Buckle up, this is going to be long. But I know you'll enjoy it...
This is your friendly neighborhood Spearman with a little bit of brain-candy
for you...I'm going to be discussing the viability of the infamous
TL template on Darktide, and what modifications I made to it in order
to get maximum enjoyment and utility out of my character.
Before we get started, I think I should give you some basic information.
The Silent Spearman is the basis for a lot of the information in this
article, and as such, I want you to know his stats and skills so that
you can more properly understand the things I say.
The Silent Spearman is a LV 34 Sho Adventurer. He is melee so all
information in this article is presented with that slant in mind.
In addition, I play on DT, so there is a lot of DT specific info here.
Even so, I think this article could be educational if you play on
another server.
Along the way, I'm going to pull a line or two from the original article
by Druss, "The Ultimate Warrior". This article is why I
have never played a character who didn't have 100 Endurance. This
article describes the conception, birth, and growth of The Legend,
and I suggest you read it for some insight as to why extreme stats
yield extreme results!
Let's begin, shall we. I hope this turns out to be a good read.
"Here are the stats for those of you interested in how to make
the best TANK ever.
100, 100, 100, 10, 10, 10
Yup. Pretty simple. "
-Druss
I couldn't have put it better myself, J, and on that note, we'll start
with the Silent Spearman's stats.
Strength: 100
Endurance: 100
Coordination: 100
Quickness: 10
Focus: 10
Self: 10
Each of these stats has important ramifications! We'll discuss each
below.
Strength
------------
"I make up "HE WHO CANNOT BE NAMED" with this formulae,
and I am disgusted with the amount of damage this guy can do."
-Druss
100 Strength gives you some very important capabilities that you might
take for granted.
The obvious benefit is max weapon skill if you are using anything
melee (besides a dagger). That means more hits, more crits. You can
fight monsters with higher evade earlier that comparable melees. You
can use weapons with higher requirements earlier. With the extra points
in weapon skill you receive from 100 Strength, you can go from not
hitting an Olthoi Worker to smoking it. From hitting it 1/3 times
to hitting it 1/2 times. That is a big difference. Higher weapon skill
quicker is also important because all of the PK Unarmed guys on DT
have 700 Melee Defense (roughly). In any case, I'm probably telling
you things you already know, so I digress.
You can carry an assload of loot. I can carry about 4 suits of armor
at any given time, plus my spears, spell components, healing kits,
mana stones, and death items. You can hunt longer with fewer trips
to town. I think you all know that since DT towns are deathtraps,
making fewer trips to town is HUGE. I can't stress that enough. Rolling
into town once with 50k in loot instead of 5 times with 10k will save
you at least one death per 50k in loot that you roll up.
I believe it was Druss who originally indicated in another article
that your burden % can influence your run. I haven't verified this,
but if a 99% burden guy with 200 run is slower than a 54% burden guy
with 200 run, then Strength can augment your speed as well. Also,
the Weakness spell is an oft-used Darktide favorite for mages to chase
and catch fleeing people. I laugh at this because when they cast it
on me, my burden goes from 59% to 66%. pH3@r! A weakling archer, on
the other hand, with about 105 Strength or so, carrying arrows and
armor and comps, will see his burden hit the roof from a Weakness
IV. So the point here is that Strength helps you by making you less
susciptible to Weakness spells.
UNDOCUMENTED FEATURE ALERT*
How much of an effect does a high strength have on your character?
We all know it affects damage - but how much?
-Druss
Damage bonuses. Every ten points of strength over 100 gives you an
extra point of damage on your swings. This is a undocumented fact.
I know this is true because when attacking undefended targets with
an unbuffed Atlan spear and unbuffed Strength of 180, (Damage Range
4-16...yes, that is a sweet spear), my minumum damage is not 4, as
the spear says. It is 12. I have tested this on Drudges, and I never
hit for less than 12 when swinging medium strength (right in the middle
of the bar) because low damage is a mathematical impossibility for
me. The cold hard facts here: At LV 34, Silent's unbuffed STR is 180,
and that means 8 extra damage on every swing. The awesome part about
this is that people with, say, 100 STR, who cast Staff Mastery VI
on themselves and have 1000 weapon skill, still don't get that big
ass damage bonus.
The Silent Spearman's Strength currently buffs to 200 at LV 34.
Endurance
---------------
"As an eye to the future, I need to look at what is going to
make my guy the best fighter ever. And I don't mean the best Item
Unarmed Fighter, or the best Item Bow Fighter, I mean the best melee
fighter."
-Druss
The Druss quote above is significant because 100 Endurance is ALL
ABOUT making this guy a great melee fighter.
Having 100 Endurance is the thing that makes this template so unique.
100 STR and 100 Coord is par for the course for a melee these days
on DT, but 100 Endurance is UNHEARD of. In fact, many people intentionally
put endurance at 10 and then rely on "twinking" (help from
a much higher level friend) to get their HP into a range where they
can defend themselves.
First and foremost,100 Endurance gives you 45 more HP than a person
with 10 Endurance. While that may not seem like a lot in the face
of the 90 Run and 30 Melee Defense you're losing, you have to remember
that PvM is a big part of the game even on DT. Let me give you an
example.
At LV 34, The Silent Spearman has 175 HP, which he can buff to 185.
Many mages my level have only 110 or so. Imagine a Copper Golem hits
you for 58 with Lightning Bolt IV when you have 110 HP! It means you
are at 52 HP! You re one shot away from death! You might fail to heal
because you're below half. One more level IV spell and your ass could
be grass. Time to run. Not for The Silent Spearman, who still has
117 HP after that LV 4 blast. Healing is still easy to do from that
range, and if the Golem is almost dead, I can just plow along and
kill it because I can survive TWO more 58 HP blasts if he decides
he's going to be difficult.
