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I'm really bad at this game. I thought I was improving but then I did a fight against an enemy team that surrounded their polearm-sickle guy so I couldn't get to him, and he lopped off one head per turn. All of my guys were headless by the end, it was loving bullshit. I tried to lop his head off with my dude but nope, that didn't work. Is it possible to actually get good at this game?
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Dec 11, 2018 00:29
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Nope. Better uninstall and move on.
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Dec 11, 2018 00:57
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redreader posted:I'm really bad at this game. I thought I was improving but then I did a fight against an enemy team that surrounded their polearm-sickle guy so I couldn't get to him, and he lopped off one head per turn. All of my guys were headless by the end, it was loving bullshit. I tried to lop his head off with my dude but nope, that didn't work. Is it possible to actually get good at this game? ugh gonna need a better description of the situation to give meaningful advice here Who was the fight against? What weapon was the polearm user wielding? What level were you? etc
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Dec 11, 2018 00:58
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Captain Gordon posted:ugh gonna need a better description of the situation to give meaningful advice here "polearm-sickle" sounds a bit like "I tried to fight ancient dead with at least one honor guard when I wasn't prepared, and the inevitable outcome happened" Tbf, discovering new enemies that gently caress your poo poo up totally is arguably a downside of this game on ironman. See: literally everyone's first encounter with necrosavants  if it's ancient dead and you're not just straight up fuckin' outclassed, their AI is slightly better but insufficiently good at handling "retreat in two separate groups as the battle starts so they get confused and break formation" haven't tried that strategy in no-allies Noble War fights, but Man With Billhook there is second only to Man With Arbalest for low-rent day-ruining Goatse James Bond fucked around with this message at 01:30 on Dec 11, 2018 |
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Dec 11, 2018 01:19
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redreader posted:I'm really bad at this game. I thought I was improving but then I did a fight against an enemy team that surrounded their polearm-sickle guy so I couldn't get to him, and he lopped off one head per turn. All of my guys were headless by the end, it was loving bullshit. I tried to lop his head off with my dude but nope, that didn't work. Is it possible to actually get good at this game? I swear it is! I've bumped into this feeling a lot with this game but I have noticed all my efforts result in better outcomes over the long term. That being said, sometimes the RNG can really put the screws to you, when you're making the technically sound decision but just whiffing several 70-80% hits and the enemy is landing several 30-40% hits. Here it sounds like you were dealing with either Noble Billmen (if they were human) or an Ancient Legionary with a bladed pike (if they were skellingtons). Both of these are real threats, I think the pikemen Legionaries are some of the scariest things you can find in the early-midgame because most of your bros can barely stomach one hit from them if they're at full health or armor, two hits will kill nearly any brother under level 7 or 8. They're pretty good about ganging up on targets too. For the legionaries, I would note that the ancient dead commit to their formations, meaning you can net the frontline skeletons as they come in and the pikemen will advance ahead of them as opposed to staying safely behind. If you can't make that work, netting the pikemen themselves will drop their accuracy and force them to waste a turn at least, two or three if you're lucky. You absolutely need to figure out a way to prioritize these guys, you do NOT want to just have the two lines and smash it out. The ancient dead thrive in that kind of slog because they don't have to worry about fatigue, morale or injuries. If you don't have nets on hand (don't be in this position if you can avoid it, nets are amazing for all kinds of threats) you need to try and smash a way through to the pikemen, hopefully one or two of the frontline skeletons are not using a shield, smash them down first. Greatswords are a good pick here because the Split ability will let you pierce the first row and hit softer targets in the back. Usually this isn't an option early on since greatswords are top-tier, expensive and hard to find, but with the DLC you've got a decent shot at landing a longsword early on. Warbrands and Rhompaias (spelling? the undead twohander sword) have split available too. rideANDxORdie fucked around with this message at 01:38 on Dec 11, 2018 |
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Dec 11, 2018 01:35
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Mercenaries you fight can have nimble builds and holy poo poo they are annoying as gently caress. And also apparently they have insane ranged defense because I only have a 5% chance to hit them no matter how much higher elevation they are or if they don't have shields. I used to stand a chance of beating them midgame but now its just a slaughter.
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Dec 11, 2018 02:53
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Bogarts posted:Mercenaries you fight can have nimble builds and holy poo poo they are annoying as gently caress. And also apparently they have insane ranged defense because I only have a 5% chance to hit them no matter how much higher elevation they are or if they don't have shields. I used to stand a chance of beating them midgame but now its just a slaughter. No joke, I was doing pretty well in my second game until I got into a fight with Bounty Hunters for the first time. Their AI is pretty vicious and they had better equipment and higher level dudes with nimble. The good news is that I got the achievements for retreating from battle and losing half my company in a single fight, so that's nice.
