Prinny's War Guide for Dummies

[Prinny]

Guide last updated on 10-10-2013
Latest additions: 8. What are these HoL glads I have heard and read about?

Please Note: This guide contains my personal opinions about wars so feel free to ignore anything written in the following guide, I misplaced the previous war guidein progress I had so I ripped Cynaidh’s rage guide (http://forum.pitofwar.com/showthread.php?1723-Rage-guide-for-the-new-updated-Rage-Specility) as an example for the style this guide is written in. :p

1. What is a War?

The War specialty can carry the heaviest armour in all of the great realm and is made for tanking hits from your opponent whilst either dealing them adequate damage or making them run out of endurance.

2. What stats are good for a War?

Attributes also called Stats affect skills to a certain extend. This section gives you a basic idea on the stats you should be looking for for your fresh war and what stats you should be looking for as the equipment attributes in the future.
Attribute allocation in the war tree excluding weapon skill:

Strength: 12 (all skills in the war tree)
Intelligence: 6
Agility: 4
Stamina: 7
Size: 3
Presence: 1
Chi: 0

By looking at this we can see that Strength, Stamina and Intelligence are very important stats for Wars. But we also have to consider the other stats for other reasons besides skills: Chi affects no war skills BUT it also effects how often your war will crit his opponents. Wars have the least activated attacks of all the specialties so making sure they are either hitting hard or tanking the opponent is very important, this does not only make Chi good for offensive gladiators but also for defensive gladiators wanting to get some hits in rather than standing on the sands whilst getting stuff thrown at him and getting slammed into the wall by the enforcer (This will be explained later in the guide). Agility is a factor in how many attacks per round you get so the more the better since wars make a limited amount of attacks you will want to do the most you can while still hitting fairly hard. Stamina increases both your hit points and your endurance during a fight (a low stamina can be mitigated some by using the Urk race, as it gives an endurance boost). Presence is used for helping to attack first in each round (initiative) and helps your gladiator both kill other gladiators and be saved by the enforcer when someone is trying to finish your gladiator off.

Last but certainly not least is the size stat, Size although only mentioned 3 times in the skilltree is of a huge significance for war gladiator as a bigger size allows them to carry heavier armour while staying reasonably encumbered. Since you are using a war gladiator you will want to utilise as much of the heavy armour as possible, heavy armour really is HEAVY armour the grey medium armour from the armoury has a total weight of 61.8 excluding weapons while a full heavy armour weighs at a total of 115.5 without weapons. No need to be a wizkid to see that is A LOT heavier.

By taking all of this information in I place the stats into 3 groups of importance:
Group A: Size, Strength, Stamina, Agility
Group B: Chi, Intellect
Group C: Presence

This is the order of stats I look for in a slave to determine if it will make a good war.
The war tree itself however is only really viable when you run defensive war, when you run an offensive war you will want to branch out with some skills to either the Theatrics skilltree or the Rage skilltree. These gladiators are often referred to as Hybrid slaves.
There are 5 skills you can obtain from the other skilltrees no matter what speciality you are. These skills are Feint, Called Shot, Crowd Pleaser, Gratuitous Violence and Hamstring from the Theatrics tree and Devastating Power, Barreling Attack, Blood Drunk, Brute Force and Adrenaline Rush from the rage tree

The list of attributes in these trees skills is as follows:
Theatrics:
Strength: 1
Intelligence: 4
Agility: 5 (all in the theatrics tree)
Stamina: 0
Size: 0
Presence: 4
Chi: 0

Rage:
Strength: 5 (all skills in the rage tree)
Intelligence: 0
Agility: 0
Stamina: 2
Size: 3
Presence: 0
Chi: 5 (all skills in the rage tree)

Looking at these you have probably noticed a huge difference, theatrics –war hybrids make a lot more use of agility, int and presence compared to the Strength, Stamina, Size, Chi using rage hybrids. This is a great indication of what you will want to be building towards/looking for when selecting/raising your gladiator.

There are 2 different kind of gladiators out there, Normal gladiators outof which the strong ones cost between 950 and 1040ish and premium slaves also known as HOL slaves. Premium slaves are obtained by sending a normal or premium slave that had a good run to his retirement.

