5.1. Template design
5.1.1. Base
120 weapon skill
100 Tactics
Weapon skill determines both you hit chance and your opponents hit chance. Therefor it's very important to maximize it.
You also need 70/90 weapon skill to use special moves. This is why you can't replace it with Mage Weapon property. You can't be effective warrior without using special moves. For example, Double Strike doubles your damage.
You need 70/90 Tactics to use special moves. I recommend to have at least 100 Tactics because you will get additional 12.5 DI for 10 skill points (6.25 DI bonus for having GM Tactics).
To use special moves you need 70/90 real skills. Bonuses from equipment don't count.
5.1.2. Damage multipliers
Damage multipliers are Perfection (Bushido) and Enemy Of One (Chivalry). You should have at least one of this skills. There is a positive feedback effect: less damage => less mana leached => not enough mana for special moves => even less damage. Without this skills you will be able to fight effectively only monsters that have a lesser slayer (like Dragons, etc) or have the second slayer (like Flame, etc).
I suggest you to have both. If you can't than take Bushido for melee chars (except you're going to Parry with a shield) and Chivalry for ranger chars.
You need 50 Bushido to gain Perfection. I suggest to have 120 Bushido if you as well have Parry. Reasons are WhirlWind Attack, Confidence and Evasion. Without Parry 80 would be enough (to get 5 mana reduction on special moves).
You need 84 Chivalry to get 50% Damage Multiply with EOO. I suggest you to have 95 to get 100% chance to cast. Some people think that it's not important to turn on EOO from the first attempt. Well, they are true... but it's very important to turn off EOO from the first attempt. Since Fast Recovery Time for Chivalry spells is 2.0s (0.5s with 6 FCR) you may be dead by this time.
If you going to use Divine Fury to get 15 SSI + 20 DI + 15 HCI you need 120 Chivalry (15 SSI is the most important here). With 120 Chivalry you as well be able to use Holy Fire vs crowd (although if you have 120 Bushido and melee weapon skill, WhirlWind is more effective because you leach life from WW damage).
5.1.3. Parrying
Parry is good to have. It helps a lot (especially in combination with Bushido) but it is not "must have". There are the most popular combinations:
- 120 Bushido + 120 Parry to maximize your defense
- 120 Bushido + 60 Parry to get 10 mana reduction on special moves
- 0 Bushido + 100-120 Parry if you use a shield (there is 5 block chance bonus for having GM Parry or Bushido)
5.1.4. Divine Fury
You can use DF for stats. With 120 Chivalry and 20k karma you get +20 DI, +15 SSI, +15 HCI, -10 DCI.
The most important stat of above stats is SSI. It's allow you to use slower weapon with the same suit. The difference between 3.00s 2H weapon (14-17 dmg) and 3.25s 2H weapon (15-18 dmg) is 6.5%. For 1H weapons this difference even more. The difference between GM and Legendary Anatomy/Tactics is about 6%. So in situations when you can use slower weapon you don't loose damage if drop Anatomy and Tactics to 100 and train Chivalry to 120 instead.
If your suits is designed to use DF for stats you can also use DF to refresh Stamina.
Maintaining DF on requires time and mana.
Casting time may be a problem when you as well need to maintain Concentrate Weapon on and/or need to switch Enemy Of One often. As a result if you haven't FC/FCR you usually do some swings without EOO/CW/DF or can't cast Confidence/Evasion in time. Without FCR you also do swings without special move every time you cast DF.
Mana cost may be a problem when you are mana-drained.
5.1.5. Healing
You need do decide how you will heal yourself. The most effective ways are:
- Cursed Weapon (required Spirit Speak)
- Vampiric Embrace
- Hit Life Leach (required good suit, usually 35 SSI without weapon)
- Healing (required Anatomy)
- Chivalry (required FC/FCR)
5.2. Templates core
5.2.1. Melee
Classic melee template could include 120 weapon skill and 100 of each Tactics/Bushido/Parrying/Anatomy/Chivalry.
120 Bushido + 80 Parrying gives you about the same chance to block (25%) as 100 Bushido + 100 Parry and increase effectiveness of Bushido skills.
95 Chivalry is enough for 100% succeed EOO. There are no much reason to have more.
320 points in Weapon/Bushido/Parrying grant you with 10 special move mana cost reduction (SMMR). You can drop Parrying to 60 (120+120+60=300 points in Weapon/Bushido/Parrying) and still have the same mana reduction. In this case your chance to block will be 20%.
If you want to use 2H weapons you should take Swordsmanship. If you prefer 1H weapon then your choice will probably be based on swing speed of main AI weapon (but keep in your mind that the only good 1H WW weapon is a sword).
