Two-Weapon Blunt Build

[Palfish]

Hi all,

I'm a relative newcomer to Gemstone (I've played before but never had a character past level 12) and have recently started playing with some friends. I am having a good time with my character role-playing wise, but I am having some frustrations with hunting. I was hoping that some of you might have some input on what it takes to be a good warrior.

I am really enjoying two weapon combat, especially with multi-strike, and I really like the flavor and uniqueness of blunt weapons. I also like to be able to ambush legs as a form of disabling creatures when swarms happen.

My main problem is survivability. My DS seems really low and when more than two creatures enter a room I basically have to leave otherwise I am going to get stunned in stance offensive unless their swings line up perfectly. I am tripling in armor to try to get to Chain Hauberk so that I can really increase my defenses, but I'm even unsure of that and thinking staying in Brigandine and picking up Evasion Mastery might be a better way to go.

If you see any flaws, or have some invaluable tips or tricks for me that would be wonderful. I'll post my build in post summary and long version for your reference. Thanks all!

Short story:
Tripling in
-Armor Use

Doubling in
-Two Weapon Combat
-Combat Maneuvers
-Blunt Weapons
-Physical Fitness

Singling in
-Ambush
-Multi Opponent Combat
-Dodging

Long Story:

Name: ______ Race: Dwarf Profession: Warrior
Gender: Male Age: 0 Expr: 408832 Level: 18
.........................Normal (Bonus) ... Enhanced (Bonus)
.....Strength (STR):...100 (35) ... 105 (37)
Constitution (CON):...100 (40) ... 83 (31)
....Dexterity (DEX):....99 (24) ... 99 (24)
.........Agility (AGI):....94 (17) ... 94 (17)
.....Discipline (DIS).....75 (22) ... 75 (22)
..........Aura (AUR):....73 (1) ... 73 (1)
.........Logic (LOG):....72 (16) ... 72 (16)
.....Intuition (INT):....44 (-3) ... 44 (-3)
......Wisdom (WIS):...39 (-5) ... 39 (-5)
....Influence (INF):....39 (-15) ... 39 (-15)
Mana: 15 Silver: 990

your base skill bonuses, ranks and goals are:

Skill Name | Actual Actual
| Bonus Ranks
Two Weapon Combat..................| 140 40
Armor Use.................................| 160 60
Combat Maneuvers.....................| 140 40
Blunt Weapons..........................| 140 40
Ambush...................................| 90 20
Multi Opponent Combat..............| 90 20
Physical Fitness........................| 140 40
Dodging...................................| 90 20
Harness Power..........................| 25 5
Perception...............................| 54 11

your Combat Maneuver training is as follows:

Skill name............Mnemonic...Ranks
Specialization I.....wspec1.........3
Weapon Bonding...bonding.........1
Parry Mastery......pmastery........2

Available Combat Maneuver Training Points: 14

your Armor Specialization training is as follows:

Skill name................Mnemonic........Ranks
Armor Reinforcement..reinforcement.....2

Available Armor Training Points: 10

P.S. Props if you noticed my lowered constitution from recent deaths.

[BriarFox]

Get into the heaviest armor you can as fast as possible, and try to double dodging. Other than that, get at least 15 ranks of MIU so you can use imbedded spells and then get a stack of protective ones from a mage friend or from a playershop or such. You could do scrolls if you prefer, too (or both).

That's an awesomely fun build, and the DS problem goes away with enough magical buffs and an armor/redux combo (though you're not quite there level-wise yet).

[Silvanostar]

Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Two Weapon Combat..................| 176 76
Armor Use..........................| 214 114
Combat Maneuvers...................| 176 76
Blunt Weapons......................| 176 76
Ambush.............................| 120 30
Multi Opponent Combat..............| 132 36
Physical Fitness...................| 176 76
Dodging............................| 154 54
Magic Item Use.....................| 10 2
Harness Power......................| 58 12
Perception.........................| 102 24
Climbing...........................| 70 15

Strength (STR): 94 (32) ... 99 (34)
Constitution (CON): 96 (38) ... 101 (40)
Dexterity (DEX): 91 (20) ... 91 (20)
Agility (AGI): 86 (13) ... 86 (13)
Discipline (DIS): 52 (11) ... 52 (11)
Aura (AUR): 96 (13) ... 96 (13)
Logic (LOG): 94 (27) ... 94 (27)
Intuition (INT): 49 (0) ... 49 (0)
Wisdom (WIS): 75 (12) ... 75 (12)
Influence (INF): 78 (4) ... 78 (4)

this is what my dude looks like at 37. with GoS sigils, defense isn't too bad and if i get in trouble i can just berserk to clear the room

[BriarFox]

Ah, yeah. Join a society. Also, once you get up to around 40 ambush ranks, you can probably stop training in it.

