I'm still waiting for Axechucker!

Ok, so that name is terrible. But I think Axemaster would be bad too.

You're a Merian and it's half electric

The main thing about warriors is that a good warrior of either type will absolutely cream poor to medium fighters due to obscene damage, but once the target has enough defence and gains enough life to tank the warrior, then there is no way for the warrior to win 1v1. The other archetypes have combat ability which roughly scales with the relative difference in ability, warrior's do not.

It works out real well for the warrior until the target reaches critical tankiness, after which there's no hope at all for the warrior.

I don't think thats true.
I think warrior tactics are not even close to what they could be.

You're quite wrong Dag, but I won't hold it against you

Give us some examples of untaped warrior strategy, and I'll give you an example of a 15 minute long conversation about that tactic on the Barracks that points out it's flaws.

And as for an Axe specialization *droll* I've been waiting for that since the beginning of Open Beta, that's why I refuse to pay more than 30k for my weapons, in anticipation of getting Axes. I'd give my left arm to help design that, so many ideas....

Well once i decided that I was doing absolute PITIFUL damn against everyone with trans resilience and fullplate, I realised one important thing.

If you are doing bugger all damage, but good wounds damage then if they can heal properly you are over.

But if you hurt them bad enough on damage, where they HAVE to sip health, because if they apply it too much they will die from damage, then if you fight well you can hurt the majority of people enough to get a bashbrain off or just outright damage.

Thats my biggest beef with Narsrim, even with my arties and 19 STR. he sips for about 500 more HP than i combo for, meaning that if he heals properly I can NEVER kill him...thats with my arties

Being overpowered means that you are UNKILLABLE or close to it one v one.

Like 1300/combo or something. I probably wouldn't have died except you surprised me and I didn't have you enemied, nor was I ready to fight again, as I had JUST finished Alger.

Uhhh Shamarah I don't remember fighting you in that FFA. Not since I got my arties anyway.

That's upsetting blademaster is no bueno. I'm going to do bonecrusher purely because I'm taurian and I want to blow up. I think it's good for my role (plodding, anne franke view on good, herb picking, simple beast), it's doubtful I'll trans bonecrusher in a very long time. I imagine once I get it to a certain point I'll just raise herbs instead.

Edit: Language censored. (Elryn)

im like one of the few remaining afflict knights left out there and seriously trying to think of a way to make anything stick makes my head hurt. Ill try to stick with it till it gets better though...

my opinion is...

BLADEMASTERS:
The afflictions of blademaster being mostly herb cures are just too randomized that they end up becoming close to worthless. Doesnt matter if you can afflict me up to 3-4 times a round if those afflictions dont have anything to do with each other they're going to be gone by the time you try to hit me again. Anyway a lot of people have tried, but there so much things to consider, afflict tactics get shot down majorly. Things like the knight has to consider limb state so he can get the afflictions that he wants. Limbs being curable makes it a task to actually keep certain limbs at certain conditions. Most i can do is keep 2-3 limbs at heavy/critical but thats considering my attacks arent delayed and i can figure out the wound curing strat the person is using. Even though the limbs are at the stages i want the wound afflicts are also randomized with the better afflicts being on such a low probablity that it takes constant hacking to just get them. Then theres venoms application probabilities. I usually just weaponprobe my blades to see if the venom went but then theres a chance it got shrugged off anyway. Then theres all the passive defences such as stance, parry, rebound which puts limits to chains. Then there are all these passive delay tactics that puts more limits on chains... (seriously i dont think i've ever encountered so many fighters who can do passive stun and para with no possible defence.)

Anyway as of now most effective strats would just be whoring things like...

double charybdon - and just concentrate on other things hoping the other person cant cure based on symptoms and the occasional diagnose (seriously i dont even have to diagnose sometimes)

double mantakaya - hoping itll slow them down enough for you to concentrate on offensive with a possible mana drain if they dont know how to deal with it (or para/stupid for focus whoring)

double escozul - hoping you can tank them while draining their reserves down to 0 (most usefull against guardians but is pretty much a duel tactic and i dont do this unless im really pissed which i havent been in lusternia usually im just lazing about heh)

other things i can think of...

bury relapse under major arteries, sliced forehead, and a scalp - easyly countered just sip sanguine and you can get the relapse in 4 seconds. At most 14 seconds if you managed to cut 4 arteries, hiding them under clumsy/dizziness then getting a sliced forehead and a scalp while getting a relapse on the last hit. Big deal though if they have relapse here since the venoms dont hurt or lock plus good luck getting 4 strike chain with a 2 slash head hit.

bury epilepsy under pierced/severed nerves - is pretty much a slow down tactic that doesnt go anywhere since well it just makes the person use a lot of kombu.

constant pinleg + slickness + sunallergy (out of arena only) - can still sip allheale and the drawbacks of having your blades impaled can be more of a perdicament.

got a couple more but... honestly those are the saddest afflict combos i've ever come up with :\\

BONECRUSHERS:
Bonecrushers are much easier to work with. They have their stun and blackeye moves which hinder curing and if you get lucky in a chain like 4 blackeyes well it stacks and lasts really long. They can smash shields to get rid of some peoples parry ability. Their afflicts are more or less salve balance, where applying regeneration being one of the longest cure balances(compare stumping a leg to slicing a tendon... both critical moves the later you just have to eat marjoram and its gone). Knockdown to prone people which also prevents parry. Pulp is way better than haymaker. Their endurance drain is a constant drain as opposed to pierced lung which is just an added drain on endurance per move (been awhile since i tested this one). Brainbash seems to go off more than behead (probably because of pulp but we dont know and umm since when did blademasters have more instakills... i still count 1...). Even reposte is better than coule in the sense that reposte hits different limbs, but the most you can get out of a coule is a major artery hit.

i got rend though! go bleeding... now if only people stopped being so over-protective of the lower half of their bodies.

on the side note i find blademaster to be interesting... and i refuse to go damage!

Bustorgans is a "instakill", like disembowel.

disembowel isnt an instant kill... if you get disemboweled youll just need to cure it fast or youll bleed real bad... well last time i've tested it, which was in beta... hmmm...

I killed Ceres once *dance*

She later showed me the log, I was doing 250 a swing to her, but her system messed up and she kept remounting her pegasus until she died

you went blademater already?

Damn knockdown knocking me off.

It should make me immune. Immune, I say!

Nah, I did that as a bonecrusher.

No, disembowel kills you if you don't cure it.

Also, Murphy, you are incorrect. IRE muds are balanced once they reach the point where the top fighters cannot kill one another. Look at Imperian, the top 1% echelon cannot kill one another, it's simply how things work. You have a good offence, but your curing is rather bad. However, once your curing is on level with your attack, and combat advances a bit more, and more fighters emerge, and if you are in the top echelon at that point, you will stalemate with everyone. It is just how it goes.

I think thats wrong, I wish IRE games were less defense based and more offensive, it should be that the top echelon players win only because they outsmart, or trick the other player.... Or get lucky. Not that their so godly that they are unkillable.

It's not that they are godly, it is simply that they can cure whatever is thrown at them, and often what it comes down to, is the only time one of them loses, is when he gets unlucky and has a period of lag.

Even in the "top echelon" people still win, and not only due to lag. Combat is very resource oriented, some classes seem to have it very good, while others seem to have it very bad, but when it comes to arena: out of two opponents of equally top-notch defensive efficiency the winner will be the one who can keep his endurance/willpower/etc longer. The same pretty much goes for out of arena fighting - I've had people back out of feuds simply because they ran out of herbs, salves, elixirs, inks, whatever. And I did the same myself on many occasions. You just have to take a broader look at combat.