Here is the template for melee weapon (595 skill points):
Weapon 120
Tactics 100
Bushido 120
Parry 60
Anatomy 100
Chivalry 95
You have a room for one more skill. Usually it's s skill to heal yourself (Healing, Necromancy, Necro/SS combo). If you want to add a pair of skill (Disco/Music, Mysticism/Focus) you need to sacrifice one of this skill.
Sacrificing Anatomy means 15-20% less damage. But it's impossible if you're going to use Healing.
Sacrificing Bushido and/or Parrying means less defense and more costly special moves. With 100% HML weapon you're able to chain AI even without SMMR.
Sacrificing Chivalry means less damage bonus. But with 100% HML weapon and max SMMR you need only about 100 damage to chain AI.
Usually you can have 15 skill points on your jewels. With reforged/reinforced armor it's like a standard. But it's possible to have even 100+ skill points.
There are situations when a melee warrior can do pretty well without Chivalry:
- Lesser slayers: Dragon, Ophidian, Terathan, Spider (Navrey Night-Eyes), Scorpion (Miasma), Air/Fire/Earth Elemental (Shame)
- Super slayer + talisman: Ice for 'ice' monsters, Flame for 'lava' monsters, Vermin for 'rat' monsters, Trinket for undead monsters
As you see there are a lot of places to farm with a pure Samurai.
5.2.2. Ranged
Ranged templates are very similar except you needn't Parrying. Without Parrying there's no much difference between 120 and 80 Bushido. In both cases you get only 5 SMMR. Since 50 HML is max for ranged weapons you can get problems with chaining special moves. Possible decisions are studded/stone armor (55 LMC) and Yumi (Double Short usually does more damage than Armor Ignore).
Here is the template for melee weapon (495 skill points):
Weapon 120
Tactics 100
Bushido 80
Anatomy 100
Chivalry 95
Archery has some advantages over Throwing:
- Range doesn't depends on your Strength
- Thrower does about two times less damage on the last quoter of his range
- Bows/Crossbows have 50 more imbuing weight and can be enhanced for additional mods
- 20% damage reduction with an armored swamp dragon
- Quivers give you 10% DI when you use Archery
The only drawback of using Archery is its high cost (this guide is written in 2013, prices may change later):
- good reforged and enhanced bow worths 20-30m
- you usually spend 1-2k arrows per hour (30-40gp per arrow)
- tinker's legs are too bad compared with a berserker's plate so you usually need expensive 10 SSI jewels
I suggest you to go with a Thrower if you are not ready to spend at least 300m for your suit.
5.3. Standard "pure warrior" templates
Combined templates (Necromancy/Spirit Speak, Musicianship/Discordance, Mysticism/Focus, etc) will be discussed in the next part of the guide.
5.3.1. Classic warrior
Core (685 skill points):
Weapon 120
Tactics 100
Bushido 120
Parrying 60
Anatomy 100
Healing 90
Chivalry 95
If you want more offense you get 120 Tactics/Anatomy. If you want more defense you get more Parrying/Healing. High-end suit could include two sets of jewels: one with 20 Tactics, 20 Anatomy and another with 30 Parrying 10 Healing so you can chose between offense and defense depending on situation.
With this template is better to use a 2H weapon with SSI and reforged HML (other mods are Super Slayer, HSL and DI).
The main drawback of this template is low healing rate. 36-60 per bandage is about 10 hps (hp per second). With 120 Healing/Anatomy and enchanted bandages you heal just 20% more (45-73 per bandage). You heal even less when taking heavy damage (27+ ???), cursed (DEX), poisoned. You can't heal when Mortal Stroked.
Another drawback is absence of Resisting Spells. High level curses and mana drain greatly reduce your damage. And there is no skill to replace with Resisting Spells.
The main advantage of this template is that you can heal when you are stunned, are running, haven't mana. Also you needn't good high damage to survive.
Template drawbacks are compensated by ability to run away and heal.
This is pretty good and versatile template. You can do well against any kind of monsters. I suggest this template to all new players. Start with 50 Healing, 50 Chivalry, 20 Bushido and after completing New Player Quests you will be able to farm pretty well.
Example (735 skill points):
Weapon 120
Tactics 100
Bushido 120
Parrying 60
Anatomy 120 (more healing, more damage)
Healing 120 (to don't worry much about being poisoned)
Chivalry 95
5.3.2. ABC archer/thrower
Core (585 skill points):
Weapon 120
Tactics 100
Bushido 80
Anatomy 100
Healing 90
Chivalry 95
It's similar to a classic warrior template. Without Parrying you have room for one more skill. Usually it's Resisting Spells.
With this template is better to use Soul Glave or Composite Bow with SSI and reforged HML (other mods are Super Slayer, HSL and DI). Archers can also have a Yumi (DS often does more damage than AI).
Since it's impossible to keep 180+ Stamina in a serious fight you need 60 SSI (to have 1.5s with 150 Stamina). The best way to get 60 SSI is: 30 (weapon) + 5 (ring) + 15 (DF) + 10 (berserker's plate for a thrower, ash enhancing for an archer).
