Basic Class Guides

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Andróg
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Basic Class Guides

Post by Andróg »

This thread includes the basic introductory Guides to all the main four classes of the Good Side of the War. In the game these are accessible on the Class Boards, but since these can be hard to find for a newcomer, I have also copied them into this thread.
Andróg
Posts: 204
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:10 pm

Re: Basic Class Guides

Post by Andróg »

Message 1138 : New Warriors Guide: Introduction (Argor)
Written on Wed Dec 31 00:21:06 2003

Part 1: Introduction

There are a number of guides on miscellaneous topics to be found on the boards and in the libraries of MUME. However, a quick review of these will find that many are rather out of date (the other posts on this board are still good, though I do disagree with them in a few points). Since I have enjoyed at least some small success as a warrior, I have decided to share a little of my accumulated knowledge on the topic of being a warrior through this set of posts. If you are new to MUME, or have played another class and are interested in
becoming a warrior for the first time, it is my hope that these posts can help at least a little in preparing you for the adventures ahead.

This guide has been divived up into six parts, in order to keep each piece from becoming overly large and unwieldy. The parts include:

Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: Types of warriors
Part 3: Combat in MUME
Part 4: Choosing the armour that's right for you
Part 5: Choosing the weapon that's right for you
Part 6: Choosing the skills that're right for you

All of the information that is included in these posts is based on my own experience and playing style. Other people will give you different advice that may well be at least as good as my own. Likewise, what I suggest here may not suit your playing style at all. These are only suggestions, and by no means represent the only or best way of doing things. However, if you are new to being a warrior in MUME, I do feel that these posts will be able to supply you with at least a small advantage over starting blindly.

Enjoy.

Message 1139 : New Warriors Guide: Types of Warriors (Argor)
Written on Wed Dec 31 00:21:48 2003

Part 2: Types of Warriors

Before you select your weapons or armour, or begin to practice any skills, it is important that you decide what kind of warrior you plan on being. Unless you have a plan, you will end up wasting practice points in skills you do not need or use, and wasting money on equipment that you don't want. So come up with some idea of how you plan on playing (you can always change it later, without too
much difficulty, once you know more about the game).

Here are some ways that people commonly play warriors:

Tank - This warrior goes in for very heavy armour, and plans to go toe-to-toe with his opponents. He often will serve as a buffer for a group of other adventurers. Basically, the tank serves as a shield for the rest of the group, letting them shoot missiles, cast spells, or otherwise do damage without interruption. High endurance and wilderness skills are vital, or he will always be running out of moves. Tanks can either choose a weapon with a good parry bonus, or one that will do a fair amount of damage, but should avoid two-handed weapons as their primary weapon.

Buffer - Very similar to the tank, this warrior might decide to use slightly lighter armour, and depend at least a little bit on his dodging ability to avoid injury. Again, he needs farily high endurance and wilderness, and may also spend some more practices on parry and dodge. The notes on weapon selection above still apply.

Hitter - This warrior does not buff for others (if given a choice), so he will typically use light armour (often soft leather). His focus is doing as much damage to his opponents as possible. Hitters often use two-handed (smiting) weapons, since they do lots of damage, and the parry penalty of these weapons doesn't matter if he isn't the one getting hit.

Balanced/Solo - This warrior may often wander alone, and so needs to balance his ability to deal damage and absorb it. He might decide to use ringmail armour to avoid the penalties of heavier metal (or even hard/rigid leather at low levels, until he can afford ringmail) while still being able to take a number of hits from his opponents. He also will probably want a weapon that does moderate damage without being too slow, so will typically avoid two-handed weapons.

Dodger - This warrior wears plain clothing or soft leather, and depends on high dexterity and his skills in dodging and parrying to avoid damage. This can be very effective against lower level creatures, but a creature with a high offensive bonus can hurt him severely in just a few hits. This type of warrior should either choose a weapon that is fast and good at parrying, or follow the route of the hitter, and work in groups behind a buffer.

These are of course just a few examples of the type of warrior you might play. Once you have chosen your playing style, select the weapon class and type of armour that you plan to use. Then you are ready to begin practicing skills.

Message 1140 : New Warriors Guide: Combat in MUME (Argor)
Written on Wed Dec 31 00:22:47 2003

Part 3: Combat in MUME

The combat system in MUME can be rather confusing, but it is important to have some understanding of how it works, as your choice of equipment can be heavily controlled by it.

When you type STAT you will see several values (which are discussed in detail
below). These include:

OB offensive bonus - the higher your offensive bonus, the more likely you will hit in combat

M_OB missile offensive bonus - the same as regular offensive bonus, but it only applies when you are shooting a missile weapon (and only appears when you are wielding one)

DB dodging bonus - the higher your dodging bonus, the harder it is for others to hit you

PB parry bonus - again, a higher bonus makes it harder for you to be hit

Armour represents the average percentage of damage that your armour will absorb

Wimpy when your hit points drop to this number or lower you will automatically try to flee out of combat

Mood determines to what extent you are concentrating on attack or defense

There is one major difference between DB and PB when it comes to combat: the full value of your DB will protect you from ALL of your opponents, no matter how many there are. However, your PB is SPLIT equally between all of your opponents, so the more people you fight, the less PB applies to each one. So if your PB is 30, and you are fighting 3 opponents, only 10 points of your PB counts towards
defending against each one of them.

