A question about BONDing and brawling

[Vorpodu]

Ok, so I think I'm going to turn my warrior into a shielded brawler. I know you can't bond to UCS gloves, but will bonding to a UCS compatible brawling weapon, like a cestus, allow me to get the benefits of BONDing while using UCS and holding the weapon? As in, will the BOND level to the cestus increase my UAF by 2 per level and will I get the appropriate bond level flares?

[Gelston]

You should have called made the subject "Question about BONDage" instead.

[Alashir]

You can't bond to ucs gloves? Bummer

[Vorpodu]

You should have called made the subject "Question about BONDage" instead.

Missed opportunity.

[rolfard]

Not sure how you settled on cestus? Curious as my 'main' ambush/uac weapon (used for both) is a knuckleblade.

[droit]

Not sure how you settled on cestus? Curious as my 'main' ambush/uac weapon (used for both) is a knuckleblade.

If you're using a weapon for its properties (flares, weighting, enhancives, etc.), using the lightweight weapons will provide all of those with the smallest penalty to your MM.

[Vorpodu]

I really just used cestus as an example. So, as to my question?

[rolfard]

I don't think any warriors are currently bonded to a brawler/UAC weapon (my example is a rogue). You may need to complete the tests yourself but I strongly recommend doing it in the test instance for instant fixskills.

[Vorpodu]

Can I get instant BONDing in the test instance too? Or else thats a shit ton of testing for nothing

[Riltus]

Ok, so I think I'm going to turn my warrior into a shielded brawler. I know you can't bond to UCS gloves, but will bonding to a UCS compatible brawling weapon, like a cestus, allow me to get the benefits of BONDing while using UCS and holding the weapon? As in, will the BOND level to the cestus increase my UAF by 2 per level and will I get the appropriate bond level flares?

While I haven't tested this, I think it highly unlikely that a bonded weapon would affect UCS attacks. Only the hands and feet are classified as weapons within the unarmed combat system. When held, UCS brawling weapons are classified as equipment platforms and not weapons when executing jab, grapple and punch commands.

Mark

[Vorpodu]

Well, in case anybody was wondering this is what I settled for. I just skipped wspec/bonding altogether and am having decent success.

Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 250 150
Shield Use.........................| 331 231
Combat Maneuvers...................| 254 154
Brawling...........................| 254 154
Multi Opponent Combat..............| 190 90
Physical Fitness...................| 254 154
Dodging............................| 177 77
Arcane Symbols.....................| 105 25
Magic Item Use.....................| 105 25
Harness Power......................| 90 20
Elemental Mana Control.............| 50 10
Spirit Mana Control................| 50 10
Survival...........................| 177 77
Perception.........................| 177 77
Climbing...........................| 140 40
Swimming...........................| 90 20
First Aid..........................| 177 77
Training Points: 3 Phy 244 Mnt

Skill name Mnemonic Ranks
Combat Focus focus 2
Shield Bash sbash 5
Shield Charge scharge 2
Combat Mobility mobility 2
Block Mastery bmastery 3
Cunning Defense cdefense 5
Punch Mastery punchmastery 3
Griffin's Voice griffin 3
Unarmed Specialist unarmedspec 1

Available Combat Maneuver Training Points: 5

Skill name Mnemonic Ranks
Tower Shield Focus tfocus 5
Shielded Brawler brawler 5
Prop Up prop 3
Shield Spike Focus spikefocus 2
Shield Spike Mastery spikemastery 2
Protective Wall pwall 2
Shield Trample trample 5
Shield Trample Mastery tmastery 2

Available Shield Training Points: 7

[Enuch]

Do you actually need unarmed specialist? I may be incorrect but I think that only applies to certain cmans that usually require weapons and provides no aid to shielded brAwler. Now if you plan to use some things that need unarmed specialist in the future then you are on the right track but if you got it to mitigate your shield it may free up cmans points to lose it since shielded brAwler should cover that all up

[Enuch]

Yup for feint and disarming you would definitely want that so disregard my post

[Gnomad]

You can feint and disarm without unarmed specialist once you master them, but if you're pure brawling, it helps until then.

Not having a specced and bonded weapon means you miss out on a +16 to +20 bonus from those cmans, though.

Really, warriors get the shaft re: their signature abilities when it comes to UAC.

[Enuch]

Yeah but punch mastery is like wspec so some of that loss is mitigated but not all of it

[Vorpodu]

I'm having more success just growling at things over feint. But I'm not mastered in tricks yet.

[Jeril]

As far as I know wspec and bonding act like weapon enchant and add half their bonus to UAF.

[Vorpodu]

Yea not worth it for the MM loss. MM is far more important than UAF.

[Archigeek]

None of the bonding "flares" work with anything but melee weapon attacks. They don't work with hurling, for example, but the non-flare ones do, because they aren't directly attack related: (bonded weapon return and AS/CMAN increase.

One thing a lot of people don't know about bonding, is that you can bond to a weapon without using it, or at least that was the case before the UAC. I bonded to a weapon on plane five of the rift, entirely with voln-fu, never swinging the weapon, but holding it in the off hand. So all you had to do at the time was hold it in your hand; I can't say for certain that's still the case with UAC, but it's worth checking into. If it hasn't changed, you should be able to use UAC and bond to a brawling weapon that's in your hand. Gloves or boots probably not, but why would you want to? If it's possible to start the bonding process with a pair, you could easily determine if you can grow the bond by holding them in your hand instead of wearing them.

[Vorpodu]

I'm enjoying the build. What it lacks in speed it makes up for with engaging combat. It's not significantly slower with focused mstrike working now, but it is slower. Probably will switch back to swinging when I try uphunting OTF in a few trains. Not having to worry about being disarmed is nice, though.