OH,
HAPPY GLADIUS!
-or-
Swing it like you mean it!
Preparing for
experience hunting
As a gladius
wielding warrior, your first and only concern is becoming the best warrior
you can be. That means learning all the ropes in combat and in the use
of your weapon. There are several steps you can follow to improve your
skills with the gladius as quickly as possible.
First,
stick to the training dummies. They're fairly tedious, but it safer to
begin hunting with Rank 10 in your basic weapon skill, and even a few manuveurs
and defenses (see the Combat section for tips on dummy training). Your
next step in improving your skills will be some actual hunting. And to
do that you need armor, unless you like the idea of bleeding to death.
Do whatever you have to do to earn enough denarii to buy armor set #1 and
head on over to signaltower island. If you didn't begin the game with a
tin gladius in your sack, then you'll need one of them, too.
Next,
start hunting. How-to is discussed in the hunting and the combat sections
so go there if you haven't hunted yet and aren't familiar with combat.
At lower levels of skill it doesn't matter what combat posture you hunt
in. Wary, defensive, berserk, doesn't much matter. You won't be all that
much easier or harder to hit when you are skill level one in the gladius.
So use whatever posture gives you the most productive success rate. That
will be your focus for now.
The target success
rate - 40%
Now, the
number of SP's (skill points) you earn with each hit will depend on your
success rate. The number will still vary but tends to be higher if your
target is harder to hit. But, don't set your posture to a really high success
rate. Even though you may get more SP's at success rate 80% or 90% you
will almost never hit to get those SP's, and your SP gain rate is highest
the closer you roll to your success rate. Don't set your success rate too
low either. At success rates like 10% or 20% you will hit often but earn
little or no SP's because your roll will tend to be much higher than your
success rate. Your target success rate then is, and will always be no matter
how good you are at the gladius, about 30-50% (with 40% being the best,
roughly). The closer you can get to this success rate the better.
Of course,
as a novice warrior you aren't likely to be able to get a lower success
rate than, say, 75-85% (or somewhere in that neighborhood). This sucks,
but it will get better as you improve your skills. And you will likely
get a lot of experience in bleeding, too. But, again, that will pass as
skills improve and income allows better armor.
Word
of warning: remember that it takes a while to get off of signaltower island
and back into town. That means it takes a while to get to a healer, unless
one happens to be on the island. So, first make sure there's a healer on
the island. If not, keep an eye on your health level, allow yourself time
to get back to town before passing out from blood loss. Investing in a
extra luck! point as soon as you get enough role-points is a good idea,
too.
The longer the
combat, the greater the SP gain
Don't try
to kill every creature you engage. That is not your goal, not yet. For
now your one and only goal is to hit things and hit them as often as possible.
This means balancing your success rate with your fatigue level. The ideal
hunting target is a creature that you can hit with an acceptable success
rate but which is, actually, hard to kill. (At one time the creatures in
the Misty Vale were notoriously poor fighters, almost never hitting. And
yet they could sustain a great deal of damage. Pod creatures in particular
had fabulous shell armor that absorbed every blow. Thus allowing you to
whack away at them without worrying about killing them and having to waste
time looking for a new target. This made them the perfect training creatures.
Now, of course, they have become terribly dangerous, not the best hunting
ground for newbies anymore.) If you can find a creature that can take a
lot of damage then you can whack away at them until your fatigue bottoms
out, go to the baths, rest up and go at it again.
Right
now you will want to focus on the signaltower island creatures. From what
little experience I have on the island the crabs seem to be the best. The
fluvitar pups are good, too, but are easier to kill than crabs. Angry sea
gulls are hardest to hit, though they can take a good deal of damage as
well. Choose whichever gives you the best success rate and can last the
longest under your blade.
