Mentalist Guide:

Referenced : Morgar.

The mentalist class is one of the most challenging classes to develop in Drakkar. Ments have the lowest health points of all the possible classes, and to offset that, ments also have some of the most powerful and formidable spells in the game.

Taking a ment from 1/1 upwards is a challenging task. The starting ment has very limited capabilities. You start off with one offensive spell however, Energy Missile, or ENMISS as we ments prefer to call it.

The biggest challenge to building a ment is skilling and paying for training so you can skill faster. Prior to skill 10, ments are not really good coiners. They often take too long to kill a crit, and their lower hp works against them. Often it's best if you have another crit, some sort of stick of a reasonable size that is capable of financing the initial stages of your ment.

If this is your first character in the game, you might want to work with a fighter class character first, getting a feel for the game, and how it plays. This text will deal with the ment class and how to outfit and build your character.

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER:

The information contained herein is by no means complete. Nor does it represent the only possible way to build a mentalist class character in Drakkar. What it represents is many hundreds of hours of game play and many additional hours of conversations with other mentalists in the game. Your experiences will vary depending on your gear, your skill and how often you hunt in a party. It is the intent of the document to offer a roadmap for the beginning mentalist only.

Rolling a Ment:

There is one key stat, and several secondary stats when rolling a mentalist. The key stat is intelligence, the higher the intelligence, the more ep you will start out with, and the more ep you will gain at each level.

The simplest way to roll a ment, is to roll the die until both charisma and luck exceed 16 or higher, then check your other stats to see if the roll is acceptable. Remember, in Nork, charisma controls many factors, including training costs, and Hit Doc.

Stats like con, agility, str, willpower, wisdom and intelligence are all fixable by pots. The higher the intelligence, the better off you will be when you start out. But it is a fixable stat. Luck and Charisma are much harder to fix.

It should be noted that there are ways to fix charisma, and to boost luck. The Alerian n/n quest and the Majorin Luck pots. However obtaining these pots are nearly impossible for a new player. Its far better to roll the best luck and charisma you can than to hope to fix these two stats by obtaining these pots.

Outfitting your Ment:

Armor is a must for a ment. The greater the defensive armor the ment has, the less the ment gets hit. Its important that you gear your ment as soon as possible. This isn't to say that a beginner ment should be outfitted with an uzi and mama scales at level 1, but rather it's important that you get some sort of protective gear for the ment as quickly as you can.

The newbie ment entering the nork dungeon for the first time should scavenge whatever he/she can find on the floor. Boots are better than bare feet, plate is better than a wool cloak. A wooden staff or other weapon is better than being barehanded.

If you can obtain help, then try to get yourself outfitted with either Red Dragon scales, or big Yeti, Kitty and a Rak cloak. While it's not possible, as a newbie, for you to obtain this gear for yourself, this gear is considered newbie gear and most people are willing to help a newly created crit outfit with the basic items. (Ask, do not beg) The addition of a blue shield and a fishery staff will round out your basic complement of gear.

Once you're outfitted with the basics, its time to venture forth. You still have a lot of gear you need to find yourself. Rings, sashes, helms and boots all tie, and you're pretty much on your own when it comes to finding them.

Armor (plate/scales/cloaks):

Red Dragon scales are adequate in most cases for a ment for quite a long time. The time for changing over will be when you noticing that your own fire/ice spells are causing you damage. At that point in time the next upgrade will be to Mama Scales. Mama scales are tough to get. You need a reasonably sized party of sticks and healers to obtain them.

In the cloak slots you have a wide variety of choices. Your choice of what you wear there should be driven by what you're hunting. For example, a rak cloak is needed if your going to hunt in an area where assault is heavy, ie -5, -6 and -7. On the other hand, hunting M-1 would require an enmiss robe. Hunting lairs have entirely different requirements. For example hunting liches requires all the psi cutting gear you have. A mama hunt requires maximum fire protection.

