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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 4991175" data-attributes="member: 58197">The whole point of minions is that you encounter them in packs, frequently hordes, sometimes swarms. (Yes, I've been playing Heroes of Might and Magic recently, why do you ask?) So choosing powers on the basis of what will help you against a single minion is... poor planning IMO, unless your DM takes a very unconventional approach to combat.Anyway, that aside...An article advising players on builds and tactics should offer the most effective builds and tactics, within any constraints which apply. This is just basic good sense.Now, that "within any constraints which apply" is important. An article aimed at newbies should offer builds and tactics which newbies can handle, which is why simply pointing them at the CharOp boards is not the best plan*. You don't want to be explaining how Thibault cancels out Capa Ferro unless the enemy has decided to use Agrippa, when what your audience needs is "This is how to hold a sword properly."But that doesn't mean you shouldn't teach them how to hold a sword properly! Sure Strike is mechanically sub-par. An attack stat of 15 (!) is sub-par. Telling someone "Pick Cleave or Tide of Iron over Sure Strike, and put an 18 in your attack stat" is not expert-level advice. In fact, these are extremely newbie-friendly suggestions; they boost your character's combat performance no matter how skilled or unskilled a player you are**.Other constraints might be "don't rely on dubious rules interpretations," and "don't subvert the concept of a class" (e.g., optimizing a wizard into a melee powerhouse). But neither of those constraints applies to deciding between Sure Strike and Cleave.I'm not going to accuse anyone of badwrongfun for picking Sure Strike. But build advice, by its nature, implies a goal of improving mechanical effectiveness***. If mechanical effectiveness is not your concern, why are you giving build advice at all?----[SIZE=-2]*As regards the CharOp boards: Take them for what they are. They're a great place for theorycraft and for evaluating the mechanical effectiveness of powers, feats, and builds. They should not be treated as the Word of God on how to build a character, but they do offer a valid and useful perspective.[/SIZE][SIZE=-2]**An example of non-newbie-friendly advice is the argument that you can use Sure Strike with Heavy Blade Opportunity at Paragon tier in order to control the battlefield better. Yeah, you can, but that's a substantial trade-off and requires a fair amount of play experience to weigh the costs and benefits. Also, it doesn't kick in till Paragon, so you're almost certainly better off taking something else at Heroic tier and then retraining. Any advice which involves planning to retrain is not newbie-friendly.***For some value of "mechanical effectiveness." Despite CharOp's preoccupation with damage output, you can optimize for different things. Skill Focus (Stealth) is a poor pick for a rogue who wants to be a death machine in battle, but a strong pick for a rogue who wants to be the ultimate scout.[/SIZE]</blockquote>

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