The number that you set for Wimpy (with the CHANGE WIMPY command) can be anywhere from 0 to your total hits minus 1. When you take damage in combat, your remaining hits are compared to your Wimpy value. If your hits drop below your Wimpy value, you will automatically attempt to flee from combat. You will continue trying to flee until you are successful, or until you change your Wimpy
value so that it is less than your current hits. Also, if your current hits are less than your Wimpy, and you are not already fighting, you will not be able to attack. You should probably set your Wimpy value at between 30-50% of your total hit points, depending on how comfortable and familiar you are with the mobs you are fighting (so if you have 50 hps, a Wimpy of 15 to 25 would be appropriate).

This is my preference, of course; some people prefer a higher Wimpy, especially for non-warriors. VERY IMPORTANT: when you start a new character, your Wimpy starts at 0; you will never automatically flee. This should be one of the first things you change!

Your mood can be set to one of six values: wimpy, prudent, normal, brave, aggressive, and berserk. The more aggressive your mood, the higher your OB will be and the lower your PB will be. If you go berserk, there is the added effect that your Wimpy will be set to 0, and you will not be able to flee until the combat is over. After combat, you can change your mood, and will then need to reset your Wimpy. Also, every time you leave the game and reenter, your mood is automatically set to wimpy. Finally, please note that the wimpy MOOD has nothing to do with your Wimpy value that is set with CHANGE WIMPY.

Armour has two values that relate to combat: percent of damage absorbed, and maximum amount of damage absorbed. This is best understood through an example.

You are wearing a piece of armour on your body that absorbs 50% of damage, up to 6 points, and a piece of armour on your legs that absorbs 75% of damage, up to 4 points.

A mob hits you in the body, doing 10 damage. Because the armour on your body absorbs 50%, it tries to stop 5 points of this damage. Since the maximum it can stop (6 points) is higher than 5 points, the armour absorbs 5 points, and you take 5 points of damage.

The mob then hits you very hard on the leg, doing 20 damage. Your leg armour tries to absorb 75% of this, which would be 15 points. However, your leg armour can absorb a maximum of 4 points of damage. Since the damage it tries to absorb is higher than the damage it can absorb, it will stop as much as it can (4 points), the rest goes through, and you take 16 points of damage.

The Armour value that you see when using the STAT command shows the average percentage of absorption your armour provides (this is the average for all places you could be hit; if you have better armour on one spot, it will obviously stop more damage). The Armour value DOES NOT give you any indication of the maximum amount of damage that is absorbed from each hit. So wearing ringmail armour will give you a lower Armour value than wearing rigid leather armour, even though ringmail will absorb more total damage.

Message 1141 : New Warriors Guide: Armour (Argor)
Written on Wed Dec 31 00:24:31 2003

Part 4: Choosing the armour that's right for you
NOTE: This section of the Guide is a little out of date, the names and characteristics of some armours (for example mail armour) have changed since then. Generally though it's not totally unusable, but yes, it could use updating.


There are a variety of different armour types to be found in MUME. Each has its own unique advantages and drawbacks, and choosing the right type can be difficult for inexperienced players. Here is a brief summary of the different types of armour that you might select.

Plain cloth - Plain clothing is not really armour per se, but it is worn in the same locations on the body in place of other armour. Plain cloth does not provide any protection from damage, but it does increase your dodge bonus (DB), which makes it less likely that you will be hit in the first place. Plain cloth is also much lighter than other armour, and thus does not encumber you nearly as much. Fine and cotton clothing have the same bonuses, and are slightly lighter, making them a better choice when available. This type of armour is usually used by mages and thieves rather than warriors.

Soft leather - Soft leather provides some limited protection against injury, but not very much. It does not improve dodge bonus at all, but also does not hinder it. Soft leather does, however, increase your offensive bonus (OB), making you better able to hit your opponents. Soft leather is still fairly light and useful for dodging warriors. This type of armour is best suited for hitters and for
bashing.

Rigid and hardened leather - Rigid and hard leather armours absorb a very high percentage of damage, but only up to a moderate amount. Thus, they are most effective against creatures that do not do very much damage with each hit. This type of armour provides neither bonuses nor penalties to either offense or dodging. Rigid leather can be a good choice for low level characters who cannot afford metal armour, but is almost never used by higher level warriors.

