Report on my first hardcore team

[Dedzy]

Hi all,
I'm on the home stretch of my first hard core team/Normal and have some comments. This is what I had:
human lord
human monk
human monk
hobbit ninja
hobbit samurai

My first attempt only had 4 people in it, and got massacred. So I added an additional monk. At their 16th level, I turned them all into Fighters so they could use the best armor (and helm!). I was previously disappointed with the effectiveness of level 6 and 7 spells and thought I would give this a shot. It is really nice to have 5 portal points. Also, I focused on close ranged fighting skills and avoided ranged fighting for everyone except the ninja; someone needs to be able to throw bombs and powders early on. Because of the close ranged fighting limitation I was able to more economically allocate skill points, a must for hybrids. Anyway, I needed to cast spells at range for practice or to prepare for close combat, so I missed ranged fighting less than I thought I would. I have them configured to all be front line combattants, 3 in the center and one in each of the flanks, no one in the front area.

Wow. For those of you interested in a nonstop rampage after they turn 16, this is your ticket. Cast all the spells you want the first couple rounds, wipe everything out with berzerk damage after that, then move on to something else. No need to rest again.

The lord:
I set him up as a dual mace guy (mauler/diamondeyes), worked out very well. Strength and Dex were maxxed out first, and I am working on speed and senses now. The only time I put points into PIE was when I created him (6 points I think). The one complaint I had with him early on was that he was always really slow. You could depend on him to cast that heal spell on the guy in trouble just after the poor shmuck gets killed. Next time I would consider splitting Dex and Senses from the very beginning, while putting 3 points into Strength until he hit 100.

The 2 monks:
One was set up as martial arts. I had him first work on Senses and Speed. He is now working on Strength and Dex. He is always really fast and is the one I rely on for emergency heals and casting haste or soul shield on the first round, whatever I need the most. I am a little disappointed in the martial arts. He doesn't crit as much as the other critters (?!?) and now that he is a fighter, when he is on berzerk, he goes through stamina unbelievably fast. Also his total damage is somewhat lower than anyone else even after you take into account the extra attacks he makes. Next time I would avoid martial arts.

The other monk is set up as a staff specialist to use the Staff of Doom. I am very pleased with her now although her damage with shilelighs early on was pathetic. She first maxxed out Dex and Speed, and is now working on Strength and Senses.

The ninja worked on Strength/Dex at first and learned to use maces (nunchakas) starting in Arnika, she worked her throwing skills before that. Those nunchaukas do really good damage, especially for an off hand weapon; she has been second place for kills the whole game. She switched to mauler/diamondeyes after she turned fighter. I am very pleased with her as well, she levelled a little slower than the hybrids, but now that she is a fighter that is all behind her. I know that ninjas are not typically front line fighters, but I made her an exception to this rule. She criticals all the time, even now that she became a fighter.

The samurai also worked on Strength/Dex at first. He focused on swords and daggers, using Bloodlust until he got Fang. He led in kills the whole game because of his superior weapon, and does his fair share of criticals. I was previously a sceptic of samurais, but this guy made a believer out of me. It just took some patience, practice, and careful skill point allocations. Now that he is a fighter he can cast like a samurai and berzerk with Fang. What else could you want.


This is what I would have changed if I knew what I know now:
1) No martial arts for monks, it's too weak. The other monk would go for maces.
2) Since there are only 2 diamondeyes in the game (yes I had to have it so I attacked Das's flunkies too and reloaded until I got it, shame on me), I would have my ninja do swords and daggers. She would use the ivory blade once I made her a fighter.
3) I would figure out which realms each character needed the most and focus on using those areas. My skills were kind of spread out and unfocused in some areas. For example, my monks can only cast haste at level 5 with any degree of certainty. My ninja can't cast level 7 acid bomb. And my samurai isn't great at the water realm either.

(edit: wish list)

[ 05-03-2004, 04:27 AM: Message edited by: Dedzy ]

[Wereboar]

This is what I would have changed if I knew what I know now: 1) No martial arts for monks, it's too weak. The other monk would go for maces.

You mean no martial arts for fighters.
In my experience, a high level monk with martial arts (at high skill) has the 3rd highest damage output - after a berserking fighter and a backstabbing thief, but before anything else (including CoC ninja).

[Dedzy]

Okay,
Update on my 5 character team. I ascended the evil way as planned. A couple things I found interesting:

-> Ferro sold me 2 ivory blades. Sadly I was in no position to use the second one. Same with the Muramasu blade I was lucky enough to find. I gave him all the ingredients for the first one, then unloaded all the spare crap I didn't want to carry around anymore including some hogar tusks. I don't think I donated any rings of protection to him at that time.

-> Like other people have mentioned, the hardest part of the game for me was my first trip from the monastery to Arnika. Everything after that is easy if you plan your way around and camp on the vendors for equipment you need. I am fond of Crock's Ring Pro Magic and Bela's Cape of Many Colors before hitting the Rapax areas or Bayjin.

-> I went evil and killed every Trinnie, Higardi, Umpani, and T'rang that I could find. One interesting thing: Antone will not sell to you after you kill the town guards. I thought he would be an independant, kind of like Ferro. So I had to kill him as well since he was no longer of use to me. And Ferro didn't care.

-> While killing Al-Sedexus in the Ridge, she summoned 6 rapax templars. Although I took a faction hit for them, they were still green to me after killing them all.

-> A few minutes the T'rang went hostile on me, Drazic dropped from the group. A few minutes later Rodin (sp?) dropped from my group too and gave me a lecture. I bribed him to rejoin with 20K gold. And guess what? He gave me another 100K xp, just like when I recruited him the first time. Pretty wierd. But then a little while later he dropped again and turned red on me, and wouldn't rejoin.

[ 05-10-2004, 02:12 AM: Message edited by: Dedzy ]

[Dedzy]

Sorry all,
Another thing came to mind:

-> All my guys were level 26 when they ascended. They didn't avoid many fights (except on the first trip from the monastery to Arnika), and chased after several just to kill stuff for experience and practice. When I was first learning the strategy of this game, I saw postings about how some races will max out attributes at levels 30 and above. Well, unless you camp out at Ascension Peak for a lot longer than you need to, that is completely silly; When you plan on building a team, don't expect to get a lot out of skills you unlock after you turn 20. Further, by that time you're already a powerhouse and can burn through anything the game sends at you anyway. The next time I build a team, it will be optimized to kill stuff at level 8 or 9, when I head to Arnika from the Monastery. After that it just gets easier.