Who should I mail-in, and why?

Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2003 12:09 pm

Hi there! I'm thinking about sending a few warriors to my first mail-in (my first tourney of any kind, for that matter), but I'm not really sure who to send and how they'll benefit from the experience. So I'll ask people with more of a clue than I have (which is pretty much anyone, at this point). Cool

My only APPRENTICE contender (4 FE) is a stereotypical, if not spectacular, SCUM. Great Endurance, Tremendous HP, dumb as a box of rocks. I know scum traditionally do well at the low-end tourneys, so he seems to be worth a shot. However, assuming he doesn't TC on my first attempt, what does he get out of it? It's not like he's going to learn any skills…should he compete just for the "free" attribute trains? Do the extra FE have any other benefit besides the extra skills/trains? This is probably blindingly obvious to the more experienced managers, but I'm not one of 'em.

The rest of these guys are NOVICES who will probably have two arena fights under their belts when the tourney starts.

BASHER, very intelligent but without much endurance or HP, and he doesn't hit as hard as I'd like. I'm thinking it may be worthwhile just to give him a warhammer and let him beat on some scum for a while to see what skills he can pick up. Of course, if he matches up with a good offensive, he'll leave the tourney feet-first.

RIPPER, very intelligent, quite skilled, and not as fragile as you might think, but he doesn't hit very hard. I imagine that the more finesse-based styles will be outclassed in the low-end tourneys, where pure physicals are more important. I think he has a lot of long-term potential; is it worth the risk of sending him in just for the learning experience?

STRIKER, genius IQ but can't take much of a beating. Potential for a lot of learning if he can stand up to the punishment and avoid the scum.

SLASHER and WASTE, both intelligent and boringly average all around. No particular reason I can think of either to send them or leave them home.

As always, any advice – especially explanations of WHY you think certain warriors should stay or go – will be much appreciated. Thanks!

Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2003 12:43 pm

Would be difficult to say for sure whether the warriors you mention would do well in the tourney without knowing their stats or exact skill and physicals, but, you should run them all for the skills/trains, if not for the experience of running in a tournament. Idea

Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2003 1:24 pm

I would have to agree .. You get 2 fights for less $$ than 2 arena fights... and can potentially learn 3 per fight (though even with a smart guy 2 skills per fight is really good. Also a lot is going to depend on who you match up with and exactly what skills you do learn.

Send em all and call it a learning experience. Vary your weapon selection if you dont have favorites down pat yet. Also pick a style or two to use your alternative strategy section. You may be suprised how well you can do.

I did not get a TV even till my 3rd mail in. but each was a good experience.

Ghoti

Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2003 1:29 pm

Even 3 wit warriors learn a few skills. FE is very important. If you're actively running him in the arena I'd send him. He has a shot at doing decent and the experience will help in the regular arena.

If the novices have 2 fights now, then they'll have 3 at the start of the tourney, which is perfectly timed. Even if they only have 2 FE going into the novices, thats pretty damn good.

I'd send all those novices, especially since you're running them in the regular arena. They are all gonna learn, and even bad warriors get good matchups. So no matter how bad the warrior(and yours sound ok from your descriptions) you have a shot at going long, especially as a 2-3 FE novice.

It's not just about TV/TCing, but going long and/or learning alot. In a tourney of 300 theres like 270 guys who don't TV/TC. You can really pull ahead of your arenamates who don't go. You'll always learn/train better when you're winning. If you busted a TV on one of those guys, he'd really devestate back home.

Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2003 11:59 pm

I agree with what's been said. I'd like to add a couple of thoughts in the hope that it will give you more idea about warriors in tourneys until you've built your own experiences to draw on.

Some of this is very general and can be completely ignorred in individual cases, but is still worth thinking about. Strikers can perform well at nearly any basic tourney level. Most often they are strongest in the lowest tourney levels. A genius striker definately has a chance to do well throughout basic (much depending on his favorite weapon, learns and physicals in adepts and champs).

TP's that barely learn skills usually suffer more losses sooner the higher they go and most get very little out of tourneys above apprentices I think. (Partly because the reasonably accomplished trains are used up) But, as in all these generalities, a glad can always hit a stretch of perfect opponents and do well at a tournament level they usually would get clobbered in.

I think bashers have to have some especially lucky factor to go deep above apprentices or perhaps initiates. They can always benefit even from four or five fights of course...

Lower tourney glads stand to improve more than higher ones if they are mediocre. I believe it's noticeably harder to go deep into higher levels and if you go three and out under tourney conditions with a 15 or lower wit that can easily mean no skills at all (usually one or two) for your money.

A last generality to consider for medicre and lower wits. While FE do add to your performance in my experience, they also decrease your learn rate. If you send a so-so (or worse) wit into several tourneys they may learn little and then also learn more slowly in their arena. In your case, again, I agree that there's no reason not to send them to this tourney. Hope that was some of the stuff you were looking for.

ArchMaster Poster Joined: Jul 17, 2002 Posts: 1054

I'd send the TP and the Striker. The others aren't worth the money. Assuming these five guys are on the same team (where each fight is ~$2 per warrior in the regular arena) they would need to go at least 5 rounds to even come close to breaking even on $'s per FE.

I'd go for skills with the TP unless you have TP stats that you have not yet trained twice (ST/CN/WL/DF). With the striker go for skills with that 21 wit and hope you learn decise (to outjump all the other offensives). Once you get 5FE and an expert attack the defensives shouldn't be much of a probelm. I'd probably use an alternate strategy against TP's & WS's (lower offensive & activity levels after the first minute).

Posted: Sat Nov 01, 2003 7:06 pm

very very well put all, most of all my alliancemate sungod...BRAVO!