Specialist or Generalist?

[bremerial]

Are you a specialist or a generalist when it comes to weaons training?
I confess that my preference has always been towards obtaining as many strrings to my bow as possible. So as a former Volner I trained in THW and Brawl and then looked to go down the ranged, OHE and shield route, with an eventual intention to go for Hurled. Pretty ambitious I know but that was the plan. I diregarded skills such as Trading which didn't assist my hunting.

However, more recently I've opted for 1 specialism. THW Only. And to be perfectly honest I am loving it! I'm finding that hunting - and interesting RP - is not dependant on multiple weapon use. Haha

Just wondered what your though were?

[Jeril]

You've seen my training, obviously not combat oriented. After finishing armor and perception I could branch out and add more weapons but learning spells is my goal. Other then the rare new warrior who joins voln I never recommend training more then one weapon type until post cap. It is doable before then but one of the biggest strengths warriors have is their ability to survive and if you spread your training out too much you take away from that. Some people use nice gear to compensate for areas they lack training in but it isn't something I'd ever do.

[Valyss]

when i was in voln, i was using multiple skills (brawl, thw, shield) but found that i was using them less and less over time. when i eventually switched to GoS, i had no more use for brawling, so retrained to pure thw combat and have loved it ever since.

i may try to pick up an alternate combat style post-cap, but it would just be for fun more likely than mechanics

[Ardwen]

working on my 4th weapon style, been fully trained in 3 since gs4 arrved

[stormcrow]

I had a couple but to be honest, I only swing a thw so rather then put points into weapons I'll probably not swing much, I put points into capping out disarm. unfortunately 2x in disarm doesn't allow me to disarm most boxes my level but I see the traps and allows me to open probably 70% of the boxes I nab. I really think gs4 should look at adjusting points so that warriors can train in other things and still train in maxing out most weapons. Just like they should lower the points for picking for rogues. It's hard to train a rogue that can hunt well and open boxes. It would be better for the game if more rogues could open boxes and more warriors could assess weapons.

[Ardwen]

gs3 warriors were much more able to train in multiple weapon styles. Adding more things that you more or less have to train in changed that

[Warriorbird]

I'd keep more focused. Throughout GS4, unless you have a LOT post capped, it's been the choice.

[Gelston]

I stick to one weapon style on my main warrior, which is polearms. With post cap, after I finish a few other goals, I'm probably going to train up twohanders. On another one of mine, I am OHE and thrown though.

[bremerial]

Some interesting comments there. I've had the benefit of going down both paths as I said. I love the role playing element of whipping out another weapon from my baldric or backpack to provide a diverse method of attack. My intent was to training in virtually every weapon type possible. (my 10 year plan - haha.) In reality I think my multi-weapon use was driven by the acquisition of some fantastic weapons and weapon support (ebow, thrown hammer, adamantine shield) I'm afraid i'm not a hoarder and only keep what I can use. So that drove me to use all those items. Hence my previous training regime.

But to be honest, these days i'd rather stick to my THW. Bremerial is pretty straight forward really and you can't get much more straight forward than a clinical slice/crush from a THW. It's actually had an interesting impact on my training. With the movement from Voln to Sunfist - which I love incidentally - i've no need for brawl training and have ploughed training into dodge.

I did contemplate jeril's spell route and who knows, that may be a way I go in a few years. It's certainly an interesting option.

So how do I approach battle these days?

THW prime attack with bonded claid for corporeal and cheap glaes greatsword for undead. (Having had a really expensive weapon disarmed a few months ago, I no longer hunt with anything that would make me kick the cat if i lost it - haha.)

Ok let me ask another question.

How do you feel regarding the use of magic as a supplement to hunting, whether that be spellups, wands and rods, or enhansives?

Personally anything that keeps me alive but does not conflict with the persona I have established in the game works for me. So I am happy to use ewave, haste and enhansives to support my hunting. I can hunt well without them but chose to utilise them.

Any thoughts. Common sense or a warrior sell-out?