What I generally look for in wars in terms of attributes varies with the war I want but it's usually a checklist like this:

For normal gladiators:

Is the size of the gladiator 75 size or above?
Yes: continue looking at the other attributes to decide if he's worthy, No: stop thinking about making it into a war(72-74 being taken into consideration depending on the rest of the attributes)

Does it have either 70+ Strength or Agility?
Yes: continue to look at the other stats, No: Stop (again as with size if the str/agi is 67-69 it may be considered)

Does it have 65+ stamina?
Yes: continue No: stop

What are the stats on the presence, intellect and chi?
What I look for here isn't asmuch as an actual number but more like how high they are Chi being preferably higher compared ot presence and these 2 don't really factor much into picking a war gladiator. Intellect I prefer having atleast above 60, preferably at 70

For Premium slaves I am way more picky ofcourse, the price for these monsters as I have seen it can go up to 1145 gold but possibly way higher and they can have attributes like 4 in 80+ 2 being 70+ and 1 being in the 90+ and so on. Long story short: Theyre strong.
As aforementioned they can be obtained by retiring a gladiator that has done well in the game. The requirements your gladiator has to have completed are as follows:

The gladiator must have reached the Primus Bracket
The gladiator must be level 50 or higher
The gladiator must have a total of 1000 fights or more
The gladiator must not be fighting in the bloodgames
The gladiators winrate must be over 53% (This particular winrate requirement becomes lower as your gladiator has more fights meaning if your gladiator keeps up a 50% winrate he/she could eventually retire albeit later than a gladiator with a 55% winrate).
At the end of the guide there is a better explanation about Premium slaves and retirement of gladiators.

Now as for the requirements I have for my Premium slave wars. The same checklist applies however with increased numbers

Is the size above 85? Yes: continue No: stop

Is the strength or agility 80 or above? Yes: continue No: stop

Is the Stamina 75 or above? Yes: continue No: stop

How does the presence, chi and intellect correspond with the other 4 attributes?
Same rule as before applies, Intellect preferably at 70+ (shouldn't be a problem for most premium slaves) 70+ for presence and if possible but not necessary Chi at 80+

In addition to these I have the policy not to consider a gladiator under the cost of 1100 gold however this is just me setting the bar rather high for myself :p

3. What races are good for a War?

Technically speaking all races are viable for wars aslong as you center your build and strategies around it. Race, Build, Attributes and Strategy all contribute towards the success (or demise) of a gladiator. My favourite races for wars consist mainly out of Dunders, Spites and Elaars depending on the gladiators type (more of these in the next chapter)


4. What types of Wars are there?

Too many to count! But most wars fall into 1 of 3 categories: Offensive Agility based War, Offensive Strength based War, Defensive War .

Offensive Agility based War – These are the wars that had a high agility and normally use either blades or pole arms as weapons to take advantage of their high agility. They get more attacks per round than any other type of war. I prefer the Elaaran race for this type of glad because 1 of it's racial benefits is armour penetration which enables you to pierce through heavy armour more often.

Offensive Strength based War – These are the wars who either duel wield axes/maces or 2 Handed weapons with large strength scores. Landing fewer attacks per round then a Agility based War but doing much more damage per hit in general. Often I favour the Dunderan race for this as the race gives a bonus to damage.

Defensive War – These are probably the trickiest Wars to properly master as it is with most defensive glads. Under defensive war any war that has his strategy based around parrying hits is included however the main thing that comes to mind when saying defensive War is ofcourse the one carrying either a sword or an axe/mace along with a shield. Their purpose is to take/parry hits as they deal damage or last long enough for the opponent to run out of endurance. I prefer spites for this type of glad because they get a boost to their defense.

[Prinny]

5. What War skills should I use?

This is again personal preference but I will go over each skill and give my opinion on it:

The Weapon Skills: You only need 1, pick the best one that soot’s the type of War you want to build and the stats your slave has.

Tier 1:
Rage tree:
Barreling attack: This skill has a chance to knock your opponent to the ground and make him “prone” being prone gives you several disadvantages such as getting more damage and lowering the amount of attacks you can do. This skill however does not always knock down your opponent and just like War cry has a chance to either deal damage, or not deal damage along with the effect making this an unpredictable skill.

Devastating Power: More damage on crits, no arguing about the use of this skill.

War tree:
Grim Determination: This skill allows your gladiator to fight longer giving him a better chance to win in battles that can go either way. The enforcer is an almighty being that is used to judge gladiators during the fights and he will either save you from dying, let you die or even deal damage against you if you don’t attack for an x amount of rounds. Having Grim Determination lets the enforcer save you from death less however you also have a better chance at winning since you get to fight slightly longer.

