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Comments
I think with the right artefacts and with the skill reflexes(?), the class is just begging for loldamage+ insta-gib incinerate. Freeze pound seems to be a one-trick pony because most people will realize what to do after they die, or you run into the people that see it coming from a mile away and do proper curing to get out of it.
I personally do not know the class at all very well, so I am sure there are other great tricks you can accomplish. I'm just looking at how amazing reflexes is in the fact it reduces all balance, not just maul balance.
Again I could be totally wrong, but it looks like a pretty sweet class.
(Can also add in the fact that Yae's pro-hydra strats seems to enrage everyone)
Loldamage is something I'm puzzling over myself (theory only, since on a ping of about .8s right now I'm never going to be quick enough to pull it off), but when I was testing my maul damage I was doing several hundreds of damage with each hit (granted, the target wasn't deffed up at the time). That was with level 2 gauntlets (no other damage-enhancers) and could do more with an extra +1 for the level 3 gauntlets plus level 3 knuckles (and Gem-switching to STR-spec Troll or something). If you have to go that far, it'll be out of range of all but, as you said, the artied ones. Heavily artied ones, even.
Bees would add more on top of that.
- With sharp, crackling tones, Kyrra tells you, "The ladies must love you immensely."
- (Eleusian Ranger Techs): Savira says, "Most of the hard stuff seem to have this built in code like: If adventurer_hitting_me = "Sarathai" then send("terminate and selfdestruct")."
- Makarios says, "Serve well and perish."
- Xaden says, "Xaden confirmed scrub 2017."
It certainly works on a lot of people, but it has a cap that's dictated by the tanking ability of your opponent rather than your skill, and you'll be impotent the moment you run into somebody above that. Basically, regardless of what damage potential you might have for making people explode, you can't afford to be a one trick pony.
I think Athelas' point, albeit badly put, is quite simple: Stop using abbreviations and shorthand. It's not necessary. The few extra keystrokes won't kill you and it makes what you're writing more accessible for everybody.
Results of disembowel testing | Knight limb counter | GMCP AB files
It's not because the elite combatants are all jerks, far from it. I ended up caught in a raid the other night, the Mhaldorians involved went out of their way to avoid killing me. That being said, they spent about 30 seconds telling me to get out and I had absolutely no idea how to until one of them whispered "TOUCH NEW THERA" I still don't know how that got me out.
In any game, there's a basic level of stuff you need to know before people can explain combat at all. Your explanation of Druid vs. Paladin doesn't really help me, because I don't know what maul, incinerate, or doubleslash are. I don't know what skills Paladins have that make them tanky or how tanking artefacts affect things. On my own class, I know my combat focuses around Viridian and Heartseed, I've picked that much up from the forums: I don't know how those even work. In most games, I could learn all that from tooltips or a wiki or something. In Achaea, not only is there a lot more to learn (I've played some fairly complex MMOs. Achaea's combat complexity makes them look like preschool), it's much harder to learn. AB doesn't work for skills I don't have and doesn't explain skills all that well, the wiki at best just has the content of AB files, if that.
Basically, people not using shorthand will help a bit, but not much. And rather than making people type stuff out, some resource for explaining all the basic stuff would be far more helpful.
However, not using abbreviations and such would make it easier to look things up if we did have such a resource, or would at least remove the need for a glossary of commonly used ones.
There's also a few cases where people use slightly different - and conflicting - terminology to refer to the same thing. Limb damage is the most notable example.
Results of disembowel testing | Knight limb counter | GMCP AB files
It's like when people say PROC for programmed random occurance, but also as a slang term just meaning "chance to hit." It's like if we say limb prep instead of "preparing a limb one hit from break."
Now do people misuse words as well? Sure, your limb damage thing is when most people call a shrivel a break, a break a lvl 1 break, and a mangle a lvl 2 break, or perhaps just say break again. People still get vlock, truelock, softlock, slowlock mixed up sometimes. That is a no no.
There is a certain line between fully fleshing out the language for art's sake, or drawing a diagram for simplicity's sake. Explaining combat lies somewhere in between. When I am talking to a person I am not going to say:
Use Hydra legclamp target left immediately after using swing staff because using hydra legclamp target left mided with hydra flame and hydra snap is a more inefficient way to go about your business.
swing/clamp>flame/snap/clamp.
if you are a trans druid and do not know what this means, you are seriously lacking in your own fundamental level of understanding and -I CAN NO LONGER HELP YOU-. This is stuff you should have eagerly explored and learned for yourself already.
Now, there are plenty of other things like dstab, dsb, dsl, bbt, etc etc. These have become the abbreviations that they are because well... we can use them. They are not really abbreviations of anything as much as they are usable commands. In the same way I'd use a comma or a plus sign. These abbreviations are plenty important to learn and if you're a young adorable newbie trying to soak up information... if your mentor says "Be careful for a knights dsl." You better pipe up and ask "what's dsl." I promise it will take him two seconds to answer the question.