Ringmail and Chainmail - Mail armour absorbs a lower percentage of damage from each hit than rigid leather, but can absorb a higher total amount of damage per hit. Thus, it is more effective against creatures that deal a large amount of damage with each hit. Chainmail will absorb more damage than ringmail, but it is heavier and has slight penalties to your offensive bonus (or dodging bonus, in the case of chain leggings). This armour is commonly used for midlevel warriors, as well as other classes who do not have enough strength for heavier armour, or by those who wish to avoid the penalties of heavier armour.

Metal armour - Metal armour includes thin metal, metal, thick metal, and plate armour. Metal armour provides a high level of damage absorption, both in terms of percentage of damage per hit absorbed and total damage per hit absorbed. It is also rather heavy, however, and will reduce your offensive bonus, defensive bonus, or both, depending on the specific piece. Naturally, thick metal provides the best absorption, along with the worst penalties. This type of armour is best suited to warriors who will act as a buffer for other characters, because it allows you to soak up a number of attacks without taking a lot of damage.

Special armour - White chainmail, fine chainmail, and shining plate are special types of armour that are difficult to acquire and seldom sold in shops. Each provides more damage protection than normal armour of the same types, and they usually have fewer penalties as well. White chainmail is similar to regular chainmail, only with greater total damage absorption. Fine chainmail has higher total damage absorption, but a lower percentage per hit, and it is much lighter than regular chainmail, significantly reducing encumbrance. Shining plate has the highest absorption available, and is highly sought after (and hoarded) by legendary warriors.

Boots - Boots follow the same guidelines as found above (but note that ringmail and chainmail boots do not exist). In addition to providing protection from injury, however, boots also serve to reduce the cost of movement in most cases. As a rule, the more protection boots provide from damage, the less they help to reduce movement cost. Thus, thin soft leather boots have a very high bonus for movement, while thick metal boots provide none at all.

Cloaks and furs - There are a variety of items that can be worn about your body, the most common being cloaks and furs. Most cloaks increase your dodge bonus, while most furs increase your offensive bonus. Some items have additional abilities as well, that I will not go into here.

What is worn where:

On head - cap, hat, hood, helm, helmet, coif
On body - shirt, vest, tunic, jerkin, dress, blouse, robe, breastplate, hauberk
On arms - sleeves, vambraces
On hands - gloves, gauntlets
On legs - pants, trousers, skirt, leggings, greaves
On feet - boots, shoes, sandals, slippers
About body - cloak, surcoat, cape, cassock, fur, coat, blanket, pelt

Hopefully by now you have a general idea of what each type of armour will do for you. The best way to decide which is right for you, of course, is to try each one out, but this should get you started.

Message 1142 : New Warriors Guide: Weapons (Argor)
Written on Wed Dec 31 00:25:25 2003

Part 5: Choosing the weapon that's right for you

There are several different weapon classes in MUME. Each requires its own skill, and each has some advantages and disadvantages. Hopefully this guide will provide you with enough information to make an informed choice about which weapon you want to use.

Slashing - Slashing weapons are often a good choice for new warriors. They strength than many other weapons (the best weapons in many weapon classes require 18 strength), and provide better defense in the form of a higher parry bonus. However, they typically do less damage per hit than other weapons.

Cleaving - Cleaving weapons usually do a little more damage than slashing weapons, but often have lower parry bonuses. They are also good against wooden creatures, such as roots, trees and vines. Dwarves gain an additional offensive bonus when using cleaving weapons, but only when they are on foot. Because of this, a number of dwarves use cleaving weapons, but they are less commonly used by other races.

Concussion - Concussion weapons do more damage than other one-handed weapons, but they are poor for defense, and often slower than other weapons. Most concussion weapons do more damage against opponents in metal armour, and thus are favoured for player-killing. However, this has little effect on mobs, so this bonus does not come into play at lower levels.

Stabbing - Stabbing weapons are similar in speed and damage to concussion weapons. Stabbing weapons do extra damage against mounted opponents, but only if you are on foot. Once again, this does not affect most mobs and usually only comes up in player-killing situations. It can also be difficult to find the better quality stabbing weapons in many shops.

Charging - Charging weapons are only useful if you are planning on using the charging skill. When not charging, charging weapons do little damage and have fairly poor defense. If you plan on using a charging weapon, be sure to learn another weapon skill, too, and carry a second weapon. In general, charging is best left to experienced warriors.

Two-handed - Two-handed weapons usually do quite a bit of damage per hit, but are often very slow. These weapons are particularly useful against heavily armoured foes, where less damaging weapons may not even penetrate the armour. Because of their slow speed, however, and their generally poor defense, solo warriors might want to avoid two-handed weapons until they are more experienced. You cannot use a normal shield with two-handed swords, only bucklers, which further reduces your parry bonus, making them a poor choice for buffers as well. Finally, note that you cannot begin to practice the two-handed skill until you are level 3 or higher. At higher levels, though, two-handed weapons can be devastating.

Piercing - The piercing skill is actually a thief skill, and is not used very often by warriors. Piercing weapons generally do fairly low damage, but can be very fast, especially if you have the attack skill practiced as well. Piercing also takes very little strength, so this is often the weapon class of choice for non-warriors.

