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Kaldonis
02-06-2014, 04:03 AM
Honestly, not much experience with the CMAN system. This was a warrior that got titled in like 2002 before CMANs and converted to a paladin last year. The last ~2 months I've been actually playing him and enjoying it a lot.


Flail, your Combat Maneuver training is as follows:

Skill name Mnemonic Ranks
Combat Movement cmovement 1
Precision precision 1
Specialization I wspec1 1
Surge of Strength surge 2

Available Combat Maneuver Training Points: 7

For completeness:


Flail (at level 26), your base skill bonuses, ranks and goals are:
Armor Use..........................| 160 60
Combat Maneuvers...................| 114 28
Two-Handed Weapons.................| 156 56
Multi Opponent Combat..............| 25 5
Physical Fitness...................| 114 28
Dodging............................| 114 28
Harness Power......................| 108 26
Spirit Mana Control................| 20 4
Spiritual Lore - Blessings.........| 15 3
Perception.........................| 50 10
Climbing...........................| 70 15
Swimming...........................| 50 10
First Aid..........................| 114 28

Spell Lists
Minor Spiritual....................| 3

Spell Lists
Paladin............................| 25


A quick run down on anything that might need explaining.

He was converted to a Paladin since I explicitly want him to be able to raise the dead. I also have one of those super light vultite-link halfling chain shirts, so I trained up for that; at level 50 I plan to put him into plate (so juggle back to 3x Armor Use after level ~40), and hopefully I can dig up the imflass halfling plate (or the stuff at this festival is actually good). He has Spirit Defense (103) just because delaying 1640 by maybe one level is worth all the levels in the meantime always have 103 up IMO; ideally I can squeeze in double training once at 40. Working towards the Mana Control right now up to 25 ranks (24+1 for multi-incant). A few lores just because the early lores go a long way, so I'll probably get some of the others up to a few ranks as well. There's honestly not a lot else to say about the basic training path; maybe he shouldn't be converting physical points and should do more physical training for redux, but as I said, I want 1640 to work. Beyond SMC@25+1640 at 40, and full plate at 50, I guess religious lore for Zealot/1640 after that.

At some point I want more MOC. That sounds like flailing to me!

As to the CMANs specifically:

Flail uses a flail, hence Precision. Combat Movement was probably wasted, but at first I noticed I sucked against bolt spells (no problem with deep blues and guards); either way, it's a very small price for +2 DS, so no real worries there (similar philosophy with a few ranks of lores). Surge of Strength is definitely good, but I was planning to get the third tier, and then move on to something else. As a halfling in Voln, the extra strength is amazing (even for dragging people, etc), and I've almost no other use for stamina at all. But having said that, I can pretty much keep Surge up almost my whole hunt as it is, between hitting it immediately after it drops for double cost and 1607. Also, as I bond to my weapon, I'll get more strength from that (but it's NEVER enough).

Besides whether or not Surge up to 3 is reasonable, it's a question of what to go for next. Sure more weapon specialization is an obvious choice. As far as the character, I can see finishing off Precision even if it's a strange choice. Combat Focus is always solid, and Combat Movement isn't bad (it just doesn't seem worth it past the first rank early on).

Since my primary character is a sorcerer, I'm drooling at Tainted Bond, but 30 CMANs is a ridiculous amount and will take a long time to work towards. I've considered just topping off a few other goals and then saving up for that, in fact. It seems like the kind of thing I should convert into with a potion, though, once I get the ensorcell rocking, rather than be sitting around with 29 free CMAN points for 29 levels that do absolutely nothing for me.

Bullrush also is tempting to get a rank or two, but no idea if it's any good at all. Given I can Voln bless to cast 1608 on my armor (and getting some spikes), is one or two ranks of this skill useful at all? It sure seems to beat Feint, but I dismissed Feint because of Divine Strike.

I might be the only person ever to have looked at Combat Toughness, but I'll see what shape I'm in for HP once he's got redux and is in plate. 1616 with a little blessing lore is already amazing for HP from what I've ever known with a halfling...

Let me know what insight you have! Anything ranging from telling me what I did is stupid to what's especially funny for this type of character is welcome.

loxe
02-06-2014, 10:10 AM
I have found when fighting against casters a lot of times my cs isn't high enough to ward them but having feint allows me to put them into rt and stance them. At that point they are dead
And tainted bond is handy but hardly needed and to be honest I prefer the stamina or mana return flares from ensorcell over the as flare. I'd advise getting all your core cmans first
My 2 cents.
John

JackWhisper
02-10-2014, 06:19 AM
Tainted Bond is too expensive to be awesome. Useful for kicks, but bleh for how much it costs.
WSpec is boss.
Surge is boss.
Focus is boss.
Feint becomes more and more useful later on.
Movement isn't an issue since you rarely go up against things that can do more than plink you a tiny bit at a time, seeing as you end up in full plate, so physical ds is rarely ever an issue.


Skill name Mnemonic Ranks
Specialization I wspec1 5
Surge of Strength surge 5

Available Combat Maneuver Training Points: 11
I trained up focus occasionally to help me with CS warding, but no real need at the moment, so am saving it to max out something else right now, probably Feint for stancing critters so I don't have to wait for a swing or cast.

Whirlin
02-10-2014, 09:28 AM
And tainted bond is handy but hardly needed and to be honest I prefer the stamina or mana return flares from ensorcell over the as flare. I'd advise getting all your core cmans first


Tainted Bond is pretty cool, on paper... but for it to actually be worth the cost, you need a full T5 weapon, IMO... Anything less really doesn't end up being worth it. And since you don't want to put T5 on something unless it's the last weapon you'll ever use, it's a good candidate for something to pick up post-cap.

loxe
02-10-2014, 10:01 AM
Tainted Bond is pretty cool, on paper... but for it to actually be worth the cost, you need a full T5 weapon, IMO... Anything less really doesn't end up being worth it. And since you don't want to put T5 on something unless it's the last weapon you'll ever use, it's a good candidate for something to pick up post-cap.

Agreed.