Training: Extreme Skill Makeover Edition

[a-guitarist]

Training -

Extreme Skills Makeover Edition

Overview:

Training. You know it, you hate it. You tell Warrior McWarwar, “Would you like to hunt?” Warrior McWarwar tells you, “I can't, I must train.” Well, you're gonna be ranking solo today, so might as well read up on ways to either solo rank, or train faster. If you want to learn to train faster, keep reading. If you want to solo rank... look for an article by WC.

Basic tips:

Get your luck as high as possible. You will learn faster.

Get as high an Int and Wis as you can. You will learn faster.

Triggers! Macros! They are your friend... sometimes.

Triggers that will play a sound when an action happen rock. When training, you'll have so many things scrolling, you are bound to miss something. So when you get “Warrior McWarwar tells you...” it will play a ding noise. And if your client can, have it change the colour of the text. Do the same for “flies in” “walks in” “looks at you” or anything else that you might want to know if it happens.

Macro's work well. Training camo/hide and sneak/quiet movement? Set up a macro “east;camo;vis;west;camo;vis;east;camo;vis;where pk” Just don't spam yourself out with the macro. You'll get offed.

“Where pk” like you've got paranoid personality disorder. This WILL save your life. And trust me, they are after you....

Just because it says, “Todd the Magician” does not mean Todd is a mage. Thieves can disguise themselves, remember? Keep a handy, dandy note pad with known thief names.

You do gain experience by getting better a skills. Just remember that if you're trying for undead/demon/vamp and you're at level 30. You can screw yourself.

Autoexp will turn off exp gain. It is your friend, sometimes. Just remember to turn it back on when ranking.

Have recall and/or teleport, detect invis, and food/water scrolls or items with you. Have lots.

You learn faster when you are not thirsty or hungry. Keep full and quenched.

Milk, does more than a body good, it helps you learn! It will keep your thirst quenched and your belly full all in liquid form!

Now for the meat and potatoes!

Get the hell beat out of you! Training defenses is fun, if not bloody....

What I expect you already know: Areas. Where to train.

What you need to get to succeed with this section of the essay: A silver flute. A crappy whip. A crappy dagger. A shield.

What I expect in return: Your first born.

It's been my experience that the key to surviving training is to master defenses first. That way, when that trash, undead/demon/avatar wannabe comes in looking to take your head, you'll have a better chance of keeping their attacks off your body.

So, what are the defenses?

Parry

Two Handed (weapon block)

Shield Block

Dodge

Dual Parry

Riposte

Most classes will have three at most, while warriors get all five. The easiest to hardest to train is up for debate, but here's a general rundown (easiest to hardest).

dodge,

parry

shield block

two handed

dual parry

riposte.

Since dodge is the easiest to train, don't do it right away. Viri said that he coded defenses to be random, but it's been a majority of the players perspective that dodge will always make training the others harder, as you can't turn it off through "other" means.

So, when you get dodge, don't put even one practice in it. (Remember, skills at 1% do not advance). The first step in training defenses is to master parry, two handed, and start work on Hand to Hand. You can do all of this at once by traveling to The Ruins of Thalos. In the ruins, there is a silver flute. The flute is an exotic weapon that does low damage, parries, two handed and allows you to increase hand to hand. And no, this is NOT a bug. Viri himself told me about this.

Now, parry and two handed will master quickly, maybe about 2 hours at max if you're a low int/wis race. Hand to hand will not have mastered yet, so the next step is to do shield block. Remove all your weapons (read, "Your flute"), and wear a shield. Now, start wailing away on the baddies. Shield will master quicker than the other defenses because you don't have to split defenses between attacks. Hand to hand might master during this, but if it doesn't, don't worry, it will soon.

After you have mastered shield block, go get a whip (Rheydin's shop keeper has them cheap and horrible, the perfect type for training with). Now, make sure you have not practiced whip if you have it. Dual a dagger in your offhand. Why a whip and dagger? It is common knowledge, or at least was, that whips defend the worst out of all the weapons. This means you will parry less with it. On the other hand (or should I say offhand?) you have a dagger, which is the best weapon for dual parrying. Start fighting.

I've found that Blademasters learn Dual parry the fastest, followed by rangers/warriors, then bards. However, this can't be taken as gospel due to the fact that I've done this defense over the classes with different races and different int/wis's. Dual parry will master slowly, but that's just the nature of the beast. Once that is mastered, it's time for dodge.

Dodge will be quick, and with it you should be able to finish up Hand to Hand if you haven't already. Just remove your weapons and shield, and start fighting. You'll dodge like crazy, and hit like a fool, so both should master quick.

As for Riposete, I haven't done this skill since 1.0ish, and the training has changed since then. When I did this with my Dwarf Warrior I just wore two whips and started fighting. Took awhile. Not much to say there, feel free to add to this.

