Serenguard in need of combat tips.

by Rivius

Back to Combat Guide.

Vathael2010-11-24 15:05:57
@rivius and everiine: in regards to other skills shutting down your offense to the point you can't build wounds, I will do this for you. I will go into a spar with you and let you attack me until we time out with no hindering on my part actively or passively, hell I'll go make me a sandwich or something while I wait. Keep in mind I'm not a warrior and thus wear robes so it should be easy for you, right?

At any rate, in regards to the no wound/behead snip. If you do have a lower wound, say slit throat in that hack maneuver and it didn't hit either - there is also a matter of dex playing a role in regards to achieving wounds and if you have low dex that could have been part of the issue.

Edit: iPhone spellcheck makes me worse before better!
Unknown2010-11-24 15:13:44
QUOTE (Vathael @ Nov 24 2010, 11:05 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
@rivius and everiine: in regards to other skills shutting down your offense to the point you can't build wounds, I will do this for you. I will go into a spar with you and let you attack me until we time out with no hindering on my part actively or passively, hell I'll go make me a sandwich or something while I wait. Keep in mind I'm not a warrior and thus wear robes so it should be easy for you, right?

At any rate, in regards to the no wound/behead snip. If you do have a lower wound, say slit throat in that hack maneuver and it didn't hit either - there is also a matter of dex playing a role in regards to achieving wounds and if you have low sex that could have been part of the issue.

Ehem, Freudian slip there, Vathael. happy.gif
Unknown2010-11-24 15:30:22
I won't speak to tactics, but a few things that will generally help-

Get Moon to transcendent for drawdown.
Get Discipline to fabled for focus mind.
You have highmagic, so get that to Expert for Geburah and the strength bonus it gives.

And, as anecdotal, non-statistical observation-

I shifted a lot between Elfen, Aslaran, and Orclach. The first two have good dexterity. Orclach has less. Despite the wounding bonus from the Orclach weapon aura, I always felt like I got the afflictions I wanted better with Elfen and Aslaran. Dexterity is the only thing that seems to differentiate them, so I assume it has more to do with it somehow than people generally attribute.

Lobos have decent dexerity, and has been stated, you can get your strength up high enough easily enough. Also, as a point of practicality, that regen is very nice for bashing. While Elfen/faeling have the stat-bag effect, I wouldn't mentally sell yourself short in the race department.

I mean, its not like you're an unspecced Trill or something.

That would be crazy.
Everiine2010-11-24 16:17:16
@Vathael Huh? I don't recall saying anything should be easy... I'm confused.


And I always thought (think I heard it from Xenthos) that when even when you have someone at Critical wounds, you don't just have an even chance of hitting anywhere from Low to Critical wounds-- your chances are far, far greater for hitting that Critical wound affliction.
Xenthos2010-11-24 17:43:00
QUOTE (Rivius @ Nov 24 2010, 09:27 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
I really don't get how wound afflictions work and now more people are confusing me when it comes to maneuvers.



*sway*

But then I came across this little gem last night when a bunch of us ganged up on someone:



Why am I landing "small flesh wounds" when her head is so far into critical?

I'm confused as to the mechanics of wounds and their afflictions. Can someone clarify? It always feels to me like getting a behead is more like winning the lottery than working toward it.

There has to be -some- reason why I'm not doing well. I just can't figure it out.

The "small flesh wound" is the "I gave no affliction" line, of which there are 6 lines per body part (3 for jab, 3 for swing). These are based on the target's health level; so if the target is very healthy (as this target was, close to full health), it's the lighter-sounding message.

To Everiine; perhaps you slightly misunderstood, it works as Iasmos stated.

However there is not a cap to wounds level (at least not a reasonable one), so the higher you get the wound count the more likely you are to land the critical affliction.

Let's say you get a head to 20,000 wounds. There's around an 80% chance of landing the critical hit on a straight die-roll, not counting dex's impact. On the other hand, if you're only 1 point above the threshold for critical, the chance of landing the critical affliction is almost nil (but theoretically possible). If below critical, it's not even theoretically possible.

For certain afflictions you wish to get, you do not want to include the lower afflictions. This is for things like trying to collapse the lungs of a target, where you must pierce it first. In this case, you will only want these two afflictions in your maneuver. Otherwise you'll almost never land the pierced lung when they're at heavy+ wounds to chest, which means you'll almost never get the collapsed.
Lerad2010-11-24 19:55:01
I'm not a warrior, but for knowledge's sake, this means that (barring specific circumstances, like the piercedleg/collapsed lung one) even if I'm trying for a high-wound aff, I can put in lower-wound affs into the manuveur without negatively affecting my chances to land the higher-wound aff?

