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Since I weighed in last for Fight Night I, I thought I'd set the
bar high for Fite Nite II Spam :)
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Wow.
What a time I had last night.
Let me go over the fights and make some comments.
Mhali vs.
Herrimone
You have to hand it to Mhali here: she looked like a master mage out
there. I knew when the vuln stuck that she was in the preliminary
stages of a victory, but I kept watch on her health as Herrimone closed
and went on the attack.
The damage didn't seem that severe, and Mhali came right back with
Drain Health I.
As soon as Mhali's drains started landing I knew the mage was in the
driver's seat. I waited for Herrimone to break, but she kept on attacking,
and ate it from the first Acid Stream III that landed.
Things to learn from this fight:
-if you are doing insignificant damage to a mage and the mage is landing
drains, you have NO choice but to break, even if you don't hear a
war getting cast. Use the time to heal if you can. If you can't, drink
a potion. If you have no potions, portal out.
-if you have Life Magic, fighting a mage need not be a rush to the
attack. I think Herrimone would have had more success if she had traded
vulns with Mhali off of the beginning of the fight...Imperil II and
Blade Vuln II along with the high damage potential of "The Beating"
(her BD IV, SK IV, HS IV, DEF III Tachi) might have made the difference
between 2,4,6 damage and 6,10,14 damage.
-low level mages are notorious for running out of mana...Herrimone
just came in cannons blazing and got blown off the map, but with a
little more caution and more frequent use of her healing skill, she
could have worn Mhali down to a position of helplessness
Druss vs.
Drake Draco
I knew how this one was going to end when it was first announced,
since Druss has too much defense for even Drake to handle, but I was
curious nonetheless to see the outcome. It opened with Drake trying
to land what I assume was Imperil III, but it took him four tries
and Druss ran around the audience and engaged him in the centre of
the field when Drake still had his wand out. I felt excitement rise
in my throat as Drake's health dipped to 45/140, but he managed to
get off a clutch heal and it was back to square one.
I think both men were content to leave it at that...Drake chose the
side of caution and didn't try to cast a spell for the rest of the
combat, leading to the draw I expected.
Things to learn from this fight:
-when one melee faces off against a comparable melee, a lot is needed
to break the stalemate. Imperil III was a start, but Druss shield
alone has about 180 AL, so losing 80 or so points of armor really
didn't matter much. Drake needed to land Brittlemail III on the shield,
and Lightning Vuln III on Druss in order to take the win, but it would
have been a close call in each case as he had to lower his shield
to cast the spell, giving Druss an oppurtunity to hit for BIG damage.
To sum it up, I think Drake's inability to land a greater number of
vulns on Druss in the preliminary portions of the match was what kept
him from victory.
-the importance of Impenetrabily on your armor is shown again here.
Even with it on, Drake was almost killed by Druss early in the match
when he took his wand out. Without it? Dead Drake, 5 seconds in. Victory
to Druss.
Sister C
vs. Chinook
Imperil IV (at least I assume, might not have been, as I saw later)
SCREAM
SCREAM
SCREAM
Dead.
I don't know if she even cast Piercing Vuln IV, but Chinook went down
fast.
Things To Learn From This Fight:
-archers can't beat Melees unless they are robe llamas with insane
item skill and Life Magic. And now with hollow weapons even the robe
llama route is out. I really archers are getting the shaft as a class
as far as PvP goes. Basically, all Chinook could do was run or die.
I don't care if you have a 113 with BD III on it and Greater Lightning
arrows with BD III on THEM, you will only CRIT through a shield with
Impenetrability V on it and Armor with Impenetrability V on it for
18 damage, tops, unless you vuln or MAYBE brittle the shield. Even
Brittlemail can't do much unless it is Brittlemail V or VI, which
are harder than hell to cast and take forever.
-again, LIGHTNING ARROWS TO THE HEAD ON SOMEONE WEARING A MATTY COAT
ARE A BAD IDEA. The last time I mentioned this, Chinook disagreed,
but I still maintain that you have to shoot for the legs. If they
have Impen V on their Coat like I assume C did, that is 280 AL UNPARALLELED
vs. Lightning. That is 560. Remember that when you shoot high you
have an 80% of hitting the upper arms or torso. You might as well
shoot low and try to hit the legs or feet, or, in the case of mages,
medium for the hands.