Ranged characters take less damage (and it's more easy run out of range to heal without taking additional damage when it is needed) so low healing rate is not problem. You can add Resisting Spell to counter Mana Drain and curses. The main drawback of this template is low HML. Even with 55 LMC you need to do 225 damage to chain AI. If you are not able to chain AI you do less damage.
Another drawback is absence of AoE (Area Of Effect) damage. So Holy Fire is the second reason to cap Chivalry. Having FCR will help a lot in this case (and it also helps to maintain DF on).
The main advantage of this template is that you can heal when you are stunned, are running, haven't mana. Also you needn't good high damage to survive. I also suggest this template (with Throwing) to all new players. If you mark focus up at beginning you will be able to use a Healing Stone.
I suggest you to have a balanced crossbow and equip it:
- to drink potions
- to don't hurt a monster before starting honored combat
This is an excellent template. It's versatile and powerful at the same time.
Example (740 skill points):
Weapon 120 (5 points on a quiver/wing)
Tactics 120 (need as much damage as possible to chain AI)
Bushido 80
Anatomy 120
Healing 100 (healing is not as important as for melee character)
Chivalry 120 (DF and Holy Fire)
Resists 80 (would be 110 with 770 skill points)
My envasion archer has (770 skill points):
Archery 120
Tactics 120
Bushido 120
Wrestling 60 (special move mana reduction)
Anatomy 120
Healing 110
Chivalry 120
I haven't Resisting Spells but AI costs me 18 mana only. If I switch 120 Bushido + 60 Wrestling to 80 Bushido + 100 Resists I'll get a classic ABC archer.
Example without Healing (720 skill points):
Archery 120
Tactics 120
Bushido 120
Anatomy 120
Resists 120
Chivalry 120
(2/6 or may be 3/6 casting)
5.3.3. Sampire
Sampire means Vampire Samurai. Sampire uses Vampiric Embrace to heal. It leaches 20% of damage.
Core (694 skill points):
Weapon 120
Tactics 100
Bushido 120
Parry 60
Resisting Spells (Anatomy) 100
Necromancy 99
Chivalry 95
You can choose between Anatomy and Resisting Spells depending on monsters you are going to fight. Resisting Spells is more versatile but in the most cases you prefer Anatomy for more damage.
When you chain AI/DS you usually do 150+ damage per hit. This means you heal 30+ HP per hit (25 hps). You heal yourself even when you are poisoned or mortal stroke. In addition to life leach you get 3 MR and 15 SR.
The main drawback of this template is that you must do damage to heal. So you can't heal when stunned/charmed.
You also hardly able to heal without mana because your damage usually is low without special moves. It a good idea to have a 100% elemental damage weapon in your backpack for cases when you are mana-drained by a monster with high physical resist.
Sampire is not versatile. There is a curse that converts leach from healing to damaging property. For example, try to kill a mage at Shame level 5. Monsters with stun and heavy damage (like Slasher) are also a big problem.
This is the most popular template.
Offensive example (734 skill points):
Weapon 120
Tactics 120
Bushido 120
Parry 60
Anatomy (Resisting Spells) 120
Necromancy 99
Chivalry 95
Defensive example (734 skill points):
Weapon 120
Tactics 100
Bushido 120
Parry 100
Resisting Spells (Anatomy) 100
Necromancy 99
Chivalry 95
My sampire combines offense and defense. With one ring she has 115 Tactics and 115 Anatomy, with another ring she has 50 EP and 120 Parrying.
Note: There is no much sense to be a ranged "Sampire". A melee Sampire is able to stand toe to toe against almost any monster. Being ranged just means you leach less mana and need 40% more SSI to get max swing speed (a composite bow has the same dps as a bladed staff). Compared to an ABC archer you get a powerful leaching ability (that you usually needn't) but you lose versatility.
5.3.4. Bushido Paladin
The main drawback of a classic warrior are low healing rate and absence of Resisting Spells. You can work around the both drawbacks by adding 100% HLL to your weapon and replacing Healing with Resisting Spells. With 100% HLL you leach at average 15% of damage. It's just slightly less than VE. You also don't worry so much about being poisoned or mortal stroke.
Your main weapon usually have reforged HLL and imbued DI/Slayer/HML/HSL.
Since you can't reforge both HML and HLL you weapon must be slow enough to leach Mana for special moves with imbued HML. So your weapon shouldn't be faster than 3.00s for 2H and 3.25s for 1H. From the other hand your weapon shouldn't be slower than 3.25s. Even if you have 190 max Stamina you usually have less than 180 Stamina in any serious fight (so you will need 35 SSI on your suit for 3.25s weapon).
