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Post by orphan on May 5, 2009 22:51:29 GMT
Okay, so I started up AA after a 5 year leave of absence.
I decided to play a Fighter, to bash solely for my brother (a Drakon Shifter). We spent a while discussing some good 2-man party combo's and based on our styles and allotted time to play, we arrived at Fighter/Shifter for several reasons:
1) Very little prep time (we often only have 1-2 hours to play, and don't want it wasted on prep) 2) Few eq/weps needed to get going = cost less (important, because we are starting from scratch, no alts, no friends, nothing) 3) Based on previous experience, it seems like an easy, and decent combo. Drakon tank/Fighter basher, cheap, easy, fun.
However, as a perfectionist of characters I play, I've been deciding carefully about which traits to take. The drakon traits are obvious, hard skinned, dodger, brawler, etc.
But what about weapon expert for a fighter. If I am going to be spending 400 trait points to reach level 5 and max this trait, I want to make sure it's worth my time. I don't care about reaching 1700 skills, I don't mind using the same weapon class every login.
So quite simply, what is the most damaging, and easily accessible weapon class for a fighter? If this fighter was your basher, what would you want him equipped with?
Also, please keep in mind that I am not a powerplayer, I do not have alts, or any current friends on the Mud, so accessibility to uniques and high-end weapons aren't feasible any time soon.
Of course everyone's prime choice would probably be kraky with weapon expert 5 in club... but I'm not going to be able to obtain it every login.
So with that being said, I am hovering around 2-H Axe since it's easy to obtain, bronze axe from song-mage, battleaxe from chaos warrior, etc. All rather easy to get to? Any suggestions or opinions? Thanks guys.
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Post by tehlung on May 6, 2009 1:01:12 GMT
I'd mostly agree with you on 2ha. I'd get some longsword as well in the event you log in after a reboot and need to kill for a crescent.
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Post by sinister on May 6, 2009 5:12:13 GMT
2HS is also good, because steel greatsword is supposed to be very damaging (I've yet to try), non-unique and the guy (kurnas)who has it is isn't a particularly hard kill. I believe I used to see Calvin default to the greatsword over Crescent.
As for general skills, I also don't believe in 1700 and maxxed 2hs, 2ha,staff and hammer only (with my alt Behemoth), but this was pre two weapon. Now I would do those 4 and add, exotic and two weapon, so that in case you pick up a chain staff document or one of the 2-handed sword ones, that could add another dimension to your play.
400 trait points on weapon expert will get you to 4 btw, which is pretty decent either way. You certainly get diminishing returns re: traits for most people after 2.
If you're ambitious enough to get 400 trait points (76 mil exp), I'd go with exceptional str 1, exceptional dex 1, weapon expert 3 with 10 left over (10+30+130+130+90=390) in that sequence.
I'd also consider racial hatreds. Although there's quite enough of that on tehlung thread ;D
Pure soul is the most important (imo) trait for a primary character, less so for an alt.
For your Drakon brother , I'd also consider adding relax mind to offset the spellpoint drain. Unarmed is pretty pathetic, you might want him to hold off on brawler. While everyone here subscribes to the best defense is good offense theory, a friend of mine who's working a max shifter finds it to be virtually uselesss, on the order of tickle with a feather to tickle with a light brush.
If you see me on, let me know and I can pass you two a couple of hundred K in coins which should be enough to get you going permanently.
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Post by Pillar on May 6, 2009 14:50:07 GMT
I'd also consider racial hatreds. Although there's quite enough of that on tehlung thread ;D ouch.
