Learning from my first gladiator

[Jervaj]

Hello everyone! This is my great start on the forums xD

Well I started the game yesterday. I did some checking at the forums as usual before start building my glad even if guides are a bit passed out due to changes some tips were really worth it.

The point is I havent found me doing nothing special but Im achieving a great win rate. Now Im 12/2/0 been first defeat an almost tied battle with both glads same health, similar endurance and the opponet bleeding but enforcer decided that the other should win (bleh). The second one was one of my last battles agains a rage with singficantly more size and chi but with lesser stats in the rest. He just destroyed my glad with several over 90 strikes because he had blue weapon + green armor and mine only had green off hand weapon and gray the rest, and my red strikes are ussualy arround 50 only xD.

The suprise comes because I dont see my glad to be very amazing. Hes good to be the first one (with several stats over 70) and Ive seen others a lot worse but not any beast either.

His stats are: Strenght 69 Intellect 73 Agility 75 Stamina 75 Size 73 Presence 74 Chi 71 (Agility is 74+1 form green and Chi is 69 and got +2 frrm a object I just got, all my fights have been with 69 till the moment)

For skills he has only lvl 4 in blades.

For equipment he started with blade+shield and light armor and then I swapped to mid a soon as I had it available. Then I got in a mission a green off-hand blade and I swaped the shield for it.

All this said its normal my ratio because start glads are very poor or theres something Im doing well? I wanted to know for future glads xD

My strategy isnt nothing special either as the options are still very limited due to been below 10. My only stance isnt very radical neither, not very agressive with low-mid ranges for both activity and bloodlust


About future build and advice, due to my glad not shining much in str and size and getting easy encumbered if I try heavy armor I was thinking in an agressive approach maybe with dual blades and medium armor. The point is that this class is ussually meant to be more of the defensive type so I dont know if this is viable at all or I should go for heavy armor and more defensive build anyway.

My last concern (and I hope I can finnally leave you in peace xD) is the aiming and protecting strategy. I understand that glad would try to hit more where you ask him (despite it seem where I tell him isnt where he hits the most but well xD) but Im not sure about the advanatges of hitting more one part of the other.
Some parts seem to trigger more some kind of effects but I havent still been able to find any pattern as it seems you can get some from almost anywhere if you hit hard enough.

Thanks in advance for reading all this and trying to help me. Sorry if I do some mistakes as english isnt my main language.

[Stormcloak]

Hi Jervaj,

You seem to be on the right tracks so far with how you're proceeding. Once you get to around the Juggernaut bracket, that's where the competition starts to get more difficult as you're fighting against managers that also know what they're doing and having the wrong strategy can be a huge liability. With only one line it's pretty easy to manage, but once you get to five that makes it exponentially more complicated.
You do have a pretty good glad to start off! It's better than most I've seen in the market.
He's quite well rounded and you could keep him as a pure war glad or look at branching into rage or theatrics skills for your build (theatrics possibly being slightly better with your slightly higher agility/presence compared to strength/chi). You have some flexibility with how you develop. Take some time and study the skill trees to figure out which skills look attractive and how to navigate to them through the prerequisites to come up with a plan.
FWIW, my highest glad is a dual-weild sword war in medium armour and he's got a decent record (so far). His stats were close to yours. I've pushed encumbrance on my war glads up to around 40% and they still perform well. Some run them higher around 60%, but you have to find what works for you. There's a skill available (which I haven't unlocked yet) called Light as a Feather that looks like it helps with encumbrance.
As for the targetting, it's pretty much what you would expect. Hits to the head have a chance to stun/knockout, hits to the arm have a chance to drop your opponent's weapon, etc.
I'm sure some of the more experienced members will be along with some advice :)

[Jervaj]

Yep thats true Ive been lucky. I have another space open and still havent found any slave in market even similar to this one. The best I've seen there so far is with 2 skills a bit over 70 and rest arround 60 or lower.