It's better to use 2H weapon with this template. More damage means more mana leached that is important with just 75/82 HML imbued. Besides this the weight of HLL/HML/Slayer is 394 so you would add just 30 HSL and 26 DI on 1H weapon. On 2H weapon you can add 50 HSL and 50 DI.
Although it's possible to get 20/35% SSI on your suit it's much easier to get it with DF. So 120 Chivalry is counted as a default for this template.
Core (620 skill points):
Weapon 120
Tactics 100
Anatomy 100
Bushido 120
Parrying 60
Chivalry 120
You can add 80+ Resisting Spells or ... 80+ Healing. Yes, Healing. It's allow you to combine advantages of both - sampire and classic warrior.
Another possibility is to get all listed skills to 120. In this case you will need Protection a
When you use DF for stats you can usually add at least 30 skill points to your jewels.
It's a very good template. I believe it's better than Sampire. But it became possible just about 1 years ago (with reforging/reinforcing patches). Besides this it's require very good suit. This is why it's no so popular as Sampire yet.
Offensive example (750 skill points):
Weapon 120
Tactics 120
Anatomy 120
Bushido 120
Parrying 60
Chivalry 120
Resists (Healing) 90
Defensive example (750 skill points):
Weapon 120
Tactics 100
Anatomy 100
Bushido 120
Parrying (Lumberjacking) 100
Chivalry 120
Healing (Resists) 90
Paladin-like example (720 skill points):
Weapon 120
Tactics 120
Anatomy 120
Bushido 120
Parrying (Resists) 120
Chivalry 120
(With active Protection and 2/6 casting).
Note: You can use the same idea with a ranged weapon. But I can count it as a variant of ABC archer.
5.3.5. Wrammy
You can use Wraith form to get true mana leach. You leach only when your target has mana. Amount of mana leached depends on Spirit Speak. With 60 Spirit Speak you leach 12% of damage (60 HML = 0%-24%). If you haven't Spirit Speak you leach 8%.
You can't use Wraith form when you are riding so you loose mobility. You also can't get 20% damage absorption from a barded swamp dragon.
Usually Wrammies use Curse Weapon to heal. You need just 40 Necromancy to get 100% chance to cast CuW. Its duration depends on Spirit Speak. With 60 Spirit Speak the durability is 19 seconds. So 40 Necromancy and 60 Spirit Speak is enough to use Curse Weapon.
Wraith form is used when you can't leach enough mana for Special Moves. The main case is ranged weapon. Another case is when you use Leafblade and Feint.
Here is the core template for melee weapon (695 skill points):
Weapon 120
Tactics 100
Bushido 120
Parry 60
Resisting Spells (Anatomy) 100
Necromancy 40
Spirit Speak 60
Chivalry 95
Here is the same template for range weapon (695 skill points):
Weapon 120
Tactics 100
Bushido 80
Resisting Spells (Healing) 100
Anatomy 100
Necromancy 40
Spirit Speak 60
Chivalry 95
[This template will be discussed in more details in the next part of the guide]
5.3.6. Classic Paladin
Paladin use a shield, has 4/6 casting and heals with Chivalry.
You can get 4 FC from ring, bracelet and shield. Ornament of Magician hasn't DI/HCI/DCI but you can get 1 FC/15 DCI/5 HCI/35 DI (or even 1 FC/15 DCI/5 SSI/5 HCI/25 DI) on a shield.
You stop hitting when using heal/cure Chivalry spells so you should have HLL on your weapon. I suggest to use a Disc Mace because you can imbue high HML/HLL on it.
Classic Paladin template (720 skill points):
Weapon 120
Tactics 120
Parrying 120
Anatomy 120
Resisting Spells 120
Chivalry 120
The main drawback of this template is relatively low damage when you haven't proper Slayer (for example, against some peerless bosses).
Another drawback is you can't Heal when you are poisoned or mortal stroke. Well it's not really a problem when you fight against a single opponent because you may cure and remove course. But in big crowd of casting monsters it may be a problem. This is why having 120 Resisting Spell is so important.
You also can't heal when you are stunned/charmed. You can add Healing to your template to overcome this. In this case have 120 Resisting is not so important.
The main advantage of this template is your ability to heal yourself. It's impossible to kill this char in one-to-one situation. I believe it's true for PvP as well.
With gargish armor, shield and ornament of magician you have over 400 total resists. So you can get max resists (including corpse skin protection) without wasting any slot. So you can have 16 MR.
This template is as well very good but is not popular. People rarely use it but usually say "Wow!" when observe how I clean up a champion spawn or fight some tough boss.
Example with Healing (735 skill points):
Weapon 120
Tactics 100
Parrying 100
Anatomy 100
Resisting Spells 100
Chivalry 120
Healing 95
Note: You can use the same idea with a ranged weapon. But in this case you need to replace Parrying with some skill that is counted to special move mana reduction. The most obvious candidate is Bushido. This returns us back to ABC archer/thrower template.
