No Upkeep Knight Build?

[Mouse]

The patch notes claim we no longer pay upkeep below level 25. Of course I immediately decided to see how I might exploit this to wear expensive gear all the time. Forever a peasant, but a very well-equipped peasant! This is a rather silly idea so don't have a stroke whining about how bad it is.

Level 25 is about 1.58 million experience. The idea is to use the respec feature to de-level each time you hit level 25, costing you 50% of that XP and dropping you to level 21 again. Ideally we want a level 21 build so we don't have to fiddle much with our gear, so I propose this:

Strength: 14
Agility: 15

Skills to attributes: 6

Power Strike: 4
Shield: 4
Riding: 5
Weapon Master: 4

You can fiddle with this as you like, but the goal here is to have riding 5 for a charger and 14 strength for reasonably heavy weapons and armor. You can carry the following without ever paying an ounce of upkeep as long as you retire as soon as (or right before) you hit level 25:

Great Helm / Litchina Helm
Churburg Cuirass
[Polished] Gauntlets / [Gilded] Hourglass Gauntlets
Plate Boots

Heavy Lance
Longsword
Knightly Kite Shield

Charger

Of course it's possible that you'll have to pay upkeep even after you respec, or that chadz will now fix this now that I've mentioned it, but here it is. Enjoy! (Or don't and go away!)

[Spawny]

Interesting, interesting indeed.
Leveling to 22 would instantly get you 5 PS, which is enough to hurt people from horseback.
The only trouble will be speed. Wearing heavy armour is hard on your wpf and with 4 WM, you won't have that much. Could be solved at level 23 by taking 5 WM, but you will still be around 100 ish wpf.

Could work, but you'd have to be dedicated to being low level to do it.

[Kafein]

That could work. Either as 1h cav or couched lance maniac.

[chadz]

Interesting, didn't think of that tbh

Either way, I'm currently not too worried. If only a few use it, ok, if it gets heavily (ab)used, we'll find a way

[Spawny]

Interesting, didn't think of that tbh

Either way, I'm currently not too worried. If only a few use it, ok, if it gets heavily (ab)used, we'll find a way

You've got lazy testers

[Freland]

A simple solution would be that you start paying upkeep regardless of your level and generation if you have more than 30k (or 50k or 100k) gold on your bank account. At least this would prevent that people who are abusing the system would be able to buy heirlooms.

[Laufknoten]

I waited for those lvl 21 builds to come up. I think at that stage you can get a decent amount of kills and with the right gear you're not a peasant anymore, so playing will be fun, especially without upkeep.
Besides that I don't think people will abuse it, cause everyone wants to reach lvl 31 some time and retire, so people will probably make this a few times, but not for long.

[Tears of Destiny]

Here is the catch:
Not only do you not pay upkeep if you are less then 25th level, but you have to be Generation 1 as well.

Is it possible to get all of that gear by then?

Granted, you could just keep abusing the Respec feature...

[Cyclopsided]

I might make one of these for giggles, I had thought about it before this thread and made two builds

(click to show/hide)

Level 21 (762 569 xp)

    Strength: 18
    Agility: 9
    Hit points: 63

    Skills to attributes: 2

    Ironflesh: 5
    Power Strike: 6
    Shield: 0
    Athletics: 3
    Riding: 3
    Horse Archery: 0
    Power Draw: 0
    Power Throw: 0
    Weapon Master: 3

    One Handed: 1
    Two Handed: 118
    Polearm: 1
    Archery: 1
    Crossbow: 1
    Throwing: 1

then pump to

(click to show/hide)

Level 24 (1 308 577 xp)

    Strength: 18
    Agility: 12
    Hit points: 63

    Skills to attributes: 2

    Ironflesh: 5
    Power Strike: 6
    Shield: 0
    Athletics: 4
    Riding: 4
    Horse Archery: 0
    Power Draw: 0
    Power Throw: 0
    Weapon Master: 4

    One Handed: 1
    Two Handed: 134
    Polearm: 1
    Archery: 1
    Crossbow: 1
    Throwing: 1

And i thought about other builds, too. This one just seems the most fun for melee

[Camaris]

I dont know if it will be in any way a good idea.
Gear i would love to wear without upkeep shines at lvl30++
I wouldnt wear it earlier.

[Cyclopsided]

TBH, I don't think this would be a big deal because sure they can wear gear, but have awful builds in it.

[KingKessler]

benvenuto al mondo di mini knights haha

[EponiCo]

TBH, I don't think this would be a big deal because sure they can wear gear, but have awful builds in it.

With the exception of horses and crossbows.

[Spawny]

It's the fun that counts.

Since you're on a heavy horse, being 1h/cav or 2h/cav is a lot easier and especially 2h weapons like the morning star or sarranid battle axe hit like a truck with speedbonus.
Sure, 7 PS hits even harder, but 5 PS with a morning star will hurt.

[Mouse]

Interesting, didn't think of that tbh

Either way, I'm currently not too worried. If only a few use it, ok, if it gets heavily (ab)used, we'll find a way

I will consider this build to be chadz Approved then.