Have a hammer, what goes with it?

Discussion in 'Skills and Combat' started by crummel, May 13, 2020.

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  1. crummel

    crummel Avatar

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    I would like to have some opinions, harvest a bit of your experience, learn two or three things.

    If it was possible, I would play a dwarf. Well, it isn't, I can't help it. It will have to do, so let's see what I can work with. With all that dwarvish background I like blunt weapons and axes, 2H is fun, shield is OK, so let's go this way. In the few first levels I used a staff and leather armor, mixed bludgeon with fire, put some XP into the Bludgeon skill tree, read some threads here (like "Budgeoners assemble!", "How to become an epic swordswoman", "Building a cleric", "Sword and Shield build" to name a few) and changed to heavy armor. Away went using magic because I refused to follow the suggestion to use cloth gloves. Some more XP into Bludgeon and Heavy Armor, plus Tactics and a bit of Focus.

    Recently I thought the added bonus damage of a tamed pet might help, and traning all taming skills was so fast and easy only with the help of healing my pet, that I dumped a whole lot of XP nto the Taming skilltree. What happened? When my summoning skill was high enough, I bought a bigger bear, a few whacks with my hammer and I was sucked completely dry of focus. Hello? Why, I GMed Concentration, 50% reduction, but still 149 focus drain by the bear... OK, I need to change things. And since everything is possible, but not necessarily advisable, here I am!

    So this is where my toon is at now: adventure level 87, Bludgeon 867, Blade 678, Heavy Armor 467, Shield 302, Earth 187, Fire 76, Life 205, Tactics 582, Subterfuge 131, Focus 137 and Taming a whopping 1127. 10 skills GMed, 2 Bludgeon, 1 Tactics, 7 Taming.

    After readnig a bit more it seems going for Bronze chainmail seems to be a thing if you want to get focus. Chainmail will get me a lower fizzle chance, too, so I could go back to use Ignite Weapon and Stone Fist. Should I drop the pet? Or is it viable to go Bard + pet? If so, what armor? What weapon? There is surprisingly little to be found about the synergy effects - fantastic threads on taming, but only on taming. What could I go with to make it work? Yeah, I could just try, right. But playtime is rare...

    Another thing that makes it really hard, is how to find gear. Am I really expected to travel Novia, visit each and every hamlet hoping I will find a trader who stocks what I'm shopping for?
     
  2. Adam Crow

    Adam Crow Avatar

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    You want constantan chainmail for added focus not Bronze. Look me up in game - Adam Crow, I can make you some equipment at a good price and help you with advice.
     
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  3. Violet Ronso

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    Hey @crummel I will try to answer many of your questions and try to give you a way to build the character you want.

    From what I gather, you want to play the Dwarven Warrior Style (2Handed Bludgeons, 1h bludgeon with shield), in full heavy armor, with the possibility of using a pet (bear).

    For your Armor, Adam Crow is right, Constantan Armor will give you a mix of weapon damage and focus, bronze would give you weapon damage and damage resistance, this is not what you would need! If you go full plate, you will only be able to use Earth and Life magic (and you will probably still fizzle for higher tier spells), but these should be your spells of choice to fit the style anyways. If you decide to go chainmail, you can add a few spells to your arsenal, but I wouldn't recommend using too many spells, as your weapon will be the main source of damage.

    For your weapon, any 2handed bludgeon works, if you prefer hammers, go hammers, if you prefer axes, go axes, this one is a preference choice. The materials would be Bronze, and the Handle I can't remember the best options, but there are 2 decent ones.

    For spells, this highly depends on your specialisations. If you decide to go Bludgeon+Heavy or Heavy+Tactics, leave your spell casting to a minimum, I would recommend Strength of Earth, Crystal shield or Shield of Ice, Soothing Rain/Elysian Illumination, Ignite Weapon (see below for a cool focus recovery tip), and some life spells to keep yourself healthy!

    For your Pet, a bear is perfect, and if you don't mind using other styles, Spiders are great for tanking, and the magical horsies are great for AoE. Use your Pets, you invested the experience, and they can always be a bit worth if you can manage your focus (which you should once you get different armor).

    And finally, here is my little focus recovery trick. First off if you don't have any, get yourself some food, and the blessings from the devotional fountains found in most Player owned towns, there is one blessing that gives you focus regen, which seems to be your current issue (you can adjust once you manage your focus better). The real trick is Ignite Weapon. Ignite Weapon will proc Damage over Time fire, that can crit, and still counts as a spell Crit. In the Focus Tree, you have a skill called Aetheric Feedback, which gives you more focus in your pool, and if you recently crit from a spell (Ignite Weapons DoT), you will receive an additional buff of focus regen (around 4.5 focus per second at 100!) This will help you big time!

