Knight classes: Any insights on hunting and offensive combat tactics?

Sharidin

Hello! I'm gonna start with an introduction but if you wanna skip it and answer the questions you could probably do so (may miss some key issues though)!

I've been on and off Achaea for nearly a decade now, and I believe this is mostly due to the fact that I didn't, or rather couldn't, really invest in it. With all the changes happening to trade skills, houses and classes I am very interested in coming back, this time around investing in an Iron Elite membership and no-brainer lesson packages to help me go along and enjoy the game more than I did in the past (never had a chance to trans two skills, rarely managed to trans one).

This time around, I would like to find RP and focus on a dream of mine, that of becoming a dragon that I could never really attain before due to very low lesson availability for improving my classes. Over the years I've tried many things but never knights, because I found the dual-rapier play style very unappealing RP-wise with respect to the Knight ideas, but now this has changed! Bard has always been a favorite if approached as a swashbuckling pirate, as a concept, but never attempt to do that.

Meanwhile, I've never tried combat seriously, other than requirements for guild/house at some low ranks, probably because I was intimidated by the concept. Evidently, I'm quite unaware of most approaches to offensive combat tactics (been working mostly on managing defenses), and especially how they would apply to different Knight skillsets and weapon specializations. I know this may be an issue with the changes taking place right now and that they will probably keep on going for some time.

That being said, here are my main questions (in order of importance I think?):

1. How do different weapon specializations and skillsets fare in bashing to Dragon efficiently??
2. How can the above be combined with regards to offensive combat (e.g. available instakills)?
3. Any best race/stats for hunting, and how much would that affect combat or change for it?
4. Any balanced hunting+combat artie wish-list for Santa next year, since I'll behave in 2015?

I know I'm asking a lot and especially in these confusing times, but any answers will get my undying gratitude! Some extra love for you guys if you are willing to answer 3 and 4 for bard and compare it to knight bashing efficiency, too. Many thanks in advance!

Antonius

Answers, to the best of my ability, below:

1. We're not sure of the best spec in terms of DPS yet. Bashing damage has been being tweaked since the changes went live, though it's possible they've finally settled down for the time being. Sword and shield has slightly increased tanking over the other three due to the ability to use a shield, so that may be a consideration especially at lower levels. Two handed makes it much harder to hit and run against harder denizens due to the long balance. I'd say dual cutting, dual blunt and sword and shield are all going to be good options though, and I believe any Knight spec is currently higher DPS than a non-weapon using class.

2. This really depends on which of the three Knight classes you pick. For Paladin, sword and shield gives you the best options when working towards Damnation, followed by dual cutting. For Infernal, I'm not sure if dual cutting or dual blunt would currently be the best spec for vivisect; two-handed has the potential there if you can just get a ton of of stacks on arms and legs.

3. For hunting, I'd probably focus on constitution or striking a balance between strength and constitution (though favouring constitution slightly). For combat, especially if you chose Runewarden, maximising strength for disembowel damage would be more beneficial than constitution a lot of the time (to see exactly how strength affects disembowel damage, check the link in my signature below this post).

4. For hunting and combat, sip ring, bracelets (increased health and mana), belt (increased health and endurance through increased constitution), gauntlets (increased strength) are all great choices. For combat only, buckawn's amulet is great for taking web out of the equation as a means of hindering you both in solo and group fights. For bashing only, a critical hit pendant can really boost your kill speed. A level two or three artefact weapon is generally a solid purchase over the forged goods available. If you chose sword and shield spec, a Shield of Absorption for hunting and some combat (mostly groups).

Sharidin

Wow this has been very insightful indeed! I was also thinking something along these lines, a S&B paladin, a 2-Handed infernal or a dual-flail runie, so I'm glad to see they could be viable in combat, too. I also think I'll try to balance con/str to try and be viable for both, though I'm still not sure how much racial stats can help there. I'll probably stick to human for the crits and the sip bonus, unless any extra stat point and racials (e.g., dwarf) are better instead. I'm kinda confused with the +health/mana bracelets though, I thought picking health only would be better, is mana also important for Knights?

Addama

More mana is nice to have, you always need to clot/focus and you don't necessarily want to be sipping mana if you're trying to tank damage.

Antonius

Mana has some benefits to it. If you pick dual cutting you'll need to use the mastery defence, which has an associated mana drain. Abilities such as focus and clot - as Addama said - will use up mana; these abilities are all static costs but regeneration (except a moon tattoo) is (mostly) a percentage of your maximum, so increasing your maximum mana means you're using a smaller percentage of your maximum and therefore makes it easier to recover what you have used. Two classes - Priest and Apostate - have instant kills that can be used if your mana drops below 50% (60% if the Priest sticks another affliction on you beforehand), so there are benefits against them.

That said, it's not an either or situation if you have the credits. You can wear a belt to increase constitution and bracelets to increase health/mana, though I'd suggest the bracelets first if you need to prioritise spending. The health increases aren't that far behind, but you're also getting a higher mana pool.

Sharidin

Umm, 50% sounds very high for instakill and really dangerous! Prioritizing spending is important for me so ill just do that. Also, I'm quite confused as to what happens with artifacts and "body slots"...? Like, I know you cant stack same artifacts, but how many can you wear for one "body slot", like for example how many rings? Or how many artifact belts or collars or whatever? Are there any exceptions? I'd hate to buy anything only to have to turn it in right away cause that "body slot" is taken...

Antonius

As far as I know, they just don't take up body slots. You may not be able to wear buckawn's boots (prevents web tattoo) and dexterity increasing boots, but there's an amulet version of the buckawn's artefact that you could get instead. There may also be an issue with trying to wear both Gloves of Harvesting and Gloves of Extraction, I'm not sure. Everything else shouldn't have issues as far as I've experienced.

Sharidin

Well, I'm not probably gonna invest in dexterity as a Knight, and i'd only get one of the gathering professions so it should be safe then! Thanks very much for all the input, I'll probably try Runie for starters cause it seems that they have some very nice defensive and offensive abilities for hunting. Not sure which spec is best suited for them at the moment, though, for both purposes (hunt/combat) so I guess i can try them all out in-game - just found out you can change the spec at the cost of some lessons!

Nexes

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