Missiles - The missile skill is another thief skill. Missile weapons can do a considerable amount of damage, and are faster than most other weapons. However, they require that you carry the appropriate missiles (arrows, bolts, or stones) with you, which can run out. Also, while using a missile weapon, you receive no parry bonus from your weapon. Shooting is also interrupted when you are hit in combat. For these reasons, missile weapons can be difficult to work with as a new player.

Examples of weapons (this is not a complete list):

Slashing - broadsword, longsword, bastard sword, falchion, scimitar, beorning sword, backsword, dirk, cutlass, sickle

Cleaving - battle axe, black waraxe, brutal cleaver, woodsman's axe, handaxe, hatchet

Concussion - morningstar, warhammer, large warhammer, spiked war club, iron-shod mace, mace, maul, wooden club, cudgel, hammer, pick

Stabbing - elven hunting spear, pike, broad spear, short spear, longspear, pitchfork

Charging - lance

Two-handed - heavy warhammer, halberd, two-handed sword, two-handed axe, bastard sword, flail, quarterstaff

Piercing - double-edged eket, sharp thorn, shortsword, brown thorn, rapier, horn, stiletto, dagger, butcher knife, hunting knife

Missile - light crossbow, longbow, shortbow, sling

Note: a bastard sword can be used as either a slashing weapon or a two-handed weapon

The best way to learn about different weapons, of course, is to try them out,
but this should get you started.

Message 1143 : New Warriors Guide: Skills (Argor)
Written on Wed Dec 31 00:26:00 2003

Part 6: Choosing the skills that're right for you

Now that you are at least somewhat familiar with the type of warrior you wish to play, the weapons and armour that you plan to use, and issues involved with combat, it is time to choose your skills. Skills are learned at guilds using practice sessions (type PRAC to see what skills you have learned and how many practice sessions you have remaining). The two main guilds that you will use as a warrior are the warrior guild (of course) and the ranger guild, though you should have some idea of what the other guilds have to offer, as well.

The following skills can be quite useful, for the reasons listed below, and are recommended for most warriors:

Weapon skills (cleaving, concussion, slashing, stabbing, two-handed) - Put at least 2 practices into your main weapon each level. You might want to put a practice or two into a secondary weapon, but do not spread yourself too thinly.

Bash - This skill is fairly essential for warriors, as it allows you to knock your opponents down, preventing them from attacking for a short time and making them easier to hit. However, it is usually not effective before level 5, and not very fast or reliable until level 10 or so. Don't bother to practice it until at least level 5.

Parry - This increases your parry bonus (PB), making you harder to hit. A useful skill, but 1 or 2 practices per level should be plenty.

Rescue - A useful skill for warriors in groups. Get 1 or 2 practices (total, not per level) around level 5-8, then add a couple more after level 10.

Endurance - This skill increases your total number of hits and moves (and has other benefits as well), and is essential for warriors. It takes a very long time to become proficient in this skill, but even a few practices can show significant benefits. Put at least 1 practice into endurance each level, more if you are able.

Climb, Ride and Swim - These ranger skills will help you move around Arda, and will not hurt your warrior skills. Get them to at least 30% by level 5 if you can (though many dwarves may elect to skip ride).

Wilderness - This ranger skill reduces the number of moves you use while travelling, as well as the food and water you need. This skill is essential for tanks and buffers, and is very useful for others as well.

First Aid - If you suffer an open wound (one that bleeds), this skill will let you bind it so that it will stop bleeding and begin to heal. Note that if you attempt first aid without a sufficiently high skill level, you might even hurt yourself worse. Therefore, I suggest getting at least 40% first aid by level 5, unless you plan to always travel with someone else who knows it.

Kick, Charge, Awareness, Command, Leadership, Track - These skills are either not very useful (at least at low levels), difficult for newbies to use, or, in the case of awareness, not that vital for warriors (at lower levels). You might consider trying these skills later, but don't bother with them before level 10.

Dodge - This thief skill can be very useful for warriors, especially balanced or dodging warriors. However, when you practice thief skills, your warrior skills are somewhat hurt, so it can be a delicate balance in deciding how far to develop each set of skills. Still, I highly recommend at least 1-2 practices in dodge for all characters.

Cure Light - This cleric spell can literally be a life saver, and I recommend it for all classes, including warriors (unless you wish to avoid using magic at all for roleplaying reasons, which is quite acceptable). While warriors, particularly those with very low wisdom, may only be able to get this spell to work occasionally by level 5, by level 25 you will be able to cast it 5-6 times in rapid succession, restoring as much as a quarter of your total hits (which can make a huge difference when fighting opponents who can't heal themselves).