    If you have any other questions, feel free!
     
  4. FrostII

    FrostII Bug Hunter

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    Some of us have been asking for a Universal Vendor Search in the game for years, but so far it has fallen on deaf ears.
    As it is presently (and has been for over 5yrs) the answer is a pathetic YES - you are expected to travel to over 200 towns and run around each searching... Amazing isn't it ?
     
  5. Violet Ronso

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    Yeah, it is bad, but let's be honest, I rarely visit towns outside of the first grouping outside of Brittany (Novia Market, Crafter's Town, Britt Mart, Silverdale Market) and even then, I feel like I waste an entire evening, there is no way you would see me randomly visiting the other towns just in case they have a vendor, unless they announce it in Trader's Chat. I would like it if there was a simpler way to find what I want, but at the same time an auction house would be such a pain (and I'm starting to feel like it is impossible in this game, due to how the crafted items work.
     
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  6. crummel

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    Thanks for your input, I really appreciate that.

    No, not necessarily. I am willing to drop the pet, or even the hammer. I am tempted to try the bard skilltree, but I guess it is more a support role thing. But first I will try what you wrote above. My Strength of Earth is quite high already anyway, but I will have to look for Elysian Illumination.

    Speaking of armor and knowing which specific kind of armor to get, I think I've found the answers in this handy overview: http://sotawiki.net/sota/Materials - so yes, as you wrote, Constantan armor and Bronze weapon.

    I do get that there is no vendor search, the game being very "back to the roots" and all. It is expected that players advertise their stock and make themselves seen in an RP kind of way, I guess.
     
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  7. Violet Ronso

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    Well, if you ever need help with another template, don't hesitate to ask me! I must change my template every other release if not more, even now, I hesitate to change it again even though I've already invested so much into this build.
     
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  8. Boris Mondragon

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    @crummel ; Brother you went blunt and I am
    Swords, different style yet same objective. We want to kill things up close and quickly. Others have made great suggestions and I will add a couple that help me kill things fast.

    Armor: I stick to chain to be able to cast a few spells from water tree. I love body slam which stuns for enough time to turn behind the mob and in your case pummel it without the mob being able to dodge or parry while you are behind them. I use both bronze for dmg - dmg resist on non mages and constantan for dmg - extra focus on mages that do not do physical dmg .

    Extra helpful spells : strength of earth at 128 gives you 40 extra str and if you wear a well Masterworked
    Chest of Galaism throws another pct more strength on it. Mine bumps it to 50 str for 30 minutes. I farm the Rise and only use cheap food like Bear steak and potatoes with crocodile skewers, 2 hours of extra str as well as health and focus regeneration. For blessings I recommend the focus regeneration and adv level until your level goes up.

    Spells: get the fireproof spell, douse, shield of ice for mages and death shield for non mages along with def stance, fortify defenses and glancing blow. I farmed Crag Foothills till level 100 then the Rise and about to hit level 130.

    Most fun is to add silent movement so they don’t see you then body slam , turn behind them in one motion and dispatch them before they can even turn to see you. When you kill them either give last dwarven rites or tell them they were not worthy to look at your face. “Grins” R/Boris/El Pirata
     
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  9. Violet Ronso

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    Yup, nice addition @Boris Mondragon! All these tips help a lot as well. I will admit, as I am Water+Heavy, I REALLY love my Ice shield which brings me Avoidance, Fire Resistance AND water attunement (making my soothing rain stronger), so since it is so versatile, and fits my style better, I rarely use the other shields, they also last less long so if I can have that less to manage I will take it.

    Another 2 spells Boris forgot to mention, especially useful against elven mages, are Celestial blessing and Purify, which both give Death Magic resistance!

    Love the silent movement into body slam tip though, might try that in Tartarus, mobs are spaced out a lot more down there, and will allow me to test this out very well I think!
     
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  10. Boris Mondragon

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    I also use four different decks, each one for a different occasion, one for the mage room including berserker stance which along with a fleet flute works wonders. Another for that pesky elven fighter at the entrance of the dog room. Last time we squared off I swear he died from a heart attack “smirks”. Another for the rest of non mages. Hell, I even have an elegant one for social events. Got to have some fun with this game. Now if you want it to get intense then put on your headphones and drop some good progressive house music on then kill mobs at the beat of the music. It can be inspirational. R/Boris
     
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  11. crummel

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    Thanks again for all your input. I am now busy mind wiping... 33 sec cooldown... wait a bit more... to level 40, then Spellbinder Stance, to finally get to Aetheric Feedback.
    Your very specific tactics about this and that kind of magic are a bit far off for my current state. So far I only killed stuff in up to tier 5 scenes, at least until I stirred up 3 skeletons that were still yellow to me... aaaand back to the Ankh. I don't know if I am doing something completely wrong, if I am simply undergeared, or if that is normal for where I am at - level 87 and only 10 skills at 100, rest between 40-80.

