Hello all,
I have been lurking for a while and decided to jump into the game finally. I’ve settled on creating a warrior as my character. My vision of it is a one hand and shield build (leaning towards blunt) and I’m currently looking at half krolvin as the race. As I read about HK it appears as if they are frowned upon due to the logic penalty. Is this really a big concern that I should have? Giant man would be my second choice.
As for my training I’m looking at
3x armor use
3x shield use
2x one hand blunt
2x combat maneuver
1x multi opponent combat
3x physical fitness
1x perception
I would like to get survival and first aid in as well for skinning and foraging bounties. Would 1x in each be sufficient?
As for combat maneuver points I’m looking to increase my survival i lite at the beginning so I’m leaning towards block and parry mastery possibly stopping at rank 2 of each for 20% chance to EBP from those skills alone. Is this a good plan?
As for shield skills I like the looks of shield bash leading through to shield trample including mastery but I think after getting a couple ranks of shield bash I want to go for shield forward for added defence after bashing. Again, is this a good plan?
Is there a specific martial stance that I should go for to make my early levels as easy as possible?
I do understand I can freely change as I want during the first 20 levels but anything to get me started in the right foot that I should know about would be greatly appreciated.
Stats plan
Str 100
Con 100
Log 100
Agi 90
Int 70 (for foraging)
The rest scattered around somewhere.
So if any input could be provided I would be very grateful.
Thank you in advance!
GHOSTPANTS
OM1E5GA
Re: New player warrior help
11/26/2020 10:56 AM CST
<As for my training I’m looking at>
That's a good start, but you're also going to want some ranks in Ambush early on so you can at least aim for heads/necks. Eventually Ambush training becomes less important for that as you gain levels and your CM skill becomes sufficient on it's own.
This is my Blunt/shield warrior's training and it's served me well so far:
I don't use the Brawling much, but keep it in case I go up against noncorp critters or those wearing plate armor. The TWC rank is just to keep my DS from tanking completely if I decide to stow my shield while using UCS attacks. Aside from that, her training is basically what you laid out... except the 2x PF which I'll likely be working towards 3x with the coming changes to CMANs.
<I would like to get survival and first aid in as well for skinning and foraging bounties. Would 1x in each be sufficient?>
Depends on what your goals are. A warrior will never be as good at skinning as an empath or ranger and you might struggle with skinning tasks for some critters, but it should be good enough generally speaking.
<As for combat maneuver points I’m looking to increase my survival i lite at the beginning so I’m leaning towards block and parry mastery possibly stopping at rank 2 of each for 20% chance to EBP from those skills alone. Is this a good plan?>
For the first 20 levels or so, stance dancing provides sufficient defense. The first goal for any warrior when it comes to CMANs should be Weapon Bonding, which means you'll also need ranks in the appropriate WSPEC. I'd suggest hoarding silvers in the beginning and getting a perfect player forged weapon to bond to, then you can upgrade it as you have the silvers/bloodscript and inclination to do so.
Early on, I found Disarm to be insanely useful as well (and still do). Knocking any nonmagical critter's weapon into the shadows renders their attacks futile and smacking a runestaff out of a casting critter's hands is a quick way to bring them from a difficult to hit to quite manageable.
<As for shield skills I like the looks of shield bash leading through to shield trample including mastery but I think after getting a couple ranks of shield bash I want to go for shield forward for added defence after bashing. Again, is this a good plan?>
Shield Bash is insanely useful, it can even kill critters on it's own if you get lucky (and the critter isn't wearing heavy armor). Unfortunately, shield skills didn't become a thing until my warrior was in her 30's and I picked up a whole bunch at once when they did, so I can't comment on what was useful before that point. Here's what I have and they've served me well (eblock and deflection training are the most recent additions, the later for a specific critter I'll be going against soon):
<Is there a specific martial stance that I should go for to make my early levels as easy as possible?>
Disarming Presence is my go-to martial stance. They weren't a thing until she was in her 30's either, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have bothered with them until after getting other CMAN/Shield skills if they had been around.
Starchitin, the OG
A severed gnomish hand crawls in on its fingertips and makes a rude gesture before quickly decaying and rotting into dust. A gust of wind quickly scatters the dust.
That's a good start, but you're also going to want some ranks in Ambush early on so you can at least aim for heads/necks. Eventually Ambush training becomes less important for that as you gain levels and your CM skill becomes sufficient on it's own.