Here is a sample set of skills that a balanced/solo warrior might choose:

Level 1 - weapon (2), parry (2), endurance (1), swim (1), climb (1),
wilderness (1), dodge (2), first aid (2)
Level 2 - weapon (2), parry (2), endurance (1-2), swim (1), climb (1),
wilderness (2), dodge (1-2), first aid (1)
Level 3 - weapon (2), parry (1-2), endurance (1-2), ride (2-3), wilderness (1),
extra points into ride/swim/climb/first aid to get each to at least
30% (first aid to 40%)
Level 4 - weapon (2), parry/dodge (1-2), endurance (1-2), second weapon (1-2),
wilderness (1-2), cure light (3), extra points wherever
Level 5 - weapon (2), parry/dodge (0-2), endurance (1-2), second weapon (0-1),
wilderness (1), cure light (2-3), rescue (1), extra points wherever

After this point, continue to develop your weapon skills, endurance and wilderness at each level, and begin to add in bash, as well as any other skills you might want. If you are going to play a smiting warrior (two-handed weapons), practice a different weapon at levels 1 and 2, then put all additional weapon practices into two-handed weapons beginning at level 3.


Conclusion:

I hope that I have been able to provide at least a starting place for your character's development. Naturally, there are many ways to play any character, and you might differ quite considerably from what I have outlined above. By all means, do so if you wish, these have been intended as suggestions only.
Andróg
Posts: 204
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:10 pm

Re: Basic Class Guides

Post by Andróg »

Message 1442 : A Clieric / Mage Guide - By Locram (Locram)
Written on Fri Dec 12 15:15:39 2008

[Very minor corrections by Andróg.]

IMPORTANT!

This guide was written 12th of december 2008!
If at the time of reading this log is more than a year old you might want to check if the information provided is still up to date, you can do this by asking for a cleric or mage on narrates.

At the time of writing i am a level 46 cleric and have been playing on and off for at least 6 real life years.

Starting a cleric you'll want to know a couple of things:

1: What is best, cleric or mage?

2: What stats should i have?

3: How should i prac my character?

4: How do i level my caster?

5: What equipment is good?

1: You don't have to decide. If you make a char with the stats that i suggest, you can choose to reprac it at any given time, it takes about 3 days to decay all spells, so you can experiment with spells alot until you find a combination that works good for you.

In general clerics are better for groups, since they've got blindness and sanctuary, clerics however have a hard time soling since they don't get very fast spells, and you cant store cleric spells.

2: max int max wis max wil, +2 str +2 per, +2 con, +1 dex.
This will get you
str 10. dex 9, per 10, con 10, int 18 wis 18 wil 18 as a man,
str 9, dex 10, per 11, con 9, int 19 wis 18 wil 17 as elf and
str 9, dex 9, per 10, con 10, int 18 wis 19 wil 18 as half elf.

Half elf is the best choice, since it has a bonus to wis (mental, will give you more max mana) and no malus to wil/con, which will lower your hp.

Arguably mages need more per than 10 (or 11 if you choose elf) for their attack spells (which all except earthquake are int/per based), but that's not really necessary since you will still do almost the same damage with 102% as 105% attack spells, but you will FAIL to cast sleep, portal, charm, and blind spells if your int/wis/wil is too low, and your sanctuary spell will suffer a lot from lowering any of these stats, so max mentals is really the only way to go in my humble opinion.

Don't worry about your low strength, as you will probably play in your third age, that's +1 str, and you will have the strength spell, which is at least +2 str, +3 or even +4 at higher level, which will land you at about 13 strength which should be enough for a pure caster character.

Don't worry about dex for fleeing, as fleeing is random and mostly depends on encumbrance (how much stuff you carry compared to your strength) Don't worry about dex for defense either, as 1 dex gives about +2 db, while the shield spell (which you will max out) will give you about +30 or more dodge at legend.

3: As previously mentioned in step 1, you can unlearn all your spells in about 3 real life days, so it's no problem if you've learned the wrong spell, or if you want to try something out. Just do train off burning hands (for example), and wait. You don't have to be online for spells to decay once you've chosen to "train off".

That being mentioned, i'd like to promote some spells that are necessary for your survival in the game.

armour: mage spell, gives your a raw armour which lowers any incoming damage by a certain percentage (visible by removing all armour eq and typing stat). Lasts a numer of hits or a given damage (higher than numer of hits) or a specific time (usually at least half an hour at legend). Max this spell out (16 pracs) and keep it on at all times.

shield: gives you a higher dodge bonus. lasts 30+ minutes at legend. Max it (16 pracs), always keep it on.

block door: Blocks most doors in the game. A blocked door can't be opened unless broken by bash or break door spell. A blocked door is a lot harder to break if the blocking caster stands in the room with the door. Also if the door is broken against the casters will, he will get the blocking mana back. No need to max this, but it's good to do so since it makes breaking from the outside harder. (11 pracs is max)

cure light/serious: 8 pracs. Cure serious gives slightly more hp per mana, but has a longer cast time.

cure critic: 4 pracs. removes wounds.

remove poison: 4 pracs. removes poison (that would otherwise kill you) for a mere 5 mana.