Rings:

There is a simple rule of thumb when it comes to rings for your ment. If the ring provides more protection than what you are currently wearing, switch rings. As a new player you're not wearing any rings, so you should pick up the ones you find that are combat rings and wear them. As you progress however, you want to be more picky about the rings you wear. For example, since the ment is not your “jump into the fray fighter”, a 3/3 ring is ok, but if you find a 0/4 ring, it would be to your benefit to switch to the 0/4 ring. Remember, think “defense” when considering rings for your ment. A ment is not a fighter, the offensive combat adds might be a benefit, but your limited in as much as a ment gets only one attack per round. EVER. So those offensive adds aren't going to help you all that much.

Helms:

There are several varieties of helms available in Nork, but in the case of a ment, you really want a Hit Point helm. The more HP the helm provides, the better off you will be. But just because the helm only gives you 20 points isn't a reason to sell it! Something is still better than nothing. Its not unusual to find a ment wearing increasingly higher levels of HP helms as they find them. HP Helms appraise for 8K and can be found as early as nork-2.

Sashes:

There aren't a lot of choices here when it concerns sashes. You have the regular sash, the combat sash, the ratburrow sash and the attack sash. The combat sash and ratburrow sashes are identical in look and adds, however the rb sash also comes with crit cure on it, as well as having the ability to allow you to use the ratburrow teleport. The attack sash requires some high level crits to get to, so we won't talk about it here.

Given a choice between them, I'd go for the Ratburrow sash over the combat sash. Strictly because that CC might come in handy someday. Other than that, adds wise, the two sashes are identical.

Amulets:

Here is where the really important pieces of gear for ments start to appear. First off, there is the Muzi (Mini Uzi). This ammy looks like a regular protect lightening or protect enmiss ammy (glowing string of pearls). However the muzi, like its bigger brother, the Uzi, increases your ep regen rate. The muzi increases your ep regen rate by 2 ep per round, the Uzi increases your ep regen rate by 5 ep per round.

The Muzi is the first item you will start to want by the time you've reached skill 5. And its not all that hard to get. The first thing you need is a Door Pearl, taken from the ghost on -3.5, and two fishery bows plus a key from M-2. (You get the key on m-2 by trading a flawless black pearl for it). Once you have all of the items, you need to go to Peewee. He's on km-2 and that's the hard part. For that, you will need either someone to dex you to Peewee, or an MT (Mass Teleport) ment that can teleport you there.

Used properly, a muzi should be adequate for a ment from skill 1 thru skill 12. Why skill 12? Simple, by the time you reach skill 12, you will be able to cast infravision on your partymates. At 25ep per person, a muzi is not able to keep your regen up when you're in a large party.

Eventually you are going to want an Uzi, the best ment amulet in the game. The Uzi provides an additional 5ep regen per round. Thats enough to support most situations in the game. The hunt for the Uzi is particularily difficult. In order to get to the crit that carries the Uzi you must combat five liches before you can get to Papa Lich. This hunt demands several sticks, a healer and a ment to cast infravision on the party.

Weapons:

The primary weapon of ments lies under their helmet. That's right, the brain. Occasionally, we need to resort to more primitive and direct means to get our point across. On those occasions, having a regular weapon skill is handy. The question is, which weapon to skill in? Some people will suggest MA for its superior blocking, but the MA skill is hampered by the armor your wearing. Consequently, a skill 10 in Martial Arts probably doesn't function nearly as well on a ment wearing red dragon scales as it does on an MA wearing a griffy cloak.

Considering that two of the best ment weapons in the game are staffs, I would suggest skilling in staff as well as skilling in one other secondary skill, such as long sword. Additionally, I would go further and suggest that once you reach skill 10 Mentalist, you stop briefly working on your ment skill and rework n-1 through n-3 again until you've brought your staff and longsword skills up to 10 as well. This will save you considerable trouble later and will keep you from looking quite the fool as you tool around Nork-1 killing orcs when you're an 18/15 ment.

