New player here.

[Gimlisk]

Hello!

I joined this game and quite enjoying it at the moment.
I have a few questions I like to ask as my memory is total not great and can forget easily.. And my understanding is not great either.. :(

1.) Energy - What else can I use it for apart from Contracts & Pit Fighting? Once I have done both of them for the day, I still either get left overs or over the time, I get 100.. I can't really see what else to use it on? Any answers could be nice.

2.) Fight Strategy - I am really confuse about this "Fight Strategy". At the moment, I am just going for balance? As I don't know what is best for certain fighting's. Any suggestions or explain in a way I can understand? (Sorry.)

3.) Slave Market - What is the use of "Slave Market"? Am I able to stick to my 1 character that I started with or am I somewhat force to get more "slaves"? I'm not one for multitasking and like to stick with 1 thing. But as I am learning the game still, I pref to stick to one. So can I stick to my 1 character or forced to get more later on?


May of had other questions to ask but probably forgot, lol. But for now, all I want to know is these 3 answers. I read the tutorial but I could only remember so much and don't have a great memory.. Would much appreciate to anyone who posts with helpful tips! :)

Regards
Gimlisk

[Stormcloak]

Welcome here, Gimlisk. Glad you're enjoying the game.

1) you can also use your energy to do the conquest (in the tavern section) and the gauntlet (in the black market). These give a bit more pve play and the opportunity to grind for loot.

2) for the fight strategy it depends on what your build is and what level you're at. There are those preset strategies for beginners, but you can experiment and develop a custom one that works well for you. Generally people focus on getting one strategy line working well (activity level and bloodlust) and then add in others sequentially based on triggers that they expect. So, one might start off the fight being defensive, and then go on the attack when your opponent starts to tire. You get new triggers as you level, and the further up you get the more important the strategy becomes. You can look through your fights and try to find where it's working well and where it isn't. The pit fights are a great place to experiment in.

3) you don't have to get another glad, but it will increase your income and give you the chance to pass down gear. You can have as many as five gladiators if you spend trophies. You can stick with just one if you want, or wait until a really good one appears at the market. Adding an extra one doesn't increase your workload that much.

[Gimlisk]

Stormcloak - Thanks for the tips! As for the Fight Strategy, I am only level 9 and not sure what stats I'm following. If you can help, I'm trying to go for more of the "smart defensive" type. So I have more of the upper hand in someway. So what would you recommend in the Fight Strategy?

Also, just came with another question; What is the different's in No.1 to 10 in Activity & Blood Lust? I'm still not totally sure what helps in those 2 to make my chances of winning.

Regards
Gimlisk

[Stormcloak]

Higher activity means you will attack or parry more times a round, but use up more endurance. Higher bloodlust means you will try to do more damage with each swing, but again use up more endurance. Increasing both also reduces your accuracy. Generally you want to scale this based on those factors. Another important thing is to get your weapon skill up to at least 8 ASAP, and then to 10. This greatly improves your accuracy and let's you push activity and bloodlust higher. Generally something like 5/5 is a decent ballpark for the lower levels and you can increase it as you improve if it fits your strategy.

To run a defensive strategy at level 9 is tough, just because you don't have access to all the triggers and you might not even have access to the parry or tank or counterattack styles yet. One thing to keep in mind is that the higher lines on the list have a higher priority. So your second line will override your third line if the trigger is met. If you let us know what class your glad is and what skills you're looking to get then we can help you out with a plan for how to develop.

[Nate]

Thanks for helping the new players out Stormcloak, I appreciate it!

Good luck in the Pit!

-Nate-

[Gimlisk]

Alright, I will post more what I am going for tomorrow as I'm very tired and most likely not focus. :)

Regards
Gimlisk

[Gimlisk]

Higher activity means you will attack or parry more times a round, but use up more endurance. Higher bloodlust means you will try to do more damage with each swing, but again use up more endurance. Increasing both also reduces your accuracy. Generally you want to scale this based on those factors. Another important thing is to get your weapon skill up to at least 8 ASAP, and then to 10. This greatly improves your accuracy and let's you push activity and bloodlust higher. Generally something like 5/5 is a decent ballpark for the lower levels and you can increase it as you improve if it fits your strategy.

To run a defensive strategy at level 9 is tough, just because you don't have access to all the triggers and you might not even have access to the parry or tank or counterattack styles yet. One thing to keep in mind is that the higher lines on the list have a higher priority. So your second line will override your third line if the trigger is met. If you let us know what class your glad is and what skills you're looking to get then we can help you out with a plan for how to develop.

Hello!

Today I am level 11.
Class: War
Skills planning:
Axes & Maces(10), Shield(10)
Barreling Attack(5/6), Iron Jaw(6/7), Called Shot(5)
Battle Hardened(6/8), Crowd Pleaser(5), Brute Force(5/6)
Armor Movement(8/10), Never Say Die(6), War Cry(5), Strength of the Crowd(5/7)
Annihilate(5/7), Intercepting Guard(7/8), Light as a Feather(6/8), Knockout(5/6)
Hard to Hit(6/8), Armoured Fortress(10), Down and Dangerous(5/7)

Well, That is somewhat of my bref plan and what I might put into them. Hope it doesn't mean too much of what your (or anyone else) is asking for to help me. :)
Also, What I picked is what I found/thought was useful with being defense and offense.

Hope to hear back soon!

Regards
Gimlisk

[Kreegan]

You can't get Down and Dangerous if you have any points spent outside of the War tree. You can't get Hard to Hit, Strength of the Crowd and Knockout with a War because they are reserved for the respective class only. Read the skill prerequisites. Additionally, you have only 100 successful trains available to your fighter, i.e. you can get 10 skills to level 10 or more than 10 skills to less than level 10 (on some of them).