[Durgrimst]

Re-roll into a half-krol, Dwarves have a shitty agi/dex.

[Palfish]

Thanks for the responses! You kind of confirmed what I was thinking that I need more training points and well get them as I level. I didn't know about MIU, thanks for the tip!

As far as societies, I just got rank 10 in GoS, but the sigils are still pretty mana-intense for me at 15 total mana. I know that'll get better though.

As far as race choice goes, I picked this combo for the sheer craziness of a berserking dual-blunt wielding dwarf warrior. If I really wanted to minmax, shouldn't I go for an elf instead of a krolvin? Also, I may be pushing the wrong buttons in this forum, but what do you think about an elf rogue two-weapon edged fighter? -5 RT agidex, can hide and ambush with two weapons when in trouble? seems pretty awesome, but is probably a lot riskier than your typical sword/shield rogue.

Anyways if you have more thoughts about TWC blunt let me know, because I have a lot of fun swinging all these weapons.

[BriarFox]

Throw some more points in harness power soon to make those sigils useful. I'd recommend you get up to at least 50 mana eventually.

Play what's fun rather than worrying about min-maxing, too. The elf would have a better agidex vs. the half-krol, but the krol would have a better STR score, and the lower of your STR and DEX bonuses determines the stat bonus to your offhand AS. If you really wanted to go the TWC/Ambush/Hiding route, though, you should make a rogue instead.

[Stanley Burrell]

WSPEC in morning-star base. Always keep your single-hand weapon and TWC benefit equal in training. Get 55 ranks of MStrike.

Uh. I've found myself more desperate to use QSTRIKE dual-wielding morning stars than I have dual wielding katars or sais. I would *probably* replace Truehand (for it, when you have enough CMANs) for stars. Maybe.

Also, an imflass star, maybe not all that preferable offhand as opposed to something will a full enchant, will usually reduce RT by 1 in most instances.

[Silvanostar]

krolvins are dirty monkeys and elves are too snooty. race is just personal preference imo i guess. my dwarf swings two stars in 7, ambushes in 10. might be a pretty long rt, but at this point, i can feint my target, and successfully leg it in 1 shot.

get a nice blunt and get bond 5 asap. think about getting at least 1 rank of combat mobility. and you'll probably want the armor reinforcement skill.

[Loyrl]

Get feint from wtricks and start getting berserk up. I don't know why but I remember everyone leveling tackling first when I was leveling up a long time ago, but if I had to do it over again right now, I would skip it...

What town do you stick to and what are you hunting?

[Androidpk]

Talk to Stunseed if you want some pro-advice for a blunt TWC build. As far as race goes, don't worry about stats too much. It doesn't matter what your agi/dex bonus, RT time is, as you'll be decimating shit with multri-strike and berserk just fine. Try to get a couple of stars with HCW and join sunfist for some MCW awesome sauce.

[Palfish]

I was definitely just talking theory there. I love being a dwarf.

I currently use a morning star/crowbill combination for lowered RT.

I am actually about to learn feint from the warrior's guild so that is good.

I hunt based out of Wehnimer's mostly. I like to do a lot of bounties but when I'm not I hunt fire cats/rats or humpback pumas, krovlin mercs, and mountain ogres.

One thing I don't really like about weapon bonding is that it only affects my main hand weapon. I got one rank so that I get dodged less often, but I don't see the other flares being that useful. Extra swing seems a lot more effective on a two-hander, RT reduction can't be relied upon, the lowered DS seems nice at rank 3, but rank 2 is just extra damage. If I were to train more in bonding, I'd probably just set rank 1 as my preferred flare anyways because it flares more frequently than the others.

