Tactics

=Battle Tactics=

How to Survive written by Stahna
Surviving in Gelod is fundamental. The Gelod is a very dangerous place full of agressive creatures and players. Fortunately, survival becomes considerably easier if you follow five simple rules. These rules have been distilled down from my vast knowledge of the Gelod and wisdom gleaned from a lifetime living in the Gelod. If you always follow these rules, then you'll be much less likely to die.

1. Always have cooked food accessible.
This might be obvious to you, but if you ever find yourself sitting down to rest after fleeing from a dreadful battle with only raw food or no food at all, then you may be kicking yourself when you end up back at your spawn point because you bled out from wounds. Always keep plenty of cooked food on you. Don't assume you can cook it later or forage for food if you need to. Each piece of food (except forage items) have two or three bites in them. If you aren't poisoned it only takes one bite to close wounds, stop loss of health, and begin healing. You don't need a whole pouch full of food, but always keep at least four or five whole, cooked pieces on hand. Also, keep in mind that some food is better than others (e.g. will heal you faster).

2. Always have plenty of blue pouches.
I keep my pack that contains my blue pouches open when I'm fighting. Sometimes I even keep the menu of the blue pouch open and my mouse cursor near the 'use' command. New players may not have blue pouches, but as soon as you are able to safely solo imps it should be your main priority to collect plenty of blue pouches from them. Blue pouches will cause you to 'blink' out of combat and become invisible for a short time. These items are critical for being able to get away from an enemy. One blue pouch is never enough. Now blue pouches will combine up to 10 in 1 when placed into a container. You can 'view' the pouch to see how many uses it has left. Always keep at least 10 charges (1 full pouch) of blue pouches on you at all times and I recommend keeping more than that. I keep at least 2 full pouches (20 charges) on my at all times. If you get into a bad situation, it will likely take a lot more than 2-3 blinks to get to safety.

3. Keep you health full.
This is one place where a LOT of players go wrong. Your health isn't something to be used up during combat. It's there to keep you alive, it's your shield. You wouldn't want your shield weakening, so why would you let your health get low. Many creatures that you fight will be able to take down 1/2 to 3/4 of your health in a single hit, or even more! In those circumstances all it may take is 1 or 2 hits to leave you scrambling for your life. After every battle sit and eat. Fully heal before moving on. If you drop below half health blink, heal, and then go back into the battle. Do NOT try to finish off an opponent when your health is less than a 1/4. By that time you are likely bleeding profusely and one more hit can push you over the edge. It doesn't matter that you killed your opponent if you end up bleeding to death after the battle because your health was so low and you were bleeding so fast that you couldn't heal in time. Don't be one of those players.

4. Keep your stamina up.
Another place where many players go wrong. I've seen it happen over and over again, and many times it's to the same players. They will be moving long distances, will go through an area with aggressive creatures, they will get into a bad situation and try to flee, and their stamina is too low to get to safety. Once again, don't be one of those players. Stamina does not regenerate during a battle. This goes the same for your horses stamina, especially if you can't englobe it. Some creatures can run faster than you, so it doesn't matter that your stamina is full because you were riding your horse. If your horse doesn't have enough stamina, you're still going to end up dead. Keep your stamina over 1/2 full at all times. I recommend keeping it over 3/4 full. If it drops too low, sit and rest. It only takes a short moment to recover stamina and it will save you a lot of time and stress later. Also, keep in mind that if you stable or englobe your horse when you aren't using it, then it will lose stamina more slowly and be able to run longer distances.

5. Go slowly.
I've seen very strong players fall victim to this one, even when they were moving through an area that is usually completely safe for them. When you move quickly you can spawn multiple opponents who will give chase. Eventually you are going to have to stop, you will outrun them, or you'll run into another player who will have to fight them off for you. Moving slowly allows you to handle each opponent one at a time. The multiple opponent penalty makes taking on 2 or more opponents a very dangerous proposition, even for very strong players. One specific mistake I see is when someone is try to flee out of the caves or mines. Remember that the entrance to those areas makes going in and out very slow. You will get stuck if you make it there and then you'll be forced to fight all of the opponents that were chasing you. When you spawn a creature, kill it, then move on. Edited : With the recent updates, The Monsters will chased you even further than they originally did, So you best bet is to stop and take out the chasing monster, if you can.

Keep talwyd nuts in your pouch.
I recommend at least 6 and more if you are fighting creatures with strong poison. These nuts heal poison. Not all poisons are equal. Weak poisons only require one nut to heal, other poisons require 2 or 3. The stronger poisons can be very deadly very quickly. When fighting creatures that have strong poison (e.g. trolls and green drakes) always keep plenty of talwyd nuts on you.

Keep an Amber Pouch to your safe spot (home or your spawn point).
You can learn how to make these by completing the Pembor Guardian quest and obtaining a light elder door and a skin pouch. This pouch will allow you to create a portal for instant travel anywhere of your choosing, but you must set the destination when you create the pouch.

Know your enemy, do some research.
Many creatures have special abilities and strengths. Make sure you understand what those are before going into an area that houses those creatures, otherwise you might be in for a nasty surprise.

Remove arrows immediately after getting hit.
Arrows can do a LOT of damage. Unlike other types of wounds, the amount of damage that an arrow does actually increases the longer the arrow is in the wound (i.e. your wound will get bigger). If you get hit by an arrow immediately sheath your weapon and take the arrow out, then pull your weapon back out and refocus on the fight. If you get hit by arrows a lot, then you may want to focus on killing any archers first.

Be able to sheath and unsheath your weapon.
Sheathing and unsheathing your weapon is much faster than taking it in and out of your pack. In addition, if you get attacked and don't have a weapon out, trying to use the 'draw' command will pull a random weapon item from your pack, it may or may not be your best weapon. There are many times when you'll want to sheath your weapon while dealing with aggressive opponents.

Drink everytime you pass a stream. Drink at the first sign of thirst.
You may think that drinking at the very first sign of thirst is an excessive suggestion. In real life, do you wait until you are extremely thirsty before getting a drink, or do you drink as soon as you notice you are thirsty? Drinking at the first sign of thirst makes certain that you won't get into a dangerous situation. Not drinking at the first sign of thirst will do two things: 1. it will get you into the habit of ignoring thirst messages and 2. the scrolling messages can be distracting, and you don't need any distractions when in a dangerous combat situation. You should be carrying around a waterskin (make sure it is kept full), but I rarely ever have to use mine. Besides drinking every time I pass by a stream, I also carry a barrel (it's easier to keep loot in it while hunting. My barrel has water in it (you can keep 32 gallons of liquid in a barrel along with up to 256 bulk in items. I randomly drink until full from my barrel even before I get the first thirst message. Get into the habit.

Rule of Blood
One tactic for fighting multiple enemies, is to RoB them of your health. "Rule of Blood" means that as long as they are actively in combat, any wounds will bleed making your opponent closer to death. Use this to your advantage, and attack each enemy that is actively fighting you until you get each of them to bleed. Then attack the enemy with the least amount of health. Once that enemy is killed go on to the next enemy with the least amount of health. Continue this until all the enemies are dead. If you are fighting more than 4 enemies any enemies in excess of 4 will wait for an opening to attack you, and if they are attacked they will defend themselves, but they will not continue to attack if you switch to another target. In this situation you will have to attack each of the new enemies as they begin to attack you when they have an opening.