Returning? Requesting advice for entirely different combat system

Goryllin

I am considering returning to Achaea after about 2 real life years. In that time frame - just about everything related to combat changed. For those of you who know/remember me - I am not a skilled solitary tactician or single combat fighter. But the roleplay and character decisions throughout my game time have put me into untold combat situations and developed enemy structures against most people who don't exercise restraint (Translation: I got griefed a lot).

How can I change the way my character is setup now, to be a viable combatant within the new structure? I think I have to lose an artifact or two since I can't wield the broad/axe combo and just double-slash until something dies. I would still like to be a more difficult target, so I can finally quit dying and get past level 77.

I have a ton of artifacts, will have to log on sometime to get the list for consideration in answering this question - Just know that if it was a useful combat artifact to be an unskilled hack n slash damage guy back in the day, I probably have it.

What I don't understand is specializations and just how to actually build a character for combat now. I would like to remain a Knight class, for roleplay comfort.

Antidas

Tbh, biggest way to not get griefed is to either a) not be an asshole or b) be an asshole but make it so hard to get kills on you that people give up trying. Not that I'm saying you were an asshole, ofc - I don't remember your behavior from before you went dormant well enough to judge. What I do remember, though, is exactly what you admitted yourself. That you generally just DSL'd with high damage weapons till things died. You might find people don't gank you as often if you take some time to really learn the class and try to kill things with a more skilled approach rather than the "mash buttons till it dies" approach.

I will also say, griefing is a lot less of a thing now than it was back in the day before you went dormant. I think you'll probably find that unless you're going out of your way to antagonize a person or group of people, you'll probably be left for the most part alone. You can take a hostile approach to people all you want, but as long as you don't cross a few big lines (such as attacking them), they'll usually just keep RPing rather than decide to grief you instead!

As for knight specializations, they're each pretty viable in their own ways. I've never played any of them so I admit that my knowledge level isn't up to par with someone who has played them all extensively, but you can't really go wrong from what I gather. I'll leave the explanation of the mechanics of each to someone who's played them though, I don't want to give wrong information.

Antonius

There's basically nothing different about the way Knights play now if you want to stick with dual cutting as a Weaponmastery specialisation, except you'll be using slightly different weapons. The core mechanics work the same way they have for years and years (much longer than two), there's just been some massive improvements: limb prep times are a lot faster, working around parrying is a lot easier thanks to nausea, etc. Scimitars replaced rapiers (they're now only for Bard) for the spec, battleaxes are the only other option (the damage one). You should still be able to switch your battleaxe and broadsword to any of the other weapon types used by Knight classes, so you could pick up one of the new specialisations or simply switch to more appropriate weaponry for dual cutting (i.e. scimitars).

You're in Cyrene these days, right? You could - if you wanted - avoid combat (outside of the arena) entirely for a while and gain some more levels. Cyrene has some pretty decent fighters right now, @Aerek would be a good person in Cyrene to contact if you want advice working with dual cutting as your spec, or for questions about the other specialisations too.

Aerek

I'm flattered, Tony.

Good to hear from you Gory, been missing some of the old-school Knights something fierce. Since you're already in the Shield, there's a lot of good folks there that can help you with syntaxes for selecting Knight spec, traits, racial specialization, etc. What you probably want to know is that:

• Your race now has stat-packs to choose from. They're pretty self-explanatory, you just get to choose a stat to focus in, and take a minor penalty somewhere else. Most Knights go strength, naturally.
  
• Most of the major racial bonuses are gone. Now we all just get little perks, and "traits" give you a range of more serious mechanical bonuses to choose from. Major traits are combat-relevant, minor traits are mostly just flavour. Nimble's pretty much required for Knights, and most of us take an extra point of strength.
• Knights now get Weaponmastery instead of Forging, and that lets you specialize, giving you radically different abilities and fighting styles. Specializing is free the first time, but you can switch your style at will for a cost of 100 lessons, so it's actually pretty cheap to try them all. Sounds like you already know each style uses only 2 types of weapons. If I recall correctly, you have a battleaxe/broadsword combo? You won't be able to use the broad if you stay DSL, or use the axe if you go S&B, BUT the folks upstairs gave us all a chance to swap any artefact weapon for any other artefact weapon of the same level, so once you know what you want to play, you could swap your weapons to things you can use.

As far as actually choosing a style, folks are right that the DSL style is basically the same class you'll remember, we just got some new toys and some of the behind-the-scenes stuff changed. The way it's played though, is pretty different from what you're used to. The emphasis is definitely on limbcounting and methodical setups, scimitars are rapier-speed now but have even lower damage than rapiers we used to use, and axes got a little bit worse, (at least forged ones) so I find it harder to damage folks out with DSL than it used to be. You'd probably have to buckle down and learn the "modern" approach to DSL. It's the same style of rapier combat that I know you tried to get into when you were last here, but was sorta optional given your loadout back then, and I think it would be more mandatory now.

If you're not afraid of learning a new class, (especially if your system/aliases didn't survive and you have to re-make them anyway) then I think you would probably enjoy the style of fighting of dual-blunt or two-hander. Those are very damage-oriented specs that might appeal more to you. DWB takes a bit of work to set up all the attacks you'll need (can hit two different limbs and use special abilities on either limb or both) but can dish out some truly ridiculous damage if you take some time to learn its tricks. 2H is also a damage-oriented style that is slow but unstoppable, especially with your artefact arsenal; that class can just Hew/Pulverise until people fall over. I'm a Dragon-level Runewarden and I still can't stand against an artefacted one.

Again, with switching style only 100 lessons, you could honestly try each style and see what you liked most. (I've cycled through all 4 at least twice) You'll definitely have to learn some new things, (serverside curing, and just about every class has changed in some significant ways) but you picked a good time to come back to the game, lot of options and the atmosphere is very forgiving right now.

Hopefully I'll see you around soon.

Mizik

You can trade your old Knight weapons at a 1:1. Go either 2H or dual blunt and just blitz dudes down. 

I recommend 2H. You can brainlessly smash 90% of the game with absolutely no effort. It's amazing. Great bashing, and half damage from arrows. Juggernaut!

Batista

Hi, Gory.

Kinilan

Go away, Batista.

Goryllin

Hi Batista