pillar vs cestus

havoc23

decided to revive my karok which weapon is more fun and useful to play with cestus or pillar in your opinions

Dealer

Moved this thread to the appropriate section.

Have fun with Karok

Noburo

I play pillar for fun more these days because of all the combo variations you can do now. Cestus has a bit more freedom than it used to now that it's got perfect frames and longer block frames on the smashes/ducking, but the Cataclysm cycle they added with the revamp is just a source of frustration that Karok never had for me. If you like explosion particles and big damage numbers more than brutal striking animations though, you may have more fun with cestus.

As far as utility goes, neither weapon really stands out compared to other classes, the biggest utility you'll see from Karok is in clashing and maybe blocking projectiles for teammates. There's no reliable breakoff move I can think of other than alt-blast spam, and cestus is too greedy with sp to be using Hulking fury for its flinch.

Try to gear up with both if you can, it's what I ended up doing since some battles are just not fun with certain weapons, and it should be cheap to pull off with the seal shop update.

Pom

Both are fun and good in their own way. Here are my pros and cons for both:

Pillar Pros
- Lots of different combos
- Good survivability
- Fun skills and gimmicks
- Good damage

Pillar Cons
- Hard to hit small/fast bosses
- May feel really slow without enough attackspeed

Cestus Pros
- Superb Damage
- Naturally quite efficient due to skill buffs
- Satisying to master

Cestus Cons
- Stamina Issues
- Constant buff management (can be either pro/con however you look at it)

Hope this helps!

havoc23

thanx for the opinions guys i might try cestus for a while then try pillar if i dont like it

StrongRight

Pom said:

Cestus Cons
- Stamina Issues
- Constant buff management (can be either pro/con however you look at it)

I don't exactly agree with these cons. The stamina issue isn't a problem anymore with Dempsey Roll and the stamina regen buff you can get after using hulking fury or converting the gigantic strength buff, and also the stam regen blast.

The buff management is also not much of a big deal since you can refresh all active buffs easily and use the blast charge to get a charge if you need one.

Only Con I can think of that comes to mind is that the big dps rotation won't be unlocked till the late lvls, I think like lvl 75?

Atherion

I suggest you try out both eventually, the two weapon types compliment each other rather well.

There are runs where Pillar excel at while Cestus may have a harder time performing optimally. Then there are raids where Pillar is extremely lackluster while Cestus performs extremely well.

This is due to Pillar relying on a combo chain where syncing each smash up with the boss attack will lead to his best performance and playstyle. So anything slow and sandbaggy is pillar paradise,. Ex: Havan, Juggernaut, Lako, Eochaid

Cestus on the other hand have shorter and more bursty combos and can make use of attack walk a lot better than Pillar. He can kite significantly better than Pillar as he only needs to go in for the smash and blast to keep his damage up. This makes bosses with extremely quick attacks easier to attack to as you aren't always in their face. So something like Ancient Glas, Iset, Regina tends to be a lot less of a hassle on Cestus.

Pom

StrongRight said:

Pom said:

Cestus Cons
- Stamina Issues
- Constant buff management (can be either pro/con however you look at it)

I don't exactly agree with these cons. The stamina issue isn't a problem anymore with Dempsey Roll and the stamina regen buff you can get after using hulking fury or converting the gigantic strength buff, and also the stam regen blast.

The buff management is also not much of a big deal since you can refresh all active buffs easily and use the blast charge to get a charge if you need one.

Only Con I can think of that comes to mind is that the big dps rotation won't be unlocked till the late lvls, I think like lvl 75?

Buff management is something that can be seen as a pro or as a con; not everyone feels comfortable counting the amount of crit hits you have left on destroyer (basically what I'm saying is that it's one of the more annoying parts of cestus for me personally)

About the stamina issue: I agree that dempsey has really helped to improve the issues, but I still find myself in situations where I do my overflow->multiple R4's + blasts-> Hulking fury + BigBang rotation and end up with not enough stamina to proceed into dempsey after firing off my big bang which results in me getting hit once by a boss due to lack of stamina. At this point it's just me nitpicking for cons, because the class is really fun to play ;o)

Gewellirious

Pom said:

Buff management is something that can be seen as a pro or as a con; not everyone feels comfortable counting the amount of crit hits you have left on destroyer (basically what I'm saying is that it's one of the more annoying parts of cestus for me personally)

And that is exactly why, back then on EU forums, that "this guy" was right about still getting base Crit for Cestus no matter what : because you have much more to think about than the amount of Crit you just did in order to refresh Destroyer buff.