Note that the example above there is more than a 45 HP difference.
This is because many people don't bother raising their HP. I consider
my high HP a valuable resource.
Stamina is the next factor. I have 250 Stamina at LV 34 as the Silent
Spearman, buffable to 270, and I must tell you, I could'nt survive
otherwise. I can plow into a huge pile of Dires drudges and kill them
all without falling below half on the famous Yellow Meter of Fatigue.
This is with my bar all the way to the bottom. I do this because that
is the way spear works best. I happen to know that Druss fights with
his bar all the way to the top. That is all well and good, but through
experimentation, I have found out that I use 1/2 the stamina (!!!!!!)
with my barall the way to the bottom, compared to having it in the
middle,as I used to. This is enigmatic because increasing your attack
speed has INCREASED stamina usage for almost every other character
I have talked to. Having a large pool of stamina is useful for when
I cast Stamina to Mana as well, as I can pull about 120 Stamina off
of a successful casting.
The Silent Spearman's Endurance currently buffs to 200 at LV 34.
Coordination
------------------
Coordination is all about weapon skill. It has been documented that
Coordination does not determine whether or not you hit something,
that is your weapon skill. Since Coordination is linked to weapon
skill, high coord is good for the same reasons that Strength is as
discussed above.
Melee Defense! With 10 Quickness, you'd better throw Coord up to 100,
or you won't even be able to avoid Drudges. Even with 100 Coord, this
template's only Melee weakness is a middle-of-the-road Melee Defense
that must be compensated for by the ridiculous amounts of HP we have.
Unfortunately, high HP does not hold a candle to high evasion when
you are fighting Olthoi, Tuskers, or PK's once you have been Imperil
V'd. 100 Coord will give you enough to get by.
Healing. Again, healing would be totally useless with this template
if you didn't have 100 Coord. Healing is more important than you'd
think, and you WANT a high skill both for PvP and PvM combat, so high
Coord is a must! Granite Golem chaincasting LV 4 Whirling Blades?
Heal! Take 50, heal 50. Take 50, heal 50. Unarmed assmaster jumping
you? Take 4, take 4, take 4, take 4, take 4, take 4, take 4, heal
for 24. Then once your support mage imperil's him, kick his ass :)
Seriously, good use of healing will make you a good player instead
of an average one.
The Silent Spearman's Coordination currently buffs to 200 at LV 34.
Quickness
---------------
" ....you are slow as dirt and twice as stupid."
-Druss
10 Quickness is going to give you some problems. First of all, Run.
That is 90 (!!!) run lower than a lot of people on Darktide, since
many subscribe to the school of thought that utilizes speed as a means
of defense. When you start out with this template, you are slower
than a tumbleweed rolling uphill, and at the very early levels it
is almost ridiculous how slow you are. The only advice I can find
to overcome this shortcoming is to level to 15 as FAST as you can
so your run doesn't totally suck.
Melee Defense...it's a necessary evil to have only half-assed melee
defense with this template, because we want HP. This argument was
detailed in the Coord section above, but suffice it to say that if
this character coul somehow start with 100 Quick instead of 10, it
would be the PERFECT melee fighter. As mentioned above, mediocre melee
defense is this templates only real pecadillo.
UNDOCUMENTED FEATURE ALERT*
Attack animation speed. This is almost completely undocumented, but
I know you've noticed it. If my Quickness IV shoes run out of mana...I
start attacking so slowly that I can barely stand it. In fact, the
difference between my attack speed at 90 quickness and my attack speed
at 115 quickness is so drastic that Swift Killer wearing off is almost
as bad! I don't know why this is...I didn't notice much of a difference
at 60 quickness when I got debuffed by a Limestone Golem to 45...but
when Slowness V'd by an Obsidian Golem I CANNOT BELIEVE how much slower
I attack. I would almost rather my SK wear off (I shit you not.) This
whole revelation begs the question: So how can this be the ultimate
melee class if you have the lowest possible attack speed. To that,
I reply...at the higher levels, I have NO complaints about how fast
I attack.
The Silent Spearman's Quickness buffs to 115 at LV 34.
Focus
---------
"At the first few levels, my focus was so low; I couldn't tell
what basic weapons were in the shops. Now that it is 25, I can tell
what a sword does. But that's about all."
-Druss
Arrrgh. You will not be able Identify a pair of leather gauntlets
when you start out, and that particular area of ineptitiude is where
we'll start our discussion. I guess it depends on your play style
whether you care if you can ID things or not. In all seriousness,
if you see a sword and you don't know whether it's worth picking up
and selling (some swords are not worth their weight), just pick it
up anyhow. You have 100 Strength, so you don't have to be that discriminating.
"I don't want to be really good at avoiding magic at the cost
of not being able to stand toe to toe with a Rough Monounga."
-Druss
Magic Defense. Turbine can KISS MY ASS for making Magic Defense, my
most treasured of stats and perhaps the most important one in the
game, based on Focus+Self / 7 instead of / 10. Yeah, I get 3 points
or so, but the mages get like 1,000. Anyhow, your Magic Defense is
going to be the LOWEST POSSIBLE on the server, unless you compensate
by spec'ing it, which costs a whopping 12 points!!! Apparently their
theory is that since you're unable to cast magic, you should die to
it. Doesn't exactly encourage is TL template users. To be realistic,
though, the difference betweem starting with 100/100 and 10/10 in
Magic Defense is 27 points. I'm not going to lose sleep over it.