Breath of briskness (12-18 pracs) Gives moves to the whole group, and an increased movereg for a given time. Initial moves are split between the group, but the movereg bonus is equal regardless of group size.

shroud: 1-2 pracs. Gives you basic invisibility vs low level mobs.

bless: 1-2 pracs. Gives you +5 ob on agg, +3 pb and +2 ob on wimpy.

Strength: 8-18 pracs. Gives you +2 str at 8 pracs, +3 at 18 pracs if you cast thorough and play mostly cleric.

These are your base spells, don't play a character without them. The rest is up to you! However, if you play a cleric you will want to get: sanctuary (25), blindness(18), break door(10), word of recall(8+), and dispel evil(18).

If you play mage you will probably want to get: Store, colour spray, lightning bolt, sleep, charm, maybe portal, locate life, teleport, watch room and earthquake.

4: Leveling caster is by far more difficult/demanding than leveling a warrior or scout. Until level 21 or so no one will want to group with you, since a low level caster is pretty much worthless for the group to have, but on the other hand necessary to have after level 20+.

Choosing to level as mage or cleric is the question! Clerics can level up pretty fast if you get a longbow, some arrows and a quiver and just blind/shoot. To do this you will want to prac as few mage/warrior/scout pracs as posible, since it will lower your percentage in blindness, however you can get like 2 pracs missile without it hurting your blind too much. Getting armour and other mage spells at this point isn't really worht it, since at low level your armour spell will drop after about 2 hits and it will have a poor absorb anyway. Physical (metal) armour is better for you at this low level. Just get ranger skills until level 6 or so, after that get only cleric spells until level 12-15 ish, when you can get armour. You can blind decently at level 8. Until then you can kill stuff by just shooting, fleeing and curing in between with cure light.

Leveling as mage works about the same. Magic missile is not a great damage spell, most of the time it's better to get a longbow and shoot your way to at least level 6 (again, with 0-2 pracs in missile). At 6 you can get chill touch, level 10 burning hands, level 13 lightning bolt, after you can cast bolt you can level really fast, since bolt is such a good spell compared to burning hands.

Also getting shroud at an early level (put a lot of pracs in it and decay em later) really helps you since you are practically invisible to all same level mobs, so you can go in a room with many and cast for example earthquake without getting hit first.

At level 18-20 you will want to get charm and command, regardless of how you've leveled up. Casting charm on a mob will make it follow you and do your bidding as long as you can command it (using command). Casting it on sleeping mobs helps, so grizzly bear is probably the best mob you'll be able to get at level 18. Once you can store charm (as mage) or blind and cast thorough charm (as cleric) you can charm better mobs. From this point on just grind up with charm to level 25, after that getting a group is pretty easy, so charm isn't necessary.

5: Equipment is the same for mages and clerics! Most important once you reach level 21 is the focus staff. It enables you to cast faster and cheaper. You make it by going to Valinor with a carved oak staff (that you get from handing in a perfect oak branch to the carpenter near the dwarven homes, and a blue crystal you get from willow. The staff and crystal needs to be blessed (by anyone) and the staff needs to be enchanted by you (get enchant and decay the pracs after you cast it on the staff). In the staff you can embed metal items that give the staff
+5 pb and ob, and jewels that gives attack spell, that is make you cast better. There are 2 attack jewels, opal and corberyl, 1 defense jewel, star sapphire, and 3 ob/pb items: bar of iron, chunk of metal and huge silvery bracer. Obvious choice is to get +2 attack and +5 parry. Buy an
opal (+attack) and iron bar (+pb) from vendors and embed opal/bar staff.

Mithril circlet from Moria also gives +attack, and so does the copper ring. Copper ring is considered a power ring, so you cant have that AND manaring (which gives a bonus to your regen). In general mages go for coppers and clerics go for manareg, but you can choose either or.

As for weapons your choices are limited to using low str weapons.

Some clerics carry bows since you can shoot very hard shots with embellished long bow (without missile pracced) if your target is blinded.

Shining chain is good, since it's light and gives good armour, but prioritize +attack and manareg items over it, since most of your absorb comes from magical armour and sanctuary. Don't carry heavy armour as it will cost too many moves and hamper your fleeing.

Best of luck to you!

Locram.
Andróg
Posts: 204
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:10 pm

Re: Basic Class Guides

Post by Andróg »

Message 1278 : board (Locram)
Written on Mon Dec 15 12:19:59 2008

A Scout Guide - By Locram

IMPORTANT!

This guide was written the 15th of deceber 2008!
If at the time of reading this log is more than a year old you might want to check if the information provided is still up to date, you can do this by asking for a scout or ranger on narrates.

Starting a scout you'll want to know a couple of things:
1: What are scouts in mume like?
2: What race should i play?
3: What stats should i have?
4: How do i level/prac my scout?
5: What equipment is good?

