cmans at cap

[MrMortimur]

I'm nearing cap and burned my old fixskills to re-evaluate my skills and cmans. Some of my cman choices are strictly practical and I like to have at least a few character defining ones. I love having staggering blow and went with executioners stance for the visual even though there are other stances that are better. I'd like to get another brute style cman as well. Possibly sunder shield, headbash, or maybe coup. I don't care about otf as a potential hunting ground.

At cap which creatures
-cast bolts/ball spells? Warcamps. Nelemar does not. SoS? scatter? Confluence? (Spell parry)
-use a shield? defenders in nelemar? destroyers in scatter? confluence would be a no? Any shields in sos? (sunder shield)

[Ososis]

Do you use a shield? I trained might blow-sunder shield just for defense against the Vvreal destroyers sunder (they don't have shield)

headbutt is soooo fun, especially against players. As long as you have no flares or spikes there is no chance to kill em, and knocking folks out with it is super fun. A couple good head butts against a magic user and they are worthlessly scrambled.

[MrMortimur]

I do not use a shield no. battleaxe. Ah I was misremembering the advice about destroyers then. I thought they had the shields and it might be useful if I were to go there. Thanks.

Headbutt, helmet required or noticably beneficial for use versus casters? I don't expect I would begin wearing a helmet, but maybe, I'd need to start using a shimmer trinket to not be seen wearing a helmet.

[Ososis]

Naw, destroyers have mauls, and the occasional day ruining claidh. Which just makes them sundering my shield an even bigger problem, but no shield, no worries. Trying to think of what has a shield in high end rift, I think maybe the fallen crusaders are the only ones? But I never hunted those, they disappear too fast and they took too long to kill (though were never really dangerous) but, maybe a shield sunder would make em extra squishy, I didn't train it till I was into the scatter.

As to the headbut, I never DIDN'T have a helmet, so i never tried the difference. I am also unsure if the head covering of armor would count or not. If you are looking to keep stylish, I have "an etched vaalorn helm etched with a vile clump of excrement" (paraphrase)

EDIT TO ADD
I also don't hunt Liches, cause I am not that crazy yet, I THINK they just have a runestaff, but they may have shield too, I'm not a medical doctor

[Mohrgan]

I do not use a shield no. battleaxe. Ah I was misremembering the advice about destroyers then. I thought they had the shields and it might be useful if I were to go there. Thanks.

Headbutt, helmet required or noticably beneficial for use versus casters? I don't expect I would begin wearing a helmet, but maybe, I'd need to start using a shimmer trinket to not be seen wearing a helmet.

Headbutt definitely works with just head covering armor, does not specifically need a helm. I used to headbutt with a spiked and flaring (and impact resist) helm, which was great, nothing like the rare headbutt + spike + flare all on the same strike. However, I took it off once I got kroderine full plate, where headbutt a caster + dispel flare was better. Particularly works well for cerebralites in the rift, simultaneously can disable the casting and strip off the cloak of shadows.

[MrMortimur]

Thanks all. Headbutt it is. Looking at creatures on the wiki it looks like two creatures in SoS cast bolt spells and everything in the confluence does as well. Spell parry something others have found noticably beneficial?

[Aganii]

I definitely find spell parry useful in the confluence if you are THW or TWC. After a long string of particularly cheap deaths I stopped short of picking up 3x shield use and went full parry mastery, spell parry and 25 ranks of earth lore for the extra 5% block on selfcast 414. Overboard probably but there was a marked improvement.

Now I just have to worry about all the other cheap stuff without the bolts added on top.

[Jeril]

Unless things have changed training in sunder shield doesn't actually help protect against it being used on you the way it works with other maneuvers.