Trenyc · Thu Jan 25, 2007 4:55 am
Here is a rundown on the various stats and what they do. Hard numbers are difficult to come by as most of them changed based on character level and build number, but I will try my best to relate their usefulness for various classes.
Strength is the primary statistic for offensive melee fighters and a secondary statistic for defensive fighters. It increases base melee damage as well as the amount of weight your character can carry.
Constitution is a commonly underestimated statistic. It increases hit point pool and resistance ratings across the board. The hit point increase is rather negligibly, being only something like 500 points at level 40, but the resistances are where the gold is. It is undeniably, in my opinion, one of the necessary attributes for defensive fighters. It is not so important for any other class, really.
Dexterity is another one of the primary statistics for defensive fighters. It is also an extremely important statistic for offensive fighters. It increases block, parry, dodge, and critical hit rates. It's basically the one hit wonder of melee statistics. It is definitely a valuable statistic for all classes that need to be able to hit hard and avoid being hit.
Vitality is the healer's pride and joy. It increases in-combat mana and endurance regeneration (but don't take it for this; the amount is tiny) and the power of your healing spells. It also increases base run speed. The power increase is something like 100% if this statistic is maxed at level 40. Amazing for healers, and offensive casters might consider it as well for the run speed and mana regen options (because offensive casters really only have two primary statistics).
Intelligence is the bread and butter of the offensive caster. It increases spell damage across the board, makes your spells more difficult to resist, increases chance to counter an enemy's spells, decreases the chance that your own spells will be countered, and makes it easier to identify what an enemy is doing in combat (including what spell he or she is casting). This is a primary stat for offensive casters of all shapes and sizes, and it is further an important secondary stat for the Dreadknight class, if you have extra points to put into it.
Wisdom is also a nice little parcel of joy for the offensive caster. It increases your mana pool, spell critical rate, chance to detect and counter opponent spells, and chance to detect enemy actions in combat. It is a potential secondary statistic for the Paladin or Warrior classes as well, where the increased mana pools and detection abilities would benefit both classes, and where the increased critical chance would further benefit the Paladin and his various healing / damage spells, especially since intelligence does not affect heals.
Next, I will list the stats I would recommend for each adventuring class:
Defensive Fighters
Warrior: max dex, balance the remainder between strength and con.
Melee damage is a warrior's tried and true way of holding aggro. But since your proposed goal is getting the monster to wail on you, you'll need some awesome melee defenses as well. For these you will need your dex to be in tip-top shape, and having some con up your sleave will help a bunch, too. For a human, I would say go +5 dex, +5 con, +4 strength per level. You might want to consider taking one point out of each/either con and/or strength and putting it into wis as well. The increased combat awareness does help, but it isn't necessary.
Dreadknight: max dex, balance the remainder between strength, con, and int with an emphasis on con.
Dreadknights rely on a nifty mix of melee and spell damage for holding aggro. Either way, they're going to have a dragon beating them over the head within a few seconds of the start of the fight, so dex and con are hands down favorites. Strength is still important for the DRK, but less important than for the warrior. Int is also important for the DRK to enhance spell damage and decreases resist rates, not to mention the added bonus of in-combat detection. For a human DRK, I would recommend +5 dex, +4 con, +3 str, +2 int per level.
Paladin: max dex, balance remainder between strength, con, and wis with emphasis on con.
Paladins are a special case defensive fighter. Their melee damage is weak to start with, and strength doesn't help so much. It does shine through on their rescues, though. As a Paladin, you will gain most of your aggro through spells and special abilities, however your spells are not offensive. Int would (theoretically) increase the amount of hate generated by raw hate spells, but you're better off going with wis because it increases your mana pool and critical chance, meaning you can caste more spells with one mana bar. The range of spells that are actually affected by int for the Paladin is also rather narrow. Therefore, for a human Paladin, I would recommend going +5 dex, +5 con, +2 strength, +2 wis or +5 dex, +5 con, +3 wit, +1 strength per level. Some will argue that vit is a good Paladin attribute, but I disagree; as a tank, your job is to take hits and stay alive longer. Vitality will not help you do that.
Offensive Casters
There is little statistical diversity in the offensive caster department. They are all best off maxing int and wis and putting the rest of their points into whatever. Vitality is the only really rational choice for these guys because in spite of the fact that it isn't very useful, you really have absolutely no use for increased melee stats. Might as well take that base run speed bonus and... well... run with it.
Healers
All healers except the Disciple should max vitality and wis without question. The remainder of your points should go into an appropriate stat for your class:
Shaman: int or dex
As a Shaman, you will not be DPSing all that often in groups. In fact, you shouldn't ever be, unless for some reason your group DPS classes suck at doing their jobs. If you do have to do that, int will be your friend, as you will need to up your spell damage. However, when soloing (and in a lot o pick-up groups), you mind find that your pet (or the tank) can't hold aggro. Dex can save you a wee bit of skin in those situations, as well as increase your melee critical rate while soloing. Don't get me wrong: the increase from dex is very minor for a Shaman, but it's something to keep in mind, as the bonuses from int may not be all that special for your playstyle either.
