The best combat build?

[applepiepod]

"The Best" is a perspective thing, but I want a good build to fight with.

I am sick of having high int/char characters with hordes of men, only to get dominated by an enemy lord. (I never get far without a faction.)

I want to be able to be a mercenary fighter for as long as possible, without the use of companions.

Lots of training? Lots of Power Strike? What do I do?


edit=
Also, any tips/tricks? I've been playing for about 4 or 5 days, however old this account is, and I know probably half of the features. I caught a glimpse of a thread somewhere talking about a tactical view.. that sounds neat, like a BF2 commander? ?

Any tips on battlefield strategies? Lots of archers on a hill? Rushing cavalry*?


*turns out cavalry is not spelled calvary. Always thought it was the latter...

 

[Al3xand3r]

Eh. the game's meant to work with a party/army for the more advanced stuff. You can already beat tons of troops on your own if you play well though, perhaps a tad TOO many so, what more do you want? To be able to win sieges by yourself or what?

 

[applepiepod]

I want input pertaining to

"The Best" is a perspective thing, but I want a good build to fight with...

 

[MountainBlade]

You get tactical view by pressing o with the default settings.
You won't get very far on your own, no matter how good you are.
The best fighting character is in my opinion a horse archer.
Take athletics/riding and ironflesh to survive.

 

[fragonard]

Start with a character choice that gives you 15 STR at level 1.  First choice should be hunter (or nomad if you want to use bows).  This lets you start with 15 STR and 5 powerstrike for a very strong start. You won't have any problems soloing for the first levels.  For the next three build choices, I'd suggest page, squire and revenge for the best combat useful skills and stats. Keep raising STR to at least 21 before you consider the other stats.

 

[italiano]

High agility, strength, power strike, athletics, iron flesh if you have points to spare, high proficiency in at least one weapon and wear the best armour you can afford. Makes you fast, tough, and deal a lot of damage.

 

[applepiepod]

Thanks, Fragonard, that's exactly the input that I wanted.

Any other tips, people? Im going to be an alt tab fiend now. I can't wait to slaughter some people.

Zaro, do I want lots of strength first, and then agility? (Agility + Athletics, I'd probably increase them simultaneously)

 

[Tzsak]

Horse archer would be the 'best' combat build but it's also rather boring. Personally I go for Light leather armour and a helm I like with a poleaxe and sometimes a sword/shield, sometimes a throwing weapon. In terms of the rate at which you'll be killing, you'll be doing far better with light armour than heavy, and you'll be able to dodge blows far better than you'll be able to shrug them off with heavy armour.

Once you've got power strike to a decent level, focusing on getting high agility and proficiency is all you need~

 

[applepiepod]

I do not like horse archer because of the ammo limitation. 30 arrows fer quiver BAH.

 

[theciscokid]

What is a "good" level for powerstrike?  I've got mine to 7 now.

 

[Bralor]

Best solo combat build is without a doubt the horse archer.

Still, I find doing a Rambo on foot much more fun.

 

[Tzsak]

What is a "good" level for powerstrike?  I've got mine to 7 now.

One hit kill means you've got it to a good level. Not hard with a poleaxe ^^

 

[Gerg]

I do not like horse archer because of the ammo limitation. 30 arrows fer quiver BAH.

That's what your baggage is for

To the OP - I'm currently rolling a horse archer and I soloed my way to level 28 no problem.  I could have gone on pretty much for forever but I wanted to start taking lands and you can't siege castles by yourself.

 

[Mhydrian]

Well obviously go all STR and AGI, i usually go for 9 str and 9 agi as soon as possible. Get 3 in riding pronto and put some into weapon master( stop around 5 or so). Powerstrike should be maxed and also put points into powerdraw to get maxed at each level. And then when you can add points into toughness.

At first use a polearm and a hunter. But put points into horse archery (6 at max) so that you can transition into a horse archer as well.