Its have been only 3 days I hope soon I found someone good. I wanted to make a pure theatrics the next one but Iit will depend on stats it has I assume.

About the wins as I thought is because easy opponents. Well Ill keep training the basic weapon skills and focusing in the medium with dual wielding so far to see how it works and the Ill star to think what skills of each tree I may take. Im waiting the new leves to start getting trigger so strategy starts to be interesting.

By the way with the green objects Im finding now I have almost same chi and presence xD. Now it is 76 presence and 75 chi.

Hope any vet can help me to find out what may suit this glad hehe.

Thanks for your help.

[Alba Kebab]

Hi and welcome to the game.
First few lvls will always be easy since it's fresh meat boot camp. The competition will get tougher later on as more varied builds come into play and when you have more than one or two strategy lines to play with.

[Jervaj]

About the hit zones why I asked the first time its because it seemed (and now I've been paying more attention and seems to confirm it) that some effects you gte them form anywhere. Stun seems to be most times related to head, thats right. But knock down and weapon drop seem to have high chances anywhere if you strike hard.
I've been experiencing a lot of weapon drops from my enemies when I hit them hard in the leg. I saw it a lot of times. And knock down seems to come from anywhere. Im seeing knock downs efefcts triggering almost equally distributed (head, torso, arm, legs). Thats why Im a bit lost about this.
Must defend, cant defend, or cant atack seem more focused on torso and arms respectively by the way. Together with stun seem the most zone related.

About builds Ive been having a look at skills and also testing some things with armor equipment. And I see a possible build with a few variations depending on what armor I may use or how offensive I want to be.

I'll like to have your opinion if possible.

10 Blades
10 Battle Hardened
10 Death from Above
10 Never Say Die
10 War Cry
10 Light as a Feather
10 Create Distance
10 Feint
10 Gratuitous Violence

With this build and medium armor I shall be in green zone or barely in yellow. Giving good mobility to my glad to profit his agility. Another option would be swapping either War Cry or Never Say Die for Armour Movement. With that I think I could go heavy without much encumbrance. Likely yellow.
Death from Above doesnt seem to fit much the rest of the glad build and characteristics but I dont know where to put the points to free the next tier. Iron jaw seems to have little effect from what I read fro other players experience, Master of Arms is useless if I go dual blades, and Grim Determination doesnt seem to give much to the build either. I would accept some advice here.

Another option would be going deeper in Theatrics tree taking also Crowd Pleaser and Hamstring. But I would have to say bye to Create Distance (which is told to be a great skill) and Light as a Feather that would left me with more encumbrance.


What do you think?

Thanks in advance for your opinions and all the help.

[Stormcloak]

For Light as a Feather and Create Distance, you need to have 6 previous war skills to unlock. (I get caught on that too sometimes when I get ahead of myself)
With you current plan you only have 5 (Blades, Battlehardened, DFA, Warcry, and Never say die). You'll need to select another one from Iron Jaw, Grim Determination, Armour Movement, or Master of arms.
This means you have to rework your last 4 skills if you want to stay in the theatrics tree.

[Jervaj]

Well in fact if you count I only put 9 skills in total in the build so theres no need of rework. Just picking another one xD.
I didnt count them properly. So ashmed of myself hehe.

Well then Armour Movement Would seem the best option to ensure green encumbrance with medium and make heavy an option. ¿Or do you think either Iron Jaw or Grim determination would help better my glad?