Healing. It's unfortunate that healing couldn't be based on some other
stat, but them's the breaks. Since we've discussed how important healing
is during combat, let me now remind you that even if you think you
shouldn't bother, get your warrior a Focus buff ring! The 20 extra
points of Focus from Silent's ring give him 3 extra magic defense
and 6 extra healing. Every little bit helps.
Arcane Lore. Sigh. Prepare to dump some experience into Lore. If you
don't specialize it you'll be a grey old man before you can use LV
4's. The TL template has the lowest Trained Arcane you can get, so
it's up to you to determine whether it's worth your time. I would
say yes, unless you plan to rely heavily on creature magic (have fun
doing that with 10 Focus, too)
This is a formulae for those who have no intention of ever being able
to portal or cast swift killer.
-Druss
I have to disagree with Druss here, though, and heartily.
Magic Skills. The big bomb. The reason that some people are loath
to start with 10 Focus/Self is that unless you level to about 55 or
60, LV six spells will be beyond your grasp (even then, you might
as well forget War of Combat Life because you will fizzle, though
Creature/Life/Item buffs are usuable since you have time to fizzle)
, whereas with higher focus/self you can reach these pinnacles of
magely might much sooner and cast them with much for success. I have
heard people testify that 25/25 is much better than 10/10, and swear
up and down that you should reroll your character if you went 10/10.
Well, I started with 10/10 and to give you an idea of my progress,
I can comfortably cast LV 4 Item at LV 34, and just summoned my first
portal the day before last. My friends...LV 34 is NOT that hard to
reach. Of course, there are no laws or absolutes here. I'm just saying
that I'm satisfied with that Level of casting skill...you might not
be.
The Silent Spearman's Focus currently buffs to 110.
Self
-----
Mana. Your item buffing sequence is basically dependant on the amount
of max mana you have, since there is no way in hell the TL tempate
ever gets Mana Conversion (hell, some of you might not even get item!).
Mana is not to be underestimated, and I raise it when I can so that
my buffing sequence takes less time and my hunting becomes more efficient.
Magic Defense. Sigh. See above.
Magic Skills. See above again.
The Silent Spearman's Self is 90 and I never buff it unless I'm summoning
a portal.
END OF THE ATTRIBUTES SECTION
*********************************************************
Now, to get to how I made my character, and why I chose the skills
I did.
THE SILENT SPEARMAN
-------------------------------------
Race: Sho
Specialized: Spear, Melee Defense, Magic Defense, Arcane Lore, Run
Trained: Loyalty, Jump, Unarmed
Healing at 7, Item at 20, Creature at 55.
That is my character. No life magic :(
Anyhow, now I'm going to explain why I specialized the things I did,
and give you my results and my impression as to whether or not is
was a good idea.
Spear (4 points)
---------
"What does this guy do? He fights. He fights like nobody's business."
-Druss
I specialized this because hitting things is all about weapon skill.
With 100 STR/COORD, this character will have max weapon skill for
his level at all times. Once again, I cannot stress how important
it is to be able to actually hit things. Olthoi are a perfect example,
someone who did not specialize in Spear would probably not be able
to tank two Workers at LV 34. The cost was 4 points which is more
than fair for my extra 20 points of skill or so.
The Silent Spearman's Spear Skill buffs to 264 at LV 34.
Melee Defense (10 points?)
----------------------
To compensate for my mediocre melee defense base stats, I thought
that Specializing Melee Defense would help me compensate. To be honest,
I'm less than thrilled with the results because specializing Melee
D doesn't make up for the 90 Quickness you're losing to other templates.
After the patch, maybe it'll be worth it. Still, I'm not complaining.
I took this as a way to shore up what I saw as a possible flaw in
my Melee abilities and my Melee D is good enough to get me by.
The Silent Spearman's Melee Defense buffs to 232 at LV 34 (note that
you will have a hard-as-hell time keeping the 5,000p Superior Helm
that makes this possible)
Magic Defense (12 points)
---------------------
We need this spec'd, this template sucks bad enough against PvP mages
since we don't have life. My reasoning is, again, that I'm shoring
up a weakness of the class. Still, 12 points is th Magic Number for,
you guessed it, ......LIFE MAGIC. Man that is the choice from hell.
I could be a mediocre Life/Melee who still fizzles Imperil IV on people
at LV 35, or I could grab my pre-patch 13 points of Magic Defense.
I stand by my decision because 10 Focus/10 Self isn't going to give
you enough Life Magic potential with the TL template. Also, the TL
Template was BUILT for support mage :) You imperil and we whack away
with our insane strength and accuracy, crit a few times, and they
are dead.
The Silent Spearman's Magic Defense buffs to 155 at LV 34. Note that
while this is a fair amount, it is not NEARLY enough to consistantly
resist a LV 34 Mage.
Run (4 points)
------
"Druss started slow and at level 30 had no trouble bumping run
to 200..."
-Druss
Continuing with the theme of shoring up weak spots, I have spec'd
run so that my character jumps from "festering slug" to
"three-legged turtle". This is a questionable choice because,
a) I can duplicate the effects by just adding 15 quickness and save
myself 4 skill points, and b) the difference between 220 run at LV
40 and 235 is a big fat el-zilcho. Still, if the Spec patch is good
to me, I think this becomes worth it.
The Silent Spearman's run buffs to 215 at LV 34.
Arcane Lore (4 points?) might be 2, not sure.
