Class Guides

[Davairus]

I'm looking for contribution to guides for:

* ranger
* berserker

There's already a warrior one but another (or contributing to existing) doesn't hurt. Anyway, guides for these classes would be good for the webpage, so if anyone thinks they know their stuff.. nows your chance to prove it.

[Esura]

Yes, someone please tell this newbie ranger what she's supposed to do in a PK situation against a spellcaster with shield? With just one little spell they've nullified seven of my skills (all the bow skills plus dirt kicking). Then with weapon ward the only other strategic offensive option, disarm (and dual disarm and shield disarm) go out the window. I've heard people telling me to flee and then try to catch them with those spells down, but I don't really envision that happening since they only need to put up ONE spell and it lasts for a pretty long time.

Not really complaining, just trying to figure out what I'm supposed to do.

[_Clifton_]

Dual wield (6 attacks) + 2 pets (4 attacks) vs poor defenses. Flee murder flee.

[Esura]

So does that mean when it comes to spellcasters, all those fancy, fun-looking skills are meaningless and warrior-type classes should rely solely on brute strength? That doesn't sound very fun. One of the things that stood out about AR to me was the diversity of the skills even for warriors. I don't see the purpose of shield in terms of game depth. Why do we have a skill that makes fights LESS interesting (for rangers anyway).

[Burzuk]

Turn it around, Esura: if you were playing a spellcaster, how attractive would your character be if you had to deal with a ranger's brute-force advantage in addition to all her bow skills on top of that?

I have a feeling if you were to play a spellcaster, you'd suddenly feel that weapon ward lasts way too short, and fly scrolls are way too expensive, and protective shield is way too mana intensive in long dragged-out fights, and...

Sure, rangers can't use their bow skills against a prepared spellcaster, just like warriors can't bash and hobble one, either. But mages are hard to play compared to a warrior or ranger. If you don't believe me, try one yourself and see. The best way to learn is to try out the other side.

The game changes a lot as you gain more playing experience. If you can cultivate a sense of perspective, it'll go a long way to helping you enjoy the learning process more.

[Esura]

Alright, I get what you're saying. So it's not really a balance issue I'm talking about anymore, but in terms of how interesting certain classes are...

The current skill set for warrior-type classes are all really cool, and landing a called shot on high-level mob is pretty fun, but am I mistaken in thinking that playing a mage class is a lot more fun in PK? Maybe I'd suck at it, but I suck at PK as it is and that doesn't turn me off of this game.

I just might take your advice and try a spellcaster... Typically in the muds that I have played in the past I liked being more of a physical class because EVERYONE was a fancy pants mage just so they could pretend they were cool while blowing stuff up with fireballs. Actually, I wanted to try a rogue class next but I hear all of these complaints about rogues being underpowered, and the impression I get from imps is "Be patient young one, the day of the rogue will come later." Should I hold off on a rogue?

[Erlwith]

[gomer]

clifton - your flee murder tactic doesnt work as well with rangers because when you flee your pets flee and they dont always flee the same way you do.

davairus - do you want us to post here or e-mail you?

[Erlwith]

I hear a lot about this flee murder tactic on spell casters. And it works to an end I find, personally. On shamans and clerics, it's sub-par, on illusionists it's hard if they're smart with illusions, which leaves invokers and necros.

I find it easiest to combine as many saves and as much hitroll as you can muster and go brute force all the way.

[marsd]

Against a spellcaster/shaman.. it's more of timing your own sanc, than timing their attacks.. catch yourself with no sanc (purple potions) for a round and good luck to 30% of your hp.

Though it goes the same for a mage.. but hey, I hear people saying about how short weapon ward lasts.. I've been caught myself without weapon ward/protective shield for a bit, well it hurt for that bit, but for the rest of the day.. it's weapon ward galore. It all depends on how you turn the situation in your favour.

[gr8mage]

I think if we chose a more wikipedia style like way of doing it, class guides would accumulate faster.

I personally propose having a place for each class, where other players can add to a do/dont list.

Ex: Warrior.
DO wear hitroll and damroll against other physical fighter types, i.e. thieves, rangers, etc.
DONT try to pk naked.

afterward, someone whos fairly knowledgeable in the specific class could compilate the list into a guide.

Pros of this. youre drawing on all the resources and every viewpoint of every player who has used or been beaten down by a certain class. Any faulty information given will be corrected by a more knowledgeable player.

Cons. possible flaming. less knowledgeable players refusing to admit theyre wrong if they give incorrect advice, no matter if they have played 1 month or 1 decade.

[Vhrael]

gr8mage: For the sake of making it easier to submit guides and whatnot, I understand why you're suggesting an "everybody can edit and submit" idea for the player guides. However, as you also mentioned, everybody and their brother would be throwing in their $0.02 worth of bad or inaccurate information, and pretty soon the guides wouldn't be worth anything at all.

If you want to submit player-written guides and you'd like to keep it anonymous, send them in an email to abandonedrealms@gmail.com (it's checked by the implementors).

[Erlwith]

Rangers are cute fluffy scavengers of the earth. With their various pets, ducks and squirrels they can be a force to be reckoned with, throwing their carved steaks at anyone with a pulse. When they're feeling less aggressive, they can be found carving tree branches and bushes into powerful ranger bows to which they can attach daisies, tulips or other sorts of flowers to. However rangers are not all about bows, dual wielding is expert in the hands of a talented ranger, since they have the dexterity to apply their enhanced damage to their offhand. That's right, never before has Thera seen the damage capacity rendered by a twig wielding ranger with a rubber chicken in his offhand.

[Louis]

who's doing the ranger one, i can offer some insight into that up to like level 45, but at 50 i won't be able to give good advice against warriors and berserkers. all others though are relatively easy to spell out.

[Davairus]

Ok lots of interest in ranger. I guess whoever has had a high level pk'ing ranger post-changes would be best person to do it.

[nomorals]

So... did any of these go up?

[Davairus]

Here's your berserker guide.

[Slade]

[Davairus]

The bow-inferior-vs-one handed is a weird issue. It rapes but the combat style is inferior for you. So you get hobbled easily despite being in an obvious massive advantage. And the prompts trick you into thinking you should dual wield, but you shouldnt. Not til theyve put a shield on. You're looking at parry vs defenceless til then - as soon as you dual wield they're up to two defences and defending better than your hobbled ass for that matter.


For retreat - you use it with called shot because, you get a free shot for actually doing it, and you're kept fighting. If youre in a situation where a bow is any good, this is obviously a good thing, since bow damage is usually really high power.

Rescue breaks you out of the fight so you can't do damage. This makes it inferior to retreat where a bow suits.

In theory, your pets are too weak to waste rescues/retreats with them, they'd just die. Better to tank for them and just have them help out with damage. That was the advice even back in the day, when pets weren't nerfed loads. Likely pets will just keep getting gimped til that advice turns out to be right. That's why I dont think that retreat/called shot thing is intended.


As for volley, I'm not sure how you got all that utility out of it, though fleeing off distends is a known issue with barrage I guess. Personally I would rather not waste purples and time fleeing off distends while I'm just trying to kill someone. I find the dual wield murders + follow up rounds to be a lot better damage, and prefer to just meet two-handed with bows due to barrage ease. Without barrage in the picture volleys suddenly a lot nicer, but then overhead wont be in the picture either, meaning so is dual wield/dual parry combo. I'm glad you got some use out of it though, always nice to hear the coding effort wasn't going to waste. Javelins were a huge PITA for me.

[trance_monkey]

this stuff should be in a wiki or something

this is real good info