Thinking about returning for a bit.

[Maerit]

Contemplating returning on my gimped level 55 warrior. He's got one of them fancy coraesine bonded weapons what have the double strikes and air flares.

Question I have now is, what's changed? Looks like berserk got an upgrade so that you basically mstrike while berserking? Good thing I mastered that skill long ago. What else should I take note of as a warrior? Did they reduce our dependence on 3rd party spell tanking? Are we still caught in excessive RT for mstriking? Have they improved the level 50-65 areas at all since I could rarely find an appropriate place to hunt outside of Pinefar? Any changes to the bounty system that benefit a warrior (oh lordy could I use a stat fix...)

My character was created probably 10-12 years ago before the conversion (still has a paladin conversion actually), and his stats blow. However, he's a good big dumb beast to smash things with. I've been away for about 9 months, so let me know if anything interesting has happened through the end of 2008 and start of 2009.

[GSIVMerchant21]

There's this big change...warriors can now add crush/puncture/slash resistence to armor, along other things such as reduce the chance of a wound to stack, or reduce encumberance.

USAGE: ARMOR [option] {args}
ARMOR <skill> {target}

Options:
LEARN {specialization} - Trade in Armor Training points for specialization training
UNLEARN {specialization} - Trade specializations known to you for Armor Training points
LIST - Lists potential specializations available for you to train in
LIST PROFESSION - Lists specializations available to your profession
You may also specify the profession you wish to view
LIST ALL - Lists all released specializations
INFO - Displays your current specialization training info
HELP {specialization} - Lists information about the selected specialization

Skill Name: Puncture Protection
Mnemonic: puncture
Other Requirements: Specialized armor fittings (available at your local Warrior Guild workshop) are required. There are five quality tiers of fittings: common (useable at Rank 1), sturdy (Rank 2), fine (Rank 3), superb (Rank 4), and masterwork (Rank 5). If the armor is flared or provides a bonus to AS or TD, it requires sturdy fittings or better. If the armor being adjusted is padded, the quality of the fittings required is:

Common: May not be used with padded armor.
Sturdy: May be used with up to fairly padded armor.
Fine: May be used with up to decently padded armor.
Superb: May be used with up to very heavily padded armor.
Masterwork: No limit on level of padding.

Available to: Warriors.
Prerequisites:
None
Armor Point Cost:
Rank 1: 20
Rank 2: 30
Rank 3: 40
Rank 4: 50
Rank 5: 60
Description: Adjusts a person's armor so that it is more resistant to puncture attacks.

The base strength of the damage resistance is equal to (Fitting Tier * 10), with common fittings having a value of 1 and masterwork fittings having a value of 5. If the armor is flared or provides a bonus to AS/TD, there is a -10 penalty to the resistance strength. If the armor is padded, there is a penalty of -5 per ASSESS level to a maximum penalty of -40.

The number of puncture hits that can be taken before the resistance wears off is equal to ((Fitting Tier * 10) + (Armor Use Skill / 10)).


You can also add crush/slash/puncture resist to other people WHILE they're wearing it, as well as add reinforcement to reduce stacking of wounds , or encumberance reducing ones, to anyones armor, no cost ofr this.

[Maerit]

Ahh, so this is a warrior guild skill one can train? Does it incorporate itself into a skill already like tricks (as in sheath making)?

[Fallen]

You get it just by training in Armor use. It is like the CMAN system, but for Armor. Every rank of Armor use gives you 1 point to spend how you please. M-striking with big weapons saw a significant increase in viability. You can now target the entire room with War Cries as well. You can now Wtrick appraise an entire room at once, PCs or creatures. Overtaining in Armor Use also removes the penalties for wearing heavy armor. Every 50 ranks over the Maneuver penalty limit reduces the armor's penalty. Basically, it gives you a reason to train past 140-150 ranks of Armor use as a warrior. Pretty nifty. Not sure if this was around when you last were playing, but Warrior Made sheaths now reduce the weight of the weapons inside them by 2 pounds a piece.

[Donquix]

The armor system is not a guild skill, it works very similar to the cman system.

You get armor "points" just for training in armor use. You learn armor skills, and mitigate them fi need be, just like the CM system.

Other classes have armor abilities. Paladins get an armor system ability that reduces spell hindrance for instance. Rogues get stealth and dodge penalty reduction, etc.

