Warbirds and Dex Mages... ???

So I played last night in VL and ran into a dead warbird at the Overlord. Well, he would get revived, but died almost immediately afterward, so he was pretty much always dead. Meanwhile my bear (I did use health pots) stayed alive the whole time until I got tired of waiting for the warbird to figure out how to stay alive and use break armor. Finally he asked, why is the bear staying alive and I keep dying??

Mage: "Because his equipment has high armor"
DeadBird: "But I am using STR equipment"
Mage: "....."
Me: "Because all my skills are made for me to take damage and survive (Evade, Taunt, IronBlood, Hell Scream, Crushing Blow) and your skills are made for you to keep distance and attack a single target"
Me: "Moral of the story = Don't be a warbird"

Why would a mage go pure Dex and an archer go pure STR? Seems like all you end up with is a weak version of what you try to become. To lose your skill damage is HUGE, why oh why??

Maybe this guy was just a worthless warbird, but the one's I've seen don't seem any better.

I understand more of dual specing (bow bear, pally), I am referring to pure builds that favor a different class.

A Warbird is only good if you know how to use it right. All i say is "do what real birds do" run in attack fast and run out.
Warbirds should never tank since they don't have any armor buffs, they have Evade (which can be good)

but yea your right, don't be a warbird (warbirds are for PvP)

lol the instant you are revived little hard to cast buffs, heal, and get out of the way. OL is good at keeping people dead. my str bird would have no problem dealing with OL, or pally for that matter.

its aaaaaalllll about the ability of the player, and the fact that OL has a lot of damage packed into the instant you get back up.

and ps warbirds can work it in PVP, especially twinking.

It sounds like you have just run accross inexperienced warbirds...

After AO3 came out (before it was nerfed to what it is today) I got tired of getting one shot killed by every boss in AO3. The bears were so dominate before the rebalancing update that the bears could survive anything while birds and mages lay around dead. I respected my bird and mage to dual spec so I could switch to rift gear and survive when I needed to. Having more powerful DPS or skill damage doesn't help much when you are dead. With a full Rift set and some pots, I could solo Overlord when bears, mages, or other birds lay dead on the floor.

When the new Sewers campaigns came out, on some maps (like Stronghold) it was a great advantage to switch to STR gear through the fire traps, then back to DEX gear to battle bosses. I play my bird with DEX gear most of the time now, unless there is not a good tank in the group to keep me from dying, then I might still switch to STR to survive until the boss fight. I follow basically the same strategy with my Mage/Pally - STR when needed to survive, INT when I need the highest damage out-put.

In the end, my answer is simply survivability - staying alive to keep fighting and keep playing.

My warbird is a beast.... to much dodge mobs miss him too much.

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Originally Posted by Arterra

lol the instant you are revived little hard to cast buffs, heal, and get out of the way. OL is good at keeping people dead. my str bird would have no problem dealing with OL, or pally for that matter.

its aaaaaalllll about the ability of the player, and the fact that OL has a lot of damage packed into the instant you get back up.

and ps warbirds can work it in PVP, especially twinking.

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i find it easy to cast all my skills when revived, as you load tap where the skills are and they'll get sent out when your alive

then its just me where there is a definite pause between me taking control and being revved.
looks like a connection issue.

Warbirds: From my experience, they're not very effective. Birds are based on pure damage output, and so using STR gear hinders them. The setup is only useful when armor/dodge absolutely trumps damage output. (in other words, only use it in the Shadow Caves, and possibly pvp.)

Whaaaaat??..... Warbird FTW!!! My bird runs around and tanks on it's OWN even if I'm not playing. My bird doesn't let me down in Pve or pvp.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jespo

Whaaaaat??..... Warbird FTW!!! My bird runs around and tanks on it's OWN even if I'm not playing. My bird doesn't let me down in Pve or pvp.

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Got the fury sword yet?

Yes pm me NOW

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jespo

Whaaaaat??..... Warbird FTW!!! My bird runs around and tanks on it's OWN even if I'm not playing. My bird doesn't let me down in Pve or pvp.

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Yeah, it can tank pretty well. ;)

But my point is that birds are made for damage. Honestly, a pure DEX bird with drainer's talon, helm, and armor, with a henchman wing and an armor wing can tank amazingly and still keep the damage up there. Yes a str bird has extreme dodge and armor and regen, but I often find it not as effective.

Have you played as a warbird before? It's amazing if you are doing it right. I've died so much lesser and killed so much more in my warbird in mobs.

You probably played with a lousy warbird.

I had a full fury set and tested out a Warbird for a while. Saw pros and cons. Worked well in the shadow caves. Not bad for pvp too.

I base much of my opinion of this on my personal experience. The con that really stuck out and I noticed a lot: loss of damage. It's not that warbirds can't survive and kill, they do that very well. It's just that archers aren't very flexible when it comes to play style and by nature, warbirds lose the quickness and ease of killing intrinsic to the Avian race.

You can still play as one and it will work well, but since I'm a main damage-dealer in dungeons, I notice a huge slowness. I personally prefer drainers and a wing for bird tankage, or just play on my bear. Bears are more flexible and hybrids work well. ;)

If you can't decide between dex bird or warbird, be dual spec so then you can change to the other one whenever you want.