The Hanzo Ninja Clan School Of Anything Goes Martial Arts Lesson 1 Volume 2 "Gear"

ID:10950

Well, it's a new year! Out with the old and in with the new! That being said, I've decided not to finish the old series primarily focused on power cards and move on to gear. I know there were a lot of loose ends and things promised that weren't gotten to, but again, it's a new year. Out with the old, in with the new. I'm kidding, kidding...

I will still be writing the Volume One series focused on power cards. I will be bouncing between this series and that, as well as starting new volumes on other subjects. The unnumbered series will be Volume One. All other volumes will be numbered. Each lesson in each volume will be a chapter of that volume.

 
Originally, I wanted to do a series on the Shuffle, a bit like Siskel and Ebert Go To The Movies, critiquing various gear and the over all Shuffle. I approached Mathew/Aro Shaw about teaming up for it. For whatever reason, he decided to go ahead and do it without me. That's fine. He's pretty good when it comes to gear and players would do well to give him their ear. Also, it frees me up from doing it so I can concentrate on things like writing these lessons. But the subject came up primarily because players kept asking me about doing a piece on gear, and I thought a gear rating series would help fast track players towards putting together good suits faster than explaining how to decide for yourself would. Still, I felt that players still needed to know these skills for themselves in the long run. So while Aro Shaw does that series on gear, I'll do this one. Again, I think you should take the time to lend him your ear and learn what you can from him.

 
Now, I'm not a big fan of telling or "teaching" people what to think. It's the fastest route to get folks on the right path, but at some point they need to learn how to make these distinctions themselves. Furthermore, there are variables that may make a particular piece of gear great in one player's hands, but next to useless in another's. The best person to determine this for yourself, once educated on how, is you. So again, I'm not a big fan of teaching people what to think, but I am a fan of teaching people how to think. Now, let's dive right in with a sample example, and you can start getting a feel for what this series will be about.

 
Let's say you have to choose between two pieces of gear. 1 has + 35 Y Damage. The other has + 100 Life. All other factors are the same. Which one is better? Well, let's look at it from how each play in a fight. How many rounds does a typical fight last for you? Let's say it last 3 or more rounds, with a round consisting of an attack turn from each player. At that rate, it only takes 3 hits for that 35 damage to over take the 100 Life the other gear gives. So unless your fights are only lasting 2 rounds, the + Damage gear is the better option here. Now, there are other factors to consider here, like Resistance. But, as an example, I don't want to complicate things yet too much.

 

Now, let's tweak that a little. Let's say the Life gear has + 150 Life. It will now take 5 hits for that + 35 Y Damage to overtake the Life gear. So if your typical fight lasts 4 or fewer rounds, then the Life gear is the better way to go. But if they go 5 or more rounds typically, then you're back to getting more bang out of the + Y Damage gear.

 
Now let's take a short look at Life gear. There is + Life gear and + % Life gear, which adds a % of your Base Life.

 
One piece of gear gives + 150 Life. The other gives + 25% Life. 25% + % Life is a large number in the game. Your current Base Life is 100. The 1st gear brings you to 250. The 2nd brings you to 125. It's pretty obvious which is better for this situation. But let's look at a toon 500 Base Life. That's 5x as much Life. That's 80 levels worth of Skill Points. Now the 2nd gear gives an additional 125 Life for a total of 625. Sounds like a lot. It better be after spending 160 Skill

Points to get it there. But it still falls short of the 650 that the + Life gear now helps give. In fact, you're going to need a Base Life stat of 600 before the two gear even out. That's 500 Life from Skill Points. every 100 Life is 40 Skill Points. That's 200 Skill Points or 100 levels worth, before your Skill Points make the + % gear equal to the + Life gear. But after that point, the + % Life gear becomes better than the + Life gear.

 
So I hope you can begin to see how one piece of gear could be great for one player, but worthless for another, and vice versa. This was just a sample lesson meant to get your brain juices flowing in a way that allows you to start determining which gear is best for you. I can't tell you how many times I have chatted in groups with other elite players and we all have differing opinions on how good the shuffle is or isn't. It really is very subjective and the results are dependent completely on your individual circumstances. I will continue this series on gear with future lessons, but also will continue to work on Volume One for you as well. So, while I do ask you to be patient, also check back from time to time to see what's new.