Polearm Build Help

[Mallets]

For my main, I'm making a Polearm build.  Being my main, I'd like him to be well-rounded.  And I like versatility & helping the team, over being an uber-elite individual.  Well let me just show you the two builds that I'm favoring, and get you folks advice.  Advice on which build should I take.  As well as advice on how to improve each build.

Basically the main difference between the two builds is that one has Riding, one doesn't.  Mind you, with the Riding build, I will still mainly fight on foot.  It'll just give me the option to be a little more versatile... and take advantage of having WPF in Polearms.

Being my main, I have each build at lvl 31.

(click to show/hide)

Level 31 (8 892 403 xp)

Strength: 21
Agility: 15
Hit points: 70

Ironflesh: 7
Power Strike: 7
Shield: 3
Athletics: 5
Riding: 0
Horse Archery: 0
Power Draw: 0
Power Throw: 5
Weapon Master: 5

One Handed: 1
Two Handed: 1
Polearm: 140
Archery: 1
Crossbow: 1
Throwing: 69

(click to show/hide)

Level 31 (8 892 403 xp)

Strength: 24
Agility: 12
Hit points: 75

Ironflesh: 8
Power Strike: 8
Shield: 3
Athletics: 4
Riding: 3
Horse Archery: 0
Power Draw: 0
Power Throw: 2
Weapon Master: 4

One Handed: 1
Two Handed: 1
Polearm: 135
Archery: 1
Crossbow: 1
Throwing: 54

Two important questions in bold below.

Personally, I like the looks of Build #1 better (mainly because of the Throwing).  I'd almost say 100% forget Riding (Build #2)... but with having Polearm WPF so high, I thought it might be smart to take advantage of using a lance from horseback.  However, I've never used a Horse in cRPG.  Nor have I played in any of the Strategus Battles to know how much you encounter maps that are open plains (thus effective for Cavalry).


Ok... I have an important question... hopefully you guys can answer.  Question#1:  In Build #1, will Throwing: 69 be enough to take full advantage of Power Throw: 5?  Cause I can go Throwing 83, Polearm 135.  Mind you I can wear anywhere between 10 & 20 total weight (I won't be full-plating it up, that's for sure).  Thanks for info on this, cause I'd like to be half-way decent with Heavy Throwing Axes or Jarids.


Also, I can go 24 Str/12 Agi in Build #1 like in Build #2 (adding 1 more Power Strike & 5 extra HP, but losing 1 in Athletics & some WPF).  But I thought that maybe having Athletics: 5, might be very handy seeing I'd always be a Footsoldier.  Question #2:  Do you guys think the 1 extra in Athletics, with 3 extra in Agility, really makes that much a difference?  Will it be beneficial on the battlefield?  Mind you, I like carrying a Shield with Throwing Axes, along with a Polearm.  The Shield may slow me down enough to where the 1 point of Athletics will make no difference.


Thanks for any input!  Much appreciated!

[Tears of Destiny]

If it is your main, you should make level 30 builds not level 31. You will retire at level 31. It is pointless to make your build ideal at 31 if you will retire minutes later.

[isatis]

more throwy

and as tears said, but maybe you don't wanna retire?

[Mallets]

Yeah, I doubt retire.  I'm a casual gamer (at times can have a busy life), so I just don't see myself retiring.


So I need more Throwing WPF then?

[Grumbs]

You should check out the solid builds thread (http://forum.c-rpg.net/index.php/topic,9160.0.html) or do a search here for similar builds. If you never plan to retire even once you could just use alts and STF's, since looms won't really matter that much especially if you're playing casually. You can take 2 separate characters to level 30 in the time it takes 1 to 31, and if you're aiming for 31 you may actually underperform worse at 30 compared to a build made for 30 until you reach 31. You should definitely try different builds before committing to 31+ imo.

Its up to you though, if you do go for 31+ make sure you have room to grow with the build for 32/33 and that you're happy with the play style. You will get looms eventually, just will take a while without retiring

Looking at your builds, 1 looks better than 2. Just make sure thats enough throwing WPF to use the level 5 throwing weapons (theres a complicated formula based on difficulty of weapon and your armour). Make sure you're happy with your speed with 5 athletics too.

The second build doesn't look too good to me. Think you will want more riding skill for a cav build. I dunno, never played cav myself. You could do an STF and try it out

[zagibu]

I think it was 13 WPF per PT once, not sure if this is still the case, though. So, for PT 5, you'd need 65 WPF. Riding can be fun, but with only 3 points other riders will rape you.

If I were you, I'd try both the throwing and the riding with some STF chars before making your final build.

[Mallets]

Great info guys!  Big help!  Thanks very much!!!

[Renten]

69 PT will not be enough if your wearing medium or heavier armor. You can easily get away with 120 polarm wpf if you know what your doing though so 135-130 wpf would give you much more PT without losing too much of a benefit.

[RibaldRon]

Yeah, I doubt retire.  I'm a casual gamer (at times can have a busy life), so I just don't see myself retiring.