[Jace Solo]

convert to paladin

fixstat, fixskill - two in one. You have a grace period to switch back...
I wonder what they do with your stats and skills if you unconvert?

new fixstat/skill?

Any one that's done it know?

Paladins rock though, especially at 55, you could be pretty nasty and dependent on no one.

[Fallen]

Paladins are awesome, but I think Warriors are on par until Cap. I would say get back into the swing of things, and if you're still bored even with all the new stuff for warriors, then consider converting.

[Androidpk]

I've heard from others that there is no grace period if you convert to a paladin. Only that you could do the $250 character restore fee thingy.

[Donquix]

Just checked on an old level like 8 warrior i ahve sitting on my account:

"Converting to the Paladin profession is a one-way process. In doing so, you will be forfeiting any and all guild status and current Combat Maneuver List knowledge PERMANENTLY. There is absolutely no turning back after confirming the conversion.

If you wish to permanently convert to the Paladin profession, enter YES."

...that doesn't seem like a grace period is invovled :-P

[Maerit]

There is no grace period anymore =(. I discussed in length prior to leaving a while back and that was removed like probably about a year after paladins were released.

Also, I would lose my bonding to my weapon entirely, and it might unbond the actual coraesine bonding... which would be a pain to re-master. The weapon killed me 11 times before I got beyond the backlash, and then I had to master it even further to unlock all it's abilities. I'd probably have to play a paladin to 25+ before I felt like I could enjoy the class more than a warrior.

Plus, there goes all my warrior guild masteries as well. I mastered berserk, tackle and I'm half way done with tricks and war cries with a healthy dose of disarm, and batter barriers.

My character playstyle would also be impossible, not that I shouldn't change because maybe it's making me weaker. The weapon of choice for him is a bastard sword (as that's the base for my bonded weapon), and so I trained him fully in one-hand edged and two-handed edged weapons in order to swap in and out of sword/board and two-handed smashing mode. It works pretty good to shield bash then swap with a script to wearing my shield and changing grips to take out the head of my opponent, or I can stay shielded in a swarm and fight just as well with the sword in one-hand.

I tried to build a paladin with that concept in mind and it just didn't work out. Too many TPs to double in any weapon skills.

That is not to say I'm opposed to the conversion down the road depending on how much I enjoy my warrior. The only thing really holding me back is the style I chose to play, and the RP of my character. Big dumb idiot sorts just don't seem to fit into the whole Paladin theme.

Sounds like Warriors have seen some pretty useful upgrades of late. Being able to fight in swarms was my biggest problem. I'd just get nicked to death since I had no way to really impact large groups. I had a fixskills before quitting, so I definitely still have one (don't they give one every May?), and maybe I should test out a new style with the changes to armor use and such. Sounds like it could be fun to try out again.

Still a bit annoyed on the whole dependency issue with being reliant on casters to spell tank and remain effective. Sure, I can fight without spells, but things tend to go wrong really quickly where on my Sorcerer it was far easier to control crowds and escape.

Did anything change with the new Society, Sunfist? I mastered that within about two or three weeks of it's release, and left shortly after then.

Oh, and Fallen knew about the sheath thing as it was around when I was. Thing is, my sword turns into a weightless orb, so I never bothered to make a sheath for the thing =).

[TheLastShamurai]

You don't want to be a Paladin, they suck.

[Donquix]

You don't want to be a Paladin, they suck.

no YOU'RE a towel

[Maerit]

Ok, with my thoughts of coming back I am thinking about being less diverse in my build, and a do a little more focusing in on two-handed weapon combat. With that in mind my previous training plan was:

2x Physical Fitness
2x One-handed Edged
2x Shield Use
2x Two-handed Weapons
1x Dodge
1x Survival
1x Perception
*working towards 1x First Aid

I trained 134 ranks of armor use and was able to use Full Plate with no additional RT to my open ambush or mstrike attacks (that's about 2.7x).

In addition I had 15 ranks of harness power to support my Sunfist Sigil useage, and 20 ranks climbing/swimming.

For CMANs I was using:

wspec1 3 (bastard sword base)
bonding 5
mobility 2
toughness 1
surge 5
pmastery 1

Relied mostly on Tackle and open ambushing to knock opponents over. Since I'm a giantman, tackle works pretty well. 7 second RT is a little annoying though, and I used to love me my shield bash, but it didn't always work.

