Taylor
Former Stratics CEO (2011-2014)
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Wrote the post below maybe 4 years ago. What needs to change about the template to take into account the changes to chivalry?
--
After trying half a dozen templates over the past couple of years, I finally settled on one that I like:
120 Fencing
120 Bush
115 Tactics
100 Anat
100 Heal/Resist
99 Necro
66 Chivalry
Perhaps the most unusual aspect of this template is that it lacks parry. Thus far, my experience has been that I don't miss parry a bit. After adding both healing an anatomy, I am healing way more damage than I defended against with parry.
Also, I switched from swordsmanship to fencing in order to use leafblades. The feint and AI specials are awesome. Plus, with 180 stamina, I don't need any swing speed increase (ssi) on the weapons, leaving a free mod for imbuing. My primary weapon looks like this:
Leafblade
60 hit mana leech
44 hit stamina leech
47 hit fireball
30 hit lower attack
I also have an armory of similar leafblades, but with slayers and super slayers instead of hit fireball.
This is how I run my sampire:
Macros
Honor
Dispel Evil
Enemy of One
Divine Fury
Bandage Self
Consecrate Weapon
Primary Attack
Secondary Attack
Confidence
Lightning Strike
Arm/Disarm my various weapons and slayers
Tactics
Honor: Honor everything--yes, even mongbats. Once you have honored an opponent, each successful hit counts toward your "perfection" rating. Every time you build perfection, your damage output increases, eventually reaching 100% di.
Consecrate Weapon: This spell adjust your weapon damage type so that it correlates with your enemy's weakest resist.
Enemy of One: Use this spell carefully. It increases your damage output against a particular type of enemy--your enemy of one--but makes you more susceptible to all other creatures. When I'm fighting a boss-type creature one-on-one, I use EOO liberally. However, when I'm just starting a champ and there are a variety of different creatures around, I typically don't cast it.
Confidence: Causes you to regenerate health more quickly.
Common Specials: Feint on my leafblades cuts all damage, both magic and physical, by half for 4-5 seconds. Whirlwind hits all nearby enemies. Armor Ignore hits for base damage (i.e., as if the mob was not wearing armor).
Trap Box: You only need one. If the box is oriented the right way in your pack, you can repeatedly click on it to take a bit of damage. This will break any paralyze spell. I use my trap box often, especially since I don't have resist.
Pots: If I'm fighting a more challenging mob, I drink strength pots to increase my hp and agility pots to prevent my stamina from decreasing due to the weaken spell. Occasionally, I also chug a heal pot, if I'm low on hp and waiting for a bandage to kick in.
Food: You'll be taking a lot of damage, which causes your stamina to drop. If your stamina drops, your swing speed decreases. Because a sampire relies on damage output for health, a reduction in your swing speed can be lethal. I carry cooked chickens and eat them occasionally.
Enchanted Apples: Eating them removes curses.
Arcane Items: If you die, you will need to recast vampiric embrace. Some folks carry regs for this...but this means sneaking back to your body to without vamp form. Personally, I carry an insured arcane item. Arcane charges allow you to cast one spell per charge. Currently, I have an arcane cloak in my pack with 20 arcane charges. These items are cheap and easy to make--you can collect arcane crystals from controlers in Ishenar.
What My Sampire Carries
300 bandages, split into three piles to prevent the entire pile from being looted by a monster. 10-15 enchanted apples, greater strength pots, greater agility pots, and cooked chickens. 1 insured arcane item. 1 trapped box. 1 normal leafblade, 1 normal kama (whirlwind for weaker mobs), 1 demon slayer leafblade, 1 repond slayer leafblade. 1 Conjurer's trinket (undead, everything else), 1 primer on arms (reponds). Books (rune, spell).
Here's a screen shot of my sampire's desktop. Notice the aids, enchanted apples, trap box, cooked birds, and potions under my health bar, as well as the blue arcane cloak in my pack.
Example: How I'd Solo the Skeletal Dragon Minichamp
Level 1: Skeletons and Patchwork Skeletons. Because patchwork skeletons can dismount you, I protect my swampy by having it stay just outside of the champ area. I climb on my charger and use my kama to quickly whirlwind all of the skeletons and patchwork skeletons.
Level 2: Bone Mages and Skeletal Knights. I retrieve my swamp dragon and switch to my leafblade. My killing of this spawn is very systematic: pull health bar, honor, consecrate weapon, and lightning strike until dead. Rinse and repeat.
Level 3: Skeletal Liches. I quickly pull up one health bar and honor it before it can bless itself. (Note: once it blesses itself, it's health decreases a bit, which makes honoring impossible. Must be at full health to honor). Next, I lead away the one that I honored--I prefer to take them one-on-one. Of screen, I cast EOO, consecrate, and feint, then I run up and start lightning striking it. Every time I take damage, I apply a bandage. If I get paralyzed, I hit my trap box. If I get blood oathed, I cast remove curse or eat an apple. Continue to heal and lightning strike, recasting consecrate weapon as needed. Once one is dead, repeat with the next one.
Level 4: Skeletal Dragon [Renowned]. Again, I pull its health bar and honor it before it can bless itself. Off screen, I cast EOO, consecrate, and feint. I also chug a strength pot and an agility pot. Next, I run in and start lightning striking. If it paralyzes me, I hit my trap box and heal. If it curses/blood oaths, I remove curse or eat an apple. If it summons a revenant, I cast dispel evil. If my hp is too low, I hit confidence and run out of range, heal up, recast consecrate, and return to the fight. Throughout this process, I rarely look at the actual fight: my eyes are on my health and status bar. It'll be dead before you know it.