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Dec 11, 2018 02:57
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Use poison/cleavers/spears vs mercenaries, Nimble is broken good right now - and AI mercs dont have to deal with pesky stat allocations! They also have an ultimate form of Man With Crossbow, so good luck with that.
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Dec 11, 2018 02:58
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You know how sometimes you send a melee guy up to a goblin archer and he pulls out a dagger and does decent damage? I had that with a merc master archer who had nimble and he just murdered two of my mercs with a skinning knife before I could kill him.
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Dec 11, 2018 03:25
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Thanks for the replies. It was a mercenary band of humans... it might have just been a bladed polearm. They were all wearing green helmets and chain or plate mail. I also had all that stuff though! it was the most well-equipped band I'd ever seen. The general enemies were ok and I would have won if not for that single enemy with the bladed polearm just lopping one head per turn. It was a loving bloodbath.
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Dec 11, 2018 03:25
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redreader posted:Thanks for the replies. It was a mercenary band of humans... it might have just been a bladed polearm. They were all wearing green helmets and chain or plate mail. I also had all that stuff though! it was the most well-equipped band I'd ever seen. The general enemies were ok and I would have won if not for that single enemy with the bladed polearm just lopping one head per turn. It was a loving bloodbath. Don't. Fight. Enemy. Mercenaries. I assume this was an event result? Like, you didn't give up a bandit head when they showed up going  ?Now you've learned an important lesson! actually, i'm curious now if you keep the head if you just mash the 'RUN AWAY' button when they assail you
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Dec 11, 2018 03:46
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redreader posted:Thanks for the replies. It was a mercenary band of humans... it might have just been a bladed polearm. They were all wearing green helmets and chain or plate mail. I also had all that stuff though! it was the most well-equipped band I'd ever seen. The general enemies were ok and I would have won if not for that single enemy with the bladed polearm just lopping one head per turn. It was a loving bloodbath. Ok, if they were actual Mercenaries (ie other Mercenary company), that's a very late game encounter - if you got them as a result of a contract (sometimes Mercenaries just jack your poo poo), just cut your losses and run. They are very tough right now because of a broken OP skill that is a part of their kit, Nimble, which makes them take little to no hitpoint damage. On top of that, their high melee attack will make mincemeat out of anyone, especially lightly (sub 240) armored bros. Most likely you were fighting Brigand Raiders. They are tough, but unlike Mercenaries they are quite manageable. That said, you need to know when you can fight them - Brigand Raiders are notorious enders of low level bro squads. Here is a spot check to fight Radiers: Does every single one of your Bros have at least studded leather armor/chainmail? Do you have one of the following: T2 weapons, Level 1 Flails, Crossbows or Throwing weapons? Does every single one of your frontline bros have the Rotation skill? Do you have at least 2 level 2 polearms? If the answer to all of the above is a no, AVOID BRIGAND RAIDERS. If you said yes to one of those, here are some points to consider: Raiders usually forgo helmets (this is completey tied to RNG), which is why flails are so good against them. A typical raider will wear a chainshirt or a chainmail with no head armor - so hit that arrogant prick with a headshot (Flails can precision target the head with their second ability) Most raiders have T2 weapons, so your Studded Leather armor will probably go in 1-2 hits. Thats why its important to have Rotation to take the bro that had his armor obliterated out of the fighting line. Raiders will generally go before your bros, because gently caress you. Polearm raiders will loving destroy you, so you need to kill them first. Usually, the early game encounters only have a couple of them - just swarm the polearm guy, or better yet, stun the fucker with a mace! Don't be afraid to use a Shieldwall on a bro if he is surrounded by 2 Raiders or more. If you have a bro with high melee defense and a good (Heater) shield, ITS OK TO ONLY SPEND 4 AP ON A SHIELDWALL EACH TURN AND DO NOTHING ELSE. Don't let anyone be surrounded by more then 3 Raiders if you want them to live. You need to focus down one fucker at a time, their armor can take quite a beating vs t1 weapons. The most dangerous weapons the raiders will bring are, in order: Polearms (gently caress you damage from 2 tiles away, ++chance to hit head) Flails (they ignore shield bonuses and hit like a truck, also ++ chance to hit head and can precision target head) Axes (they hit like two trucks and can chop your shield down) Spears (near-guaranteed low-ish damage hits since spears have a +20% to hit buff) Maces (you can get stunlocked or fatigued out very quickly) Swords (prob the least dangerous of the bunch, but watch out for Riposte counter-attacks and don't attack them with low health/armor bros) Now you know that, you know whom to kill first! Now lets look at how we can get to polearm dudes: Shield bash dudes out of the way Shieldwall + Taunt Shieldwall + move 2 tiles through attacks of opportunity to get close to the polearm dude (-15% to hit adjacent hexes with polearms, post DLC patch). Bows/Xbows Throwing weapons Raider morale also isnt great, if you can kill a couple of them quickly (headshots, ranged attacks - throwing weapons do alot of damage this way, which, coincidentally, the raiders also use alot), its very likely the rest will break! If you see a wavering raider, park as many bros next to him as possible to force a rout (then stab him with the Pierce attack of the dagger to get his armor). Raiders eventually will get Brigand Marksmen, aka Man With Crossbow. They will delete your mercenary company and they will do it every time. There is no way around it. Attack at night, with swarms of dogs and kite shields. Also, pray to RNG. Captain Gordon fucked around with this message at 04:07 on Dec 11, 2018 |
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Dec 11, 2018 03:49
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GreyjoyBastard posted:actually, i'm curious now if you keep the head if you just mash the 'RUN AWAY' button when they assail you You do.
