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Swashbuckler and HP!?!?!?!?!?!??!?

Z

Zhaker

Landlubber
Okay playing POTC at Swashbuckler level..

My god when you try to board a ship its near impossible, even if you have like destroyed 4/5 of their crew, they still are hard to fight. My char is currently at lvl 40.

And I'm fighting a guy at 2.5k hp!??!?? I got 4 officers but they get eaten alive anyway, even with lotsa potions, and I am struggling to fight off this one...

I got all officers with one of those Modded swords which does avg damage but has high pierce rate AND high blocking rate. And I still find it hard to win!?!?!?!

Is there anything I should know about? I guess the only factor is luck, but then again I cant be able to kill 2.5k in a few seconds right?!!??!?!!

I hear also there is armor, will that help and where do I go for armor?

Zhaker
 
ye can find armour built into officers uniforms atde tailor mate <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/par-ty.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":cheers" border="0" alt="par-ty.gif" />
 
Swash is difficult, yes, boarding is nearly impossible. You need to have your levels on all your officers WAAAAAY up there, and give them excellent swords and the BIG potions bottles, not the little ones.

Better yet, just leave them "at home" - don't lose your high level officers on a boarding - your "ordinary crew", especially if they outnumber the enemy crew, should be able to help you if you are careful.

Get yourself into a spot - right there by the gangplank - where it's a bit of a bottleneck and they can't get at you from behind - and just take them (hopefully) two at a time. BLOCK and watch their swings - when they swing and connect at the same time, attack. Eventually you'll wear them out.

HTH! <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/icon_mrgreen1.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":cheeky" border="0" alt="icon_mrgreen1.gif" />
 
Aye, I never bring officers with me when boarding; they survive so rarely for me that it's not worth the risk.

...

That said, my goal is boarding another ship is to get the other captain to surrender without a fight. If I'm lucky enough to outnumber their crew 4:1, I'll still spend a few extra minutes of maneuvering and raking the deck with cannon fire if it'll mean a bloodless boarding for my lads.

Nothing raises my red flag faster than a stubborn captain who won't surrender... <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/dev.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":d:" border="0" alt="dev.gif" />
 
Ahoy Zhaker,
<img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/par-ty.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":cheers" border="0" alt="par-ty.gif" />
Personally, I rarely play "Swashbuckler" at all anymore, I have found that I have more fun playing at "Adventurer" level.

There is one boarding action trick that I have found to be pretty effective, but I don't really like using it because it seems a little wimpy; on the first deck, before the enemy is able to pull his sword out, I will turn and run to the stairs that lead to the upper deck. At the top of the stairs I will turn around, shoot the pistol, and then swordfight a line of foes one at a time. The only time I have to fight more than one at a time is when I get pushed back, and a second foe can get onto the deck as well. (Is it the poop deck or the quarter deck? <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/unsure.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":?" border="0" alt="unsure.gif" /> )

On the next level I do the same thing, only I will usually have to sheathe my sword, practice Fred Bob's Quaker Exploit, so to speak, to get to the other end of the deck, and then take up a position next to the stairs, where only one foe at a time can approach me. <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/duel_pa.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":ixi" border="0" alt="duel_pa.gif" />

On some of the lower decks I don't have to run away because the starting place is where only one person at a time can approach you.

The part makes this less attractive is that it feels like I have abandoned my crewmates to being slaughtered, and it also reminds me of an episode of Gilligan's Island, where Gilligan has a dream that he is Captain Gilligan and fights pirates in a manner very similar to what I described above. <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/oops3.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":eek:ops2" border="0" alt="oops3.gif" />

Hope this helps! <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/onya.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":onya" border="0" alt="onya.gif" />
 
Cheers for bottlenecking tactics <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/par-ty.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":cheers" border="0" alt="par-ty.gif" />


I found another useful tactic. I deem it the "Attention Seeking" Tactic (if nobody has thought of this yet :p ).

Basically What I do is instead of even fighting my supposed guy I lure him near me while I help one of my Officers fighting another guy (normally a pirate), now what happen is that while one guy is hitting me, the other guy that me and the officer are fighting is constnatly swapping on hits, now 50% of those hits he swaps doesnt hurt becasue well he is swiping air during that time. And the Officer seems to block very well.

All the while I'm being cautious and blocking the guy thats hitting me from the sides or rear.