In the Nork segment of the game you want a chipper staff. This is NOT easy to come by. A lot of high level ments do not have one. But if you get lucky, the chipper provides you with a +2 skill bonus. So you might be an 18/15, but your spell casting strength is that of an 18/17.

In the Cob segment of the game you want a Lori staff. The Lori hunt is also a very hard hunt, requiring a fair amount of people. But the staff provides several major advantages. Its a +6 skill bonus and +6 ep regen. Coupled with the Uzi, the Lori provides an additional 11ep per round regen.

That addresses the staff issue, so why was a secondary skill of longsword mentioned? Simple, you will need a decent weapon skill when you get to Cob. Most ments come to Cob before they are capable of handling the crits with spells alone. The addition of a longsword gives you a fall back position for those times when you run into a crit that is resistant to your spells.

Gauntlets:

There are several types of gauntlets available in the Nork game segment. The most commonly used gauntlet is the Red Dragon gauntlet. It's a suitable gauntlet for a ment. Vamps, the best gauntlets in the game would be nice, but unless you intend to seriously build up an MA skill, vamps on a ment would largely be a waste of good gear.

Skilling:

Drakkar is all about skilling. The higher your skill, the quicker you can kill. The faster you can kill, the faster you can skill. Basically one can group the ment class spells into two categories. Good skill spells and bad skill spells.See spell list]

A good skill spell is any spell which targets one crit. A bad skill spell is any spell which has the ability to kill multiple crits at one time. The trick to building and skilling a ment lies in the ability to balance your area effect spells with your single crit shot spells.

And here lies the trap that every mentalist falls into at least for a short while. Mentalists have the ability to kill massive amounts of crits with a single casting of a spell. Consequently a mentalist can rapidly gain experience, without gaining a reasonable amount of equal skill. It's not uncommon to find a mentalist that is totally off balance, such as a level 18, skill 13 ment. Area effect spells have their advantages, with them you can quickly and efficiently put an end to the zoo that is pounding you or your party to pieces. You can also use the area effect spells to lower the health of the attacking crits so that you, or your party, may pick off the crits one at a time with a minimum amount of combat. On the downside, as you gain in skill, your area effect spells increase in strength until you reach a point where you are killing many of the crits with a single casting. Additionally, if you're not careful, you risk doing injury to yourself and your partymates with an area effect spell.

Do not fall for the trap of concentrating on your level! Skill is what matters in Drakkar. Level is secondary.

The smart mentalist knows before hand what spells will work in an area and what area effect spells he/she can use without damaging the party. Learn to balance your area effect spells such that you maximize the damage you do without killing the zoos. It's not uncommon to see a mentalist cast an area effect spell, then pick off a few crits in the zoo with enmiss, or espear, then cast another area effect spell and pick off some more crits with single shot spells, repeating the process until the zoo is dead.

Sometimes you won't be concerned with skilling, like during that period at level 13 when you're coining for hit doc. Or if you decide you want to go down to -6 and hunt for pots. At such times, area effect spells allow you to quickly and decisively terminate a zoo.

One trick I've learned is to allow the crits to come onto my hex before I start using area effect spells. The idea here, and mind you, this only works if you have decent gear, is to kill all the crits on a single hex, thus cutting down the amount of searching you need to do. Using this method you can amass huge piles which you can transmute for coin.

Skilling any class of crit requires huge amounts of coin. However the ment class is probably the best class for coining in the game. At skill 10 you get transmute, which allows you to “pop” piles on the ground, converting them into coin. Like your combat spells, transmute continues to improve as your skill rises. At skill 10, you might convert a large pile and get 10K from it, at skill 14 that same pile will give you 50K, at skill 18, 80K. I enjoy building large piles. I leave the loot down (except for any special pots) and let the pile build up until there are a large number of items down on the ground (some piles I've built have had 255 shortswords in them). It isn't uncommon to build a large pile and be able to pop it for a couple hundred thousand coin. Be warned however! If your pile is too big, you may node out while trying to pop it.