I'm glad some people can do it, but in general it's not a so-good idea to get around 100 Crit just because you can perma-use Destroyer.

Just my 2 cents.

Arthyen

Aterion said:

I suggest you try out both eventually, the two weapon types compliment each other rather well.

There are runs where Pillar excel at while Cestus may have a harder time performing optimally. Then there are raids where Pillar is extremely lackluster while Cestus performs extremely well.

This is due to Pillar relying on a combo chain where syncing each smash up with the boss attack will lead to his best performance and playstyle. So anything slow and sandbaggy is pillar paradise,. Ex: Havan, Juggernaut, Lako, Eochaid

Cestus on the other hand have shorter and more bursty combos and can make use of attack walk a lot better than Pillar. He can kite significantly better than Pillar as he only needs to go in for the smash and blast to keep his damage up. This makes bosses with extremely quick attacks easier to attack to as you aren't always in their face. So something like Ancient Glas, Iset, Regina tends to be a lot less of a hassle on Cestus.

I actually do well with Iset as pillar just because I can tank most of her attacks, but DPS does suffer though. I do not mind though since having 0 deaths is very satisfying. But yea, I actually like playing both as cestus and pillar since both bring something unique in each battle.

AuntJEMIMAAA

For me, I prefer cestus on smaller bosses i.e. iset and succubus and for solo mode stuff like muir where you can predict attacks. Cestus fares better for mobs too. Cestus also fares very well in Kraken due to multiple hits. Sit on TL and blast. You'll see that you're hitting head and tent and if you angle yourself well, you might snag another tent along with it. And then there's clean hit.

I'm more of a pillar user and I prefer it on sandbaggy bosses and ... really any boss. I don't like it so much on regina because parties tend to put her so far away from the light flower zones but w/e. With pillar, he can handle small bosses well, but it takes more concentration. If you war slam>drop kicks .... those do a lot of damage but timing them all to Iset's love taps are difficult.

All in all, both weapons have an arsenal of skills that let you take on any boss so I'd play both .... Pillar does seem slow with sub 30 speed so if you get lucky with pillar, you'll have fun. Otherwise, cestus is a good start since it has a faster feel plus most people like seeing explosions and big numbers.
I prefer the constant and steady flow of dps rather than bursty big numbers.

To each their own.

TL;DR: Each weapon can work well in any situation, you just have to be smart and think it through and be careful. It all boils down to preference of the weapon and the run you're doing.
GL and HF .

Tabbed

I see a lot of Karoks with Cestus at end game (level 90 Karoks in general), like a lot.
Is this because people prefer to have more Damage? or what?

Atherion

Tabbed wrote: »

I see a lot of Karoks with Cestus at end game (level 90 Karoks in general), like a lot.
Is this because people prefer to have more Damage? or what?

More damage in most raids and easier to gear as Cestus has attack/spd/crit buffs making it a lot easier to hit those caps.

Orbital

I find both fun but since Vindi doesn't have the best optimize game, pillar is easier. If I had the money I'd use both

Megadeus

Pillar is more fun, Cestus is more damage. Cestus sucks at certain bosses but pillar is consistent. Cestus buffs are great but because I'm a speed addict my damage suffers when I disregard keeping destroyer up. Not that I care because I'm going fast.

WW Paw and Cat statue:

WW Paw for pillar is for sand bag bosses and bosses that have sand bag periods. If you're not that good or otherwise want to save money on potions use an ironhide before you paw and if you're just a speed addict a focus i guess. With a focus and high speed you can go pretty fast
WW Paw for cestus is for bosses that will let you use your cataclysm buff to the fullest, but can be tight for sp.

Cat Statue for pillar is great utility. Always have sp for a taunt, always have sp for crushing sweep, Always have a little extra in case you need your EQ iframes.

Cat Statue for Cestus is also great utility. Always have sp for a taunt, Never miss a bang because boss being difficult, and, when trans it will give you many hurricane spins, especially with sp reduction. Generally for solo kraken I get him to bar 7-8 then trans and spin nonstop between bangs the rest of the way. EZ kraken.

Both are good, and sometimes you will want a fang instead. Don't get a greater fang though if you decide to get one.