5.1.1. Base
120 weapon skill
100 Tactics
Weapon skill determines both you hit chance and your opponents hit chance. Therefor it's very important to maximize it.
You also need 70/90 weapon skill to use special moves. This is why you can't replace it with Mage Weapon property. You can't be effective warrior without using special moves. For example, Double Strike doubles your damage.
You need 70/90 Tactics to use special moves. I recommend to have at least 100 Tactics because you will get additional 12.5 DI for 10 skill points (6.25 DI bonus for having GM Tactics).
To use special moves you need 70/90 real skills. Bonuses from equipment don't count.
5.1.2. Damage multipliers
Damage multipliers are Perfection (Bushido) and Enemy Of One (Chivalry). You should have at least one of this skills. There is a positive feedback effect: less damage => less mana leached => not enough mana for special moves => even less damage. Without this skills you will be able to fight effectively only monsters that have a lesser slayer (like Dragons, etc) or have the second slayer (like Flame, etc).
I suggest you to have both. If you can't than take Bushido for melee chars (except you're going to Parry with a shield) and Chivalry for ranger chars.
You need 50 Bushido to gain Perfection. I suggest to have 120 Bushido if you as well have Parry. Reasons are WhirlWind Attack, Confidence and Evasion. Without Parry 80 would be enough (to get 5 mana reduction on special moves).
You need 84 Chivalry to get 50% Damage Multiply with EOO. I suggest you to have 95 to get 100% chance to cast. Some people think that it's not important to turn on EOO from the first attempt. Well, they are true... but it's very important to turn off EOO from the first attempt. Since Fast Recovery Time for Chivalry spells is 2.0s (0.5s with 6 FCR) you may be dead by this time.
If you going to use Divine Fury to get 15 SSI + 20 DI + 15 HCI you need 120 Chivalry (15 SSI is the most important here). With 120 Chivalry you as well be able to use Holy Fire vs crowd (although if you have 120 Bushido and melee weapon skill, WhirlWind is more effective because you leach life from WW damage).
5.1.3. Parrying
Parry is good to have. It helps a lot (especially in combination with Bushido) but it is not "must have". There are the most popular combinations:
- 120 Bushido + 120 Parry to maximize your defense
- 120 Bushido + 60 Parry to get 10 mana reduction on special moves
- 0 Bushido + 100-120 Parry if you use a shield (there is 5 block chance bonus for having GM Parry or Bushido)
5.1.4. Divine Fury
You can use DF for stats. With 120 Chivalry and 20k karma you get +20 DI, +15 SSI, +15 HCI, -10 DCI.
The most important stat of above stats is SSI. It's allow you to use slower weapon with the same suit. The difference between 3.00s 2H weapon (14-17 dmg) and 3.25s 2H weapon (15-18 dmg) is 6.5%. For 1H weapons this difference even more. The difference between GM and Legendary Anatomy/Tactics is about 6%. So in situations when you can use slower weapon you don't loose damage if drop Anatomy and Tactics to 100 and train Chivalry to 120 instead.
If your suits is designed to use DF for stats you can also use DF to refresh Stamina.
Maintaining DF on requires time and mana.
Casting time may be a problem when you as well need to maintain Concentrate Weapon on and/or need to switch Enemy Of One often. As a result if you haven't FC/FCR you usually do some swings without EOO/CW/DF or can't cast Confidence/Evasion in time. Without FCR you also do swings without special move every time you cast DF.
Mana cost may be a problem when you are mana-drained.
5.1.5. Healing
You need do decide how you will heal yourself. The most effective ways are:
- Cursed Weapon (required Spirit Speak)
- Vampiric Embrace
- Hit Life Leach (required good suit, usually 35 SSI without weapon)
- Healing (required Anatomy)
- Chivalry (required FC/FCR)
5.2. Templates core
5.2.1. Melee
Classic melee template could include 120 weapon skill and 100 of each Tactics/Bushido/Parrying/Anatomy/Chivalry.
120 Bushido + 80 Parrying gives you about the same chance to block (25%) as 100 Bushido + 100 Parry and increase effectiveness of Bushido skills.
95 Chivalry is enough for 100% succeed EOO. There are no much reason to have more.
320 points in Weapon/Bushido/Parrying grant you with 10 special move mana cost reduction (SMMR). You can drop Parrying to 60 (120+120+60=300 points in Weapon/Bushido/Parrying) and still have the same mana reduction. In this case your chance to block will be 20%.
If you want to use 2H weapons you should take Swordsmanship. If you prefer 1H weapon then your choice will probably be based on swing speed of main AI weapon (but keep in your mind that the only good 1H WW weapon is a sword).