TSS vs.
Dhali
The beginning of this fight was pretty disorganized, and once it got
going it was pretty anti-climactic. With Magic Defense now buffing
to 195, Dhali was in trouble from the start, and he wasted a lot of
time trying to jump on a flagpole at the beginning of the match while
I wailed away on him.
He didn't even get to land a vuln before I approached, and went into
Drain mode, causing me to break a couple of times to heal, and giving
him time to cast the Fire Protection spell he'd needed.
I switched to Lightning and came back swinging, making him drain a
few more times and get up his Lightning Protection as well. As such,
I went back to Fire because I could swing middle and hit his Below
Average vs. Fire Matty coat (stupid, Studded Leather Legs are POOR
against fire, why not swing low?) The damage came in, and I Dhali
kept up the stamina and health drains, many of which were resisted.
I knew he must have been hurting for mana, so I pressed the attack,
not really concerned about War because he hadn't landed a vuln yet.
As soon as he ran low on mana, I stabbed him with my spear until he
was dead. That's all there is to tell.
Things to learn from this fight:
-the five buff rule creates a guessing game for mages. Though Life
and War magic Masteries are pretty much a given, as is Armor Self,
the other two buffs are taken by Impenetrability on both pieces of
armor, which creates an interesting problem for the mage- instead
of having one piece of armor and being able to land an Impenetrability
AND a Bane on it before the fighting begins (and you can land another
Bane on it as the fight starts, as well as some protects if you like),
you end up with two pieces of armor that are Impened with no Banes
on them. To bane your whole body against Fire and Lightning after
the fight begins, instead of taking only one bane (the first having
been cast on your robe during buffing), it now takes 3 (Fire Bane
on Matty Coat, Fire and Lightning bane on the legs!). That leaves
you NO time or mana for anything else.
-to continue on this tact, I think Dhali might have made a mistake
when buffing, or at least in his armor choice: Impenetrability is
useless if the Banes aren't there on crappy armor. If his Studded
Leather Legs were AL 85 and he cast Impen V on them, they go to 235
AL! Pretty good right? Wrong! Against Fire and Lightning they are
a measly AL 78 without the Bane! (Poor = 33%) Man does that suck.
You cast Impen V on your armor and it gives you AL 78 vs. Fire and
Lightning? This is why the GSA is so busted, because of the elemental
protects. The scenario discussed here happened to poor Dhali, who
takes the higher AL studded legs for use against Hollow Weapons, but
pays the price for not using the Reed Legs when someone brings elemental
weapons to bear and he has a 5 buff limit. Similarily buffed Reed
Legs would have been AL 210 against ALL elements. AL 78 isn't going
to cut it against someone with 220 STR swinging a BD V, 4-16 base
damage elemental weapon when you have no Melee Defense. Dhali was
handicapped by the buff limit and the threat of hollow weapons. Two
more buffs would have made all of the difference for him.
Herrimone
vs. Zaknafein
This was an amusing start because of the almost simultaneous landing
of Imperil by both parties. For the same reason that Chinook had no
chance in hell of beating C, though, Zak had little or no chance against
Herri, though his Life Magic will solve that problem for him once
he develops it further.
Zak tried the interesting tactic of going into Drain mode, but some
resists and the fact that he had no shield up, plus the Imperil II
(III?) and vuln by Herri, made such a choice risky at best, the amount
of damage he was going to take toe to toe was too high to overcome
without war as a finisher. As predicted, Herri's "The Beating"
tachi finished the job as soon as they locked horns.
Things to learn from this fight:
-Imperil is a brutal weapon against anyone who has to drop their shield
or doesn't use a shield. Zak couldn't afford to do it here with the
loss of 50 Armor points looming over him.
-Archers just can't hang with the Melees once the initial vulns have
been thrown. Unless they hit for big crits when the melee tries to
cast a spell, they're locking into a losing situation for the rest
of the fight when they have a about 1,000 AL in shields and plate
to beat through while the melee swings happily away. the only counter
for this is Brittlemail and effective vulns. Zak, at this stage in
his AC career, hasn't reached a point where his character brings that
to the table.
Mizu-No
vs. Mhali and Zak'Nafein
I was looking forward to this fight, and man was it fun :) Mizu was
running all over the place dodging deadly Acid Streams from Mhali,
who seems to like that particular element (Dhali prefers Fire). Zak'Nafein
tried to land some effective shots, but wasn't having much luck with
Mizu sticking and moving. He did, however, have Acid Vuln on him,
which Mhali had landed in the early stages of the duel.