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Dec 11, 2018 04:00
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GreyjoyBastard posted:actually, i'm curious now if you keep the head if you just mash the 'RUN AWAY' button when they assail you You do and you also get away with the relics from the skeleton missions (ie Retrieve religious artifact) most of the time (pay attention to the text!). If its a delivery contract however, retreating vs rival Mercenaries causes you to fail.
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Dec 11, 2018 04:01
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I had a cool event where an assassin snuck into my tent and demanded I hand over the bastard I had in my company, not sure if its new to this expansion, but I never remember it firing in my old playthroughs and I had multiple exiled nobles and bastards in my company back then.
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Dec 11, 2018 04:24
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Captain Gordon posted:
I find having ranged superiority is the key to beating raiders, and then daggers or flails close in, to hit their morale.
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Dec 11, 2018 04:31
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Jack2142 posted:I had a cool event where an assassin snuck into my tent and demanded I hand over the bastard I had in my company, not sure if its new to this expansion, but I never remember it firing in my old playthroughs and I had multiple exiled nobles and bastards in my company back then. You can get the assassin to join you too. I got it before the expansion and he was kinda like a beefed up thief.
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Dec 11, 2018 07:51
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Captain Gordon posted:Does every single one of your Bros have at least studded leather armor/chainmail? And I generally get a lot of the things you listed as prerequisites for fighting Raiders as loot drops from them. I'll try to buy leather armor before fighting Raiders if possible but sometimes that's not happening. Sometimes there's no armorer selling at decent prices. I get almost all my early and midgame weapon upgrades from them. The only thing to really keep in mind about Raiders is that their stats and equipment are better than what a starting company will have, so fighting them one on one isn't going to end well. But that's it, and the game rarely spawns them in huge numbers early on.
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Dec 11, 2018 15:19
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Yeah the new game has made me equip more nets/poison/ect on my brothers. For a lot of these fights i'm really fighting like an rear end in a top hat. It's slower growth, but occasionally i'll dagger party a dude for armour. Hunting beasts is real fun. Alps arent' a pain now i have like 4 dogs about and as soon as the dog gets close to them they stop running.
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Dec 11, 2018 16:42
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Yeah, a lot of my fear of alps and webbers stopped after I levelled up a bit and got four doggos
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Dec 11, 2018 16:54
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Found an "Ancient Statue" landmark that gave me an interesting event. Is there anything more to that, or is it just that one time thing? Guessing it might have a connection to the Ancient Dead and the undead invasion. Also, are there more places like that around now? I've found that, the Watermill, and the Witch's Hut so far.
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Dec 11, 2018 19:02
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There are Stone Pillars which are connected to the Kraken hunt and are probably guaranteed to be in a swamp somewhere.
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Dec 11, 2018 19:33
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I found a sunken temple
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Dec 11, 2018 19:42
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I found a ship suspended in a tree.
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Dec 11, 2018 19:52
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Wizard Styles posted:Brigand Raiders are almost entirely unavoidable on Expert from the first week on. Even on Veteran they pop up pretty soon into the game. I'm honestly surprised you apparently manage to avoid them until you can pick Rotation. This btw. Raiders are the games bread and butter, not sure why you're holding off fighting them till your team is kitted out in gear you get from killing raiders.