The ability to pop is one of the reasons why ments are so coveted on non-lair hunts. They can quickly increase the overall haul from a hunt by popping the debris people wouldn't ordinarily bother with.

Your primary skilling spells are Enmiss and Espear.

Hunting, Solo and in a party:

All classes of crits in Drakkar advance through hunting their crits. Hunting in the dungeons, caverns and surrounding wilderness provides skill, experience, coin and goodies to sell. The ment class must always be aware of his surroundings. Using your area effect spells can result in the accidental death of another player should you use that spell in the wrong area.

A lot of ments are solo hunters. If you wish to advance in Drakkar, find yourself a person or persons you can routinely party with and stay with them. The difference in skill gain between solo and party hunting is substantial.

As a ment in a party, your role changes slightly. It's up to you to not only provide your share of kills to the general party pool, but also to provide the party members with protection spells, infravision, respirate or whatever else might be necessary. Generally speaking your ability to hit any visible crit on the screen means that its up to you to take on those crits that are pegging away at the party from a distance. Your sticks are the close in support. You have to rely on them to keep the crits on your hex from killing you. But likewise, it's up to you to kill that bowman, or knife throwing bullywog.

A party is a cooperative effort between yourself and other players. If you go hunting and your stick won't stay close to the party, or the healer doesn't heal, the party suffers. Such people that hunt and ignore the needs of their own partymates are not adequate players for future parties.

Remember, unlike the sticks and healers, you have a range of strategic spells at your disposal! Not only can you cause mass damage to crits, you can block them from reaching you with effective uses of illusions, you can cast area effect spells off your party hex, you can even temporarily give the crits another target with your find friendly spell.

You may not be able to kill crits with a weapon. You may not have the hitpoints that allow you to solo lair crits. But when you boil it all down, a smart ment is often as good as a big stick.

Resting and Maxxing:

Resting a Mentalist isn't the same as resting a fighter or other class. Other than increased EP and increases in HP, the ment gains no bonuses, no extra attacks for gaining a skill level.

If you are totally new to the game, and your ment is your only crit, you have little choice. You need to rest the crit to gain those EP/HP increases. If however, you have another crit financing your ment, you can allow yourself the time and luxury of building your ment as maxxed as possible.

When someone in Drakkar speaks of maxxing, they are talking in two possible terms. Max Health points or Max Energy Points.

In Nork you max your health points using the Hit Doctor just south of Volcano Town. A Drakkar Mentalist can use the Hit Doc to max to 350 health points. You cannot use the Hit Doc until you've reached level 13. At the point you reach level 13, if you're like most people, you start coining for Hit Doc. Hit Doc is expensive! Depending on your charisma, you can pay anywhere from 15 million to upwards of 30 or more million coins. If possible, ask a friend to borrow their charisma rings to reduce your costs. +3 charisma adds can reduce your Hit Doc costs by several million coin.

Its strongly recommended that you do not rest once you've hit level 13. By not resting you will be able to bring your Health Points up beyond 350. Use Hit Doc to get to 350, then you're ready to rest. By staying at level 13 and working hit doc, you'll be able to advance several levels, and when you do rest, you'll be gaining Health Points beyond the 350 Health Point limit imposed by Hit Doc.

My personal preference in resting is to put on any rings I might have which impact intelligence, then drink from the fountain in Rat Burrow for strength boost. Its rumored that strength is tied to the amount of HPs gained per level. And EP is definitely tied to intelligence, so by combining these two, you cover both bases as far as HP and EP gains go. In order to drink from the Rat Burrow fountain, you will need to be wearing a Rat Burrow sash.

Some people will tell you not to rest at all until you've maxxed your EP. This is possible, however if you choose to go this route, expect your character to take a long long time to max your Energy Points. EP pots can be bought at the funhouse for a cost of 500,000 coin. An ep pot can give you between 1 and 5 EP per pot, however the average is slightly below 3 points per pot. Assuming you start out at 30 EP, you would need over 80 EP pots. 40 MILLION COIN. This is a hard road to take, but its worth the effort in the long run. Should you go this road? Thats a choice you'll have to make for yourself. I didn't take this route. But its an option available to you.