-----------------
This can make a big difference. Using LV 4's 4-5 levels earlier is
pretty sweet, and this also goes with the theme of specializing to
shore up my character's low Focus/Self. With the Spec patch, this
is more that worth it. At LV 34, I'm just starting to explore the
wonderful world of LV 4 Items. If you started with 10 Focus/Self and
at LV 34 you can use an Armor V shirt that is Sho only, you're doing
something right.
The Silent Spearman's Arcane Lore buffs to 161 at LV 34.
************************************************
And now my trained skills:
Healing (6 points, got it at LV 7)
-----------
Healing is pretty sweet. It's benefits have ben discussed above, so
I'll just say that the reason I didn't train it right off is that
I used all my skill credits spec'ing things. Remember, you can always
train something if you have the skill credits, you can NEVER specialize
something after character creation. I knew Healing was a necessity
for my character and took that into account when I planned him out.
I am VERY happy with my healing skill at LV 34, though I have come
to rely on the skill so much that I wish it was higher.
The Silent Spearman's Healing Skill at buffs to 182 at LV 34.
Item Enchantment (8 points, got it at LV 20)
--------------------------
Here is why you should take Item.
1. Low Value on good weapons.
With Item, the ones you are looking for are the weapons with high
base damage and/or attack and defense bonuses. It doesn't matter
if they
have BD IV on them, or SK IV. Your ridiculous axe with BD VI and
SK VI and
whatever will be worth 10,000p and lost on death every time. The
weapons
with just high base damage and attack bonuses have lower value,
meaning you
don't lose them as often.
A note here, though: If you are an Axe Warrior, you can probably
get the Silifi of the Crimson Stars, which is no drop, and has great
enchantments on it, making this point moot. Remember, though, that
the Axe
requires a very high skill, meaning you will have to plow through
the first
forty levels of your existance constantly losing your weapons.
Obviously, because of Tickola, this note does not apply to dagger
fighters at all.
2. Atlan Weapons Are Good
Atlan Weapons are mostly useless without item magic, but with
it,
they become an absolute beating. My Atlan Spear is my weapon of
choice now
for almost all occasions, I can buff it up to about 8-29 damage,
0 speed,
+10 attack skill and +10 defense. And I will never lose it.
Axe warriors, this applies to you. The Atlan Axe is a nice axe.
Dagger guys...Tickola is still better :) Man that weapon is insane.
3. Cries of distress, and a base of operations.
I can't stress this enough: On Darktide, you want to have your
allegiance members ready to help each other out at a moments notice.
This
is why you need LS Recall. If our base of operations if Mayoi, EVERYBODY
should be stoned or tied there. We need to support each other. I
can't
tell you the number of times that shit has gone down in Mayoi and
I don't
bother messaging Suya'n because he is 1,000 miles away in Eastham.
No, 300 run does NOT make up for this.
4. Saving your ass.
Portal spells will save you lots of grief. Og cannot kill me if
I
have 50 mana, because I am a purple bubbleman before he even takes
a swing.
Getting jumped by three guys? Discretion is the better part of valour,
my
friends. Portal out, tell your buddies, recall back in as a unit,
and deal
with the threat. Just yesterday, Bass Turd and Dios came into the
LoD looking for trouble and I was out of there before they could
say "Jack Robinson."
5. Summon Portal
Even I, who started with 10 Focus and 10 Self, will be able to
cast
this reliably in about 1 level. Every body jump on board!
6. Teth
Being LS tied to Teth means that no matter where you are, you
can
recall there and get 120% return on your loot. This is important
since when you buy mana stones on DT, you will end up losing about
80 of them on death and have to buy more, and more, and more :)
Simply put, you need more cash.
7. On Darktide, you have to be more self-sufficient.
We have like ten members. I am the highest at LV 32.
No portal rides, no big-ass mage buffs, no big party excursions.
Be your own buffer, and kick some ass by yourself.
That is why you should get item. I'm very hapy with my progress
considering I started with 10 Focus/Self, and I'll be casting LV
5 Item buffs by LV 4o it seems.
The Silent Spearman's Item Enchantment skill buffs to 175 at LV
34.
----------------------
If I Could Change, What Would I Change?
I give you the best TL template character there is, in my opinion.
The Silent Soldier
Race: Gharundim
STR: 100
END: 100
CON: 100
QIK: 10
FOC: 10
SLF: 10
Spec'd: Staff, Melee Defense, Magic Defense, Run
Train: Arcane Lore, Item Enchantment
Healing at 7, Life Magic (!!!) at 35.
This is the best TL template character you can get, IMHO.
Conclusion:
I'm having the time of my life over here. High endurance means that
an Unarmed can hit you 10 times for a total of 70 damage and instead
of being almost dead you still have a ton of health :) Then you
heal to full in one shot with an excellent kit and come out swinging.
No, this template will never own in PvP. But that's not an issue
with me.
So there you have The Silent Spearman, Darktide Monarch. I hope
you enjoyed this little trip as much as I did.
*************************DT Whining Warning***************************
Now I'd like to make a impassioned plea for peeps to head over to
DT EN MASSE. The Source's time on HG is coming to an end, my friends.
Come to DT, where we can be respected by our friends AND feared
by our enemies. 15 people is all it would take to make us big enough
to get on DNN and start becoming a major player in this sum'bitch
:) The earlier you start, the earlier you get past the sickening
early days of weakness and into assbeating range.
My life on DT is one of solitude. Though I enjoy and cherish my
life as DT monarch, I miss the good people I met on HG, and since
I'm a selfish SOB I figures it's easier for you guys to come here
than for me to go back there :)
Hope to see you out there.
Comments and feedback welcome.
