Two Questionss: Skills & Mounts

Posts: 13 Arc User
edited March 2009 in Barbarian
I have two questions, one regarding skills and the other regarding mounts:

1. I'm a lvl 30 Barbarian, and I've made some mistakes regarding skills: I've purchased & partially upgraded two skills for my tiger form (which I now only use for fast travelling, after I was done bragging about being a cooli-o white tiger) and I've upgraded Stomp Of The beast King to level 4 then I realized it sucks. So, in order to not make similar mistakes next, since now I don't have as much money & spirit to spare like I did before, I'd like to know if anyone recommends any skills I should learn/upgrade. Right now I have:
* Stomp Of The Beast King (Level 4)
* Garotte (Level 6)
* Swell (Level 3)
* Mighty Swing (Level 3)
* Penetrate Armor (Level 2)
* Firestorm (Level 1)
* Beast King's Inspiration (Level 3)
* Blood Bath (Level 1)

* True Form (Level 2)
* Flesh Ream (Level 3)
* Alacrity Of The Beast (Level 1)
* Spark Eruption

2. As a lvl 30, I just got my first mount: Wave Pacer. I'm wondering: What are the basics of mounts? For example, does the +0.5 m/s speed add on to my regular form speed? What can I do to increase that?
Also, what are the range of mounts I can get? Are they all limited by class, or are some all-class mounts? What kind of mounts should I get? When?

Thanks for any help, I appreciate it!
Post edited by Henasraf - Sanctuary on

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Comments

  • Posts: 28 Arc User
    edited March 2009
    Mighty Swing and Penetrate armor are key damage abilities in Humanoid form. Later when you get Bestial Onslaught, that will be also. Keep Beast King's Inspiration maxed, and for a while you'll need Blood Bath while grinding. Later on as you level you can get decent +accuracy bonuses on gear and won't need BB as much while grinding (but it will still be useful in PvP vs. high-evasion enemies).

    I did almost all of my grinding in Humanoid form up to about 70 or so, now I'm beginning to favor True Form (currently rank 2) for grinding. Poison Fang helps to offset the damage penalty in True Form. You won't really need Flesh Ream maxed out until you're really doing serious tanking, but it's a good idea to upgrade it once in a while. Alacrity of the Beast and Surf Impact will be valuble later if you decide to do True Form grinding, and Sunder (level 59) is awesome. This one skill is basically what has tipped me in favor of True Form grinding.

    As you've already realized, Stomp is junk, as is Swell. I think I used Firestorm 3 or 4 times. Garotte is very efficient in terms of mana to damage, but not a critical ability. If you didn't get Spark Eruption, get it. Get the new rank at 59. This is the only skill I can think of where the new rank does not overwrite the old one. You can put both on your bars and use them as you wish.

    _______________________________________________________________________________________

    Mounts -

    You're correct in the assumption that the +0.5 m/s speed increase relates to your Humanoid form speed. In other words, switching to True Form does not increase mount speed. You can upgrade your mount speed with Wind Widgets (flying mounts) or Spurs (land mounts) from the Boutique. Flying mounts are race-specific. If you open up your Boutique window and click the "Fly" tab, you'll see "Swords," "Beasts," "Wings," and "Upgrades." Untamed ride Beasts.

    Land mounts are all-race, unless I'm mistaken.
  • Posts: 13 Arc User
    edited March 2009
    Sweet. Thanks! So Swell and Firestorm aren't worth upgrading? I always liked Swell as it was my only AoE for now, but I think there's a skill coming up soon that I don't remember the name of that has a better AoE range. So I'll get that asap. As for Firestorm, I'd be using it more often if it didn't require one Spark which makes it less commonly available... Since it has the same effect as Garotte with a little additional effect as well so it's useful.
  • Posts: 391 Arc User
    edited March 2009
    I'm more a tiger barb, but the only humanoide skill I've learned that I found worth the sp (even if it's just lvl1) is Slam (lvl39). It's my only 360 degrees damage aoe, and doesn't need any chi/spark. I only use it in fb19 every now and then, but I think it's a good skill.