Here is the template for melee weapon (595 skill points):
Weapon 120
Tactics 100
Bushido 120
Parry 60
Anatomy 100
Chivalry 95
You have a room for one more skill. Usually it's s skill to heal yourself (Healing, Necromancy, Necro/SS combo). If you want to add a pair of skill (Disco/Music, Mysticism/Focus) you need to sacrifice one of this skill.
Sacrificing Anatomy means 15-20% less damage. But it's impossible if you're going to use Healing.
Sacrificing Bushido and/or Parrying means less defense and more costly special moves. With 100% HML weapon you're able to chain AI even without SMMR.
Sacrificing Chivalry means less damage bonus. But with 100% HML weapon and max SMMR you need only about 100 damage to chain AI.
Usually you can have 15 skill points on your jewels. With reforged/reinforced armor it's like a standard. But it's possible to have even 100+ skill points.
There are situations when a melee warrior can do pretty well without Chivalry:
- Lesser slayers: Dragon, Ophidian, Terathan, Spider (Navrey Night-Eyes), Scorpion (Miasma), Air/Fire/Earth Elemental (Shame)
- Super slayer + talisman: Ice for 'ice' monsters, Flame for 'lava' monsters, Vermin for 'rat' monsters, Trinket for undead monsters
As you see there are a lot of places to farm with a pure Samurai.
5.2.2. Ranged
Ranged templates are very similar except you needn't Parrying. Without Parrying there's no much difference between 120 and 80 Bushido. In both cases you get only 5 SMMR. Since 50 HML is max for ranged weapons you can get problems with chaining special moves. Possible decisions are studded/stone armor (55 LMC) and Yumi (Double Short usually does more damage than Armor Ignore).
Here is the template for melee weapon (495 skill points):
Weapon 120
Tactics 100
Bushido 80
Anatomy 100
Chivalry 95
Archery has some advantages over Throwing:
- Range doesn't depends on your Strength
- Thrower does about two times less damage on the last quoter of his range
- Bows/Crossbows have 50 more imbuing weight and can be enhanced for additional mods
- 20% damage reduction with an armored swamp dragon
- Quivers give you 10% DI when you use Archery
The only drawback of using Archery is its high cost (this guide is written in 2013, prices may change later):
- good reforged and enhanced bow worths 20-30m
- you usually spend 1-2k arrows per hour (30-40gp per arrow)
- tinker's legs are too bad compared with a berserker's plate so you usually need expensive 10 SSI jewels
I suggest you to go with a Thrower if you are not ready to spend at least 300m for your suit.
5.3. Standard "pure warrior" templates
Combined templates (Necromancy/Spirit Speak, Musicianship/Discordance, Mysticism/Focus, etc) will be discussed in the next part of the guide.
5.3.1. Classic warrior
Core (685 skill points):
Weapon 120
Tactics 100
Bushido 120
Parrying 60
Anatomy 100
Healing 90
Chivalry 95
If you want more offense you get 120 Tactics/Anatomy. If you want more defense you get more Parrying/Healing. High-end suit could include two sets of jewels: one with 20 Tactics, 20 Anatomy and another with 30 Parrying 10 Healing so you can chose between offense and defense depending on situation.
With this template is better to use a 2H weapon with SSI and reforged HML (other mods are Super Slayer, HSL and DI).
The main drawback of this template is low healing rate. 36-60 per bandage is about 10 hps (hp per second). With 120 Healing/Anatomy and enchanted bandages you heal just 20% more (45-73 per bandage). You heal even less when taking heavy damage (27+ ???), cursed (DEX), poisoned. You can't heal when Mortal Stroked.
Another drawback is absence of Resisting Spells. High level curses and mana drain greatly reduce your damage. And there is no skill to replace with Resisting Spells.
The main advantage of this template is that you can heal when you are stunned, are running, haven't mana. Also you needn't good high damage to survive.
Template drawbacks are compensated by ability to run away and heal.
This is pretty good and versatile template. You can do well against any kind of monsters. I suggest this template to all new players. Start with 50 Healing, 50 Chivalry, 20 Bushido and after completing New Player Quests you will be able to farm pretty well.
Example (735 skill points):
Weapon 120
Tactics 100
Bushido 120
Parrying 60
Anatomy 120 (more healing, more damage)
Healing 120 (to don't worry much about being poisoned)
Chivalry 95
5.3.2. ABC archer/thrower
Core (585 skill points):
Weapon 120
Tactics 100
Bushido 80
Anatomy 100
Healing 90
Chivalry 95
It's similar to a classic warrior template. Without Parrying you have room for one more skill. Usually it's Resisting Spells.
With this template is better to use Soul Glave or Composite Bow with SSI and reforged HML (other mods are Super Slayer, HSL and DI). Archers can also have a Yumi (DS often does more damage than AI).
Since it's impossible to keep 180+ Stamina in a serious fight you need 60 SSI (to have 1.5s with 150 Stamina). The best way to get 60 SSI is: 30 (weapon) + 5 (ring) + 15 (DF) + 10 (berserker's plate for a thrower, ash enhancing for an archer).