Disciple
A Disciple differs from the other Healer classes in that he does not use mana as much for healing. Instead, he uses the spirit of Jin, which he gains from fighting. Therefore, a disciple should load points into vit (for healing), and distribute the remainder among strength, dex, and/or wis according to playstyle. Remember that dex will increase critical chances, which further increases availability of finishing moves, while strength will increase your overall damage. Wis is useful for a larger base mana pool, which might come in handy in those rare situations where you can't get too close (think fire-breathing dragon). There is lots of room for customization with this class, but vitality, strength, and dex are definitely a Disciple's most important attributes. Bear in mind that a few points of wisdom every now and again won't hurt, too. Thanks BranWheatKillah.
Cleric: str or dex
I don't think I need to say much about the cleric. He's pretty much a nerfed defensive fighter with great heals. Strength or dex are obviously the way to go.
Bloodmage: int
If you go anything other than int for your minor attribute as a Bloodmage, you should delete your character and cancel your subscription. I'm sorry, but it really is just that obvious.
Offensive Fighters
All offensive fighters should max strength and dex. Bards should put the remainder of their points into wis to increase spell criticals (shouts) and their mana pool, but the other classes should split their points between wis and con. Offensive fighters do carry some rescues to use at their discretion, which combat detection will help you use, but the increased mana pools aren't such a big deal for the other classes. They will help, but you might as well take some bonuses to resists with you. Again: the bonuses will be minor, but they're something.
Now, I'm going to give you a brief description of how stat point allocation works in Vanguard. There are four basic parts to it.
First, every character in the game will get 1 point added to every attribute automatically after level 10. Once you hear the ding, poof, you got it, nothing to decide.
After that, it gets a bit tricky. Every single character in the game gets 14 total points to divide among his or her attributes per level. However, if you are not human, 4 of these will automatically assigned based on your race. Orcs, for example, automatically get +2 con, +2 str per level. This is why non-humans only get 10 allocatable points per level while humans get 14.
You must assign the remainder (10 for non-humans, 14 for humans) points to your various attributes. For a non-human, you can assign a maximum of 4 points to each attribute. The points that were automatically assigned do not count toward this total, so you could theoretically add +4 con per level to your automatically assigned points as an Orc to get a total of +6 con per level. Humans have more freedom to assign their points where they want, but they are limited to a maximum of +5 points in any single stat per level. Therefore, races can be more specialized and may have certain advantages depending on your class (for example, because offensive casters only have two extremely important stats, it might make more sense to play a High Elf to get an inherent +3 wis, +1 int per level, allowing you to have a total of +7 wis and +5 int per level. Also remember your limits while choosing a race: as a healer, you could choose a high elf and simply decide to stop raising int and wis beyond +5 each, but you're still not going to be able to take vit beyond +4 because of your racial limit. You'd be better off picking either a human or a race with an inherent +vit bonus.
That's kind of four steps. Sort of. But at least you should understand the procedure now. All of the recommended stats given above are based on my playstyle. They may not fit yours. That's fine; that's why I included descriptions of what the stats actually do. You can visit Ten Ton Hammer's stat guide to see some actual tested numbers, but I cannot verify their accuracy. In addition, I strongly disagree with some of their "absolute must" recommendations for stat allocation, so I urge you to consider the options for yourself before deciding. You can find their article here.
There you have a brief rundown of the adventuring stats in Vanguard, in my own words. Hopefully this helps some of you adventurers make your decisions on what classes you want to go. Best of luck to everyone!
Strength is the primary statistic for offensive melee fighters and a secondary statistic for defensive fighters. It increases base melee damage as well as the amount of weight your character can carry.
Constitution is a commonly underestimated statistic. It increases hit point pool and resistance ratings across the board. The hit point increase is rather negligibly, being only something like 500 points at level 40, but the resistances are where the gold is. It is undeniably, in my opinion, one of the necessary attributes for defensive fighters. It is not so important for any other class, really.
Dexterity is another one of the primary statistics for defensive fighters. It is also an extremely important statistic for offensive fighters. It increases block, parry, dodge, and critical hit rates. It's basically the one hit wonder of melee statistics. It is definitely a valuable statistic for all classes that need to be able to hit hard and avoid being hit.
Vitality is the healer's pride and joy. It increases in-combat mana and endurance regeneration (but don't take it for this; the amount is tiny) and the power of your healing spells. It also increases base run speed. The power increase is something like 100% if this statistic is maxed at level 40. Amazing for healers, and offensive casters might consider it as well for the run speed and mana regen options (because offensive casters really only have two primary statistics).