Going to Cobrahn:

Cobrahn, or Cob, poses some additional challenges to a mentalist. For one thing, get ready for a lesson in humility. You need to be a minimum of level 18 to get to cob. If you've followed any of the advice above then you've concentrated on your single crit spells to maximize your skill gain. So you're probably coming over to Cob at skill 15. Personally I don't recommend coming to Cob at a skill less than 15 unless you have friends that are willing to hold your hand and outfit you in Cob gear.

Nearly all of the people coming to Cob end up in tree town, either by way of restoring or are dex'd from the portal point. Tree Town is safe, but you don't want to go down the climb down until you've performed a couple of tasks first.

First and foremost, its time for a new spell! If you go south and east in tree town, you'll find a small path leading nearly due east. Follow that path and you'll end up at an NPC that will give you the Acid Breath disc. Its not much use in Cob, but its a real killer in the Nork segment. You get this spell for coming to Cob, sort of a present for making it. Its not skill related, if you've made it to Cob, you can get the spell.

Next you'll want to do the first two of the hit point quests. Replacement and Juntes Ring. Each of these quests will give you an additional 100 hit points in Cob only. You'll need help doing these, but they are fairly easy to do.

Once you've completed these three tasks, its time to get yourself to Timmy Town. Timmy Town is akin to Nork in as much as its relatively safe and it provides easy access to the newbie areas in Cob. You'll spend a majority of your early days here in Timmy, exploring the Timmy caves. Mind you, despite it being considered a “newbie” area, this isn't the same as Nork -1. The crits in the Timmy Caves can kill you pretty easily if you're not careful.

The Timmy caves are broken down into several sections. Timmy Caves, Timmy-1, Timmy-2 and Timmy Secret. The main level caves, and Timmy-2 are fairly easy, Timmy Secret and Timmy-1 are not recommended for a solo ment and should be avoided.

The floor in Timmy is littered with twigs, 4 types, Critcure at level 20, Fireball at 25, Icestorm at 25 and Icestorm at 20. USE THEM!!! Your spells are next to useless in the beginning. With these twigs you can fireball/icestorm the crits down to a point where you can finish them off with espear.

Of all the crits in Timmy, the ones most troubling aren't the MA's. Surprisingly they are pretty easy to kill off with espear, although most crits over there seem to have at least one instant heal on them. Mace carrying crits are probably the most troublesome. They sometimes look like the old n-5 Magic casting npc's. Sometimes not. These mace carrying crits are immune to nearly all of your spells. (They can be poisoned tho), and they aren't worth a lot of points. Since they don't seem to hit me all that often, I leave them to last when working on a zoo, and finish off these crits with a weapon.

Looting in Cob is excellent. In the beginning, pick up every gem you find. A skill 15 ment will find that popping junk piles is a quick way to fast hard coin in Cob. Great coin. With a little judicious popping its not impossible for you to quickly max out your bank account in Cob in a very short amount of time.

WEAPON!!!! Get yourself a weapon, I use a curvy longsword, its a +5 sword found on timmy -1, ties, hits for a ton of damage. I've only got an 11 LS skill, but having a weapon to fall back on is essential. Between twigs and a sword I'm able to keep my zap usuage to a manageable level. Remember you don't want to kill crits with the weapon, use it when eps get low, or when faced with a mace user.

Until you've been geared up by others, avoid heavy zoos. Padded GD Scales, 2 yellows, graagh rings, Padded IV helm. Your definitely going to be using a lot of instant heals. But once you have the gear above, you'll suddenly find yourself surviving even large zoos with only a few hits instead of every other round. And the really nice thing is that with the exception of the graagh rings, none of the gear I've mentioned is all that special.

For additional information on Cob, I strongly recommend the excellent tutorial put together by Zinktoof, it can be found at this location;

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/ctanzio/cobintro.html

Morgar

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Source: Original mirror