Iron Jaw: This skill gives you a chance of ignoring the effect of stun and gives you a resistance to getting knocked out. While you are stunned you take more damage and can’t do a thing. Knockout aka KO can happen at any given time when a gladiator hits his/her opponents head no matter how big or small the damage is. There is however a skill in the Theatrics tree that a number of theatrics use in order to make KO’s more often and this skill gives a better resistance at both getting stunned and getting KO’ed.

Theatrics tree:
Feint: This is an activated skill that has a chance to go off each round, the attack increases your attack power meaning your attack deals slightly more damage (in general) and has a better chance to hit through the defense of gladiators.

Called Shot: Helps you aim at certain parts and increases the chance of making crits. The fact that you have this skill means you will do higher damage and more often will you hit the body part your glad is aiming for meaning he/she also has a chance of hitting an injury already there/created previously in the fight effectively increasing your gladiators damage.

Tier 2:
Rage tree:

Blood Drunk: Bonus to your attack power meaning slightly increased damage and easier to break through defences of opponents.

Brute force: Lower opponents defense meaning you will hit them more often and the chances of making a crit get raised slightly.

War tree:
Battle hardened: Your gladiators hits connect more often with his opponent and in the event your gladiator carries a shield around he gets a bonus to defense.

Death From Above:Skill that increase the damage you do by about 30-50% for the attack

Master of Arms: Allows you to wield any weapon at the highest level of either your weapon skill or master of arms. EG: 9 weapon skill in maces and lvl 10 in master of arms means your proficiency with all the weapons is at lvl 9, if maces was at lvl 10 however the proficiency with all weapons would be at 10. The same applies if maces would be lvl 10 and master of arms would be lvl 7, all weapon skills exept for maces would be at lvl 7.

Theatrics tree:
Crowd Pleaser: This skill increases your gladiators defense

Gratuitous Violence: Every attack no matter how big or small has a chance of doing an additional bleed. Bleed kicks in at the end of each round and shaves your or your opponents health bit by bit as the rounds pass

Tier 3:
Rage tree:
Adrenaline Rush: possibly 1 of the strongest skills currently in the game, although your attack will deal less damage when using this skill at lvl 10 you get a damage mitigation of around 60%+ for 2 rounds which can save your hide quite a lot of the time.

War tree:
Armour movement: This skill increases your initiative which means you could attack more often and earlier in the round. This skill also increases your chances of utilising your armour properly effectively increasing the defensive properties of the wars heavy armour.

Never say Die: This skill has a chance to trigger when your glad is on the losing side of the battle and can turn the whole battle around if it triggers. In general on my gladiators the health it returns to you varies between 450 and 600+ depending on the gladiator and its attributes. Also as the fights go on and your health and endurance grow lower your gladiator will start attacking less, this skill helps out with this by letting you ignore this lowering for a while longer.

War Cry: This skill like barrelling attack has a chance to either do damage or do none at all with the effect. War Cry has 2 effects it can do, Can not defend for 2 rounds and Stun for 1 round (on very very rare occasions I’ve seen a 2 round stun) as earlier explained stunning your opponent can be very beneficial however it can be resisted even without the iron jaw skill just like the Cannot the defend effect. Like barrelling attack this skill doing either damage or no damage along with the possibility of 1 or 2 of the effects mentioned above makes this an unpredictable skill.

Theatrics tree:
Hamstring: This skill reduces your opponents amount of attacks by around 50%+ for 2 rounds, just like Adrenaline Rush this move can help you last enough rounds to slay many opponents that appear before you.

Tier 4:

Intercepting Guard: A passive skill that decreases the damage your glad receives when parrying, this skill is way more effective when using a shield.

Light as a Feather: Passive skill that increases your initiative, helps you get up from being prone faster, lessens the encumbering effects of wearing heavy armour and supposedly more effects that I and probably nobody but the great and benevolent overlord Nate knows of. Greatly advised when you want to wear full heavy armour.

Create Distance: Activated skill that cancels 1 of your opponents attacks, triggers more often when using a parry/tank style.

Tier 5:
Armoured Fortress: This passive skill makes your war gladiator much more proficient at using his or her armour increasing it’s ability to deflect and absorb hits even more. At level 10 this skill will remove a bit more endurance per hit your war gets making your opponent tire out faster.

