The Drunken Friar

Strength (STR): Increases encumbrance weight. Only important if you like to carry an entire ram at all times.

* Dexterity (DEX): Affects weaponskill with staves, casting speed, and your chance to parry. Also contributes to your chance to evade.

* Quickness (QUI): Affects melee combat speed and contributes to your chance to evade.

* Constitution (CON): Determines your max hit points.

** Piety (PIE): Affects power pool size.


Intelligence (INT): No use for friars. (Used by casters.)

Charisma (CHA): No use for friars. (Used by minstrels.)

Empathy (EMP): Not used in Albion.

* Most important for ALL friars.
** Important for balanced/healing friars, not as useful to battlefriars.

Briton. Yep, that's it... just Briton. Unless, of course, you choose... Briton.

Weaponskill for staff is dex based so its highly recommened to put points into dex. The most popular specs are 10 Dex, 10 Quick, 10 Cons or 15 Dex, 10 Cons, unless you want to be heal friar, then you should do something like 10 Dex, 10 Cons, 10 Piety. Dex also lets you cast faster and evade/parry more often.

There is currently only one starting point for new Albion characters in DAoC. All players start at Cotswold. I would like to recommend, however, that you seek the portal to the Shrouded Isles. Gothwaite Harbor in SI is a nice change of scenery for low level leveling.

Spec's are heavily covered in this Thread----->New specs - what are folks thinking?

As you will see in that thread, its extremly hard to completly gimp a Friar.

Tailor, Alchemist or Fletcher (after patch 1.72).... well, actually you can be anything now (post patch 1.87)

Alright, time to get my Old Man hat out here.

The reason Str is the tertiary stat for friar is thus:
Way back before the game went live, all staff damage was factored by Strength. However just before the game went live, someone within Mythic decided this was screwing over the casters too much, and switched it so staff damage was Dex-based. Unfortunately, what wasn't caught was that Friar's stat, being a staff-slinging class, was still set to Strength as Tertiary. So that's why our Strength goes up.

However, when the game DID go live, Mythic insisted up and down that staff damage was still Strength based. Friars gathered, did numerous repeated tests conclusively proving beyond a doubt that staff damage was not in fact Strength Based, but was based off Dexterity. Mythic didn't believe us. At least, not till almost a year and a half later. Only then did they come out and admit it.

As for why they don't make the switch in stats, that's simple. They say it's impossible now, but at one point they admitted that they had done that for another class, the Bard. Unfortunately the Bards were so violently opposed to the idea that they swore to NEVER repeat that again, the backlash was that mighty. I'm willing to bet that since that point it has become a company policy to simply state that they can't do it, and nobody's bothered to check on it since.

I have just begun making my way into the Atlantean areas, and have been reading numerous threads here, and a few questions came to me that perhaps you all could help with.

1. Is there a be all/end all nicely laid out chart or something that explains all the various caps that can be gained (specifically for friar, but I'm sure it would be the same for all... ) I know the basic item caps from gear, but that's it. I see snippets everywhere, but wondered if there was a central location.


2. Do the items with the Atlantean bonuses (buff % increase, speed increase, healing increase, etc. etc. etc.) ONLY come from artifacts, or can they be found on quest items, drops, etc.?


3. For a "balanced friar" (39s, 45e, 25r ish) what are the most important things to look for in items? Stat cap increases? Buff or healing or damage increases? Any and all?

4. Folks say to max all stats, but is it necessary to max, say empathy or charisma? Or should I just worry about dex, quick, con, pie, hits, power, etc...

5. Is there a list somewhere that lists (duh) all the things that are now bonuses? (cap increase, % increases, AF increases, speed, damage, etc. etc.)?

There seem to be about 14 billion Atlantean objects that all *sound* neat, but I'm not sure what priority they should be given. I know all this was probably hashed out frequently when Atlantis came, but for us who are just getting our feet wet, so to speak, there is little focused info. Most things I read assume we already have all the knowledge.

Any help you all can give would be obliged... pretty much any ugly staff from ToA you discuss would be better than mine!

Thanks!

Brother Reylyn Cushing
Knight of St. Crispin's League
Nimue

* To solo, you need to find crush vulnerable mobs and slash/thrust mobs (prefferably, not that important). Good examples of crush vulnerable mobs bony undead, earth elementals, ice elemtals, plate wearing enemies, insects, and studded leater wearing enemies.

* When you run your endurance chant is especially important since it drains alot of power at lower levels. Since 1.70, you get a free level of tireless at level 15. Tireless will help you run your endurance chant much less often, saving you power and letting you pull faster. Only use the chant when you are below 50% endurance, and stop once you are around 80-90% endurance.

* Watch your buff timers. If you pull then notice that you buffs are starting to blink, you have a few options:

1) Run away. The safest option, but not much fun .

2) Snare, sprint away, buff. This option is only available if you have the Counter Evade style (available at 21 spec in staff) unless you somehow get off a Friar's Friend style (side style available at 18 spec in staff that also snares). You should rebuff in this order: Dex/Qui, Absorbtion, AF, Endurance Reduction.

3) Fight it without spec buffs. This option is the most dangerous of all 3, and you will probably need to snare/heal (if available) if the mob is OJ+. I would only recommend this if you are a 50 friar pulling red mobs or lower with a heal field.