1: Scouts in mume are distinct from other classes since they have the ability to sneak. Sneaking makes you practically invisible to other players and mobs, as long as you enter their room and not the other way around. In order for sneak (and all skills that require you to sneak) to work you need to have SUPERB sneaking, that is over 101% sneak (percentages are visible when typing practice at a guild master).

It is possible to sneak with less than 101%, but you will fail up to a third of your sneak attempts if you have 99% or less. The other thing is that you can't sneak good if you carry heavy equipment. So check info when you pick things up, if it goes above a tad uncomfortable, you need to lose some weight.

2: What race you want to play depends laregly on what kind of stats you want, and what stats you want largely depends on what scout you wish to play later. However, all scouts skills, except envenom and attack are DEX and PER based, in that order, and you need above 101% in order to have a working scout. Dwarves do not make great scouts not only due to bad stats, but they also get a severe malus to sneak, which makes them an overall bad choice.

There is no reason statwise to play a half elf scout, so that leaves us with the choice of man, elf or hobbit. Elves it seems, make the best scouts, since they get high bonuses to DEX and PER. However elves get a malus in str, con and wil. Elves get a free citizenship in lorien and cannot become sick in MUME.

Hobbits get bonuses to dex, con and wil, but malus to str and int. Hobbits also get a bonus to backstabbing (higher sucess rate) if they remove their shoes. Trolls do 33% more damage against hobbits, and hobbits cannot ride big horses (warhorse, horse of the rohirrim, pack horse, docile horse).

Men get no bonus or malus to stats. This leaves you with low scout percentages and less room to get none scout skills, such as bash or high endurance, but gives you a higher stregnth that allows you to carry more.

3: Stats

About stats and percentages:
Having a given stat gives you a certain max percentage when practicing a skill. This percentage is augumented or worsened by your other skills, depending on their class. This means that if you practice sneak for instance, and get 106%, then you put 10 pracs in endurance your sneak will become lower. This also affects other aspects of your character, such as OB/HP/DB/PB. Raising any warrior skill will increase hp and ob, and also raise all other warrior skills. Raising any scout skill will increase db, lower hp and ob and also give you higher scout skills. Ranger pracs do not affect any stats or other skills.

This means that for any type of scout you want as LOW scout percentage as possible, but you want to keep it above 101%, so that you can sneak still. This will give you the highest possible OB, PB, HP and regeneration, and you'll still be just as good with the shooting, sneaking and backstabbing. This also means that you need very high percentages in dex/per if you want to play a combo character, and slightly lower dex/per if you want to play a more pure scout.

For someone making a more or less pure scout, with few pracs in out of class skills, a man scout is probably the best, since they get no malus and high hp/strength. For someone making a more warrior combo type scout you'll need the extra dex/per the elf or hobbit offers. With hobbits it's possible to get very high hp, since you get more con than men and you are able to prac more endurance sice you have better scout stats, on the other hand you'll have trouble when facing trolls, and the malus to strength means you won't be able to carry as much equipment and still sneak, so it's a tradeoff.

As previosuly mentioned, DEX is the primary scout stat, so get max of that whatever you are making out of your scout. PER is the second one to think about here. Don't get less than 16 per. It's probably wise to get 17 or even 18 as man, since otherwise you will have to get very low endurance and parry. A common mistake is to think that since scouts have weapons that have very low strength requirements that strength isnt very important for a scout. That is dead wrong. As previosuly stated your strength determines how much you can carry while still sneaking, and your encumbrance will also greatly determine how many moves it costs to walk a room, since you have to carry everything and since you will not ride much.

DEX, PER, STR and CON should be your priorities, probably in that order too. WIL is also good for wilderness (and spellsave), but not as important as strength. INT is good for envenom percentage, though at above 75% you fail almost nothing, and you get over 80% with 19 dex 9 int at max pracs. WIS is the ultimate dump stat for scouts, don't waste your points here.

Here are a few examples of stats:
Man (pure)
Str:15 Int: 9 Wis: 8 Dex:18 Con:16 Wil:12 Per:17.

Elf (higer scout% allows more warrior skills)
Str:15 Int: 9 Wis: 8 Dex:19 Con:15 Wil: 9 Per:18.

Hobbit (most hps)
Str:14 Int: 7 Wis: 8 Dex:19 Con:18 Wil:11 Per:16.

4: Pracs and leveling

Good news: Leveling scout is probably the fastest and easiest class on mume.

If you are an elf you should start by getting a torch in mandos and praying to lorien. In lorien spam around until you have enough travel points for level 10 or so. After that pray to Grey Havens. At level 1-15 you level by shooting, and after that by backstabbing.

Both shoot and backstab are delayed commands that are interrupted if you get hit while trying. In order to shoot something you need a bow (longbow is better for xp), a quiver with arrows and preferably the missile skill. Shooting from sneak also helps both aiming, damage and reliability of your shots, so get max sneak as soon as you can. When a scout (or anyone else) flees from combat, they will get nosneak, which is a temporary effect that lasts for about four seconds, you will see that your prompt will have a smaller 's' instead of the normal capital 'S', and that means that you have sneak on, but you have nosneak. There is a skill to counter this however - the escape skill. Escape lets you flee in a chosen direction, and lets you keep sneaking afterwards, however it takes time to escape and escape can also fail (chances are higher with many mobs/players hitting you). Max missile is 16 pracs, and is taught in lorien. Max sneak and escape is taught in tharbad. Sneak is 23 pracs, escape is 16.