[Prinny]

6. What’s a good War build:

This is something completely up to you, some builds work better than the others while some work worse. The build you give to your gladiator can make or break it and figuring out what works for you is 1 of the great aspects of this game so I will only list the 3 probably most seen war builds out there.

Theatrics-War Hybrid
Theatrics-war hybrids often have blades as their weapon of choice since most theatrics skills make use of agility and intelligence they put these 2 stats to their utmost efficiency. My most successful blades war Laharl used a build similar to this 1 just before he went into retirement.

The regular build will look something like this:

War Tree: Blades, Battle Hardened, Death From Above, Armour Movement

Theatrics Tree: Feint, Called Shot, Gratuitous Violence, Hamstring

This gives you a total of 8 skills, 2 of these skills are up for personal preference, Laharl used Devastating power for the extra crits and War Cry as an extra activated skill but it is all up to you which skills you want to use here.

Rage-War Hybrid
The rage-war hybrid has 2 different types really, 1 makes use of Light as a Feather while the other forsakes this skill to go for Adrenaline rush at level 10.
I will list both versions but with different weaponstyles.

The style making use of Light as a Feather would generally look as follows and is currently used to great efficiency by 1 of my gladiators Belca Noctircus however it has the fatal flaw of having a hard time against any glad using Adrenaline Rush.

War tree: Axes & Maces, Iron Jaw, Death from Above, Battle Hardened, Armour Movement, Never Say Die, Light as a Feather

Rage tree: Devastating power, Blood Drunk, Brute force

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

The rage-war hybrid using Adrenaline rush will most likely have lower armour ratings and less attacks compared to the one with Light as a Feather however depending on the gladiator this build could make your already tough war into a formidable opponent.

This example makes use of a 2 Handed weapon as these can only do 1-2 attacks a round in a wars hands (2 attacks not happening often) in order to counter the lowered amount of attacks. Note that I have personally never tried this build written down yet but I can see a lot of potential in it if performed properly.

War tree: 2 Handed Weapons, Battle Hardened, Death from Above, Armour Movement, Never say Die

Rage tree: Devastating Power, Blood Drunk, Brute Force, Adrenaline Rush

Theatrics tree: Called Shot

Defensive War
This is the 100 points in the war tree war. It makes use of the overly defensive skills of the war tree to maximize his parries and decrease the damage done to it by his/her opponents.

Any random weapon skill (preferably an offensive one like blades or maces depending on the stats of the gladiator you chose) until you get at least 6-7 levels in master of arms upon which you can properly switch to using shields together with a single handed weapon of choice.

Battle hardened, Death from Above, Master of Arms, Master of Arms, Never say Die, Intercepting Guard, Light as a Feather, Create Distance, Armoured Fortress.

The abovementioned build is the one my defensive war Asatsuo uses together with in his main had a blade to cause some bleeds which help in the long fights that can ensue between fellow defensive gladiators. A different variation of this build would for example be the one my other defensive war Mid Boss is using by swapping Death From Above with War Cry but again this choice is all up to you.

7. How do I run a War?

This question has a million answers and most of us are still figuring out a good answer to it. This is something I encourage you to find out all on your own as it fills you with a huge amount of accomplishment when a gladiator that you have been nurturing and tweaking for months or even years finally paying off and winning countless fights for you leaving a trail of dismembered gladiators and blood in his/her wake!

8. What are these HoL glads I have heard and read about?

Premium slaves also known as HoL glads are slaves that have better attributes than your average slaves that you can find in the slave market.
In general great slaves in the slave market have a cost range of between 940-1040ish gold. The Premium slaves can have a range cost of above 1140 gold which needless to say has way better attributes compared to even the strongest of normal slaves.

In order to obtain a HoL glad you will first need to train a normal gladiator up to meet the requirements for his/her retirement.
Retirement of a gladiator is like selling them exept for the following differences:
1 - They enter the hall of legends in which they are graded based on how many achievement points they have obtained throughout their career. Some achievements weigh more into your total points than others.
2 - They keep the gear you still have equiped on them however you can take it off whenever you want to. A retired gladiator cannot be re-equiped.
3 - You can get them back from retirement for the cost of 1000 trophies.
4 - You "unlock" the Premium slaves AKA HoL glads in the slave market, this means that you can purchase 1 HoL glad from this list per time you have retired a gladiator. If you have purchased a HoL glad the slave market will turn back to how it normally was.
Premium glads "stack" this means that if you retire 2 gladiators you can purchase 2 HoL glads from the slave market untill it turns back to normal, retire 3 gladiators and you can purchase 3 HoL glads from the slave market and so on.

