so the NDA is lifted....Follow

kinda. no videos or music, but thats not a thing, because i didnt make any videos or music. so NYAH.

warning: im rather enebriated as i write this, so take that into account as you continue onward.

Quor's Marauder impressions from beta phase 2

First off, the highest I was able to get before the character wipes was physical level 14 and marauder rank 7.

For those who don't know what that means:

Physical level refers to your characters actual level. Every time you gain experience, no matter what it is you're doing (be it marauding, mining, botany, conjuring or what have you) said experience goes towards your physical level. Typical values that I saw in beta were about 1k per enemy kill (1010 to be exact) and an identical amount for successfully mining a mining node.

This differs from your class rank in that class rank goes up as you use your class skills. So each time you attack as a marauder you gain axe skill, which increases your axe skill rank (aka marauder rank) just like experience increases your physical level. As you gain higher ranks, you gain access to more skills and better gear. At marauder 7, I had access to four skills:

Light swing: standard single target attack. Consumed about 1/4 of my total stamina gauge.
Broad swing: multi-target attack, cone-shaped AoE. Consumed about 1/3 of my total stamina gauge, attacking targets in a cone for slightly less than light swing (in other words, worse for single target, better for 2+ targets).
Trunksplitter: TP attack, consumed 1000 TP and about 1/3 of the stamina gauge. A strong hit that dealt extra damage to seedkin-type enemies. A good, soid WS attack that I used pretty much whenever I could, since it was stronger than light swing.
Brandish: TP attack, consumed 1000 TP and about 1/3 of the stamina gauge. PBAoE in a circle around the player. Dealt damage to all the enemies engaged in an area around the player. Damage was less per-hit than Trunksplitter or light swing, but vs 2+ targets it was a better use of stamina and TP than trunksplitter would be (unless you really wanted to kill a single target seedkin asap).
Bloodbath: activated ability. Makes the next attack heal a percentage of damage done as HP to your character. A good skill all around, it uses stamina to activate (kind of a "boo" in that regard) but it worked with any skill I had. A Brandish that crit on 2+ targets would heal me for 1/3-1/2 of my life, and a critical Trunksplitter would heal me for a good 1/4 of my life. One minute cooldown, made soloing as a marauder much easier compared to what it could have been.

It should be noted that TP gain is MUCH different than it was in 11. Typical light swing or broad swings hits (my two starter skills) rewarded about 300-400 TP. Getting hit typically rewarded about 100-200 TP. This meant at least every three successful hits would allow for a TP attack, significantly higher than was seen in 11. My typical solo fight would go LS > LS > LS > Trunksplitter > LS > LS > Trunksplitter > mob death.

That's as far as I personally got, and once I get home and can hit up some beta 3 I'll add more as I'm able too.

There was another thing that I never really figured out; as you stand still for a certain amount of time (about six seconds or so), you gain a buff "You become one with your weapon." As long as you don't move after gaining the buff, the buff won't disappear. I'm not 100% sure what the buff does, but I imagine it's a good thing. Greater accuracy or damage maybe.

Regarding guildleves:

Guildleves are pretty awesome. They're basically solo or group-oriented quests that change based on your group. For instance, if it's just you, you can opt to do a leve solo. If you have two friends, you can instead opt for the three-man version. And of course, if you have five, you can do the five-man version. But every quest (that I saw anyway) is designed to be beaten by a single person, with a scaling difficulty accomodating up to five people at a time. Pretty damn awesome.

Rewards are also improved; by the time I finished with the first four leves I could acquire out of Limsa Lominsa I had about 3k gil stored up. By the time I had hit marauder rank 7 (and miner rank 7, and blacksmith rank 3, and phyiscal level 14) I had about 8k gil saved up, and I hadn't bought a thing. I hadn't needed too.

From what was present in the beta, there is encouragement to do things aside from just straight level your "main" job, whatever that is. I ran out of combat leves for my marauder, so instead of going out and grinding I went and bought a mining pick (120 gil, a piddly price) and took up some fieldcraft leves. By the time I was done with the two leves I was given, I had gained another 3 physical levels and was mining rank five, with enough copper ore to make it to smith rank three. At that point, the available battlecraft leves had reset, letting me go back to marauder and hit physical level 10 in no time. After that, I headed over to the physical level 10 quest hub and started to take on things there.

Grouping would make things a lot easier. With a tank to keep the mob in place, getting our class buff going and keeping it up would be infinitely easier. Bottom line is, we hit hard using big axes, and near as I can tell no one has the reliable physical AoE that we have, giving us a nice niche. Also, marauders in general seem to be pirates by and large, and pirates are awesome.

Edited, Aug 11th 2010 10:29pm by Quor

Thanks for all of this great info guys! I have no access to the beta, and it seems Marauder information is hard to come by. I decided early on that I would start out as a Marauder (pirates are awesome xD), so I really appreciate you taking the time to post this.

A question:

If you have played other classes, how does soloing as a marauder compare? Would you consider it harder?

Pugilist was easier in phase 2 because their light attack increased their evasion, and concussive blow was awesome, Lancer had Speed Surge so they had almost no down time, Marauder has a giant axe and the most badass starting equipment. I wouldn't consider it harder, I'd consider it more manly.


Edit: In phase 2 I recall the AoE weapon skills only connecting with monsters that were grouped together, while in phase 3 I unloaded on some scale puks and had to pick myself off the ground after a goat cheapshotted me from behind, I will only admit it as a tainted defeat as it surprised me.

Edited, Aug 12th 2010 5:19pm by lolcrizumlol

This might be the one piece of information that would sway me to this game.

The dialog on the Marauder ship is awesome, they have a get back in the kitchen mentality.

Thanks for the posts guys!

A few questions.

How long does it take for Leve's to "regenerate" so you can do them again? I thought it was like 2 days? Is that 2 days in-game, real time. Or what exactly is it?

As far as Marauders go. How often did you find yourself using an attack? Every 2 seconds, 3? etc

And is there like an auto attack that continually goes off in between your abilities. Or are your abilities 100% of the damage?

Battle and Fieldcraft Leve's are up 2 days after doing them, my Local ones have not been up save for one Blacksmithing leve that I could do 2 days after prior completion so I don't know if it is a bug or not.