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gree
Village Dweller
Joined: 23 Jul 2005
Posts: 3
Location: Hungary |
| Questions from first-time player |
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Hello all,
I'm currently playing Wizardry 8 through for the first time, but i can already see myself playing it through again and again, because this game is so addicting! At the moment my party is at Level 20-22, having the three important artifacts and heading for the Rapax territories. But some things about the game mechanics are still not clear, so i thought it would be a good idea to ask for help from veterans  I read the game manual and also some stuff found on the Web but it's of course still possible that i missed something, so if you know any good links/pointers please post them here as well!
1.) What does exactly a 'controlling attribute' mean? What is the difference between a skill's primary and secondary controlling attributes? My guess is that controlling attributes make the skill development faster, that is, the higher the controlling attributes of a skill are, the faster that skill develops (if used). But that leaves me puzzled whether a fighter (not yet mine ), whose close and ranged combat skills (the only combat-related skills of which Intelligence is a controlling attribute) are already maxed out, would still benefit in combat from increasing his Intelligence? Of course i want the fighter to be as efficient in combat as possible, but if it would only help in Artifacts/whatever, why increase his Int?
2.) Does the frequency of critical hits of a character depend on his/her Strength? I read somewhere that it does not, but then why does my monk (with 95 Critical Hit skill) hit hardly any criticals? Her strength is 47 at the moment, boosted to 67 with two Ankhs of Might.
3.) It seems that the use of the strongest instruments/gadgets (whose effect is a level 7 spell) require 18 bard/gadgeteer levels (beside high enough music/engineering skills of course). But does a bard/gadgeteer get more efficient in using instruments/gadgets with subsequent level-ups? Using their stuff with stronger effect & less stamina drain perhaps?
4.) What are the best secondary weapons in the game? (In particular, what's the best off-hand axe?) The ones we've seen so far are quite weak.
5.) Are there any items in the game that boost the Wizardry/Alchemy/Psionics skills?
thanks for your time, and for this forum!
Gergely.
Last edited by gree on Mon Aug 08, 2005 4:16 pm; edited 1 time in total |
Sun Aug 07, 2005 7:07 am |
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dteowner
Shoegazer
Joined: 21 Mar 2002
Posts: 7570
Location: Third Hero of Erathia |
Welcome to the boards! Let's see what we can do for you.
1) The controlling attribute is the stat that most affects the successful use of a skill. It also has some effect on the increases you'll see. A secondary attribute also fits into the calculation, but not as much. So, a rogue with a 60 in locks-n-traps and 80's in intelligence and dexterity will have a better chance of successfully opening a locked chest than a rogue with a 60 in L-n-T and 40's in INT and DEX. I haven't seen the difference be all that much, though.
2) A monk's criticals are supposed to be based on his critical hit skill. I find that maxxing out DEX helps. I think that's because you'll hit more often and have more chances to critical than DEX itself actually affecting your chances of a critical hit.
3) The power of a bard/gadgie's items is controlled by his level (among other things), so a level 20 bard will be more affective with an instrument than a level 18 one. This becomes more important later in the game when you're trying to overcome a monster's resistances. This is why multiclassing away from the bard/gadgie class after 18 levels doesn't generally work--the monsters continue to increase their resistance but the power of the character's effects stays the same.
4) I don't use axes, so I won't be much help there. I'm not sure I've even seen any off-hand axes, but I imagine there must be one or two. The best off-hand weapon in the game (and "second place" isn't even close) is a mace.
5) Not that I remember. Well, a couple staves might have small boosts to those skills, but I don't remember any items that are specifically designed to boost those skills.
Hope that helps some.
_________________
=Proud Member of the Non-Flamers Guild=
=Benevolent Dictator, X2/X3 and Morrowind/Oblivion Forums=
Sorry. No pearls of wisdom in this oyster.
RIP Red Wings How 'Bout Dem Cowboys! |
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Sun Aug 07, 2005 2:31 pm |
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gree
Village Dweller
Joined: 23 Jul 2005
Posts: 3
Location: Hungary |
Thanks for the response. It helped a lot!
In fact, i was thinking of multiclassing away from bard/gadgeteer. This will definitely not happen now!