Drawback is that I can deal with 3 ppl, any more and I'm pretty much dead.... cause its hard to judge the swipes outta 4 ppl... And if your alone... and cornered and you got like 6 swashbucklers around.. ermm well this tactic aint gonna work, you'll need to rely on the use of bottlenecking to survive :p (thanks folks for the bottleneck tactics).

And another tactic is of course is to cannon the living daylights of the other ships till 1/5 or lesser remains of crew before boarding...

Drawback is that experience comes MUCH lesser, because of the more units you could be getting from fighting more opponents.

But thanks for the input I learnt alot more <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" /> .
 
I want to DISABLE the `auto-boarding` feature... Sometimes you just want to circle and cut down the quantity of men on the enemy ship with grape before you board, and if you get too close (within grape range) you're automagically into a boarding without you requesting it...

You can NOT put your OWN skill points there, but if you've got an officer in your compliment who has high skillpoints in grappling or instant boarding, you're done for! <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":blah:" border="0" alt="tongue.gif" />

If you want to build up more skill points and HP, SINK ships that are bigger than yours... I think you can rack up a LOAD of points that way. Not nearly as satisfying as a successful boarding, but it'll give you (and your officers) a boost in levels fairly quickly.
 
Eh? No, that's _them_ boarding _you_. And they don't board unless they think their crew + melee skill is a good bit better than your melee + crew.
It's just that they're, well, stupid. <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/icon_mrgreen1.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":cheeky" border="0" alt="icon_mrgreen1.gif" />
 
No, Nathan, there's an ability - Instant Boarding - that you can assign. If one of your officers in your boarding party has it, I think you sail close enough and ZIP, you just GO...

I've found something interesting about the "you on your ship and the enemy on theirs at the start of a boarding" (whew!) mod. I have to turn around and go up the OTHER gangplank in order to get into the fight - and when I do I am right behind everyone, and (at least at apprentice level) it's easy to hack away at everyone and kill 'em off before they even have a chance to turn around. I'm going to test at upper difficulty levels later on in the evening, but it's been really strange to be able to do that. Sure seems to make the "art" of boarding a lot less like art. <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/huhh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":eek:k" border="0" alt="huhh.gif" />
 
Instant boarding is SFAIK only activated when you go to BI->Perks->Instant boarding. You then get to choose a target anywhere on the map, and there's a good chance you go straight to boarding.

The only automated boarding is the enemy's.

Try like this: buy a lugger, and sail right up to a galleon or MOW. They should board ASAP. (And having or not having IB shouldn't affect that).
 
OIC... <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/oops3.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":eek:ops2" border="0" alt="oops3.gif" /> Well it's annoying to be instantly boarded when you're trying to fire grape to reduce their crew, and the minute you get within grape range, you're boarded. I mean, grapeshot seems useless, in that way. Hm? <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/unsure.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":?" border="0" alt="unsure.gif" />
 
I think it's more that they overestimate their chances.
But then again, if someone were shooting grape at me--I'd sure try to board rather than sit and take it... <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/icon_mrgreen1.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":cheeky" border="0" alt="icon_mrgreen1.gif" />
So a better solution would be to make the boarding (physics) requirements more realistic, so no `off-angle` `high-closure`-rate boardings (from _either_ side...)
 
Do HP increase in swashbuckler, cause now I'm dealing with 10k HP ppl <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/icon_mrgreen1.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":cheeky" border="0" alt="icon_mrgreen1.gif" />

They have more hitpoints than the ship itself <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="xD:" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" />
 
<!--`QuoteBegin-NathanKell`+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(NathanKell)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->So a better solution would be to make the boarding (physics) requirements more realistic, so no `off-angle` `high-closure`-rate boardings (from _either_ side...)[/quote]What about making the distance an autoboarding can occur a little bit longer? I mean, boarding really shouldn't happen from a distance of more than about `15-20` feet, I'd think. ?

And yes, Zhaker, HP increases dramatically in Swashbuckler - tho 10,000 is a BIT MUCH, to my mind... It used to be about 800, as I recall.

<img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/icon_eek.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":shock:" border="0" alt="icon_eek.gif" /> Nathan!!! <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/icon_eek.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":shock:" border="0" alt="icon_eek.gif" /> <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":rolleyes:" border="0" alt="rolleyes.gif" /> What did you DO to it THIS TIME?!!! <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="xD:" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" /> <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/icon_wink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="icon_wink.gif" />
 
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