Ugh just need to rant...

[RolandVII]

Caution: This is the rants of a man blowing off steam be wary not to take this personally if it offends you as I AM ANGRY!!!



I understand that this world is low magic.... but it just feels like while mages and the like just BLOW through stuff with uber mighty sticks of power....a Samurai (who isnt even updated apparently from what ive been told) at level 8 (rp/semi-power built) cannot beat a group of gnolls alone yet I would get kicked from the server nor can i gain xp anyway from fighting spittlefist goblins even solo......and events seem (except the one with the fairy) geared towards currently higher power charecters.....Im not asking for an epic storyline or anything but maybe a Luskan invasion party for us midlevelers.... or veritas attack...OR SOMETHING. And for the not to rarity of magic users....magic weapons seem plenty rare especially for samurai which either have to get an enchanted one which costs like 30k more or less after all ingrediants...

AND the only cheaper decent one (because none drop) is 22,600 gold.......

plus it would be nice to have samurai style capes (which are unseen) so I can buy the stats without effecting rp..... the fact that (and i understand) I cannot mod into the game banner capes samurai style doesnt mean I should lose out on stats due to rp.....

Also idk if its just bad bad bad bad luck but gnolls seem to be rolling much higher now getting LOTS of hits on me including some crits for high ranges of damage.......

All im ranting about is there is no love for 0% magic usage classes and especially samurai it seems

and i am sorry for those who take offense but i needed to relieve some steam as its pissing me off

/end major rant

oh and ps I understand samurai are supposed to be hard to play but they shouldnt be completely gimp....((they seem like overrated rangers with minor paladinish skills...with really no other benifet))

[Cornuto]

After level 7 having a party becomes pretty important if you're a non-caster. Make friends with a wizard. They'll love to buff you and follow you around soaking up XP.

[Sypthe]

After level 7 having a party becomes pretty important if you're a non-caster. Make friends with a wizard. They'll love to buff you and follow you around soaking up XP.

This.

As a melee class, you should assume being unable to solo. Playing a character in the 15-20 range, I still find myself unable to solo even lowlevel areas.

This is intentional, from what I've seen. Sure, it's a bit tough for me to find something to do in off-times, but on the other hand, thanks to it, I have little difficulty to find parties to do stuff with when other people are online.

It'd be a double-edged sword changing it: if they make things solo-able, people will solo more, and you'd be less able to find a party (why bother?).

I'm pretty content with it. Either solution would have its moments of being less-than-optimal. I just prefer the side of caution Sundren picked.

As to your point of complaint on cloaks: make it a point of RP. Why would Roland have to wear a samurai-style cloak? Just RP out how he finds the regular cloaks weird, make it a thing to converse about. Go into a long-winded conversation about how these cloaks are much less good than the ones from Kara-Tur.

In short: why would Sundren have samurai-style clothes? You're an "ambassador" from a different culture. RP it as such, and boggle at all these crazy folks finding this stuff normal.

[RolandVII]

yes but it seems minimal buffs my level pallies and mages put on myself....dont seem to help much...the only buffs that seem to help is from higher levels...

[Dragor]

Three possible things could be the problem here

AC - to effectivly face gnolls you need at least 21(then only in groups of three) 24 is ideal (Highly recomment the use of barkskin scrolls/potions...scrolls are cheaper)

AB - shouldnt be the problem as I think they have at highest 18 AC

Damage - Its all about Strength

I would require more specific information about your build/equipment to offer any more

Advise taking a deep breath then identifying which of the three things you need to improve...then finding a way to improve it/them

(I also have terrible luck with crits...the game engine activly conspires against certain people)

[TakenByTheStormX]

lol or you can blow feats on imp combat expertise and tower shield prof, that should get you high enough to do argyle later on if you get a cold iron katana

[Sypthe]

yes but it seems minimal buffs my level pallies and mages put on myself....dont seem to help much...the only buffs that seem to help is from higher levels...

That's what IC solutions are for.

- "In Kara-Tur, one of the lessons my elders taught me is that it is better to enhance everybody a bit, than to enhance one person fully.

Consider a group of hares - would .... [insert random analogy]"

[RolandVII]

Three possible things could be the problem here

AC - to effectivly face gnolls you need at least 21(then only in groups of three) 24 is ideal (Highly recomment the use of barkskin scrolls/potions...scrolls are cheaper)
I have 23 with dodge....
AB - shouldnt be the problem as I think they have at highest 18 AC
i hit fine its damage i seem to be lacking due to the lack of choices with katana.....a spear with +1 and something else? from mud tribe is easy but katana you have to make or get the 22k one and both options are expensive

I would require more specific information about your build/equipment to offer any more
I could log in to tell you more if you want

Advise taking a deep breath then identifying which of the three things you need to improve...then finding a way to improve it/them
not much imporvable...