--
After trying half a dozen templates over the past couple of years, I finally settled on one that I like:
120 Fencing
120 Bush
115 Tactics
100 Anat
100 Heal/Resist
99 Necro
66 Chivalry
Perhaps the most unusual aspect of this template is that it lacks parry. Thus far, my experience has been that I don't miss parry a bit. After adding both healing an anatomy, I am healing way more damage than I defended against with parry.
Also, I switched from swordsmanship to fencing in order to use leafblades. The feint and AI specials are awesome. Plus, with 180 stamina, I don't need any swing speed increase (ssi) on the weapons, leaving a free mod for imbuing. My primary weapon looks like this:
Leafblade
60 hit mana leech
44 hit stamina leech
47 hit fireball
30 hit lower attack
I also have an armory of similar leafblades, but with slayers and super slayers instead of hit fireball.
This is how I run my sampire:
Macros
Honor
Dispel Evil
Enemy of One
Divine Fury
Bandage Self
Consecrate Weapon
Primary Attack
Secondary Attack
Confidence
Lightning Strike
Arm/Disarm my various weapons and slayers
Tactics
Honor: Honor everything--yes, even mongbats. Once you have honored an opponent, each successful hit counts toward your "perfection" rating. Every time you build perfection, your damage output increases, eventually reaching 100% di.
Consecrate Weapon: This spell adjust your weapon damage type so that it correlates with your enemy's weakest resist.
Enemy of One: Use this spell carefully. It increases your damage output against a particular type of enemy--your enemy of one--but makes you more susceptible to all other creatures. When I'm fighting a boss-type creature one-on-one, I use EOO liberally. However, when I'm just starting a champ and there are a variety of different creatures around, I typically don't cast it.
Confidence: Causes you to regenerate health more quickly.
Common Specials: Feint on my leafblades cuts all damage, both magic and physical, by half for 4-5 seconds. Whirlwind hits all nearby enemies. Armor Ignore hits for base damage (i.e., as if the mob was not wearing armor).
Trap Box: You only need one. If the box is oriented the right way in your pack, you can repeatedly click on it to take a bit of damage. This will break any paralyze spell. I use my trap box often, especially since I don't have resist.
Pots: If I'm fighting a more challenging mob, I drink strength pots to increase my hp and agility pots to prevent my stamina from decreasing due to the weaken spell. Occasionally, I also chug a heal pot, if I'm low on hp and waiting for a bandage to kick in.
Food: You'll be taking a lot of damage, which causes your stamina to drop. If your stamina drops, your swing speed decreases. Because a sampire relies on damage output for health, a reduction in your swing speed can be lethal. I carry cooked chickens and eat them occasionally.
Enchanted Apples: Eating them removes curses.
Arcane Items: If you die, you will need to recast vampiric embrace. Some folks carry regs for this...but this means sneaking back to your body to without vamp form. Personally, I carry an insured arcane item. Arcane charges allow you to cast one spell per charge. Currently, I have an arcane cloak in my pack with 20 arcane charges. These items are cheap and easy to make--you can collect arcane crystals from controlers in Ishenar.
What My Sampire Carries
300 bandages, split into three piles to prevent the entire pile from being looted by a monster. 10-15 enchanted apples, greater strength pots, greater agility pots, and cooked chickens. 1 insured arcane item. 1 trapped box. 1 normal leafblade, 1 normal kama (whirlwind for weaker mobs), 1 demon slayer leafblade, 1 repond slayer leafblade. 1 Conjurer's trinket (undead, everything else), 1 primer on arms (reponds). Books (rune, spell).
Here's a screen shot of my sampire's desktop. Notice the aids, enchanted apples, trap box, cooked birds, and potions under my health bar, as well as the blue arcane cloak in my pack.
Example: How I'd Solo the Skeletal Dragon Minichamp
Level 1: Skeletons and Patchwork Skeletons. Because patchwork skeletons can dismount you, I protect my swampy by having it stay just outside of the champ area. I climb on my charger and use my kama to quickly whirlwind all of the skeletons and patchwork skeletons.
Level 2: Bone Mages and Skeletal Knights. I retrieve my swamp dragon and switch to my leafblade. My killing of this spawn is very systematic: pull health bar, honor, consecrate weapon, and lightning strike until dead. Rinse and repeat.
Level 3: Skeletal Liches. I quickly pull up one health bar and honor it before it can bless itself. (Note: once it blesses itself, it's health decreases a bit, which makes honoring impossible. Must be at full health to honor). Next, I lead away the one that I honored--I prefer to take them one-on-one. Of screen, I cast EOO, consecrate, and feint, then I run up and start lightning striking it. Every time I take damage, I apply a bandage. If I get paralyzed, I hit my trap box. If I get blood oathed, I cast remove curse or eat an apple. Continue to heal and lightning strike, recasting consecrate weapon as needed. Once one is dead, repeat with the next one.
Level 4: Skeletal Dragon [Renowned]. Again, I pull its health bar and honor it before it can bless itself. Off screen, I cast EOO, consecrate, and feint. I also chug a strength pot and an agility pot. Next, I run in and start lightning striking. If it paralyzes me, I hit my trap box and heal. If it curses/blood oaths, I remove curse or eat an apple. If it summons a revenant, I cast dispel evil. If my hp is too low, I hit confidence and run out of range, heal up, recast consecrate, and return to the fight. Throughout this process, I rarely look at the actual fight: my eyes are on my health and status bar. It'll be dead before you know it.
