Common Skills Rank Pool
------------- ------------ ------------
Combat Mythical Melee (to weaponparry)
Resilience Transcendent Fitness (a decent amount)
Discernment Transcendent Intellect (to scan or higher)
Magic Virtuoso Arcana
Planar Transcendent Mysticism
Discipline Transcendent Willpower
Environment Mythical Communion (To tumbling at minimum)
Influence Expert Magnetism
Riding Inept Magnetism
Arts Inept Finearts
Highmagic Virtuoso Arcana
Aethercraft Master Mysticism

Trade Skills Rank Pool
------------- ------------ ------------
Forging Transcendent Melee

Guild Skills Rank Pool
------------- ------------ ------------
Knighthood Transcendent Melee
Blademaster
Athletics Transcendent Fitness
Rituals Transcendent Arcana
Necromancy

Level 96

Combat related arties:
3 artie pipes
Torc
Amulet of Ressurection
Winged Sandals of Haste
Spectacles of Clairvoyance
4 weapon runes on my main weapons
Gem of Cloaking
==========================
The gem and pipes help more than anything in combat (weapon runes are simply a requirement of good knights). See the bold and comments for how high you really 'need' in common skills to do well in combat. Of course, you need to trans your guildskills and definately your trade skill if it's one that helps you (most tradeskills have amazing trans items-- fascinate gem, fullplate, phil's stone, splendor robes, etc).

Above all I'd suggest spending a LOT of time in combat, and learning -exactly- how your system cures if you happen to use a borrowed system. Knowledge of the quirks of every skill is also -extremely- affecting in combat. Enjoy.

Hm. Scanning through the list, I think I haven't seen a single good fighter (Or even a decent one) without several trans skills.

torak is the best fighter with minimal skills. I'm impressed that he does so much with so little.

Yeah, I think he's the best example of a minimal-credits fighter.

And no, Verithrax, you really can't fight without several trans skills. You have to have the abilities in order to fight.

You need at least two guild skills trans and one guild skill near trans depending on your guild. You need focus mind and gifted high magic/lowmaigc for invoking green etc. Also you need a form of tumble everything else is just a bonus.

Before I went mage and lost most of my skills this is what I pretty much looked like skills wise:

Common Skills Rank Pool
------------- ------------ ------------
Combat Gifted Melee
Resilience Master Fitness
Discernment Master Intellect
Magic Inept Arcana
Planar Master Mysticism
Discipline Fabled Willpower
Environment Master Communion
Influence Inept Magnetism
Riding Inept Magnetism
Arts Capable Finearts
Highmagic Virtuoso Arcana

Guild Skills Rank Pool
------------- ------------ ------------
Knighthood Transcendent Melee
Axelord
Athletics Mythical Fitness
Totems Transcendent Arcana
Moon

Of course, Verithrax is a Geomancer. All he really needs is Trans Geomancy and dedication.

Do you really need trans druidry/aquamancy/geomancy? The trans skill is worthless, isn't mythical high enough?

Trans increases your point damage, as well as the time-length of your demesne effects. It might not be much, but considering people spend credits for a 10% boost in damage, it seems like spending credits to trans the skill for a little more isn't unreasonable.

Edit: Also increases the protection of Barkskin.

Ah, cool. Didn't know all that

You won't be able to fight anyone decent with just your demesne skill. You need runes/dreamweaving/psionics too.

At least he'll be able to support groups, which is the more important thing, especially for those who aren't great fighters.

In a duel, a demesne doesn't mean much. You need an active skill to get it to work, although I'm not sure why you'd need trans illusions (Terrain is high enough, unless there's some compelling reason above that?). And Mythical druidry/aquamancy/geomancy isn't high enough; you need at least a little higher than that, to get the instakill of your guild. Demesnes aren't as good for group support as they used to be, but yes, you can support a group at only Mythical - But you have no hopes of surviving, even inside your own demesne, if you're caught alone without a well-developed third skill. And if you fail to break demesne just after entering a room, you're dead if anyone catches up with you. In short, the entrance bar for combat is high even for a mage (Although not close to what it is for a warrior). However, I consistently see people with less than my might up in the combat rankings. This means, of course, that they only fight people around their range, but I'm curious as to whether this means anything at all in 'real life' (Outside the arena).

SKILLS:
Common Skills Rank Pool
------------- ------------ ------------
Combat Gifted Melee
Resilience Transcendent Fitness
Discernment Adept Intellect
Magic Inept Arcana
Planar Transcendent Mysticism
Discipline Capable Willpower
Environment Inept Communion
Influence Novice Magnetism
Riding Inept Magnetism
Arts Transcendent Finearts
Highmagic Virtuoso Arcana
Aethercraft Master Mysticism

Trade Skills Rank Pool
------------- ------------ ------------
Forging Transcendent Melee

Guild Skills Rank Pool
------------- ------------ ------------
Knighthood Transcendent Melee
Blademaster
Totems Transcendent Arcana
Moon
Athletics Mythical Fitness

SYSTEM: Mix of Zarquan's, my own, Thorgal's, and stolen parts of others. (Zmud)

ARTIFACTS: 2 Lightning runes, 3 Pipes.

SKILL: I'm a klutz. Really just a mindless basher and lazy bum, who devotes only a bit of time to combat.

Common Skills Rank Pool
------------- ------------ ------------
Combat Virtuoso Melee
Resilience Master Fitness
Discernment Expert Intellect
Magic Novice Arcana
Planar Transcendent Mysticism
Discipline Fabled Willpower
Environment Expert Communion
Influence Gifted Magnetism
Riding Apprentice Magnetism
Arts Adept Finearts
Highmagic Virtuoso Arcana
Aethercraft Adept Mysticism

Trade Skills Rank Pool
------------- ------------ ------------
Tailoring Virtuoso Finearts

Guild Skills Rank Pool
------------- ------------ ------------
Elementalism Transcendent Mysticism
Aquamancy
Illusions Fabled Intellect
Psionics Mythical Intellect
Telekinesis


Level 85

No combat arties (just flowerpot )

Got a nice system for zmud.

I like to think I do alright for my skills. Especially because I suck at most competitive games

soooooooooo to be good someone would need about 5-700 credits?

To be "good" you could get by solely from IC credits. Torak's done so, and despite having minimalistic skills is a very good combatant. Conversely it's possible to buy 20,000 credits, be omni-trans, be loaded down with arti's... and still not be able to defeat anyone of any real skill. Skills help but in the end it comes down to skill.

The base recommendation for most above-average fighters, however, is tri-trans (guildskills), up to shieldparry in combat, up to tumbling in environment and up to focusmind in discipline.

That does seem a reasonable number really, thats 600credits=5280 lessons

912=focus mind
289=green
1715=trans weapons for you
1500ish=surge

Then you have about 800ish left over to put in your third skill and thats half transed for you so you just have to build it up.

And invest in Planar also.

May I ask why one needs tumble?

I don't have it and I do extremely well.