So, if I were to re-train to more a more 2-handed weapon focus, and continue to use my bastard sword (with a handy forged maul for those bad places and undead), what would be the best changes to make? I should have last year's fixskills still intact, and figure right now is the best time to take advantage of that since a new one should be out shortly.

The test server isn't still running is it? I could test out changes over there (though I converted my warrior to a paladin on the test server last time I played... which ended up sucking because I knew nothing about how to play a paladin).

[Loyrl]

You might want to get some MOC also for two or three strikes focused. Depending on where you hunt some climbing also. I have ambush skill at around 30 ranks and I do fine with 2x CM openly aim. I went up to 135 ranks of MoC, it doesn't allow me to get anything else right now but it does let me do this which I like ;) Even better with berserking one critter.

mst golem

You concentrate intently, focusing all your energies.
You explode into a fury of strikes and ripostes, moving with a singular purpose and will!
You swing a greatsword at a soul golem!
AS: +415 vs DS: +187 with AvD: +35 + d100 roll: +59 = +322
... and hit for 81 points of damage!
Right leg mangled horribly.
The soul golem is knocked to the ground!
You swing a greatsword at a soul golem!
AS: +415 vs DS: +105 with AvD: +35 + d100 roll: +45 = +390
... and hit for 125 points of damage!
Hard slash to the soul golem's side opens its spleen!
You swing a greatsword at a soul golem!
AS: +415 vs DS: +97 with AvD: +35 + d100 roll: +9 = +362
... and hit for 92 points of damage!
Deep slash to the soul golem's neck severs an artery!
The soul golem chokes to death on its own blood.
You swing a greatsword at a soul golem!
AS: +415 vs DS: +89 with AvD: +35 + d100 roll: +70 = +431
... and hit for 101 points of damage!
Left elbow smashed into a thousand pieces.
You hear a sound like a weeping child as a white glow separates itself from the soul golem's body as it rises, disappearing into the heavens.
The golem's form sags to the floor, its reptilian head finally freed from its monstrous glaes form.

Your series of strikes and ripostes leaves you winded and out of position.
Roundtime: 12 sec.

Cmans

Skill name Mnemonic Ranks
Specialization II wspec2 5
Weapon Bonding bonding 5
Combat Mobility mobility 1
Combat Toughness toughness 2
Surge of Strength surge 5
Parry Mastery pmastery 3

Available Combat Maneuver Training Points: 3

[Maerit]

135 ranks of MOC? Does that do anything now? I thought no one trained past like 50 ranks of the skill since the RTs were ridiculous for anything greater than 3 focussed attacks.

I use MOC sparingly as it is, but maybe it was changed?

I was thinking of dropping all my one-hand edged training, dropping my shield use down to 1x and upping PT to 2.5x with 1.5x Dodge then picking up some scroll reading and MIU to help better self-buff myself along with pushing my armor use to 140 to work off the manuever penalty from my armor?

[Warriorbird]

RT got a lot better. I used to destroy things with 2x MO and the katana.

There is also no mstrike RT in berserk. This can get sick.

[Donquix]

RT got a lot better. I used to destroy things with 2x MO and the katana.

There is also no mstrike RT in berserk. This can get sick.

Indeed. I missed that change on my recent return and got to take advantage of it....

lets just say moc + twc + small, flared weapons + room full of frost giants + berserk = OMG WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING I THINK IT'S AN INVASION OR SOMETHING

[Maerit]

Any suggestions on a good hunting area for train 50 as a warrior? I'm Sunfist, so not so good at killing the undead. I also greatly enjoy treasure!

[Loyrl]

Pyrothags in Teras are pretty easy, they are around 56 I think. Stone Vally around the Landing is pretty fun, and dangerous.

[Maerit]

Pyrothags in Teras are pretty easy, they are around 56 I think. Stone Vally around the Landing is pretty fun, and dangerous.

How's the new Marsh Keep area in River's Rest? That wasn't around the last time I was around... and I just noticed searching through the beastiary a few critters around my train hiding out in the Marsh Keep.

Also, any map for this? I saw a dead link to a map, but no idea if it was transfered elsewhere.