Now you have trained defenses. Excellent! How about weapons?

What I expect you to know: Some areas.

What you need to succeed in this section: Practice weapons, patience.

What I expect in return: At least ten minutes of cuddling, you can be the big spoon.

So, you want to be a weapons expert? Time to ssssslither to Sssssnakeland! Falen Dara is home to Igor's shop. At that great store you can buy practice weapons of any type. Just walk in, and read the signs hanging about. It will explain it all to you.

But why practice weapons? You actually train faster with them. That's no bull. (It's actually called a Minotaur.) So now you have to find something to fight. There are some differences in what you're looking for in training on when it comes to weapons. With defenses, you want as many creatures as possible fighting you so you defend as much as possible. With weapons, that is really not the case.

Look for a creature with high HP, high AC, high Dex, or Sanc. If you can find one with all of those, you've just made your life a lot easier. I might suggest Gasteride's Fortress for this, as there are mobs in there with sanc, and a lot of them, so that when you do kill that one, you just move on to the next. If you can't quite kill the guardian at the gate to it, there is a lost soul who carries a potion that is just tasty for getting through doors. Look west of Miruvhor for it. Sure, you could by a phase door potion, but this one is FREE!

Another way to increase your speed is dual wield. If you have dual wield, wear two of the same type of weapon and then you will use it more often, thus increases the speed at which you go.

Now you've mastered weapons! Time to grab the bull...err...minotaur by the horns!

So, now you can swing and block like a armadillo on speed.... what about that amazing skill called kick?

Don't use it. Ever. It's useless. (Not really, but usually there are better things to do.) However, trip, bash, and so are easy to use. But the problem is... they are just hard to do. Not because they're skillfully difficult, it just takes forever. So, to speed this up, find a mob you can do this on that will take it like a champ. Might I suggest Gasteride's Fortress again? Skills like bash, trip, uppercut, bodyslam, dirt kicking, whatevah, this is the place, my son.

But, what about strangle, Knockout, backstab, blackjack and such?

My friend, you've got the key components to master... one might say, the elements of your class... where do you go? Why to Elemental Canyon of course! Other zones work just as well, but this is probably the best. Rangers can hide if they need to there, rogues can hide, but what makes it very special is all of the little mobs running around. Since you can't use this skills in combat, you want as many tiny creatures running about that you have your pick of the litter.... and then you hit them. So, for combat opener only skills, this is the prime place.

Some examples: Knockout, back stab, black jack, strangle, assassinate, charge,

How about some specific stuff?

Balance: Any of the mobs in Falen Dara. Get a lot of them mad at you and watch their tails trip the crap outta you.

Counter/Dual Counter: Kinda tricky here. Find lots of mobs in a tight area, get them all mad at you in random rooms, and attack them and flee. Pretty soon you'll have everyone pissed with you, and all you'll have to do is spam “flee” and you'll keep countering as they attack you when you flee into the next room. Elemental canyon works for I this. However, watch as your experience to next level climbs...

Camo/Quiet movement: Rheydin. Yes. And do it at 15. Go to the ranger guild and just walk around typing “camo” followed by “vis”. What you'll do is master them in time... it takes awhile.

Air Thrash: Look around that mountain the dwarves live in, might find a nice aira to do that. Was that a typo? You decide.

Disarm: the Shire. There is a mob wearing an axe that can't be disarmed. Beware, he'll teleport you to strange locations sometimes.

Pick Lock: Head to Mahn-tor. If you have defuse, you can do this at the same spot. The corridor with all the coloured doors, pick away, defuse away. Some decent gear, too.

Defuse: See above.

Pry: I don't have much experience here, but the heavier the item, the hard it is to remove. So knock a mob out that has a pretty heavy item, and start trying to take it off. Lower your strength if you can (demon talismans and glass rings do the trick.)

Tune: Buy a low level instrument or find one (Same place as the flute from before has a lot of them) and just go nuts. Notice the high cost to tune though... might think of sitting in a savant controlled area when doing this as your mana regen will be much higher.

Last Section: Training Manners

Some basic "rules" for when training:

Don't attack someone training. It's a trash move and show no skill other than you know how to kill someone who is half paying attention and is at half health. If anyone wants to say “hard up princess” blow off. I don't care who you are or what your rp is, this is just plain bullshiat. Tell them you're coming, or ignore them. Or walk into the room and let them know you're there. Wait a little, if they don't get ready for you, then have at them. If they don't notice you... chances are they're on life support and they deserve it.... which brings me to my next....

No Life support! If you're gonna train, Life support triggers are not just against the rules, they're a shmucks way to do it. If you wanna play FL, be at your computer. I've had some the best RP I've ever been part of happen when I was training. Plus, if you're on life support, you're painting a large freaking target on your head.