This is my Blunt/shield warrior's training and it's served me well so far:
| (at level 58), your current skill bonuses and ranks (including all modifiers) are: | |
| Skill Name | Current Current |
| Bonus Ranks | |
| Two Weapon Combat.................. | 5 1 |
| Armor Use.......................... | 251 151 |
| Shield Use......................... | 280 180 |
| Combat Maneuvers................... | 220 120 |
| Blunt Weapons...................... | 220 120 |
| Brawling........................... | 220 120 |
| Ambush............................. | 160 60 |
| Multi Opponent Combat.............. | 160 60 |
| Physical Fitness................... | 220 120 |
| Arcane Symbols..................... | 114 28 |
| Perception......................... | 160 60 |
| Climbing........................... | 70 15 |
| Swimming........................... | 70 15 |
I don't use the Brawling much, but keep it in case I go up against noncorp critters or those wearing plate armor. The TWC rank is just to keep my DS from tanking completely if I decide to stow my shield while using UCS attacks. Aside from that, her training is basically what you laid out... except the 2x PF which I'll likely be working towards 3x with the coming changes to CMANs.
<I would like to get survival and first aid in as well for skinning and foraging bounties. Would 1x in each be sufficient?>
Depends on what your goals are. A warrior will never be as good at skinning as an empath or ranger and you might struggle with skinning tasks for some critters, but it should be good enough generally speaking.
<As for combat maneuver points I’m looking to increase my survival i lite at the beginning so I’m leaning towards block and parry mastery possibly stopping at rank 2 of each for 20% chance to EBP from those skills alone. Is this a good plan?>
For the first 20 levels or so, stance dancing provides sufficient defense. The first goal for any warrior when it comes to CMANs should be Weapon Bonding, which means you'll also need ranks in the appropriate WSPEC. I'd suggest hoarding silvers in the beginning and getting a perfect player forged weapon to bond to, then you can upgrade it as you have the silvers/bloodscript and inclination to do so.
Early on, I found Disarm to be insanely useful as well (and still do). Knocking any nonmagical critter's weapon into the shadows renders their attacks futile and smacking a runestaff out of a casting critter's hands is a quick way to bring them from a difficult to hit to quite manageable.
<As for shield skills I like the looks of shield bash leading through to shield trample including mastery but I think after getting a couple ranks of shield bash I want to go for shield forward for added defence after bashing. Again, is this a good plan?>
Shield Bash is insanely useful, it can even kill critters on it's own if you get lucky (and the critter isn't wearing heavy armor). Unfortunately, shield skills didn't become a thing until my warrior was in her 30's and I picked up a whole bunch at once when they did, so I can't comment on what was useful before that point. Here's what I have and they've served me well (eblock and deflection training are the most recent additions, the later for a specific critter I'll be going against soon):
| your Shield Specializations are as follows: |
| Skill name Mnemonic Ranks |
| |
| Tower Shield Focus tfocus 5 |
| Shield Bash bash 5 |
| Shield Charge charge 2 |
| Shield Spike Focus spikefocus 2 |
| Deflection Training dtraining 1 |
| Block the Elements eblock 2 |
| Disarming Presence dpresence 3 |
| Shield Trample trample 3 |
<Is there a specific martial stance that I should go for to make my early levels as easy as possible?>
Disarming Presence is my go-to martial stance. They weren't a thing until she was in her 30's either, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have bothered with them until after getting other CMAN/Shield skills if they had been around.
Starchitin, the OG
A severed gnomish hand crawls in on its fingertips and makes a rude gesture before quickly decaying and rotting into dust. A gust of wind quickly scatters the dust.
GHOSTPANTS
Re: New player warrior help
11/26/2020 11:19 AM CST
I apologize for the format of the response but I’m currently on an iPad at work.
I’m slightly confused as to how the bonding works. Is it weapon spec is item group based. Such as morning start? Or full group as in blunt.
Then bonding is linked to a specific item? If so do I wait until I’m level 10 with a 4x item in hand to bond to it?
what is the rough estimate of cost we are looking at for a perfect forged item? Is this really obtainable early?
I don’t really have a comparison for foraging or skinning vs a ranger or empath so as long as I will be decently competent with it I should be fine.
During my first 20 levels will I be able to aim sufficiently to warrant adding 1x into ambush?
Disarm - are you referring to getting this as a combat maneuver or prioritizing this through guild training? My understanding for guild would be tricks and berserk first.
My goal right now is to have as easy of a time as possible for my first 20 levels. I do intend on joining the guild ASAP and in terms of society I’m leaning towards Voln for purposes of hunting undead.
I’m slightly confused as to how the bonding works. Is it weapon spec is item group based. Such as morning start? Or full group as in blunt.