I'd personally recommend retiring.   You'll get XP back a touch faster next time, with the bonus of either

A: Loomed what you want

B: lots of cash for what you want (Can get a couple of +1's for the price of your loom point!)



Also, I would recommend the following:

Alter your main infantry build, get rid of throwing.  Polearms are typically 2 slots, shield will be 1 slot, this leaves you with not a lot of throwing weapons - unless you are planning  on using the secondary mode in melee... and 140 polearm skill is a little crazy high.  The penalty is not that huge for having lower points IMHO, you really need to just pump them  to crazy levels for a ranged build or maybe if you're an AGI spammer.  Get another shield point, trade PT and WM for more PS/IF (PS first) maybe even sacrifice IF for more PS.  Depends on  what kind of weapon you're using though.


Your cav build  could  do with less PS, due to the large speed damage bonus, and possibly even add more riding and shield.  Again, same as above in regards to throwing and PT.  Most good horseback weapons cannot be sheathed so the throwing weapons will largely go unused.  Your survivability is in part due also to the speed of your horse, more riding helps with that. *Edit: Also, very often the "magnet shield" effect from having a high shield skill will save horses/riders that try to run me over as a pikeman.  Their horses are USUALLY still reared,  but it makes it incredibly difficult to damage the horse while it's parked, so more shield skill will save your life!!

Spreading your build over multiple classes is kind of a mistake IMHO and really only to be done if you are going to invest a serious amount of time into leveling over 31.  It just keeps taking 2x as long from there on out, though..

[Uumdi]

Also up to you, but you might consider sacking some of your IF and polearm WPF and max out PT, and get yourself 100 throwing WPF.

It'd be a shame to land a nice hit, and not penetrate to full potential.  But you can argue it'd be a bigger shame every time you see yourself blackbarred to know that you'd be dead with 2 less IF, haha.

[Mallets]

B: lots of cash for what you want (Can get a couple of +1's for the price of your loom point!)

Can someone explain what he means by "loom point"?  And so I don't know how selling it works either.  I understand how retiring and looming an item works (or at least I think I do).  But what is a "loom point"?  And how do you go about selling it (Strategus of course, but how do folks recieve your loom point)?

Or if there's a guide to looming/retiring... a link would be great!  Thanks!

[Uumdi]

It's kind of a rough concept to jump into right away, but somebody sends you their item, you heirloom it for them, and then you "sell" the item back to them for the agreed upon price. 

Say you sell your loom point for 600k, Mr. Guy sends you his beloved +2 Deli Cap via the marketplace.  To do that, you would put up a trade, offering Stones or a Straw Hat or something invaluable for his +2 heirloom.  You would then retire and heirloom it into a +3 Deli Cap, and then he puts up a trade in the marketplace, offering 600k for the +3 item.

On the plus side, you can find +1 items at decent prices, and be able to make probably 100k extra spending money if the exact item you were looking for were up for sale.  Say you really really love your italian falchion.  Technically not a bad item, but a really really odd niche, there might be somebody in the world who +1'd it, and then realized, hey it wasn't the best idea in the world, and they'll sell it off for whatever they can get.   For example, you can get 600k for your loompoint, and then buy a +1 Yanmadao for only 350k.  You'd have an heirloomed item and 250k to blow towards buying one yourself in the future, or being able to run full plate or cavalry if that's something you wanted to try.

*edit*  I meant to touch on the possibility of being ripped off.  Don't let it deter you - it's a small community with dozens of reputable individuals.  Being the seller, you're not in a place to get ripped off, because you have their heirloomed item.  But if you're ever buying one, buy from somebody you recognize and play with on the servers, or somebody from a decent clan even.  Its fun to deal with different people, and you'll probably just wind up doing whatever makes the game fun for you.  I've given people good deals, and people have always given me good deals back.

[Mallets]

Ahhhh... got it!  Thanks so much Uumdi!  I really had no idea what folks were talking about.  But it all makes sense now.  Appreciate it!

[Lactose_the_intolerant]

hey all, i didnt feel like starting anew thread for one simple question :

is the difference in between 120 wpf and 140 big?
what is the lowest wpf you could have and still be effective in polearms?

thanks

[Mallets]

From someone's post earlier, they are saying you can get away with 120 wpf in polearms if you know what you are doing.

And figuring things up on the Damage Calculator, http://infinitum.dyndns.org/crpg/calc.htm, with 21 Str & 7 PS, and a weapon that does 40 cut damage... it's about 2 points of damage if you opponents are lightly armoured... 1.5 dmg for medium armoured... 1 dmg for heavily armoured.  Of course you could have a piercing or blunt weapon (with varying damage outputs)... but basically in all scenarios, it's 1 or 2 points of damage.

So in my opinion... it's minimal.

Mind you, more WPF does help when it comes to having to repair less often (if that's any help).

Oh, and as Tears mentions in the following post, having more WPF does make you attack faster.  The difference between 120 to 140 is minimal... but can make a difference (at least more so than the damage difference).

So lose of speed is probably you greatest downside of having 120 WPF instead of 140.  But as mentioned, you can learn to compensate it with good footwork and timing.