Guide to Warrior style fighting / Chopping

[12345]

This is intended primarily for newbies. If I left out anything important, let me know, it's hard to get everything in the first attempt. Obviously, I'm not an expert in all classes, so if others can do similar for other other classes, I'm sure newbies would find it helpful.

Happy hunting.

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Guide to Warrior Style Fighting

Playing a warrior on Sloth is fairly straightforward and focuses mostly on the 'chop' style of play. Warriors have available a wide variety of weapon and armor choices and can normally achieve lower armor classes earlier in the game. Their skill set focuses primarily on increasing the damage done in melee combat, but is very limited otherwise. In groups, they can be very formidable.

Chop style fighting is so named because it involves little more than continuously hacking at the opponent with your weapon. Many mobs typically run in xp groups will fall into this category. Chop mobs typically have a large number of hit points and have difficulty hitting AC well. The goal is simply to beat them down before they can do the same to you. In this effort, anything you can do to minimize damage to yourself and maximize damage to your opponent will greatly improve your odds of being successful.

Armor Class is a warrior's prime defense. Being a master of armors, the warrior has the widest range of defensive equipment in the game. It is difficult, but not impossible for a warrior to achieve an Armor Class of -8 or possibly lower before reaching level 21 prime. Some of the armors needed to accomplish this may pop on much larger mobs and need to be purchased from other players or handed down from higher level characters, however, a great deal of it can be found in the various shops throughout the world simply because the higher level characters popping the equipment don't find it useful at their levels. After level 21+, a much wider range of equipment is available and the warrior will typically be able to reach at least AC -9 by level 40 and eventually -11 after that. Armor Class -9 is normally considered the minimum AC for a Tank in a group, though groups fighting in lower level areas or on Valkyre may be able to run effectively with higher.

Most warrior skills focus on improving the melee fighting. These include double attack, bloodrage, critical hit, parry and triple attack. In battle, these skills are automatic, and while they greatly increase combat effectiveness, they do little to engage the player. Protect and rescue allow the warrior to defend those he is grouped with, allowing them to take advantage of the warrior's higher Hit Points and lower Armor Class in battle. Rescue allows for some strategic moves in groups, such as allowing a thief to backstab or monk to grip without being the permanent tank. Parry and entrench are combat skills that allow the warrior to defend himself from his opponent, but also require little intervention from the player. Kick, bash, flail and deathblow are the only real interactive commands a warrior has available during battle. Both kick and bash to little damage, but bash has the advantage of knocking opponents down and may prevent them from using special attacks in battle. Flail can be a useful attack. Since is it an area affect, it has the same advantages and dangers of any area attack. Deathblow, a relatively new addition, can end a battle very quickly, but can only be used when an opponenent is almost dead. Normally a warrior will rely on their other classes for skills and spells to use between combat rounds in battle.

When creating a character, many options are possible, though there are some combinations that work quite well with the warrior style of fighting. For instance, the armor and stone skin spells are quick ways to lower Armor Class. The curse spell, which is available to clerics, mages and necromancers, can be an effective way for a warrior to lead a fight. Since this lowers the opponents abiltity to hit, it combines well with the warrior's Armor Class to prevent the warrior from taking damage in battle. The sanctuary spell available to clerics, or the wall of flesh spell available to necromancers reduces all damage done to the warrior by half, effectively doubling their number of hitpoints. Web, available to clerics, mages and bards, is also a useful spell, not only for preventing a mob from fleeing, but also to reduce their ability to hit and make it easier for the warrior to hit their opponent. Also, blindness, available to clerics, mages, necromancers and bards, can greatly reduce an opponents ability to hit, but often fails, making it difficult to use in solo play but very effective in groups. Bard songs are frequently useful in combat, though most are best used in groups. The monk class also works well since damage reduction helps keep the warrior alive and skills like strike can increase the damage done between combat rounds. Mage also increases damage between rounds but it dependant upon the warrior's mana. Since chop mobs tend to have a high number of hit points, it is common to run out of mana long before the fight is over if blasting. Cleric gives the added advantage of healing and is often a better use for mana. Thief primarily adds the ability to backstab, which can be useful against smaller mobs but is normally not as effective as curse against large mobs. Druid class has fluidity, which can reduce damage and is cumulative with sanctuary. There are also other spells such as spell shield and spectral shield which can be benefitial.

In groups, the warrior will almost always be either the tank or close behind. The tank will almost always be protected by the sanctuary spell, as well as others, depending on the need and leader. Depending on the leader, there may be someone to backstab or grip, and the tank is responsible for rescuing them. If these are not used, the tank will normally lead with either curse or damnation (a stronger curse). The rest of the group may then blind if the mob is blindable, or use acid blast. Someone will also normally be responsible for webbing the mob. This combination of curse/web/blind is very common combination for debuffing mobs. Since blindness has a very short duration, it may sometimes be necessary to reblind the mob. There may be someone who stays out of battle for this express purpose, or someone may flee and reenter the room to leave combat and reblind the mob. This may also occur if sanctuary falls on the tank and they need to be resanced. Once the mob is debuffed, it's a simple matter of chopping the opponent. Generally, if strictly chopping, mana use is discouraged except to heal the tank or yourself if low on hit points. Other activities, such as kicking, bashing, striking, stunning, circling, etc. are encouraged. Always follow instructions from the leader and you should be ok.

[Weasel]

good stuff

[SirRobin]

This answers a lot of questions, thanks a lot.

[Leaf]

Coolness. Makes me want to restart my Warrior. Also "Weaken" is another
spell that is used to debuff mobs But I can see ur doing a great job
Peace