Make friends! See a monk or Blademaster in your pk range? Tell them to grab a weapon they aren't proficient in and let them take a few swings at your head. They'll learn anat's faster when attacking a player and you'll make a friend... possibly one less person that will aim for your head later.

Don't kill mobs that you don't need too. If you're in the fields of Tarandue, why kill the mobs there? Why knock them out? You're pissing everyone off, and you're making yourself look like an ***. People do this because you won't rank with them.... I see this all the time. What does it make you look like? A jackhole. Why? You're level 15. You're not some major badass, you never were, and you never will be. But what you've succeeded in doing is pissing everyone off that is in your group range and you will rank solo, they'll get past you, and making your life hell when you try to get to 50. I've seen it many times. I don't care what your RP is, it's trash if this is what you're doing.

Are you done with practice weapons? Sell them to someone for a cheaper price than 15k that igor charges. If it's in your RP to do it, give it away. This is a good method because you make friends doing this.

Well that about covers it. These may not be the best way to do these, or the best places. But they've NEVER failed me. So I hope they never fail you. If you've got improvements, post them here!

[Anoneemus]

Informative post, I'll just add a few things:

To train disarm, all you need is to wield a weapon you don't know and disarm a mob with another weapon you don't know. If you're a warrior, you should be leaving 1 or 2 weapon types untrained anyway to make riposte easier (as per the warrior essay), so don't pick whip. Pick mace or sword or something you can find on mobs that you want to train with.

I find air thrash can be easily trained while ranking if you're a good.

Blackjack, find mobs that are immune to it. There are lots of them, some you may even rank on, just use common sense. One of the main things you left out is how failing a skill helps you improve faster than if you succeed with it.

Pick Lock, just find a door that can't be picked, although I don't know why you'd ever master this. There's one in the Flying Citadel.

I find the best level range to train most non-essential things is about 37-41. This is by far the least populated level range. Those in it are either training like you, or leveling to 50. Around level 30 you've got aggressive quest app wannabes, and at level 50 of course there are tons of people who want to stomp you.

And as for the ethical aspect of killing someone while training, well..that's pretty far OOC. You can't have a magic "don't PK me" sign every time you go to train, or else you might as well do it at 50. I've got no problems killing somebody at scarecrows, it's less cheap than trying to kill them while they're solo ranking beat up at 40% hp.

[a-guitarist]

I don't expect there to be a no pk sign. I don't think there should ever be one... that's not what this mud is about. But I've never had someone RP with me before or after they've attacked me when training. So, my experience is a bit biased there. And, no, I didn't send the tell, "WTF, mang, why u jump me, yo?"

If you're gonna attack someone training, they've probably got training gear on. If you're gonna attack someone ranking, they've got normal stuff on. And it's probably safe to assume they're fully trained. That is a "fair" fight. Now, a true pker should not be fighting on even grounds, I'm aware of this, never fight unless you've a) got the advantage, or 2) it's RP dictated.

Killing someone training? I dunno, that's cheap to me. Even more so below level 25. Once you're past thirty everything is open grounds. That's my basic opinion. Before that, all you're doing is using your power spikes to off some guy that hasn't reached his yet. (I use power spike as when you've got the key abilities of your class. Not when you are strongest and they are weakest.)

I guess... this whole manners section falls under my own, personal choice and "real life morals" that I just can't separate from any of my characters. I won't kill a person that is link dead if I know they are. I won't kill a training char. I won't pk below 30 unless provoked (they attacked me). If I can help another person out, I do. Specially in the case of it not impacting my daily life at all.

Why pk below 30, anyways? To pad your record? That's about it. Unless you're new to pk, then it's to learn. but still... I don't see any reason to do it. What does it prove? Sure, you can say RP, but wouldn't that be best dictated by doing something else? If someone's had a bad day and just wants to off someone else in game... then you've made your day better by making someone else's worse... that doens't add up. But, I guess that whole last section was supposed to be more a joke with some seriousness lined in it. Maybe I failed.

But, thanks for the addition to my post. I just want everyone to have the basic knowledge of a successful character, and what you've posted will help that out a lot.

a-g

[Evangelion]

The only point I'd like to correct is that blood does not quench thirst.

[Anoneemus]

Thread derailment is imminent, so I won't argue with you a-g. But that's another good lesson: unless I am sparring with another human being, I am never wearing training gear. Just the practice weapon, so hey, worst case scenario if they get the jump and dirt me I won't have a nice weapon, but I won't have sanc either so why would I stick around and fight? I would only practice weapons and disarm in out-of-the-way locations where I know my way around. And I go deep into them, and use where often. But yeah..if you're training someplace where you need talismans and rings, you should find a new area.