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Post by nine on May 6, 2009 15:47:55 GMT
A few thoughts, Weapon expert 4/5? well as a fighter your gonna max out pretty much any skill to 100 within sorta 4-5M xp per skill (excluding 2w), getting WE to lvl 4 or 5 like sini said would be about a 75m xp affair... so keep in mind you woulda hit 100 skill a long long long time ago. Best fighter bashing skills? Chainstaff aside (its a PITA to get lets not beat around the bush) EXO/2w and dual orbs still kicksthe crap outta everything else... orbs easy to get.. only 1 reset worth of waiting, besides from exo im a big fan of flail (flail of ancient demolition, dire flail) and also dual butterfly wing axes. Sinis spot on with the steel greatsword, that fucker hits harder then just about every 2h weapon in the game (crescent included) and is easy as to get. As far as traits go Im a big fan of the racial hates, orc and human rank 1/2 in priority, then it comes down to personal preferences... undead/giant/dragon/dwarf.... Put level 3 or 4 into those, and it makes a big diff, if your killing these races every login, its very much worth the expenditure! As far as the quick-login-no-gearup tank class goes, it really is hard to go past the cleric (login, buy club/mace, song mage, yarlebeux, +various other bits and pieces, blesses and go, 15mins max). Added bonus clerics skill club so fast, and do fairly decent dmg with it while their at it. Ohh and if your in the business of blocking and using 1h weapons... the two weapons of choice are osword and staff of tarran... nothing else compares
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Post by Pillar on May 6, 2009 19:07:23 GMT
so when are they going to implement being allowed to reset your traits? say... for a fee of gold or experience?
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Post by tehlung on May 6, 2009 19:38:53 GMT
too many players, all but probably levek, have requested this or would make use of it. thus it won't happen.
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Post by Pillar on May 6, 2009 20:52:51 GMT
shortly after traits were implemented, i was drunk and logged in to my fighter. i ran around picking shit up to sell and was like, why the fuck can't i carry more? what the hell? packmule would be a great trait!
thus is the story of my fighter who blew all his traits on packmule.
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Post by orphan on May 7, 2009 1:48:56 GMT
Wow, thanks for all of the input everyone. I will be sure to give the steel greatsword a try. As for the artificer weapons those are completely new to me, the class had just come out about then and everyone was still figuring it the class out when I suicided a few years back, and quit *Orbs had just become interesting. So I will look into that as well, from what I hear, having a high level ficer friend is a good idea Quick question about the exceptional stats. I've read in someone's guide that it appears the exceptional stats don't act fully as a normal stat point should? I.E. a mage with an extra point of STR, still can't equip any larger weapons? or is that just outdated/inaccurate info? Also, does anyone have any ideas or guestimates about how effective any of the traits are? like, hard skinned for example, about how much damage is reduced? 0.5, 1.0, 2, etc? In regards to the Drakon w/relaxed mind, as a maxxed char, with maxxed relaxed mind, is it possible to ofset the high-form drain? or is the sps/hps gain from those traits not that high? *just trying to gauge an overall value of "traits" in general. *If any of these questions have been answered previously, I apologize, but the "search" on the site seems to be broken. I've had to manually sift through all of the posts on the board, so I'm only asking questions I haven't seen yet.
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jens
Newbie
Posts: 14
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Post by jens on May 7, 2009 8:20:47 GMT
Hi Orphan,
"Rel/Mind" as well as "Healthy" is really one of the best traits to choose for most classes / playing styles! I don't know if it completely offsets the drain for highest shifter forms (I'd assume it though; also depends on int/wis) but it's definitely worth taking. From the little experience I have I think to recall that you regenerate the number of points times 2 (times 3) with trait level 1(2) instead of only once without trait. I should do a closer observation of the numbers to state something reliable.
"Packmule", yeah, sucks! Somehow disappointing to get only one more bottle of carrying capability for the first trait level (prob for each!? took only one lvl after noticing my own frustration).
Newbie I am I chose one trait even more disappointing than packmule: "Clear Minded" (increases your max possible SP's by 10)! While there might be few reasons to choose "Sturdy" (+10HP's) I don't see any for "Clear Minded". I took it to rely on ten more SP's right after logging in, but, of course, they ain't there. This would be my first trait to undo.
If you are high lvl / have high skills "Pure Soul" / "Unnatural Memory" can be a good choice, too.
