Official Road to Purgatory-Beta Forum

-Kelgarn, confirmed Beta-Account

Hey Guys and welcome back to the Profiles of Power

This time, the person we are profiling was less forthcoming than last time so we actually have to work for the information we are looking for. In this thread, I want to take a look at Clavran, the Gladiator who managed to rise in the Arena-Ranks of the human Empire.

Let’s start with the reasonably obvious things:

Race: Human, details unknown

known Titles: former Slave, Champion of the Kelgarn Arena, Gladiator of Retania

Class: harder to say, Gladiator / Swordsman / Sword-Fighter something along those lines. Some claim it is some sort of Samurai but that just feels wrong

Relevant Skills: Even more questions

We can reasonably assume that he has some sort of Sword Mastery, either the general, weaker, version or a specialised one, some sort of Sword Mastery [Katana].

In addition, the same applies to a skill related to his shorter blade, Dagger Mastery, Short Sword Mastery, maybe something specialised like Dagger Mastery [Wakizashi]

His armour seems to be a sort of light, maybe medium, armour, Reinforced Leather, with a focus on mobility instead of pure protection.

Other than that, I can’t really contribute, in this case, the fact that I’m a spellcaster means I can’t really compare his abilities with my own, trying to find comparisons. Maybe some of you can add parts to this.

Hopefully this works out.

Shuigun, confirmed Beta-Account

Mhm, a lot less information but that was to be expected

Now, from my side I can add that there is a skill related to Dual Wielding, the general, simple, version is called Dual Blade Mastery. I can also confirm that there are specialised versions of that, related to a specific pair of weapons, especially one that is called Weapon Mastery - Dual Dragon.

Now, I can’t confirm that he is using that but I know that there are quite a few more-or-less wannabe Samurai running around with a similar combination of dual-blades and they all have that skill.

Granted, they aren’t humans but maybe there is some overlap despite that.

Otherwise, I’d guess that there might be a footwork-skill involved, I know that some martial classes have them, allowing them to perform particular specialised movesets.

Harms, confirmed Beta-Account

Can’t comment on more skills but I thinks I’ve recognised some of his abilities. One of them is a swift stab with the off-hand, penetrating armour. Look, here:

example1.avi

Clavran is seen standing in the sand, a few meters away from his foe, wielding his accustomed blades but barechested. The arena seems to be build from a mixture of red sandstone and wood, looking relatively simple. His opponent is strangely equipped, having a net, the strands interwoven with barbs, in one hand but no other weapon but, as if to contrast the bare-chested Clavran, his form is clad in dull-grey plate-armour. There is nary an opening to get into and the gauntlets look stained with red, as if they had been used to beat someone bloody in the past.

Clavran has a few wounds on his body, blood slowly oozing out, when he suddenly surges forward, using his long blade to partially entangle the net which was almost used like a whip, allowing it to scratch deep groves into his arm. In return, he manages to get close and his smaller blade flashes forward, finding an opening in his opponents armour, going straight into his foe’s torso.

For a moment, both fighters freeze before a shout from the sides breaks the frozen moment, a loud call to stop. Both fighters seem to relax as robed figures rush onto the sand, towards them. As the clip fades to black, greenish light is enveloping the two fighters, the visible wounds on Clavran slowly closing.

example2.avi

Again, Clavran is seen standing on Arena-Sand. This time the arena is made from white stone, polished like marble and his foe is wielding a halberd alongside heavy armour. This time, as Clavran rushes forward, the Halberd is used to entangle his longer sword, almost breaking it in the process and disarming him. As the swift stab with the lesser blade is made, his foe twists out of the way, turning a potentially fatal wound into nothing but a scratch.

[back to text]

I could add more examples, but at the end of the day, it seems that whenever Clavran is faced with a seriously armoured foe, he likes to use that move, a quick rush to get into range, using his sword to block while his dagger stabs forward, into his foe. Sure, it could be pure player-skill but when looking closely, you notice that the moves seem a little too scripted for lack of better word. Yes, I know, many martial arts have move-sets they train to bring them into muscle-memory so it could be either. But I don’t think so.

The only question remaining is, is it a purely physical, stamina-based move or does it have a magical component, to make cracks in an armour where there are none. Some magic-skills have a clear visual indication but not all, so no idea.

Clavran, confirmed Beta-Account

Oh, dear...

Yeah, I won’t be commenting on any of this and, if I’m really honest, I’m not too happy about this thread.

Look at it from my side, there already are other Travellers challenging the various Arenas and guess what, studying the opponent is part of the preparation for a battle. With a few dozen people carefully scouring the recordings made by me and looking at what my abilities are, it puts me at a massive disadvantage.

Meh, I guess I just have to be better.

-Do’rodra, confirmed Beta-Account

I think at one point Clavran is using a movement-ability, some sort of speed-boost that lets him move faster than normal. I know that there are two abilities like that, one allowing you to overcome the limitations of your body, the other those of the mind. The disadvantage is that they both drain resources like crazy, the mental one Astral Power, the physical one stamina, in addition there seems to be a backlash the longer and harder they are used.

Clavran seems to have at least the physical one, the mental one I’m not sure but it’s possible. He’s quite smart with them, not pushing himself too far beyond the limit in some insane Matrix-style dodge, instead he moves just as far as necessary.

Or it could be something else, I just know about those two abilities, there might be many more out there. Not like Pantheon gave out a complete index, hell, some classes have the ability to create abilities on their own so there might be abilities floating around that Pantheon never thought of.

Yuthos, confirmed Beta-Account

Can see why Clavran is not happy with this. While I’ll be watching the thread with interest, I won’t be contributing, out of respect for the individual players.

Villar, confirmed Beta-Account

Yuthos, who cares? Didn’t he say that opponent-research is part of things? So, as the senior challenger he most likely has a team of locals doing the work for him, why not even the playing field?

Anyway, I’m reasonably sure that he’ll have Second Wind as an ability, it’s based on Athletics and allows you to recover some stamina by taking a moment to re-focus. It’s mostly cooldown-based but uses up some Astral Power. It seems to be a rather common ability for martial classes, especially those without a lot of magic in their fighting-style.

-Kelgarn, confirmed Beta-Account

Sorry to hear that Clavran.

I won’t stop with the threads however, I believe that collating the information is the right thing to do, regardless of your opinion.

-Tobiuno, confirmed Beta-Account

Harms, while I can’t confirm that Clavran uses the ability, there is an ability called Vicious Counter for Dual-Weapon Users, allowing them to parry with one weapon while attacking with the other, gaining a bonus to damage and armour-penetration.

One of our Travellers is using it, using his parry-dagger to bind the enemies weapon for a moment, allowing them to get a clean strike in.

It’s an almost pure duelling-ability, especially given its relative uselessness against people with a shield but for Clavran it should be an excellent ability.

Heracles, Official Pantheon Moderator

There have been multiple reports regarding this Thread.

However, it is within the community-guidelines, so the thread will remain open, as long as people remain civil.

Oh, and if you start insulting people, just to get this thread shut down, it will be you who is going to be shut down.

And I’m out.

Ruvas, confirmed Beta-Account

I think he also uses a constant, small speed-boost from wind-magic. There are a few moments when the movement of his clothes looks, for lack of better words, unnatural but that might just be a bug in the physics-engine, not magic. Hard to say, without knowing more details or even being there.