TSS
Buckle up, this is going to be long. But I know you'll enjoy it...
This is your friendly neighborhood Spearman with a little bit of brain-candy
for you...I'm going to be discussing the viability of the infamous
TL template on Darktide, and what modifications I made to it in order
to get maximum enjoyment and utility out of my character.
Before we get started, I think I should give you some basic information.
The Silent Spearman is the basis for a lot of the information in this
article, and as such, I want you to know his stats and skills so that
you can more properly understand the things I say.
The Silent Spearman is a LV 34 Sho Adventurer. He is melee so all
information in this article is presented with that slant in mind.
In addition, I play on DT, so there is a lot of DT specific info here.
Even so, I think this article could be educational if you play on
another server.
Along the way, I'm going to pull a line or two from the original article
by Druss, "The Ultimate Warrior". This article is why I
have never played a character who didn't have 100 Endurance. This
article describes the conception, birth, and growth of The Legend,
and I suggest you read it for some insight as to why extreme stats
yield extreme results!
Let's begin, shall we. I hope this turns out to be a good read.
"Here are the stats for those of you interested in how to make
the best TANK ever.
100, 100, 100, 10, 10, 10
Yup. Pretty simple. "
-Druss
I couldn't have put it better myself, J, and on that note, we'll start
with the Silent Spearman's stats.
Strength: 100
Endurance: 100
Coordination: 100
Quickness: 10
Focus: 10
Self: 10
Each of these stats has important ramifications! We'll discuss each
below.
Strength
------------
"I make up "HE WHO CANNOT BE NAMED" with this formulae,
and I am disgusted with the amount of damage this guy can do."
-Druss
100 Strength gives you some very important capabilities that you might
take for granted.
The obvious benefit is max weapon skill if you are using anything
melee (besides a dagger). That means more hits, more crits. You can
fight monsters with higher evade earlier that comparable melees. You
can use weapons with higher requirements earlier. With the extra points
in weapon skill you receive from 100 Strength, you can go from not
hitting an Olthoi Worker to smoking it. From hitting it 1/3 times
to hitting it 1/2 times. That is a big difference. Higher weapon skill
quicker is also important because all of the PK Unarmed guys on DT
have 700 Melee Defense (roughly). In any case, I'm probably telling
you things you already know, so I digress.
You can carry an assload of loot. I can carry about 4 suits of armor
at any given time, plus my spears, spell components, healing kits,
mana stones, and death items. You can hunt longer with fewer trips
to town. I think you all know that since DT towns are deathtraps,
making fewer trips to town is HUGE. I can't stress that enough. Rolling
into town once with 50k in loot instead of 5 times with 10k will save
you at least one death per 50k in loot that you roll up.
I believe it was Druss who originally indicated in another article
that your burden % can influence your run. I haven't verified this,
but if a 99% burden guy with 200 run is slower than a 54% burden guy
with 200 run, then Strength can augment your speed as well. Also,
the Weakness spell is an oft-used Darktide favorite for mages to chase
and catch fleeing people. I laugh at this because when they cast it
on me, my burden goes from 59% to 66%. pH3@r! A weakling archer, on
the other hand, with about 105 Strength or so, carrying arrows and
armor and comps, will see his burden hit the roof from a Weakness
IV. So the point here is that Strength helps you by making you less
susciptible to Weakness spells.
UNDOCUMENTED FEATURE ALERT*
How much of an effect does a high strength have on your character?
We all know it affects damage - but how much?
-Druss
Damage bonuses. Every ten points of strength over 100 gives you an
extra point of damage on your swings. This is a undocumented fact.
I know this is true because when attacking undefended targets with
an unbuffed Atlan spear and unbuffed Strength of 180, (Damage Range
4-16...yes, that is a sweet spear), my minumum damage is not 4, as
the spear says. It is 12. I have tested this on Drudges, and I never
hit for less than 12 when swinging medium strength (right in the middle
of the bar) because low damage is a mathematical impossibility for
me. The cold hard facts here: At LV 34, Silent's unbuffed STR is 180,
and that means 8 extra damage on every swing. The awesome part about
this is that people with, say, 100 STR, who cast Staff Mastery VI
on themselves and have 1000 weapon skill, still don't get that big
ass damage bonus.
The Silent Spearman's Strength currently buffs to 200 at LV 34.
Endurance
---------------
"As an eye to the future, I need to look at what is going to
make my guy the best fighter ever. And I don't mean the best Item
Unarmed Fighter, or the best Item Bow Fighter, I mean the best melee
fighter."
-Druss
The Druss quote above is significant because 100 Endurance is ALL
ABOUT making this guy a great melee fighter.
Having 100 Endurance is the thing that makes this template so unique.
100 STR and 100 Coord is par for the course for a melee these days
on DT, but 100 Endurance is UNHEARD of. In fact, many people intentionally
put endurance at 10 and then rely on "twinking" (help from
a much higher level friend) to get their HP into a range where they
can defend themselves.
First and foremost,100 Endurance gives you 45 more HP than a person
with 10 Endurance. While that may not seem like a lot in the face
of the 90 Run and 30 Melee Defense you're losing, you have to remember
that PvM is a big part of the game even on DT. Let me give you an
example.
At LV 34, The Silent Spearman has 175 HP, which he can buff to 185.
Many mages my level have only 110 or so. Imagine a Copper Golem hits
you for 58 with Lightning Bolt IV when you have 110 HP! It means you
are at 52 HP! You re one shot away from death! You might fail to heal
because you're below half. One more level IV spell and your ass could
be grass. Time to run. Not for The Silent Spearman, who still has
117 HP after that LV 4 blast. Healing is still easy to do from that
range, and if the Golem is almost dead, I can just plow along and
kill it because I can survive TWO more 58 HP blasts if he decides
he's going to be difficult.
