Pirates of the Burning Sea

[Savacc]

You guys have an recommendations for the melee combat? I've no idea what I'm doing.

Havent seen you on yet.
Its definitely different then SWG. If you have played WoW, its a lot like the rouge class. You have to push a button for every swing of the sword, and build up action points to be able to launch your "finishing moves" that do the most damage. The "book" recommends you do two "preparatory" attacks, to build up action, then a finishing move. Personally I do the base attacks, which do some damage and some action, till I build up action then launch the finishing move. Get a pistol skill asap and buy the cheep pistol from the trainer. Try to open each combat with a pistol shot. Use bandages to heal yourself after killing one group of NPCs before advancing to the next group. In ship boarding combat, its real easy to get killed in the swirling melee. Dont worry, you get to return with the next wave of reinforcements. Its important to outnumber the enemy before boarding so you have extra waves of reinforcements, otherwise you end up facing the enemy crew by yourself. When boarding, your goal is to kill the enemy captain. I hang back from the initial rush and cycle through opponants till Im targeting the captain, then fire a pistol. Hopefully that draws the captain into a one on one battle with you, which you should be able to win.
PotBS is the most "death friendly" game I have played. If you die in melee, you just respawn at the starting location, at full health, and get to run back in to combat. You dont even fail the mission. If you die in ship combat, you do fail the mission, but arrive at the nearest port. Your ship has a durability rating. If its higher then one, your ship only loses durability for being sunk. If the durability was one, then the ship is gone, but most of the cargo arrives on the dock with you. Your cannon balls, hull patches, everything you use to sail your ship, as well as personal inventory are never lost. The only thing that sinks, or gets taken in PvP combat, is economic cargo that you may have been hauling.

[wrackspurt]

Yeah, I'm mostly on in the early mornings. My WOW fanatic roommate pretty much dominates the computer the rest of the day. Just made it to 4th lvl.

But definitely the combat is more interesting than SWG. Really liking the ship combat. Guess I'd better save up and get a Corvette.

[thegreywolfe]

To expand a bit on what Savacc said, this is what I use.

I hit ctrl and click on my best prepatory attack. That sets it to auto-attack with it. At that point as long as I'm not up against and npc more than a few levels above me, I can maintain my balance and fire of attacks as I wear down the npc's balance.

Florentine is the easiest and best of the fighting styles to use and is the Freetrader standard style.

As far as ships to use for grinding goes, it looks like the following is the best bet.

At level 8 get a bermuda sloop
At level 20 get a Postillionen frigate
At level 26 get a Mastercraft Postillionen frigate
At level 30 out fit your MC Post with all level 5 outfittings

Using that you can grind all the way to 50.

I've been out in the Open Sea hunting NPC's, and I can kill a lvl 50 npc solo in my MC Post (outfitted for speed and reload) one on one, with no problems.

[Memnoc]

Hello. How is the POTBS?? I've read theres been a few updates. I wonder how many when to AoC tho.

[thegreywolfe]

Hello. How is the POTBS?? I've read theres been a few updates. I wonder how many when to AoC tho.

Pirates is a great game. Savacc has been on more than I have lately (RL getting in the way). People did bail for AoC, but anyone that's played MMO's for any time knows that happens every time a new game comes out.

[Memnoc]

I'm still surprised that Sav's making all that cash. She has too share some of it if and when I re-sub. I have 7 more months that my break from the internet is complete.

[wrackspurt]

I feel guilty about this. They did a really nice job on this game, I'm just so stuck in Star Wars mode that I couldn't pull myself away from Galaxies for long.

[Savacc]

After you guys left me, I looked around and found a society I liked and joined. It made a huge difference in my enjoyment of the game. Without the help of my society I could have never built my 2nd rate. I never thought I would be much into PvP, but I really got into it, especially the huge 24 on 24 Port Battles.

If any of you want ot try PotBS (again), Im on Rackham Server, the British Nation, Chars: Jack Savacc (Naval Officer) and Heather Christensen (Free Trader)

Edit- Just an update, the Rackham server died very quickly when free server transfers were offered. I ended up going to "BlackBeard" with the rest of the Society (guild) that I joined. If you are still on Rackham, I left a char there named "Basil Durand" who was not eligable to transfer. Jack and Heather are on Blackbeard server now.