As for the lack of good offhand axes (well there is one at least, but it's weeeeak), i'm a bit sad... Guess i have to train my fighter to sword/dagger combo for a while.
The mace you mention, is it Diamond Eyes? Already got it, and it's put to some heavy use regularly. 
The only mystery remaining is the monk's not-hitting criticals. Her Dex is already 100... She hits a lot (2 attacks/3 swings for both punches and kicks, is this the max?) but criticals are very rare.  |
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Mon Aug 08, 2005 8:00 am |
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bjon045
Fearless Paladin
Joined: 02 Jun 2003
Posts: 234
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quote:
Originally posted by gree
The only mystery remaining is the monk's not-hitting criticals. Her Dex is already 100... She hits a lot (2 attacks/3 swings for both punches and kicks, is this the max?) but criticals are very rare.
It might not be related by my Samurai suffers the same problem. My ranger gets like 1 sometimes 2 crits a fight if there are about 8 reasonable opponents, meanwhile my samurai will be like for 1 crit per 3 fights (using fang %10 kill chance and enc wakazaki 2% kill chance and maxed critical strike). Funnily enough my rangers weapon only has a 5% kill chance on it too.
The noticeable difference between the 2 is there senses skill (right click reveals it as a controlling attribute for CS). I haven't really tested it yet but I got a ring of the beast (thankfully my samurai is a felpurr) and it offers a big boost to my senses skill and the cloak of perception offers another 10 points and I have put them both on him (raised senses to 86 compared to my rangers 96). I'll let you know if it increases the percentage of critical hits.
As it is currently my rogue gets as many crits as my samurai (duel wielding 2 stilletos 10% kill chance) which is sad considering he doesn't even have the critical strike skill. |
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Mon Aug 08, 2005 11:03 am |
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Danicek
The Old One
Joined: 15 Dec 2001
Posts: 5922
Location: Czech Republic |
Nothing to add to dteowners reply.
Anyway, I just wanted to say hello to new "firts-time-through"er.
I hope you are enjoying this game :]. |
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Mon Aug 08, 2005 11:07 am |
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gree
Village Dweller
Joined: 23 Jul 2005
Posts: 3
Location: Hungary |
bjon045, Danicek, thanks for the welcome and the tip!
It all starts to make sense now, because my monk's Speed and Senses are both 'only' at 80, couple that with dteowner's answer to my question No. 1., and it's clear that these attribs should be raised/boosted to obtain criticals more frequently. First thing i'm gonna do is to dress the monk with any items we have which boost these, to see what happens.
BTW Danicek, i'm (of course) enjoying the game immensely! Nothing i've experienced until now quite compares to it, and 'handling the complexity' is fortunately no problem but lots of fun.  |
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Mon Aug 08, 2005 4:12 pm |
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bruisedknee
Village Dweller
Joined: 01 Feb 2006
Posts: 9
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1.) What does exactly a 'controlling attribute' mean? What is the difference between a skill's primary and secondary controlling attributes? My guess is that controlling attributes make the skill development faster, that is, the higher the controlling attributes of a skill are, the faster that skill develops (if used). But that leaves me puzzled whether a fighter (not yet mine ), whose close and ranged combat skills (the only combat-related skills of which Intelligence is a controlling attribute) are already maxed out, would still benefit in combat from increasing his Intelligence? Of course i want the fighter to be as efficient in combat as possible, but if it would only help in Artifacts/whatever, why increase his Int?
2.) Does the frequency of critical hits of a character depend on his/her Strength? I read somewhere that it does not, but then why does my monk (with 95 Critical Hit skill) hit hardly any criticals? Her strength is 47 at the moment, boosted to 67 with two Ankhs of Might.
I'll try to answer both questions in 1 response, since they're sorta related
A controlling attribute not only affects how quickly a skill develops, but it also determines how effective that skill is...for example, we'll take the Critical Kill skill
Critical Kill has SEN (primary) and SPD (secondary) as its controlling attributes...by raising both SEN and SPD and training Crit Kill, you will notice a big diff in the number of INSTANT KILL msgs during combat
my ninja has 100 SEN, 100 SPD, and about 120 Crit Kill...he avgs 1 to 2 CKs per battle |
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Thu Feb 02, 2006 1:46 am |
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