Archery -> Two Handers

[Carnivale]

Hey all,

Planning for a jump from ranged to THW, and just wanted to get some feedback. I'll be about ~45th level when I fixskills, and am planning on swapping from Voln to Sunfist.

1) At the moment, I'm pretty viable despite the fact that I -never- aim. This is in part due to brawling being a TP sink, which will be dropped. How viable is an out in the open THW ranger without aims? I'd like to continue with this brute force approach, but not in the face of a severe mechanical disadvantage.

2) With that in mind, how rigorous do I want to train CM? Which cmans? Will mstrike be an effective hunting tool?

3) 4x perfect maul for the dead, 1x claid for the living sound about right for weapons? I've done a bit of research, and still can't seem to figure out how to compare specific weighted/forged weapons...

4) Would you anticipate an increase or decrease in overall effectiveness, understanding that as an archer I was using a 4x no-frills bow?

[Baelog]

This is coming purely from a Warrior point of view...but...


Hey all,

Planning for a jump from ranged to THW, and just wanted to get some feedback. I'll be about ~45th level when I fixskills, and am planning on swapping from Voln to Sunfist.

1) At the moment, I'm pretty viable despite the fact that I -never- aim. This is in part due to brawling being a TP sink, which will be dropped. How viable is an out in the open THW ranger without aims? I'd like to continue with this brute force approach, but not in the face of a severe mechanical disadvantage.

Aiming with a THW is good. I dunno how many points of Ambush a Ranger should have, but for a Warrior, 20-30 is about right for smashing heads


2) With that in mind, how rigorous do I want to train CM? Which cmans? Will mstrike be an effective hunting tool??

Fully train CMAN. Feint, Disarm, Sweep, Dirtkick are good if your gonna stand in the open, I'd suggest maxing them all if possible. Mstrike is an effective hunting tool if used properly


3) 4x perfect maul for the dead, 1x claid for the living sound about right for weapons? I've done a bit of research, and still can't seem to figure out how to compare specific weighted/forged weapons...

Or, since your going from Voln to Sunfist, you could simply just use the 4x Maul for everything...or the 1x Claidh for everything...both are effective weapons, but a Claidh swings a bit slower than a Maul


4) Would you anticipate an increase or decrease in overall effectiveness, understanding that as an archer I was using a 4x no-frills bow?

I'm betting on an increase in effectiveness...but, I really don't know

[Stunseed]

Depending on the size and weapon speed of the THW you're using is a huge discrepancy on the ranks you will need. It's easier to aim a katana than a claid. Open aiming or ambushing is also a factor.

If you're going to be in the open, I'd suggest 1x in PF, armor to 110 ranks and at least 35 ranks of MoC. That's basically how I did it from 0-100 on this version of Stunseed. Dodge and WoT will be needed as well.

Chivalrous is a great example of the build you want. Seek him out on PC here as well.

[Carnivale]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I think I'm just going to stick with the perfect maul. I'll still encounter undead for AG stuff.

And Stunsteed, I assume you mean WoF rathern than WoT? As in wall of force? I couldn't think of any WoT acronyms.

EDIT: Stunseed... you're fast. Here's another question :) It'll be open aiming with a 4x perfect maul, how many ranks at that point?

[Stunseed]

Wall of Thorns.

[Carnivale]

Still a bit rough, but how do these numbers look?

Level 36 Ranger (Won't fixskills till 40+, for WoT) -

30 Armor Use
76 Two-Handed Weapons
37 Combat Maneuvers
5 Multi-Opponent Combat
31 Ambush
37 Physical Training
37 Dodging
37 Harness Power
3 Minor Spiritual Spell
36 Ranger Spell
15 Climbing
2 Swimming
37 First Aid
37 Survival

(0/5 leftover, 128 Mnt to Phy)

A few other details that may be relevant:
- Open-aiming with a maul.
- Goal of 30 MoC
- Goal of 110 Armor Use
- Drop to 1x spells after WoT
- Continue ~.75x ambush?

[Stunseed]

< It'll be open aiming with a 4x perfect maul, how many ranks at that point? >

I THINK Chiv said basically you'll want 10 ranks times the speed of the weapon to be reliable. You can pin-point by 1x'ing.

Your build is fine. Use your stat growth and TP's you gain from that to train in other skills, MIU/AS, lores, and Spirit Mana Control and such.

Edit : A maul has a base speed of +7, so as a rule of thumb, 70 ranks is a good place to land at to aim well.

[Drew]

Just caught this thread, I've been doing two handed rangering forever like Stun mentioned. Too tired to really contribute right now but just so you know, archery is better for rangers. You have to want to do two handers stylistically. Rangers were built for archery, and were not built for two handers. It's totally do-able, but it's not the very best method.

[Carnivale]

Stunseed: Just a clarification, we are talking about ambush, and not cmans, right?

Drew: Yeah, I'm fairly sure that I'm going to be irritated by some mechanical disadvantages, such as RT which is encumbrance-affected. Having said that, I've never enjoyed archery, and I've never felt that it suited my character well. So yeah, definitely stylistic.