If you
manage to actually render a creature unconscious without getting too many
bleeding wounds or wearing yourself out you will be able to make two good
attacks in whatever combat posture you are in before the success rate bottoms
out. Once it does you have a choice to make. You can probably whack it
ten of fifteen more times and actually kill it (gaining a measure of satisfaction
and even a chance to skin it for what little it's parts are worth to Caprarius).
But if you are fatigued or bleeding don't bother. The SP return will be
zero (you don't get sp's for unconscious opponents) so it isn't worth the
fatigue and/or blood you'll spend for it.
Once
you are able to hunt the Sewers, look for sewer snakes. They can take more
damage than sewer rats and osecar though they are the most dangerous creatures
in the sewer. Your second choice will be osecar, the second most dangerous.
Later,
when you have increased your skill rank to the point that you are able
to hunt the Dumps comfortably, you'll want to hunt hounds most of all.
They can take a lot more damage than most rats and, thus, are worth more
SP's. They aren't quite as likely to have gems in their stomachs but they
do have them nonetheless (or so I am told, never found one myself), so
you may earn a little cash while you are at it. Pale white rats with crimson
splotches are your next choice. They can take a good deal more damage than
other rats but are very good at retreating. They can get away from you
if you aren't very careful once you wear them out.
Fine-tuning your
success rate
First, remember
your combat postures. This is the simplest and most effective method of
fiddling your success rate. Find one that works best with your target,
getting you closest to the target 40% success rate.
Second,
if you really want to knock that success rate outta the ball park try manipulating
the lighting. This won't work for novice warriors but once you get mid-
of high- level you can hunt at night (or in the sewers) without a light
source and get much higher success rates against creatures you would normal
hit rather easily.
Third,
aiming is a great way to tack on +50% to your success rate. By aiming for
a particular body part you raise your success rate. Again, not an option
for lower lever fighters, sorry. (Aiming is accomplished by simply adding
the target body part to the end of your combat command string. Ex: Attack
rat tail.)
Tips on maximizing
SP gain
Once you
have some money to spend, invest in a poor, or very poor, quality tin gladius.
That's right, you want a really, really bad sword. One that wouldn't put
a bruise on yer grandmother. The reason for this should be clear. This
will be your new hunting weapon. It is used exclusively for gaining experience.
By minimizing the amount of damage you do to your target you maximize the
number of times you can hit them. That means more SP's. I learned this
lesson the hard way the first time I tried to go hunting with an alanti
gladius. It took a while for me to figure out why I was killing every dump
rat with one or two blows. Once I figured it out I found myself a very
poor quality tin gladius and still use it today for hunting and training.
I keep a good quality bronze gladius in another scabbard for things I want
to kill more quickly.
Another
trick is to learn and utilize the swat sub-skill in hunting. This
skill allows you to strike with the flat side of your gladius rather than
the edge. That means that your blows inflict bruises, normally, rather
than cuts. And most creatures can sustain bruises better than cuts. Even
those that don't take bruises any better than cuts are spared the extra
damage of bleeding wounds from slicing or puncturing attacks. Use swat
in all your hunting and maximize the length of combat with choice targets.
Then, if you encounter a creature you want to kill quickly, just switch
over to the basic attack or a manuveur.
Aiming
is a great way to earn SP's, too. If you can find a creature that you can
hit with an aimed attack (in whatever combat posture, doesn't matter) then
you can get some serious SP's coming in. Aimed hits earn much more SP's
than a regular hit at the same success rate. So this is your preferred
method of attack if you can find a creature and a combat posture that you
get your success under 50% with. To really tweak the aimed attack to it's
highest SP gain, aim at area of the body that is non-lethal, like tails
of rats or legs of hounds (ex: att hound leg). This will cause less
damage to the creature, increase length of combat and maximize SP gain.
Swatting decreases damage even more (ex: swat rat tail).
Finally,
remember the practice mode from your first days of sparring with
fellow novices. This works on creatures and NPC's, too. By reducing, all
by itself, the damage you inflict to practically zero it is the absolute
best way to keep your target alive long enough to teach you a thing or
two.