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Dec 11, 2018 22:15
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Gridlocked posted:This btw. Raiders are the games bread and butter, not sure why you're holding off fighting them till your team is kitted out in gear you get from killing raiders. There seems to be a weird split between people who treat raiders like they're goblins and people who treat raiders like they're loot pinatas. I can't claim any moral victory though because I'll savescum a raider fight multiple times just to make sure I get the good loot with no deaths. I think the real secret to fighting raiders is 1) Have some combination of bowyers/archers capable of putting out 3 missiles or more / round with decent hit chance -- these will croak a certain number of raiders before they hit your line, just with headshots, and will force raiders to approach you rather than vice/versa 2) buy cheap knives ASAP for your whole front line 3) make sure the first couple of raider groups you fight, you outnumber them about 2 to 1, and go full dagger party (apart from your bowmen). I'm still puttering around looking for a map I'm really happy with. At the moment I like this one: https://bb.frukso.se/seed/HEHXPIZQPX/ Also trying to figure out a build for lancers/polearm wielders I'm happy with, they seem more important now but you need some flexibility with them. Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 22:47 on Dec 11, 2018 |
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Dec 11, 2018 22:24
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Yeah that checklist posted a while earlier is a little overkill, I'd say just make sure you hit two or three of those and you're good. You certainly don't want to pick a fight with a raider group with 1:1 to your company, but I've found early raider fights to be tremendous stepping stones. My last campaign I bumbled into a group of 6 raiders on day 5, and was lucky enough to dagger two down and take a third down with flail lashes. So, with Hoggart's mail, that left me with four sets of rusty mail and some T2 weapons right off the bat - it was a massive step up for the company to have that early on.
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Dec 11, 2018 22:43
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I appreciate Ride and XOR Dies name as someone who enjoyed logic at uni
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Dec 12, 2018 00:05
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vyelkin posted:I found a ship suspended in a tree. Is it a reference to Aguirre: the wrath of god? Or is that just a coincidence?
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Dec 12, 2018 00:06
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Idk, I tend to get level 2 weapons and armor from zombies, which are far less dangerous than raiders. My main issue with raiders is that you have no control over their gear - fighting 5 helmet-less raiders is not the same thing as fighting 4 axe+shield raiders and a polearm. The rng is too wild with raiders is what I am saying, for my early game liking at least.
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Dec 12, 2018 00:37
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Raiders are free loot unless you get way too many raiders at once too quickly, or unusually bad luck with their weapon selections (vs. 2 raiders with pikes early is scary)
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Dec 12, 2018 00:41
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Captain Gordon posted:Idk, I tend to get level 2 weapons and armor from zombies, which are far less dangerous than raiders. My main issue with raiders is that you have no control over their gear - fighting 5 helmet-less raiders is not the same thing as fighting 4 axe+shield raiders and a polearm. Just retreat?
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Dec 12, 2018 01:16
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I love the personality of the ai in this game, it's such a bastard. Oh, every bandit flees when I decapitate someone EXEPT for the one who's one turn away from being able to kill my best guy. It's like the game actively seeks to screw you over. I'm more impressed than annoyed, they must playtest the poo poo out of it.
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Dec 12, 2018 01:51
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dylguy90 posted:I love the personality of the ai in this game, it's such a bastard. Oh, every bandit flees when I decapitate someone EXEPT for the one who's one turn away from being able to kill my best guy. It's like the game actively seeks to screw you over. I'm more impressed than annoyed, they must playtest the poo poo out of it. Man With Crossbow lurks, knowing he's going to lose the battle, but by God, he's going to shoot my unlucky as gently caress archer in the eye before he does. I swear that archer got hurt in every battle. I can't remember his name, but I remember him catching so many crossbow bolts with his teeth. Never died, at least!
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Dec 12, 2018 02:00
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Every company has a Garbagedik
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Dec 12, 2018 02:14
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The best part is he was a Tiny Hunter with 2 ranged stars. He was supposed to be the Chosen One! Instead he got chosen for bolts. In his eyes.
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Dec 12, 2018 02:25
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Gridlocked posted:Every company has a Garbagedik Tis the season for garbagedickens, is it not? Does tiny grant any dodge bonus on ranged?
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Dec 12, 2018 04:21
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It's funny because you can plan around the ai doing poo poo like suicidally going after your failed-his-resolve-role frontliner or taking the high ground next to your archer. It's like they copy the evil vindictive playstyle of the player. How often can you describe an ai as "spiteful".
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Dec 12, 2018 04:33
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REMEMBER SPONGE MONKEYS posted:Tis the season for garbagedickens, is it not? Short gives you +5 in both defenses but -% in melee damage iirc
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Dec 12, 2018 04:54
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Gridlocked posted:Short gives you +5 in both defenses but -% in melee damage iirc Yep. Absolutely perfect on a bowman who won't be doing melee.
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Dec 12, 2018 04:59
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