Note that the example above there is more than a 45 HP difference.
This is because many people don't bother raising their HP. I consider
my high HP a valuable resource.
Stamina is the next factor. I have 250 Stamina at LV 34 as the Silent
Spearman, buffable to 270, and I must tell you, I could'nt survive
otherwise. I can plow into a huge pile of Dires drudges and kill them
all without falling below half on the famous Yellow Meter of Fatigue.
This is with my bar all the way to the bottom. I do this because that
is the way spear works best. I happen to know that Druss fights with
his bar all the way to the top. That is all well and good, but through
experimentation, I have found out that I use 1/2 the stamina (!!!!!!)
with my barall the way to the bottom, compared to having it in the
middle,as I used to. This is enigmatic because increasing your attack
speed has INCREASED stamina usage for almost every other character
I have talked to. Having a large pool of stamina is useful for when
I cast Stamina to Mana as well, as I can pull about 120 Stamina off
of a successful casting.
The Silent Spearman's Endurance currently buffs to 200 at LV 34.
Coordination
------------------
Coordination is all about weapon skill. It has been documented that
Coordination does not determine whether or not you hit something,
that is your weapon skill. Since Coordination is linked to weapon
skill, high coord is good for the same reasons that Strength is as
discussed above.
Melee Defense! With 10 Quickness, you'd better throw Coord up to 100,
or you won't even be able to avoid Drudges. Even with 100 Coord, this
template's only Melee weakness is a middle-of-the-road Melee Defense
that must be compensated for by the ridiculous amounts of HP we have.
Unfortunately, high HP does not hold a candle to high evasion when
you are fighting Olthoi, Tuskers, or PK's once you have been Imperil
V'd. 100 Coord will give you enough to get by.
Healing. Again, healing would be totally useless with this template
if you didn't have 100 Coord. Healing is more important than you'd
think, and you WANT a high skill both for PvP and PvM combat, so high
Coord is a must! Granite Golem chaincasting LV 4 Whirling Blades?
Heal! Take 50, heal 50. Take 50, heal 50. Unarmed assmaster jumping
you? Take 4, take 4, take 4, take 4, take 4, take 4, take 4, heal
for 24. Then once your support mage imperil's him, kick his ass :)
Seriously, good use of healing will make you a good player instead
of an average one.
The Silent Spearman's Coordination currently buffs to 200 at LV 34.
Quickness
---------------
" ....you are slow as dirt and twice as stupid."
-Druss
10 Quickness is going to give you some problems. First of all, Run.
That is 90 (!!!) run lower than a lot of people on Darktide, since
many subscribe to the school of thought that utilizes speed as a means
of defense. When you start out with this template, you are slower
than a tumbleweed rolling uphill, and at the very early levels it
is almost ridiculous how slow you are. The only advice I can find
to overcome this shortcoming is to level to 15 as FAST as you can
so your run doesn't totally suck.
Melee Defense...it's a necessary evil to have only half-assed melee
defense with this template, because we want HP. This argument was
detailed in the Coord section above, but suffice it to say that if
this character coul somehow start with 100 Quick instead of 10, it
would be the PERFECT melee fighter. As mentioned above, mediocre melee
defense is this templates only real pecadillo.
UNDOCUMENTED FEATURE ALERT*
Attack animation speed. This is almost completely undocumented, but
I know you've noticed it. If my Quickness IV shoes run out of mana...I
start attacking so slowly that I can barely stand it. In fact, the
difference between my attack speed at 90 quickness and my attack speed
at 115 quickness is so drastic that Swift Killer wearing off is almost
as bad! I don't know why this is...I didn't notice much of a difference
at 60 quickness when I got debuffed by a Limestone Golem to 45...but
when Slowness V'd by an Obsidian Golem I CANNOT BELIEVE how much slower
I attack. I would almost rather my SK wear off (I shit you not.) This
whole revelation begs the question: So how can this be the ultimate
melee class if you have the lowest possible attack speed. To that,
I reply...at the higher levels, I have NO complaints about how fast
I attack.
The Silent Spearman's Quickness buffs to 115 at LV 34.
Focus
---------
"At the first few levels, my focus was so low; I couldn't tell
what basic weapons were in the shops. Now that it is 25, I can tell
what a sword does. But that's about all."
-Druss
Arrrgh. You will not be able Identify a pair of leather gauntlets
when you start out, and that particular area of ineptitiude is where
we'll start our discussion. I guess it depends on your play style
whether you care if you can ID things or not. In all seriousness,
if you see a sword and you don't know whether it's worth picking up
and selling (some swords are not worth their weight), just pick it
up anyhow. You have 100 Strength, so you don't have to be that discriminating.
"I don't want to be really good at avoiding magic at the cost
of not being able to stand toe to toe with a Rough Monounga."
-Druss
Magic Defense. Turbine can KISS MY ASS for making Magic Defense, my
most treasured of stats and perhaps the most important one in the
game, based on Focus+Self / 7 instead of / 10. Yeah, I get 3 points
or so, but the mages get like 1,000. Anyhow, your Magic Defense is
going to be the LOWEST POSSIBLE on the server, unless you compensate
by spec'ing it, which costs a whopping 12 points!!! Apparently their
theory is that since you're unable to cast magic, you should die to
it. Doesn't exactly encourage is TL template users. To be realistic,
though, the difference betweem starting with 100/100 and 10/10 in
Magic Defense is 27 points. I'm not going to lose sleep over it.