In order to retire your gladiator he/she will have to meet the following requirements:
Must have reached the Primus bracket.
Must be level 50 or higher.
Must have a 1000 total fights or more.
Must have greater than a 53% win ratio.
Not fighting in the Blood Games.

The more fights your gladiator has the lower the required win rate % will become hence even bad gladiators would eventually be able to retire although this would likely take considerably longer if they don’t have at least a win rate of around 50%

Writers notes:

I hope you will enjoy this game as much as many of us do and that this guide will help you embark on a journey of success and glory in the great realm! Don’t forget, even something as small as $10 can help both the game and your stable out as that could get you 3 more slave slots and even some trophies to circle for new ones ;)

Prinny~

Also don't forget to check out guides to the other specialities and arena challenges by going here: Player-Guides (http://forum.pitofwar.com/showthread.php?922-Player-Guides)

In the odd case you got here before actually starting up a stable you could use the reference link to support my stable by becoming 1 of my recruits ;)http://www.pitofwar.com/images/pit_of_war_raf_1_1d4x3c.jpg (http://www.pitofwar.com/ref/a1t7486)

[Thor]

Hey Prinny

First of all: Thanks for a new guide. I have close to 0 experience so far, so this will help me a lot, I think :)

But there might be a few things you want to consider changing:

1) Either add number 4 and 5 of your intesresting war classes or change the sentence to telling us there are 3 :p
2) Concerning the weapon skills: What if we want to use a shield? Only level up the weapon skill then and let shield at 0 ?
3) You could add the free line between the 2 skills of one class and tier like you did on Tier one of rage to every other class and tier, this would help with the overview a bit. NOTHING SAID, ALREADY EDITED!

Thanks for sharing your opinion, I always thought of the War-gladiator as the one TRUE class. But never found suiting attributes for it yet, only guys with 40 size and stuff, yodu know ? :D

[Sotc]

Excellent guide Prinny! Very well organized and thorough. On the topic of adren rush war w/o Light as a Feather, in my experience 2H only hits once without it where it was hitting twice occasionally with 10 in Light; I swapped to A+M because of this. It may be the case that dropping encumbrance below 25% will recover the additional 2H attack, but I do not have the gear to test this yet (and I'd rather not retrain 2H :P).

Thanks for the great guide :]

[Rhinocervs]

First of all, thanks for sharing your knowledge on the war school and providing a platform for further discussions with this very fine guide.

My current first and only war is (by far not fully trained yet) basically your suggested 2h rage hybrid, with the exception of not skilling in the theatrics tree. Is called shot that good for this build in your opinion? I thought of unlocking 55 war skills and getting light as a feather to 5. I'm not sure how big is the benefice of getting it only to 5 though, especially as a 2h dunder...

[Prinny]

But there might be a few things you want to consider changing:

1) Either add number 4 and 5 of your intesresting war classes or change the sentence to telling us there are 3 :p
2) Concerning the weapon skills: What if we want to use a shield? Only level up the weapon skill then and let shield at 0 ?

Thanks for sharing your opinion, I always thought of the War-gladiator as the one TRUE class. But never found suiting attributes for it yet, only guys with 40 size and stuff, yodu know ? :D

Thx for the feedback it's much apreciated as im not that much of a writer.

1) what exactly do you mean by this?

2) If you have read the guide properly you will notice that on the defensive war description I said you probably want to train just an offensive weapon skill (any will do) like blades, maces, pole arms or 2 Handers and eventually when you train Master of Arms to a higher level make the switch to single hand weapon + shield. The guide includes a description of Master of Arms so this should be explained and else I hope that you can think to yourself, hey what if I get master of arms along with a weapon skill so I will be able to wield any weapon? :D

[Prinny]

Excellent guide Prinny! Very well organized and thorough. On the topic of adren rush war w/o Light as a Feather, in my experience 2H only hits once without it where it was hitting twice occasionally with 10 in Light; I swapped to A+M because of this. It may be the case that dropping encumbrance below 25% will recover the additional 2H attack, but I do not have the gear to test this yet (and I'd rather not retrain 2H :P).

Thanks for the great guide :]

I feared asmuch but I won't know for sure untill I try it myself if it's viable or not, it does look good on paper though :)

[Prinny]

First of all, thanks for sharing your knowledge on the war school and providing a platform for further discussions with this very fine guide.

