Basic Combat
Posted: Sun May 26, 2013 5:17 pmWith an eye toward updating the wiki, I'm trying to identify the most fundamental combat techniques. The wiki is a little uh, overspecific. What I'd like is something basic and universal without being so generic as to be useless. This is what I have so far.
Standard Attack (The Unload)
This is the most basic type of attack. You hit a monster using as much of your health and mana as possible. You use no resources other your innate health and mana.
Examples:
-A Wizard with 11 mana fireballs a monster twice and then finishes with melee attacks. He will usually want to fireball first and then attack second to maximize burning damage. The 11th point of mana wasn't able to contribute to the fight.
-A Sorcerer attacks a monster until at the death threshold, then fireballs until out of mana, and then attacks again. The Sorcerer will usually want to attack first to take advantage of his Channeling power.
Mid-fight Level Up (The String of Ding)
If you are near a level up threshold and have harmless 'popcorn' monsters available, you can pick a monster that you can't beat in one pass but could beat in two. Unload on the monster, harvest your popcorn to gain a level, and then unload again.
-A 4th level elf character with three fireball's worth of mana is eyeballing a 9th level Wraith. The elf is 1 xp short of hitting 5th level. She fireballs the Wraith three times, murders a hapless 1st level goblin to level up, and then uses her fresh mana pool to fireball the Wraith 3 more time, killing it (and probably leveling up again). She did not use melee because the Wraith's damage was too high for her to soak even one hit. A smart elf would have also taken a melee swipe at some other monster before leveling up, and then finished that monster after nuking the Wraith.
-A Fighter has gotten just a few points shy of level 8, and did it without killing any of the 1st or 2nd level monsters. He also found WONAFYT and used it to slow all of those monsters. He now has a pool of 45 xp that can be harvested at no cost, which will be worth 2 or three levels ups, allowing him to steamroller the boss.
Regen Fighting (Skirmishing)
If your damage is much higher than a monster's, or your healing rate is better, or both, you can sometimes unload on a monster and then explore, refilling your resources faster than the monster can. Each attack pass puts the monster a little closer to death. The rule of thumb is to multiply the monster's damage by its level, and then do the same for yourself. I like to call this number the Power. If your Power is higher than the monster's, you will be able to eventually win through regen fighting. Players also recover mana as they explore, so if you have access to glyphs, you can sometimes beat things that have a better Power than you. Things like enhanced/decreased healing, resistances, and other effects complicate the Power formula and have to be taken into account on a case-bu-case basis.
-Monks have high resistance and double healing. They were designed with regen fighting in mind. For a clear example of how it works, play the Monk Bronze challenge.
-A 5th level Berserker with a base damage of 25 is checking out a 7th level Warlock with 48 damage. The Berserker has 50% magic resistance, and gets a +40% damage bonus for fighting a higher level monster that is also a magic user. The Berserker's true damage will be 25*1.4 = 35, and the Warlocks true damage will be 48*.5=24.
Berserker Power: 35*5 = 175
Warlock Power: 24*7 = 168
The Berserker can just barely win by regen fighting. If he has any glyphs, he can greatly reduce the number of tiles that will be needed.
Threshold Recovery (The Victorious Loss)
If a monster has more Power than you, you can still sometimes explore during the fight to reach a critical threshold, even though the long term effects of exploration would be negative.
-3rd level Fighter: Damage 15 Health 30 Mana 11 has a Fireball glyph
-4th level monster: Damage 20 Health 35
The Fighter can win by unloading (1 attack + 1 fireball). That leaves the monster at 8 health. If the Fighter explores one tile, the monster will be at 12 health, but the Fighter will just barely be able to squeeze out another fireball and win the fight.
-A Priest gets clocked by a monster for 60% of his health. Rather than chugging a health potion and wasting his Good Drink ability, he can explore a few tiles until he is at 61% health. He then attacks again, getting knocked down to 1%, and THEN drinks the potion for a full heal. In most cases this extra attack will be worth more than the healing that the monster got from the exploration.
Softening
Here, your actions aren't part of a serious attack on the monster, but are instead designed to create some sort of long term advantage to be exploited later.
-Using WONAFYT or WEYTWUT to capture low level monsters for later harvesting (aka "The Popcorn Bowl")
-Fireballing a monster and then exploring to build up burning stacks in preparation for the real attack
-A Rogue that can't quite beat a certain monster can poke the monster and then explore, hoping for a lucky dodge. If it fails, he can try again, and keep trying until it works or a better target turns up.
-Using WEYTWUT to pull a monster out of a darkened corner, so that a future casting of WEYTWUT won't also create accidental exploration.
-Using BYCEPS to chip away at the resistances of a superior monster, with an eye toward attacking it 'for real' at some later time.
-Using the Martyr Wraps to build up corrosion on a tough monster.
Precasting (The Boy Scout)
Many glyphs and powers can be used outside of combat, and their effects can be carreid with you into future battles.
-IMAWAL should always be cast before engaging the target.
-CYDSTEP is designed so that it can only be pre-cast (except for Warlords, who always pre-cast it anyway).
-ENDISWAL is best used as a precast
-BYSEPS and GETINDERE can and should be kept active while exploring.
-Someone under the effects of a Quicksilver potion can prod random weak monsters until they get a confirmed dodge, which can then be used on the real threat.
Spiking
Sometimes you have to dip into your consumable resources. It's okay, that's what they're there for. They let you operate way above your effective level.
-Potions, piety, consumable shop items, etc.
Many of these techniques can be combined, or might transform into another during a fight. Mid-fight levels ups can be combined with anything, softening might suddenly turn into regen fighting when a certain threshold is crossed, etc. Some things are too odd to really fit into any of these categories. BLUDTOPOWA feels like a standard unload, but uses up tiles as well as innate health and mana. There are probably other exceptions.