Healing. It's unfortunate that healing couldn't be based on some other
stat, but them's the breaks. Since we've discussed how important healing
is during combat, let me now remind you that even if you think you
shouldn't bother, get your warrior a Focus buff ring! The 20 extra
points of Focus from Silent's ring give him 3 extra magic defense
and 6 extra healing. Every little bit helps.
Arcane Lore. Sigh. Prepare to dump some experience into Lore. If you
don't specialize it you'll be a grey old man before you can use LV
4's. The TL template has the lowest Trained Arcane you can get, so
it's up to you to determine whether it's worth your time. I would
say yes, unless you plan to rely heavily on creature magic (have fun
doing that with 10 Focus, too)
This is a formulae for those who have no intention of ever being able
to portal or cast swift killer.
-Druss
I have to disagree with Druss here, though, and heartily.
Magic Skills. The big bomb. The reason that some people are loath
to start with 10 Focus/Self is that unless you level to about 55 or
60, LV six spells will be beyond your grasp (even then, you might
as well forget War of Combat Life because you will fizzle, though
Creature/Life/Item buffs are usuable since you have time to fizzle)
, whereas with higher focus/self you can reach these pinnacles of
magely might much sooner and cast them with much for success. I have
heard people testify that 25/25 is much better than 10/10, and swear
up and down that you should reroll your character if you went 10/10.
Well, I started with 10/10 and to give you an idea of my progress,
I can comfortably cast LV 4 Item at LV 34, and just summoned my first
portal the day before last. My friends...LV 34 is NOT that hard to
reach. Of course, there are no laws or absolutes here. I'm just saying
that I'm satisfied with that Level of casting skill...you might not
be.
The Silent Spearman's Focus currently buffs to 110.
Self
-----
Mana. Your item buffing sequence is basically dependant on the amount
of max mana you have, since there is no way in hell the TL tempate
ever gets Mana Conversion (hell, some of you might not even get item!).
Mana is not to be underestimated, and I raise it when I can so that
my buffing sequence takes less time and my hunting becomes more efficient.
Magic Defense. Sigh. See above.
Magic Skills. See above again.
The Silent Spearman's Self is 90 and I never buff it unless I'm summoning
a portal.
END OF THE ATTRIBUTES SECTION
*********************************************************
Now, to get to how I made my character, and why I chose the skills
I did.
THE SILENT SPEARMAN
-------------------------------------
Race: Sho
Specialized: Spear, Melee Defense, Magic Defense, Arcane Lore, Run
Trained: Loyalty, Jump, Unarmed
Healing at 7, Item at 20, Creature at 55.
That is my character. No life magic :(
Anyhow, now I'm going to explain why I specialized the things I did,
and give you my results and my impression as to whether or not is
was a good idea.
Spear (4 points)
---------
"What does this guy do? He fights. He fights like nobody's business."
-Druss
I specialized this because hitting things is all about weapon skill.
With 100 STR/COORD, this character will have max weapon skill for
his level at all times. Once again, I cannot stress how important
it is to be able to actually hit things. Olthoi are a perfect example,
someone who did not specialize in Spear would probably not be able
to tank two Workers at LV 34. The cost was 4 points which is more
than fair for my extra 20 points of skill or so.
The Silent Spearman's Spear Skill buffs to 264 at LV 34.
Melee Defense (10 points?)
----------------------
To compensate for my mediocre melee defense base stats, I thought
that Specializing Melee Defense would help me compensate. To be honest,
I'm less than thrilled with the results because specializing Melee
D doesn't make up for the 90 Quickness you're losing to other templates.
After the patch, maybe it'll be worth it. Still, I'm not complaining.
I took this as a way to shore up what I saw as a possible flaw in
my Melee abilities and my Melee D is good enough to get me by.
The Silent Spearman's Melee Defense buffs to 232 at LV 34 (note that
you will have a hard-as-hell time keeping the 5,000p Superior Helm
that makes this possible)
Magic Defense (12 points)
---------------------
We need this spec'd, this template sucks bad enough against PvP mages
since we don't have life. My reasoning is, again, that I'm shoring
up a weakness of the class. Still, 12 points is th Magic Number for,
you guessed it, ......LIFE MAGIC. Man that is the choice from hell.
I could be a mediocre Life/Melee who still fizzles Imperil IV on people
at LV 35, or I could grab my pre-patch 13 points of Magic Defense.
I stand by my decision because 10 Focus/10 Self isn't going to give
you enough Life Magic potential with the TL template. Also, the TL
Template was BUILT for support mage :) You imperil and we whack away
with our insane strength and accuracy, crit a few times, and they
are dead.
The Silent Spearman's Magic Defense buffs to 155 at LV 34. Note that
while this is a fair amount, it is not NEARLY enough to consistantly
resist a LV 34 Mage.
Run (4 points)
------
"Druss started slow and at level 30 had no trouble bumping run
to 200..."
-Druss
Continuing with the theme of shoring up weak spots, I have spec'd
run so that my character jumps from "festering slug" to
"three-legged turtle". This is a questionable choice because,
a) I can duplicate the effects by just adding 15 quickness and save
myself 4 skill points, and b) the difference between 220 run at LV
40 and 235 is a big fat el-zilcho. Still, if the Spec patch is good
to me, I think this becomes worth it.
The Silent Spearman's run buffs to 215 at LV 34.
Arcane Lore (4 points?) might be 2, not sure.