    Finding Constantan Chainmail was near impossible, I finally found to traders having Augmented items of those, but a bit too pricey for my wallet. Looks like I will have to grind a bit. Which is fine to get to used to skills and learn some more.
     
  12. crummel

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    I've had plate armor so far, nothing special, probably +2/3/4, and a copper 2H-hammer +2. The plan to switch to contantan chainmail means getting a whole new set of gear. I just bought a plain no-stats set from the NPC-blacksmith yesterday, and it still fizzles quite a bit, but much better than before, this is fine for leveling up some skills at the training dummy.

    I am still feeling a bit like the rabbit in oncoming traffic - I am a bit overwhelmed by the different schools of magic, pros, cons, what to do and what not. If I wan't to use some fire skills, and only if it is Ignite Weapon, I keep an looking through the skills. I see that the damage of ignite weapon doesn't seem to scale, only the duration. Hmmm, Highly Flammable increases the damage, nice, let's pick that up, too. Now, above in one suggestion the healing skill Soothing Rain was mentioned. That is Water Magic, the opposite side of Fire. As I've understood the offinity in water/fire or life/death etc. cancel each other out? So would it be better to use the Sun Magic Elysian Illumination? But then again this is Sun Magic and as such weaker at night. Is that substantial? The Life Magic healing skills won't get any bonus if I do damage. Well, they don't heal that much anyway, even at level 75. It seems everything has a downside - which basically is OK, but I lack the experience to see how much of a downside that is. You see the dilemma I am at?
     
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  13. FrostII

    FrostII Bug Hunter

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    Ask 10 peeps, get 10 different answers....
    Dewd.... go experiment, how 'bout dat ? :cool:
     
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  14. Lazlo

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    I never use much magic when I play bludgeon. Usually just a stat and a shielding buff. Imo magic damage isn't usually worth messing with for melee in SotA other than something like fireflies debuff on bosses. This is even more true now that there is warding in each tree (esp fire). Life magic is fine and can be really strong, even for melee, especially with fitzowen's lute, but you can do quite a bit without any healing when you have a bunch of stun/knockdown stuff like bludgeon.

    The more you play, the more that you're gonna want different gear and decks for different situations, but the best place to start is always damage. Bludgeon does way more damage when you're using berserk and berserker's stance, which wrecks your damage resist and avoid, so that makes armor pretty easy. You just use whatever is available to you that gives you the most damage. That's gonna be stuff with str and weapon damage. Can just equip gear pieces and then check your damage glyphs to compare.

    2h bludgeon currently out damages dual wield, so it's good for intermittent fighting, but dual wield with offhand attack saves enough focus that it's pretty much infinitely sustainable with regen foods, blessings, and harp of invigoration. I would never use a shield with bludgeon. You'll fall asleep before you kill anything that way.

    Simplest way to go is to spec bludgeon and tactics, use berserk/berserker's stance, earth buffs, engage opponent, regen buffs and harp of invigoration. If that gets you killed somewhere, then you use life magic and fitzowen lute. If you still get killed, then you use plate and drop berserker stance for defensive. If you still get killed, then go somewhere else.
     
  15. crummel

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    Not too much magic was my attempt at it, too. Just Ignite Weapon and the occasional Fist, first fire, later stone. But when I change to wearing plate armor that wasn't possible anymore. So back to chainmail, let's try that.

    Speaking of trying... Yes, I do experiment, but I am used to reading up on things first, gathering info beforehand and making informed decisions. That is a bit difficult with this game when everything you are looking for leads you back to the same 2 sites. But I am slowly finding more and more, and the community is indeed very helpful. Thanks for that!
     
  16. Violet Ronso

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    First off, answering some things from both posts :

    Actually that is not entirely true. You can bring both Fire and Water magic up, and neither will have an impact on one another. What will have an impact is if you specialize in one of them, then, you will notice that you lose Resistance in the oposite school, so as long as you do not plan to specialize in a magic school, you are good to go!