As far as the 2h thing, well if you never read a players handbook of DnD or any whitewolf, or instruction manual to redguard/morrowind, well I can see where the hangup might be. Most games these days will actually spell out Two-Handed.
But perhaps I should go out and also say that I believe @Athelas might just be a stranger to sarcasm. I don't sit here and share all my secrets or little tactics oocly because I am proud to have created what I did.. in game, on my own, completely. That means it was -my- fighting style, no matter how similar it might have been to someone elses. The only person I would ever teach completely would be a protege of mine. So I went out and gave you one of the first viable freezepound kills I thought of and bam. You were rude. No more help from me, Mister.
tl;dr
just ranting. Nothing to see here.
It would also help with formulating strategies to combine both with allies and against enemies, etc.
CLAN SWITCH TEF
CLHELP DRUID
Sorry, I'm beyond caring at this point. Sarcasm has never been an educational tool of any value and it seems that is all I'll ever get here. So I'll just take the jokes and the stabs for what they are and hope that my attempts at learning the basics with an alt will bare fruit.
I just read back through the thread and you were already given a bunch of advice, was there something specific you wanted addressed...?
?????????
?
And yeah, I don't exactly know what it is he's attempting to accomplish in this thread by re-quoting his apology whenever he says something dickish again.
Achaean pvp (player versus player; or pk, player killing) is both difficult and rewarding. The difficulty comes from the high number of abilities, afflictions and strategies that are possible to kill your opponent. This level of difficulty comes with a steep learning curve. This can be, as @Athelas has proven, very frustrating. To alleviate some of this frustration, it is first important to understand the most basic strategies, afterward those strategies can be analyzed to determine which are viable for your class. The important thing here is to focus on one strategy at a time. Trying to figure it all out at once will result in bitterness, frustration and more difficulty. This post will detail several basic, class-independent strategies, in general and unspecified terms.
1. The goal of pk is to kill your enemy. To do this, there are three basic methods
a. Locking
b. Utilizing an instant-kill power
c. Out-damaging your opponent's healing
A. Locking: Locking is a term used to describe the state someone is in when he is incapable of healing certain afflictions. There are many types of locks, but the principle is the same. A google search for "Achaea locks" gives a listing of the types of locks. This listing may be confusing at first, but on closer inspection it will make sense. The locks define what is prevented, and the locks progress along until you reach a True Lock. A true lock means the person cannot cure anything, and cannot do anything. Achieving a true lock will allow you to kill the person at your leisure.
B. Utilizing an instant-kill power: You will often hear people refer to 'prepping' an opponent. This term is generally used to describe the events leading up to the use of an instant-kill power. Various criteria must be met to use some powers, such as being prone (having 2 broken legs), being below a certain health or mana or having a certain amount of afflictions present. Although the prepping may be different based on the desired insta-kill, the principle is the same; set up the required events and execute the insta-kill.
i. Prepping may also be used to describe the process of limb damaging. A prepped limb will be at a state where 1 more hit will cause the limb to break. This is important for setting up certain kills. The principle of limb prepping is the same as prepping in general, to set up an instant-kill move.
C. Out-Damaging your opponent's healing: This is a more basic strategy, and one that can result in kills (though generally not after a certain level of hit points). The idea is just as it sounds: cause fast damage to beat out your opponent's healing. This is often described as 'loldamage'.
These are the three basic strategies. They can be used independently or in conjunction to achieve a kill. Some classes have access to one, two, or all of these strategies. Understanding these basics is the first step to successful combat.
To successfully employ these strategies you first must stay alive long enough to use them. This is where the principle of 'hindering' comes into play.
Hindering is essentially any action that frustrates your opponent's attempts to kill you. This includes running away, using afflictions such as paralysis, clumsiness, breaking arms/legs/head, sleeping the opponent. The idea is to disrupt your opponent's momentum (this is a term you will often hear, it follows the traditional definition of the word) and enable you to execute your kill strategy. Hindering can be difficult and requires some understanding of your opponents. The best way to learn this is to fight a lot, find out how to stay alive versus other classes and work out some hindering strategies that work.
As a druid, there are many options. My advice would be to focus first on the out-damaging strategy and hindering. Make a list of your skills that can be useful for these things. As a druid, you have reflexes and maul, this is great for damage. Reflexes, a power in metamorphosis, will speed up your balance recovery allowing you to maul faster. Use this to break legs and arms, by targetting the limb. (This will require target in weaponry). Maul like a wild beast and see if you can get a kill like that. If not, why not? Does the person just heal through? Does he run away? Spar a lot and talk about your spars. Make a strategy before you go in and stick to it, see if it works.
I hope this was helpful. This is a basic guide detailing three basic strategies. The rest of combat flows out of these basics. The fact remains that in order to be successful you need to try things and die a lot. Even if there are rock-solid strategies, they can be beaten, especially if everyone knows about them. Your best bet for successful PK (player-killing) is to experiment with your skills and really get to know what each one does. Figure out how your class works and try out different methods. Use the 3 basic strategies above to inform your ideas and get to work.
Good luck,
Sentinel Raven Sidd