When I get 12 STR and 12 AGI I continue to put points only into AGI until I get to 18 for 6 riding and 6 horse archery. I usually go for 6 in weapon mastery too. After this I go almost all STR and some in int if I want to max some skills.

My final character is usually Very High STR and 18 AGI with 9 int or so. I use a heavy hunter and a heavy mail armor. Weaponry is varied. On horseback sword of war and a warbow with two bags of arrows. In sieges a poleaxe and warbow and the arrows. You can siege just fine with a sword of war, but poleaxes are really better imo for sieging.

One thing is for certain your companions should get poleaxes. They kill quite nicely mounted and on foot with poleaxes.

 

[mrcrotch]

I usually get my strength up first so that I kill most enemies with one attack. That usually brings more experience and then I level up the rest.

 

[killer-blead]

horse, lance, shield no skills required. just ride a them and couched lance damage them.
ofcourse as the others suggested put a bow and a arrow set in the other 2 slots.

if you want to stay a mercenary i suggest taking diffrent troop types. cavelery,archers,infantry are all found in the branch of mercenary.

if you want troops to get trained without them getting killed i suggest spare practice. its also good for your skills.

and before you start making war with everyone. try to merchant for a couple of days. you know, buy low sell high w/e
you can win a battle with troops. but you can end a war with money.

 

[applepiepod]

Merchants are GREAT for money. I made 10k in probably 10 days. Took so long cuz the only towns they were trading with were the capitals at the ends of the map.
Jerks.

I'm rockin' a Sword of war, a shield simply for my back. Haven't done any sieges yet, but I got sucked into the nord faction. I played Merc till probably level 5, and then saw King Ragnar with 300 troops and 75 prisoners, and all of his lords behind him, with 50-100 troops. I got swept up in the moment and figured that the winning team is the way to go. We rape.

No castles taken yet, but we dominated 5 of the Vaegir lords, all escaped :\.

Still, rockin' hard. Sword of War + 9 power swing and around 17 str at level 10 is nice. I like it. Also bought a winged helm, and it looks good with everything.

I'm wearing some crappy leather+mail hybrid.

I slaughtered something like 50 archers solo. Lovin' it.

 

[cactot]

how do you have 9 power swing with 17 strength?  shouldn't you need 27 strength?

 

[WCG]

I'm a newbie, so this is a very useful thread. But I think it's interesting that a horse archer is so frequently recommended. I'm so bad at 'real-time' combat, that I wouldn't be able to hit the broad side of a barn from a moving horse. No matter how talented and well-equipped my character was, it's the player who actually has to do this stuff. (I do shoot from my halted horse, but I can get a hail of missiles in return, if I don't watch out.)

Of course, I'm almost as bad at every other kind of combat. Heck, I can't even hit a stationary enemy with a couched lance! That's pretty bad! Still, I did discover, when I restarted the game for version 1.003, that buffing up my character's strength, agility, and combat skills DID help, at least in the arena.

And since I'm playing everything on the easiest setting, my troops have had no problem killing our enemies. I ride back and forth, swinging wildly (and missing almost every time), which seems to confuse our foes. When they finally dribble in to attack the troops I've left behind, they are easily slaughtered piecemeal.

Lots of fun! I just wish I was a bit better at this stuff! 

Bill

 

[theciscokid]

Being new I didn't do the best job of tweaking my character and my heroes.  It's taken a bit, but I've finally got them where they can wade through tons of foes and smash them to pieces. 

My character has Powerstrike 8, Ironflesh 7, Riding 5 and Powerdraw 5.  He's got a few otters, but these are my main skills.  I really wanted a leader who could really get into the fight.  I can easily lay waist to a ton of enemies now and am finding it a blast.  I think my next character will be much more of a sit back and manage the battlefield type. 

I've also started to stray a bit from the cavalry.  In the beginning that's all I had, but I'm loving foot tactics with Seargents, Huscarls and Crossbowman!