The Perfect
Form of Attack: wielding a very poor quality tin gladius against a target,
swatting a non-lethal portion of their anatomy, while in practice mode.
I have used this method of attack against a hound and worn myself completely
out before killing the hound. One hound can earn Vino as much as 5.0 Sp's.
A full day's hunting can mean, in theory, as much as 10.0 or even, conceivably,
15.0 SP's, though I haven't yet had the patience to hunt this way all day.
The Gladius Skills
One-handed swords
10 / 5
Description
One-handed swords
10 / 5 Overall One-handed
Sword Skill
Easy-to-learn attacks
Chop
10 / 5 Attack from
overhead, mainly to head, shoulders and torso
Jab
10 / 5 Attacks to
the middle mainly, a piercing attack
Slash
10 / 5 Cutting attack,
target area varies but damage can be extensive
Swat
10 / 5 Causes bruising
attacks rather than cuts by using flat side of blade
Difficult-to-learn
attacks
Feint
15 / 7 A distracting
"attack" that lends a bonus to the follow-up attack
Lunge
15 / 7 Allows
you to skip the "approach" with a step-in attack
Pushback
15 / 7 Close
with your opponent and attempt to disarm them; difficult to
do, however. Also sometimes causes opponents to retreat.
Sidestrike
15 / 7 A two-handed
maneuver similar to slash but causing greater damage;
requires both hands free, however
Stab
15 / 7 A slightly
downward angled attack that causes piercing wounds
Impossible-to-learn
attacks
Sap
17 / 9 A bludgeon
attack with the pommel of the gladius, damage is poor but
can stun or k.o. opponents at higher ranks with good success rolls
Easy-to-learn defenses
Simple Block
10 / 5
Your basic block, effects all attacks but mainly the simple "attack"
Difficult-to-learn
defenses
Cross Block
15 / 7 Blocks
attacks from the side
Overhead Block
15 / 7 Blocks
attack from overhead
Round Block
15 / 7 Blocks
certain stealthy attacks and special maneuvers
Impossible-to-learn
defenses
Low Block
17 / 9 Blocks
attacks to the lower part of the body; a very important block
to know
Quillon Block
17 / 9
Blocks attacks with the quillon of the gladius (the handguard)
* Thanks to Retalq
Blade for update and correction for the Sap maneuver and the Push Back
manuveur!
* Thanks to Titanion
for information on the Pushback and Sidestrike maneuvers !
* Thanks to Megladon
Delphi for information on Sidestrike, Low block, Pushback and corrections
to Sap maneuver !
Tips on advancement
from Drexus Creshiando
"I say first off, learn an easy
subskill attack for your weapon, i.e. gladius, learn slash, spear learn
jab, whatever. I say this because if you pick the right subskill
then your success may be a good bit lower than your basic attack.
I know for certain about this in the case of the Cestus, and Cestus Simple
Slash.
From there I'd say to learn
basic to 10, then the subskill to 10
Learn a new easy sub and
get it up to 10.
Next learn your basic skill
up to 20.
Learn an average subskill
to rank 10.
Boost your other easy subskills
to 20 and, if possible, learn another easy subskill to 20.
Then learn a new average
subskill to 20.
Now you're all set to start
on your blocks, preferably Simple Block, to rank 10, another to 5, then
another to 5.
With what should be 6 attacks,
and 3 blocks now you're a veritable terror for any thug in the allies ;).
Also now you can't gain SP
for attacking unconcious creatures so I suggest if you plan on learning
ACM's as your second skill anyhow, save up the 13sp to learn ACM basics
to rank one just because then, when you KO a creature, type kill <critter>.
If you manage to kill it
with Killing Blow you're guaranteed at least 0.13 sp's in ACM and after
you're skilled enough to hunt thugs this can add up ;)." - Drexus Crechiando
NEXT
HOME