I'm not sure either party bothered to Imperil Mizu, which would have
helped. Still, Mhali was doing a great job of protecting Zak by draining
Mizu repeatedly whenever he engaged the archer.
Eventually, Mizu took the drains on the chin, and killed Zak'Nafien
who was handicapped by the usual "no-shield" thing :) Now
it was down to Mhali and Mizu, and the crowd was really getting into
it (I think we were all hoping for demure, polite Mhali to tear the
brash, overconfident Mizu-No a new ass- also she was 7 levels below
and everyone loves an underdog), making it one of the most exciting
fights of the night. There were Acid Bolts everywhere, and finally
Mizu closed to engage as Mhali cast Stamina to Mana. She cast repeated
war, but couldn't chisel away Mizu's health before succumbing to the
attack of the formidable dagger fighter.
A great fight by both parties, and our first real view of the fighting
prowess of Mizu-No, who deserves a lot of credit not only for leveling
the way he has, but for his PvP skills as well. I couldn't see any
mistakes in his part during this fight.
Things to learn from this fight:
-it is important for your vulns to coincide with the damage type your
partner is using if you are on a team. In this case, Mhali went for
an Acid Vuln and started firing Acid Streams, while Zak was firing
regular arrows. It would have made more sense for Mhali to hit Mizu
with Piercing Vuln and use Force Bolts instead, in order to aid her
partner's damage. Also, I didn't see Mizu get Imperil'd, and if they
neglected to do it then that was an oversight as well. If me and Dhali
are fighting PK's, and I have my Atlan buffed, (Lightning damage),
and we meet a PK, Dave gets a slap in the head if he FIRE VULNS and
uses Flame Bolt IV. Of course, Dave doesn't do this, but I'm just
giving an example. Choose your vulns for maximum utility with the
team.
-Mizu-No showed the important of breaking when you are getting drained.
A series of Drain Healths (as few as 5!) can have you at health to
low to heal from, and Mizu was obviously aware of this. When you're
getting drained and you're not winning the race, do NOT wait for a
war to break. It may never come, and you'll get Harmed to death.
Dhali vs.
Chinook, Drake Draco, and Druss
Dhali bit off more than he could chew here, taking on two guys beyond
his level and one near it. Still, it takes some big round cajones!
Dhali made me laugh when he debuffed Chinook's quickness right off
the start, and followed it with Weakness, a shrewd plan, but it didn't
deal adequatly enough with the two big tanks rumbling his way. Drake
and Druss hitting fun force was just too much for Dhali to handle,
esp when he got unlucky and fizzled his Piercing Vuln (a wise vuln
to use- since I'm sure Druss had Lightning or Fire Protection underwear
on) and also fizzled a couple of other spells. Chinook landed some
big hits as well, and Dhali couldn't keep up with the damage, even
draining. He eventually fell beneath the rapid axe blows, and I'm
sure that Drake probably took out the Hollow Axe here.
Things to learn from this fight:
-Dhali gets shafted by the 5 buff limit again, because his leggings
just don't do squat against elements without banes, neither does his
helm. Two extra buffs would give Dhali the Lightning and Flame Bane
he SORELY needs on his leggings. It would have made all the difference.
Matah vs.
Yhun
LOL...say hello to artillery girl. After some dodging and vulning
by Yhun, he finally paid for not having his shield out with a shot
that must have hit him for about 30 or 40.
After running away, he got dropped in his tracks by another bolt between
the shoulder blades. Matah came off looking impressive here, though
if Yhun had just kept his shield out and engaged straight away (or
dropped an Imperil and then immediately put the shield up instead
of going for a vuln as well) he might have pulled it out.
Also, if Yhun had NOT taken the shot for 40 while trying to vuln,
and had gotten his shield up afterwards, he would have won.
Things to learn from this fight:
-crossbows do a shitload of damage when you have your shield down.
In fact, archers in general do a shitload when you have your shield
down. Keep that shield up...I don't have to vuln Chinook to kill him,
I hit him for like 22 a shot without Imperil. Matah's bow was an 80%
damage mod, and realistically, Yhun, who had no missle defense, was
lucky he didn't get critted and smoked in one hit with his shield
down.