(I also have terrible luck with crits...the game engine activly conspires against certain people)

answer under suggestions

[RolandVII]

lol or you can blow feats on imp combat expertise and tower shield prof, that should get you high enough to do argyle later on if you get a cold iron katana

again like capes would break the rp of the samurai....

thats like telling a LG paladin to use a dagger of evil aura...

or a druid cutting down the forest completely......

it isnt in charecter to use a sheild or a cape

[Dragor]

answer under suggestions

Which one is the weakness? Damage or AC?

at lvl 8 with a high BA-Progression class and duel wielding you should be getting three attacks if your STR is 16 + you should be landing consistently on two of them if youre using the katana Wakisashi(?) combo the gnolls have 25-30hp i think you should be doing somewhere between 3 and 18 per hit so you should be killing them at most in 4 rounds

Gnolls get one attack per round and the macemen can crit up in the high 20's but base do more around 6-8

if your AC is lower than 20 they will hit you more than 50% of the time

When my archer was going through there at lvl 6 he had 24 AC with tower shield and 16 str and was able to melee them one on one (he only had one attack per round then so and with the -2 ab penalty from the tower shield it took a while to kill them)

[RolandVII]

Which one is the weakness? Damage or AC?

at lvl 8 with a high BA-Progression class and duel wielding you should be getting three attacks if your STR is 16 + you should be landing consistently on two of them if youre using the katana Wakisashi(?) combo the gnolls have 25-30hp i think you should be doing somewhere between 3 and 18 per hit so you should be killing them at most in 4 rounds

Gnolls get one attack per round and the macemen can crit up in the high 20's but base do more around 6-8

if your AC is lower than 20 they will hit you more than 50% of the time

When my archer was going through there at lvl 6 he had 24 AC with tower shield and 16 str and was able to melee them one on one (he only had one attack per round then so and with the -2 ab penalty from the tower shield it took a while to kill them)

acutally im hitting them around 6-12 per hit and hitting 2 to 3 hits per round

they hit 14-18 NORMAL strikes and crit for 21-24

they definatly have much more then 40 hp

as I said my ac is 23 +1 against current target

[Dragor]

acutally im hitting them around 6-12 per hit and hitting 2 to 3 hits per round

they hit 14-18 NORMAL strikes and crit for 21-24

they definatly have much more then 40 hp

as I said my ac is 23 +1 against current target

they have 35 at most because the orcs have an even 40

scrolls/potions of barkskin will put you at 25+1 against current target which means they will need to roll a 17 I think to hit you

this being said if you are fighting 6 at once you could still eat it

you could probably take four at once but you are still going to take hits

One trick I found out was to always get the archers to draw their sword as they seem to have more trouble hitting that way then take out any macemen/spearmen then goblins then shamans then reg gnolls then take out the archers

the macemen and spearmen are the heavy hitters but only have 16 AC so they die fast

As a rule you want to take out the things you can kill the fastest first..unless they pose no threat to hitting you if you focus on the reg gnolls you will miss a few more times and give the spearmen/macemen more rounds to have a chance to crit you

[ThePaganKing]

Not sure why you are having so much trouble in Viridale with your AC and two weapon wielding. What you don't understand, possibly, is the samurai build gives you two weapon wielding without having to have the Dexterity for it. therefore, you can build a strength, dual wielding class that can wear heavy armor, which means you get all the bonuses of dual wielding plus the strength to put some real damage on things.....a very good bonus.

Try using tactics, like using a longbow (samurais used those), to pick some off before they mob you. Or, find places that only a few can get to you at a time.

I believe most areas, up until Argyle and Schild, can be soloed if you take the time to equip yourself and use tactics, even a melee build. I know, because most of my characters are either fighters, or archers, and my archers AC isn't that great.

[gbbishop]

Great point PK! I know a 5th level who can, by his lonesome, wipe out the entire Gnoll fort with Chief and he uses 0 spells. Not gonna tell you how, that is his secret. But it can be done. I will tell you he does use a potion of barkskin, that is just what you do. when out alone and can't cast spells.

[richardleitch5]

it may seem odd but the samurai can use, two handed swords, katanas, longbows, spears, halberds, there just called difrent names and look very very difrent but really they are more or less the same weapon....just difrent.

AC from the cloaks is no real loss as its the same AC you get from the rings and they dont stack. Hold Goodman has been running around with the training shield (1 DR (dont seem to work), -1 Tumble -1Reflex) since he was level 4 as i think it looks better.