My current first and only war is (by far not fully trained yet) basically your suggested 2h rage hybrid, with the exception of not skilling in the theatrics tree. Is called shot that good for this build in your opinion? I thought of unlocking 55 war skills and getting light as a feather to 5. I'm not sure how big is the benefice of getting it only to 5 though, especially as a 2h dunder...

I neglect Light of a Feather here exactly because it isn't really viable at rank 5, I have tried it with Laharl and he performed way better when I got rid of it and traid Devastating Power instead (didn't lose any attacks even though he was greatly encumbered) Instead of Light as a Feather and some other random lvl 5 skill in your war tree which will only be about 1/3rd effective as a fully trained lvl 10 skill I would rather use Called Shot to make sure the hits with my 2Hander hit hard as they should be and increasing the chance of hitting an injury which in turn means probably ending the fight the moment you hit that injury with a 2 Handed glad

[Thor]

Thx for the feedback it's much apreciated as im not that much of a writer.

1) what exactly do you mean by this?


4. What types of Wars are there?
Too many to count! But most wars fall into 1 of 5 categories: Offensive Agility based War, Offensive Strength based War, Defensive War .

This. I count 3, you are talking about 5 ways ;)


2) If you have read the guide properly you will notice that on the defensive war description I said you probably want to train just an offensive weapon skill (any will do) like blades, maces, pole arms or 2 Handers and eventually when you train Master of Arms to a higher level make the switch to single hand weapon + shield. The guide includes a description of Master of Arms so this should be explained and else I hope that you can think to yourself, hey what if I get master of arms along with a weapon skill so I will be able to wield any weapon? :D

Yes, I have read this. But it doesnt make a whoel lot of difference if not for changing the weapon freely later on. So if you dont want to unlearn and retrain skills, going for the one weapon and shield early will be faster, as youdotn have to learn master of arms. I just generally feel like master of arms should be redone. Its only use is if you want to use different stuff later on and you still need to train 20 points for this. If there would be a way to do it with 10 points, this would really reflect the master of arms - type that this skill should be ;)

[Dainoji]

I just generally feel like master of arms should be redone. Its only use is if you want to use different stuff later on and you still need to train 20 points for this. If there would be a way to do it with 10 points, this would really reflect the master of arms - type that this skill should be

You are completely missing the point of MOA. Why would you waste 10 trains in shield when you can instead put them into MOA and then use any weapon anytime with the same skill as you main weapon skill? If you get disarmed any weapon you pick up you'll be proficient in. 10 train in your weapon and 10 train in shield or MOA is 20 points. MOA allows a gladiator to be a lot more flexible and adapt with the meta game a lot easier. It also allows you to switch up your build in the Blood Games when you know who you are fighting in advance. If you know your next opponent doesn't do well against 2H glads you can switch to a 2H weapon for that fight. It's really about flexibility and options for the creative manager.

[Prinny]

This. I count 3, you are talking about 5 ways ;)



Yes, I have read this. But it doesnt make a whoel lot of difference if not for changing the weapon freely later on. So if you dont want to unlearn and retrain skills, going for the one weapon and shield early will be faster, as youdotn have to learn master of arms. I just generally feel like master of arms should be redone. Its only use is if you want to use different stuff later on and you still need to train 20 points for this. If there would be a way to do it with 10 points, this would really reflect the master of arms - type that this skill should be ;)

Dang and I had thought I erased all of my typo's guess I missed 1, the other "2" are 2 Handed and Pole Arm but I decided not to include em as a different kind of glad. It's fixed now :p

As I replied to the MOA matter Dain already pretty much summed it all up :p

[Thor]

Yes I see the advantages of it. I just still think there should be no need to train a "single"-weapon skill first, thats all ;)

So I didnt miss the point of it, just think it kind of diagrees with the nature of the skill ^^

Anyways, yes, going to skill shield as a war wont do you a lot. But you can reach MOA with like weapon skill 7 and you still need 3 points, so you can decide to put them into shield or one of the TII´s, youll have to unlearn them anyways. (Unless you want to use one off the TII´s)

[Prinny]

Yes I see the advantages of it. I just still think there should be no need to train a "single"-weapon skill first, thats all ;)

So I didnt miss the point of it, just think it kind of diagrees with the nature of the skill ^^

Anyways, yes, going to skill shield as a war wont do you a lot. But you can reach MOA with like weapon skill 7 and you still need 3 points, so you can decide to put them into shield or one of the TII´s, youll have to unlearn them anyways. (Unless you want to use one off the TII´s)

The main thing advised by pretty much all the vets is training up your weapon skill first though, you can indeed rush to be able to use your shield properly at an earlier level. Spending some single points on some first tier skills and unlearning them afterwards is a great way for getting some skills you normally wouldn't be able to reach yet. Just make sure you dont end up with a skillpoint somewhere you won't be able to unlearn it anymore though :)

[Thor]

Yes, this doesnt happen if you get up your weapon skill to 10 first.