[Warriorbird]

Some interesting comments there. I've had the benefit of going down both paths as I said. I love the role playing element of whipping out another weapon from my baldric or backpack to provide a diverse method of attack. My intent was to training in virtually every weapon type possible. (my 10 year plan - haha.) In reality I think my multi-weapon use was driven by the acquisition of some fantastic weapons and weapon support (ebow, thrown hammer, adamantine shield) I'm afraid i'm not a hoarder and only keep what I can use. So that drove me to use all those items. Hence my previous training regime.

But to be honest, these days i'd rather stick to my THW. Bremerial is pretty straight forward really and you can't get much more straight forward than a clinical slice/crush from a THW. It's actually had an interesting impact on my training. With the movement from Voln to Sunfist - which I love incidentally - i've no need for brawl training and have ploughed training into dodge.

I did contemplate jeril's spell route and who knows, that may be a way I go in a few years. It's certainly an interesting option.

So how do I approach battle these days?

THW prime attack with bonded claid for corporeal and cheap glaes greatsword for undead. (Having had a really expensive weapon disarmed a few months ago, I no longer hunt with anything that would make me kick the cat if i lost it - haha.)

Ok let me ask another question.

How do you feel regarding the use of magic as a supplement to hunting, whether that be spellups, wands and rods, or enhansives?

Personally anything that keeps me alive but does not conflict with the persona I have established in the game works for me. So I am happy to use ewave, haste and enhansives to support my hunting. I can hunt well without them but chose to utilise them.

Any thoughts. Common sense or a warrior sell-out?

Scrolls and items and sharing is common sense.

[Warriorbird]

As a follow up to what I said before... I think that even after cap there's things that'll get you a lot more bang for your buck than an extra weapon style.

[Sam]

How do you feel regarding the use of magic as a supplement to hunting, whether that be spellups, wands and rods, or enhansives?


I could do pretty well without any outside spells with the exception of strength, for obvious reasons.

Have always used tremors imbeds occasionally. I find that's a good way to start out a berserk.

Always save scrolls, but never use them.

Trained up to 425 once at under 10m exp. Fixskilled back.

Trained up to 425 again currently with a bit over 12m exp. Pretty big TP usage for only two commonly used spells (402 and 425), though I did have fun ewaving as a DM blocker.

I've never really evaluated the redux hit, and 96% hinderance with 202 armor ranks means I'm not using any combat spells. Almost have dodge back up to 2x, but sad that I only have 4 focused mstrike hits. That will be fixed after 12 more dodge ranks.

I'm really not sure the spells route would be good for anyone else at 12m exp, unless they too have absurd armor and DB to compensate for the lack of dodge DS.

As for other weapon styles, I played with the idea when I bought a fancy crossbow, but there are just too many other things to spend points on right now. I think I'll get ranged up again in the not so near future just so I can keep a cocked crossbow ready for the occasional stylistic face shot.

[stormcrow]

I pretty much took Ravinold from roll-up to cap without any spells. Some of you remember in the early days before redux and such, people thought you were an idiot if you played a warrior. I mean you couldn't do anything more then anyone else could but wear platemail. Which at the time before redux wasn't all that great anyhow. When people noticed I was a warrior sometimes they would spell me up out of pity I suppose because I was playing a professions that was severely gimped. Things got rough at the higher levels and then many warriors adapted by becoming glorified rogues. I used to cringe at the warriors who would hunt in the shadows and ambush. But it worked, and a lot progressed that way. Thankfully, df redux and the guild changed all that, and then the CM's made us a great class. So, I'm rambling now. But I've never relied on spells and I've had to avoid area's with a lot of spell casting critters. I mostly stay on teras now and nelemar is a very warrior friendly place. As long as you don't mess with the sentries, you should be able to handle anything that is throw at you without wearing any spells.

[Jeril]

I like having the spells, they make hunting less of a hassle, the TD and the DS both, there are a lot of different ways that wounds affect you in combat and if you aren't getting wounded as much it certainly makes it easier. I don't look to spell tank as much as a lot of other people do but I still can wear most of what people consider a full spellup.

