Kreegan
07-12-2014, 10:03 PM
Humans in general receive very little love. I’ve been trying to produce a decent end game gladiator out of this outsider race for quite some time and so far the only somewhat successful result is a Power Theatrics (Arkal), although I’m not yet convinced that his… humanity directly affects his battle performance in a positive way (judging from the fact that about half of his losses are due to knockdowns, I suspect that he’ll gain quite some performance if I make him a Dunder but that’s not relevant now). Every attempt so far to make a good Human War however has been either a failure or a struggle against some of the game mechanics which are quite unfavourable to that race. Or maybe I’m doing something wrong. I would like to hear some other opinions if it makes sense to keep trying to make a well-performing Human War.
Note: I’m not trying to develop a shield-bearing tank so the below considerations are for the rest of the possible War builds.
Here are my thoughts on the matter:
Racial Strengths – it’s only one actually and it’s the lack of penalties - normal damage, normal initiative, normal everything, which in theory is a good base for a versatile race which can do well in many roles. The extra Attack Power is completely negligible.
Racial Weaknesses:
- The biggest one is the HUGE susceptibility to critical hits. This isn’t written anywhere but the Blood Gods realities are such that the majority of the gladiators spam critical hits like there’s no tomorrow and the racial resistances begin to matter a lot and the lack of resistances starts to be a major problem. Knockdowns in particular are a big issue for every heavily armoured War (especially the ones who switch between defense and offense because during the defensive rounds you are just nailed to the ground no matter what) and in Blood Gods all non-Dunders and non-tanks* get knocked down very, very often. A bit more than a month ago Nate doubled the efficiency of Stuns and Disarms as well, effectively further enhancing the power of gladiators who rely on critical hits.
- A smaller, yet notable issue is the lack of distinguishable racial strength which is also a nice thing to have in Blood Gods. There are multiple builds revolving around the AP power of the Elaars, the stability and hitting power of the Dunders or the durability of the Trugs and the Spites. It wouldn’t bring you many benefits if you substitute one of those races with a Human for the respective build because you would lose a distinctive advantage to remove a penalty which might not be (and usually isn’t) so problematic for the given build.
*Tanks in this context are defensive Wars with shields.
To mitigate the issues and emphasize on the good sides, the following things might be done in theory:
- Invest in equipment with Critical Protection Rank. This SHOULD decrease the amount of criticals received and therefore address the biggest racial weakness. This however is no panacea. My experience with Arkal shows that even at 200/1000 Crit Protection rank, the critical effects and especially the knockdowns are still very frequent and powerful. Also, like all “ranks”, this bonus is expensive and will reduce the amount of other bonuses and particularly the attribute buffs on the respective item.
- Invest in the Plate/Full Plate Armour only. The heaviest armour offers decent protection against critical hits. The problem here would be coping with the weight, i.e. extra Size, Agility and Presence will be needed to ensure that there will be enough swings every once in a while.
- Invest in Defense, if the build is predominantly defensive. High Defense is proven to positively affect the damage resistance of a gladiator and help him/her parry when the strategy allows it. Something around 80-100 extra Defense from gear only for a gladiator with full legendary equipment will probably do the trick to an extent.
- Invest in Size and Agility or Presence for offensive builds in order to reduce the heavy armour penalty. This partially applies to defensive builds as well but to a lesser extent.
Theoretically the above sounds nice but finding the appropriate gear is usually easier said than done.
What else can be added to the list or removed in your opinion? I’m aware that this will be largely a philosophical exercise as there are no Human Wars in Blood Gods belonging to other managers but give it a shot anyway.
Note: I’m not trying to develop a shield-bearing tank so the below considerations are for the rest of the possible War builds.
Here are my thoughts on the matter:
Racial Strengths – it’s only one actually and it’s the lack of penalties - normal damage, normal initiative, normal everything, which in theory is a good base for a versatile race which can do well in many roles. The extra Attack Power is completely negligible.
Racial Weaknesses:
- The biggest one is the HUGE susceptibility to critical hits. This isn’t written anywhere but the Blood Gods realities are such that the majority of the gladiators spam critical hits like there’s no tomorrow and the racial resistances begin to matter a lot and the lack of resistances starts to be a major problem. Knockdowns in particular are a big issue for every heavily armoured War (especially the ones who switch between defense and offense because during the defensive rounds you are just nailed to the ground no matter what) and in Blood Gods all non-Dunders and non-tanks* get knocked down very, very often. A bit more than a month ago Nate doubled the efficiency of Stuns and Disarms as well, effectively further enhancing the power of gladiators who rely on critical hits.
- A smaller, yet notable issue is the lack of distinguishable racial strength which is also a nice thing to have in Blood Gods. There are multiple builds revolving around the AP power of the Elaars, the stability and hitting power of the Dunders or the durability of the Trugs and the Spites. It wouldn’t bring you many benefits if you substitute one of those races with a Human for the respective build because you would lose a distinctive advantage to remove a penalty which might not be (and usually isn’t) so problematic for the given build.
*Tanks in this context are defensive Wars with shields.
To mitigate the issues and emphasize on the good sides, the following things might be done in theory:
- Invest in equipment with Critical Protection Rank. This SHOULD decrease the amount of criticals received and therefore address the biggest racial weakness. This however is no panacea. My experience with Arkal shows that even at 200/1000 Crit Protection rank, the critical effects and especially the knockdowns are still very frequent and powerful. Also, like all “ranks”, this bonus is expensive and will reduce the amount of other bonuses and particularly the attribute buffs on the respective item.
- Invest in the Plate/Full Plate Armour only. The heaviest armour offers decent protection against critical hits. The problem here would be coping with the weight, i.e. extra Size, Agility and Presence will be needed to ensure that there will be enough swings every once in a while.
- Invest in Defense, if the build is predominantly defensive. High Defense is proven to positively affect the damage resistance of a gladiator and help him/her parry when the strategy allows it. Something around 80-100 extra Defense from gear only for a gladiator with full legendary equipment will probably do the trick to an extent.
- Invest in Size and Agility or Presence for offensive builds in order to reduce the heavy armour penalty. This partially applies to defensive builds as well but to a lesser extent.
Theoretically the above sounds nice but finding the appropriate gear is usually easier said than done.
What else can be added to the list or removed in your opinion? I’m aware that this will be largely a philosophical exercise as there are no Human Wars in Blood Gods belonging to other managers but give it a shot anyway.