CMAN Dirtkick vs Evasion Mastery

[Lord Orbstar]

With the CMANs I have left, I can take Dirtkick 5 and weapon spec 3

Or I can take Evasion Mastery 3 and Weapon spec 2.

I am not sure how good dirtkick is at the higher levels. My PLAN is to snipe from hiding always, but I know sometimes I will be sniffed out. The question is whether the evasion is best to live or the dirtkick to rehide easier.

I am a triple trained Stalk and Hide Archer and with 140 armor ranks so I can wear plate armor if I want or go with lighter armors to try it out.

I took Armored Evasion for my armor skill since that one has a bonus even in plate armor whereas armored stealth does nothing at all in plate.

My other CMANs are shadow mastery 5; surge of strength 3; and disarm weapon 1; Combat Mobility 2

[Lord Orbstar]

oh, I even kicked around the idea of true hand, but I think that one is for melee only and useless with a bow

[Allahinside]

Eh, I'd go with the evasion mastery personally. I love dirtkick ever since I went down to 2x hiding, but 3x will keep you hidden from most things extremely well. Especially with Shadow Mastery active.

The things that are going to sniff you out of hiding are 4 legged critters, undead, etc...and I think those will pretty much be able to get you regardless of whether or not you dirtkick them. Especially since dirtkick generally seems to wear off relatively quickly... It will help you hide initially but wont really last long enough for you to snipe for a long perod. The one benefit of dirtkick is the occasional stun, though.

Also, I'm not sure exactly how it works, but it seems to me that creatures that sniff instead of search (IE,the critters that are gonig to give you a problem hiding in the first place) don't really seem to be affected by dirtkick. This is only personal experience, I havent tested it and am not totally clear on the mechanics.

[Gibreficul]

Read up on evasion mastery. It's a joke once you get up into heavier armors, which you really should be in for the CvA alone.

That said, DIRTKICK, DIRTKICK, DIRTKICK... and if that's not good enough for you, FEINT FEINT FEINT. If you have them both, you'll be able to nuetralize just about ever critter in the game, if not destroy it.


Gibreficul... 5 ranks dirtkick, 5 ranks in feint.

[deadly]

Listen to the GIB he is very smart when it comes to builds.

[Gibreficul]

Listen to the GIB he is very smart when it comes to builds.

Lol, you added about 5 unnecessary words to that post.

And... lemme kinda lay it down....

Dirtkick is nice because it adds RT and can be used with 100% effectiveness in a defensive stance. Feint is nice because it gains benefits from using certain weapons, and thus training in wspec will add to its effectiveness as well. I'm not sure if anything is "immune" to feint, but dirtkick isn't usable in certain environments, typically wet or muddy places.



Gibreficul

[DaCapn]

I dropped dirt kick when I went ranged because I use 410 wearing brig. I took up evade mastery instead. I don't think it's worth it to use brig or lower with 140 ranks of AU (meaning evade mastery is worthless). If you've still got your spells you can use hauberk with minimum spell hindrance if you feel like changing it up to use 410 in the field, but that's as low as you should go armor-wise. I'd be more inclined to boost disarm or surge or take feint.

The last two ranks of surge might not seem worth it but if the bonuses add up to giving you another increment of 10 STR bonus (since it's a truncation of (STR bonus)/10 that determines RT reduction with a bow), it's totally worth it. If nothing else, you get the enhanced RT reduction of surge for 25% more of your hunt time (amounting to 43% of your hunt with reduced RT instead of 34%).

I'm nowhere near your level but that's where I see the advantage numbers-wise.

[Loagan]

Lol, you added about 5 unnecessary words to that post.

And... lemme kinda lay it down....

Dirtkick is nice because it adds RT and can be used with 100% effectiveness in a defensive stance. Feint is nice because it gains benefits from using certain weapons, and thus training in wspec will add to its effectiveness as well. I'm not sure if anything is "immune" to feint, but dirtkick isn't usable in certain environments, typically wet or muddy places.



Gibreficul

Hmm, thats strange because I was hunting in the Ducts and noticed that I was kicking up water instead of dirt and it worked. But I might have got a penalty for it being water. Not sure, but I'll look into the penalty bit later.