For example, I have a hackdown manuveur that is for when I am trying for a behead. If I use it while my target has critical wounds, there is still a chance the RNG might pick a lower level than critical wound affliction to give. If I don't have any other affliction than behead, then it'll proc nothing but wounds. Therefore, I can add at least 1 lower wound affliction for each wound level to the manuveur, without lowering my chances for a behead, so long as I don't add any other critical level affliction to the manuveur, right? (In fact, I can add any amount of afflictions into the manuveur, as long as I don't add any other critical level affliction to it, and I'll still have the same chance of proccing behead as if I had no other affliction in the manuveur, right?)
Unknown2010-11-24 20:31:54
Correct.
Mirami2010-11-24 20:56:25
The best example was Axelord Knockdown, back when it stunned, because you wanted nothing between knockdown and amputate. You'd leave out all the other leg affs because you wanted knockdown (a lower-level aff) rather than any of the other stuff in-between it and amputate (and often you didn't want amputate, either). That way, if you hit heavy wounding, you'd knockdown rather than whatever that aff was.
Rivius2010-11-26 06:11:17
Thanks for the clarifications guys.

QUOTE (Xenthos @ Nov 24 2010, 01:43 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
However there is not a cap to wounds level (at least not a reasonable one), so the higher you get the wound count the more likely you are to land the critical affliction.

Let's say you get a head to 20,000 wounds. There's around an 80% chance of landing the critical hit on a straight die-roll, not counting dex's impact. On the other hand, if you're only 1 point above the threshold for critical, the chance of landing the critical affliction is almost nil (but theoretically possible). If below critical, it's not even theoretically possible.


This helps a lot actually. It means that perhaps a big part of my problem really just lies in not hitting hard enough. Let's see if some small boosts will help with that.
Lilian2010-12-01 20:37:59
I'm going to hijack this thread, because I am also a Serenguard in need of combat tips!

I'm looking to maybe change race. I've been told I should go Aslaran, but don't know if I should, Lilian's always been a human. But with the impending race changes coming up (with downgrades going to humans), maybe it'll be for the best? I just want to be a decent fighter so I can defend Serenwilde best.

Anyways, should I change from Human to Aslaran...or even something else? With Glomdoring constantly holding Domoths, maybe it wouldn't be too terrible to be a Faeling BC.
Rika2010-12-01 21:10:35
Humans will still be fine.
Xenthos2010-12-02 03:57:27
Please go unspecced Faeling warrior.

I am not just saying this because you will do no wounds at all.

Really I'm not.
Unknown2010-12-02 04:00:57
I'm currently an unspecced Faeling warrior... and they still call me a beast. I did okay in the last wargames we had, landing more hits than I did as a krokani. Group combat is what we're using to balance things, so it's a valid test, right?
Xenthos2010-12-02 04:03:18
QUOTE (Zarquan @ Dec 1 2010, 11:00 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
I'm currently an unspecced Faeling warrior... and they still call me a beast. I did okay in the last wargames we had, landing more hits than I did as a krokani. Group combat is what we're using to balance things, so it's a valid test, right?

Not sure who 'they' is. Serens, I'm guessing, with the Wargames reference.

Part of being a warrior in a group is also being able to add to the overall wounds, not just piggybacking. If you want to stay unspecced Faeling though, please feel free to do so as well!

Edit: While 3150 credits does help counteract the 14 strength at absolute max to some degree, those same credits have a much much larger impact on 18+ strength. I'm curious what you'd be saying if you were trying it without the artifacts; I just can't see it going anywhere good at all.
Faymar2010-12-02 08:08:04
QUOTE (Lilian Ama'Rua @ Dec 1 2010, 10:37 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
I'm going to hijack this thread, because I am also a Serenguard in need of combat tips!

I'm looking to maybe change race. I've been told I should go Aslaran, but don't know if I should, Lilian's always been a human. But with the impending race changes coming up (with downgrades going to humans), maybe it'll be for the best? I just want to be a decent fighter so I can defend Serenwilde best.

Anyways, should I change from Human to Aslaran...or even something else? With Glomdoring constantly holding Domoths, maybe it wouldn't be too terrible to be a Faeling BC.

Wait until the race changes go through?
Unknown2010-12-02 10:49:50
She'll likely get another free reincarnation after the changes go through, though I don't know for sure if we've been promised that or not.


Being an unspecced faeling is made easier by copious artifacts, four Domoth blessings, and various other boosts. At this moment, without even using all boosts available to me (karma blessings, platters, Yellow, etc), I'm sitting on 7408 health, 9194 mana, and 10448 ego.

Now, I only switched to faeling for the balance to harvest and the charisma to influence, but I'm not exactly god awful as a warrior, either. 19 int, 19 dex, 20 cha isn't such a bad exchange for some str and con. Who needs weapons when you can just Moonburst (in a group)?
Unknown2010-12-02 13:02:55
It's generally not a good idea to peg Domoths as constants on one race.
Unknown2010-12-02 13:09:52
No, and I'm not seriously suggesting any warrior should be an unspec Faeling, but you have to admit that the Domoths have been pretty consistent for at least a year now.
Rivius2010-12-03 02:38:48
So I'm considering holding off lessons for a bit and slowly investing on runes once I trans discipline. I've already got to flex in athletics and transed moon now.

I'm not too sure of the numbers, so I'm asking, is a 10% wounding rune worth tempering down for? How should I temper down best? My stats are currently:

Damage: 33 Precision: 196 Speed: 250


>.> Yeah, it's probably a dumb question, but I'm no good with stats and numbers
Sidd2010-12-03 15:21:11
Skills > Artifacts/Runes anyday everyday