Theatrics Guide for New Players

[Sotc]

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Theatrics Guide For New Players (Version 1.1) %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%


A.0 REVISION HISTORY:
Version 1.0 - Document Created: 11/27/13
Version 1.1 - Race, Weapon Sections added: 11/28/13


1.0 PURPOSE:
This document is meant to give new players a starting point to building their theatrics gladiators. It is by no means comprehensive and anyone is welcome to post their input.


2.0 INTRODUCTION:
Theatrics gladiators are a versatile, medium armor wearing fighter than can wield a wide variety of weapons. Along with more mundane choices like blades, axes, and shields, Theatrics have the unique ability to wield exotic-type weapons. Theatrics also have a unique fighting style called counterattack. If you want a gladiator that can disable his opponents while delivering a beating with a flourish, you want a Theatrics!


3.0 STATS:
The statistics on your glad's overview page affect everything from damage output to how much armor you can carry. They also influence how effective your skills are. For example, Adrenaline Rush with low strength and chi will reduce less damage than Adrenaline Rush with high strength and chi. You can add to your starting stats via your gear choices and achievement choices. You can also train your starting stats up to 9 more than their original values; it is recommended to do this AFTER you finish training your skills.

Strength: Used in 7/12 non weapon skills. Very influential stat. It factors into your hp (~1.58hp/str), how much armor weight you can carry before becoming encumbered, and your raw damage, especially if you use axe/mace/shield.

Intelligence: Used in 4/12 non weapon skills. Important stat that influences how likely you are to use a skill rather than a vanilla attack.

Agility: Used in 12/12 non weapon skills. The most influential stat for theatrics. It increases your initiative and if you are using blades or exotics, it adds a bit to your damage.

Stamina: Used in 0/12 non weapon skills. Nevertheless, still important. It not only affects your hp total (~6hp/stam) it also increases your endurance. Counterattack eats the most endurance, followed by bash/lunge/slash, followed by the parry styles.

Size: Used in 1/12 non weapon skills. The biggest influence on your total hp (~10hp/size!) and the most difficult to change. The bigger size you are the more medium armor pieces you can wear before becoming encumbered (slowed down by weight making you attack less and attack second).

Presence: Used in 9/12 non weapon skills. Very influential stat. It is responsible for reducing your opponents initiative (increasing the chance you have to strike first) as well as increasing the likelihood you will kill your opponent and decreasing the likelihood that you will be killed by your opponent.

Chi: Used in 1/12 non weapon skills. Not particularly important, but higher chi will increase the chance of critical effects occurring among other things. Critical effects include stuns, knockdowns, and disarms which have a game changing effect on the outcome of the battle. However, it is NOT guaranteed that any of these will happen.

Stat Priorities:
Always prioritize your weapon attribute first (Ex. Blade -> Agility, Axe -> Strength). After grouping the stats by importance, you can see which stats are valuable for theatrics.

Category 1: Agility, Presence, Strength
Category 2: Intelligence
Category 3: Stamina, Size, Chi


4.0 WEAPONS:
Before you decide on a weapon, think about what you want your glad to be able to do: take a look at the Archetypes section and the recommended weapons to get a feel for how these two choices sync together. When you choose a weapon type, look through the available speeds and weights. Want to attack more? Then choose weapons with higher speeds. Want to lower your chance of getting hits deflected by armor? Choose weapons with higher weight. Finally take a look at the weapons' damage values: is the fast weapon with low damage what you prefer or the slow weapon with big damage.

Blades - These have a wide variety of speeds available. So you can mix and match to customize your glad's weapon set so that your damage is consistent from round to round hit to hit. They scale well with agility and have a inherent chance to cause bleeding.

Axes and Mace - These are strength based weapons. You generally will attack less than if you used blades or exotics, but you will hit significantly harder. Only axe type weapons have an inherent low chance to cause bleed.

Shield - This weapon scales with strength and stamina. It offers a huge global defensive boost to increase your chance to parry attacks.

Exotics - These agility based weapons offer an improved native bleed chance over blades. However, they have a lesser variety of speed choices available. Cestus, Trident, and Scimtar are markedly different than their Blade counterparts. The Scimtar is slightly lighter and has better dps values than the Bastard Sword. The Cestus penetrates armor better (on account of being slightly heavier) than a dagger (you will also get flavorful text like 'your glad executes a devastating backfist!'). The Trident is a strange weapon: it is 5 weight, as heavy as some two handed weapons and has damage numbers and speed similar to a War's spear (a type of Polearm) but is main-hand only as opposed to 2-handed.


5.0 SKILLS:
The skills you choose form your skill build. Each skill has 10 ranks. Since skills grow exponentially in power, ten rank 10 skills is generally considered a complete build (sample builds are listed in the Archetypes section). The following is an overview of skills within the Theatrics tree.

Weapon: This ties greatly into what type of theatrics you are aiming to build (See Archetypes section for some general ideas). This is your most important skill and one that you should consider getting to rank 10 a priority. Low weapon levels will greatly increase the chance to fumble or miss attacks.

Tier 1
Feint: This skill gives an attack power boost for the offensive attack it activates on. This is good for punching through and hitting defensive glads that parry a lot.

Called Shot: This skill gives you the increased chance to attack the targeted area. This works well in combination with Knockout. It also can help you hit an injured limb repeatedly or target a weak piece of armor repeatedly.

Tier 2
Signature Move: This skill gives you the chance to inflict 3 powerful statuses that can decide the match. Blind - The opponent will miss most of his attacks while allowing you to hit him easier, lasts 1-2 rounds. Sweep - The opponent will be knocked down, reducing the number of his offensive attacks. Disarm - The opponent will lose one of his weapons; if he picks up a weapon that he doesn't have a weapon skill in his damage will be greatly reduced. A word of warning: signature move does no damage by itself (and CAN be parried or deflected to no effect) so it is advised that you choose weapons that will allow you to attack many times per round so that sacrificing one attack's worth of damage is not so significant.

Crowd Pleaser: This skill gives you a buff to defense every time you parry an attack (increased defense increases the chance to parry attacks). This is ideal for defensive glads who plan to parry or counterattack.

Gratuitous Violence: This skill lets every damaging attack you make have a chance of causing bleed. Even a 3 damage poke could result in 30 bleed which will remain for the rest of the match. Bleed damage is subtracted at the beginning of each round. This skill is ideal for long drawn out matches.

Tier 3
Armor Movement: This skill gives you the chance to deflect (totally negate) attacks against you. Additionally, it reduces the initiative penalty for wearing medium armor which increases your chance of attacking first.

Strength of the Crowd: When this skill activates, it gives you a sizable boost to attack power and defense (~60 attack, 90 defense). It also can reduce the damage of the attack it activates against, and in rare occasions can even reduce the attack damage to 0.

Hamstring: When this skill activates, it reduces the opponent's number of attacks by 50% for two rounds. This is essential to reduce incoming damage from opponents.