* Battlefriars: This is for those of you out there with 15 rejuv or less. If you are not the main tank (and hopefully you won't be), you should use Friar's Friend (side style) or Defender's Fury/Quick Strike unless you tank is really getting beat up on and you need the agro, in which case you should use Boon. Step back and heal if your cleric runs out of power or can't heal fast enough to keep everyone alive.

* Balance Friars: This includes most friars with 18-25 rejuv. Depending on your cleric/tank situation, you should still be doing more fighting that healing. If you cleric begins to run low on power, you can take over the heals for a while to let him/her regenerate some power. Again, just be watchful of your group member's power/hp bars and you'll do fine. And remember, it takes time to stop combat and then start healing (about 3 seconds) so time it accordingly.

* Healing Friars: Since you have high rejuv (33+), you'll probably have lower staff or enhance. This means you should stay back and heal more than fighting, but can fight if you get agro and your group has another cleric. If you are the main healer for the group, if you get agro you should start detaunting with Friar's Redress (available at 12 spec in staff).

(note: I think the above answers also answer this question)

III) Friars in PvP / RvR
This much like PVE is dependent upon spec. However since NF has now become very much a range war and casters have walls for block bots and to guard them, the rejuvenating friar has become much more popular. I know quite a few people who have dusted off the friar and are now taking them back out again. There are several way to rack up the RP's.

A. Play mini cleric, get VR I ASAP, some %healing items and heal away.

B. Ninja Rezzing. Get serenity 1 or 2, MCL 1, (FOP from ML) and LW 1. Max your resists, turn on end regen, F6 into attack mode until right before you get to realm mates body (for arrows) and run and rez the guys that the clerics are scared to go for (too close to enemies). Also if you cannot get a group but can still run with a zerg wave, follow them and rez when people go down as fast as you can.

C. Ninja ST. Run up to where they (realm enemies) are standing in front of tower/keep and congregating, let your friends know you are doing it (/yell works great, other realms can't read it), Drop ST and sprint away. Stay in melee mode the whole time. =) When you get back, find people to heal who rush in and you will get a nice share of the RP even if or especially if you are not grouped with them.

D. Some of all of the above. That is my play style.

Go for soft targets (anything casting) if at all possible, then any other support, IE bards, healers, etc. You can survive solo against most hybrids, but it is too close of a fight and only should be last ditch when you are oop or whatever as they take too long to take down. Full and Light Tanks will sometimes be a close fight or even be able to take you especially if they are buff botted and even if you have great gear. Realm Rank matters a lot as well.

When cleric is oop, lop, being attacked (if you don't go smack whatever is on them, you should at least heal them and/or group) dead, afk, LD, asleep (mezzed), stunned or if you are the cleric.

You will have plenty to do running around looking for FOP's and healing/rezzing like crazy. Also keep those resists up!
When the rest of the group rushes in/and or you are oop witn no font's in sight, or MCL, Raging Power is down. Or if you are a battle friar, charge all the time and back out to heal when people take damage. However because of our only decent healing, this is often times too late which is why most wait till oop or to see how the group is faring before rushing in.

I probably use Friar’s Boon 90% of the time. The other 10% is comprised of the Counter Evade chain and the Friar’s Friend chain. Boon has a good to-hit bonus and good damage output.

**Please note that I am a battlefriar and stealing aggro from tanks in groups is my idea of fun.

In groups, you’re safer with the Friar’s Friend chain (or Holy Staff if you don’t want to worry about the positional) if you are a balanced/ healing spec friar or if your group is pulling high-level mobs and doesn’t have a cleric to keep your soft little body alive as you’re being pummeled by that grape you simply HAD to aggro.

Linkage to the Spec Discussion Sticky----->The The NEW and IMPROVED Friar RA discussion Thread (post N.F.)

Gaurd of Valor: the AF reverse proc on GoV stacks with our AF buff, it does not overwrite it

The general rule of thumb for a friar is at least
*29 staff for Friar's Boon. It's high damage with a plus to hit. It's also a taunt.
*38 enhance for the second tier of buffs
*7 rejuv for cure disease/poison.

After that, it's all personal taste and how you feel you'd be most effective. However, if you levelling in pick up groups, rejuv gives you a lot of group utility.

Other values are ok-but these are the common stopping point.
7: Cure Poison/Disease.
15: 30% rez
18: 172 spec heal.
25: 235 spec heal.
33: 307 spec heal.

If your level exceeds the spec level of the spell, it casts for 25% more than the listed amount. Additionally, your base line heals have a variance to them-if you rejuv spec is less than half of your level, you will see a wide range. The spec heals for the same amount, every time.

Lots of good staffs out there, although without a rare drop like Destiny's Bubble Breaker from Sidi, you will likely be best served with a enchanted player made. As far as speed goes, I think most people use slow staffs, but the 4.2 speed ones are popular as well. The faster staves have their purposes when facing the dread Hibernian Bubble Kittens (warden). If you want an artifact, consider Traldor's Oracle (13.5 dps) and Tartoro's Gift (16.5dps).

The same place little bunnies come from... static eletricity and bellybutton fuzz. Thank you, everyone, for contributing.

Arow would be our TL.

I started this thread as a Locked Sticky to try and keep it neat and simple.

If You would like to contribute, start a new thread and get some community support for you idea. I will cut and paste your quote back into this post to add any new information as necessary. (Please use the same process for challenging wrong information)