Faelings... and some other things.

by Unknown

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Unknown2008-12-29 08:27:15
Alright, so I again want to thank everyone who replied to my other thread about changing guilds/orgs. I'm safe and sound where I think I should be and having fun. I'm about to come up on a few decisions, though, and I have been lurking the forums, but I'm looking for some clarity:

I am at present: Glom Faeling Ebonguard no spec.

Assume that: I'm not tied down to being one race. I will be investing credits into great runes. I'm trans forging.

1. I keep reading that faelings got a bit screwed on racial rebalances which I guess happened earlier this year. I can't really remember what faelings used to have for stats, but looks like when I transform into a Shadowlord I'll be at 11 str base? Isn't that incredibly low for a warrior? I also heard that balance/eq/sip/herb bonuses where hamstringed somewhat as well. Is this also true, and if so does it make a lot of difference? I've always played with the rule for communes that you went for the commune race on warriors (Elfen in Seren, Fae in Glom) to come out with some pretty nice advantages, but from just glancing, faeling doesn't look all that special.

2. Night/Crow. Again, from what I remember, going Night for drawdown was very much the in thing to do. I'm assuming for warriors it's because of the +10 to weapon stats. I looked at the skills for both sets, and both seem to have a few decent (at least sounding, not sure about in practice) skills. Is drawdown really THAT good?

3. Finally the dreaded topic of weapons. It's been asked a lot, I guess. I probably shouldn't, I guess... But I was thinking of Bonecrusher as a first choice. My question with that would it be best to go Krokani for the weapon bonus (Not even sure how much this comes into play) and the higher str/con/resistance or go with a balance race and speed up the attacks with speed hammers?

If I wasn't going BC, I'd be torn between Blademaster and Axelord. I read a post somewhere where everyone was arguing the merits of two handers vs one handers and it never seemed like there was a clear victor. Was it basically left at over time it's somewhat of a moot point?

Well, if anyone cares to answer any of these questions, I appreciate the help. I know a lot of them are tired and old, but I kept hearing about race changes and haven't seen many posts in recent times that may have taken those changes into account. I'm probably just nitpicking too much and should just play the damn game whichever way!
Celina2008-12-29 09:17:16
QUOTE (AllergictoSabres @ Dec 29 2008, 03:27 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Alright, so I again want to thank everyone who replied to my other thread about changing guilds/orgs. I'm safe and sound where I think I should be and having fun. I'm about to come up on a few decisions, though, and I have been lurking the forums, but I'm looking for some clarity:

I am at present: Glom Faeling Ebonguard no spec.

Assume that: I'm not tied down to being one race. I will be investing credits into great runes. I'm trans forging.

1. I keep reading that faelings got a bit screwed on racial rebalances which I guess happened earlier this year. I can't really remember what faelings used to have for stats, but looks like when I transform into a Shadowlord I'll be at 11 str base? Isn't that incredibly low for a warrior? I also heard that balance/eq/sip/herb bonuses where hamstringed somewhat as well. Is this also true, and if so does it make a lot of difference? I've always played with the rule for communes that you went for the commune race on warriors (Elfen in Seren, Fae in Glom) to come out with some pretty nice advantages, but from just glancing, faeling doesn't look all that special.

2. Night/Crow. Again, from what I remember, going Night for drawdown was very much the in thing to do. I'm assuming for warriors it's because of the +10 to weapon stats. I looked at the skills for both sets, and both seem to have a few decent (at least sounding, not sure about in practice) skills. Is drawdown really THAT good?

3. Finally the dreaded topic of weapons. It's been asked a lot, I guess. I probably shouldn't, I guess... But I was thinking of Bonecrusher as a first choice. My question with that would it be best to go Krokani for the weapon bonus (Not even sure how much this comes into play) and the higher str/con/resistance or go with a balance race and speed up the attacks with speed hammers?

If I wasn't going BC, I'd be torn between Blademaster and Axelord. I read a post somewhere where everyone was arguing the merits of two handers vs one handers and it never seemed like there was a clear victor. Was it basically left at over time it's somewhat of a moot point?

Well, if anyone cares to answer any of these questions, I appreciate the help. I know a lot of them are tired and old, but I kept hearing about race changes and haven't seen many posts in recent times that may have taken those changes into account. I'm probably just nitpicking too much and should just play the damn game whichever way!


I don't know too much about warriors, but since no one has answered I'll give it a swing.