[Danaandim]

My warrior is way under 50 trains, so he can't rely on his THW training to provide enough DS to survive reliably. Combine that with 2X PF and 1.2X Dodging, I need the extra DS that devices provide. Redux is not yet a big factor in damage reduction, especially when taking on big GoS groups. I buy 401, 406, 414/419, and 911 potions. I'll use 503 and 905 imbeds that my wizard makes, and small statues, of course. Even though I have 30 Symbols ranks, I still end up blowing myself up with scrolls all too often. Strength devices are difficult keep supplied.

Could use some advice for surviving my 40s and 50s.

Dan's warrior

[Jeril]

Not sure exactly all the problems you are having, if it is in warcamps, go in there tanked with everything you can(wizard spells , spirit spells, bravery potions, the works) and berserk. You can pretty much do the same for warparty tasks. You should also master tricks so you can use feint. If you aren't mastered in those two skills work on it. Also get more dodge, not sure how much if any more you can get, if you have more then 55 ranks in MoC drop them and use those points on dodge. I am guessing you are 3x armor and pushing for fullplate, wear the heaviest set of plate you can, or even jump into fullplate if all you do is berserk. Can't really give you much more advice without seeing your skills, to include guild training and combat maneuvers.

[Danaandim]

Hey Jeril,

The issue that I'm seeing is that as 41 train, I'm going in with a 314 AS with Strength and it doesn't seem like enough to take care of a group from a warparty before getting whittled down and kilt. Giant, Guildmaster, GoS. No enhansives to speak of. Wearing +32 MBP and swing a vultite katana. Currently carrying too much junk however.

Skills:

Armor Use 186 86
Combat Maneuvers 186 86
THW 186 86
Ambush 142 42
MOC 155 55
Physical Fitness 198 87
Dodging 153 53
Arcane Symbols 120 30
MIU 90 20
Harness Power 50 10
Perception 150 50
Climbing 136 38
Swimming 58 12
First Aid 20 4

Mastered Berserk and WTricks

CMans:

Combat Movement 3
WSpec2 3
Bonding 4
Combat Mobility 1
Surge 2
Parry Mastery 3
CDefense 1

Dan's Warrior

[RSR]

swing a vultite katana.

There's your problem right there. Try using a different two hander like a maul or a claidh.

-Richard.

[Jeril]

I agree with Richard, you could also use two-handed swords or axes. I'd also suggest dropping the ambush to 0 and the dodge down to just 1x to get more armor. I'd also say to pick one to go with either MIU or AS. For maneuvers, 5 ranks bonding, 3 wspec, 2 ranks cmobility, more wspec with left over points. After that focus and cdef.

[Mohrgan]

Like Jeril says, get that armor up to where you can wear full plate asap, it's our best thing. Also, if you're getting plinked to death by huge warcamp groups, use the tried and true "Divide and conquer." Warriors are always going to have trouble with crowd control, MSTRIKE is the best against it, but until you can get your MSTRIKE to a level where you are getting lots and lots of swings, it still won't handle big crowds, and of course, you either need a crap ton of stamina to do repeatedly or to berserk, which has the obvious trade off of not being able to control until you get (8, 9?...cant remember exactly how many) rounds. You can hit a warparty with an MSTRIKE and you should be able to stun at least most of them, then strike at any left unstunned, and try to keep them that way until you recover from the MSTRIKE, too, though the bigger the crowd, the harder to maintain.

I know it's a bit tougher in camps when they jump out at you all the time, but it's definitely doable if you are soloing warcamps, since the gen rate is minimal. Warparties lend themselves a bit better to dividing them up, step aside a room and wait for them to come to you or move away a room (of course being mindful of other hunters/passers by).

As far as the OP, as an old Volner, I 've got full brawl, plus OHE and 3x shield, though honestly I don't even really use Voln Fu any more...post cap even maxxed train doesn't stack up all that well against a lot of critters, imo, but yet I can't bring myself to drop it. I am waiting to see how the new unarmed combat system turns out, but if I end up hating it, then the brawl might go in favor of hurling...or I've always kinda wanted to go with ranged, and I did max my perception pretty early post cap...still, I have minimal ambush so that's a point against it. One of the two, for your flying what-have-yous, is an eventual goal of mine, but not really on top of my priorities, in any case. Still though, watching Kerl and Metadi throw big sharp objects at flying monsters in invasions makes me so jealous.

