Create A Fighter

Fiesta: A Beginner's Guide to Fighters

For first time gamers to the most seasoned RPG veterans, the fighter class has always been a versatile all-in-one choice when it comes to experiencing a game to its' fullest. Putting aside the fact that most fantasy and adventure stories usually have a fighter as a lead character (which is why stories with mages or thieves as the lead protagonists were once considered progressive), Fiesta's fighter class is actually a pretty good overall character that provides players with options on how to grow their character depending on their end-game goals.

Anyone who knows RPGs knows that when it comes to damage, defense, dexterity, and versatility, fighters tend to have the best of all worlds. Most character classes tend to over-specialize, but the fighter focuses more on straightforward game-performance; this is why regardless of what your typical gaming preferences are, starting out with a fighter is rarely a bad idea.

In Fiesta, fighters are exactly as you would expect them: big, powerful and tough. Regardless if you are hunting down enemies or fighting off players in PVP, the fighter is a force to be reckoned with.

Brawns are Good

Physical strength is the name of the game for fighters. Players will want to provide plenty of points into this attribute if they want their fighters to hit as hard as possible. Of course, not all builds will have you maxing out this stat, but having a fighter with low strength pretty much defeats the purpose (there are some unique, but complicated builds that have low strength, we do not recommend using those).

Naturally, the whole point of increasing strength is that it adds bonuses to your physical attack power -this means that each slash you make deals at least 100 percent of the weapons' damage power, and the strength bonuses will increase that even more. The big trade off here is that you do not have limitless stat points to distribute, which means that if you decide to max out strength, you will be leaving out several other stats.

Speaking of which, SPR is often a good support stat for strength. This is because the stat provides you with a bonus of increasing your chances of landing a successful critical hit on a target. The critical hit rate of a character determines the chance that your blow deals out at least double of its original damage. Combine this with a high strength value and you have one of the heaviest hitters in the game.

The only drawback about having an insanely strong attack power is the high chances of your attacks missing. Dexterity is an attribute that some players prefer to invest in rather than SPR -ensuring your attacks hit is a much safer bet than hoping that your next blow is a critical strike. When it comes to PVP events, this is an important factor to consider when dealing with foes that have high evasion rates. But if you think that your only choice is to play safe with a high attack rating or to gamble with your chances at getting a critical hit, don't. There are actually plenty of other ways to play the fighter.

This moves us to our next stat point attribute: endurance. END is a favorite stat point for players who take the role of the tank in a party. Tanks are good at acquiring and maintaining aggro -this is a critical role in a party when you are hunting high level monsters or even bosses. In a PVP scenario, tanks work well by being able to absorb the brunt of attacks launched by archers and mages (which are really powerful attacks). Naturally, health potions play an important role for END-based fighters; having a healing cleric in the party is also important as they can provide the tank with near-limitless health refills.

Choosing Your Weapons and Skills

The build of a fighter is not purely reliant on their stats. The weapon selection also determines the mode of play -there is a choice between using a one hand weapon with a shield or a two hand weapon like a sword or an axe.

The most obvious choice for tank types is to bring a shield -which increases their damage further (and makes full use of the blocking rate bonuses they can get from the stats -this bonus is lost on other weapon setups). Naturally, the biggest drawback to defending is that you hit with slow, mid-damage attacks. This is often enough to get you by with same-level enemies, but in case of large mobs or stronger targets, support from party members will matter. Attack build types can also employ the sword and shield combination if they are compensating for the lack of a tanker in a party when adventuring. In a PVP setup, the shield will only be effective for players with high endurance rating.

The two handed weapons category is split between two paths: one is all about damage, and the other provides a bit of precision. The two handed sword is powerful, but also provides a decent attack rating -combined with a bit of dexterity, hitting an enemy with high evade becomes a lot less frustrating. On the other hand, you could opt for an axe -which increases your damage by a huge amount, but sacrifices your accuracy. Much like the critical hit build, this weapon capitalizes on the sheer luck of achieving a successful hit -but when you do get lucky, the enemy is damaged by a massive amount of hit points. This selection, like all the others, relies on your preferences.

Balancing Out Your Build

No matter how you build a character, there will always be a stat or two that will be low-compensating for this weakness is a matter of two schools of thought: one school aims to balance out a character for well roundedness, the other approach is to focus so much on your advantages that your disadvantages are all but forgotten.

Balancing out does not necessarily mean equalizing your stat build -this is about using equipment that provides bonuses to what your character is weak in. This means using shields for hard hitters in order to provide them with a layer of defense. Or for an endurance type to use two-handed weapons; in this case, the natural END stat compensates for the lack of a shield and the heavy weapon provides attack damage.

The opposite is also true: you could just stick to your strengths and push through with it. High defense characters can focus on getting powerful armor and shields -which means that they will be able to absorb and shake off attacks in order to compensate for their low attack rating. High damage fighters on the other hand can specialize in dealing as much damage as possible -to ensure that they beat the enemy before they take too much damage to their own HP.

Skills are Important

If you do not want to limit your play to a specific style, we suggest that you experiment with the various skills to see which ones you like (at the cost of sacrificing a few skill points for trial and error -but at least you get to role-play a lot better). But if you want to focus your build more on functionality as opposed to having fun, then you might consider certain things.

First off, it does not matter if you like devastate, slice and dice, or power hit -these attack skills all deserve to get an increase in power. Duration and cool down are important but try to put your points in the cool down of the power you like using the most. Vitality, should never be ignored regardless of your build as the passive bonus is highly beneficial. Lastly, snearing kick is an amazing tool when you have to deal with mobs.

PVE and PVP

As always, it all boils down to what you plan to do. Adventuring against enemies is obviously more rewarding in terms of receiving things in return: experience points, credits, and random drops. But playing against player characters is what polishes your skills and provides you with that action-packed, high intensity moments -since no enemy AI can drive you up a wall like a human could. Having a choice in this regard (whether you choose one or want to be well rounded in both), also helps determine your stat build.

Or find out more on Fighters in Fiesta at Outspark.