Intelligence is the bread and butter of the offensive caster. It increases spell damage across the board, makes your spells more difficult to resist, increases chance to counter an enemy's spells, decreases the chance that your own spells will be countered, and makes it easier to identify what an enemy is doing in combat (including what spell he or she is casting). This is a primary stat for offensive casters of all shapes and sizes, and it is further an important secondary stat for the Dreadknight class, if you have extra points to put into it.
Wisdom is also a nice little parcel of joy for the offensive caster. It increases your mana pool, spell critical rate, chance to detect and counter opponent spells, and chance to detect enemy actions in combat. It is a potential secondary statistic for the Paladin or Warrior classes as well, where the increased mana pools and detection abilities would benefit both classes, and where the increased critical chance would further benefit the Paladin and his various healing / damage spells, especially since intelligence does not affect heals.
Next, I will list the stats I would recommend for each adventuring class:
Defensive Fighters
Warrior: max dex, balance the remainder between strength and con.
Melee damage is a warrior's tried and true way of holding aggro. But since your proposed goal is getting the monster to wail on you, you'll need some awesome melee defenses as well. For these you will need your dex to be in tip-top shape, and having some con up your sleave will help a bunch, too. For a human, I would say go +5 dex, +5 con, +4 strength per level. You might want to consider taking one point out of each/either con and/or strength and putting it into wis as well. The increased combat awareness does help, but it isn't necessary.
Dreadknight: max dex, balance the remainder between strength, con, and int with an emphasis on con.
Dreadknights rely on a nifty mix of melee and spell damage for holding aggro. Either way, they're going to have a dragon beating them over the head within a few seconds of the start of the fight, so dex and con are hands down favorites. Strength is still important for the DRK, but less important than for the warrior. Int is also important for the DRK to enhance spell damage and decreases resist rates, not to mention the added bonus of in-combat detection. For a human DRK, I would recommend +5 dex, +4 con, +3 str, +2 int per level.
Paladin: max dex, balance remainder between strength, con, and wis with emphasis on con.
Paladins are a special case defensive fighter. Their melee damage is weak to start with, and strength doesn't help so much. It does shine through on their rescues, though. As a Paladin, you will gain most of your aggro through spells and special abilities, however your spells are not offensive. Int would (theoretically) increase the amount of hate generated by raw hate spells, but you're better off going with wis because it increases your mana pool and critical chance, meaning you can caste more spells with one mana bar. The range of spells that are actually affected by int for the Paladin is also rather narrow. Therefore, for a human Paladin, I would recommend going +5 dex, +5 con, +2 strength, +2 wis or +5 dex, +5 con, +3 wit, +1 strength per level. Some will argue that vit is a good Paladin attribute, but I disagree; as a tank, your job is to take hits and stay alive longer. Vitality will not help you do that.
Offensive Casters
There is little statistical diversity in the offensive caster department. They are all best off maxing int and wis and putting the rest of their points into whatever. Vitality is the only really rational choice for these guys because in spite of the fact that it isn't very useful, you really have absolutely no use for increased melee stats. Might as well take that base run speed bonus and... well... run with it.
Healers
All healers except the Disciple should max vitality and wis without question. The remainder of your points should go into an appropriate stat for your class:
Shaman: int or dex
As a Shaman, you will not be DPSing all that often in groups. In fact, you shouldn't ever be, unless for some reason your group DPS classes suck at doing their jobs. If you do have to do that, int will be your friend, as you will need to up your spell damage. However, when soloing (and in a lot o pick-up groups), you mind find that your pet (or the tank) can't hold aggro. Dex can save you a wee bit of skin in those situations, as well as increase your melee critical rate while soloing. Don't get me wrong: the increase from dex is very minor for a Shaman, but it's something to keep in mind, as the bonuses from int may not be all that special for your playstyle either.
Disciple
A Disciple differs from the other Healer classes in that he does not use mana as much for healing. Instead, he uses the spirit of Jin, which he gains from fighting. Therefore, a disciple should load points into vit (for healing), and distribute the remainder among strength, dex, and/or wis according to playstyle. Remember that dex will increase critical chances, which further increases availability of finishing moves, while strength will increase your overall damage. Wis is useful for a larger base mana pool, which might come in handy in those rare situations where you can't get too close (think fire-breathing dragon). There is lots of room for customization with this class, but vitality, strength, and dex are definitely a Disciple's most important attributes. Bear in mind that a few points of wisdom every now and again won't hurt, too. Thanks BranWheatKillah.
Cleric: str or dex
I don't think I need to say much about the cleric. He's pretty much a nerfed defensive fighter with great heals. Strength or dex are obviously the way to go.
