Im going to get to 40 in a few weeks and was wondering if i should get plated leather set or full plate set. id be mostly soloing. and i was also wondering if a blunt/sword would be better until 52.
I can only tell you that in Heavy with Duals i was able to solo very well, holding small rooms in the cats easily, and with a healer duo i held large rooms easily... made 40-52 flash by pretty quick. I couldn't speek to light armor, or the blunt. I've never bought a blunt or trained the blunt masteries, but a lot of forum posts say glads shouldn't do light until the clear b grade at least. I'm A grade now, in Tallum Heavy, and it suits me well, but I spend a LOT of time playing a VR Tank.
I did fine with zubei light in pvp and pve till 64 then went and stayed with DC light. If money isnt a problem I'd go plated leather, if money is scarce full plate. I was in full plate myself when i was 40. As far as weapon of choice goes, without a doubt duals.
If you solo alot dont spam your skills, instead keep your charges up always. Only use the charges when you aggro too many mobs and need to dispatch one by one as quick as possible.
I also forgot to add, decide on either light or heavy and learn ONLY those passive skills. If you do you should have SP to spare as you level up.
Since im bored and I can't sleep imma chime in how I was playing with my gladiator and you can kinda adopt your style.
Pvp wise I didnt really start till around B grade or so. I decided on zubei light and dual Sls. It was effective but I had to pick my battles. One of my memorable 1v1 was my win against a warlord with 100hp left. But as c5 rolled around, the pvp combos were much better.
The first attacks for me were always sonic storm, blaster, then charge twice. Why not blaster first or why bother on an aoe attack at all? Well, sonic storm doesn't take any charges away and it does more at 7 charges rather than 5.(thats why I didnt use blaster first.)2nd, I rely on sonic storm critting. Normally it would do 500-1100 depending on class and level, but if it crits 1500-2000. Thats a nice chunk right there and followed by blaster damage of 1800 or so not critting can get you the kill or have it taken by a clan mate. Since most of the battles were ranged thats what I mostly used in mass pvps. 1on1 I still use it cause your either chasing your target or they are coming for you. Most of the gladiator fights I saw, the first attack was always blaster...then run in to try and get triple sonic slash off.
Once I got close enough, the first attack would be triple sonic slash at full charges...(thats why you charge twice after blaster:)
If I was being kited TSS is what I would use when I got close. The way I played during pvp was to get out as much DPS as possible when i got the chance. Once you catch your target you only get one attack so might as well make it strong.
If I was going toe to toe with someone, i would try to do as much damage as possible for each chunk of MP. TSS at 7 charges use the same MP as TSS at 4 charges but alot less damage output. But at the same time the attacks have to come out quick. This would be a rough break down of the combo i used. Sonic Storm/blaster charge twice just as they're coming towards you...then at point blank, Buster,triple slash,storm if its ready/triple sonic slash/double sonic slash(at the same time use the energy stones so you'll have 2 charges ready just as you finish) Then I would finish Triple slash in the end. Why even use this skill you ask? cause its Power 2131 at lvl 74 and it doesn't take charges or stones. Now if the target isnt down by this time is the problem comes up.
I experimented with switching to a blunt after this and prays that the stun lands so I could quickly change back to duals to charge back up to max again without taking damage. The MP usage plus the stun land rate was not worth the money and SP spent on a blunt and stun skills.
Going toe to toe with a dagger they usually fall before you get to the last set of skills. But if not i can usually charge back up to 7 if all their skills dont land. And by the time you whip out that blunt they can get a few skills off anyways. Head on with a tank class or orc fighter you'll get that stun off about what...30% of the time maybe O.o And the mp that was wasted could've been used for skills or charges. Thats where i ran into trouble, my mp would run out before a DA falls so it's alot of mp management with using stones for those 2 first charges and swinging towards the end of the match. Regardless of the type of pvp you should always be using your skills. Unless you run out of mp you should never be swinging blindly. I remembered watching this vid of a glad where the majority of the group fights their main attacks were triple sonic and swings....not the way to do it >.>
There was a bit more but im feeling sleepy now :P Other glads feel free to chime in.
You can use them to focus up to lv 2... but kind of pointless, They are however 100% needed for your AoE skills. And will be consumed when you use them.
energy stones can be purchased from grocery stores and to use them you either right click on them in your inventory or keep them on your hot bar like i do. I ALWAYS use them to focus up to level 2. It takes less than a split second to get from 0-2 using stones rather than using focus sonic. But you can only use them to get from 0-2. You cant use them to get from 2-4 and so on. The big plus to them is if you do the TSS-DSS combo you charges will be gone, but during the animation of DSS you can click the stones twice and you'll have 2 charges just as you finish rather than charge up again. Thats good enough for a weak storm+blaster combo if you think your target's almost dead or if YOUR almost dead :P
Hmm Light or Heavy? Basically you have to find that out for your own. Personally I favour Heavy more then Light. I experimented with Light before and I didn’t like the loss of Pdef just to have some more chance to evade hits. You can’t evade specials so to me it was pointless. Light armor also clashes with my Tattoo build because going –DEX on light is just pointless.
I just feel Gladiators are left back on the Light armor part. If they had passives like tyrants get for LA like agile movement it would have been something to think about. But currently to me it isn’t worth. Its my personal believe that glads should soak up lots of damage and return them back.
I have 2 good friends that performed extremely good in LA. Metalsirenx is one of them so I can see its benefits but like I said its something you should make up yourself. Try to experiment and see for your self.
ahhh good old Ald...listen to him kids, that old man knows what he's talking about :P Hey you should talk to the "other" glad and ask about his Duals seeing as how he doesnt play as much anymore...or I can just give him a call :P
energy stones can be purchased from grocery stores and to use them you either right click on them in your inventory or keep them on your hot bar like i do. I ALWAYS use them to focus up to level 2. It takes less than a split second to get from 0-2 using stones rather than using focus sonic. But you can only use them to get from 0-2. You cant use them to get from 2-4 and so on. The big plus to them is if you do the TSS-DSS combo you charges will be gone, but during the animation of DSS you can click the stones twice and you'll have 2 charges just as you finish rather than charge up again. Thats good enough for a weak storm+blaster combo if you think your target's almost dead or if YOUR almost dead :P
now call me a lvl60 noob but i've never placed the stones on my hot bar. i always thought that my energy stones would deplete from my inventory automatically whenever i'd use a skill that required energy stones. for example, every time i use the skill 'sonic storm' 2 energy stones are used, so y'd i place them on the hot bar again? i'm confused, please do advise.
You can place them on your hotbar if you want to use them to charge up your force, because you'll have to actively use them when you want to do this.
If you have them on your hotbar, you can charge up to force level 2 by pressing the stones instead of focus sonic. :)
ah i see! i cant believe i didnt know that to charge up, that definitely saves a lot of time when charging in between battle. sweet stuff, thx for the help!