Then bonding is linked to a specific item? If so do I wait until I’m level 10 with a 4x item in hand to bond to it?
what is the rough estimate of cost we are looking at for a perfect forged item? Is this really obtainable early?
I don’t really have a comparison for foraging or skinning vs a ranger or empath so as long as I will be decently competent with it I should be fine.
During my first 20 levels will I be able to aim sufficiently to warrant adding 1x into ambush?
Disarm - are you referring to getting this as a combat maneuver or prioritizing this through guild training? My understanding for guild would be tricks and berserk first.
My goal right now is to have as easy of a time as possible for my first 20 levels. I do intend on joining the guild ASAP and in terms of society I’m leaning towards Voln for purposes of hunting undead.
OM1E5GA
Re: New player warrior help
11/26/2020 11:56 AM CST
<I’m slightly confused as to how the bonding works. Is it weapon spec is item group based. Such as morning start? Or full group as in blunt. >
Yes, wspec is for the weapon type (morning star, mace, etc) and bonding is for the specific weapon. You'll need the wspec for the type of weapon you intend on bonding with. Due to level restrictions with how many ranks in a CMAN you can get, you'll prolly be closer to 15-20 before you bond with yer weapon.
<what is the rough estimate of cost we are looking at for a perfect forged item? Is this really obtainable early?>
Expect to pay 1-4 million for a perfect weapon, depending on the enchant and type of metal it's made from. Might have to wait until you're into your 20's to afford it if it's your first character, but I'd argue that it's worth it.
<During my first 20 levels will I be able to aim sufficiently to warrant adding 1x into ambush?>
You prolly won't want to actually aim yer shots until around level 15 or so, but aiming for legs and head should be doable by then.
<Disarm - are you referring to getting this as a combat maneuver or prioritizing this through guild training? My understanding for guild would be tricks and berserk first. >
Either way.... I HATE guild training so I picked it up as a CMAN. Others prefer saving the CMAN points for other things though.
Starchitin, the OG
A severed gnomish hand crawls in on its fingertips and makes a rude gesture before quickly decaying and rotting into dust. A gust of wind quickly scatters the dust.
Yes, wspec is for the weapon type (morning star, mace, etc) and bonding is for the specific weapon. You'll need the wspec for the type of weapon you intend on bonding with. Due to level restrictions with how many ranks in a CMAN you can get, you'll prolly be closer to 15-20 before you bond with yer weapon.
<what is the rough estimate of cost we are looking at for a perfect forged item? Is this really obtainable early?>
Expect to pay 1-4 million for a perfect weapon, depending on the enchant and type of metal it's made from. Might have to wait until you're into your 20's to afford it if it's your first character, but I'd argue that it's worth it.
<During my first 20 levels will I be able to aim sufficiently to warrant adding 1x into ambush?>
You prolly won't want to actually aim yer shots until around level 15 or so, but aiming for legs and head should be doable by then.
<Disarm - are you referring to getting this as a combat maneuver or prioritizing this through guild training? My understanding for guild would be tricks and berserk first. >
Either way.... I HATE guild training so I picked it up as a CMAN. Others prefer saving the CMAN points for other things though.
Starchitin, the OG
A severed gnomish hand crawls in on its fingertips and makes a rude gesture before quickly decaying and rotting into dust. A gust of wind quickly scatters the dust.
GHOSTPANTS
Re: New player warrior help
11/26/2020 12:49 PM CST
So for weapon spec I will pick that up early but will hold off on bonding until I get my perfect weapon.
As for the guild having no experience with this I figured I could use it as a social outlet to allow me a method to meet other warriors.
What are your thoughts on tortoise stance? Not worth the negative AS?
KRAKII
Re: New player warrior help
11/26/2020 05:14 PM CST
Remember that you can break a bond/re-bond to a different weapon, so you don't have to wait for your perfect to be ready for you. You can bond to whatever you have now, while you are still doing Enchant/Ensorcel/WPS upgrades on it, and when it is finally complete you can then break the current/bond with that new one.
RATHBONER
Re: New player warrior help
11/27/2020 03:53 AM CST
Big giant with big shield worked fine as my way into GS4. What was intended as a throwaway character to figure out the basics with got to 20M exp.
Don't worry about the logic penalty of HK on your first character. It is liable to frustrate those who have played half a dozen other characters already, but you won't notice its there on your first character. If HK is how you see yourself in the game, thats far more important.
