From: James Schuldes <
jgs@...>
>>Have you ever tried hand to hand combat?
Yes. I've actually reached HtoH(10) at my current level 11 ... still
trying to find a good group to improve it with.
>>Go into a newbie zone and
>>pick a fight with an orc pawn or a gnoll pup. They cant hurt you
>>because of your ac and your hp rebuilds faster than they can damage
>>you. But you will be punching them for 1 point of damage.
Yeah. Unfortunately, that won't improve my HtoH skill since the
monsters are trivial. Of course, my mandolin'd Dissonance is already
making them run as fast as they can away from me.
>>Now you should be getting into groups where they are attacking
>>monsters that are so much higher than you that your normal weps
>>are having trouble damaging them. Your role in that case will be
>>equiping an instrument and playing songs. So magic gloves and hand
>>to hand combat with monsters that you can barley hit with a Dirk or
>>Combine are not gonna do any good.
True. But as long as I'm just doing 100% songs, I might as well turn
on
autoattack and get my skill up. I'll still get 1 or 2 punches in. I
actually do this to black (even) and yellow (higher) monsters so I
can
actually hit and gain skill quickly. Reds are slow to skill up on,
and
invulnerable is (of course) impossible to get skill-ups.
>>Even lower level monsters that
>>your regular weps can hit will be hitting you and your party
>>pretty hard.
Yes ... I've mentioned that.
>>If you are in the melee, you will be at risk of
>>getting stunned and not having your songs be used all of the time.
>>And you will get beat up for no gain.
Actually, since you're not the main source of damage -- and I guess I
haven't reached that mob frenzy level with these monsters yet -- the
mob
pretty much ignores you. Whenever I the party beset by multiple
black
mobs, I switch from weapon to mandolin and swap between Anthem, Hymn,
and Dissonance ... and I do my HtoH.
I also think that donning heavy armor (read: Banded and up) when you
haven't maxed out the defensive skills (Defense, Dodge) makes you a
target for bashs and stuns. The only time I wear armor is when I
pick
them up from frogloks in Innothule. Otherwise, I look like a newbie.
>>p.s. I could be wrong - I have only had 2 or 3 partys and monster
>>combos where I was able to do this stand off support role. but I
have
>>done the h2h combat thing and it was pitiful!
Try it out! Get a three or four player party and gang up on blacks.
You'll get good exp and HtoH skill raises. I think I've heard that
Bard HtoH skills are worthless compared to tanks, but if a magic user
is
hitting the mob with a dagger, I better be in there with my fists!
Oh ... I only do this when I know the tanks can take the mob out. I
group with a lot of paladins and monks. They have a big ego about
how they can slay monsters before anyone else -- I don't want to
burst that bubble yet when I equip my fastest weapons (soon to buy a
dirk) and do Whistle and Anthem.
Thanks for the input everyone! I'll just sell my netted gloves to my
monk friends! I wonder if this a Verant "bug" or a Verant
"balancing" quirk.
oh well.... back to powerleveling for magical attacks.