How do you like Quick Strike and Truehand? They don't seem too impressive for this kind of a build because I can't use ambush to leg something or mstrike to get extra swings in (unless I'm missing something?) Also quickstrike seems expensive since you probably need rank 3 for it to start to be useful yeah? Feint and combat mobility seem like excellent ideas though.

[Silvanostar]

the warior guild feint is good, but i think berserk will come in handy more than feint b/c unless youre running around spelled to the gill all the time, youre gonna get hit and stunned.

well with bonding, you do get some extra AS and it comes in handy when you're using certain guild skills.

i havent been able to fit in quick strike or truehand so i can't offer any opinions on those. the passive defensive cmans are a priority for me b/c with sigils+weapon+ambush ranks i can leg whatever i'm trying to kill.

[Bumpur]

Glad to see someone thinking outside of the box! I would be a TWC blunt user if I decided to join GoS, but since I love Voln, I went the katar route instead since the brawling would give me voln fu. I’ve actually tested a very similar build to yours when I had a free fixskill, and I have lots of comments based on experience.

As a TWC Halfling warrior, I’ve developed a philosophy: the best defense is a great offense. You’re concerned about survivability, but I can guarantee you’ll be fine.. IF you have a proper fighting strategy. I tested how little defense I could get away with and I’ve always been able to solo uphunt 10 levels unspelled, wearing unpadded metal breastplate, with only 1x dodge. I’ve done this in the rift (plane 1), and before that, fire mages on Teras, Temple Wyneb, Griffin’s keen, Troll Kings (which I used to kill in a single mstrike, non-enraged), etc etc etc. How did I do this? OFFENSE! Kill them before they can kill me. With that in mind, I have several comments:

1. You’re still low level and will become vastly more powerful, and die far less. Redux will begin kicking in, and your offense will develop (kill them before they kill you). Add metal armor and crit/dam padding with GoS, you’ll be fine when you do get hit. This build takes a little while to develop.
2. At 60 ranks of armor use, you should be in Augmented Chain for no penalty to RT. I would only double train in armor going forward. I think the points are better spent for MORE OFFENSE (more details below). If you group, your chances of dying are even less. I did fine with MBP through fire mages. If a solo, spell free, uphunting Halfling can do it, so can you. Once you hit 70 ranks of armor use, jump straight to metal breastplate and skip chain hauberk. And move up in armor gradually from there.
3. Weapon Choice –For attrition HP loss MSTRIKE killing, I never needed a heavier weapon than a katar. As for the blunts I tested, I narrowed them down to 2 combos: mace/mace, or mace/crowbill. I recommend you test and choose based on your preferences and RT tolerances (I was a Halfling, you’re a dwarf, so I dunno exact RT numbers). Even if you go mace/mace, you can always swap out the offhand mace for a crowbill if you need more speed. I see people recommending morning stars (highest damage factor but slower than mace/warhammer), and another question you may have is why use a mace when a war hammer has better damage factor all around, and is just as fast? Several reasons. Morning star is too slow. When you are not mstriking, you’re going to be ambushing. Which will be about 75% of the time. And for killing things, a crush-only weapon to the head/eye is best. Morning stars puncture/crush and are less reliable for crit killing than maces in general (when the mob is lying down, stunned, etc). Bond to a heavy crit weighted mace with sigil of major bane, and it will be ridiculous. War hammers have the same puncture problem as the morning stars. Although they have higher DF than mace, the extra DF simply is not needed in my opinion. Maces have equal or better DF than the katars I use, and if you train the way I recommend and apply the extra points for MORE MoC and attacks, you will not have a problem killing things via ambush or attrition even with a mace/crowbill combo.
4. You get 2 focused strikes at 30 ranks, 3 strikes at 55 ranks, and 4 strikes at 90 ranks. If you do 2x armor, 2x blunt, 2x TWC, 2x CMan, 2x PF, 1x dodge, 1x climb to 30 ranks, 1x perception to 40 ranks, and squeeze everything else into MoC, I calculate that you will get 2, 3, and 4 strikes at around level 25, 39, and 52, respectively, which translates into 4, 6, and 8 attacks. With my Halfling, I was able to dual wield maces and mstrike with a 6 RT with maces if I remember correctly.
5. Warrior guild – Feint is an absolute must. After that, I’d go with berserk, followed by warcry or disarm. I did warcry first since I wanted group members to get more AS. I have no experience with tackle since Halflings stink at it. From what people tell me, it’s not useful at cap.
6. CMANs – you got it right. WSpec, Bonding, and Parry mastery are what I would train in first, although I’d use a mace. One other thing that is very useful would be to have a knockdown maneuver. With my Halfling, this was twin hammerfist. Not only would it knock things down, it gives them even more RT on top of feint. Sometimes fighting fire mages with wizard shield, their DS in off stance is so high that even after feint, an ambush to the leg will not knock them down reliably. This is where twin hammerfist came in. For you, I would test warrior guild tackle and bullrush to see what works better. Forget quickstrike and truehand. Use the stamina for more mstrike! I never had the need for cman mobility even uphunting 10 levels cause I killed them first. Other things I would recommend are 1 rank of surge of strength since it’s so cheap. Side by Side (with 2 ranks cmovement first) is fantastic if you group with people regularly who also have side by side.
7. Forget brig and evade mastery. Brig is like wearing wet toilet paper for defense.
8. You might want to consider armor support. Encumbrance = death. Even if you are lightly encumbered and it doesn’t affect RT, the small amount of encumbrance affects your penalties for feint and other maneuvers. And to beat the point to death, you won’t need reinforcing if you’re not getting hit.