3x armor isn't necessary if you have a shield. If you want points to train something else, 2x works fine. The important armor to get into is MBP (70 ranks) and if you don't have a shield it is really important to get into it as fast as possible, but 2x is fast enough for a shield user.
1x in each will make you a pretty good skinner eventually. However it results in being set impossible skinning tasks in the early game. To do adventurer guild skinning tasks before level 10, you need to set your training to a bit under 0.5x in each when asking for tasks (the sum should be less than your level) and then put it back up while doing them. I trained 1.5x survival/1x FA because that fitted my idea of what a Wsalamir should be able to do and by mid level I normally outskinned rangers and empaths. By level 30 1x/1x will make you a pretty good skinner, as long as you don't get put off by being asked for impossibly high quality skins at level 5.
I find shield strike to be a pretty good shield attack in the early levels, but once you can aim attacks I reckon bash is the one to have, and when you get to high level trample is the key.
Aiming attacks is pretty important for a 1 hander, you won't be good enough until late teens, but about the time you join the guild (level 15) pick up 10-15 ambush ranks and train at 1x or close to it until you have 30-40 ranks. The basics for aiming are to take out a leg to start with and then to switch to the head when the target is prone and stunned (either because you took out a leg with your star or because you bashed it with your shield, some critters are best legged and some best bashed)
Don't tank DEX. Thats the stat you should have at 70, not INT. Its the aiming stat, the skinning stat and, with AGI, its the weapon speed stat. It won't be so noticeable until you are doing a lot of aiming and mstriking, but it'll really hurt in the long run if you set DEX too low.
I found disarm was worth having, but effective at low training, and its feint that I reckon is the one to push as high as possible as fast as possible (via wtricks guild skill). I used disarm, but it was the guild skill I finished 5th out of 6.
Experiment with martial stances while you have the opportunity to switch your training around, but you probably aren't going to want to train one permanently much before level 40. I like griffin because it allows me to warcry undead. I have tortoise, but I only use it when I am helping someone rather than actively hunting myself.
I think its now technically possible to get the first bond at level 5, and finish at level 19, not the levels 11 and 29 that was the earliest I could bond. Bonding is probably the most important CMan to get early, provided you are getting guild skills when they become available.
Don't worry about the logic penalty of HK on your first character. It is liable to frustrate those who have played half a dozen other characters already, but you won't notice its there on your first character. If HK is how you see yourself in the game, thats far more important.
3x armor isn't necessary if you have a shield. If you want points to train something else, 2x works fine. The important armor to get into is MBP (70 ranks) and if you don't have a shield it is really important to get into it as fast as possible, but 2x is fast enough for a shield user.
1x in each will make you a pretty good skinner eventually. However it results in being set impossible skinning tasks in the early game. To do adventurer guild skinning tasks before level 10, you need to set your training to a bit under 0.5x in each when asking for tasks (the sum should be less than your level) and then put it back up while doing them. I trained 1.5x survival/1x FA because that fitted my idea of what a Wsalamir should be able to do and by mid level I normally outskinned rangers and empaths. By level 30 1x/1x will make you a pretty good skinner, as long as you don't get put off by being asked for impossibly high quality skins at level 5.
I find shield strike to be a pretty good shield attack in the early levels, but once you can aim attacks I reckon bash is the one to have, and when you get to high level trample is the key.
Aiming attacks is pretty important for a 1 hander, you won't be good enough until late teens, but about the time you join the guild (level 15) pick up 10-15 ambush ranks and train at 1x or close to it until you have 30-40 ranks. The basics for aiming are to take out a leg to start with and then to switch to the head when the target is prone and stunned (either because you took out a leg with your star or because you bashed it with your shield, some critters are best legged and some best bashed)
Don't tank DEX. Thats the stat you should have at 70, not INT. Its the aiming stat, the skinning stat and, with AGI, its the weapon speed stat. It won't be so noticeable until you are doing a lot of aiming and mstriking, but it'll really hurt in the long run if you set DEX too low.
I found disarm was worth having, but effective at low training, and its feint that I reckon is the one to push as high as possible as fast as possible (via wtricks guild skill). I used disarm, but it was the guild skill I finished 5th out of 6.
Experiment with martial stances while you have the opportunity to switch your training around, but you probably aren't going to want to train one permanently much before level 40. I like griffin because it allows me to warcry undead. I have tortoise, but I only use it when I am helping someone rather than actively hunting myself.
I think its now technically possible to get the first bond at level 5, and finish at level 19, not the levels 11 and 29 that was the earliest I could bond. Bonding is probably the most important CMan to get early, provided you are getting guild skills when they become available.
