Sooo.......I've returned after 12-13 years, but haven't played heavily since around 2000-2001.
I re-opened my account and logged into the first char I stuck with, (Alemaster) Durah. Circle 73 Barbarian, parked right outside of Rossman's peccary grounds.
Now, when I left, these taught my two main weapons slowly (at rank 398), but taught my defenses faster (Evasion 337, Parry 327, Leather (now light armor) 316, MO (folded into "Defending", now 332). They couldn't really hit me unless I was training what was then multi opponent skill. Now, even just one of them regularly gets light to good hits on me, so I get rather beaten up within a few minutes.
But they also don't really get me beyond 2/34 or 3/34 unless I want to stay and risk getting killed by what used to be a petty enemy. (Note: I had nearly 2k TDPs added by the time I restarted the account, so I've got to assume that the weight of various stats has been re-adjusted. I think I have 18ish hours to reset everything, but for now:
Name: Alemaster Durah Poignard of Ilithi Race: Human Guild: Barbarian
Gender: Male Age: 92 Circle: 73
You were born on the 31st day of the 2nd month of Ka'len the Sea Drake in the year of the Amber Phoenix, 332 years after the victory of Lanival the Redeemer.
Your birthday is more than 8 months away.
Strength : 42 Reflex : 42
Agility : 36 Charisma : 10
Discipline : 36 Wisdom : 36
Intelligence : 36 Stamina : 38
Concentration : 400 Max : 400
Favors : 4
TDPs : 32
PIRP Points : 5
Encumbrance : None
Luck : Average
Basically, I'm wondering:
1. Where to train my defenses. I'm guessing that while it did not use to make a big difference that my defenses were behind my weapons, now it does. So where can I reliably earn parry/evasion/etc without getting beaten up so much?
2. Are my stats all wrong these days? They were designed so I could be a quicker-learning barb, if weaker physically speaking. I wanted to make up stat deficiency with ranks.
I've tried searching for various guides, but I cannot seem to find much of anything that goes into great detail.
DHOROWITZ
MOTHRA
Re: Training, Parry, Defense in general, circa 2017
07/31/2017 05:44 PM CDT
The hunting ladder page will give you hunting options to try in your skill range. You could try baby or fledgling forest gryphons east of Rossman's for your defenses. If the peccary page is up to date, your defenses are closer to the low end than the cap for them.
https://elanthipedia.play.net/Category:Hunting_ladders
Have you appraised your armor, shield, weapons and parry stick (if you have one) for damage? Heavily damaged gear erodes your defenses.
Are you operating under any burden/encumbrance?
What's your combat stance set at? Adjusting your stance might help with both experience gain and effective defenses.
Have you chosen any abilities yet? That should make a huge difference.
https://elanthipedia.play.net/Category:Hunting_ladders
Have you appraised your armor, shield, weapons and parry stick (if you have one) for damage? Heavily damaged gear erodes your defenses.
Are you operating under any burden/encumbrance?
What's your combat stance set at? Adjusting your stance might help with both experience gain and effective defenses.
Have you chosen any abilities yet? That should make a huge difference.
RAISER
Re: Training, Parry, Defense in general, circa 2017
08/02/2017 11:30 AM CDT
The critter ladder was all adjusted with combat 3.0, things got moved around, also, your defenses are way behind your weapons, I'd recommend picking up a few more so your defenses can catch up and eventually move ahead of weapons. As an example my barb has 750-800 weapons (in all of them), but almost 900 in evasion/shield/defending and over 900 in parry. It's a whole new DR now, gone are the days of being specialized in just a very few weapons (which was better, now everybody trains everything).
STELLARMAGUS
Re: Training, Parry, Defense in general, circa 2017
08/02/2017 05:37 PM CDT
It sounds like your weapons and defenses are far enough apart that you'd need to train them separately on different critters. The trick is to stay in a hunting area that challenges the skills you want to train without being either too easy or too difficult. There's a sweet spot where XP gain will be fastest, and as things get too easy or too difficult you'll gain less XP per action.
With your weapons at almost 400 and your defenses closer to 300, you'll just have to train them separately. I'd recommend easing off on your main weapons until your defenses can catch up, though I suppose there's nothing wrong with training them separately. It's just less efficient.
I feel like I should also point out that the whole 'sweet spot' thing applies to most contested skills these days. The idea for training almost anything in today's DR is to do things that are challenging but not too challenging. For some things it doesn't really apply - attunement is still trained via power walks, which aren't really on any kind of difficulty curve. But for most contested things where you're trying to do better than an opponent/target, whether it's swinging a sword or shoplifting, you really just have to experiment/explore until you find that sweet spot. Then when you've out-skilled that sweet spot, you have to experiment/explore until you find your next one. It's gonna be different from character to character, too, because of things like differences in attributes, buffs, etc. A toon with 100 thievery and 75 agility is probably gonna be training on different things than a toon with also 100 thievery but only 15 agility.
With your weapons at almost 400 and your defenses closer to 300, you'll just have to train them separately. I'd recommend easing off on your main weapons until your defenses can catch up, though I suppose there's nothing wrong with training them separately. It's just less efficient.
I feel like I should also point out that the whole 'sweet spot' thing applies to most contested skills these days. The idea for training almost anything in today's DR is to do things that are challenging but not too challenging. For some things it doesn't really apply - attunement is still trained via power walks, which aren't really on any kind of difficulty curve. But for most contested things where you're trying to do better than an opponent/target, whether it's swinging a sword or shoplifting, you really just have to experiment/explore until you find that sweet spot. Then when you've out-skilled that sweet spot, you have to experiment/explore until you find your next one. It's gonna be different from character to character, too, because of things like differences in attributes, buffs, etc. A toon with 100 thievery and 75 agility is probably gonna be training on different things than a toon with also 100 thievery but only 15 agility.
2DUMBARSE
Re: Training, Parry, Defense in general, circa 2017
08/03/2017 08:33 AM CDT
I've liked gryphons around your skill range, although they may not move your weapons [much].
For whatever its worth, were I you I'd focus on back-training weapons so they catch up to your main two if that applies. In DR2000, you could get by with one or two ranged weapon and one or two melee weapons. In this era, your best bet is training as many weapons as possible, particularly as a barb to offset the TDP deficiency afforded by having few available magic skills. I'd also back-train armor if you only ever trained one or two. If nothing else, it'll give your defenses a chance to catch up to your offense.
The stuff above may not be applicable to you, but it was for me so I thought I'd mention it just in case. All the best in your journey.
For whatever its worth, were I you I'd focus on back-training weapons so they catch up to your main two if that applies. In DR2000, you could get by with one or two ranged weapon and one or two melee weapons. In this era, your best bet is training as many weapons as possible, particularly as a barb to offset the TDP deficiency afforded by having few available magic skills. I'd also back-train armor if you only ever trained one or two. If nothing else, it'll give your defenses a chance to catch up to your offense.
The stuff above may not be applicable to you, but it was for me so I thought I'd mention it just in case. All the best in your journey.