[Stormcloak]

I can run my glad with a mix of medium and heavy armour and he hits around 40% encumbrance and I haven't seen much of an issue.
If you plan to run all medium, you may not need light as a feather. Here's a thought for consideration for a build:

1. Blades
2. Battlehardened
3. War skill of your choice (Grim Determination, Iron Jaw, Master of Arms, DFA)
4. Armour Movment
5. War Cry
6. Feint
7. Gratuitous Violence
8. Signature Move
9. Hamstring
10. Skill of your choice

The idea with this is that Hamstring is a somewhat similar but offensive version of create distance where you reduce your opponent's attacks. Add in War Cry and Signature Move and you have three activated abilities to control/debillitate your opponent. You could use DFA for skill 4 if you wanted to. The idea of this build would be to play offensively using your 3 skills to debillitate your enemy and hit him with bleeding through gratuitous violence. For skill 10 you could throw on something to give you some defense - crowdpleaser, strength of the crowd, never say die, etc depending on how you choose to run him. Or you could go offensive and toss in something like devastating power from the rage tree or even barreling attack and have 4 control skills to keep your opponent from doing very much.
I'm not sure though how the skill firing works - ie. if they would interfere with each other's chance of going off.
I'll put a disclaimer out that I have no idea how well this would work! It could be fun or it could be very, very bad, lol.

[Jervaj]

Signature move is Theathrics only skill. I would have to take either crowd pleaser or called shot. Same for strength of the crowd so it isnt an option.

I thought the same when I saw that much actives xD. I dont know if the % of triggering an skill is independant for each one of is shared. If it is independant could be great as you have a lot of skills to "control" the oponent but if it is shared having that much actives can be a problem as you would have a lot of points invested and you arent going to use much each skill.

Never say die I think would make the best as last skill because it seem that at max level it reduces a lot the penalties for low endurance or life. That can be great in close shaves or when fghting tanks. Would make possible keeping the glad on the atack.

[Stormcloak]

Ah - that's true. Sorry :)
So yeah - called shot or crowdpleaser if you want something from theatrics and to have enough to go for hamstring. The other option is forget hamstring and just take feint and GV, and go for create distance in the war tree if you want something for defensive fighting. Similar to your first build - adding in armour movement to unlock create distance, and you could see if other options appeal to you more than light as a feather (if sticking with medium armour).
With Never say die, apparently the health bonus doesn't always trigger when the skill activates from what I've been told, but you do still get the reduction in endurance penalties. It's also a defensive skill, so would be more likely to activate if you are parrying/tanking and less likely to activate if you are on the offense.

[Jervaj]

Yep. But the passive effect its alreadygood enough to be worth it I think. Its very interisting in some fights not suffering penalties from low endruance and/or life.

I dont know. It will take time so I will start with the first tiers and then I will decide afterwards if I go more deep on theatrics or not. I will take a long time to have all that abilities I guess.

By the way, I have noticed another curious thing about my glad compared to others. If he is knocked down to the gorund and doesnt get up very fast he almost always lands a nice strike from the ground. I've been noticing in sicne the start and thought was just coincidence but the tendence keeps going.
Ussually my enemies when they are in the ground dont hit much and keep trying to get up or either launch weak hit that ussualy end absorbed by armor or dont do much damage (gray hits). But my glad, if he doenst get up fast (the next round after he has been knocked) he almost always lands an orange strike from the ground.

I find it very curious. Is it related to his good agility? Or he maybe has a high value on the unknown luck?

[Jervaj]

I have almost finished my level 10 on Weapon and Im should start to think more deeply on skill build. So far I havent decided if going for hamstring (and forgeting about create distance and light as a feather) or not. I will wait till see how encumbrance works with both heavy and medium armor when I have level 10 in armour movement.

Now my main doubt is Death from above vs Master of arms. Depending in what I do later I may be ending picking both (or picking grim determination iwith the other one). But in the other possible build I can have only one.

Death from above has the pro or helping dealing out more damage (while been my war an offensive war would suit well). The con is that in any of the two build Im thinking about that would make the 5th active and maybe that could make others triggering less.

Master of Arms has the pro of leting room for more versatility with equipments (specially thinking in end game). Having in account how well-rounded my glad is he could perform well using a shield or a polearm too. Without it I would have to stick to dual wielding blades. The con would be that it doesnt gives anything directly on battle.

Whats your opinion on this?

[Apoca1ypse]

DFA gives you the ability to deal some decent damage from time to time.

If you decide to use a shield, you may as well get master of arms instead.