Ryzom

ogreb42 wrote:Second, we've been wondering about the viability of a heavy armor wearing warrior-mage hybrid. Having the ability to have a few spells in your arsenal of moves would be great both in terms of spicing up game play and in terms of increasing your overall utility in PvP and PvE situations. However, it seems like the malice gained from heavy armor and weapons all but rules out magic use. Are there any warriors out there who like to try and toss out the occasional spell in battle? Is there anyone out there who has tried it and was disappointed with the results?

Thanks again!

Using a enchanted weapon is a the most use when using heavy armor, it go's off instantly (does cost you sap/hp) but it might help your team or get that add of your back. Most of the time I have a double heal spell with just sap/time/range credits (don't want to loose HP or at least not very much and when melee-ing there is enough sap for me to use) to rezz/help rez somebody. Using a hp/sap spell to help out your healer is also very nice to have.

Another application is using a dmg/affliction to get the attention of something

ogreb42 wrote:I'm still curious about a few other things, and would love for anyone new who has something to share about the subject to chime in as well. First, we've been wondering what the differences between the different types of weapons are. The skill set for a sword and for a two handed hammer are virtually identical, so we've been wondering whether they play any differently, or whether they're basically just the same thing, but with a different animation. Would there be an advantage to being proficient with multiple kinds of weapons, or do fighters typically pick whatever they think looks best and stick with it forever?

suppose I'll chime in here.
I love melee. I also love the caster role, and have seen pvp from both sides. On Arispotle, I was a master pikeman (250), 2hand axe at (235+), sword/mace around 180s. I favored the 2hand weapons since they're the big damage dealers. You sacrifice the ability to hold a shield, so that you can deal large chunk of damage pretty quickly.
1 handers play a more defensive role. With the shield, they have very high parry and as such, are great tanks for bosses. Dual wield isn't a massive dmg machine or anything, but they have their role in interupting casters from getting a spell off.

As for what weapon to choose, pick one you like. You can level any of them up at any time, so picking one doesn't have to be a final choice.

WRT weapon differences - the Protection Guide shows which mobs are resistant to which weapons (also shows a lot of other stuff). In a perfect situation, a melee user will be using a weapon that his target will have no resistance to (eg in the case of an Arana he'd be using Piercing or Slashing) and wearing armour that has high protection vs the damage his target does.

The weapons differ in a few other ways as well:

Special actions -
-Slash has Bleed which causes stacking DoT
-Blunt has Slow which causes a (stacking?) reduction in target attack speed
-Pierce has Ignore Armour which (obviously) ignores the armour values for the target, so you always do the weapon+stanza "full" damage.

These are offset by the differing base/max stat values for the weapons..
-Swords are the "basic" weapons which we compare to
-Axes are slower than swords, but can cause more damage and are Slashing
-Maces are slower than swords, but can cause more damage and are Blunt (I think the exact values for Axe/Mace are different, but the "big" difference is one is slash and one is blunt)
-Pikes are faster than swords but generally cause less damage (this offsets their Ignore Armour ability)

Theoretically (ie I don't know anyone who actually does this) the melee user also pays attention to whether his target dodges or parries, and also whether it has a dodge modifier on its attack, or a parry modifier on its attack. This means he would use a weapon with a 'good' adversary parry mod on a mob that parries, and would use equipment (armour+weapon) that has a 'good' parry mod on a mob that has a parry mod on its attack, or may choose to go down the dodging route. The 2nd point (the mob's adversary mods vs his own mods) becomes less useful when you consider most meleers just get their parry as huge as possible, but it's still something you could consider - technically you can do it but I think its easier to just get a huge parry.

This is of course all in addition to the aforementioned 'tactics' in PvE and PvP as well as the 'reaction bricks' you can use ("attack after...")

Some of these posts seem to prompt even more questions in my head, and sometimes I feel stupid for posting them, but I've got more...

Based on the resistance of certain mobs, do people generally carry an assortment of weapon types in case they run into those mobs? For example, on that guide posted in the above message (The Protection Guide), the arana are 50% resistant to blunt attacks, so therefore a mace wouldn't be as effective. However, a arma is 50% resistant to piercing attacks. SO while out an about in the wilderness, on the off chance that you might run into 1 of these, or both of these, do you carry multiple weapons to handle each one individually? (and carrying a slashing weapon would be effective against these two, but what if you run into a cuttler? 50% resistant to slashing attacks...)

I can see if you're going to hunt a specific creature, equipping the correct weapon for the best attacks makes sense, but then does that mean in your inventory you're loaded down with weapons all the time?

What about armor? I assume different armor increases the resistance to certain things, but agin may or may not specifically match up the beasties you're fighting. So do people keep multiple armor sets?

How do people carry all that (if they do), and worse yet, how do they keep track of everything?

wizaerd wrote: Based on the resistance of certain mobs, do people generally carry an assortment of weapon types in case they run into those mobs?

While this makes a lot of sense, it turns out to be impractical, since this would imply tht you need to level at least 2 different weapons. Common practice is one of the following (at your preference) a) use and level pike using ignore armor -- if that suits you --, extra credits and you just consume more hp and stam, but with healers it is ok b) pick another mob based on your knowledge which is not x resistant.. or simply c) well, be slower killing it

What about armor? I assume different armor increases the resistance to certain things, but agin may or may not specifically match up the beasties you're fighting. So do people keep multiple armor sets?

Same thing.. not really. A "jack of all trades" armor, is usually "good enough" to grind (with a good protection factor, for example) but one armor is good enough for most players. Most armors have good stats agains all 3 damage types. Afaik, people tend to, within reasonable limits, favor slash.

How do people carry all that (if they do), and worse yet, how do they keep track of everything?

Most players I know simply don't. Weapons, you are usually interested in levelling one specific weapon (you can of course, level several at the same time, but slower), so you are constrained at using that and armors, that would be slow, bulky and not practical


HTH
Ani

When i go grinding I carry all my 2H weps as I am lvling them all. I'm only 250 in 2H sword all the rest are over 200 exept 180 axe. Lets me play with the different skills and the varied lvls let me maximize xp. But I'm crazy . Most ppl carry only 1 wep-Kil

i'm weird, carry 3 or 4 sets of armour (general LA, awesome LA, MA, HA), 4 melee weapons of different sorts, 2 pairs of amps, and i still manage to complain about bulk for some reason!

but yeah, as i said previously, i'm weird

xythus wrote:but yeah, as i said previously, i'm weird

And you know... I never noted

It depends on the day, but some times, I carry so much gear, I have no room for looting!

That's almost always true when i"m mucking about with ranged (ammo takes up quite a bit of bulk).

I try to have a selection of melee weapons, in my case, they vary quite a bit in levels, but that ensures I can move the party up or down in mob type to keep both the experience earned high, and things flowing smoothly, and most important of all, to ensure we're having maximum fun .

I often regret my mace or spear/pike being somewhat secondary weapons, but sometimes remember to carry them so no matter what the resistance, I can do SOME damage.

I know that being a meatshield may not seem challenging or exciting, but I find the AI in ryzom keeps a tank very busy, particularly in the case of mobs which tend to attack in packs (gingos, ragus, and to a lesser extent varinx).

And yes, while in general it's a bad idea to level on gingo, sometimes it can be quite fun (noob's revenge!).

I consider Minou to be primarily a mage, with an ultimate goal of mastering all four magic branches, however, for both variety and because I know that a brainless mindless meatshield gets more parties wiped than not, enjoy the challenge of keeping the nasties at bay, and even on some mob types, being the primary damage dealer...