Ranged characters take less damage (and it's more easy run out of range to heal without taking additional damage when it is needed) so low healing rate is not problem. You can add Resisting Spell to counter Mana Drain and curses. The main drawback of this template is low HML. Even with 55 LMC you need to do 225 damage to chain AI. If you are not able to chain AI you do less damage.
Another drawback is absence of AoE (Area Of Effect) damage. So Holy Fire is the second reason to cap Chivalry. Having FCR will help a lot in this case (and it also helps to maintain DF on).
The main advantage of this template is that you can heal when you are stunned, are running, haven't mana. Also you needn't good high damage to survive. I also suggest this template (with Throwing) to all new players. If you mark focus up at beginning you will be able to use a Healing Stone.
I suggest you to have a balanced crossbow and equip it:
- to drink potions
- to don't hurt a monster before starting honored combat
This is an excellent template. It's versatile and powerful at the same time.
Example (740 skill points):
Weapon 120 (5 points on a quiver/wing)
Tactics 120 (need as much damage as possible to chain AI)
Bushido 80
Anatomy 120
Healing 100 (healing is not as important as for melee character)
Chivalry 120 (DF and Holy Fire)
Resists 80 (would be 110 with 770 skill points)
My envasion archer has (770 skill points):
Archery 120
Tactics 120
Bushido 120
Wrestling 60 (special move mana reduction)
Anatomy 120
Healing 110
Chivalry 120
I haven't Resisting Spells but AI costs me 18 mana only. If I switch 120 Bushido + 60 Wrestling to 80 Bushido + 100 Resists I'll get a classic ABC archer.
Example without Healing (720 skill points):
Archery 120
Tactics 120
Bushido 120
Anatomy 120
Resists 120
Chivalry 120
(2/6 or may be 3/6 casting)
5.3.3. Sampire
Sampire means Vampire Samurai. Sampire uses Vampiric Embrace to heal. It leaches 20% of damage.
Core (694 skill points):
Weapon 120
Tactics 100
Bushido 120
Parry 60
Resisting Spells (Anatomy) 100
Necromancy 99
Chivalry 95
You can choose between Anatomy and Resisting Spells depending on monsters you are going to fight. Resisting Spells is more versatile but in the most cases you prefer Anatomy for more damage.
When you chain AI/DS you usually do 150+ damage per hit. This means you heal 30+ HP per hit (25 hps). You heal yourself even when you are poisoned or mortal stroke. In addition to life leach you get 3 MR and 15 SR.
The main drawback of this template is that you must do damage to heal. So you can't heal when stunned/charmed.
You also hardly able to heal without mana because your damage usually is low without special moves. It a good idea to have a 100% elemental damage weapon in your backpack for cases when you are mana-drained by a monster with high physical resist.
Sampire is not versatile. There is a curse that converts leach from healing to damaging property. For example, try to kill a mage at Shame level 5. Monsters with stun and heavy damage (like Slasher) are also a big problem.
This is the most popular template.
Offensive example (734 skill points):
Weapon 120
Tactics 120
Bushido 120
Parry 60
Anatomy (Resisting Spells) 120
Necromancy 99
Chivalry 95
Defensive example (734 skill points):
Weapon 120
Tactics 100
Bushido 120
Parry 100
Resisting Spells (Anatomy) 100
Necromancy 99
Chivalry 95
My sampire combines offense and defense. With one ring she has 115 Tactics and 115 Anatomy, with another ring she has 50 EP and 120 Parrying.
Note: There is no much sense to be a ranged "Sampire". A melee Sampire is able to stand toe to toe against almost any monster. Being ranged just means you leach less mana and need 40% more SSI to get max swing speed (a composite bow has the same dps as a bladed staff). Compared to an ABC archer you get a powerful leaching ability (that you usually needn't) but you lose versatility.
5.3.4. Bushido Paladin
The main drawback of a classic warrior are low healing rate and absence of Resisting Spells. You can work around the both drawbacks by adding 100% HLL to your weapon and replacing Healing with Resisting Spells. With 100% HLL you leach at average 15% of damage. It's just slightly less than VE. You also don't worry so much about being poisoned or mortal stroke.
Your main weapon usually have reforged HLL and imbued DI/Slayer/HML/HSL.
Since you can't reforge both HML and HLL you weapon must be slow enough to leach Mana for special moves with imbued HML. So your weapon shouldn't be faster than 3.00s for 2H and 3.25s for 1H. From the other hand your weapon shouldn't be slower than 3.25s. Even if you have 190 max Stamina you usually have less than 180 Stamina in any serious fight (so you will need 35 SSI on your suit for 3.25s weapon).