1. Yes, speed and sip were both nerfed, but you will still sip for noticeably more and hit noticeably faster. From my experience (and from hearing the warrior folk talk about it) faeling warriors don't really work. Their str is butt awful. You can barrage them with affs and venoms, but you'll generally have to take alternative kill routes i.e. bleeding them out as a BM instead of behead.

2. Nightkiss is a free rune to your weapons, not to mention DMP and things like drink and choke to make you just OP to the max. I never really figured out why Xenthos went crow, but he's the only one. (Yeah RP blah blah)

3. BC and AL come with their very own easy buttons. BM can pinleg whore which is beyond obnoxious, and their have been nasty BMs in the past, but everyone and their dog is a BC or an AL because stun on command is the "iwin" button against most cloth wearers. As Krokani, your surge will suck and you'll be toadcurse/absolve/wrack food. Faeling would at least have nice health with shadowlord con + big mana for surge + sip bonus. Might not kill anyone, but still. High level human is always a good choice.

Yes, you should just play the damn game whichever way you want. If you don't like something, switch. It's a game. Do what makes you enjoy it
Unknown2008-12-29 14:51:16
Bashing and combat both will be quite painful as a faeling knight early on, shadowlord or not. Even with the SL spec, you will lag behind in combat on a consistent basis due to not building wounds so efficiently. This is not just because of the nerf to the balance bonus, but also the the retooling of how STR functions (which happened around the same time). High STR matters a fair bit more than it used to for PvP as a result. This will not change once you hit demi either, since high STR races will suddenly be able to PvP efficiently with bashing weapons while you will not, nullifying part of the speed advantage you would otherwise have (though not completely).

On the other hand, once you get surge (and nightkiss if you learn Night as your tert), an SL faeling can be surprisingly tanky between the sip bonus, wyrd regen, and a lack of elemental weaknesses.

If you're more interested in PvP and don't want to struggle so much at a low level, you might take dwarf, taurian, krokani, or loboshigaru instead. Human if you don't think you'll be able to afford a reincarnation dagger for it later when you are 85+ (Humans are still okay at low levels, but not very interesting or efficient).

EDIT: And I'm willing to wager that Drink alone makes Night more useful than Crow for a warrior.
Desitrus2008-12-29 15:38:35
If you want to min/max go human. The evolution and extra exp will benefit you in the long run. If you don't want to have rotten fruit thrown at you while you scream "but it's my Arghpeeeee" go Night, because it blows Crow away. Yes, I've been both. There is simply no redeeming factor in Crow which overcomes all the useful Night options.

As above, people will cry about anything a warrior does. There are no pureblades to weep about right now, or constant double tendons would be on that list of "whoring." People use stun because it prevents running and allows you to outpace curing in a world where you never would without it if you are below 22 strength. The rebalancing pretty much guarantees non-demigod artiwarriors have to use stun against those intelligent enough to hinder and cure.

People actually converted to BC about the time spec plate was around, since you needed stun and to have some cutting/blunt users to prevent people from just wearing 130+/80+ plate.
Unknown2008-12-29 17:13:37
1) Once upon a time, people were scared of SL faeling BC stun. Well, "once upon a time" being a little over a year ago, and "scared" being "somewhat annoyed with." Having started as Aslaran, I can tell you first hand that those speed bonuses aren't what they were. As for the STR thing, well, you're in the same boat as most of us non-demi knights. Get demi or go home is the long and short of it. Because you're certainly going to be balanced around demi knights.

2) I was stag. Stag is better than crow for knights. Now I am moon. Moon is better than stag, though I miss having medicinebag and a few other toys. Night is basically equivalent to moon, maybe even a smidge better. Save yourself a headache, go Night.

3) I'm an essentially noncombatant pureblade at this point, but I try and stay on top of things with spars and such. Here is the pureblade theme song. Go bonecrusher or axelord. You can do much more obnoxious things at low wounds with those two specs.

Tael2008-12-29 18:22:57
QUOTE (Rainydays @ Dec 29 2008, 12:13 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
1) Once upon a time, people were scared of SL faeling BC stun. Well, "once upon a time" being a little over a year ago, and "scared" being "somewhat annoyed with." Having started as Aslaran, I can tell you first hand that those speed bonuses aren't what they were. As for the STR thing, well, you're in the same boat as most of us non-demi knights. Get demi or go home is the long and short of it. Because you're certainly going to be balanced around demi knights.