But I would disagree with this one, at least with lvl 10. I have it on 7 now, the chance to train it higher currently being 33.5% If we assume it woudl be this way, I need 30 training points. Maybe thats still reasonable. But I wont skill it a lot higher than 8 without boosting my attributes first, this would be wasted training points in my opinion. Even with the skills scaling exponential (We still dont have any idea by how much btw), I dont see it worth it to try to train them with more or less starting stats and a chance of 10% -.-

And for the point you miss: As you would normally only have lvl 10 skills at the end of the build, there is no possiblity of having one locked out, unless you go for Tier VI skill 10/10 before checking this out and then you ... well, deserved it kind of :D

[Apoca1ypse]

Guide has been added to the new player guide list :) It's nice to have an up to date war guide :D

i'm 1/2 way through reading and i'm lining it. gotta go to class now though :(

[Nate]

Thanks Prinny, I am sure many new players will find this useful. Now we just need someone to upate the Theatrics guide. :)

Good luck in the Pit!

-Nate-

[HipsterD]

Excellent guide, Prinny.

[PH cares]

wow nice guide. i hope there'll be some of this in the rage and thea sections. :cool:

[Apoca1ypse]

wow nice guide. i hope there'll be some of this in the rage and thea sections. :cool:

there already is up to date rage info :)

[PH cares]

is 30% encumbrance still ok? or in what percent do you consider it alarming?

[Apoca1ypse]

30% is great :) I'd be worried if I was above 40%

[PH cares]

if using pole arms. shall i use Lunge?

[Prinny]

Depends wether you have Light as a Feather or not, 30% is sitll pretty doable without it, I draw my limits to encumbrance without Light as a Feather at 35%+. If you have Light as a Feather at 10: ignore encumbrance :p

About pole arms and using lunge...I will let you figure that one out yourself. You should treat the weapons as you would in real life. So ask yourself a question: will I bash with this spear, slash at him or will I stab some1 with it? :p

[CryBabyBedWetters]

I decided to make a new war glad cuz one of my gladiators had a terrible win/loss ratio so I sold him. My new gladiator Shirley I made a war glad, and than I decided to read this.... yea lol

She's good on everything except for size, str 81 intel 68 agility 71 stamina 74 presence 73 chi 55 :/ and size..... 70, you think she will really fail just because her size is so low? I'm still guna give it a shot and see where she goes, right now she's level four and has a weapon skill level four, two handed weapons, i've got her with a two handed axe. She's good so far, 4 and 0 on her fights, but I am concerned.

also are you sure that being overencumbered is all that bad? I have a war glad that has 91 wins and 59 losses, I don't think that's a terrible ratio, and he's 63 percent encumbered.

[Apoca1ypse]

70 size isnt bad for a non HoL glad. dont be too disheartened :)

try and keep encumbrance below 45%. if this means you have to wear some medium armor, so be it. being able to move > being a combat mannequin

[Prinny]

Sry for being a bit late on this, I didn't notice the post :p
This guide is based on my own personal experience and choices for glads and I do admit that set the bar for my glads rather high. I would advise against following ANY guides to the detail as the most fun in this game comes from making your own gladiators and tweaking them till perfection. There is nothing more satisfying than having brought up your own glad and having them smack the other gladiators around the arena :p
As apoc pointed out you could always switch some heavy for medium armour (torso is the heaviest so if you swap out the heavy torso for a medium one that's a huge decrease in encumbrance right there)
As for your win/lose record, it's easy to get a high winrate in the lower brackets so although 91 wins and 59 losses is good it is also far from perfect. The only way you are going to make it all the way to the top is to gain more and more experience with the dynamics of the game and what works best for you tweaking strats and glads as you come along.

[Pit Lord]

Amazing guide Prinny!