Sylvan: Is Quick-Witted Essential?

Theris

I am a dwarf (con spec) sylvan. One of the reasons I love sylvan is because of the ridiculous tankiness, which makes hunting pretty low-risk (and I hunt quite a bit). When I first picked out my traits, I did not choose quick-witted, since I was afraid it would reduce my defenses too much, and I feel like being hardy is more appropriate to my character. However, since we all got a free trait reset with the Big Change, I've been considering whether I should change out my traits and select quick-witted as one.

I'd like to get a sense of how much of an impact quick-witted has, both in terms of defense and offense; I've heard that it's a 10% decrease in eq time and a 10% decrease in efficacy of damage reduction. Could someone explain to me what kinds of damage reduction are affected by this? I've got racial (dwarf) reductions, barkskin, chargeshield, quarterstaff [secret technique removed], chainmail, and trans avoidance in terms of damage reduction, as far as I know.

I know it's probably rather critical for sylvans if you want to kill people in 1v1 PvP, since it gives you more speed to pull off your limb breaks via thornrend. Is it critical, though? I heard in another thread that PvP balance for most classes that rely on a single type of balance assumes that they have nimble or quick-witted. Also, how much would it affect my bashing, considering I'm level 81, with 12 int (14 in viridian)? Would the reduction in defense be hugely offset by the increased eq, or would it be a pretty even trade-off?

Any information would be appreciated!

Sena

Almost everyone in the game should have either nimble or quick-witted, the only reason not to is if you don't bash, PvP, fish, or use any tradeskills where extra speed will help.

As Cooper said, even with extremely high resistances, it's only a slight penalty. For someone with lower resistances, there's almost no penalty. And the extra speed makes a huge difference in both bashing and PvP, both offensively and defensively (can hinder your opponent faster in PvP, can run/shield/reflect sooner or kill faster while bashing).

Also, it doesn't reduce the protection from armour, only from resistances.

Cooper

From how I understand it, it's a 10% reduction in your current defenses, not a 10% increase in damage taken.

So let's say your chainmail/barkskin/flail reduces damage by 40% (made up number), the quick-witted trait would make your defenses 10% less, or 36% total reduction.

Zii

"In the Ping Wars, speed is all that matters."

I don't have numbers, but I have opinions.

Dwarf has the HP, and the racial soaks.  Why not just give it a shot?