Also, it is generally not a good idea to train more than 10 skills (11 at most). The last 2 levels and especially level 10 of most skills boost their efficiency greatly compared to bonus provided by the lower levels so if you scatter your training points all over the place, you will end up with a fighter who has a slight clue about a lot of things but has mastered nothing - that would put him or her in a serious disadvantage against gladiators who have maxed their skills.

[Stormcloak]

Okay... as Kreegan said, you only get 100 skill points (and normally you train all your skills to 10 since they get exponentially more effective). Additionally, some of those skills are not open to the War class (such as Annihilate or Knockout).

My suggestion for your base to start with:
Axe and Mace (10)
Master at Arms (10) - get this instead of shields. It lets you use the shields PLUS any other weapon just as effectively as your highest trained weapon skill.
Battlehardened (10) - a good all around skill
Armour Movement (10) - a good all around skill
Death from Above (10) - a very powerful activated attack. It's pretty much considered necessary for a war build.

At this point, you will have to decide how you want to branch out. You can do a full war build if you want Armoured Fortress for example (which is a great skill), or look at branching into the other skill trees if you want more offense (rage) or tactical opportunities (theatrics) or a blend of both.
The rage skills will pump up your damage and combine well with axe and mace (Devastating Power, Brute Force, Blood Drunk) and Adrenaline Rush is a great skill to reduce damage income. Called Shot from the Theatrics Tree combines well with Devastating Power.
The theatrics skills tend to rely on agility or presence and may not synergise as well with axe and mace (which is strengh based). Nevertheless Feint is a decent activated attack (more often than Death from Above, but less powerful), Crowdpleaser can be good to boost defense (if fighting defensively and not going very far down the war tree), and Hamstring is just a great skill (but requires 3 other theatric trains to unlock). Gratuitous Violence will not work with axe and mace.
If you want to use heavy armour, Light as a Feather is pretty much necessary, so you will have to build around getting that skill. If using medium armour it's not as critical. Going for Light as a Feather locks you further into the war tree, limiting your potential to dip further down into the other classes.

For a full war build, you could consider also picking up:
Never Say Die
Light as a Feather
Intercepting Guard
Create Distance
Armoured Fortress
(War Cry is a decent skill under certain conditions where you make plenty of attacks. With axe/mace and shield you will attack less often but hit hard and have good defense. War Cry uses up an attack and doesn't always do damage or work, so I recommend against it for you)

If you want Heavy Armour, and some offense, then:
Never Say Die (to get 60 points to open Light as a Feather)
Light as a Feather
Devastating Power
Blood Drunk
Brute Force

If you will use medium armour and want heavy offense you could try:
Devastating Power
Blood Drunk
Brute Force
Adrenaline Rush
Then one other skill (Called Shot, or Feint, or Never Say Die or Grim Determination)

As for fight strategy, it will depend on which you end up going with. If you want a blend of both offense and defense you will want to alternate between tanking/parrying and attacking. You can either start of hitting hard and then tank when you're both getting tired, or tank first to tire your opponent out and then attack. You can alternate between offense and defense every round. This is where you have to get creative and play around. Axe and Mace uses the bash style.
You could try something like:
Line 1: Start of battle - tank (high activity, low bloodlust)
Line 2: something situational that you want to take advantage of.
Line 3: My Opponent is moderately tired - bash
Line 4: I am moderately injured - bash
Line 5: I am slightly injured or I have taken damage - parry/bash (medium-high activity, med-low bloodlust)

A strategy like the above (not necessarily perfect, or best for your glad) would start off defensive and crank up the offense as you get injured or your opponent tires out. It's more an example for how the priorities would line up. At this point you may still not have all the lines, triggers, or styles unlocked yet.

Hope this helps some

[Gimlisk]

Thanks Stormcloak! I didn't knew you wasn't able to put points into other trees.. But from what you wrote, I'll keep checking this out and see what I can make of it.. I'm still going for the defensive build but with little offensive. As for armor, I'm going for Heavy but might reconsider going back to Medium as I seem to do somewhat better with it and not over weighting myself.. But with armor I'm not sure what WOULD be best for fighting to have more wins than lost. Medium or Heavy?.. This is what will make me think for a while..

Any more suggestions you can give (and others reading this) about being Defensive & little Offensive, that would be most appreciated!

But thanks again and will keep reading back onto this!

Regards
Gimlisk

[Rokchewer]

I would suggest using medium armor for a bit until you get more str/sta from gear trains. Heavy armor for a new non HOL warrior can be pretty rough. Excellent job btw Stormcloak. Your responses are spot on, so I dont have to type as much. :)

[Stormcloak]

As Rokchewer suggests, it is common for war's to start with medium armour and then transition to heavy armour as they develop (and pick up Light as a Feather). How heavy you can go depends on your encumbrance - without Light as a Feather war's seem to do okay if they keep it "under the red" (i.e. less than 50%) depending on their entire setup. Some people prefer less, some allow a little more. At the same time, there are some glads that do heavy armour all the way through and do quite well (but I imagine they gotta be pretty big sized to begin with). You can mix and match your sets too - for example using a medium torso, heavy helmet, heavy weapon arm, medium legs if you have particular areas you want to focus on protecting. Your encumbrance plays into the initiative battle with your opponent - that is, who swings first (and a few good hits can decide the battle!), and how quickly you tire out. To help with this, again as Rokchewer mentioned, you can look for gear that gives you stamina and strength bonuses. As for what's best... you can't look at heavy or medium armour in a vaccuum, you have to consider how it works into your build as a whole. There is no best build (but there are plenty of sub-optimal ones!)

Your base stats and race will also factor into this if you want to post that as well.