Bloodmage: int
If you go anything other than int for your minor attribute as a Bloodmage, you should delete your character and cancel your subscription. I'm sorry, but it really is just that obvious.
Offensive Fighters
All offensive fighters should max strength and dex. Bards should put the remainder of their points into wis to increase spell criticals (shouts) and their mana pool, but the other classes should split their points between wis and con. Offensive fighters do carry some rescues to use at their discretion, which combat detection will help you use, but the increased mana pools aren't such a big deal for the other classes. They will help, but you might as well take some bonuses to resists with you. Again: the bonuses will be minor, but they're something.
Now, I'm going to give you a brief description of how stat point allocation works in Vanguard. There are four basic parts to it.
First, every character in the game will get 1 point added to every attribute automatically after level 10. Once you hear the ding, poof, you got it, nothing to decide.
After that, it gets a bit tricky. Every single character in the game gets 14 total points to divide among his or her attributes per level. However, if you are not human, 4 of these will automatically assigned based on your race. Orcs, for example, automatically get +2 con, +2 str per level. This is why non-humans only get 10 allocatable points per level while humans get 14.
You must assign the remainder (10 for non-humans, 14 for humans) points to your various attributes. For a non-human, you can assign a maximum of 4 points to each attribute. The points that were automatically assigned do not count toward this total, so you could theoretically add +4 con per level to your automatically assigned points as an Orc to get a total of +6 con per level. Humans have more freedom to assign their points where they want, but they are limited to a maximum of +5 points in any single stat per level. Therefore, races can be more specialized and may have certain advantages depending on your class (for example, because offensive casters only have two extremely important stats, it might make more sense to play a High Elf to get an inherent +3 wis, +1 int per level, allowing you to have a total of +7 wis and +5 int per level. Also remember your limits while choosing a race: as a healer, you could choose a high elf and simply decide to stop raising int and wis beyond +5 each, but you're still not going to be able to take vit beyond +4 because of your racial limit. You'd be better off picking either a human or a race with an inherent +vit bonus.
That's kind of four steps. Sort of. But at least you should understand the procedure now. All of the recommended stats given above are based on my playstyle. They may not fit yours. That's fine; that's why I included descriptions of what the stats actually do. You can visit Ten Ton Hammer's stat guide to see some actual tested numbers, but I cannot verify their accuracy. In addition, I strongly disagree with some of their "absolute must" recommendations for stat allocation, so I urge you to consider the options for yourself before deciding. You can find their article here.
There you have a brief rundown of the adventuring stats in Vanguard, in my own words. Hopefully this helps some of you adventurers make your decisions on what classes you want to go. Best of luck to everyone!
Jerriescids · Thu Jan 25, 2007 10:25 am
And I'de like to recommend
Necromancer
Strenght is near worthless to a necromancer and mainly you will only be spending points in Intelligence, Wisdom, and most likely Consitution.. since in a sense it is a second mana pool... +5 int +5 wis +5 consitution will do nicely but really it doesnt matter as long as you max int/wis you cannot go wrong!
Necromancer
Strenght is near worthless to a necromancer and mainly you will only be spending points in Intelligence, Wisdom, and most likely Consitution.. since in a sense it is a second mana pool... +5 int +5 wis +5 consitution will do nicely but really it doesnt matter as long as you max int/wis you cannot go wrong!
Whacko · Fri Jan 26, 2007 6:54 am
Trenyc great write up as always.
I've been seeing on the Tentonhammer min/max list that many things have changed.
This post is a great baseline to follow.
Looking into that linked article I must agree that the info they use as a guide isn't really agreeable. However due to the very recent racial updates some things look to be even more different from the 10ton guides.
Whatever class you choose remember things do have stat bonuses so don't listen to a few of these affiliates...it seems we'll see tons of the cookie cutter types running around...
Dare to be different choose your race and enjoy. A skillful player will always be better in the end.
I've been seeing on the Tentonhammer min/max list that many things have changed.
This post is a great baseline to follow.
Looking into that linked article I must agree that the info they use as a guide isn't really agreeable. However due to the very recent racial updates some things look to be even more different from the 10ton guides.
Whatever class you choose remember things do have stat bonuses so don't listen to a few of these affiliates...it seems we'll see tons of the cookie cutter types running around...
Dare to be different choose your race and enjoy. A skillful player will always be better in the end.
Trenyc · Fri Jan 26, 2007 7:42 am
With careful planning, it really doesn't matter what race you choose for any particular class. They can all be made pretty much exactly equal stat-wise, with only minimal variation. Of course, not many people will plan it out ahead of time, thus ensuring that (at least in the beginning) there will be a lot of people who are simply better at doing certain things than others. That's the way the cookie crumbles, which is why I made this writeup. It's good for people to be on an even playing field.