New Brawling / UAC Cleric

[0zymandius]

Hi all, started a new cleric last night, started out THW until my wife, fooling around, went to kick a carrion worm in frustration. Of course, it popped up the UAC gobbeldygook, and I decided to give that a whirl. Had an absolute blast (never played with the UAC system before my hiatus), but spawned a couple of questions:

Voln Fu used to be effective against undead, but UAC doesn't seem to be. Are there sanctified... handwraps? Or whatever they are? Or do I need to dig up troll-claws or something? My Wiki-ing seemed to imply that holding anything in my hands would be a detriment to UAC effectiveness, so trying to figure out the 'right' approach.

Only one day into my 30 day starting period, so LOTS of time, but is this approach (UAC) viable all the way up? So far it seems ridiculously straightforward and effective... what are the pitfalls I need to watch out for? I'm planning on going Voln (something else I've never done before), and have mage spells available, so don't think I'll have too many DS issues?

What should I concentrate on, training and stats-wise? Brawling and...? I saw posted training snapshots from someone near cap, and that gives me a long-term template, but at starting out levels is there a different path I should be focusing on? I plan on UAC-ing things almost exclusively, with CS spells as a backup, if that's a viable build, and will be hunting almost exclusively alongside my wife's Giant Warrior.

Thanks all!

[Whirlin]

Voln Fu used to be effective against undead, but UAC doesn't seem to be. Are there sanctified... handwraps? Or whatever they are? Or do I need to dig up troll-claws or something? My Wiki-ing seemed to imply that holding anything in my hands would be a detriment to UAC effectiveness, so trying to figure out the 'right' approach.

Voln-fu was redesigned... When you hit that step, your fists are perma-blessed, but your handwraps/bootsies are not, so you don't get the UAF bonus from them. There are sanct mittens/kicks available... right now on player shops they're super expensive though.

Only one day into my 30 day starting period, so LOTS of time, but is this approach (UAC) viable all the way up? So far it seems ridiculously straightforward and effective... what are the pitfalls I need to watch out for? I'm planning on going Voln (something else I've never done before), and have mage spells available, so don't think I'll have too many DS issues?

It's no longer 30 day, it's until level 20. So no need to rush.
Honestly, anything is VIABLE... it's whether or not it's OPTIMAL that is up for debate. But if you're having fun with it, that's the most important thing. You can always switch later.

What should I concentrate on, training and stats-wise? Brawling and...? I saw posted training snapshots from someone near cap, and that gives me a long-term template, but at starting out levels is there a different path I should be focusing on? I plan on UAC-ing things almost exclusively, with CS spells as a backup, if that's a viable build, and will be hunting almost exclusively alongside my wife's Giant Warrior.

Stats are completely subjective... For your first 20 levels, I'd setup to make brawling your main form of attack (STR and AGL), but I'm a big advocate of setting your stats to grow to cap out at level cap. But that's a subjective decision. As far as other training, I would not drop below 2x Spell Research, I would stick to at least 1x lores... and I'll let the others fill in the rest of the recommendations for Cleric Training (my cleric is really just a chrism alt)

[Leafiara]

-Yes, there's sanctified UAC gear! I'm not sure where you're likely to find it other than Duskruin, which is where I got mine, but for now you can bless your UAC gear anyway (gloves, boots, handwraps, footwraps) and get holy water flares with enough training, or have another cleric bless them for you.

-Rush to 211 (Bravery) and 215 (Heroism) by level 11 and 15 to get +40 UAF total, then back off from Major Spiritual for a while and aim for 118 (Web).

-I'd aim for wearing brig at least, which is 35 Armor Use, but until you're a high enough level to get to that point, stopping at 8 for doubles is good.

-Train one rank of Two Weapon Combat. Just one! It gives you +5 DS when you're barehanded for having that one rank, at least if I understand right.

