Well, when we last spoke I gave you a rundown on I feel TPs should be designed. Now I will give you my ideas on how to run them.
First, you need to consider what type of warrior you now have. A total parry is what its name suggests. Total defense. The idea around a TP is to concentrate on defense first and utmost. Only when the situation arises will the TP decide to attack. With this in mind NEVER run a TP with an offensive effort (OE) above 5. In doing so you have just told your TP to do what they weren't designed to do. Go offensive. If you want to run your TP above 5, you should have made an offensive styled warrior, NOT a TP. By using a high OE, you cause your TP to ignore defense and go offense. This results in numerous "flailing" and "wild" attacks. So don't do it.
While running your TP, you may find that he tends to really turn on the offense often. That is typical, typical of a warrior who favors initiative skills. This does not mean that you should boost your OE. What is happening is that one of your warrior's favorite learns is initiative. So he/she will be naturally adept in initiative. And remember that initiative is the skill that allows you to continuously make attacks on your opponent. Since your TP decided to attack, your opponent should be relatively worn down. So it will be hard for your opponent to steal that initiative back from you. Hence the reason that your TP looks like an offensive killer. But that's good. It means that you have a very dangerous warrior on your hands. High endurance burning styles, look out!
I know, I know!!! There are managers out there still that believe in the offensive TP and suggest using higher OE. That's all fine and dandy. Let those managers do just that. I personally guarantee that if you run your TP with a low OE like the style was designed to do, you'll win fights. Experiment with unorthodox strategies when you get a better hang of the game.
Activity level (AL) is the variable in TP strategies. I would definitely begin running a TP with a moderate/low AL. Try a 3 at first. After a few fights you'll see if your TP likes to dodge more or parry more. It should be quite obvious; your TP will learn more skills in his "favorite" area. Chances are, though, if your TP has received the statement: "avoiding rather than trading blows," or "relying on his speed to stay out of danger," your TP would rather dodge than parry. And that's just fine. Boost your AL to about a 4 or 5. If you choose to use the dodge tactic in defense, use AL up to 7. Beyond that tends to hurt your warrior more than it helps.
So why not go with an AL of 7 all the time if your TP likes to dodge more than parry, you might ask? That's simple; your TP may like to dodge more, BUT HE STILL PARRIES. So you'll need to be less active to allow your TP that choice. With an AL of 4-5, your warrior will dodge when it is more advantageous, parry when it isn't.
Kill desire varies greatly from warrior to warrior. To be on the safe side, I always go low KD with my TPs, until they gain expert in attack. After that point, I may begin to experiment, seeing how my warrior reacts to various KDs. Generally, if your warrior learns attack skills relatively well, then a higher KD won't inhibit them at all. If this is the case, I believe that your warrior is not looking for landing several blows to win the match (favoring initiative skills), but is instead looking to land a few good blows (favoring attack skills). In the latter case, a moderate to high KD may help. Keep in mind though that your TP is still defensively oriented. An extremely high KD will cause any warrior to behave like a berserker, and may cause your TP to make lots of bad attacks. With this in mind, stay below 7.
Now to place it all together...
Minute 1 2 3 4 5 6on Desp OE 2 ------------------------ > varies AL 2 ------------------------ > " KD 2 ------------------------ > " or Minute 1 2 3 4 5 6on Desp OE 2 ------------------------ > varies AL 4 ------------------------ > " KD 2 ------------------------ > "These show my general strategies for parry and dodging oriented warriors, respectively. Seldom do I use any tactics, unless I am making a challenge and wish my warrior to behave differently to that challenge (i.e., using the dodge tactic against a lunger). At that point I would refer to the paragraphs in the beginning to customize that particular minute to fit the tactic.
Attack and protect locations are totally up to you. I like to protect the head and body, while attacking the head, arms, and legs. This protects my vitals, yet can allow my warrior to land blows on parts of the body that can cause a warrior to lose a fight with the minimum number of hits.
Desperation is my opposite area. If I was relying on a low AL in the regular minutes, I will boost it in desperation. While going vice versa if I had a high AL in regular minutes.
Now the one tactic I haven't touched on is the riposte tactic. Occasionally your TP will favor this tactic. When he does, I like to raise my OE to 3, sometimes 4, and the AL to 4. If I use the riposte tactic, I will use 4-5 OE and a 3-5 AL. When these numbers are any lower, your TP may refrain from attacking in a riposte situation in favor of more defense.
I have found that these strategies work well whether your warrior fights as a SCUM or skilled TP. If you remember from my last article, the difference between the schools of thought are the amount of damage the warrior is willing/able to take.
Well, I hope that this has been informative for the newer players, and the older ones, too. Good luck and see you on the sands.
-- Stimpy