[WarriorCleric]

if you're training someplace where you need talismans and rings' date=' you should find a new area.[/quote']

I keep telling him that, but old habits (AR old) die hard.

WC

[a-guitarist]

Heh, I have really old habits I guess. I still wear them when I'm on scarecrows and what not... maybe I've got a lot to learn.

Regardless, I've corrected the error about blood. Thanks for the info.

Keep posting improvements/additions.

a-g

[Unknown Brother]

When I'm training I try to do as much skills at once as I can. If I'm at the scarecrows training my weapons, I'll be training parry at the same time attacking 10 spamming trip/bash/bodyslam/grapple on the scarecrows.

[a-guitarist]

I find that dirt kicking flies there as well. "di scare;di 2.scare;di 3.scare;di 4.scare;di crow;di 2.crow" so on. And just keep it up throughout training.

a-g

[Kyzarius]

the thing for counter is nice..but you only need one mob...having all those on you can be bad news if someone comes.

my choice is always a guild gaurdian in one of the smaller cities just piss them off and flee/return

[KRins]

My only problem with training counter is that it seems like you stop countering if said cabal guard (they are my counter teacher of choice too) gets to big nasty. I've even noticed it happening like this in the upper 90s of proficiency so I doubt it is just be blowing the counter alot.

[Anoneemus]

My only problem with training counter is that it seems like you stop countering if said cabal guard (they are my counter teacher of choice too) gets to big nasty. I've even noticed it happening like this in the upper 90s of proficiency so I doubt it is just be blowing the counter alot.

I'm still not positive whether it's best to train counter with a weapon you can't parry with or not. Sometimes it seems like I parry and dodge and parry and block every initial attack and my counter never goes up, but sometimes I parry and it does. So do defenses get in the way?

[KRins]

I generally train counter after my defenses...I don't know why. I'm fairly certain counter takes priority...but don't quote me on that. I also always use a weapon I'm trained with (mastered almost always I think, if not at least the 80 I get from pre-15 work)...No real reason other than in my wind it makes sense that I would get a preemptive easier with something I can identify the business end of.

[a-guitarist]

My reason behind elemental canyon for counter is... lots of small mobs. At 35ish, you'll kill them in one swing. So you have about 30 pissed of elementals screaming how you're going to die, you kill them all.

You pick up the dust to detect invis. Then you go sleep up for a bit (It's been awhile, and I can't remember if it was here or AR that had counter cost mana.)

a-g

[Anoneemus]

Counter does indeed cost mana.

[corpsestomp]

My only problem with training counter is that it seems like you stop countering if said cabal guard (they are my counter teacher of choice too) gets to big nasty. I've even noticed it happening like this in the upper 90s of proficiency so I doubt it is just be blowing the counter alot.

I had this happen to me on a blm.

[Pali]

My only problem with training counter is that it seems like you stop countering if said cabal guard (they are my counter teacher of choice too) gets to big nasty. I've even noticed it happening like this in the upper 90s of proficiency so I doubt it is just be blowing the counter alot.

I tested this extensively with Ilendriel. You're not going to counter against a mob that is at big/nasty or worse. My guess is that this is intentional, to prevent you from just countering to death big mobs (as I was doing to the black dragon when I first noticed it).

[mya]

Can someone please make this thread sticky?

Also:

You can train disarm in Falen Dara.

Just forget to practice mace, and go try disarm the slith builders in there at rank 24.

Talismans to drop dex and fully trained defences will aid.

[Balgashang]

If you're a spellcaster/communer I found that training spells in savant held areas helps alot with cutting down the time. And for those little ones like armor/shield/bless I just constently have up, even while training, by the time I'm done training weapons, or other spells, the staple protections are usually at a point where you don't fail often.

[Pali]

Minor protections like that I don't bother training... but prot shield, sanc or the like are worth mastering, if you ask me. Nothing worse than failing those when you've got an enemy 3 rooms away or when you're running low on mana.

[jekyllvhyde]

I've been training counter in Elemental canyon on the rulers, since they're sanced first off and only one direction to flee in so I set up an action to flee when they yell, flee if I fail to flee and when I do flee, enter back in.

I was wondering why I wasn't countering once they were hurt though, that was a good piece of info.

Someone told me to train counter on Seong in the Volcano but he beats the hell out of you. Hits me for friggin Mangles with his blight.

[Sandbox]

Walk around winter for a few hours. You'll master quite a few skills.

[Croyvern]

The egal is nice for practicing counter 41-49 ranks. Winter at peak. The pirate ship works as well. Just ask yourself, where is there an aggresive mob that I can take without excessive danger?

[Pali]

Don't even need that... just find a high hp mob that you can take without great danger and attack him, then flee whenever he catches up with you.

[The-Nameless]

Use troll king. Aggro, HUGE hp, and does not chase.