-----------------
This can make a big difference. Using LV 4's 4-5 levels earlier is
pretty sweet, and this also goes with the theme of specializing to
shore up my character's low Focus/Self. With the Spec patch, this
is more that worth it. At LV 34, I'm just starting to explore the
wonderful world of LV 4 Items. If you started with 10 Focus/Self and
at LV 34 you can use an Armor V shirt that is Sho only, you're doing
something right.
The Silent Spearman's Arcane Lore buffs to 161 at LV 34.
************************************************
And now my trained skills:
Healing (6 points, got it at LV 7)
-----------
Healing is pretty sweet. It's benefits have ben discussed above, so
I'll just say that the reason I didn't train it right off is that
I used all my skill credits spec'ing things. Remember, you can always
train something if you have the skill credits, you can NEVER specialize
something after character creation. I knew Healing was a necessity
for my character and took that into account when I planned him out.
I am VERY happy with my healing skill at LV 34, though I have come
to rely on the skill so much that I wish it was higher.
The Silent Spearman's Healing Skill at buffs to 182 at LV 34.
Item Enchantment (8 points, got it at LV 20)
--------------------------
Here is why you should take Item.
1. Low Value on good weapons.
With Item, the ones you are looking for are the weapons with high
base damage and/or attack and defense bonuses. It doesn't matter
if they
have BD IV on them, or SK IV. Your ridiculous axe with BD VI and
SK VI and
whatever will be worth 10,000p and lost on death every time. The
weapons
with just high base damage and attack bonuses have lower value,
meaning you
don't lose them as often.
A note here, though: If you are an Axe Warrior, you can probably
get the Silifi of the Crimson Stars, which is no drop, and has great
enchantments on it, making this point moot. Remember, though, that
the Axe
requires a very high skill, meaning you will have to plow through
the first
forty levels of your existance constantly losing your weapons.
Obviously, because of Tickola, this note does not apply to dagger
fighters at all.
2. Atlan Weapons Are Good
Atlan Weapons are mostly useless without item magic, but with
it,
they become an absolute beating. My Atlan Spear is my weapon of
choice now
for almost all occasions, I can buff it up to about 8-29 damage,
0 speed,
+10 attack skill and +10 defense. And I will never lose it.
Axe warriors, this applies to you. The Atlan Axe is a nice axe.
Dagger guys...Tickola is still better :) Man that weapon is insane.
3. Cries of distress, and a base of operations.
I can't stress this enough: On Darktide, you want to have your
allegiance members ready to help each other out at a moments notice.
This
is why you need LS Recall. If our base of operations if Mayoi, EVERYBODY
should be stoned or tied there. We need to support each other. I
can't
tell you the number of times that shit has gone down in Mayoi and
I don't
bother messaging Suya'n because he is 1,000 miles away in Eastham.
No, 300 run does NOT make up for this.
4. Saving your ass.
Portal spells will save you lots of grief. Og cannot kill me if
I
have 50 mana, because I am a purple bubbleman before he even takes
a swing.
Getting jumped by three guys? Discretion is the better part of valour,
my
friends. Portal out, tell your buddies, recall back in as a unit,
and deal
with the threat. Just yesterday, Bass Turd and Dios came into the
LoD looking for trouble and I was out of there before they could
say "Jack Robinson."
5. Summon Portal
Even I, who started with 10 Focus and 10 Self, will be able to
cast
this reliably in about 1 level. Every body jump on board!
6. Teth
Being LS tied to Teth means that no matter where you are, you
can
recall there and get 120% return on your loot. This is important
since when you buy mana stones on DT, you will end up losing about
80 of them on death and have to buy more, and more, and more :)
Simply put, you need more cash.
7. On Darktide, you have to be more self-sufficient.
We have like ten members. I am the highest at LV 32.
No portal rides, no big-ass mage buffs, no big party excursions.
Be your own buffer, and kick some ass by yourself.
That is why you should get item. I'm very hapy with my progress
considering I started with 10 Focus/Self, and I'll be casting LV
5 Item buffs by LV 4o it seems.
The Silent Spearman's Item Enchantment skill buffs to 175 at LV
34.
----------------------
If I Could Change, What Would I Change?
I give you the best TL template character there is, in my opinion.
The Silent Soldier
Race: Gharundim
STR: 100
END: 100
CON: 100
QIK: 10
FOC: 10
SLF: 10
Spec'd: Staff, Melee Defense, Magic Defense, Run
Train: Arcane Lore, Item Enchantment
Healing at 7, Life Magic (!!!) at 35.
This is the best TL template character you can get, IMHO.
Conclusion:
I'm having the time of my life over here. High endurance means that
an Unarmed can hit you 10 times for a total of 70 damage and instead
of being almost dead you still have a ton of health :) Then you
heal to full in one shot with an excellent kit and come out swinging.
No, this template will never own in PvP. But that's not an issue
with me.
So there you have The Silent Spearman, Darktide Monarch. I hope
you enjoyed this little trip as much as I did.
*************************DT Whining Warning***************************
Now I'd like to make a impassioned plea for peeps to head over to
DT EN MASSE. The Source's time on HG is coming to an end, my friends.
Come to DT, where we can be respected by our friends AND feared
by our enemies. 15 people is all it would take to make us big enough
to get on DNN and start becoming a major player in this sum'bitch
:) The earlier you start, the earlier you get past the sickening
early days of weakness and into assbeating range.
My life on DT is one of solitude. Though I enjoy and cherish my
life as DT monarch, I miss the good people I met on HG, and since
I'm a selfish SOB I figures it's easier for you guys to come here
than for me to go back there :)
Hope to see you out there.
Comments and feedback welcome.
TSS
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