[Stanley Burrell]

Twin hammerfists for a dual blunt-wielder is ridiculous. Go with Truehand for turtling critters, you get the extra dice rolls for both OHBs. And if you're beat up and uphunting, you'll botch up WTRICK FEINT. And yeah, everyone that's a Warrior trains in MoC. Qstrike would be cool if it tallied into berserk.

[Bumpur]

Twin hammerfist is what I use. For the dwarf blunt user, I recommended testing bullrush and tackle because he can't use twin hammerfist

[Latrinsorm]

I remember dwarves getting a special bonus to encumbrance because they're a disgusting abomination of a race... er, because they're "sturdy". Plus they don't have halflings -400 modifier to strength, he should probably be ok with encumbrance.

To chime in on what others have said, your character is an awkward adolescence, with only the flimsy anticipation of future defensive capabilities. Your maneuvers stink, your armor stinks, and your redux stinks, but these are all exceedingly temporary conditions. By level 28 you'll be styling as well as profiling.

[Stunseed]

I chose this build strictly for RP purposes, and frankly it is more enjoyable than my Ranger has been for years.

Auvreaian (at level 55), your current skill bonuses and ranks (including all modifiers) are:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Two Weapon Combat..................| 217 117
Armor Use..........................| 240 140
Combat Maneuvers...................| 212 112
Blunt Weapons......................| 212 112
Multi Opponent Combat..............| 155 55
Physical Fitness...................| 225 125
Dodging............................| 211 111
Arcane Symbols.....................| 2 0
Harness Power......................| 90 20
Spirit Mana Control................| 50 10
Perception.........................| 155 55
Climbing...........................| 90 20
Swimming...........................| 90 20

As I train, I find things that help me survive. I also play in Plat where death is no trivial matter and that has influenced some of my training ( SMC etc ). Like my post-cap Ranger, I pick a goal and work at it. The first was 3x'ing armor use to get into full plate, then SMC/HP for being in GoS. Then the information about manuevers was released, so I went 1x perception. My current goal is 3x'ing PF with the tons of extra TP's I have after training for my level.

Auvreaian, your Combat Maneuver training is as follows:

Skill name Mnemonic Ranks
Mighty Blow mblow 1
Sunder Shield sunder 4
Specialization I wspec1 3
Weapon Bonding bonding 5
Combat Mobility mobility 1
Combat Toughness toughness 3
Parry Mastery pmastery 3

Auvreaian, your Armor Specialization training is as follows:

Skill name Mnemonic Ranks
Armor Reinforcement reinforcement 4

Again, in Plat there isn't always an empath to clean you, and warriors get dinged alot. 28% chance to not stack wounds that decrease cmans/DS? Yes plz.