In my post, Things to do before the Land of the Dead, I wanted to get my Ironbreaker to Level 25 so he could journey to the new zone. In the first few weeks, it should be quite a popular place so leveling should be good. This weekend was spent mostly leveling him.
I must say playing the IB, Hoplon, has bee a lot of fun. Like any good Dwarf, I took up my shield and a hammer. Currently he is rank 23, but almost to 24. Those 63k Exp quests were a great help. I am currently working my way up the Brotherhood mastery path toward Earthshatter.
When using a shield, I have found my damage pretty abysmal, but that is perfectly fine with me. I am playing the IB as a defensive tank class, so offensive power is not really required. It seems that they are damage mitigation machines and a lot of fun to play.
My current goal is to reduce damage to my group as much as possible. If the enemy attacks me, great. If not I can still do a good job of reducing their damage. I will often lead with Challenge, which reduces all enemies damage in front of me by 30%. To help protect myself and my Oath Friend I use Runic Shield often which absorbs some damage.
When the opportunity is there I will use Away with Ye (knockback) and Taunt/attack. The rest of the time you'll find me Holding the Line. There is something satisfying about seeing all of the blocks, absorbs and Disrupts go flying by. If they decide to focus fire on me, I pop Shield Wall and hope my team can take advantage.
Once I get Earthshatter, I should be even more dangerous. Until then I am having fun in my current role. There are some frustrations though. Choppa's still wreck me and Squig Herders can kite me forever.
It has been a nice change from my Engineer as they play totally different. On Badlands, we always seem to have a lack of tanks, so I hope I can contribute soon. A healer is next on my list, as we are in desperate need of them.
Gaming into the summer
1 day ago