    It can also help you when you get ganged. In humanoide you have less def, so the knockback should be usefull. Just a thought.
  • Posts: 13 Arc User
    edited March 2009
    As a tiger you have more p.def & HP, but the attacks are a lot weaker from what I know... Maybe skills eventually get stronger but 35% less weapon damage doesn't strike as good to me D:
  • Posts: 542 Arc User
    edited March 2009
    it all depends on what you wanna do.. if you wanna focus on damage then stick to humanoid form.. as people have said.. mighty swing and penetrate armor are good.. beastial onslaught as well.. if you wanna go for pvp/TW you should upgrade perdition(armageddon) .. this will provide you with the spike damage necessary to break peoples charms
  • Posts: 129 Arc User
    edited March 2009
    I personally have 3 bars for skills. I keep my potions and buffs, including True Form level 3 on my top bar. My middle bar has my tiger skills. On there are Flesh Ream, which I use quite often even when soloing and grinding. Devour is on there but I use it much less. Alacrity of the Beast and Surf Impact are also there. Alacrity is used against magic enemies and the only use I've found for Surf Impact is for a damage spike without using chi for Devour. My favorite skills on that bar are Sunder and Invoke the Spirit. On my bottom bar are my wolf form skills. Mighty Swing, Penetrate Armor, Slam, and Beastial Onslaught are the most used. I also have Garrotte on there for when I tank in wolf on the easier fights. At the end is Armageddon, for when I know my cleric is competent or when I have a heiro. True Form level 3 does have its downsides, but I feel that it is worth it. The increased health from level 2 helps greatly and my Flesh Ream level 8 or 9 offsets the reduced damage when I tank. I usually do non-tank fights in wolf, but if I'm in tiger I use Flesh Ream a LOT. I'm also going to be almost exclusively a tiger after I get my Demon cultivation. The first skill that I'm going to alter to Demon is True Form so that the damage penalty disappears.
    Disclaimer

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  • Posts: 28 Arc User
    edited March 2009
    As a tiger you have more p.def & HP, but the attacks are a lot weaker from what I know... Maybe skills eventually get stronger but 35% less weapon damage doesn't strike as good to me D:

    There's actually something interesting about this.

    As you upgrade Poison Fang, it can roughly offset the physical damage loss from True Form. What's also interesting about it is that you're adding Wood damage which isn't mitigated by physical defense.

    And if you go Demon at 89 and get the Demon True Form and Poison Fang skill books, you get all of that physical damage back, and Poison Fang wood damage equal to 50% of weapon attack. Tiger suddenly gets pretty strong.

    Ah, _Shallimar_ beat me to some of this.
  • Posts: 937 Arc User
    edited March 2009
    Also note that tigerform reduces "weapon damage" only. Thats not the entirely that bad. Almost half your damage output comes from my damage buffs and passive skills (think titans strength, poison fang and axe/hammer mastery).
    I was always quite surprised to see how close my lvl3 tiger form damage is to my humanoid damage until I understood this.
    With a lvl3 tiger form and maxed mastery and poison fang, the difference between total damage for m in humanoid and tiger seems to be roughly 15-20%. Not a bigdeal to me considering the 30% added HP I get from tiger.
    When the going gets tough; Get a tank!
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    Nocturne mature HT guild - we invite people, not levels.
    pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=760842
  • Posts: 1,686 Arc User
    edited March 2009
    With a lvl3 tiger form and maxed mastery and poison fang, the difference between total damage for m in humanoid and tiger seems to be roughly 15-20%.
    Of course, poison fang works for both tiger and humanoid form, you just have to switch to cast it.

    However, tiger form runs faster. During grinding, the speed increase while running between monsters can sometimes offset the difference in kill times.

    I switch between modes when grinding, depending upon what I'm killing. But for "serious" playing, when working in a party on quests that are challenging, tiger form is always the better choice.
    As a tiger you have more p.def & HP, but the attacks are a lot weaker from what I know... Maybe skills eventually get stronger but 35% less weapon damage doesn't strike as good to me D:
    The difference is that there's a shortage of both clerics and tanks in the game, due to people being biased towards offense over defense. If you want to fulfill that shortage, go with tiger form and be the tank that everybody else wants to party with.

    There's just nothing as good as a tiger with Flesh Ream when it comes to protecting the rest of the party.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    PWI Merchanting Guides: warrenwolfy.wordpress.com
  • Posts: 937 Arc User
    edited March 2009
    Of course, poison fang works for both tiger and humanoid form, you just have to switch to cast it.

    I used to think that too, since the buff icon remains even after you switch, but, lately I've been looking a bit closer at damage and think its only effective in tigerform.
    When the going gets tough; Get a tank!
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    Nocturne mature HT guild - we invite people, not levels.
    pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=760842
  • Posts: 13 Arc User
    edited March 2009
    The difference is that there's a shortage of both clerics and tanks in the game, due to people being biased towards offense over defense. If you want to fulfill that shortage, go with tiger form and be the tank that everybody else wants to party with.

    There's just nothing as good as a tiger with Flesh Ream when it comes to protecting the rest of the party.
    Iunno. If I have to protect the rest of the party in a battle I just (hopefully) use Penetrate Armor or Spark Eruption to attract the mobs to me while I have a cleric healing in the back... It's not that I go towards offense rather than defense, quite the contrary, I love my defense, I just would like to be able to get along alright without a party with me 24/7, plus in tiger form I might run faster, but it looks like being weaker makes me waste more time killing mobs. I also don't like having to waste all this MP/Chi for attacks because quite frankly, all these pots are quite a waste of money when I can go solo in humanoid and kill mobs using dry normal attacks only.

    Iunno, with all the things you're saying, I'm starting to regret not putting more effort into true form, but quite frankly I'm happy in humanoid form right now, but maybe I just dunno what I'm missing in tiger form (first time playing/first char).

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