[Valyss]

Just a couple things to add:

* Getting to full plate quickly is important, although I found I got a lot of the benefit getting to MBP. Getting that higher crit divisor for plate made the biggest noticeable difference throughout leveling. Full plate was probably a close second.

* Crowd control: this always requires a bit of finesse and understanding your opponent(s). Berserk, even with low stamina can be good for keeping a group stunned and under control. In some ways I miss having lower stamina/regen, as you're able to stop your berserk when you hit zero, and exercise a bit of control over how long you're in berserk. For 2 mobs, I find it more successful to rotate feints and ambushes, throwing in the occasional 6-7 s mstrike to keep them stunned. If you're talking about a 10s mstrike against 3-4 mobs, you're not getting into the area where they're going to start shaking the stun before you come out of the mstrike RT. Plus, one evade/block/parry during a 10s mstrike, and that's enough time for something to line up a serious hurting on you.

[Danaandim]

There's your problem right there. Try using a different two hander like a maul or a claidh.


I'm not welded to my katana, but level 3 bonding takes some work. Plus the crit weighting is nice too. Is the basis for your recommendation because of the weapon table, with maul being superior to katana on AvD?

[Danaandim]

I agree with Richard, you could also use two-handed swords or axes. I'd also suggest dropping the ambush to 0 and the dodge down to just 1x to get more armor. I'd also say to pick one to go with either MIU or AS. For maneuvers, 5 ranks bonding, 3 wspec, 2 ranks cmobility, more wspec with left over points. After that focus and cdef.

I'm not currently using Ambush as straight up swinging seems to be how to survive the camps, so Ambush is droppable. Dodge can get down to 1X. Since I use imbeds much more than scrolls, AS is droppable. As for CMANS, if I drop rank2 of Surge, I can complete Bonding with the autoreturn. I can also drop CMovement, freeing up enough for me to complete CMobility with the 100% standup attempt. I'll probably grab CFocus1 after that when train.

QUOTE=Mohrgan;1428134]Like Jeril says, get that armor up to where you can wear full plate asap, it's our best thing. Also, if you're getting plinked to death by huge warcamp groups, use the tried and true "Divide and conquer." Warriors are always going to have trouble with crowd control, MSTRIKE is the best against it, but until you can get your MSTRIKE to a level where you are getting lots and lots of swings, it still won't handle big crowds, and of course, you either need a crap ton of stamina to do repeatedly or to berserk, which has the obvious trade off of not being able to control until you get (8, 9?...cant remember exactly how many) rounds. You can hit a warparty with an MSTRIKE and you should be able to stun at least most of them, then strike at any left unstunned, and try to keep them that way until you recover from the MSTRIKE, too, though the bigger the crowd, the harder to maintain.

I know it's a bit tougher in camps when they jump out at you all the time, but it's definitely doable if you are soloing warcamps, since the gen rate is minimal. Warparties lend themselves a bit better to dividing them up, step aside a room and wait for them to come to you or move away a room (of course being mindful of other hunters/passers by).
[/QUOTE]

The changes above should get me much closer to 150 ranks of Armor Use, but at 41, ain't gonna get there nohow. MStrike after feint should be tested. Am also going to have to leave some junk behind.

Jon

[RSR]

Katanas only do slash damage which has the highest threshold for crit kills. It's the least effective damage type overall. Crush or puncture are better in virtually any scenario.


-Richard.

[Jeril]

I know that katanas are crit weighted but it really isn't a lot of weighting, and for the other weapons it isn't just the AvD, the DF makes a bigger difference. In warcamps you don't have to worry about losing your weapon to disarm and bonding takes no time at all, it is a real easy thing to switch around your bonded weapon. Bonding and wspec will make your feint more effective for when you use it and also give you more static AS as long as you use the weapon you are bonded, of course.

In the weapon harness you see a golden vultite maul, a vultite katana, a tawny vultite fist-scythe, a rhimar-edged vultite espadon and a short sword.

Those are the weapons I carry around, bonded to the maul and the others all have their own situational use for me.