Scouts have most of their guildmasters in the city of Tharbad. This is a dangerous place for low level newbies, since the town accepts black numenorians as citizens, and there are many agressive mobs and hidden doors that you must know about. I suggest that the first time you want to visit tharbad ask on narrates for someone to help you get to the guildmasters.

I suggest you get max missile and sneak in Grey Havens, which is quite low, but still good enough to level to 10 or 12, around then you should have saved up enough pracs for you to follow a legend into Tharbad and get max sneak, high missile and max escape.

Backstab is possible to max out at level 14, but will not work great until level 18. After that however you only need your bow to finish off bad/awful mobs. Leveling solo from 18-25 with backstab is very fast.

At level 10 or so you can get 4-5 cure light. At legend get a few pracs bless. Some scouts get create food and create water too, since it will allow you to carry less, but i think these spells lower your scout percentage too much, though it's up to you to decide that.

At legend, or whenever you start to prioritize PK over xp, you will want to get more warrior skills, so that you have higher hp and ob. Escape is not nececary in pk, but very useful in some situations, so you can consider skipping it if you wish to prioritize something else.

Many players will advise you to get 95% awareness. This will give you limited night vision. You see mobs and get no malus from darkness, but you don't see room namnes and cant do map room. Some of these players say that backstabbing is easier with no light on. I have tested this and found no real difference in stabbing with or without light. Also when using hide you will automatically cover your light source, so if you have no night vision and hide in a dark room you wont be able to see/do anything without revealing your position. There are however ways to counter this:

Making a camp fire in the room. This is quite obvious if you use hide to hide from other players that are chasing you, but if they havent seen you yet they you can still backstab people using this. Seeing lore is a herb lore that you get from killing the witch near fornost. This also gives you the same night vision as awareness. Dark helmet is an artifact helmet that gives you real night vision. I mention this because awareness is very expensive to practice (27 pracs) and many new players think it's necessary to have it.

What other skills you want is largely dependant on how you want to pk. Backstab does about 225 hp with a good weapon at legend. This is more than half the hp on a warrior or caster, and more than that on a scout. This means that in order to actually kill someone with backstab you
need to backstab then when they are low, or be able to chase them down afterwards. Envenom comes in handy here, as there are poisons that do damage and drain moves. Missile weapons are the most damaging weapons in the game, if you dont count backstab from daggers. However missile is a delayed action so people won't stick around until you've shot them dead. Bash comes in handy here, since you can land four longbow shots in one bash if you have max missile.

Even though scouts are sneaky and have the ability to backstab, you are not limited to doing only that. A scout with high ob and hp, or high defense can win many fights by just hitting his opponent to death with your dagger. If this is your primarly playstyle, get high endurance, max attack, max piercing and possibly bash too. Some people make scouts that have other weapons, such as ornate hammer etc. This is only viable if you can make a scout character with 18 or more strength, and you will also have to have a high ob for it to be worth it. This usually means having quite a high level (40+).

People also think about scouts as solo characters. A scout can contribute alot to a group both in xp and in pk. A scout can sneak around and check out how many are on the opposing team, they can sneak in and only reveal themselves once the door is blocked, creating an element of surprise, they can poison the weapons of the other group members, they can shoot bashed targets and do almost the same damage as a caster, etc. Your possibilities as a group increase by having a scout, you just need to think a bit! :)

5: Equipment.

As previously stated for leveling you need a longbow. For pk you might want to choose a faster shortbow, such as the eleven shortbow or black horn short bow. For backstabbing you can use an orkish fang, which if enchanted does the same damage as the best dagger in the game, which is the black runed dagger, but it has 5 less ob and 5 less pb. Slender dagger is an alternative that has slightly lower damage but 5 more ob than black runed dagger, and 10 more than fang.

Scouts in general carry no armour, except shining chain, though this doesnt mean you should run around naked. Plain clothes increase your dodge,
and leather gloves increase your ob. Thin, soft leather gloves are the best, they are +3 ob, and you can get them pretty easy compared to a ruby ring for instance (which is +5 ob). Get ash arrows rather than plain arrows, they are lighter and have a small ob bonus. They are available in lorien and rivendell. Having a decent shield is also helpful. Other than that just dont carry anything at all. Having light equipment is very important so dont carry 10 pieces of raw meat around all the time. 2-3 lembas wafers, a small water container, a light source and a butcher knife should be your only excess equipment. Having a pale blue stone, preferably a focused one, and having the traveling lore and/or orkish draught will aid you greatly when pking at legend.

I wish you the best of luck!

- Locram
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