TSS vs.
Sister C, Druss, Drake Draco, and Chinook
They earned this. With every day spent levelling they earned it.
It started out with me trying to slay C who I knew would be trying
to Imperil me off of the start. (It was funny to watch Drake and Druss
run up and then burn right past them). She slipped away though after
I got her to half, and as I'd promised myself I was going to do, I
ran back to the audience so they could see what was going on (in a
real PK situation I just would have kept following C, so that she
couldn't EVER stop to heal...but those are the breaks), and I knew
I'd missed my shot at taking her out early.
I engaged Druss and Drake and waited for C to pull out her wand and
go into a spell animation so she couldn't run. As I suspected, Druss
and Drake were chiseled from stone and I couldn't put a dent in the
bastards, though they couldn't do much to me either. Chinook was ALWAYS
circling around and shooting by unprotected flanks and rear, which
for him doesn't take long. C pulled out her wand and I took off after
her again, but again I could only get her to half before she was away
from me and it was back to the drawing board. Somewhere along the
line I took an Imperil III, and though it didn't concern me much,
it DID open the door for some severe damage if my extremeties were
hit (hands, feet). Feeling the heat from Chinook's sniping and a couple
of mig hits by Druss, I jumped up on the tent and waited for Druss
to climb up with me so I could Brittle his shield. I hit it with Brittlemail,
but part of the problem was that Druss' shield is just too damn good-
it already has IMP IV built in to Brittlemail didn't increase my damage
more than a couple of points.
As I turned to jump off of the tent to the north, Drake caught my
now AL -65 (Yes, NEGATIVE 65) feet with a crit for 112, leaving me
at 4 HP. I ran and gulped healing potions while they laid into me,
and managed to heal back to full, ran back South, and pulled off my
Lightning Protection pants and replaced them with Blade Protection
IV Pants. See the problem though? That DOESN'T WORK AGAINST HOLLOW
WEAPONS (though it did work against the Ebony Silifi that Druss was
using). I was in trouble and knew it...C had gone Melee and was sticking
to me while Chinook landed consistant high-damage hits to unprotected
areas. I would stop and engage Druss only for the other two SOB's
to run RIGHT BEHIND ME (of course) and start kicking my ass for 10
billion a hit. (It's funny to watch Druss do it...I said "You
bastard!" to my screen as I watched his character stop next to
me while I was fighting Drake, tiptoe behind me, and start kicking
my ass from where my shield wasn't. He's been reading my buffing articles.
I jumped up on the tent again and landed Blood Loather on Druss' Ebony
Silifi, but he switched back to the Lightning Silifi which was BAD
for me since I had Blade Protection on. Somewhere along the line,
Drake started trying to Brittlemail my shield (I think, I don't know
what he was casting, might have been Blood Loather), he was out of
range though.
I'd gotten to about 110 out of 195 HP on top of the tent and jumped
off towards he gallery to Heal back to full. This was when Druss hit
me for about 40 from behind and I was down to 70, I ran, jumped OVER
the audience (who I hoped would get in their way) and tried to heal.
FAIL! And Druss was one me, so was C! Chinook was shooting and Drake
was approaching!
They knocked me to 58...
FAIL!
Drink potions, but they are beating my ass. Out of potions at 75 HP,
try to heal!
FAIL!
33 HP!
FAIL!
4 HP!
RUN!
And C ends my life.
Things to learn from this fight:
-I learned that you guys have come a long way.
-I want you guys to tell me what YOU learned from this fight. I think
everyone would be interested to know.
Then on to the closing ceremonies.
I can honestly say that I can't find words to describe how good it
felt to get up on stage and get applause from you, my peers and friends.
It meant more to me than you will ever know. Chinook will tell you
that sometimes I don't think I make much of an impact, that sometimes
I don't think I contribute much to anything.
Having all of you express your gratitude last night, and cheer for
me, was perhaps one of the (and I don't exaggerate here) most touching
moments of my life. Remember that the interaction wirth people that
this game fosters makes it more of a hobby than a game. And I can
genuinely say that you people made a difference in my life last night
with your kind words and applause.
Maybe after spending so long trying to find a place to fit in, TSS
is finally home.
TSS |
this page last updated 7/27/00
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| see pictures
from Fight Night II in the Gallery |
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