It's better to use 2H weapon with this template. More damage means more mana leached that is important with just 75/82 HML imbued. Besides this the weight of HLL/HML/Slayer is 394 so you would add just 30 HSL and 26 DI on 1H weapon. On 2H weapon you can add 50 HSL and 50 DI.
Although it's possible to get 20/35% SSI on your suit it's much easier to get it with DF. So 120 Chivalry is counted as a default for this template.
Core (620 skill points):
Weapon 120
Tactics 100
Anatomy 100
Bushido 120
Parrying 60
Chivalry 120
You can add 80+ Resisting Spells or ... 80+ Healing. Yes, Healing. It's allow you to combine advantages of both - sampire and classic warrior.
Another possibility is to get all listed skills to 120. In this case you will need Protection a
When you use DF for stats you can usually add at least 30 skill points to your jewels.
It's a very good template. I believe it's better than Sampire. But it became possible just about 1 years ago (with reforging/reinforcing patches). Besides this it's require very good suit. This is why it's no so popular as Sampire yet.
Offensive example (750 skill points):
Weapon 120
Tactics 120
Anatomy 120
Bushido 120
Parrying 60
Chivalry 120
Resists (Healing) 90
Defensive example (750 skill points):
Weapon 120
Tactics 100
Anatomy 100
Bushido 120
Parrying (Lumberjacking) 100
Chivalry 120
Healing (Resists) 90
Paladin-like example (720 skill points):
Weapon 120
Tactics 120
Anatomy 120
Bushido 120
Parrying (Resists) 120
Chivalry 120
(With active Protection and 2/6 casting).
Note: You can use the same idea with a ranged weapon. But I can count it as a variant of ABC archer.
5.3.5. Wrammy
You can use Wraith form to get true mana leach. You leach only when your target has mana. Amount of mana leached depends on Spirit Speak. With 60 Spirit Speak you leach 12% of damage (60 HML = 0%-24%). If you haven't Spirit Speak you leach 8%.
You can't use Wraith form when you are riding so you loose mobility. You also can't get 20% damage absorption from a barded swamp dragon.
Usually Wrammies use Curse Weapon to heal. You need just 40 Necromancy to get 100% chance to cast CuW. Its duration depends on Spirit Speak. With 60 Spirit Speak the durability is 19 seconds. So 40 Necromancy and 60 Spirit Speak is enough to use Curse Weapon.
Wraith form is used when you can't leach enough mana for Special Moves. The main case is ranged weapon. Another case is when you use Leafblade and Feint.
Here is the core template for melee weapon (695 skill points):
Weapon 120
Tactics 100
Bushido 120
Parry 60
Resisting Spells (Anatomy) 100
Necromancy 40
Spirit Speak 60
Chivalry 95
Here is the same template for range weapon (695 skill points):
Weapon 120
Tactics 100
Bushido 80
Resisting Spells (Healing) 100
Anatomy 100
Necromancy 40
Spirit Speak 60
Chivalry 95
[This template will be discussed in more details in the next part of the guide]
5.3.6. Classic Paladin
Paladin use a shield, has 4/6 casting and heals with Chivalry.
You can get 4 FC from ring, bracelet and shield. Ornament of Magician hasn't DI/HCI/DCI but you can get 1 FC/15 DCI/5 HCI/35 DI (or even 1 FC/15 DCI/5 SSI/5 HCI/25 DI) on a shield.
You stop hitting when using heal/cure Chivalry spells so you should have HLL on your weapon. I suggest to use a Disc Mace because you can imbue high HML/HLL on it.
Classic Paladin template (720 skill points):
Weapon 120
Tactics 120
Parrying 120
Anatomy 120
Resisting Spells 120
Chivalry 120
The main drawback of this template is relatively low damage when you haven't proper Slayer (for example, against some peerless bosses).
Another drawback is you can't Heal when you are poisoned or mortal stroke. Well it's not really a problem when you fight against a single opponent because you may cure and remove course. But in big crowd of casting monsters it may be a problem. This is why having 120 Resisting Spell is so important.
You also can't heal when you are stunned/charmed. You can add Healing to your template to overcome this. In this case have 120 Resisting is not so important.
The main advantage of this template is your ability to heal yourself. It's impossible to kill this char in one-to-one situation. I believe it's true for PvP as well.
With gargish armor, shield and ornament of magician you have over 400 total resists. So you can get max resists (including corpse skin protection) without wasting any slot. So you can have 16 MR.
This template is as well very good but is not popular. People rarely use it but usually say "Wow!" when observe how I clean up a champion spawn or fight some tough boss.
Example with Healing (735 skill points):
Weapon 120
Tactics 100
Parrying 100
Anatomy 100
Resisting Spells 100
Chivalry 120
Healing 95
Note: You can use the same idea with a ranged weapon. But in this case you need to replace Parrying with some skill that is counted to special move mana reduction. The most obvious candidate is Bushido. This returns us back to ABC archer/thrower template.
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