Standard Attack (The Unload)
This is the most basic type of attack. You hit a monster using as much of your health and mana as possible. You use no resources other your innate health and mana.
Examples:
-A Wizard with 11 mana fireballs a monster twice and then finishes with melee attacks. He will usually want to fireball first and then attack second to maximize burning damage. The 11th point of mana wasn't able to contribute to the fight.
-A Sorcerer attacks a monster until at the death threshold, then fireballs until out of mana, and then attacks again. The Sorcerer will usually want to attack first to take advantage of his Channeling power.
Mid-fight Level Up (The String of Ding)
If you are near a level up threshold and have harmless 'popcorn' monsters available, you can pick a monster that you can't beat in one pass but could beat in two. Unload on the monster, harvest your popcorn to gain a level, and then unload again.
-A 4th level elf character with three fireball's worth of mana is eyeballing a 9th level Wraith. The elf is 1 xp short of hitting 5th level. She fireballs the Wraith three times, murders a hapless 1st level goblin to level up, and then uses her fresh mana pool to fireball the Wraith 3 more time, killing it (and probably leveling up again). She did not use melee because the Wraith's damage was too high for her to soak even one hit. A smart elf would have also taken a melee swipe at some other monster before leveling up, and then finished that monster after nuking the Wraith.
-A Fighter has gotten just a few points shy of level 8, and did it without killing any of the 1st or 2nd level monsters. He also found WONAFYT and used it to slow all of those monsters. He now has a pool of 45 xp that can be harvested at no cost, which will be worth 2 or three levels ups, allowing him to steamroller the boss.
Regen Fighting (Skirmishing)
If your damage is much higher than a monster's, or your healing rate is better, or both, you can sometimes unload on a monster and then explore, refilling your resources faster than the monster can. Each attack pass puts the monster a little closer to death. The rule of thumb is to multiply the monster's damage by its level, and then do the same for yourself. I like to call this number the Power. If your Power is higher than the monster's, you will be able to eventually win through regen fighting. Players also recover mana as they explore, so if you have access to glyphs, you can sometimes beat things that have a better Power than you. Things like enhanced/decreased healing, resistances, and other effects complicate the Power formula and have to be taken into account on a case-bu-case basis.
-Monks have high resistance and double healing. They were designed with regen fighting in mind. For a clear example of how it works, play the Monk Bronze challenge.
-A 5th level Berserker with a base damage of 25 is checking out a 7th level Warlock with 48 damage. The Berserker has 50% magic resistance, and gets a +40% damage bonus for fighting a higher level monster that is also a magic user. The Berserker's true damage will be 25*1.4 = 35, and the Warlocks true damage will be 48*.5=24.
Berserker Power: 35*5 = 175
Warlock Power: 24*7 = 168
The Berserker can just barely win by regen fighting. If he has any glyphs, he can greatly reduce the number of tiles that will be needed.
Threshold Recovery (The Victorious Loss)
If a monster has more Power than you, you can still sometimes explore during the fight to reach a critical threshold, even though the long term effects of exploration would be negative.
-3rd level Fighter: Damage 15 Health 30 Mana 11 has a Fireball glyph
-4th level monster: Damage 20 Health 35
The Fighter can win by unloading (1 attack + 1 fireball). That leaves the monster at 8 health. If the Fighter explores one tile, the monster will be at 12 health, but the Fighter will just barely be able to squeeze out another fireball and win the fight.
-A Priest gets clocked by a monster for 60% of his health. Rather than chugging a health potion and wasting his Good Drink ability, he can explore a few tiles until he is at 61% health. He then attacks again, getting knocked down to 1%, and THEN drinks the potion for a full heal. In most cases this extra attack will be worth more than the healing that the monster got from the exploration.
Softening
Here, your actions aren't part of a serious attack on the monster, but are instead designed to create some sort of long term advantage to be exploited later.
-Using WONAFYT or WEYTWUT to capture low level monsters for later harvesting (aka "The Popcorn Bowl")
-Fireballing a monster and then exploring to build up burning stacks in preparation for the real attack
-A Rogue that can't quite beat a certain monster can poke the monster and then explore, hoping for a lucky dodge. If it fails, he can try again, and keep trying until it works or a better target turns up.
-Using WEYTWUT to pull a monster out of a darkened corner, so that a future casting of WEYTWUT won't also create accidental exploration.
-Using BYCEPS to chip away at the resistances of a superior monster, with an eye toward attacking it 'for real' at some later time.
-Using the Martyr Wraps to build up corrosion on a tough monster.
Precasting (The Boy Scout)
Many glyphs and powers can be used outside of combat, and their effects can be carreid with you into future battles.
-IMAWAL should always be cast before engaging the target.
-CYDSTEP is designed so that it can only be pre-cast (except for Warlords, who always pre-cast it anyway).
-ENDISWAL is best used as a precast
-BYSEPS and GETINDERE can and should be kept active while exploring.
-Someone under the effects of a Quicksilver potion can prod random weak monsters until they get a confirmed dodge, which can then be used on the real threat.
Spiking
Sometimes you have to dip into your consumable resources. It's okay, that's what they're there for. They let you operate way above your effective level.
-Potions, piety, consumable shop items, etc.
Many of these techniques can be combined, or might transform into another during a fight. Mid-fight levels ups can be combined with anything, softening might suddenly turn into regen fighting when a certain threshold is crossed, etc. Some things are too odd to really fit into any of these categories. BLUDTOPOWA feels like a standard unload, but uses up tiles as well as innate health and mana. There are probably other exceptions.