Training -
Extreme Skills Makeover Edition
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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.
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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!