On Ground Combat and Ship Boarding

[Bartholomew Foulsteel]

Having problems taking out the crew of the Colossus, even though you’ve got a great crew amassed? It might be because you’re doing it wrong. Follow these steps to succeed in ground combat.

• Crew up first. Make sure you get crewed before any attacks. This creates a clear channel for communication and also gives the all participating crew members a 10% bonus in all conquests.

• Use a Healer or two. Each assault team should have one or two Healers. These Healers should have at least three points in Attune and three points in Heal or Cure. The Healer’s main focus is to keep their attuned assault team alive. A secondary goal is to assault with the voodoo doll, but not at the expense of healing the group.

• Get attuned the moment you board the flagship/before you begin an assault. Don’t be in such a rush to hack and slash. Wait until you are attuned, then go charging off to glory. If everybody would just wait a second, there would be many more successful high-level flagship boardings.

• Decide who to heal before you board/assault. Don’t leave a guy out because you thought somebody else was going to attune him. Make a plan, and stick with it. Don’t forget to attune the other Healers if you have more than one.

• Use a Tank or two. The Tank is normally the guy with the highest attack level and hit points. He needs to charge into battle and draw the attention of the enemies. Let the Tank start the fight, then have the others join in and gang up. I like to have the tank throw a dagger to pull the baddie in close, switch to cutlass, and once I’m in sword-chopping mode, have the rest of the crew come in and gang up on the enemy.

• Put double Healers on your Tanks if you have them. They’re going to get WHOMPED, so having two Healers attuned to your tanks will go a long way towards keeping them in the fight and winning the prize.

• Don’t do the voodoo chicken dance. Nothing perturbs me more than having a crew member with a voodoo doll attune a target or three, and then run around like a chicken with his head cut off. It might work okay for him, but for the rest of us, we have a chore trying to help the guy out because his targets are chasing after him. If I lose attunement with the guy due to his running out of range, I can’t even heal him. If he’s supposed to be a healer, he could lose attunement and be unable to perform his primary function. Do the voodoo chicken dance when you’re alone, not when you’re part of an assault team.

• Stick together. This one is exceptionally important. It seems like it would be the easiest thing to do, yet seems like the hardest thing to actually achieve. I suggest let your biggest Tank be the leader. That way when he sees danger, he can jump right in and protect the group. Tanks—use your compass so you don’t lose the group and your attunement with your Healers! Practice at Fort Charles before trying tougher areas.

Hope this helps. Fair winds to ye!