    Yep, this is a good play. Actually, many of the effects in magic schools are boosted by 3 different possible factors.
    1. Skill level. This doesn't need much explaining, bring it higher, make it better (not necessarily always the damage, sometimes it is only the duration, this is true).
    2. Enchantments. Chest armor, Jewellery and Weapons can benefit from special enchantments when you gem them with the right kind of gem first (ruby = Sorcery gem = fire magic enchantments). Some enchantments can buff some of your spells!
    3. Attunement. Attunement comes from MANY sources. The average of your 10 highest skills/spells/passives in the magic tree, Gems on your gear, some blessings, magical shields (ex. Immolation will buff your fire attunement), and artifacts. Raising this means more power in all your spells for that school!

    This means to buff your ignite weapon, you could want to look at all 3 of those things (actually skip the enchants, I can already tell you there is no enchantment to make ignite weapon stronger).

    That is actually the ONLY thing you should do with that gear, NPC gear offers no stats, no benefits, what you want is crafted gear. Crafted gear can be obtained from other players (or their vendors), or from loot if you are lucky, the only thing is usually a piece of gear in loot will be something a crafter decided wasn't even worth trying to sell, so he sold it to an NPC for a minuscule amount, so dont count on loot to buff you up too much. Many people will offer you a first set (Like I did), take it, it will change your life!

    This is very true, but if you look back at my Ignite weapon tip, by raising your life attunement, your life skills will heal a bit more! You can always use potions, Healing Potions are actually pretty good nowadays, so you might want to invest in some!



    Now I will describe you my Bludgeon build, take note I am Heavy Armor Specialisation and Water Magic Specialisation, so I am not using the most optimal setup for you, I am using what fits ME.

    Armor : 4 Pieces of Bronze Chainmail. I should actually just swap this out for constantan because I am always using Berserker's stance and Berserk, which both reduce my Damage Resistance (to 0) and my Avoidance. My helm is a cabalist hood, but an extra piece of chainmail would be fine here.

    Weapon : Bronze 2H hammer with a lot of Strength and Crushing blow damage masterwork. Since I am not specializaed in bludgeon, I did not pick up all the skills, I only use Crushingg Blow, Knockdown and Break Armor, with the occasional Ground Pound if the situation is good for it (more than 3 mobs if I am not mistaken).

    Jewelery : Anything that buffed up my strength.

    Attunement Gems : All Tempestry to buff my water magic.

    Elemental Shield : Shield of Ice, I use this because it gives me fire resistance (good against mages), Avoidance (Good against physical damage), and Water Attunement (good for everything in my build).
    Strength of Earth to hit harder, Soothing Rain to keep me topped up, with my Water Elemental for the extra heals. Like mentionned before I use Berserkers stance and Berserk, both will buff my damage, Douse to increase my fire resistance when fighting mages, Body slam because HOLY this hits hard and stuns for so long with specialization. Some potions just in case, especially for my focus, and then a mix of my damaging glyphs, some defensive glyphs (like Glancing Blow and Parry), Healing Touch for emergency heals when my potions are on cooldown and my water elemental is busy healing himself (idiot) and then probably a few other little skills here and there that I forget.

    Note that I am not specialized in using Bludgeons, this was simply the build I decided to use when in Tartarus because the Satyr Mages resist my spells way too much for my liking, and Bludgeon was a tree I had already invested in because I use staves the rest of the time.

    And yes, this game has SOOOO many different things to consider all the time, what I showed you was my build for Tartarus, but this build wont necessarily work everywhere. There is no reason to use Douse when all I am fighting is animals or physical damage dealers, so you will need to play around with things and figure out what works best for each zone depending on the environment. Lets hope these tips at least give you help to find directions!
     
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  17. Boris Mondragon

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    @crummel ; Brother if you can do 5 skull then a place I recommend from personal experience is crag foothill. Plenty of ore to mine, carapaces from cotton, trees to chop down to make you enough gold to get the gear you need while you level up. Just be careful with the skellies at the top of the hill and when attacked by a bunch, mages first, archers then melee. I recommend you only raise two skills at a time to make the leveling go a bit faster so prioritize your list and most of all have fun with it. Psst, don't tell anyone but for those tough mobs and especially any later on with lots of hit points there is a little used skill from the sun tree called "Blind". Only last 10 secords but the higher you get it the more it debuffs a mob's avoidance and comes in handy once you are done with the body slam stun :) It works for me so I use it as well as trip, poison (on daggers of course so it don't apply to hammers I don't think). In summary they say all is fair in love and war. Well I am here for the war :) R/Boris/El Pirata
     
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  18. Violet Ronso

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    Poisons will actually work on hammers, but their damage will be reduced. I use festering poisons on my hammer and still get the -15% healing modifier from it! Seems like only the damage is affected by the poison effectiveness modifiers!
     
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