Concerning "Racial Hate": Atm I'm doing a larger survey of combat numbers and am pretty disappointed so far. I was told that this trait is great. But it's also hard to measure mainly due to the very high variance in combat numbers on AA (and to a lesser extent also due to my varying weapon skill).
All in all the choice of traits (even the first two) depends perhaps more on your playing style than on race/class.
And I think that the trait's description should be a bit more informative / meaningful. E.g. I still don't know if "Hard skinned" only helps if you're naked or also when wearing heavy armour - I took it with my usually heavily armed cleric and didn't notice it either way.
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Post by sinister on May 7, 2009 13:16:28 GMT
Quick question about the exceptional stats. I've read in someone's guide that it appears the exceptional stats don't act fully as a normal stat point should? I.E. a mage with an extra point of STR, still can't equip any larger weapons? or is that just outdated/inaccurate info? Inaccurate info, except for exceptional wisdon on a ranger doesn't allow you to tame a bigger wolf. Also, does anyone have any ideas or guestimates about how effective any of the traits are? like, hard skinned for example, about how much damage is reduced? 0.5, 1.0, 2, etc? I don't know how accurate the following is, as it's pure guesswork on my part, but I treat each hardskin like it's a slightly better piece of full body armour. ie, going from serviceable to adequate, so I imagine it wouldn't be really noticeable unless you can grab a few trait points all at once. Kinda of how you don't realize youi're getting overwight until someone you haven't seen in a while questions your double chin. I think there's a recent post on mages board by Cosm about dodger, he figured out drinking and posted through his website so you can use that info to crack drunkard. Sleeper sucks imo, and I pretend relax mind heals 1 extra point per tic per trait point, even though it's not as good as that from what I remember from my tests. Weapon expert/racial hatred, I would treat like relax mind, adds some fractional damage per trait point. Calvin has a post on proboards somewhere about marksman. Without checking the trait list, I believe everything else speaks for itself. A lot of this is all guesswork as we have no access to the code, but in a nutshell, if you get 5 or 10 of a trait, it's great, but you won't notice anything if you get one point at a time imo. In regards to the Drakon w/relaxed mind, as a maxxed char, with maxxed relaxed mind, is it possible to ofset the high-form drain? or is the sps/hps gain from those traits not that high? *just trying to gauge an overall value of "traits" in general. I can't answer this because I've never played a shifter.
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Post by tehlung on May 7, 2009 13:47:15 GMT
i've had 4 in relaxed mind since it came out. love love love it. it isn't nearly as good as it was before it got downgraded, but still nice. (it benefited necros, must nerf!)
sini gives a great analogy for most of the traits. you won't really notice a boost unless you are taking several ranks at the same time.
that being said, i think if, like everyone's suggested, traits could be reset, i'd come back for another week or three.
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Post by Pillar on May 7, 2009 14:23:45 GMT
In regards to the Drakon w/relaxed mind, as a maxxed char, with maxxed relaxed mind, is it possible to ofset the high-form drain? or is the sps/hps gain from those traits not that high? *just trying to gauge an overall value of traits in general. sir tollie of tehgayfame, having shown much stupidity (i mean, perseverance), maxxed out a shifter. he swore up and down, left and right, fuck, even diagonally, that relaxed mind was imperative for a shifter. i believe he had three ranks. i know that i have three ranks on my shifter and that's enough to offset the drain of the main vein...
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Post by Pillar on May 7, 2009 14:25:14 GMT
that being said, i think if, like everyone's suggested, traits could be reset, i'd come back for another week or three. but why would the admin WANT people to come back to the game? that doesn't make any sense...
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Post by tehlung on May 7, 2009 14:55:25 GMT
yeah. players exist only to annoy and harass wizards. we need to get rid of these players so we can code and talk on the wizline in peace!
course if they did allow it, it'd be some obscene cost like a level and a mill coins. make it 100k per rank/trait forgotten and its a done deal.
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