-Damaging CS spells don't have to be your main offense if you don't want them to, at least not for a while--it wasn't until I got past Ilvari pixies and minotaurs (level 74-78) that I found brawling not really doing much anymore against anything except bandits. But what you will really be using are disabling CS spells like 118, 214 (Bind), 301 (Prayer of Holding), and 316 (Censure). These will give you much, much better MM, so you'll be opening up with these spells with against enemies before you start punching away. Which brings me to..

-If DS does become an issue, just get yourself a shield or runestaff with a nice enchant. Have it out while you're casting your disablers, then put it away when you're ready to attack. (And yes, shields work even with 0 Shield Use training!)



Those are just some key things off the top of my head, but if you have any more questions, ask away!

[0zymandius]

Thanks very much for the tips! I've adjusted my training accordingly, and hit level 5 last night. I'm still murdelating things pretty easily, and expect that will level off at some point, but for now it's good fun.

[Donquix]

Just to expound on TWC training thing: there are two discrete DS bonuses and 1 variable way in which TWC training adds to your DS.

you get some amount per rank, depending on your stance, etc. It's pretty low for TWC.

at 1 rank you get a flat +5 bonus
if you are >= .5x trained, you get an additional +10 bonus (so +15 total)

That's why you pick up the 1 rank. Since the per DS rank contribution is quite low, and you don't need it for AS like with normal melee weapon TWC, it's an easy +5 DS.

Also no one mentioned this but as a pure you will easily be able to pickup ranks of Arcane Symbols on the cheap. Look for Brace (1214) and Dragonclaw (1209) scrolls. Brace will allow you to parry attacks when not holding weapons. Dragonclaw will give you a UAF bonus, as well as a roughly 1 in 6 chance to ignore all of the target's magical defense when you attack. They're both decently common in the treasure system.

[0zymandius]

Thoughts on CMans? So far I'm thoroughly enjoying this build... it's working like a champ. Joined Voln and am committing genocide on snow spectres with the wife to build favor for Step 8 before leveling any more. But I've got 9 CMan points, and none of the options scream "Get that!"

[Donquix]

Thoughts on CMans? So far I'm thoroughly enjoying this build... it's working like a champ. Joined Voln and am committing genocide on snow spectres with the wife to build favor for Step 8 before leveling any more. But I've got 9 CMan points, and none of the options scream "Get that!"

you have shit options as a pure. Feint is a good all purpose cman so you can set things up with stam instead of mana (but like, what else are you using your mana on?) but you need all 5 ranks or to also pickup unarmed specialist to use it with UAC. you can always dump your early leveling points into combat movement just purely due to lack of other good options and move those around later, but if you're going to be predominantly hunting with the wife side-by-side is likely a good option.

cunning defense + feint, and again potentially side by side, in the long term, are likely your only real useful options.

[Leafiara]

Subdual Strike is another maneuver worth thinking about. You wouldn't be using it yourself, but learning a maneuver gives you some defense against it when enemies try it on you, and that's one of a bandit's favorites. At cap I actually trained all 5 ranks of Subdual Strike since I (and probably most capped people) hunt a lot of bandits.

Also, just want to note that while you can't use Feint barehanded without knowing Unarmed Specialist, you could always pull out a dagger that you use for skinning just for the Feint and then put it away.

[Donquix]

Subdual Strike is another maneuver worth thinking about. You wouldn't be using it yourself, but learning a maneuver gives you some defense against it when enemies try it on you, and that's one of a bandit's favorites. At cap I actually trained all 5 ranks of Subdual Strike since I (and probably most capped people) hunt a lot of bandits.

Also, just want to note that while you can't use Feint barehanded without knowing Unarmed Specialist, you could always pull out a dagger that you use for skinning just for the Feint and then put it .

should be able to pull out a hook-knife, fist-scythe, etc. so you at least keep the brawl parry defense

[0zymandius]

Thanks guys. We're going to focus on SideBySide for the moment, since the wife is a warrior with a ridiculous amount of CMP to play with. I freely admit to a bit of envy with how she's murdelating things with UAC much better than I am, but that's what you get when you play a cleric like a warrior. The pendulum will swing when I start to get better spells, though, and I'm still enjoying the process.