Posted by Cardingus

After reading up on the above posts, a question popped in this new templar's mind:

Does Shield Block manastones affect physical damage reduction value when you block? or just the percentage of blocking?

Sheild Defense does not reduce the dmg taken when you block it only increases the Block stat to help you block more atks. Only thing that will reduce the dmg is the shields dmg reduction %, everytime you + the shield up it increases the %

[Enmity]

While levling I personally only put block stones on my shield, Why waste a stone slot if you switch to GS.

For Defensive Stones, try Parry its better DMG Mitigation then block, And if your worried about shield ability proc's Just bounce up Shield wall while waiting on the cool down of other abilities, its only a GCD.

Its a hard choice about Evasion, it really depends on what your going against. Evasion is better DMG Mitigation however your evasion has to be higher then the Accuracy of the mob attacking you. Plate dosnt give us too much natural Evasion like Leather.

But until lvl 50, I fully support Crit and Attack stones, just be ready to get rid of them on lvl 50 PvE gear!

Another suggestion is to know the stats of the mob or type of players your going against, know thier accuracy, and what your gear naturally gives you. If the assains that keep ganking you have 1000 accuracy, and your armor only gives you 500 natural of a defensive stat, Avoid boosting it!

[Aurelion]

Partying: 70% HP, 30% Block.
Soloing: 100% P Crit

Planning for future:
Partying: more HP while reaching a 1800 block rating.
Soloing: trying out P Atk and Block combined

[IVIadness]

Full crit all the way.

[Cuts]

Originally Posted by falroid

hp manastones dont factor for emp armor percentage.

sadfaces. for true?

[Cooper]

Originally Posted by diehard2222

full crit till 50.

full crit forever.

and yeah, all bonuses in this game are calculated individually based on the original value. say you have 4k hp. our 15% hp passive adds 600, empyrean adds 2k. yeah, stacking 100 more attack doesn't do anything to help you with divine fury or the 50 adv stigma. ats right they're not truely a 30% buff, thats why your damage isn't 30% higher when you activate DF, rather its like 5-15% higher. it DOES effect how much empyrean armor will heal you though, since it heals for 25% of your max hp after boosting it.