Akui is right in the fact that Shadowlord's and Aslaran's are nowhere near as frightening as they once were. Shadowlord's have too little in the means of strength, while Aslaran's herb/sip negs make them pretty laughable. I disagree with her assessment of go demi or go home. There have been a few people who have proven that you don't need Demigod to make for a good warrior, it just makes it a whole lot easier. You definitely need to invest in great runes and time into forging some crazy weapons. You want Human or, if you want to go the way of Lisarel, Loboshigaru. Just expect to get raped by Moonburst against Serenwilde if you're Loboshi.

2) I was stag. Stag is better than crow for knights. Now I am moon. Moon is better than stag, though I miss having medicinebag and a few other toys. Night is basically equivalent to moon, maybe even a smidge better. Save yourself a headache, go Night.

Agreed. Night is more offensively oriented than Moon is. Shadow Steal is fantastic, and I'd love to have it personally. Drink is also good for utility, and Choke is well.. Choke (but don't base your decision off of Choke. We might not be seeing it the way it is much longer). Scourge can be utilized to decent effect, as can Succumb though they're not overly useful for Warriors. If you take Night for anything, it'll be for Nightkiss and Drink. Moon, in my opinion, is better than Night because it adds on to a Warrior's already pretty tanky disposition, plus giving them additional offensive stuff. I'm going to be tinkering with Wane as a BM, for example. If you take Crow, just expect to be a whole let less tanky than if you were to take Night. Crow is all utility for a warrior. Xenthos is a good person to ask if you want to learn about being a Crow Warrior.

3) I'm an essentially noncombatant pureblade at this point, but I try and stay on top of things with spars and such. Here is the pureblade theme song. Go bonecrusher or axelord. You can do much more obnoxious things at low wounds with those two specs.

Pureblade is definitely one of the weakest of the four specs right now, though solely in the realm that they lack the ability to finish someone off quickly compared to the other three. That's not saying you couldn't be a good Pureblade (see Geb), but Axelord is certainly godly in the right hands (Lisarel being a prime example of a Night Ebonguard Axelord). Bonecrusher has been nerfed to actually require a fair amount of talent with it now, it's no longer mass stunology as it once was. Blademaster is all about stacking herb affs, sleeplocking, etc. I'm currently a Blademaster, and from my minor tinkering with the skillset, I am loving it.


Desitrus2008-12-29 19:04:25
Except that those people existed before the strength rebalancing, which is what we're talking about in this thread.
Unknown2008-12-29 19:08:13
Warriors are either too good or too bad. It's a crappy situation.
Unknown2008-12-30 04:34:23
Thanks guys! Some good points all around. While I was away from the forums I was further scrutinizing the skillsets, and I can better see the advantages, from a combat perspective, of going Night over Crow. And they faeling thing is going to have to go, because I was weeping about my strength before you all told me that strength now matters even more than it did before for warriors.

I'm still caught up on Bonecrusher or Axelord, but I think it's more of a stylistic choice as opposed to a "which one is better" choice. It's very tough to decide whether bashing somone's skull in will be more satisfying than beheading them or the other way around... Life is so hard, huh?

Tael2008-12-30 05:08:50
QUOTE (AllergictoSabres @ Dec 29 2008, 11:34 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Thanks guys! Some good points all around. While I was away from the forums I was further scrutinizing the skillsets, and I can better see the advantages, from a combat perspective, of going Night over Crow. And they faeling thing is going to have to go, because I was weeping about my strength before you all told me that strength now matters even more than it did before for warriors.

I'm still caught up on Bonecrusher or Axelord, but I think it's more of a stylistic choice as opposed to a "which one is better" choice. It's very tough to decide whether bashing somone's skull in will be more satisfying than beheading them or the other way around... Life is so hard, huh?


Axelord's have two ways of killing. One of them being behead, the other involving cutting the victim in half.
Unknown2008-12-30 07:07:49
Pureblade is awesome in group fights. 1 hit tendons, 1 hit slitthroat/slitlocks spell pretty much doom in a group fight. Axelord is probably better than PB in group situations cuz of 3s knockdown stun and the ability to 1 hit slitthroat/slitlock like PB's.
Unknown2008-12-31 03:12:53
QUOTE (Thoros LaSaet @ Dec 30 2008, 02:07 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Pureblade is awesome in group fights. 1 hit tendons, 1 hit slitthroat/slitlocks spell pretty much doom in a group fight. Axelord is probably better than PB in group situations cuz of 3s knockdown stun and the ability to 1 hit slitthroat/slitlock like PB's.

*eats Thoros's foot*

Go with Pureblade, it's got cooler weapons.
Shurimaru2008-12-31 20:13:32
I went Pureblade just for the katanas. Samurai-lookin' warriors ftw.